Syria In Crusader Times

Presenting numerous interconnected insights into life in Greater Syria in the twelfth century, this book covers a wide range of themes relating to Crusader-Muslim relations. Some chapters deal with various literary sources, including little-known Crusader chronicles, a jihad treatise, a lost Muslim history of the Franks, biographies, letters and poems. Other chapters look at material culture, from coins to urban development, internal relations between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims and between Crusader and Oriental Christians, and the role of the Turkmen. New insights into the career of Saladin are revealed, for example through the work of a little-known propagandist at his court, and Saladin's use of gift-giving for political purposes, as well as neglected aspects of the rule of his family dynasty, the Ayyubids, which succeeded him. Special attention is paid to the Christians residing in the Middle East, from Italians to Melkites and Armenians.

Presenting numerous interconnected insights into life in Greater Syria in the twelfth century, this book covers a wide range of themes relating to Crusader-Muslim relations. Some chapters deal with various literary sources, including little-known Crusader chronicles, a jihad treatise, a lost Muslim history of the Franks, biographies, letters and poems. Other chapters look at material culture, from coins to urban development, internal relations between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims and between Crusader and Oriental Christians, and the role of the Turkmen. New insights into the career of Saladin are revealed, for example through the work of a little-known propagandist at his court, and Saladin's use of gift-giving for political purposes, as well as neglected aspects of the rule of his family dynasty, the Ayyubids, which succeeded him. Special attention is paid to the Christians residing in the Middle East, from Italians to Melkites and Armenians.

The Old French ’Rothelin’ Continuation of William of Tyre’s Historia provides one of the best contemporary narratives of the history of the crusades and of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem in the mid-thirteenth century. Covering the period 1229-61, it has vivid accounts of the disastrous expeditions led by Count Theobald of Champagne (1239-40) and King Louis IX of France (1248-54) as well as of other events in the East. But the text contains far more than this, with a detailed description of Jerusalem itself, songs of protest written by crusaders, and a variety of marvels and adventures, including stories of Alexander the Great, and the poisonous snakes encountered by the Roman army under Cato. This text is here translated into English for the first time, together with a narrative for the same years taken from another Old French Continuation of William of Tyre’s work, part of L’Estoire de Eracles. Both accounts are translated from the Receuil des historiens des croisades: Historiens occidentaux vol. 2 (Paris, 1859). An introduction and full notes make these thirteenth-century events and ideas accessible to students of medieval history and to anyone interested in the lives and patterns of thought of people of that time.

Eleven distinguished contributors have produced essays which deal with the organisation of the crusade in Europe, internal developments in the Crusader Levant, issues of the contemporary Muslim East, and Crusader-Muslim confrontation in twelfth-century Syria. Some break new ground entirely, for instance Malcolm Lyons' investigations of the Arab Hero cycles and Penny Cole's work on Crusader preaching. Others offer important new perspectives on well-known themes: Jonathan Riley-Smith on Crusader ideology and Peter Edbury's revisionist view of the events leading up to the battle of Hattin. Still others offer important overviews which will be appreciated by a broad readership of medieval historians.

This book provides a history of the political relations between the states founded by Crusaders and the Islamic states with which they waged war.

The Crusaders in the East is a concise history of the military campaigns between the Latin and Islamic armies in Syria during the 11th and 12th centuries. The book summarizes the main events of each campaign and provides an overview of the key actors and forces involved. This book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the history of the Crusades and the interaction between Christianity and Islam in the Middle Ages. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Excerpt from The Crusaders in the East: A Brief History of the Wars of Islam With the Latins in Syria During the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries The writer owes his interest in the subject of this volume, and his conception of the history of the crusades as part of the history of the Moslem east, to the late Sir William Muir, As Principal of Edinburgh University he pointed out the Opportunity for research in this department and in response to his invitation the present writer was the author of a University Prize Essay on the subject. The list of books on pages 3 72 - 376 may be regarded as an acknowledgment of the writer's debt to the modern authors who are there mentioned. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.