James M. Powell here offers a new interpretation of the Fifth Crusade's historical and social impact, and a richly rewarding view of life in the thirteenth century. Powell addresses such questions as the degree of popular interest in the crusades, the religious climate of the period, the social structure of the membership of the crusade, and the effects of the recruitment effort on the outcome.

Proceedings of a conference on a theme, the 34 essays by specialists from 15 countries prevent various facets of the struggles waged for the possession of the Holy Land between the 10th and 13th centuries, and of the activities of the military orders elsewhere in Europe.

In December 1235, Pope Gregory IX altered the mission of a crusade he had begun to preach the year before. Instead of calling for Christian magnates to go on to fight the infidel in Jerusalem, he now urged them to combat the spread of Christian heresy in Latin Greece and to defend the Latin empire of Constantinople. The Barons' Crusade, as it was named by a fourteenth-century chronicler impressed by the great number of barons who participated, would last until 1241 and would represent in many ways the high point of papal efforts to make crusading a universal Christian undertaking. This book, the first full-length treatment of the Barons' Crusade, examines the call for holy war and its consequences in Hungary, France, England, Constantinople, and the Holy Land. In the end, Michael Lower reveals, the pope's call for unified action resulted in a range of locally determined initiatives and accommodations. In some places in Europe, the crusade unleashed violence against Jews that the pope had not sought; in others, it unleashed no violence at all. In the Levant, it even ended in peaceful negotiation between Christian and Muslim forces. Virtually everywhere, but in different ways, it altered the relations between Christians and non-Christians. By emphasizing comparative local history, The Barons' Crusade: A Call to Arms and Its Consequences brings into question the idea that crusading embodies the religious unity of medieval society and demonstrates how thoroughly crusading had been affected by the new strategic and political demands of the papacy.

Warfare in the Age of Crusades: The Latin East explores in fascinating detail the key campaigns, battles and sieges that shaped the crusading period of the Middle Ages, giving special attention to military technologies, tactics and strategies. Key personalities and political factors are addressed, including the role of papal monarchy in initiating the crusading expeditions, the relationship between Catholic Europe and the Byzantine empire, the role of the religious military orders, and Islamic and Mongol military capabilities. Chapters are devoted to each of the major crusades to the Levant – First, Second, Third and Fourth crusades – and an analysis of the Islamic response. The rise of the Mamluks in Egypt, with their innovative military organization, is covered, as are the failed Egyptian and Tunisian campaigns. The concluding chapters describe the Mongol campaigns in the Levant, the Mamluk response, and the final siege of Acre in 1291. This original and perceptive study of a key stage in medieval military history features regional, strategic and multi-phase tactical maps that illuminate the narrative and provide a valuable resource for students, historians and wargamers alike.

Presenting numerous interconnected insights into life in Greater Syria in the twelfth century, this book covers a wide range of themes relating to Crusader-Muslim relations. Some chapters deal with various literary sources, including little-known Crusader chronicles, a jihad treatise, a lost Muslim history of the Franks, biographies, letters and poems. Other chapters look at material culture, from coins to urban development, internal relations between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims and between Crusader and Oriental Christians, and the role of the Turkmen. New insights into the career of Saladin are revealed, for example through the work of a little-known propagandist at his court, and Saladin's use of gift-giving for political purposes, as well as neglected aspects of the rule of his family dynasty, the Ayyubids, which succeeded him. Special attention is paid to the Christians residing in the Middle East, from Italians to Melkites and Armenians.

In the late twelfth century, Catholic crusaders, Sunni Turks and Kurds, and the eclectic armies of Fatimid Egypt repeatedly clashed along the Nile. The result of this conflict would fundamentally alter the balance of power in the Middle East.