Encountering Islam on the First Crusade

A fundamental reassessment of Christian/Islamic relations during the First Crusade, combating its representation as an inter-faith clash of civilizations.

Nicholas Morton (Author)

9781108444866, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 21 December 2017

331 pages, 1 b/w illus. 4 tables
23 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.45 kg

'Encountering Islam on the First Crusade is well written and frequently even eloquent … readers, whether they are students and lay readers eager to learn about the First Crusade or medievalists specializing in crusade studies or interreligious encounters, are rewarded with new and fascinating insights.' Charles L. Tieszen, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations

The First Crusade (1095–9) has often been characterised as a head-to-head confrontation between the forces of Christianity and Islam. For many, it is the campaign that created a lasting rupture between these two faiths. Nevertheless, is such a characterisation borne out by the sources? Engagingly written and supported by a wealth of evidence, Encountering Islam on the First Crusade offers a major reinterpretation of the crusaders' attitudes towards the Arabic and Turkic peoples they encountered on their journey to Jerusalem. Nicholas Morton considers how they interpreted the new peoples, civilizations and landscapes they encountered; sights for which their former lives in Western Christendom had provided little preparation. Morton offers a varied picture of cross cultural relations, depicting the Near East as an arena in which multiple protagonists were pitted against each other. Some were fighting for supremacy, others for their religion, and many simply for survival.

Introduction
1. Predicates
2. The launch of the First Crusade
3. The First Crusade and the conquest of Jerusalem
4. Aftermath
5. The impact of the crusade
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Islam [HRH], Christianity [HRC], Crusades [HBWC], Medieval history [HBLC1]