Crusader Warfare Volume I Byzantium, Western Europe and the Battle for the Holy Land

This book is an in-depth and fascinating study of warfare during the period of the Crusades. To a large extent the current interest in the Crusades reflects the perceived threat of a so-called 'clash of civilizations'. While warnings of such a supposed clash in our own times are based upon a misunderstanding of the natures of both 'Western' and 'Islamic' civilizations, some now look to the medieval Crusades as an earlier example of such conflict. In reality they were no such thing. Instead the Crusades resulted from a remarkable variety of political, economic, cultural and religious factors. The Crusades involved an extraordinary array of states, ruling dynasties, ethnic or linguistic groups and the vast forces associated with these disparate participants. Book jacket.