Playing The Crusades

Engaging the Crusades is a series of volumes which offer windows into a newly emerging field of historical study: the memory and legacy of the crusades. Together these volumes examine the reasons behind the enduring resonance of the crusades and present the memory of crusading in the modern period as a productive, exciting, and much needed area of investigation. This volume considers the appearance and use of the crusades in modern games; demonstrating that popular memory of the crusades is intrinsically and mutually linked with the design and play of these games. The essays engage with uses of crusading rhetoric and imagery within a range of genres – including roleplaying, action, strategy, and casual games – and from a variety of theoretical perspectives drawing on gender and race studies, game design and theory, and broader discussions on medievalism. Cumulatively, the authors reveal the complex position of the crusades within digital games, highlight the impact of these games on popular understanding of the crusades, and underline the connection between the portrayal of the crusades in digital games and academic crusade historiography. Playing the Crusades is invaluable for scholars and students interested in the crusades, popular representations of the crusades, historical games, and collective memory.

The first great city to which the Crusaders came in 1089 was not Jerusalem but Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. Almost as much as Jerusalem itself, Constantinople was the key to the foundation, survival and ultimate eclipse of the crusading kingdom.

Sir Steven Runciman examines the Frankish states to the re-conquest of Jerusalem by Saladin.

Engaging the Crusades is a series of concise volumes (up to 50,000 words) which offer initial windows into the ways in which the crusades have been used in the last two centuries, demonstrating that the memory of the crusades is an important and emerging subject. Together these studies suggest that the memory of the crusades, in the modern period, is a productive, exciting, and much needed area of investigation. Despite their ‘intrinsic internationalism’, the crusades have long been conscripted for nationalist ends. The last decade has seen an upsurge in usage of the crusades to justify and inspire violence played out within and across national contexts. This volume furthers study of nationalist uses of the crusades and crusading by broadening the focus of study beyond north-western Europe and by showcasing different approaches to illustrate how the memory of the crusades has been employed within and between nations. This takes the form of tightly focused case studies and broader overviews covering the ambivalent role of foreign crusaders in Portuguese commemorations of the battle of Lisbon in 1947, Russian holy war rhetoric and theology, Zionist perceptions of the crusader castle of ‘Athlit, the role of individuals as ‘cultural brokers’ of crusader heritage amidst European imperial competition, and how crusading as a part of European medievalism was received and reflected in Japan in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This book will be of interest to scholars and students considering national identity, medievalism, and religious violence and to those with specific interest in the contexts of each chapter.

This fully updated and expanded edition of The Crusades: A History provides an authoritative exploration of one of the most significant topics in medieval and religious history. From the First Crusade right up to the present day, Jonathan Riley-Smith and Susanna Throop investigate the phenomenon of crusading and the crusaders themselves. Now in its 4th edition, this landmark text includes: - A new and more balanced book structure with updated terminology designed to help instructors and students alike - Deliberate incorporation of a wider range of historical perspectives, including Byzantine and Islamic historiographies, crusading against Christians and within Europe, women and gender, and the crusades in the context of Afro-Eurasian history - A dramatically expanded discussion of crusading from the sixteenth through twenty-first centuries - A fully up-to-date bibliographic essay - Additional textboxes, maps, and images The Crusades: A History is the definitive text on the subject for students and scholars alike.

Engaging the Crusades is a series of volumes which offer windows into a newly emerging field of historical study: the memory and legacy of the crusades. Together these volumes examine the reasons behind the enduring resonance of the crusades and present the memory of crusading in the modern period as a productive, exciting, and much needed area of investigation. Crusading was a part of the rich tapestry of family history, with tales of crusading developed as evidence of heroic endeavour to enhance family prestige. Lists of crusaders were published to satisfy this market and heraldry was a visible means of displaying such lineage. Drawing on extensive research and previously untapped sources, this book charts continuing British interest in the crusades, focusing on the nineteenth century. The volume discusses what was available to read on the subject and how this was discussed in numerous journals. Set in the British context of growing local and regional interest in history and archaeology, the study also considers the physical artefacts associated with the crusades. Tales of the Crusaders – Remembering the Crusades in Britain is the ideal resource for students and scholars of the history of memory and crusades history in a British context.

The crusade movement needed women: their money, their prayer support, their active participation, and their inspiration... This book surveys women's involvement in medieval crusading between the second half of the eleventh century, when Pope Gregory VII first proposed a penitential military expedition to help the Christians of the East, and 1570, when the last crusader state, Cyprus, was captured by the Ottoman Turks. It considers women's actions not only on crusade battlefields but also in recruiting crusaders, supporting crusades through patronage, propaganda, and prayer, and as both defenders and aggressors. It argues that medieval women were deeply involved in the crusades but the roles that they could play and how their contemporaries recorded their deeds were dictated by social convention and cultural expectations. Although its main focus is the women of Latin Christendom, it also looks at the impact of the crusades and crusaders on the Jews of western Europe and the Muslims of the Middle East, and compares relations between Latin Christians and Muslims with relations between Muslims and other Christian groups.