The Saladin Days 2014 Karim Miské and Tariq Ali in conversation with Aslak Sira Myhre
Was el-Andalus a prosperous society for Christians, Jews and Muslims alike? Was their coexistence a happy one, or were the Jewish and Christian faiths only respected to the extent that they proved beneficial to the Muslim powers that be?
Karim Miské has a French-Mauritanian background and twenty years’ experience as a documentary filmmaker. Among other subjects, he has explored new fundamentalism as a phenomenon in Islam, Judaism and Christianity. In the documentary series Jews and Muslims, shown on NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation) in 2013, he tells the story of coexistence and conflict since the founding of Islam. The documentary will be screened again on NRK2 on March 1st-4th and is also available for online streaming.
Tariq Ali is a historian, author and one of the initiators of the Saladin Days when they were first established in 2009. In his quintet of novels about Islam he utilises historical events as a backdrop. The first of the quintet is set in Granada just before the expulsion of the Muslims and Jews.
How do Ali and Miské perceive the period of eight hundred years when Jews, Muslims and Christians shared the same territory? And can the el-Andalusian coexistence be used constructively to confront the challenges that Europe is faced with today? The conversation is moderated by Aslak Sira Myhre, director of the House of Literature.
Litteraturhuset Wergeland