Holy Warriors Jonathan Phillips by Jonathan Phillips 9781400065806, 1400065801 instant download after payment.

University of London historian and History Channel contributor Phillips (The Second Crusade) superbly condenses the four centuries of the Crusades into a single, easily accessible volume. Islamic as well as Western sources are utilized to demonstrate the similarities between jihad and crusading. The narrative weaves a tragic tapestry, beginning with the bloodily successful First Crusade, through the establishment of the Crusader states, to the failure of subsequent Crusades, the victories of the Muslim counter-Crusade, and the continuing legacy of religious and cultural hatred that permeates the Holy Land. Individuals such as the charismatic Queen Melisende of Jerusalem; the Leper King, Baldwin IV; the Muslim warriors Nur ad-Din and Saladin; England's Richard the Lionheart; and many others play major and minor roles in the creation of a past that still lives today. Episodes including the breathtaking naivete of the Children's Crusade and the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula are effectively described. Concluding chapters examine the impact of the Crusades since the 15th century. Regrettably, little attention is given to the crusading spirit resurrected by the 1571 Battle of Lepanto. But this is an outstanding summary of centuries of religious strife, the effects of which are with us still. 8 pages of b&w photos, 5 maps. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Historians and laypersons continue to dispute the causes and even the moral justification for the 200-year effort by Europeans to recapture the so-called Holy Land. The immense impact of the Crusades, however, is undeniable. The horizons of Europeans were expanded, feudal societies were transformed, and the peoples of the Levant have inherited a legacy of bitterness toward the invading Christian Franks. Phillips, professor of crusading history at the University of London, provides a compact survey of the crusading movement that, unlike most such accounts, includes the initiative to reconquer Muslim Spain and suppress Christian heresy in southern France. Since he aims his work at general readers, Phillips employs a fast-moving narrative, but he also pauses to focus special attention upon topics and personalities of special interest, including instances of Muslim-Christian cooperation, divisions within Muslim and Christian forces, and characters both colorful and controversial. A well-written work succeeding in explaining a complex and vitally important era. --Jay Freeman