God's Armies

by Malcolm Lambert

  GUIDE TO FURTHER READING

  Christianity and Crusading

  Background

  B. Hamilton, Religion in the Medieval West (2nd edn, London, 2003), especially valuable for popular religion and attitude to relics.

  M. Barber, The Two Cities: Medieval Europe, 1050–1320 (2nd edn, Abingdon, 2008), a detailed exposition on all aspects of medieval life.

  H. E.J. Cowdrey, ‘Pope Gregory VII’, Headstart History (1991), pp. 23–36, for the acknowledged master of his elusive subject.

  Crusades

  C. J. Tyerman, The Invention of the Crusades (London, 1998), is polemical and helpful on historiography. His God’s War: A New History of the Crusades (London, 2006) is an encyclopaedic reference book, covering the crusades thoroughly with an interest in political aspects; use for facts and for its bibliography.

  J. Riley-Smith (ed.), The Atlas of the Crusades (London, 1991).

  S. Runciman, A History of the Crusades, vols I–III (Cambridge 1951–4), is outdated but still elegant and attractive; read it for pleasure but be sure to go on to other books.

  T. Asbridge, The Crusades: The War for the Holy Land (London, 2010). A crisp account especially helpful on Nur al-Din, with a passionate plea for leaving crusade and jihad in the Middle Ages, where they ‘belong’.

  J. Phillips, Holy Warriors: A Modern History of the Crusades (London, 2009). This is by the expert on the Fourth Crusade, with some unusual points, and is helpful on Melisende.

  J. Riley-Smith, The Crusades: A Short History (London, 1990). A detailed, comprehensive account to be dipped into for reference. The author is illuminating on the relation between just war and holy war.

  Richard Lionheart

  J. Gillingham, Richard I (New Haven, CT, and London, 1999), is the definitive work. On no account read his first biography, utterly superseded by his own later book.

  J. Flori, Richard the Lionheart, King and Knight (Edinburgh, 1999), is valuable for ideas. The author has a Gallic relish in correcting Gillingham, and is mostly wrong, but right on Richard’s dramatic confession in Messina.

  D. D. R. Owen, The Legend of Roland: A Pageant of the Middle Ages (London and New York, 1973). Stories which inspired the young Richard. The illustrations are excellent.

  Military Orders

  H. Nicholson, The Knights Hospitallers (Woodbridge, 2001), is clear and readable, more lenient to Philip the Fair than the present writer. See also Nicholson’s companion work, The Knights Templar (Botley, 2003).

  M. Barber, The Trial of the Templars (Cambridge, 1978), clarifies all the smears.

  G. Napier, A to Z of the Knights Templar (Stroud, 2008), is a reference work on crusades as well as Templars, and especially good on the modern lunatic fringe. A revised edition should correct factual errors.

  H. J. A. Sire, The Knights of Malta (New Haven, CT, and London, 1994), is detailed and full of enthusiasm, with the best account of the great sieges.

  R. D. Smith and K. Devries, Rhodes Besieged: A New History (Stroud, 2011), although a detailed academic book, is excellent for developments in siege warfare and cannon.

  Chronicles

  E. Hallam (ed.), Chronicles of the Crusades (Godaiming, 1989), is wide-ranging, with illustrations.

  Joinville, The Life of St Louis, ed. B. Radice and R. Baldick, trans. M. R. B. Shaw (Harmondsworth, 1970). This is by the companion of St Louis and contains the most vivid account of what crusading felt like.

  A. Wolff, How Many Miles to Babylon: Travels and Adventures of Egypt and beyond from 1300 to 1640 (Liverpool, 2003), is gripping on Venetian maltreatment of pilgrims, the problems of the hajj and life under the Ottomans.

  R. Allen (ed.), Eastward Bound: Travel and Travellers, 1050–1550 (Manchester, 2004). Pilgrims, Islamic travellers, crusading plans, with analysis.

  J. and L. Riley-Smith, The Crusades: Idea and Reality, 1095–1274 (London, 1981). This has some varied and interesting extracts.

  Modern Times

  T. S. R. Boase, Castles and Churches of the Crusading Kingdom (London, New York, 1967), is moving and evocative, with colour photographs and drawings old and new, taking his story into the twentieth century.

  J. Riley-Smith, The Crusades, Christianity and Islam (New York and Chichester, 2008). A volume of lectures, sometimes surprising, especially on Leo XIII.

