Cultural Encounters during the Crusades
The Danish Institute in Damascus October 5th.-9th. 2009
Monday 5th.
Day of arrival
19.00-20.15: Hans Christian Korsholm-Nielsen (Damascus): Welcome speech and tour of the
Danish Institute
Kurt Villads Jensen (Southern Denmark): Cultural Encounters and Clash of
Civilizations. Huntington and modern crusading studies.
20.15- :
Reception at the Danish Institute in Damascus
Tuesday 6th.
09.00-10.30: Session I: Cultural Encounters and the Crusades
Jonathan Phillips (London): Travels of Ibn Jubayr: Saladin and Damascus in the
eyes of an Andalusian Pilgrim.
Janus Møller-Jensen (Nyborg): Facing the Other. Crusade and Cultural
Encounters in the North c. 1000 - c. 1400.
10.30-11.00: Break
11.00-12.30: Session II: Cultural Encounters in the Baltic and the Mediterranean
Torben K. Nielsen (Aalborg): Saints & Sinners, Converts & Cowards - Cultural
Encounters between Pagan Livonians, Orthodox Russians and Catholic Germans in
the Medieval Baltic.
Paul Chevedden (Los Angeles): The View of the Crusades from Rome and
Damascus: The Geo-strategic Perspective of Pope Urban II and Álî Ibn Tãhir al
Sulamî.
12.45-14.15: Lunch
14.30-16.00: Session III: Cultural Encounters in Crusading Narratives
Helen Nicholson (Cardiff): The Hero Meets His Match: Cultural Encounters in
Narratives of Crusades against Muslims.
Linda Kaljundi (Tallinn): Alterity and Mimesis: How Baltic crusading narratives
make their object.
Sini Kangas (Helsinki): First in Prowess and Faith. The Great Encounter in
Twelfth-Century Crusader Narratives.
Excursion on foot to Saladin’s grave and the area around the great mosque
Evening: Session IV: Legal and Politic Perspectives on Crusades and Cultural Encounters
Bertil Nilsson (Gothenburg): Medieval Canon Law on Pagans.
Kirsi Salonen (Tampere): Unlicensed pilgrims and illegal trade. Late Medieval
Cultural Encounters according to the Archives of the Apostolic Penitentiary.
Wednesday 7th.
09.15-10.45: Session V: Cultural Encounters and Pilgrimage
Peter Edbury (Cardiff): Cultural encounters in the Latin East: John of Jaffa and
Philip of Novara.
Andrew Jotischky (Lancaster): Pilgrimage, Procession and Ritual Encounters
between Latins, Orthodox and Muslims in the Crusader States.
10.45-11.15: Break
11.15-12.45: Session VI: Cultural Encounters and Religious Law
Christian Høgel (Southern Denmark): The Byzantine abjuration formula for
converts from Islam and its possible development.
Barbara Bombi (Kent): The Fifth Crusade and the Conversion of the Muslims.
13.00-14.30: Lunch
14.45-16.15: Session VII: Cultural Encounters and Secular Law
Helle Vogt (Copenhagen): Legal Encounters in Estonia during the Danish Rule.
Hubert Kaufhold (Munich): Einflüsse des Islams auf das christliche-orientalische
Recht.
16.15-16.45: Break
16.45-18.15: Session VIII: Cultural Encounters and the Eastern Church:
Peter Petkoff (Oxford): Crusades through Eastern Eyes - Legal and Political
Perspectives.
Angus Stewart (St. Andrews): The Armenian Kingdom and the Mongol-Frankish
Encounter.
Excursion into the streets of old Damascus.
Conference dinner.
Thursday 8th.
9.00-18.00: Excursion to Krak des Chevaliers and Safita
Session IX (at Krak): Cultural Encounters and Castles:
Hugh Kennedy (London): Christian and Muslim Military Architecture in the late
twelfth and thirteenth Centuries: Comparisons and Influences.
Luís Miguel Duarte (Porto): The Consequences of the Crusade Experience in
Portuguese Military Architecture.
Friday 9th.
09.15-10.45: Session X: Cultural Encounters – the Muslim Perspective:
Robert Irwin (Cambridge): The Contribution of Twentieth-Century Arabists to the
Historiography of the Crusades.
Osman Latiff (London): Jihad Poetry of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries.
10.45-11.15: Break
11.15-12.45: Session XI: Crusades and Contemporary Cultural Encounters:
Jakob Skovgaard-Petersen (Copenhagen): The Crusades in Arab film and TV.
Moderator: Hans Christian Korsholm-Nielsen
Final discussion: Perspectives for further work.
12.45- :
Lunch
Departure
Registration and practical information: http://www.damaskus.dk
Arranged by the Danish Institute in Damascus together with The Centre for Studies in
Legal Culture, Copenhagen University, The Medieval Centre, University of Southern
Denmark; and Lars Peter Visti Hansen, independent scholar.
Supported by The C. L. David Foundation and Collection, and by The Carlsberg
Foundation.