
900 years ago, Christian Europe was seized by a fever that changed the world forever. Inspired by a Pope who offered rewards on earth & a certain place in Paradise thereafter, tens of thousands of men, women & children
- knights & peasants, rich & poor, old & young
- set out for the Holy Land to recapture the Holy City Jerusalem & save their fellow Christians from persecution by the Infidel. Crusades, & the television series which this book accompanies, tells the dramatic story of these events, & the reality behind the myths: of Popes motivated by greed as well as faith; of power-hungry nobles & pilgrims on Crusade who murdered, robbed & raped not only Moslems but Jews & fellow Christians as well; of the great kings of the West, such as Richard the Lionheart of Engl&, Philip of France & Frederick Barbarossa of Germany, leaders of the Third Crusade, who became the very stuff of legends; & of the Arab heroes, Zengi, Nur ed-Din & of course Saladin, who faced the Christian, onslaught often with much greater tolerance than their enemies, until finally the Crusaders were driven out of the Holy L&. The authors show how the Europeans used the morality of the Crusades to justify the conquest & destruction of any society which stood in their way, sowing the seeds of fear, suspicion
- & even hatred
- in the Arab world. A legacy which remains to this day.