  J. Milton, R. Steinberg and S. Lewis (eds), (Milton for Byzantium, Lewis for the Turks), The Rise and Fall of Empires: Religion at the Crossroads (London, 1980). This outlines Byzantine history from Constantine to the fall of Constantinople in 1453, linking it to Turkish history from the Seljuqs to Atatiirk and the abolition of the caliphate. It has unusually fine illustrations; see especially pp. 22–3, for the decline of the Byzantine Empire, and pp. 36–7, for the relics of Muhammad and the Night Journey.

  Oxford Dictionary of National Biography has an excellent piece on Allenby, based on the biography written by his chief of staff, Wavell.

  Islam

  Background

  The Quran, trans. N. J. Dawood (Harmondsworth, rev. edn, 1972), who sees the work as a literary masterpiece and tries to do justice to its majestic Arabic with a free-flowing translation.*

  The Holy Qur’an, trans. Abdullah Yusuf Ali (Birmingham, 1934; repr. 2000) is set out like the Authorised Version of the Bible, with Arabic, translation and commentary on each page and, like the Gideon Bible, an injunction to read a little each day.

  M. S. Gordon, Understanding Islam (London, 2002), is a short, sympathetic analysis; illustrated.

  A. J. Silverstein, Islamic History: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2010), consists of reflections by a historian of Jewish background, examining sources critically and reviewing the history of the caliphate.

  C. Hillenbrand, Islam: A New Historical Introduction (London, 2015), is a work of distinction, crystallising many years of study, providing chapters on varied themes and relating them to current issues. The selective use of Arabic in the chapter on the Quran is especially illuminating. Behind it lies a passion for dissipating misinformation and a plea for movement on the storm point of Palestine, which radicalises so many moderate Muslims. It is best read slowly and reflectively.

  M. Ruthven with A. Nanji, Historical Atlas of the Islamic World (Oxford, 2004). A wide-ranging survey, including modern disputes and Islamic art; use for the Seljuqs.

  O. Grabar, The Dome of the Rock (Cambridge, MA, 2006), is a scholarly reconstruction with excellent illustrations.

  B. Rogerson, The Heirs of Muhammad (New York, 2006). A narrative, with good diagrams and analysis.

  S. O’Shea, Sea of Faith, Islam and Christianity in the Medieval Mediterranean World (London, 2006), provides vivid battle analyses by a writer with a fine eye for terrain; has the best account of Yarmuk.

  P. Partner, God of Battles, Holy Wars of Christianity and Islam (London, 1997), is unusually wide-ranging, carrying his story from the ancient Near East to the 1990s with much wisdom.

  J. L. Exposito (ed.), The Oxford History of Islam (Oxford, 1999).

  P. M. Cobb, Usama ibn Munqidh, Warrior Poet of the Age of the Crusades (Oxford, 2006). A reconstruction of the life of the greatest eleventh-century Arabic poet, revealing the Arab notion of a gentleman and Usama’s murky political history; has implications for the role of women.

  A. Malouf (ed.), The Crusades through Arab Eyes (London, 1984). Chronicle extracts, with commentary.

  H. Kennedy, The Court of the Caliphs: The Rise and Fall of Islam's Greatest Dynasty (London, 2004), is a flowing, large-scale and amusing narrative of the history of the Abbasids, to be read casually, with attention to photos of Merv, Samarra and the Zagros mountains and the plan of Baghdad.

  L. Singer (ed.), The Minbar of Saladin (London, 2008), describes re-creating the minbar in the al-Aqsa mosque, destroyed in 1969. It has gripping illustrations on classic craftsmanship and links to HRH the Prince of Wales’s School of Traditional Arts.

  HRH, The Prince of Wales, A Sense of the Sacred: Building Bridges Between Islam and the West (o
nline article: http://www. sacredweb. com/online_ articles/sw13_hrh. html).

  Saladin

  M. C. Lyons and D. Jackson, Saladin: The Politics of Holy War (Cambridge, 1984), is still the classic work for Saladin. It stresses the fluidity of the Islamic world in this epoch, which gave unusual chances to Saladin.

  A. -M. Eddé, Saladin (Cambridge, MA, and London, 2011), gives a full account of the Islamic world and is excellent to browse in, but decides against giving a chronological analysis, which the present writer believes is possible. There is good evidence for a personal conversion following illness in the winter of 1186–7 affecting his subsequent actions, especially in relation to the caliph. Edde puts paid to the uniformly pejorative view of Saladin of A. S. Ehrenkreuz in 1972.

