Great Schism and Sicily

The pilgrims featured in Murder at the Leopard are given a tour of some of the churches of Palermo as Sophia makes various offerings to God to assure her soon-to-be delivered infant is a boy. Two of those churches, La Matorana and San Cataldo, both built in the mid 12th century, lie across the courtyard from one another. In fact, these two churches were built for different communities within what we know as "the Church". La Matorana was a Greek Orthodox church completed in 1151, but San Cataldo was a Roman Orthodox church completed in 1160. As we look at Sicilian history, The Great Schism of 1054 (Pope Nicholas II) which separated the church into Roman and Greek branches, underlies the conquest of Sicily by the Normans.
        The Great Schism was a result of centuries of conflict and divisions between the East and the West, ultimately being traced back to the division of the Roman Empire into its Eastern and Western rulers. Sicily, long a prize for any ruling power, was controlled by the Arabs before the Norman invasion. Normans, and many other groups, had been present in Sicily as crusaders, merchants, and adventurers for years. But Pope Nicholas wanted the island to be under the rule of the Roman church rather than the Greek church, and he wanted the Arabs pushed out due to their friendly relations with Byzantium. Essentially, he made it known that the Normans could take as much of Sicily as they wanted if they wrested it from the Arabs and promised to affiliate with the Roman branch of the church. The stage was thus set for the Norman wars of conquest in Sicily, Roger de Hauteville conquered Messina in 1061 and finally gained Palermo in 1071. Although the golden age of Sicily under the Normans was a tolerant, multicultural society, the island and other parts of Europe gradually became more Latinized, and the Greek Orthodox churches were subsumed by the Roman Orthodoxy.

Austrian undies

A 2008 discovery in an Austria’s Castle Lengberg has revealed dozens of new textile artifacts including a bra from the 15th century. A room in the castle was sealed off in the late 15th-century, and its dry conditions helped preserve organic material. Hundreds of textiles were discovered. Among them were four nearly complete linen bras and fragments of corselettes, some rather coarsely made others more elaborately decorated with plaited borders and sprang worked parts. Also found was underwear that looks remarkably like a string bikini. Radio-carbon dating has confirmed the age of the find.“All other textiles from this find, like fragments of dresses, shirts, trousers, laces etc., fit well to the 15th century. In addition, the shoes being found together with the textiles in the same layer are all of types in fashion from the end of the 14th to the first half of the 15th century.” FROM JULY 17, 2012 BY MEDIEVALISTS.NET

Now the heroines of The Vespers Series lived in a very different climate about 200 years earlier than the dates of this clothing discovery, but it really makes you wonder if they also had something similar. 

Using the term "medieval" in politics

As political races heat up in the US, we hear repeated references to one group or another being "medieval" in attitude or behavior, but is that accurate? Here are some comments from David M. Perry at The Guardian.

No, Carly Fiorina, a degree in medieval history doesn't qualify you to fight Isis.

"Carly Fiorina received a BA from Stanford in medieval history and philosophy almost 40 years ago. The Republican presidential candidate claims that her degree prepared her to fight Isis, “because what Isis wants to do is drive us back to the Middle Ages”. While the Middle Ages do shape contemporary events, Fiorina almost always gets the lessons of history wrong. When we use the word “medieval” to characterize something we don’t like, we are trying to impose chronological distance between ourselves and things we find unpleasant. Thinking of these distasteful or evil aspects of the modern world as belonging to the past makes it harder, not easier, to understand their root causes and fight them. That hasn’t stopped Fiorina from incorporating her quip about Isis driving us back to the Middle Ages as a standard part of her stump speech. Moreover, touting her “medieval” credentials is a way for her to play to culture warriors who believe Christianity is under attack.

As a medievalist, I believe we need to study the past in order to respond to the present, but we must learn the right things. Isis is inspired by medieval and pre-medieval Islamic ideas about power, purity and what they believe to be the “true nature of Islam.” Medieval Islam, like all religions, contained many different ideas and practices. Some were comparatively tolerant and open to innovation and differences; others were more restrictive. Looking into the history of any religion finds examples of both the best and worst of humanity within it.

It’s vital to recognize, though, as John Terry writes in Slate, that the viciousness of Isis emerges from its modernity, not its artificial links to the past. “Isis is nostalgic for a make-believe past, and those among them who know plenty about Islam’s first decades have conveniently revised medieval history to fit modern ideological needs.” Isis depends on modernity. Their growth was made possible by modern wars – from the division of the Middle East post-World War I to the most recent wars in Iraq and Syria. It’s only in this ultra-modern context that a group like Isis could grow and flourish. If Fiorina really wants to draw on the Middle Ages for inspiration, Perry  suggests: 1) support universities, scholars, writers and artists, as their contributions outlive us all; 2) peasants, oppressed for too long, always rebel; 3) don’t go to war in the Middle East without a good exit plan."

Writing fiction, writing groups and finding your market

I don't think we could have written, much less finished, the first two books in the Vespers Trilogy without a writing group.  Both my co-author and me agree that we need those extra eyes, not just for grammar, but for continuity, sense, anachronisms, all of that. 


What I've learned from writing historical fiction is that I may have the story in my head, but that doesn't necessarily flow effortlessly and gracefully onto the paper.  I still don't know why that doesn't happen but it doesn't for me.  I need objective input, which I may or may not take, but talking about my latest pages and pondering about them motivates me to do better.  It also motivates me to write, period.


