Palgrave Advances in the Crusades

Abstract

This volume is intended as an introductory guide to how certain concerns and approaches have been applied to the study of the crusades. It is not a history of the crusades but, rather, an analysis of how different aspects of crusading studies have developed and where they are now. Each chapter offers an interpretative and historiographical study and concentrates on issues such as methodology and source analysis, rather than giving an account of events. Contributors have not concentrated solely on the crusade in the Holy Land, but also consider the crusading movement in other crusading fields as appropriate. This guide is aimed both at postgraduates and at academics within the discipline, to provide an overview and context for their research. It is hoped that it will also be useful to scholars outside the discipline who encounter crusading language, for example, in the context of other research, or who wish to view a cross-section of the research being done in the area. The contributors include older scholars with a well-established reputation within and outside the field of crusading studies, and younger scholars whose work has already made an impact within the field. As editor I am delighted to have been able to include contributions from scholars working in the US, Greece, France and Germany as well as the UK. Their various approaches to the debates they discuss present readers who are approaching the subject for the first time with an overview of the wide spectrum of views held by leading scholars in this field. The views they put forward here are their own and do not necessarily representthe views of the editor. My thanks are due to my colleague Professor Peter Edbury and to Palgrave’s anonymous readers for their very constructive and helpful comments, criticism and suggestions. I am also grateful to John Morgan of the School of History and Archaeology, Cardiff University, who took some of the photographs, to Nigel Nicholson for producing the maps and the index, and to the copyright owners of the plates in Chapter 4 who gave permission for the reproduction of the images in this book. All translations in this book, unless otherwise credited in the notes, are by the authors. The chapters by Sven Ekdahl, Jean Flori and Jean Richard were translated into English by the editor.