John of Ibelin [electronic resource]


Book Description

This critical edition of the legal treatise by John of Ibelin, count of Jaffa and Ascalon (died 1266) is the first to take into account all the surviving medieval manuscripts and the first to be published since 1841.




The new Solomon [electronic resource]


Book Description

This study of kingship and the court in fourteenth-century Italy connects the style of rule of Robert of Naples to the changing issues of the fourteenth century and charts its legacy among other late-medieval rulers and Renaissance commentators.




Crusades


Book Description

Crusades covers seven hundred years from the First Crusade (1095-1102) to the fall of Malta (1798) and draws together scholars working on theatres of war, their home fronts and settlements from the Baltic to Africa and from Spain to the Near East and on theology, law, literature, art, numismatics and economic, social, political and military history. Routledge publishes this journal for The Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East. Particular attention is given to the publication of historical sources in all relevant languages - narrative, homiletic and documentary - in trustworthy editions, but studies and interpretative essays are welcomed too. Crusades appears in both print and online editions. This first edition of the journal includes contributions from Jonathan Riley-Smith refecting on the number of knights who participated in the First Crusade and the number of casualties and Peter W. Edbury on Fiefs and Vassals in the Kingdom of Jerusalem: from the Twelfth Century to the Thirteenth.




Texts, documents, and artefacts [electronic resource]


Book Description

A collection of 17 articles by Islamicists and Arabists, on a variety of topics in mediaeval and early modern times. It addresses the Qur'an Shi'ism, Abbasid historiography, the Crusaders, and Mamluk history.




The Hospitallers and the Holy Land


Book Description

A new appraisal of the Order of the Hospitallers, showing how they were responsible for the survival of the Christian settlement in the East. The Order of the Hospital of St John was among the most creative and important institutions of the Middle Ages, its history provoking much debate and controversy. However, there has been very little study of the way in which it operated as an organisation contributing to the survival of the Christian settlement in the East, a gap which this book addresses. It focuses on the impact of the various crises in the East upon the Order, looking at how it reactedto events, the contributions that western priories played in the rehabilitation of the East, and the various efforts made to restore its economic and military strength. In particular, the author shows the key role played by the papacy, both in the Order's recovery, and in determining the fate of the crusader states. Overall, it offers a whole new perspective on the connections between East and West. JUDITH BRONSTEIN gained her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge




Queens of Jerusalem


Book Description

The untold story of a trailblazing dynasty of royal women who ruled the Middle East and how they persevered through instability and seize greater power. In 1187 Saladin's armies besieged the holy city of Jerusalem. He had previously annihilated Jerusalem's army at the battle of Hattin, and behind the city's high walls a last-ditch defence was being led by an unlikely trio - including Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem. They could not resist Saladin, but, if they were lucky, they could negotiate terms that would save the lives of the city's inhabitants. Queen Sibylla was the last of a line of formidable female rulers in the Crusader States of Outremer. Yet for all the many books written about the Crusades, one aspect is conspicuously absent: the stories of women. Queens and princesses tend to be presented as passive transmitters of land and royal blood. In reality, women ruled, conducted diplomatic negotiations, made military decisions, forged alliances, rebelled, and undertook architectural projects. Sibylla's grandmother Queen Melisende was the first queen to seize real political agency in Jerusalem and rule in her own right. She outmanoeuvred both her husband and son to seize real power in her kingdom, and was a force to be reckoned with in the politics of the medieval Middle East. The lives of her Armenian mother, her three sisters, and their daughters and granddaughters were no less intriguing. Queens of Jerusalem is a stunning debut by a rising historian and a rich revisionist history of Medieval Palestine.




