The Years of the Infidels

This book examines African Latin Christianity from the fifth to the thirteenth century, exploring the complex interactions between local Christian communities and Vandals, Byzantines, and Arabs.

Focusing on the resilience of successive generations of African Christians and their capacity to adapt to challenging political circumstances, Marco Cristini delves into their relationships with local rulers, popes, and European sovereigns such as Charlemagne. He argues that the history of Augustine’s heirs represents a crucial phase in the transformation of the Mediterranean’s religious landscape during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. This book offers readers fresh insights into much-debated topics, including the role of religious otherness under the Vandals, Justinian’s religious policies, Christian-Muslim relations, and the impact of Western medieval missionaries on indigenous Christian communities. It also sheds light on the remarkable longevity of African Latin Christianity, demonstrating its ability to not only survive but also thrive under ‘heretical’ or ‘infidel’ rulers for nearly eight centuries.

With its accessible, in-depth, and comprehensive analysis, this book is an essential resource for scholars, postgraduates, and undergraduates interested in Late Antiquity, the Early Middle Ages, the history of North Africa, pre-modern Christianity, early Islam, and the Crusades.

Marco Cristini obtained his PhD at Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa, Italy). He subsequently held a fellowship at the University of Tübingen and at the Istituto Italiano di Storia Antica (Rome). He is currently Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Florence. He published a monograph on the second-last Ostrogothic king (Baduila: Politics and Warfare at the End of Ostrogothic Italy), as well as several papers on sixth-century Italy, Cassiodorus, Procopius of Caesarea, and early medieval diplomacy.