Overview

'Bold, vital and urgent . . . Blows the old parochial Western accounts clean away' SUZANNAH LIPSCOMB 'Refreshing and astutely judged . . . immensely enjoyable' JONATHAN PHILLIPS A spectacular new panoramic history of the Crusades. From their foundation in 1097 to Saladin's conquest of Jerusalem almost a century later, the Crusader States transformed the Middle Eastern world. In an era shaped by many conflicts, this was not simply a war between Christianity and Islam, but an epic contest among multiple rival empires, dynasties and cultures. The Crusader Storm unfolds through a kaleidoscope of perspectives: a Byzantine renegade, a crusader princess, a Turkish matriarch, a young Arab nobleman, a Syriac archbishop, Saladin's leading commander and the vizier of Egypt. Between them, information, technologies and ideas - as well as weapons - crossed borders at astonishing speed as their societies fought, allied and traded. Their entangled fates reshaped not only the Middle East, but the medieval world itself. Drawing on sources from Arabic, Greek, Syriac, Armenian, Latin and Hebrew traditions, Nicholas Morton's enthralling panorama transforms our understanding of the Crusades - revealing them not as a single clash of faiths, but as a dynamic era of war, commerce, innovation and exchange that defined the course of history.

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9781399818735

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Reviews

As hot desert winds to cobwebs, Nicholas Morton's bold, vital and urgent global history of the Crusades blows the old parochial Western accounts clean away -- Suzannah Lipscomb Gripping and authoritative ... Drawing upon a rich array of sources, it brings the crusades to life in vivid detail -- Peter Sarris, author of Justinian A refreshing and astutely judged book. Morton delivers an extensively researched and fast-paced account of the struggle for the Holy Land. Too often, histories of the crusades are one-dimensional but this book places the Crusader States in their true perspective, crashing their way into the heart of a region packed with complexities and contradictions. Morton confidently steers us through a fabulous cast of characters within the region's myriad Muslim and Eastern Christian powerbrokers. Informative and immensely enjoyable -- Jonathan Phillips, author of The Life and Legend of the Sultan Saladin A thoroughly-researched view of the Crusades from a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious perspective - a superb history narrative for the twenty-first century -- Toni Mount, author of How to Survive in Medieval England Nicholas Morton is a prolific and distinguished scholar of the Crusades whose work continues to reflect a sustained commitment to bringing the history of the medieval world to a broader readership -- Mohamad El-Merheb An innovative take on the early Crusades, firmly situating them within the broader medieval Near East. Approaching from over a dozen individual perspectives (empress, sultan, princess, nobleman, patriarch, assassin) Nicholas Morton weaves a dizzying array of contexts into a coherent whole, one in which the Crusades become an integral piece of a larger civilizational story. In these pages complexity reigns: adversaries become allies, political and religious interests intertwine, and fanaticism and avarice give way to tolerance and friendship - and back again. Challenging binary notions of Muslim-Christian, right-wrong, and good-bad -- John D. Hosler, author of Jerusalem Falls

Nicholas Morton is a prolific and distinguished scholar of the Crusades whose work continues to reflect a sustained commitment to bringing the history of the medieval world to a broader readership -- Mohamad El-Merheb

As hot desert winds to cobwebs, Nicholas Morton's bold, vital and urgent global history of the Crusades blows the old parochial Western accounts clean away -- Suzannah Lipscomb Nicholas Morton is a prolific and distinguished scholar of the Crusades whose work continues to reflect a sustained commitment to bringing the history of the medieval world to a broader readership -- Mohamad El-Merheb An innovative take on the early Crusades, firmly situating them within the broader medieval Near East. Approaching from over a dozen individual perspectives (empress, sultan, princess, nobleman, patriarch, assassin) Nicholas Morton weaves a dizzying array of contexts into a coherent whole, one in which the Crusades become an integral piece of a larger civilizational story. In these pages complexity reigns: adversaries become allies, political and religious interests intertwine, and fanaticism and avarice give way to tolerance and friendship - and back again. Challenging binary notions of Muslim-Christian, right-wrong, and good-bad -- John D. Hosler, author of Jerusalem Falls

Author Information

Nicholas Morton is an associate professor at Nottingham Trent University specialising in the history of the Medieval Middle East, writing extensively on topics including the Crusades, the Mongol Empire and the Seljuk Turks. An award-winning author, his books include The Mongol Storm, which the Sunday Times described as 'a reminder that the best history writing is eminently readable'.

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