My new writing group also discussed finding their markets last week.  This has always proven to be a difficult and nebulous audience to find.  It's obvious that people go to local bookstores to check out the newest and the latest, or peruse something like USA Today's Bestseller list.  But what happens when you are self-published and your book(s) have been out for awhile?  Then where's your market?


Any suggestions, opinions, comments are all appreciate and answered.

Siracusa, ancient Greeks, Plutarch, Santa Lucia, travel

I was just going through some pictures and reminiscing about the trips I've taken to Siracusa, and isn't it interesting how you think you know a place and then you either re-visit or read something and you think, wow, I never saw that!  Like the Edificio Termale in eastern Achradina, a Roman bathhouse where an emperor was supposedy assassinated in 668 AD by a servant who clobbered him with a soapdish.  Gee, and I love to soak ... just keep an eye on where all the soapdishes are.


We all know that Siracusa was founded by the ancient Greeks and the famous spring, Fonte Aretusa, which supposed turned red with blood when a sacrifice was made at the sanctuary of Olympia in Greece.  Also that if a cup was thrown into the river in Olympia, it would rise in Ortygia.  I personally never saw any cups floating around, but I did walk all over Ortygia and it was beautiful.  They say Plutarch wept when the beautiful city of Siracusa fell to the Romans.


And of course Cicero, the famous orator, was impressed with Siracusa as well (who wasn't?) and talks about the extravagant decorations of ivory and gold on the outside of the Greek temple where the Duomo is now.  And Cicero went on to prosecute Verres, the nasty Roman governor who plundered many of Sicily's treasures with impunity.


Last but not least, I'm always fascinated with Santa Lucia.  I first met this saint in a Lutheran church in Chicago, where Santa Lucia Day is celebrated as a festival of light on the shortest day of the year.  Girls came down the aisle with tiaras of real candles in their hair (yikes, I'd be scared to do that) and there were special cakes and food.  Imagine my surprise when years later I go to Sicily and again meet Santa Lucia, who is the patron saint of Siracusa, and famous throughout the island.


Anyway who has knowledge or stories about Santa Lucia, please cough them up, I'd love to hear them.


And the last thing I want to say about Siracusa, is the fabulous food I have always had there - octopi, sea bass, gelato - you name it, we ate it and it was all wonderful.

Ambassadors of Peace

Knowledge from the Malian manuscripts (see last week's post) has been passed down from one generation to the next for centuries. If your parents (I would guess father) were scholars, you were expected to be a scholar. For almost a thousand years, Islamic scholars who reached the pinnacle of learning as "Ambassadors of Peace" sat daily before sunrise in an assembly called the "Circle of Knowledge," instructing devotees with lessons and insights derived from these ancient manuscripts. The path to "Ambassadorship" is incomprehensibly demanding. Before reaching the age of five, each student must become an apprentice and pledge to study under the tutelage of the same teacher. The apprenticeship is a process lasting thirty-five years. By the age of ten, students must be able to converse in several languages and must be able to recite the Koran from memory. Prior to turning forty, every apprentice must have mastered Islamic jurisprudence in addition to his own chosen field of study. At that point, each candidate goes out into the streets as a beggar, to instill humility. Then, if they demonstrate that they are totally devoted to God, they become " Ambassadors of Peace. "

Trade routes through Timbuktu

The remarkable story of the Malian manuscripts began with an insurgency led by jihadists that overthrew the relatively stable government of Mali in 2012. Various groups within the rebels fought each other to gain control. One group, the Ansar Dine, bulldozed World Heritage Sites in Timbuktu, including the grave sites of Sufi saints. Timbuktu is known as the City of 333 Saints, for the Sufi Saints buried there. Sufism is a branch of Islam noted for its commitment to peaceful resolution of conflict. 

Eventually, France ordered the Foreign Legion to enter Mali and restore order. In retaliation for France's intervention, Ansar Dine destroyed 4,000 of Mali's ancient manuscripts in a blaze of fire.  The wanton destruction of these irreplaceable documents was a devastating blow.

Approximately 80,000 ancient manuscripts were reportedly housed in Timbuktu's official libraries, of which 20,000 had been catalogued. Many manuscripts are in private collections or have not yet been discovered, Abdel Kader Haidara, a  librarian featured in the film "333," devised a plan to save Timbuktu's remaining manuscripts mand raised roughly $1 million from the Ford Foundation, the German and Dutch governments, and an Islamic center in Dubai to collect and preserve them. Haidara bribed the insurgents, and with donkeys, boats and human haulers, smuggled as many as three-hundred-fifty-thousand manuscripts out of Timbuktu and into Bamako, the capital of Mali. But since then, Bamako's humidity has done more damage to these precious tomes than the Sahara's scorching sun had wreaked over the last 800 years.

Nearly 500,000 Malians were displaced from their homeland during the civil war. However, the Malians followed the ancient teachings set out in their historic manuscripts and applied Mali's centuries-old tradition of peacefully resolving conflict through dialogue to end the fighting. On Saturday, June 20, 2015, the various parties gathered at last, to sign a peace accord to end the years of fighting between them. A poignant example that Islam can be a religion of peace and understanding and not just one of violent jihad.

To see Sabatier Film Group's fascinating " 333 " trailer about the manuscripts and "Ambassadors of Peace", visit: http://www.SabatierFilmGroup.com.

Mali Manuscripts - Huffington Post