When it comes to studying history, what is often needed is greater perspective. Often we have so little information that we can only have one perspective on things, but not so with the Crusades. We have lots of information on the Crusades, from extensive records and narratives to eye witness accounts. Rodney Stark is quick to point out that up until the late nineteenth century the Muslims harbored no resentment for the Crusades. However, after a Muslim history was published in 1899, all of a sudden the Muslims were up in arms about the monstrosities of the Crusades. Why is this? Why would no one care for centuries? Is it because no one knew? No, says Rodney Stark, and this is because the Crusades were not considered a terrible thing back in their day. Even Ibn Zafir, an Islamic historian who wrote an account of the Crusades at the end of the twelfth century, said that the Crusades were a good thing because they kept the hated Turks away and occupied. In this book, Rodney Stark makes a very good attempt to show the Crusades the way they really were (so to speak). He does this by setting the backdrop for the Crusades, before telling the story of the Crusades as they happened.
In this review I will go chapter to chapter in an attempt to fairly outline the book.
Chapter One is titled "Muslim Invaders," and seeks so show how the Muslims were not innocent prior to the Crusades. They did provoke Europe with several invasions, and mentioning some of the slaughters of Christians at the hands of Muslims. They also conquered almost the entirety of North Africa, which mostly consisted of Christian nations. He also goes into the lie of Muslim "tolerance" of the religions of conquered people, and how all of the non-Muslims had to have severe handicaps in society because they would not convert to Islam (forced conversions are not allowed in Islam). They were not allowed to carry arms, wear nice clothes, and in some areas they were not allowed to own livestock. They were also taxed ridiculous amounts.
Chapter Two talks about several Christian victories over the Muslims, and these were all victories in Christian territory. The point of this chapter is to show the aggression of the Muslims and their eagerness to attempt to conquer European countries.
Chapter Three really isn't anything new, but rather is just a necessary chapter to counter the hypothesis of historians like Edward Gibbon and Karen Armstrong. The name of the chapter is "Western 'Ignorance' versus Eastern 'Culture.'" The point of this chapter is to show that Europe never really had the Dark Ages, and that the Muslim countries really never had a major surge of culture. He does this by outlining just a few things which made Europe a very prosperous continent during the mythical Dark Ages, such as new inventions in the areas of transport, agriculture, and military weapons. He also shows how the Muslim "culture" was heavily reliant on the cultures of conquered nations, and once there technologies and cultures were discovered, there were hardly ever any attempts to build on them. Muslims even bragged about the burning of the library of Alexandria, even though there is a good chance that they didn't do that (but what does this tell us about the Muslim respect of culture?).
Chapter Four outlines the Christian concept of pilgrimages. Major church fathers generally did not like the idea of pilgrimages, but the typical layman wouldn't really care about that and would go on one anyway. Nevertheless, pilgrimages held a relatively important place in Christian society. Enter the Muslims, who began taking liberties with the Christian pilgrims, often slaying dozens of Christian monks and pilgrims in the same attack. Just prior to the end of the first millennium, Tariqu al-Hakim became caliph, and he had all the Christian churches in Muslim territories razed to the ground.
So if anything, the Crusades were certainly provoked. The rest of the book is spent outlining the five different Crusades, and the Christian successes and failures that took place in each one. He makes an argument for why you shouldn't glorify Saladin and how the Byzantine Emperors continuously screwed over the Latin Crusaders. Stark also makes a defense of the Latin sacking of Constantinople in the fourth Crusade, which I found compelling and convincing. Overall, chapters five through ten made up a very rich and rewarding read. Very rarely can you find a historian that makes everything as interesting as Stark does. He has a very relaxed and informative style of writing that kept me glued to this book for long periods of time.
The conclusion basically runs over what he said in the introduction, but he also talks about the last defenses of the Christian territories in the Holy Land. He mainly focuses on how the Muslims made several peace treaties with the Christians, and that if the Christian would agree to lay down their arms and evacuated the land they would be spared, only to slaughter them once they had done so. This happened about three times. He then briefly runs over the history of Muslim hatred towards the Crusades (basically what I said in the intro to this review, and then some).
To summarize: I really enjoyed this book. It's rare that I enjoy books this much, so I have to give it five stars. I'm going to have to study the Crusades some more to really see what I think of them, but Rodney Stark has really hit a home run with this book. I highly recommend it.
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What is "good" condition?
I ordered a used book which was a couple of dollars less than new. I didn't see anywhere where "good" was defined so I took a chance. Apparently writing and underlining of text is considered "good."
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