LEWISTON —  A three-lecture Bates College series titled “Byzantium and Islam: Art, Poetry and Sound at the Crossroads of the Mediterranean Sea” opens with a talk about the intersection of medieval European and Middle Eastern visual and material culture at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29, in the Keck Classroom (G52), Pettengill Hall, 4 Andrews Road (Alumni Walk).

Presented by the Department of Religious Studies and the Program in Classical and Medieval Studies, the lectures are open to the public free. For more information, call 786-8204.

Maria Georgopoulou of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens will offer the Oct. 29 talk titled “Venice, Byzantium and Islam: Trade and the Arts in the Medieval Mediterranean.”

Russell J. Hopley of Bowdoin College will present the second talk, an exploration of Sicily’s evolution through Byzantine to Islamic to Christian cultures. It will take place at noon Thursday, Nov. 14, in Room 201, Commons, 136 Central Ave.

Bates’ own Ali Humayun Akhtar will discusse “rembetiko,” a musical genre developed by Greeks living in Turkey, at noon Wednesday, Nov. 20, in Room 221-222, Commons.