On Monday January 7, 2013, the Higher Center for Research (HCR) at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK) organized a presentation and discussion on the occasion of the publication, within its collections, of Prof. Mireille Issa’s book Les communautés orientales dans l’historiographie occidentale de la croisade (Eastern communities in the western historiography of the Crusades). Dr. Randa Abi Aad from the HCR, Rev. Fr. Prof. Karam Rizk, the Dean of the Faculty of Letters, and H.E.M. Georges Corm successively took the floor and delivered speeches during the event, which was held at the Jean El Hawa Auditorium on the USEK Campus, before Prof. Issa closed the session with a thank you speech. The event was followed by a reception.

An active medievalist since 1999 at USEK, member of the Societé Rencesvals (France) for the Roman epic, and Head of the USEK Latin Studies Center (CEL), Mireille Issa is the author of many books and articles, including La Version latine et l’adaptation française de l’Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum de Guillaume de Tyr, published in 2010, by Brepols and De Berytensi Jureconsultorum Academia, a Latin translation published in 2010 in Beirut.

Prof. Issa’s book explores the Latin Middle Ages of the three monotheistic religions and thoughtfully examines the reinvestment of historical, geographical and anthropological material of the Middle Eastern peoples of that time. Based on the classics, the study revisits the chroniclers of the first crusade, the Western travelers who reconnect with the Orient following a rupture, and the peregrinating Jewish pilgrims between the 11th and 16th centuries.