For October’s talk, we’re excited to welcome Dr Steve Tibble to speak on the theme: Assassins and Templars: A Battle In Myth and Blood
The Assassins and the Templars are two of history’s most legendary groups. One was a Shi’ite religious sect, the other a Christian military order created to defend the Holy Land. Violently opposed, they had vastly different reputations, followings, and ambitions. Yet they developed strikingly similar strategies―and their intertwined stories have, oddly enough, uncanny parallels.
In this engaging account based on his latest book, Steve Tibble traces the history of these two groups from their origins to their ultimate destruction. He shows how, outnumbered and surrounded, they survived only by perfecting “the promise of death,” either in the form of a Templar charge or an Assassin’s dagger. Death, for themselves or their enemies, was at the core of these extraordinary organisations.
Their fanaticism changed the medieval world―and, even up to the present day, in video games and countless conspiracy theories, they have become endlessly conjoined in myth and memory.
When: Wednesday 15 October 2025, 19:00
Where: Online (Microsoft Teams)
We will send out a link for the event to all those who have registered. This will arrive early in the week when the talk is being held. Please note that the link will arrive via email from Dr Paul Webster. If you have not received a link by midday on Wednesday 15 October, email Paul [ websterp@cardiff.ac.uk ] and he will send it on.
