Crusaders and Muslims in Twelfth-Century Syria

Book excerpt: Eleven distinguished contributors have produced essays which deal with the organisation of the crusade in Europe, internal developments in the Crusader Levant, issues of the contemporary Muslim East, and Crusader-Muslim confrontation in twelfth-century Syria. Some break new ground entirely, for instance Malcolm Lyons' investigations of the Arab Hero cycles and Penny Cole's work on Crusader preaching. Others offer important new perspectives on well-known themes: Jonathan Riley-Smith on Crusader ideology and Peter Edbury's revisionist view of the events leading up to the battle of Hattin. Still others offer important overviews which will be appreciated by a broad readership of medieval historians.