Salah al Din Yusif ibn Ayyub, known to his Muslim contemporaries as al Nasi, 'The Victorious', and to an admiring Europe as Saladin, is the most famous single figure in the history of the Crusades, being even better known outside the English-speaking world than his Christian foe Richard the Lionheart. Traditionally portrayed as a quiet, deeply religious and even humble man, Saladin was a typical product of his day and his culture. This title shows how the societies and military systems that he and his successors led from defeat to eventual triumph were far more sophisticated than is generally realised, and brings vividly to life the history, organisation, arms and armour of Saladin and the Saracens....

The Order of St John of the Hospital of Jerusalem (or the Hospitallers as they are better known) has existed for almost a thousand years. It was established in Jerusalem in the mid-11th century to care for Christian pilgrims and its role initially was entirely non-combatant. But, as the wars of the crusades progressed, the Order took on a military role, at first simply protecting the pilgrims and then expressed as "defending the Holy Sepulchre to the last drop of blood and fighting the infidel wherever one can find them". The military arm of the Order quickly emerged as one of the most effective fighting forces of the era and was given responsibility for the construction and defense of several of the major fortresses of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, exercising considerable political and strategic influence. When Jerusalem and Acre fell at the end of the 13th century the Hospitallers moved to Cyprus and then established a new base in Rhodes, having taken the island by force. After two centuries there protecting Christian shipping and other interests in the region they were driven out by the Ottoman Turks and continued as a bastion of Christendom in Malta. In 1565 the Order achieved its greatest military success, beating off the massive forces of Suleiman the Magnificent in the Great Siege. They continued to be a force in the Mediterranean but finally capitulated tamely to Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798 and a much changed world. However, the Order of St John carry on their Christian work to this day with Priories all over the world, including North America, with support of the St John Eye Hospital in Jerusalem a key piece of their mission.

Dr Nicolle illuminates the world of the warrior Knight Hospitaller, both his training, skill at arms and campaign experience, and his beliefs and daily life at home, through centuries of religious and territorial conflict. Numerous color and black & white images support an absorbing narrative of adventure, courage and service....

By the time of the Crusades, the Islamic world had developed its own sophisticated styles of fortification. Distinctive and highly effective, the region's unique military architecture continued to evolve in response to the Crusader and Mongol threats, and also drew upon the traditions of their foes and neighbors. The resulting Islamic concepts of military architecture had an influence upon fortifications in Western Europe, including Italy and the Iberian Peninsula. Rather than providing security for feudal aristocracies, however, as was increasingly the case in Europe, Islamic fortifications continued to focus upon the defence of cities and frontiers

Covering fortifications as far apart as North Africa, Afghanistan and northern India, this volume focuses on the Islamic side of the conflict, highlighting the fortifications in use when the Crusaders sought to reconquer the Holy Land, as well as the eventual absorption of the territories of Byzantium into the Islamic world....

This book presents as many aspects as possible of warfare during the period of the crusades within all the cultures most directly involved. To a large extent the current interest in the Crusades reflects the perceived threat of a so-called 'clash of civilisations'. While warnings of such a supposed clash in our own times are based upon a misunderstanding of the natures of both 'Western' and 'Islamic' civilisations, some commentators have looked to the medieval Crusades as an earlier example of such a clash. In reality they were no such thing. Instead the Crusades resulted from a remarkable variety of political, economic, cultural and religious factors. The Crusades, even excluding the Northern or Baltic Crusades, also involved an extraordinary array of states, ruling dynasties, ethnic or linguistic groups and the fighting forces associated with these disparate participants. This volume focuses on Western Europe and the Byzantium Crusades. Latin or Catholic Europe certainly had an 'eastern front'. Medieval Europeans, and certainly the knightly class which came to bear the brunt of Crusading warfare, would have seen all these fronts as part of Latin Christendom's struggle against outsiders. The latter ranged from infidels to schismatics, to pagans and other 'enemies of God'. Excluding Crusading or Christian frontier warfare north of the Carpathian Mountains did not reflect any real military or even political factors on the Latin side of the 'front'. It is based upon which enemies were to be included and which excluded. This study looks at Christian and in a few cases "pagan" armies whose actions or mere existence in sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia, had a bearing upon military, political and economic relations between Christendom and Islam within the Mediterranean world....