Crusaders

The Epic History of the Wars for the Holy Lands

By: Dan Jones

Narrated by: Dan Jones

A major new history of the Crusades with an unprecedented wide scope, told in a tableau of portraits of people on all sides of the wars, from the author of Powers and Thrones.

For more than one thousand years, Christians and Muslims lived side by side, sometimes at peace and sometimes at war. When Christian armies seized Jerusalem in 1099, they began the most notorious period of conflict between the two religions. Depending on who you ask, the fall of the holy city was either an inspiring legend or the greatest of horrors. In Crusaders, Dan Jones interrogates the many sides of the larger story, charting a deeply human and avowedly pluralist path through the crusading era.

Expanding the usual timeframe, Jones looks to the roots of Christian-Muslim relations in the eighth century and tracks the influence of crusading to present day. He widens the geographical focus to far-flung regions home to so-called enemies of the Church, including Spain, North Africa, southern France, and the Baltic states. By telling intimate stories of individual journeys, Jones illuminates these centuries of war not only from the perspective of popes and kings, but from Arab-Sicilian poets, Byzantine princesses, Sunni scholars, Shi'ite viziers, Mamluk slave soldiers, Mongol chieftains, and barefoot friars.

Crusading remains a rallying call to this day, but its role in the popular imagination ignores the cooperation and complicated coexistence that were just as much a feature of the period as warfare. The age-old relationships between faith, conquest, wealth, power, and trade meant that crusading was not only about fighting for the glory of God, but also, among other earthly reasons, about gold. In this richly dramatic narrative that gives voice to sources usually pushed to the margins, Dan Jones has written an authoritative survey of the holy wars with global scope and human focus.

I loved it!

I'm a history buff as well as a sociologist, so this book was right up my alley. Insightful, prescient and skillfully narrated, this book was a joy from start to finish. Bravo!

Lively History

Dan Jones has a distinct talent for making distant times vivid and understandable. Topics not ordinarily of interest are engrossing in his recounting.

Interesting

A little slow but very informing. It is worth your effort os perservire.and you will surely k
Leasrn a new detail or two.

In-depth and Interesting

I thoroughly enjoy Dan Jones’ ability to bring academic knowledge to an interesting story. I’m on constant watch for new Dan Jones material available on Audible.

Love the scope and scale of this book

Jones is a great writer and this book is his masterpiece. The story is all encompassing and does a great job of connecting the often ignored story of the “crusades” in Europe with justifications usually associated with stories of the Crusades of the Holly Land that most of us are familiar with.