In time for the Feast of St. Francis, Paul Moses gives an account of Francis of Assisi’s historic encounter with Sultan Malik al-Kamil of Egypt during the Fifth Crusade:
For several days Francis and Illuminato were treated as honored guests in the Muslim camp. According to James of Vitry, they were even permitted to preach to the Muslim soldiers. He mentions this in passing, but it is astonishing. While Cardinal Pelagius and the Christian military leaders a few miles to the north were busy building weapons of war for the next assault—and while Muslim troops prepared their own attacks on the Christian camp to which the two friars would return—Francis and the enemy soldiers were treating one another like friends.
Read more at Commonweal.