Franks, Muslims And Oriental Christians In The Latin Levant

Resumen del Libro

Steven Runciman characterized intellectual life in the Frankish Levant as disappointing, Joshua Prawer claimed that the Franks refused to open up to the Easts intellectual achievements. The present collection, the second by Benjamin Kedar in the Variorum series, presents facts that require a modification of these still largely prevailing views. The earliest laws of the Kingdom of Jerusalem were influenced by Byzantine legislation, medical routine in the Jerusalem Hospital, unparalleled in Europe, had counterparts in Oriental hospitals, worshippers of different creeds repeatedly converged, multi-directional conversion recurred time after time. Several articles deal with groups that did abstain from intercultural contacts: Muslim villagers, Frankish clerics and hermits. One article dwells on the asymmetry of Frankish and Muslim mutual perceptions.