The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land

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From a renowned historian who writes with "maximum vividness" (The New Yorker) comes the most authoritative, readable single-volume historyof the brutal struggle for the Holy Land.Nine hundred years ago, a vast Christian army, summoned to holy war by the Pope, rampaged through the Muslim world of the eastern Mediterranean, seizing possession of Jerusalem, a city revered by both faiths. Over the two hundred years that followed, Islam and Christianity-both firm in the belief that they were at God's work-fought for dominion of the Holy Land, clashing in a succession of chillingly brutal wars: the Crusades.For the first time, this book tells the story of that epic struggle from the perspective of both Christians and Muslims. A vivid and fast-paced narrative history, it exposes the full horror, passion, and barbaric grandeur of the Crusading era, leading us into a world of legendary champions-such as Richard the Lionheart and Saladin-shadowy Assassins, poet-warriors, and pious visionaries; across the desert ...