A Modern History of the Crusades

Holy Warriors

A vivid and original history of the Crusades - from the middle ages to the present day.

Holy Warriors is not only very readable. Its skilful and detailed use of source material serves as a showcase of what is being done in this, the most intensively studied area of medieval historiography

Elegant storytelling... Phillips delivers an excellent, compelling, flamboyant and refreshing history of the crusades and wonderful character sketches

Totally absorbing and magnificent history

[An] engaging and sprightly book... Each chapter is telegenic, tele-visual even. We get vivid re-creations of places, personalities and events

He [Phillips] has a real gift for highlighting the picturesque and for bringing the past alive." "With its crisp management, accessible style and deft characterisation, this book stakes a strong claim to be the most appealing narrative account of the Crusades for a general audience.

With a dramatist's panache, Jonathan Phillips brings the leading characters and most suspenseful episodes of the Crusades to riveting life, even rendering figures such as Richard the Lionheart and Saladin fresh again...the violence, insanity, courage and belief here make for irresistible reading

Concise, character-driven and draws modern parallels

Jonathan Phillips is Professor of Crusading History at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is the author of Holy Warriors: A Modern History of the Crusades; The Second Crusade: Extending the Frontiers of Christianity; The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople; The Crusades, 1095-1197; Defenders of the Holy Land, 1119-1187 and the co-editor of three academic essay collections on the Crusades. Phillips is the co-editor of the academic journal Crusades, writes for BBC History and History Today and has made numerous radio and television appearances.

In his remarkable book, Jonathan Phillips explores the conflict of ideas, beliefs and cultures and shows both the contradictions and diversity of holy war. He draws on contemporary writings - on chronicles, songs, sermons, travel diaries and peace treaties - to throw a brilliant new light on people and events we thought we knew well. Although the notion of fighting for one's faith fell into disrepute in the Enlightenment, Phillips traces the crusading impulse from the bloody conquest of Jerusalem in the First Crusade and the titanic struggle between Richard the Lionheart and Saladin up to the present day - to George W. Bush's characterisation of the war on terrorism as a crusade.

And the Sack of Constantinople

The Fourth Crusade

A major work of history and the first trade book published on the subject of the crusade of 1204, which went so catastrophically wrong.

Enthralling...Nobody can read it without acquiring a better understanding of the Middle Ages and the medieval mind.

Persuasively reconstructs the imaginative world of the thirteenth century.

By far the best book I have read on the Fourth Crusade...learned, comprehensive...well-written...exciting.

In April 1204, the armies of Western Christendom wrote another bloodstained chapter in the history of holy war. Two years earlier, aflame with religious zeal, the Fourth Crusade set out to free Jerusalem from the grip of Islam. But after a dramatic series of events, the crusaders turned their weapons against the Christian city of Constantinople, the heart of the Byzantine Empire and the greatest metropolis in the known world. 
 
The crusaders spared no one in their savagery: they murdered and raped old and young - they desecrated churches, plundered treasuries and much of the city was put to the torch. Some contemporaries were delighted: God had approved this punishment of the effeminate, treacherous Greeks; others expressed shock and disgust at this perversion of the crusading ideal. History has judged this as the crusade that went wrong. 
 
In this remarkable new assessment of the Fourth Crusade, Jonathan Phillips follows the fortunes of the leading players and explores the conflicting motives that drove the expedition to commit the most infamous massacre of the crusading movement.

Jonathan Phillips

Superb, highly readable and definitive ... One of the world’s leading crusades scholars ... Phillips's narrative of Saladin's career is vivid and judicious, punctuated by set pieces that charge along like battle scenes from Game of Thrones

Superbly researched and enormously entertaining ... one of the outstanding books of the year

An authoritative and brilliantly told account of the life of one of the world’s greatest – and most famous – military leaders. Jonathan Phillips leaves no stone unturned in this impressive and lively history of the genius who was Saladin

PETER FRANKOPAN, author of The Silk Roads

Outstanding. Jonathan Phillips has written a compelling account of arguably the most inspirational of Islamic military heroes

