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.

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.

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

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

In this work Michael Foss casts new light on the reality of and motives behind the Crusades in general, and in particular the First Crusade, which set the tone for all those that followed. As the eleventh century came to an end, the Christian lands of Western Europe were in trouble. Afflicted by repeated invasions from the north, by the collapse of internal order and safety, by the increasing laxity and ignorance of the clergy, and by the unrestrained tyranny of the feudal lords, life in the West was, as one philosopher described it, "nasty, brutish, and short". To make matters worse, the Seljuk Turks, recently converted to Islam, had overrun the Holy Land. Pope Urban II, searching for a way out of the increasing anarchy and to rid himself of unruly, marauding knights, exhorted the faithful, at the Council of Clermont in 1095, to free Jerusalem from the Infidels. The response was immediate and enthusiastic. Proud knights, poor peasants, artisans armed with pikes and bows and arrows - and often only sticks or clubs - set out on the great adventure, fighting or negotiating their way through strange, exotic lands, until, four long years later, the ragged remnants of the once proud army stood below the forbidding walls of Jerusalem. Michael Foss tells the stories of these men and women of the First Crusade, often in their own words, bringing the time and events to life. Through these eyewitness accounts the cliches of history vanish, the distinctions between hero and villain blur: the Saracen is as base or noble, as brave or cruel, as the crusader. In that sense, the fateful clash between Christianity and Islam teaches us a lesson for our own time. For the attitudes and prejudices expressed on both sides in the First Crusade became the basic currency for all later exchanges, down to our own day, between the two great monotheistic faiths of Mohammed and Christ.

""Riley-Smith marshals his case lucidly.""--Times Literary Supplement ""Riley-Smith's analysis of the formation of Crusading ideology offers a provocative new interpretation. . . . [His] scholarship is impeccable, and he supports his contentions with

The First Crusade (1095-9) a mass of armed pilgrims aiming to march 4000 kilometers to the Holy Land to conquer Jerusalem was one of the most remarkable episodes in medieval history. Essays from nine leading academics offer new perspectives on two main themes: reconsideration of the evidence available to historians and appreciation of the Crusade's impact on the people of the eastern Mediterranean.