The World of the Crusades

by Christopher Tyerman

Publisher:

Yale University Press

, 2019

Overview

A lively reimagining of how the distant medieval world of war functioned, drawing on the objects used and made by crusaders

Throughout the Middle Ages crusading was justified by religious ideology, but the resulting military campaigns were fueled by concrete objectives: land, resources, power, reputation. Crusaders amassed possessions of all sorts, from castles to reliquaries. Campaigns required material funds and equipment, while conquests produced bureaucracies, taxation, economic exploitation, and commercial regulation. Wealth sustained the Crusades while material objects, from weaponry and military technology to carpentry and shipping, conditioned them.

This lavishly illustrated volume considers the material trappings of crusading wars and the objects that memorialized them, in architecture, sculpture, jewelry, painting, and manuscripts. Christopher Tyerman’s incorporation of the physical and visual remains of crusading enriches our understanding of how the crusaders themselves articulated their mission, how they viewed their place in the world, and how they related to the cultures they derived from and preyed upon.

Contents

• The Holy Sepulchre
• Taking the Cross
• Women and the Crusades
• Splitting Hairs
• Byzantium and the Crusades
• Interpreters
• Urban II
• Peter the Hermit
• Jews and the Crusade
• Plunder and Booty
• Crusade Memorials
• William of Tyre
• Coins in Outremer
• A Day at Jacob's Ford, 29 August 1179
• The Melisende Psalter
• Castles in Outremer
• Bernard of Clairvaux and the Cistercians
• Communes on Crusade
• Second Crusade Manuscripts
• Preaching
• Paying Crusaders
• Food and Drink
• Weapons
• The Sociology of Crusading: Who Went?
• A Palace in Beirut
• Innocent III
• A Spring Day in Basel, 1201
• Sacred Booty
• The Children's Crusade
• Acre Manuscripts and 'Crusader Art'
• Crusaders' Baggage
• John of Joinville
• Medicine
• Henry of Livonia
• A Day in Venice, 1258
• Sieges
• The End of the Templars
• Maps
• A Meal in Paris, 6 January 1378

Praise for The World of the Crusades

Tyerman is a judicious and scholarly guide and readers will feel that they are drinking the distillation of a lifetime’s work on its subject

—James Barr, The Times

This entertaining, informative volume . . . considers the Crusades from a human level. Historians and lay readers interested in the history of European conquest in the Middle East will relish this investigation into the grist of the Crusaders’ journey.

—Publishers Weekly

Strong in analysis and synthesis . . . copiously and beautifully illustrated.

—Robert Irwin, New York Review of Books

Product Details

• Title: The World of the Crusades
• Author: Christopher Tyerman
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Print Publication Date: 2019
• Pages: 544
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Resource ID: LLS:WORLDCRUSADES
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-06-14T20:49:01Z

About Christopher Tyerman

Christopher Tyerman is professor of the history of the crusades at Oxford University and a fellow of Hertford College. His books include God’s War, The Debate on the Crusades, and How to Plan a Crusade. He lives in Oxford.