Journal of Medieval Military History: Volume XXI


Book Description

"The leading academic vehicle for scholarly publication in the field of medieval warfare." Medieval WarfareThe twenty-first volume of the Journal of Medieval Military History begins with three studies examining aspects of warfare in the Latin East: an archaeological report on the defenses of Jerusalem by Shimon Gibson and Rafael Y. Lewis; a study of how military victories and defeats (viewed through the lens of carefully shaped reporting) affected the reputation, and the flow of funds and recruits to, the Military Orders, by Nicolas Morton; and an exploration of how the Kingdom of Jerusalem quickly recovered its military strength after the disaster of Hattin by Stephen Donnachie. Turning to the other side of the Mediterranean, Donald J. Kagay analyzes how Jaime I of Aragon worked to control violence within his realms by limiting both castle construction and the use of mechanical artillery. Guilhem Pépin also addresses the limitation of violence, using new documents to show that the Black Prince's sack of Limoges in 1370 was not the unrestrained bloodbath described by Froissart. The remaining three contributions deal with aspects of open battle. Michael John Harbinson offers a large-scale study of when and why late-medieval men-at-arms chose to dismount and fight on foot instead of acting tactically as cavalry. Laurence W. Marvin reconsiders the Battle of Bouvines, concluding that it was far from being a ritualized mass duel. Finally, Michael Livingston elucidates some principles for understanding medieval battles in general, and the battle of Agincourt in particular.moges in 1370 was not the unrestrained bloodbath described by Froissart. The remaining three contributions deal with aspects of open battle. Michael John Harbinson offers a large-scale study of when and why late-medieval men-at-arms chose to dismount and fight on foot instead of acting tactically as cavalry. Laurence W. Marvin reconsiders the Battle of Bouvines, concluding that it was far from being a ritualized mass duel. Finally, Michael Livingston elucidates some principles for understanding medieval battles in general, and the battle of Agincourt in particular.moges in 1370 was not the unrestrained bloodbath described by Froissart. The remaining three contributions deal with aspects of open battle. Michael John Harbinson offers a large-scale study of when and why late-medieval men-at-arms chose to dismount and fight on foot instead of acting tactically as cavalry. Laurence W. Marvin reconsiders the Battle of Bouvines, concluding that it was far from being a ritualized mass duel. Finally, Michael Livingston elucidates some principles for understanding medieval battles in general, and the battle of Agincourt in particular.moges in 1370 was not the unrestrained bloodbath described by Froissart. The remaining three contributions deal with aspects of open battle. Michael John Harbinson offers a large-scale study of when and why late-medieval men-at-arms chose to dismount and fight on foot instead of acting tactically as cavalry. Laurence W. Marvin reconsiders the Battle of Bouvines, concluding that it was far from being a ritualized mass duel. Finally, Michael Livingston elucidates some principles for understanding medieval battles in general, and the battle of Agincourt in particular.ingston elucidates some principles for understanding medieval battles in general, and the battle of Agincourt in particular.




The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology


Book Description

This set is an excellent companion to J. R. Strayer's edited Dictionary of the Middle Ages (CH, Nov'87; Supplement I, ed. by W. C. Jordan, CH, Sep'04, 42-0044). The focus on warfare allows the editors to offer larger entries on major topics (e.g., "Agincourt," "Crusades," "Feudalism") and introduce many complementary topics. The editors are concerned with Europe; they expand coverage into Asia or Africa only because of the connection to medieval Europe. Coverage also includes an abundance of entries pertaining to Central and Eastern Europe. Most of the 1,000-plus entries are about a page in length, but a few approach 50 pages. Medium and large-size entries, such as "Chivalry," "Germany," and "Slavic Lands," discuss primary sources and very valuable historiographies. A thorough index helps readers locate the Knights Templar under "Orders, Military, Levantine Orders." Cross-references and bibliographies follow each of the signed entries. Locating reliable and scholarly information on the Knights Templar and Vlad Tepes (Dracula) is tricky. Some of the bibliographies include sources in foreign languages. For example, the references for the Black Army of Hungary are in Hungarian. Noticeably missing are entries for the many wars. This set is particularly suited to research libraries. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through professionals/practitioners; general readers. General Readers; Lower-division Undergraduates; Upper-division Undergraduates; Graduate Students; Researchers/Faculty; Professionals/Practitioners. Reviewed by W. M. Fontane.




In Plain Sight


Book Description

In Plain Sight draws from a wide array of interdisciplinary sources to show how Muslims, seemingly hostile to the entire crusading enterprise, integrated themselves into the kingdom founded in the wake of the First Crusade. The book examines how Muslims, whether Sunni or Shi‘a or Druze, fit into society in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, uncovering the daily reality of their experience. Exploring how and to what extent Muslims interacted with the Frankish ruling elite, historian Ann E. Zimo presents a new vantage point from which to reconsider the popularly accepted notion that the crusades, and by extension the crusader states, were a locus of a monolithic clash between West and East or between Christianity and Islam. By untangling the relations between the Muslim communities and their rulers, Zimo offers a more fully realized image of a society too multifaceted to be reasonably reduced to a black-and-white binary opposition. Zimo not only re-reads the well-known Frankish sources, including narrative chronicles, letters, charters, and legal treatises, but combines them with an investigation of the Arabic documentary base, including chronicles, biographies, fatwa literature, pilgrimage guides, and treaties which are not translated and largely inaccessible to most historians of the crusades. She also draws from the enormous and growing body of scholarship generated by archaeologists whose work can often provide insights into the aspects of the past not recorded in the historical record. By casting such a wide evidentiary net, In Plain Sight sheds new light on Frankish society and how Muslims fit into it, offering major revisions to the current conception of population distribution within the kingdom and the nature of the Frankish polity itself.




Crusades


Book Description