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The Crusades (Essential Histories) Paperback – January 19, 2001

by David Nicolle (Author)
3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 15 ratings
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Born amid immense suffering and bloodshed, the Kingdom of Jerusalem remained a battlefield for almost 200 years. The Crusades gave rise to the Military Orders of the Templars and Hospitallers, and were a backdrop to the careers of some of history's most famous leaders including Richard 'The Lionheart' and Saladin. On occasion the savagery of the Crusaders left their opponents reeling, creating frictions that survived for more than 700 years. At the same time, as this book lavishly illustrates, art, architecture and learning all benefited from new knowledge the Crusaders brought back from the East.
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  1. Print length
    96 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Osprey Publishing
  4. Publication date
    January 19, 2001
  5. Dimensions
    6.68 x 0.24 x 9.91 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1841761796
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1841761794
  8. See all details
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From the Publisher

Essential History Series

Map of North Vietnam

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Beautifully illustrated with a wide range of contemporary images, updated for the new editions.
With a range of titles examining major wars throughout history, where will this series take you next

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

This unique series studies every major war in history looking at all the aspects of war, from how it felt to be a soldier to the lasting impact of the conflict on the world around it.

About the Author

David Nicolle is Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Medieval Studies, Nottingham University. He is the author of numerous books on aspects of medieval military history, including many for Osprey.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Osprey Publishing; 11741st edition (January 19, 2001)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 96 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1841761796
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1841761794
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.68 x 0.24 x 9.91 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 15 ratings

About the author

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David Nicolle

David Nicolle

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David Nicolle was born in London in 1944. He worked for BBC Television News from 1963 to 1967. Having travelled widely in the Middle East, David Nicolle transferred to the BBC Arabic Service where he worked as a topical-talks writer from 1967 to 1971. In 1972 he returned to university, eventually receiving a PhD from Edinburgh University.

From 1983 to 1987 Dr. Nicolle lectured in art history at Yarmouk University, Jordan. After returning to England, he continued to undertake research and has over one hundred books to his name. An independent scholar, he is an Honorary Research Fellow attached to Nottingham University as well as being a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Royal Asiatic Society (both in London). David Nicolle has worked for television in the UK, the USA, Germany and Syria as an advisor and contributor. He is married to a retired American academic, Colette Nicolle, who is also now a co-author and they live in north London.

Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
3.9 out of 5
15 global ratings
This author is unworthy of attention
1 Star
This author is unworthy of attention
Author fails to rightly account for most Islamic conquests before 1095. Lists battles as defeats instead of victories. Calls Christian masonry art "crudely carved" and fails to critique the apparently worse looking islamic stucco roundels.
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Top reviews from the United States

Brian Wayne Wells
5.0 out of 5 stars Osprey Publishing's Short General History on the Crusades is Reviewed
Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2016
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This is a short general history of all nine crusades which occurred between 1097 C.E. (Common Era) and 1305 C.E. Like most of the books published by Osprey Publishing Company, this book has a chronology of events related to the Crusades. This book is an extremely helpful book in my studies of the Middle Ages.
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STEPHEN SWENERTON
3.0 out of 5 stars Crusades overview
Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2022
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The approach that the author takes is a general overview of the crusades. It is hard to distinguish one from another and the details of each. The book intends to be a brief overview and it is that, but I find other books in this series easier to understand the details.
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Hiram Grant
3.0 out of 5 stars The Cliff Notes of military history
Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2006
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The "Essential Histories" series from Osprey could easily be compared to the Cliff Notes series. They'll give you a nice introduction to a topic you are not familiar with, but no real depth. Most volumns are under 100 pages; therefore, don't expect many "man in the trenches" stories.

