History in the making
In 1219 A.D., after the fifth crusade, in a period of truce and peace negotiations between the Christians and Muslims, St. Francis of Assisi collaborated with the Sultan of Egypt, Malik al-Kamil. In Saint Francis and the Sultan, John Tolan writes, “If the crusades lend themselves to the paradigm of the ‘clash of civilizations’, the peaceful encounter of Francis and al-Kamil offers, on the contrary, a gleam of hope.” New York Times writer, Thomas Cahill wrote in The Peaceful Crusader, “We stand in desperate need of contemporary figures like Kamil and Francis of Assisi to create an innovative dialogue.”