The Routledge Companion to Medieval Warfare


Book Description

This comprehensive volume provides easily-accessible factual material on all major areas of warfare in the medieval west. The whole geographical area of medieval Europe, including eastern Europe, is covered, including essential elements from outside Europe such as Byzantine warfare, nomadic horde invasions and the Crusades. Progressing chronologically, the work is presented in themed, illustrated sections, with a narrative outline offering a brief introduction to the area. Within each chronological section, Jim Bradbury presents clear and informative pieces on battles, sieges, and generals. The author examines practical topics including: castle architecture, with examinations of specific castles ship building techniques improvements in armour specific weapons developments in areas such as arms and armour, fortifications, tactics and supply. Readable and engaging, this detailed provides students with an excellent collection of archaeological information and clear discussions of controversial issues.




Medieval Warfare


Book Description

Curated by two of the leading experts in medieval military history, the readings in Medieval Warfare tell a story of terrors and tragedies, triumphs and technologies in the Middle Ages.










Juan de Segovia and the Qur’an


Book Description

In spring 1456, with the help of the faqīh Yça Gidelli, Juan de Segovia accomplished a trilingual Qur’an (Castilian, Arabic and Latin) he regarded as fundamental to the conversion of the Muslims after the Ottoman conquest of Byzantium. This book delves into Segovia’s program, from his university lectures at Salamanca to the disputes held with Muslims in Castile, from the doctrinal debates at the Council of Basel to his exile in the Duchy of Savoy and the destiny of his books. Segovia deemed the await of miracles, preaching in Islamic lands, and the Crusade promoted by the papacy, to be useless. On the contrary, he considered knowledge of the Qur'an as unavoidable for Christian scholars engaged in the study of Islam, but also for Muslims, who were supposed to understand Christian doctrine through their own "law". It will be shown how Segovia's proposal is far from echoing modern concerns for religious tolerance, pacifism, and Arabic studies, let alone twentieth-century interreligious dialogue. Drawing on Biblical exegesis, Segovia called his program via pacis et doctrine and discussed it with influential churchmen such as Nicholas of Cusa and Enea Silvio Piccolomini. He believed mutual exchange of doctrinal ideas to be the only solution to stem wars and persuade Muslims to convert voluntarily to the Christian faith.




Warfare in the Age of Crusades


Book Description

Fascinating new study of the key campaigns, battles and sieges that shaped the crusading period in Europe during the Middle Ages. Warfare in the Age of Crusades: Europe explores in fascinating detail the key campaigns, battles and sieges that shaped the crusading period in Europe during the Middle Ages, giving special attention to military technologies, tactics and strategies. Key personalities and political factors are addressed, including the role of the papal monarchy in initiating the crusading expeditions and the use of crusade in the Christianization of the Baltic region and against heresies in Europe. Chapters focus on the Iberian crusades or Reconquista beginning in the eleventh century through to the final surrender of the Emirate of Granada in 1492. The northern or Baltic crusades are also a key element of the story. The narrative covers the involvement of the Holy Roman emperors and the popes, the military capabilities of the Baltic peoples, and the parts played by the Scandinavians as well as the Russians and Mongols. The concluding chapters reconsider crusades launched against heresies in Europe, specifically the Cathars and Hussites.




Christian Identity amid Islam in Medieval Spain


Book Description

In Christian Identity amid Islam in Medieval Spain Charles L. Tieszen explores a small corpus of texts from medieval Spain in an effort to deduce how their authors defined their religious identity in light of Islam, and in turn, how they hoped their readers would distinguish themselves from the Muslims in their midst. It is argued that the use of reflected self-image as a tool for interpreting Christian anti-Muslim polemic allows such texts to be read for the self-image of their authors instead of the image of just those they attacked. As such, polemic becomes a set of borders authors offered to their communities, helping them to successfully navigate inter-religious living.




The Fortress of Faith


Book Description

This study provides new fascinating testimonies about the development of a new image of Islam in Southern Europe in the fifteenth century and an approach to ways of acculturation in a mixed society.




Interfaith Relationships and Perceptions of the Other in the Medieval Mediterranean


Book Description

This book is a collaborative contribution that expands our understanding of how interfaith relations, both real and imagined, developed across medieval Iberia and the Mediterranean. The volume pays homage to the late Olivia Remie Constable’s scholarship and presents innovative, thought-provoking, interdisciplinary investigations of cross-cultural exchange, ranging widely across time and geography. Divided into two parts, “Perceptions of the ‘Other’” and “Interfaith relations,” this volume features scholars engaging with church art, literature, historiography, scientific treatises, and polemics, in order to study how the religious “Other” was depicted to serve different purposes and audiences. There are also microhistories that examine the experiences of individual families, classes, and communities as they interacted with one another in their own specific contexts. Several of these studies draw their source material from church and state archives as well as jurisprudential texts, and span the centuries from the late medieval to early modern periods.




The Age of the Catholic Monarchs, 1474-1516


Book Description

Keith Whinnom, Professor of Spanish and Deputy Vice-Chancellor in the University of Exeter, died on March 6, 1986. He was one of the leading hispanists of his generation, and a world authority on the literature of the reign of the Catholic Monarchs (and, in a quite different area, on pidgin and creole languages). The contributors to this memorial volume are all specialists in the literature of Keith Whinnom’s chosen period, and all had close links with him, through personal friendship, research collaboration, and correspondence. They include his most admired teacher, two young scholars whom he helped at the outset of their careers, and representatives of the academic generations in between; they come from Britain, Spain, the United States, Argentina and France. Most of the articles deal with the favorite Whinnom subjects of cancionero poetry, sentimental romance, and Celestina, and there are others on historiography, humanistic prose, chivalric romance, sermons, drama, and the interaction of history and literature. A bibliography of Keith Whinnom’s scholarly writings is included.