The Last Crusade puts the reader on da Gamas ships in the midst of a perplexing terrifying yet exciting new world & in doing so traces the ancestry of antagonism between the worlds two dominant faiths Christianity & Islam. In 1498 a young captain sailed from Portugal circumnavigated Africa crossed the Indian Ocean & discovered the sea route to the Indies opening up access to the fabled wealth of the East. It was the longest voyage known to history; the ships were pushed to their limits their crews were racked by storms & devastated by disease. However the greatest enemy was neither nature nor the fear of venturing into unknown worlds. With blood-red Crusader crosses emblazoned on their sails the explorers arrived in the heart of the Muslim East at a time when the old hostilities between Christianity & Islam had intensified. In two voyages that spanned six years Vasco da Gama would fight a running sea battle that would ultimately change the fate of three continents. The Last Crusade is an epic tale of spies intrigue & treachery; of bravado brinkmanship & confused
- often comical collisions
- between cultures encountering one another for the first time. With the world once again tipping back East The Last Crusade offers a key to understanding age-old religious & cultural rivalries resurgent today.