crusading

	Fadaiat Third edition of the event dealing with freedom of movement and freedom of knowledge, to advance in the construction of social, collaborative networks, local and transnational, connecting cognitarians, migrants and precarious, to research and develop tools, to exchange and share knowledge, to discuss common strategies and projects... within the reference framework of the new borders. Place: Barcelona, Hangar, Poble Neu Date: Between the 19th and the 25th of June http://fadaiat.net/
	The New Crusades, Constructing the Muslim Enemy Edited by Emran Qureshi and Michael A.Sells Columbia University Press, ISBN 0-231-12666-2 "There is no Muslim enemy. In the 11th century the First Crusaders constructed him to cover spurious conquests and wanton killings. In the 21st century the New Crusaders reconstruct him to cover global asymmetries and moral blunders. Both sets of Crusaders are zealots with feet of clay. Their opposite is Eqbal Ahmad. Ahmad was an educator with a heart of gold. He was also a tireless, fearless agonist for justice. It is in his vision that these essays are cast and to his memory that they are collectively dedicated. This volume holds out true hope. Its message will resonate for all who look beyond Crusades to imagine, then construct a new world order without Muslim enemies." -- Bruce B. Lawrence, Nancy and Jeffrey Marcus Humanities Professor, Duke University Source: amazon.com
	Linnaeus, Nature and Nation Written by Lisbet Koerner Harvard University Press, ISBN 0674097459 A biography of Linnaeus and his time, but also an attempt to understand the time and the place where the great botanist worked and lived. I specially enjoyed the description of the encounter with the “Other”, the travel to Lappland. With the eyes of a modern reader we could see here Gayatri Spivaks postcolonial lecture, seeing how the subaltern is seen and explained. But in Linnaeus time colonization and civilization were felt as synonymous. An essential book to understand Modernity and it’s discontents.
	The Muslim Agricultural Revolution and its influence on Europe The researcher Zohor Idrisi writes about the Muslim heritage in the fields of agriculture and science, how Muslim translators and intellectuals made the texts of Aristotle and Plato accessible to the Western world, where the knowledge of the Greek language had gone lost. In Cordoba, capital of Al Andalus, Christians, Jews and Muslims worked together to create an atmosphere of tolerance and freedom. The word “convivencia” reflected a society where the Muslim rule didn’t deny other religions their beliefs and their uses. http://www.muslimheritage.com/uploads/AgricultureRevolution2.pdf
	The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity Verso Books, ISBN 1-85984-457-X Tariq Ali describes the Crusades and the Jihads as parallell events, confrontating Christian fundamentalism and Islamic fundamentalism. It’s also the history of the heretics, of the dissidents, trying to make bridges and translating and introducing new concepts and ideas in the name of the common wealth.Ali’s book is an important tool to understand today’s conflicts and wars, where the heritage of the Crusades still hounts.
	Support for innovative project at Bildmuseet Bildmuseet's network project "Crusading", which is an extensive study of historic and modern day meetings between Arabic and Western cultures, has received additional financial support. Previously the project has received support from the Foundation for the Culture of the Future and now the European Cultural Foundation has contributed 20 000 € (about SEK 190 000). – This is important support for our European cooperation and means that we can develop the project and our European network further, says museum director Jan-Erik Lundström. The European Cultural Foundation is an independent organisation with headquarters in the Netherlands, which supports creative and innovative cultural projects with a European dimension. The web Crusading: http://www.crusading.se European Cultural Foundation: http://www.eurocult.org More about Crusading: http://www.bildmuseet.umu.se/pressrelease- crusading.html FOR FURTHER INFORMATION \| Please contact Jan-Erik Lundström, museum director; jan-erik.lundstrom@bildmuseet.umu.se; +46 (0)70 - 667 68 15 or Monica von Stedingk, information officer; monica.von.stedingk@bildmuseet.umu.se; +46 (0)90-786 56 08 or Ana L. Valdés, writer and Project Manager for the project Crusading, agora@algonet.se
	Dream of Jerusalem Drömmen om Jerusalem Mia Gröndahl Journal ISBN 91-974894-5-X In the summer of 1896 a small group of people left their village in Sweden to go to Jerusalem and await the Messia's second coming. The group left the hamlet of Nås in Dalecacarlia, to became part a sect led by the American Anna Spafford. The group's stories and adventures were described in a novel "To Jerusalem" by the Swedish Nobel prize winner Selma Lagerlöf. The house where they lived is now an hotel, the American Colony Hotel. The book, written by the journalist, photographer and writer Mia Gröndahl, collects hundreds of photos and texts about the fascinating history of the small group of people which left behind one of the best collections of photos of Jerusalem and the Middle East at the beginning of the century.
	Holy Fire, the battle for Christ tomb Victoria Clark Macmillan ISBN 1-4050-0528-9 "Holy Fire invades the church, a fast-breeding light transfiguring faces, transforming the dark stone space. I hear gasps and cheers and sobs and tears. The emotion is overwhelming, the heat suffocating..." Crowds of the faithful stumble out of Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre into the white light of day, shielding their lighted candles from the breeze. An Ortodox priest from Bethlehem's besieged Church of the Nativity heads back through the Israeli checkpoints, his Holy Fire safe in a tin lantern. A Greek bishop seated in a limousine, Holy Fire in a lamp on his lap, is already speeding towards Ben-Gurion's Airport to catch the specially chartered flight back to Athens in time for the Easter service. Every year in Jerusalem the "miracle" of the Holy Fire - the spontaneous ignition of lamps inside the shrine containing Christ's tomb- is enacted in front of hundreds of the faithful. For centuries, Orthodox Christian pilgrims have made the arduous journey to witness it: the proof they need that God favours them not only above Jews and Muslims, but also above all other Christians. Throughout that time, Jerusalem has been a city of profound religious and political unrest, the focus of aggressive campaigns of medieval Crusaders, the empire-building of nineteenth-century European powers and today zealous, though unlikely, champions of Israel's cause, the Christian Zionists. Victoria Clark weaves together history, reportage and religion into a tale of clashes and battles fought in God's name.
	Salonica, city of ghosts. Christians, muslims and jews 1430-1950 Mark Mazover Harper Perennial ISBN 0-00-712022-2 Let us talk about a city which could have been one of those that Italo Calvino writes about in îInvisible Citiesî. If Kublai Khan had heard about Salonica he should have been amazed, because in these city Christians, Jews, and Moslems lived together and respected their differences. This Mediterranean port was home for five centuries to one of the most diverse societies in Europe. Roman ruins, Byzantine monasteries, synagogues and mosques, the plurality of the city surprised the travellers who ventured into the city.They saw Jewish dock-workers and Ukrainian slaves working side by side with Greek shopkeepers, Ottoman pachas and Albanian brigands. Pirates and intellectuals discussed faith and profit in the coffeeshops where coffee and narguile were available.Mark Mazover has written a wonderful book about the city where an atmosphere of shared piety and messianic mysticism prevailed.