A nice introduction, but once again, a bit too much time period to make it one of the better books in this series. But for a 88 page book on the subject, it's well done.
9 people found this helpful
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E. Nelson
1.0 out of 5 stars Bad
Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2015
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I have purchased books before from this Essential Histories series before and found them informative and succinct. This book, however, was horrible. The author assumes you already knows a lot of information on topic and dives right in at a very high level. This is not at all an introductory book. I would have returned my copy, but since I bought a used copy real cheap, it became firewood.
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William Hazlett
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2015
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nice book
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Anibal Madeira
2.0 out of 5 stars Extremely biased and succint, the crusades need a new and extended approach in this series
Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2015
Firstly and as some other reviewer already mentioned, one single volume to summarize all the crusades is simply folly. Many other conflicts in this “Essential Histories” series had several volumes including Napoleonic wars, American Civil War or the World Wars. Clearly this subject should have been considered for multiple volumes.

Secondly, the author is a great scholar of Islamic warfare, and authored some incredible books that I count among my favorites. But when there is interaction between his favorite study subjects and the western "barbarians" there goes scholarly impartiality. And the main issue is that he then forgets or ignores basic info and the omissions are omnipresent. In a recent book by David Nicolle he even reports that Saint Ignatius of Loyola was a Portuguese Knight!

I was born during a fascist regime, and most history books published in those days (which I’ve read in my infancy) was filled with prejudice against the moors and Islam in general. They were clearly the “evil” foes and our heroes of the Reconquista were paragons of virtue. That way to show history to the public creates prejudice, a sense of us against them, a sense of superiority of our ethnic, cultural and religious thoughts, etc. And I truly thought that in the 21st century that way to write history was almost dead. But this book proves me wrong, although the target now are the westerners! The Islamic world being white washed of all wrongdoing and being the poor victims of senseless and unprovoked Frankish attack. This kind of victimization and partiality in the transmission of the facts leads to profound prejudice and hatred for the western world which can create fanaticism.

After reading this book you’ll “learn” that:

1 – The conflicts between Islam and Christian powers before the crusades were low scale;
2 – Before the crusades there was no excessive violence or atrocities between factions;
3 - Jihad was a response to the crusades (the author even translates it “counter-crusade”);
4 – Only after the crusades there were serious persecution of Christians in the Islamic world;
5 – After the initial Islamic expansion of the caliphs and the Umahyyad, there was no Islamic expansionism and outward attacks; the crusades reinitiated the Islamic expansionism;
6 – The main victim of the crusades was the Byzantine Empire;
7- Islam had the greatest scientific civilization and western Franks, although they weren’t as barbarous as the 10th century ones, were just slightly better;
8 – Most of the examples will show Franks in a bad light.

Now just some thoughts regarding the above mentioned issues:

1 – So, the complete destruction of Ani (the city of 1001 churches), the capital of Christian Armenia and one of the biggest cities of Asia Minor was low scale…and the conquest of half the Byzantine Empire…hummm
2 – The description of the immense slaughter at Ani in 1064 (35 years before the crusades) by the Arab historian Sibt ibn al-Jawzi will clear any thought that there were no Islamic atrocities before the crusades: “The army entered the city, massacred its inhabitants, pillaged and burned it, leaving it in ruins and taking prisoner all those who remained alive...The dead bodies were so many that they blocked the streets; one could not go anywhere without stepping over them. And the number of prisoners was not less than 50,000 souls. I was determined to enter city and see the destruction with my own eyes. I tried to find a street in which I would not have to walk over the corpses; but that was impossible. “
3 – Do I really need say anything regarding the third issue??? Really?
4 – Well, here David Nicolle is mostly right. Although there were special taxes for Christians and some limitations regarding visible crosses and bells, attacks on Christians were rare and usually from bandits and marauders;
5 – Wrong again; The Islamic Caliphates never ceased to invade or raid western lands when the opportunity arose, even after the initial Umahyyad caliphate expansion (ex.: The Aghlabid (loyal to the Abbasids) attacks on Rome in 846 and 849; Sicily on the ninth century was invaded and attacked several times). Obviously when they sensed that they had no chance they ceased that course of action (ex.: After twice failing the conquest of Constantinople In the 7th and 8th cent.);
6 – The fourth crusade was a disaster for the Byzantine Empire, and the rise to mercantile power of the Italian city states severely affected Byzantine commerce; but without the crusades the Eastern Roman Empire would have no buffer after the terrible loss of Anatolia (their prime recruiting grounds)…so the authors opinion is debatable;
7 – Mostly true. Islamic world was far more scientifically advanced, but the Franks weren’t properly ignorants. Western architecture in the 10th-11th century is clearly more impressive than Islamic, with incredible innovations both in civil, religious and military architecture. It required solid scientific knowledge to build a huge cathedral.
8 – In this book you’ll find excerpts of Muslim merchants and Frankish pirates; all referred Muslim victories are crushing victories, but Arsuf is just “little more than a failed ambush”; when quoting Baha’ al Din Ibn Shaddad where he states that Frankish armor was impervious to their arrows the author inserted brackets stating “at long range” when there is nothing of the sort in the source (Baha’ al Din Ibn Shaddad don’t mention that the shots were at long range); the main reason for the fall of the crusader states was the reorganization of the Mamluk Sultanate (it had nothing to do that by the end of the 13th century (and most of its history by the way) the crusader states had minimal resources in manpower and materiel (except when there was a crusade going on)), etc.

