--- title: The Crusades description: The Crusades were religious wars launched from Latin Europe between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries. You will learn why they began, the major campaigns in the Levant and beyond, the crusader states, Muslim and Byzantine perspectives, and how historians interpret them. category: humanities subcategory: history difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/the-crusades --- # The Crusades The Crusades were religious wars launched from Latin Europe between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries. You will learn why they began, the major campaigns in the Levant and beyond, the crusader states, Muslim and Byzantine perspectives, and how historians interpret them. ## Available Resources 1 Videos • 5 Books • 1 Websites ## Videos ### 1. Theatres of War: Crusade, Colonialism and Chivalry in the Middle Ages **Author:** Nicholas L. Paul A free public lecture with a downloadable transcript, given at Gresham College in June 2021. It asks whether crusading was early European colonialism, what the eastern frontier meant to knights, and how holy war and chivalric culture shaped each other. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/crusades **Tags:** crusades, chivalry, colonialism, medieval warfare, crusader states ## Websites ### 1. Internet Medieval Sourcebook: The Crusades **Author:** Paul Halsall (ed.) A free collection of translated primary sources arranged by crusade. It includes five versions of Urban II's Clermont speech, Fulcher of Chartres, Anna Komnene, Ibn al-Athir, Usama ibn Munqidh, Hebrew chronicles of the 1096 massacres, and military-order documents. It lets learners read Latin, Muslim, Byzantine and Jewish eyewitnesses directly. Most texts are older public-domain translations; the site marks copyright status for each. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/sbook1k.asp **Tags:** crusades, primary sources, medieval chronicles, urban ii, muslim sources, byzantine sources ## Books ### 1. Byzantium and the Crusades (Third Edition) **Author:** Jonathan Harris A history of Byzantium's dealings with the crusaders from the late eleventh century to 1453. It explains Byzantine foreign policy and ideology, Alexios I's appeal to the West, growing mistrust, and the Fourth Crusade's sack of Constantinople in 1204. It argues that Byzantine policy followed its own logic rather than simply reacting to Western actions. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/135019977X?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** byzantium, crusades, fourth crusade, byzantine foreign policy, constantinople ### 2. The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives **Author:** Carole Hillenbrand A study of how medieval Muslims saw and responded to the crusades. It covers jihad revival, Muslim views of the Franks, warfare, and daily life alongside the crusader states, using translated Arabic, Persian and Turkish sources and many illustrations. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0415929148?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** crusades, islamic history, jihad, muslim perspectives, crusader states ### 3. The Crusades: A History (Third Edition) **Author:** Jonathan Riley-Smith A survey of crusading from 1095 to its decline, including campaigns in Iberia, the Baltic and against heretics. It looks at crusade theory, recruitment, funding, the military orders and the settler states, and ends with a revised bibliography and chronology. It treats crusading as an institution and a devotional practice, including campaigns outside the Holy Land. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1472513517?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** crusades, military orders, crusader states, medieval religion, reconquista, baltic crusades ### 4. The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land **Author:** Thomas Asbridge A single-volume narrative of the war for the Holy Land, from Urban II's call in 1095 to the fall of Acre in 1291. It gives Latin, Muslim and Byzantine sides fair weight and covers the crusader states, Saladin, Richard I and the Mamluks. This is the standard readable, research-based narrative of the campaigns in the Levant. It draws on Arabic and Latin sources, so it covers the 'major campaigns' and 'Muslim perspectives' goals in one book. I **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060787295?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** crusades, holy land, saladin, richard i, crusader states, mamluks ### 5. The Crusades: A Very Short Introduction **Author:** Christopher Tyerman A short overview by an Oxford crusade historian. It asks what a crusade was, how the idea of holy war took shape, and how later centuries remembered and used the crusades, including a chapter on how historians have argued about them. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0192806556?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** crusades, holy war, historiography, medieval history --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/the-crusades