CHRISTOPHER DE BELLAIGUE, author of The Islamic Enlightenment

Fascinating, authoritative and intelligent

This illuminating and fascinating biography of Saladin could not be timely. Today political figures often inspire little admiration, but Saladin’s career at the height of the Crusades reminds us that moral charisma and integrity can be recognised and honoured by people on both sides of a vicious conflict. His concluding account of the intense emotion that the memory of Saladin still inspires in the Middle East today reveals the sensitivity and pain that underlies so many of the region’s unresolved problems

KAREN ARMSTRONG, author of Fields of Blood

Beautifully researched and authoritative, Jonathan Phillips's very fine biography of this fascinating historical character underlines how serious history made accessible to the general reader is invaluable if we hope to understand our world today

Vivid and authoritative, with glistening details on every page. Phillips explains Saladin’s ability to mesmerise not just through the achievements of his lifetime but through his inspiration of Arab leaders, including Nasser, Assad and Saddam Hussein, ever since

Jonathan Phillips explores new themes and makes use of various underused or wholly neglected Arabic sources ... vivid and convincing

More than just a biography ... this book paints a rich, absorbing picture of the 12th-century Middle East ... gives expert accounts of the many hard-fought battles and sieges ... vividly describes the Crusader fightback ... One major lesson of this book is that the facts about the distant past are much, much more interesting than the opportunistic uses made of them by anyone in the present

Phillips produces an absorbing, readable narrative… an excellent introduction to the life of Saladin by a scholar who is respected around the world for his work on the sultan and the crusades… an invaluable guide

Phillips’s careful scrutiny of the surprisingly numerous contemporary sources underlies an impressive piece of historical reconstruction

'Superbly researched and enormously entertaining... One of the outstanding books of the year' The Times 
 
An epic story of empire-building and bloody conflict, this ground-breaking biography of one of history’s most venerated military and religious heroes opens a window on the Islamic and Christian worlds’ complex relationship. 
 
WINNER OF THE SLIGHTLY FOXED BEST FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZE 
 
When Saladin recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187, returning the Holy City to Islamic rule, he sent shockwaves throughout Christian Europe and the Muslim Near East that reverberate today. 
 
It was the culmination of a supremely exciting life. Born into a significant Kurdish family in northern Iraq, this warrior and diplomat fought under the banner of jihad, but at the same time worked tirelessly to build an empire that stretched from North Africa to Western Iraq. Gathering together a turbulent coalition, he was able to capture Jerusalem, only to trigger the Third Crusade and face his greatest adversary, King Richard the Lionheart. 
 
Drawing on a rich blend of Arabic and European sources, this is a comprehensive account of both the man and the legend to which he gave birth, describing vividly the relentless action of his life and tracing its aftermath through culture and politics all the way to the present day. 
 
'An authoritative and brilliantly told account of the life of one of the world's greatest – and most famous – military leaders' Peter Frankopan

Jonathan Phillips

Praise for The Life and Legend of the Sultan Saladin

Superb, highly readable and definitive ... One of the world’s leading crusades scholars ... Phillips's narrative of Saladin's career is vivid and judicious, punctuated by set pieces that charge along like bat ...

Superbly researched and enormously entertaining ... one of the outstanding books of the year

An authoritative and brilliantly told account of the life of one of the world’s greatest – and most famous – military leaders. Jonathan Phillips leaves no stone unturned in this impressive and lively history ...

Superb, highly readable and definitive ... One of the world’s leading crusades scholars ... Phillips's narrative of Saladin's career is vivid and judicious, punctuated by set pieces that charge along like bat ...

Superbly researched and enormously entertaining ... one of the outstanding books of the year

An authoritative and brilliantly told account of the life of one of the world’s greatest – and most famous – military leaders. Jonathan Phillips leaves no stone unturned in this impressive and lively history ...

Superb, highly readable and definitive ... One of the world’s leading crusades scholars ... Phillips's narrative of Saladin's career is vivid and judicious, punctuated by set pieces that charge along like bat ...

Superbly researched and enormously entertaining ... one of the outstanding books of the year

An authoritative and brilliantly told account of the life of one of the world’s greatest – and most famous – military leaders. Jonathan Phillips leaves no stone unturned in this impressive and lively history ...

Books by Jonathan Phillips

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