Crusaders

A major new history of the Crusades with an unprecedented wide scope,told in a tableau of portraits of people on all sides of the warsfrom the New York Times bestselling author of The Templars. For more than one thousand yearsChristians and Muslims lived side by sidesometimes at peace and sometimes at war. When Christian armies seized Jerusalem in 1099they began the most notorious period of conflict between the two religions. Depending on who you askthe fall of the holy city was either an inspiring legend or the greatest of horrors. In CrusadersDan Jones interrogates the many sides of the larger storycharting a deeply human and avowedly pluralist path through the crusading era. Expanding the usual timeframeJones looks to the roots of Christian-Muslim relations in the eighth century and tracks the influence of crusading to present day. He widens the geographical focus to far-flung regions home to so-called enemies of the Churchincluding SpainNorth Africasouthern Franceand the Baltic states. By telling intimate stories of individual journeysJones illuminates these centuries of war not only from the perspective of popes and kingsbut from Arab-Sicilian poetsByzantine princessesSunni scholarsShi’ite viziersMamluk slave soldiersMongol chieftainsand barefoot friars. Crusading remains a rallying call to this daybut its role in the popular imagination ignores the cooperation and complicated coexistence that were just as much a feature of the period as warfare. The age-old relationships between faithconquestwealthpowerand trade meant that crusading was not only about fighting for the glory of Godbut alsoamong other earthly reasonsabout gold. In this richly dramatic narrative that gives voice to sources usually pushed to the marginsDan Jones has written an authoritative survey of the holy wars with global scope and human focus.