There are some very valid points in this book and occasional excellent strategic analyses, such as the evaluation of the impact of the crusades, the fact that it was a side show compared to the Mongol invasion, very good photographs of artifacts and sculptures, fine maps and city plants describing some main attacks and sieges, including: General map of the crusades; Jerusalem under crusader occupation 12th Cent; 12th Cent Damascus and the siege of the city by the second crusade in July AD 1148; The struggle for Egypt (1163 -1250); Krak des Chevaliers; The crusader states at their greatest extent c. AD 1144; Constantinople and the fourth crusade; The Mongol invasions of the Islamic world and Europe; Crusader Acre and the Mamluk siege of 1291; The Mamluk Sultanate c. AD 1295 and the end of the crusader states.

As an Essential History title, it fails. There are far better introductions to the crusades.
6 people found this helpful
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Ronnoc
1.0 out of 5 stars This author is unworthy of attention
Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2021
Author fails to rightly account for most Islamic conquests before 1095. Lists battles as defeats instead of victories. Calls Christian masonry art "crudely carved" and fails to critique the apparently worse looking islamic stucco roundels.
Customer image
Ronnoc
1.0 out of 5 stars This author is unworthy of attention
Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2021
Author fails to rightly account for most Islamic conquests before 1095. Lists battles as defeats instead of victories. Calls Christian masonry art "crudely carved" and fails to critique the apparently worse looking islamic stucco roundels.
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Top reviews from other countries

RT
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent introduction to The Crusades.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 22, 2015
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Excellent introduction and overview of The Crusades. A sad picture of religious militancy and extremism on both sides. However, on balance the Christains were probably the worse. Western Christians even sacked Eastern Christain cities.

Well written by an expert on the subject and with good maps and illustrations. My only slight gripe was that the maps were often pages away from the text (occasionally many pages). This was needless.

Although a history book, this book is topical because of the current extremism and fighting in the Middle East. Christainty did eventually progress beyond its period of religious extremism and massacres (which were really bad). However, will Islam do the same?
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Lance Grundy
3.0 out of 5 stars A decent introduction to the Crusades spoiled by the author’s anti-Crusader bias
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 8, 2016
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I’m usually quite keen on the Essential Histories series of books as I know I can rely on them to give me a basic understanding of key historical events and this is the sixth or seventh title I’ve purchased so far. As with the other books in the series ‘The Crusades’ provides a concise and easy to read introduction to this complicated and contentious subject. In true Osprey style the focus is firmly on the military campaigning and there are plenty of maps and other illustrations which show the ebb and flow of the warring sides. In addition to information on key figures in the Crusades, such as Richard the Lionheart and Saladin, there are also ‘portraits’ of various soldiers, civilians and clerics which explore the conflict from their perspective. So why three stars instead of four? Simply because I found the author’s lack of impartiality irritating. The text is littered with unsubstantiated, throw-away comments which betray Dr David Nicolle's pro-Islamic, anti-Crusader bias. Rather than taking sides, Essential Histories should just stick to the acknowledged facts [what happened, where it happened and when it happened] and leave it at that.
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