Encountering Islam on the First Crusade
Cambridge University Press
Edition: 1st Edition, 7/31/2016
EAN 9781107156890, ISBN10: 1107156890
Hardcover, 326 pages, 23.5 x 15.9 x 2 cm
Language: English
The First Crusade (1095–9) has often been characterised as a head-to-head confrontation between the forces of Christianity and Islam. For many, it is the campaign that created a lasting rupture between these two faiths. Nevertheless, is such a characterisation borne out by the sources? Engagingly written and supported by a wealth of evidence, Encountering Islam on the First Crusade offers a major reinterpretation of the crusaders' attitudes towards the Arabic and Turkic peoples they encountered on their journey to Jerusalem. Nicholas Morton considers how they interpreted the new peoples, civilizations and landscapes they encountered; sights for which their former lives in Western Christendom had provided little preparation. Morton offers a varied picture of cross cultural relations, depicting the Near East as an arena in which multiple protagonists were pitted against each other. Some were fighting for supremacy, others for their religion, and many simply for survival.
Introduction
1. Predicates
2. The launch of the First Crusade
3. The First Crusade and the conquest of Jerusalem
4. Aftermath
5. The impact of the crusade
Bibliography
Index.