A History of the Crusades 1

The first volume of Steven Runciman`s classic, hugely influential trilogy on the history of the Crusades `On a February day in the year AD 638 the Caliph Omar entered Jerusalem, riding upon a white camel` An enthralling work of grand historical narrative, Steven Runciman`s A History of the Crusades overturned the traditional view of the Crusades as a romantic Christian adventure, and instead shifted the focus of the story to the East. With verve and drama, volume one of Runciman`s trilogy tells the story of the First Crusade - from its unlikely beginnings in pilgrimage to the horrors of the siege of Jerusalem and the carving out of new territory on the edge of the eastern Mediterranean. `Without question one of the major feats of contemporary historical writing` The New York Times `The historian whose magisterial works transformed our understanding of Byzantium, the medieval church and the crusades` Guardian