This volume of essays originated from the International Medieval Congress held at University of Leeds, U.K., in July 2004, under the theme of “‘Clash of Cultures.” Even though such a long lapse of time from the conference to publication is unfortunate, these original essays by and large are not dated in their conclusions. Although scholars of varying disciplines will find something of interest here, this highly recommended volume will be of greater value to those in medieval literatures.

The essays are premised with the following observations regarding the milieu of the Crusades. In the later part of the millennium there were increased contacts between Europe, North Africa, and Asia, sometimes peaceful at times confrontational. I would qualify that within those geographical areas there was endemic fighting, especially in the expanding world of Islam. It was not all conflict between the Christians (Latin and Greek) and Muslims, there was much cultural and intellectual sharing that flowed in both directions. The editors signal that, “it is with these cultural exchanges that this volume is concerned, and its contributors share a belief in the value of investigating the expression and articulation, in a wide range of languages, registers, and styles, of the records and traces of these exchanges” (xx). They point out the challenges when dealing with cultures with diverse languages and the difficulties of translation of ideas and concepts in this linguistic mix; they are referring to this challenge in the context of the Middle Ages, not the contributors’ own translation of the texts. I did find the statement, as a multilingual and cultural person, “translation between different languages may be ultimately impossible,” overstated at the very least. They do refreshingly qualify the aforementioned hyperbole by admitting, “the essays in this collection argue that Western European, Romance, Greek, and Muslim cultures of war and aristocratic ethics share a sufficient degree of similarity to make this communication possible” (xx).

This reviewer did find the approach of this volume to the Crusades a novel and welcome relief to the usual military history approach that one encounters in Crusader scholarship. These essays complement that approach and deepen it as the contributors delve more deeply into the language and conceptual world of texts related to the Crusades. It is certainly testimony that Crusades scholarship, which has become a cottage industry in its own right in the past twenty years, is hardly an exhausted project. This volume points to a wide variety of methodological and interpretative approaches that will need further investigation. The contributors and editors are lauded for opening up these vistas with these engaging essays. The one critique that I would offer is the following. It would have been fascinating if the editors could have found a scholar to contribute an essay, following the approach of this volume, of a text in Arabic, or from the “eyes” of the Muslim world. We have overwhelmingly the Latin and more modestly the Greek voice, but strikingly absent is the Muslim one; perhaps in another volume.