Description: 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.
Brief description: Nicholas Morton is a lecturer in history at Nottingham Trent University. He is the author of many works on the crusades and the military orders, including The Medieval Military Orders, 1120-1314 (2012) and The Teutonic Knights in the Holy Land, 1190-1291 (2009). He also edits two books series in this field: Rulers of the Latin East and The Military Religious Orders: History, Sources, and Memory.
Review Quotes: '... Morton's work is a deeply researched and thoughtful study that carefully reconstructs a mixed picture of Latin attitudes and experiences.' Thomas Asbridge, The American Historical Review