Holy Warriors

When George Bush inaugurated the War on Terror in 2001, he referred to it as a 'crusade'. A medieval Crusade could be defined thus: a holy war initiated by the Pope on God's behalf in which the participants took the cross and received remission for their sins. The First Crusade, launched in 1095, ushered in a period of almost 200 years of Christian rule in the Levant, yet over time crusades were directed against a variety of opponents, not just Muslims in the Middle East: against Cathar heretics, political enemies of the papacy, the Mongols, pagan tribes of northern Europe, and the Ottoman Turks, well into the sixteenth century. While the notion of fighting for one's faith fell into disrepute during the Enlightenment, whose proponents viewed the idea as primitive and barbaric, in reality the cultural engines of romanticism and orientalism gave the memory of the crusades a significant boost in the nineteenth century. The notion of moral right buttressed by royal authority helped to drive the expansion of European power through imperialism and colonialism, and in both World Wars the theme of crusading was used as a call to arms. As Jonathan Philips demonstrates in this timely and revealing study, crusading has proven to be a remarkably adaptable and long-lasting phenomenon, embedded in the actions and consciousness of the West for centuries. Unlike other histories of the Crusades this one firstly comes up to the present day and secondly, avoids a chronological slog through the whole movement. Instead it drills a series of bore holes into the key aspects and moments: The First Crusade, Richard the Lionheart and Saladin, the Templars, the Jihad, etc. Thirdly, it is incredibly vivid and accessible - we hear the swords, taste the food, see the sights and feel the heat.