There are numerous essay collections on the subject of the crusades and this is comfortably amongst the very best. The editor, Conor Kostick, should take considerable credit for this – he commissioned an impressive selection of contributors to cover a diverse but coherent range of material. The contributors, in turn, have responded to create a stimulating volume that deserves widespread readership. There is a good balance of highly experienced academics alongside those in the earlier stages of their career, and the essays offer a neat combination of, for example, a tightly focused study of two authors' differing interpretations of the First Crusade, with papers that give an overview of wider issues such as medical knowledge in the Levant or the impact of the crusades on Byzantium.
The broad theme of the volume is that of, as Kostick writes, “the curious dialectic of the phenomenon of the crusades” with its competing tensions of conflict and cohabitation. In recent decades intensive study of crusaders' motivation and the politics of the Near East have yielded many important advances, but a growing appreciation of the complexities and contradictions of the ensuing cultural contacts has refined the picture considerably; to continue that exploration has been the purpose and the achievement of these papers.
The collection is bookended by John France and Yvonne Friedman's essays on Warfare and Peacemaking respectively; the former is a particularly succinct and effective contextualization of crusading military practice. Set against the backdrop of western European conflict and, with judicious use of primary sources, France shows how the crusaders and then the settlers adapted to the very different environment of the Near East, although as he neatly points out each crusading expedition had to learn to work together and to cope with unfamiliar tactics. He also demonstrates how the Muslims evolved ways of dealing with the invaders. Friedman carefully explains and contrasts the theological basis for making war and peace in Christianity and Islam and then tracks the changes in initiative-taking for peace-treaties during the crusading period. The pattern of more Muslim initiatives during the period of Frankish conquest, followed by a phase of relative equality prior to the Mamluk conquests of the thirteenth century is an interesting demonstration of the military/political narrative. William of Tyre's anger in 1180 at making a truce on equal terms as “something that had never happened before” is a revealing insight into a contemporary understanding of continued Frankish strength only seven years before the Battle of Hattin. Concise sections on gestures of conciliation, surrender, gift-giving and ceremony are also interesting, although reference to Frankish contact with the Mongols would have offered a further dimension to this fine discussion.
The complex interaction between the Franks and the peoples of the Near East is dealt with in several papers. Chris Wright's piece on the impact of the crusades on Byzantium is a particularly impressive contribution from a young scholar. He shows how the Byzantines' centrality to the launch of the First Crusade quickly changed to a peripheral, although significant, role because of the importance of Jerusalem to the westerners. He argues that crusading was an uneasy fit with imperial ideology and reveals how the crusades and the rise of the Latin West challenged Byzantine self-perception of themselves as being at the heart of a barbarian world; the events of 1204 terminated any vestiges of such a view.
Yehoshua Frenkel's paper does an excellent job in highlighting the many contradictions of the violent clash between Islam and Christianity and shows how truces and land partition were especially important in the early years of conquest. He shows how both sides looked for dominance and acknowledgement of their superiority rather than wishing to remove entirely or eradicate their opponent. Susan Edgington and Jürgen Krüger's essays, on medicine and art respectively, are strong contributions to the debate about cultural interaction between the Franks and the indigenous population. Both are good subject choices by the editor and fit the theme of the collection well. Edgington uses a lively range of evidence to show lines of learning running from East to West and more surprisingly, vice-versa. Concise sections on surgery, hospitals, and the philosophy of medical practice follow. Krüger focuses on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to demonstrate both local and western influences in the conception and execution of this building. Natasha Hodgson provides a well-argued analysis of the convoluted but important topic of relations between the Armenians and the Franks in the decades after the First Crusade. She shows a substantial level of interaction, especially though marriage alliances, and reveals the Armenians' need to use diplomacy to withstand their Seljuk and Byzantine neighbours.
The other trio of essays are primarily concerned with western European perceptions of those they encountered and also of themselves. Alan Murray provides a masterly insight into the evolution of ideas of national identity during the crusades; he demonstrates the importance of language as a barrier and as a marker of origin and allegiance. He also shows how historians in later centuries appropriated particular crusaders in their contemporary representation of national identity. Once again, the author's expertise produces numerous colourful primary examples to make his case. Sini Kangas is another young scholar who offers a powerfully argued and original paper, on this occasion showing how, during the early twelfth century, several Western authors linked the Saracens with contemporary outbreaks of heresy. Regardless of accuracy, they used similar language and imagery to denigrate Mohammad by way of warning their audience against straying from the Catholic fold. Léan Ní Chlérigh cleverly disentangles why Guibert of Nogent and Fulcher of Chartres offered such different interpretations of the behaviour of the Greeks and Emperor Alexios Komnenos during the First Crusade, a conclusion that counsels historians from taking such sources at face value alone. The volume is completed by a neat summary and overview by Bernard Hamilton.
This is a fresh and innovative look at the impact of the crusades and will doubtless encourage further exploration of cultural interaction; it is also a splendid read.
