Zaragoza, 200
Zardana, 152, 165
al-Zawahiri, Ayman, 679
Zionism, 675, 678
Zürich, 209
About the Author
THOMAS ASBRIDGE is Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at Queen Mary, University of London, and the author of The First Crusade. He lives in England.
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Also by Thomas Asbridge
THE FIRST CRUSADE
Credits
Jacket design by Allison Saltzman
Jacket art: Richard I at the Battle of Ascalon by Abraham Cooper, © Christie’s Images Ltd./SuperStock
Copyright
THE CRUSADES. Copyright © 2010 by Thomas Asbridge. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
EPub Edition © January 2010 ISBN: 978-0-06-198136-4
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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* Even in the modern era many histories of the crusades written by ‘western’ scholars have been coloured (consciously or unconsciously) by a degree of bias, because most present this era from a Christian standpoint. This innate partiality might manifest itself relatively subtly–in the decision to describe the outcome of a battle as a victory or defeat, a triumph or disaster. In this account, which is divided into five parts, I have made a deliberate attempt to counteract this tendency by switching the point of view from western European Christian to Near Eastern Muslim in each major section. The book’s core, covering the Third Crusade, alternates between its two major protagonists–Saladin and Richard the Lionheart.
* France proved to be a major centre of crusade enthusiasm and recruitment when the wars for the Holy Land began in 1095. Even so, not all crusaders were French, but contemporaries who wrote about this era–especially those, like Muslims, who were looking in from outside western Europe–tended to brand all Christian participants in these holy wars as ‘Franks’ (in Arabic, Ifranj). It therefore has become common practice to describe the crusaders and those western Europeans who settled in the Near East as the Franks.
* The adherents of this Latin branch of Christianity–which today is more commonly known as Roman Catholicism–are more accurately described in a medieval setting as ‘Latins’.
* By modern standards, eleventh-century warhorses were relatively small–indeed, at an average twelve hands in height, today most would be classified as little more than ponies. Even so, they were cripplingly expensive to purchase and just as costly to maintain (requiring feed, horseshoes and the care of a dedicated squire). Most knights also needed at least one additional lighter mount upon which to travel. But small as they were, these warhorses still gave warriors huge advantages during hand-to-hand combat in terms of height, reach, speed and mobility. As equipment, fighting techniques and training improved, knights mounted on a stirruped (and therefore more stable) saddle also developed the ability to carry a heavy spear or lance couched underarm and learned to cooperate in a massed charge. The sheer brute force of this type of attack could utterly overwhelm an unprepared enemy.
* It is a popular misconception that crusading was a form of forceful evangelism. In fact, to begin with at least, religious conversion was not an essential element of crusading ideology.
* Typically, the first crusader knights wore what, by the standards of the day, was heavy armour: a conical steel helmet over a mail hood or coif, and a thigh-length mail shirt over a padded jerkin–all of which could hope to stop a glancing blow, but not a solid cut or thrust. For this reason, a large metal-bound wooden shield was also commonly deployed. The standard mêlée weapons were the lance–used couched or thrown over arm–and a one-handed, double-edged long sword, perhaps two feet in length. These heavy, finely balanced blades were more useful as bludgeoning tools than as sharp-edged cutting weapons. Knights and infantrymen also commonly made use of longbows–about six feet in length and capable of delivering arrows to a distance of 300 yards–while some also adopted rudimentary forms of crossbow.
* Both a eunuch and an able general, Taticius was said to have had his nose sliced off earlier in his military career and now wore a golden replica in its place.
*Atabegs were usually appointed as the guardians of princes, but often served as regional governors or commanders-in-chief.