PROGRAMME >> EVENT #21  

saturday aug. 30.time 19.30.spalti Fortezza Firmafede - 3,00
Alessandro Barbero - Tells the story of the Crusades. Between Holy War and jihad

listen to the audio file

Killing in the name of faith is an extremely topical issue, in these days of Islamic terrorism, but for centuries it mainly referred to the Crusades. While the early Christians took the Sixth Commandment so seriously that some of them chose to go through martyrdom instead of fighting, with the Crusades these principles were dramatically overturned. The popular belief that God was pleased by the killing of infidels - which the Church, despite some initial perplexity, did not oppose - resulted in both the conquest of the Holy Land and the first European pogrom against the Jews. It was in response to this aggression that the spirit of jihad revived in the Islamic world, after a period of eclipse.

Alessandro Barbero
born 1959, has obtained a B.A. in Humanities, then a Masters Degree from the Scuola Normale Superiore at Pisa. He is Professor of Medieval History at the Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale at Vercelli. He writes for La Stampa and for the Sunday supplement of Il Sole-24 ore. He contributes to RAI’s TV show Superquark and the radio show Alle 8 della sera. Barbero has written novels and a number of essays in medieval history. In 1995 he published his first historical novel, Bella vita e guerre altrui di Mr. Pyle gentiluomo (Mondadori, 1995), that won the Premio Strega in 1996. Among his recent publications by Laterza: 9 agosto 378. Il giorno dei barbari (2005), La battaglia. Storia di Waterloo (2007); Barbari. Immigrati, profughi, deportati nell’impero romano (2006); e Benedette guerre. Crociate e jihad (2009), part of Laterza’s series i Libri del Festival della Mente.