Crusades

by Alan Ereira (Author), Alan Ereira (Author), Terry Jones (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1996

  $3.43

  In 1095, Pope Urban II called upon Christians to march under the banner of the Cross and save their brothers in the East from the advance of Islam. This vision of crusading Christianity dominated the events of the next two centuries and brought together people of all ages and backgrounds, sworn to spread Christianity and wrest the Holy Land from the Infidel. First published to accompany the acclaimed BBC television series, Crusades tells the compelling, often horrific, story of the fanatics and fantasists, knights and peasants who were caught up in these fervent times. It reveals how Muslims, Jews and Christians were massacred, and how the Crusades sowed the seeds of 'jihad', the holy war for Islam, a legacy that endures today.

• Used

  Hardcover
  1994

  $4.24

  900 years ago, Christian Europe was seized by a fever that changed the world forever. Inspired by a Pope who offered rewards on earth and a certain place in Paradise thereafter, tens of thousands of men, women and children - knights and peasants, rich and poor, old and young - set out for the Holy Land to recapture the Holy City Jerusalem and save their fellow Christians from persecution by the Infidel. Crusades , and the television series which this book accompanies, tells the dramatic story of these events, and the reality behind the myths: of Popes motivated by greed as well as faith; of power-hungry nobles and pilgrims on Crusade who murdered, robbed and raped not only Moslems but Jews and fellow Christians as well; of the great kings of the West, such as Richard the Lionheart of England, Philip of France and Frederick Barbarossa of Germany, leaders of the Third Crusade, who became the very stuff of legends; and of the Arab heroes, Zengi, Nur ed-Din and of course Saladin, who faced the Christian, onslaught often with much greater tolerance than their enemies, until finally the Crusaders were driven out of the Holy Land. The authors show how the Europeans used the morality of the Crusades to justify the conquest and destruction of any society which stood in their way, sowing the seeds of fear, suspicion - and even hatred - in the Arab world. A legacy which remains to this day.