The Saint and the Sultan: Religion, Conflict, and the Search for Peace

Nearly 800 years after St. Francis met Egypt’s Sultan Malik al-Kamil during the Fifth Crusade, their peaceful encounter suggests a path toward improved Christian-Muslim relations. Their story is told in Paul Moses’s book "The Saint and the Sultan: The Crusades, Islam and Francis of Assisi’s Mission of Peace", which won the 2010 Catholic Press Association award for best history book. Moses writes that in a violent era, Francis recovered the Christian traditions of nonviolence and of befriending enemies. At the same time, the sultan’s respect for Francis in the midst of the Crusade exemplified a Muslim tradition of reverence toward holy Christians. The sultan was a statesman who preferred trade, negotiation and peace to warfare. According to Moses, both men can serve as helpful models today.

In addition to this event on Friday, March 8, 7 pm, in the Great Hall at Conrad Grebel University College, Paul Moses will be speaking at three other venues:

Saturday, March 9, from 2 - 4pm at the Islamic Centre of Cambridge (1550 Dunbar Rd., Cambridge, ON) alongside Imam Abdul-Raouf Kabbar. 

Saturday, March 9, at 7 pm at the Noor Cultural Center (123 Wynford Dr., Toronto, ON). Details can be found at www.noorculturalcentre.ca. 

Sunday, March 10, from 2 - 4pm at Loyola House, Ignatius Jesuit Centre (5420 Hwy 6 N., Guelph ON) with Imam Muhammad Abuelezz.

---

Paul Moses is professor of journalism at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. In a 23-year career in daily journalism at Newsday in New York City, he wrote the paper's lead stories on major news events ranging from the 9/11 terrorist attacks to a 1991 subway crash that killed five people.

Moses is the author, with Robert F. Keeler, of "Days of Intense Emotion: Praying with Pope John Paul II in the Holy Land" (Resurrection Press, 2001) and, more recently, of "The Saint and the Sultan: The Crusades, Islam and Francis of Assisi's Mission of Peace" (Doubleday, 2009), which won the 2010 Catholic Press Association award for best history book.

Imam Muhammad Abuelezz was born in Egypt and has a BA and MA in Islamic Studies. His Master's degree, from the University of Georgia, addresses, "The Challenges Facing Imams in America." He has served as an Imam in Georgia and Florida and is now the Imam of the Kitchener mosque.

Imam Abdul-Raouf Kabbar was born in Lebanon and graduated with a major on Da'awah from the Islamic American University in Michigan. Imam Kabbar is actively involved in the Muslim and non-Muslim community and teaches courses about Islam. He is the Imam of the Islamic Centre of Cambridge.

---

Photography by Juliana Thomas Photography