The Crusades: A Comprehensive History of the Conflict for the Holy Land

Kevlar: Just an incredible read.

Canada on Nov 25, 2023

karlo: A good book about the events and the players during the First to Fifth Crusades. The author took a closer look at the motivations of the different factions and players during the crusades.

Canada on Jul 22, 2023

Yogananda A: The most admirable aspect of the book is that it reads both like a novel and a textbook. It is informative and structured like a  textbook being suspenseful and thrilling like a novel at the same time. No wonder the author took 6 years to complete this book. He not only narrates history very well but also makes brilliant analysis of the versatile multiple factors involving the crusades with respect to past, present and future. In this erudite account of the crusades he adeptly compares contemporary Arabic and Latin historical resources relating to the crusades to draw the most accurate conclusions. He also provides essential criticism on modern historical accounts which could be simplistic, distorted or manipulative like in one or two instances where the author proves his point logically to negate general misconceptions or popular opinions of modern historians tainted by hindsight. I could write a lot more about the book but not without spilling details that I feel that every reader should find out by himself or herself. I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in reading, knowing or learning about the crusades. Happy reading 📚 😊 Cheers!

India on May 18, 2023

Boutros Hassan: It’s one thicc boi but it’s pretty well explained and accessible. But it’s kind of superficial when it comes to the battles and intrigue of the Crusaders States.

Brazil on Jan 28, 2022

Walter W. Olson, Ph.D, P.E.: “The Crusades: Th Authoritative History of the Wars for the Holy Lands” By Thomas Asbridge

This is the single best book I have found to date on the Crusades in the Levant.

The Crusades were not limited to the Levant. Crusades were also conducted on the Iberian Peninsula, Western Africa and in Poland. These are mentioned in this book for reference only to other events occurring at the time of the Crusades to the Levant.

The Crusades (hereafter limited to the Middle East or Levant) were extremely complex series of events mixing religious, political, personal and military factors into what essentially could be called a tragedy for the Western World. No one knows how many lives were lost over the two centuries of the Crusades from 1096 to its conclusions in 1291 but it was several million. It is almost certain that historical sources on numbers of people in any event were exaggerated.

The First Crusade was initiated by Pope Urban II although, clearly his predecessor, Pope Gregory VII established the beginnings of the support for it. There was no urgent cause for the Crusades: Jersalem and the Holy Lands were in the hands of the Muslims for several...

United States on Dec 27, 2018

Hanno Uittenbogaard: This very comprehensive body of work is elegantly written and a true page turner. Asbridge claims to take a neutral stand and discusses both Christian and Muslim perspectives on the history of the wars over the Holy Land.
Popular view holds that the Crusaders were bands of thugs and thieves looking for loot and land. The author goes at great length to prove that this view must be discarded. The costs of going on a crusade, of "taking the Cross" were immense and not few knights had to mortgage their possessions to participate. It woud have been easier and more profitable just to stay home. Asbridge holds that the Crusaders foremost drive to take up the Cross was religious fervor. This however leaves the savage conquest and sack of Constsantinopel during the fourth crusade unaccounted for. Asbridges chapter, or rather paragraph, on this issue is conveniently brief.
A sense of dissatisfaction remains at the conclusion of this book. Christians and Muslims alike seized the Holy Land by force of arms, committing unspeakable atrocities and violently subduing the people who had settled there peacefully, Muslims, Jews and Christians. Regardless of your position, one cannot deny that...

Netherlands on Jul 26, 2018

doc peterson: Asbridge has written a simply magnificent work on the Crusades. Covering the first 7 Crusades (1189 - 1254), the religious, political, social, military and economic contexts of these wars are examined in detail, using an abundance of source material from both the Latin West and Islamic Near East. The emphasis of _The Crusades_ is primarily on the internal political divisions (among both Europeans and Muslims) that led to the initial success of the Crusades, and which perpetuated the struggle for the next 200 years.

That both the Christian west and Islamic responses to the Crusades were presented particularly impressed me - typically either one side ( The First Crusade , The Crusades ) or the other ( The Crusades Through Arab Eyes ). Towards these ends, Asbridge presents a very clear picture of the causes (religious as well as political) behind Alexius Comnenus' request for assistance, Urban II's call to arms, and the emnity between the Fatimids and 'Abbysids in the Levant. As Asbridge repeatedly shows, doctirnal divisions between both Christians (Byzantine Orthodox and Latin Catholics) and Muslims (Shi'ii and Sunni) provided leverage for both sides in the...

United States on Aug 20, 2012