ABSTRACT

Modern conflicts in the Middle East and the War on Terror have created enormous interest in the history of the region and in the origins of Christian-Muslim conflict. In particular, the phenomenon of crusading has come under intense scrutiny as increasing numbers of modern historians have turned their attention to the subject, producing a flurry of studies to meet the demands of readers and students wanting to understand the medieval origins of conflict between the West and the Near East. There has also been a huge increase in the numbers of researchers investigating narrower and narrower aspects of the crusades, as well as a noticeable increase in the availability of modern editions of source materials. The level of discussion around the subject, as reflected in the growing number of papers concerning the crusades read at history conferences, has also grown rapidly. And it is from this wave of scholarship that I have solicited the essays contained in this book on the grounds that they were original, that they enhanced our understanding of the Near East in the era of the crusades, and that they were investigations of previously unresolved assumptions concerning the practice of crusading in the Near East.