Saladin, Richard the Lionheart
and the legacy of the Crusades
Find out more
Websites
The Crusades
http://crusades.boisestate.edu/contents.shtml
Extremely detailed website – compiled by a professor at Boise
State University, Idaho – that covers all seven crusades plus other
related topics. Lots of contemporary illustrations.
The Crusades
www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1k.html
The Third Crusade
Website from the excellent Internet Medieval Sourcebook, giving links
to primary sources to do with all the crusades. There is an obvious bias
towards a Western viewpoint, however.
The career of Saladin
www.dicksonc.act.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/
0014/42251/crusades-the_career_of_saladin.pdf
Detailed article from CLIO: Journal of Ancient and Medieval History
at Dickson College.
The reputation of Richard I
www.dicksonc.act.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0013
/42250/Crusades_-_The_Reputation_of_Richard_I_the_Lionheart.pdf
Another article from CLIO.
Books
The Crusades through Arab Eyes by Amin Maalouf (Saqi Books, 1985)
£14.95
Detailed review of the politics and strategies in the Middle East during
the Crusades. Easy-to-read accounts that paint a picture usually ignored
by most Western histories.
The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades by Jonathan Riley-Smith
(Oxford University Press, 2001) £15
A comprehensive history of the Crusades, from the preaching of the First
Crusade in 1095 to the legacy of crusading ideas and imagery today.
Warriors of God: Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade
by James Reston Jr (Faber, 2002) £12.99
The story of the Third Crusade and the two men who dictated its outcome.
The Book of Saladin by Tariq Ali (Verso, 1999) £10
Set in 12th-century Cairo, Damascus and Jerusalem, this is the fictional
memoir of Saladin, the Kurdish liberator of Jerusalem – the second
in a series of historical novels depicting the confrontation between Islamic
and Christian civilisations.
The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin by Baha' Al-Din ibn
Shaddad, translated by D S Richards (Ashgate Publishing/Crusade Texts
in Translation, 2002), £17.50
An account of Saladin's life and career by Ibn Shaddad (1144-1234), who
was a close associate of his, serving as his qadi al-'askar (judge
of the army), from 1188 until Saladin's death in 1193.
Saladin in His Time by P H Newby (Phoenix, 2001) £12.99
Paints a picture of Saladin as a skilful diplomat quite capable of backing
his diplomacy with the swift and resolute use of force. His reputation
as a generous but firm ruler contrasts strongly with most of his predecessors
and peers, Christian and Muslim.
Richard I by John Gillingham (Yale University Press/Yale English
Monarchs, 2002) £12.95
Fully explains the political and social back-drop to Richard's many achievements
and dispels the Victorian myth of Richard as 'the bad king'.
The Reign of Richard Lionheart: Ruler of the Angevin empire, 1189-1199
by Ralph V Turner and Richard R Heiser (Longman/Medieval World Series,
2000). US edition only; available from online bookshops.
This study considers Richard's reign from a perspective that is as much
French as English. It shows the king as a more competent administrator
than previously acknowledged, and corrects many misconceptions about Richard's
French possessions. It also examines the formidable threat that the resurgent
Capetian monarchy represented to his empire.
Defenders of the Holy Land: Relations between the Latin East and the
West, 1119-1187 by Jonathan P Phillips (Clarendon Press, 1996) £47
For most observers, the decades between the great crusading expeditions
of the 12th century saw little contact of note between the Holy Land and
western Europe. In fact, as the neighbouring Muslim powers exerted increasing
pressure on the Crusaders, the Christians mounted a sustained diplomatic
effort to secure outside help. This original investigation reveals the
range and scale of the struggle to preserve Christian control of the Holy
Land.
