The Crusader States and their Neighbours

Taking a new approach to a much discussed subject, this booklooks at the involvement of the Crusader States in local politics and the management of violent relations with both their Muslim neighbours and the Christian Orthodox Byzantine Empire.

Although the crusader states in the Holy Land were never hugely powerful in themselves, they had significance out of all proportion to their size for medieval Christendom at large, and were the continuing focal point for the crusading impulse from the west, a topic discussed in this text.

The book will be welcome for tackling the Crusades from a fresh but important angle; the relations of the Crusader states with their neighbours, both Christian (the Byzantines) and, especially, Islamic – the rulers of Damascus, Aleppo, Baghdad, Cairo etc. It contributes to the very fashionable approach of seeing the Crusades as a prime example of early European colonialism, and investigating them much more for their social, political and ethnic impact on the region than for their ostensible ideological and religious motives. Holt uses original Arabic sources, which are generally difficult for Western historians, and therefore this book is an important addition to literature about the Crusades.