God's Armies: Crusade and Jihad: Origins, History, Aftermath

by Malcolm Lambert

Overview

With ramifications on geopolitics today, a vivid chronicle of the Christian and Islamic struggle to control the sacred places of Palestine and the Middle East between the seventh and thirteenth centuries.
Crusade and jihad are often reckoned to have represented two sides of the same coin: each resonated on the opposing sides in the holy wars of the Middle Ages and each has been invoked during the war on terror.
A chronicle of the Christian and Islamic struggle to control the sacred places of Palestine and the Middle East between the seventh and thirteenth centuries, this dynamic new history demonstrates that this simple opposition ignores crucial differences. Placing an equal emphasis on the inner histories of Christianity and Islam, the book traces the origins and development of crusade and jihad, showing for example that jihad reflected internal tensions in Islam from its beginnings. The narrative also reveals the ways in which crusade and jihad were used to disguise ambitions for power and to justify atrocity and yet also inspired acts of great chivalry and heroic achievement. The story brims with larger than life characters, among them Richard the Lionheart, Nur al-Din, Saladin, Baybars, and Ghengiz Khan.
Lambert concludes by considers the long after-effects of jihad and crusade, including the role of the latter in French imperialism and of the former in the wars now afflicting the Middle East and parts of Africa. This vivid, balanced account will interest all readers who wish to understand the complexities of the medieval world and how it relates our own.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681775319
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	10/10/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Malcolm Lambert was formerly a professor of theology and medieval history at the University of Bristol. His previous books for the academic market include Christians and Pagans, Franciscan Poverty, Medieval Heresy, and The Cathars. God's Armies is his first book for a general audience. He lives in England.

Table of Contents

Maps ix

Introduction xvii

1 The Origins of Islam 1

2 The Search for the Just Society 28

3 The Dog That Did Not Bark 55

4 The First Crusade 70

5 The Great Might-Have-Been 104

6 From Warlord to Jihadi: Nur al-Din and Saladin 116

7 Saladin and the Lionheart 147

8 Strategic Crusades and the Coming of the Mongols 168

9 The Victory of the Mamluks 192

10 The Long Aftermath 209

11 Modern Times 238

12 Reflections 262

Guide to Further Reading 276

Glossary 283

Illustration Credits 293

Acknowledgements 296

Index 297

Editorial Reviews

Recognizing that the Christian crusades unfolded in a world shaped by Islamic jihads, Lambert scrutinizes both militant forms of religion simultaneously. In a world where memories of crusader atrocities sustain virulent new forms of jihad, such balanced scholarship offers hope of interfaith understanding.

Booklist (starred)

Lambert does a workmanlike job of clearly summarizing a vast sweep of history. Sturdy prose and thinking.

New York Times Book Review

If you don't know much about the Crusades or the Middle East, and are confused by all the characters, from Baldwin the Leper to Godfrey of Bouillon, plus a host of Raymonds and Reynauds, this book is a good place to start.

The New York Times Book Review - Thomas E. Ricks

08/08/2016
In this readable, although not groundbreaking, survey of the history of military interaction between the Middle East and Western Europe, Lambert (Christians and Pagans), formerly a professor of theology and medieval history at the University of Bristol, provides a chronological overview of the development of Islam, starting with a brief biography of Mohammed, before focusing on the crusades and papal history in Western Europe. He touches on the development of the caliphate and the succession of Islamic leadership after the death of Mohammed. He mentions the various groups that sought to interpret Mohammed’s original vision, including Sufism, and the ninth-century split in Shiism. His consideration of jihad is interesting but not very detailed. The bulk of the volume is focused on Islamic history—presumably the least familiar to the audience of nonspecialists Lambert anticipates—but he also retells the story of the Crusades from 1095 to the fall of Acre in 1291. The coverage of the crusader period is the most detailed, and Lambert touches only briefly on the Ottoman Empire and Suleiman the Magnificent, moving through the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries in a single chapter. The book would have benefited from a reduction in scope; the amount of material is simply overwhelming. Despite this, readers will find a reasonably good introduction to the topic, and Lambert’s suggested “further reading” will be of great use to those looking to dig deeper. Agent: George Lucas, Inkwell Management (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

09/01/2016
Enthusiastically embracing intricacy and eschewing oversimplification, medieval history scholar Lambert (Medieval Heresy) boldly plunges into the struggle between Christianity and Islam to control the Middle East between the seventh and 13th centuries. As a framework for his absorbing narrative, the author traces the development of the intertwined concepts of jihad and crusade. Paying careful attention to nuance, Lambert avoids pitting these as monolithically polar opposites, instead exploring the internal tensions within both religions, as well as some of their surprising similarities. In flowing and accessible prose with minimal footnotes, this book includes a fascinating cast of personalities such as Egyptian sultan Saladin, king of England Richard the Lionheart, and fourth sultan of Egypt Baybars. The last few chapters look at the continuing effects of jihad and crusade up to the present, post-9/11 world. VERDICT With keen insight into the contemporary implications of medieval history and a refreshing absence of easy answers, this book is recommended not only for history buffs but for anyone seeking a better understanding of the deep roots of today's news stories.—Brian Sullivan, Alfred Univ. Lib., NY

Library Journal

2016-08-03
A Medieval history expert introduces readers to the epic struggle for the Near East, spanning the dawn of Islam to the rise of the Ottoman Empire and beyond.In a work that can be somewhat overwhelming in its breadth of history and geography, Lambert (Christians and Pagans: The Conversion of Britain from Alban to Bede, 2010, etc.) provides a full introduction to the politics, warfare, and intrigue that marked Christian-Islamic history for many centuries—and which still colors it today. Readers will find many familiar names within these pages—Richard the Lionheart, Saladin, Genghis Khan, Suleiman, among several others—as well as a host of little-known warriors, potentates, divines, and, notably, women who helped create the history of the era. In the process of telling this story, Lambert hopes to dispel myths on both sides of history. Realizing that both “crusade” and “jihad” have been politicized in modern parlance, he attempts to humanize these concepts by sharing the real lives behind these broad terms. He presents leaders and warriors of all stripes, from those motivated by faith and a desire to do right to those motivated by a hunger for power, profit, or revenge. The author also makes it clear that discerning “good” versus “bad” actors throughout these centuries is almost impossible. Readers will learn a great deal about how Medieval Christian and Islamic warfare and power-shifting set up the violence we see even today, from lingering anger over the Crusades to the Sunni-Shiite split. If there is any truly overriding theme, it is the pervasiveness of violence throughout this period. Some readers may become numb after several chapters detailing how captives were executed, hostages murdered, rulers assassinated, and one political opponent after another brutally tortured—all in the name of God or Allah. An all-encompassing introduction to the Christian-Islamic struggle for the armchair history buff.

Kirkus Review