Pech Souleila

Book excerpt: The story of the green knight who defended Tyre against the besieging army of Saladin is bequeathed to us as a remarkable feat of chivalrous tradition. Sidi Kafir resuscitates this historical legend by making him the last pagan Viking caught up in the turmoil of the Crusades. As a vagrant adventurer looking for new horizons, Ulyssess nordic son is on a personal odyssey in search of love and knightly prowess. Its lessons are so relevant today: the clash of civilisations, alike the original Crusades, tears asunder the harmony amongst peoples by its sterile, warlike confrontation that knows no issue other than mutual distrust and destruction, instead of convivencia, cooperation and mutual respect. The medieval age saw the rebirth of international trade, as during the Roman age, along the silk and spice routes linking the Orient to the Occident. This trade renaissance is a recurrent theme that now dominates the debate on globalisation. Its origins are examined here with the birth of Italian city republics, which created the monetary system at Venice, then the manufacturing base in Tuscany in the Renaissance age. The pursuit of happiness through growing grapevines, imported from Palestine to Europe in the form of the Chardonnay grape, is a legendary legacy to epicurean man.