  G. Hindley, Saladin: Hero of Islam ([2007] Barnsley, 2010), covers the military aspects.

  Modern Times

  D. W. Brown, A New Introduction to Islam (2nd edn, Chichester, 2009), is a masterly account, covering pre-Islamic Arabia, Muhammad, history, law and doctrine. This is much the best book for an inquirer because of the author’s early life in Pakistan and the first-class indexing. See especially the origins of Shiism, the coffee controversy and the implications of feminism. The present writer has not followed him on the hypotheses on early Islamic history of Patricia Crone and John Wasborough.

  C. Hillenbrand, The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives (Edinburgh, 1999), is essential for Mamluks and their art, but also to be read for general attitudes to crusaders among Muslims. The book is full of splendid, varied illustrations.

  H. Kennedy, The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live in (London, 2007). I have made great use of this book. The end-paper on the limit of Muslim rule in 750 is a most convenient way of surveying the area of early conquests. Only in Portugal and Spain were the conquests reversed.

  J. Freely, The Grand Turk Sultan Mehmet II: Conqueror of Constantinople and Master in Empire (New York, 2009). Use for a general account of the sultanate as well as Mehmet: he takes the story down to the death of Suleiman the Magnificent.

  D. A. Howarth, The Desert King: A Life of Ibn Saud (London, 1964), is a vivid account of Wahhabism and the creator of Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (London, 2011), with no single editor, issued by Stacey International, describes the modern kingdom, with vivid illustrations; see pp. 33–4 for Ibn Saud’s camel force, led by him in action in 1913.

  M. Bonner, Jihad in Islamic History: Doctrines and Practice (Woodstock, 2006). The emphasis on the flexibility of the concept, the weaving together of jurists’ definitions and practice of jihad in history are most illuminating.

  L. W. Adamec, Islam: A Historical Companion (2nd edn, Stroud, 2007). Very good quality, especially for snappy consultation. Useful on Wahhabism.

  Recent Events and Western Responses

  R. S. Lieken, Europe’s Angry Muslims. The Revolt of the Second Generation (Oxford and New York, 2012), focuses on France, Britain and Germany, and actions and responses in those countries. Leiken provides first-class reporting and pleads for cool analysis.

  M. Siddique, Christians, Muslims andJews (New Haven, CT, and London, 2013), is a moving personal account of the author’s encounters as a practising Muslim with monotheists of other faiths, above all Christians. Her work is distinguished by a determination to do justice through quotation and analysis to the variety of viewpoints now extant. She is strikingly up-to-date.

  F. Mernissi, Islam and Democracy: Fears of the Modern World (Cambridge, MA, 2002), has comments, often scathing, on the mutual misunderstanding of Islam and the United States, and on the baleful effect of oppressive economic regimes. A final chapter describes women’s rights and hopes.

  D. W. Brown, A New Introduction to Islam (Malden, MA, and Oxford, 2009), already cited, has a penetrating survey of Islam in the twenty-first century, pp. 282–98. Although sympathetic, the author points out the flaws in Mernissi’s feminist plea, p. 295.

  Judaism

  S. Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem: The Biography (London, 2011), is a gripping account by a member of a Liberal Jewish synagogue who lived in the city as a boy, taking his story from David to Moshe Dayan. See his observations on the crucifixions of Jews and modern-day ‘indifferentism’. He is illuminating on T. E. Lawrence.

  H. Shanks, Jerusalem’s Temple Mount from Solomon to the Golden Dome (New York and London, 2009), concentrates on the Jewish Temple but has much on Christian and Muslim sites. Note Heraclius’s coin, p. 59.

  * I am indebted for this to Badgers Books, a sadly rare example of an old-style browsing bookshop, at 8–10 Gratwicke Road, Worthing, West Sussex, BN11 4BH (Tel. 01903 211816); http://www.badgers-books.co.uk.

  GLOSSARY

  Abbasid caliphate Sunni hereditary caliphate, named after Muhammad’s uncle al-Abbas; its capital became Baghdad.

  adab Characteristics of an Arab gentleman.

  Alid Descendant of Ali and Fatima or supporter of Ali’s cause.

  allods Tracts of territory in the German Empire held in virtual independence of the emperor.

  Anatolia/ Asia Minor Approximately modern Turkey.

  apostasy Abandonment of beliefs. Term applied to expeditions directed by Caliph Abu Bakr to recall Arabs to the Faith.

  appanage A dependent territory created, for example, for a younger child, which gradually diminishes the stock of land and income from land available to the sovereign; avoided by the early caliphs providing money pensions for superannuated warriors.

  Aramaeans Farmers from lands between the Tigris and Euphrates, oppressed by the Sassanians.

  Aramaic Semitic language spoken by Christ.

  Armenians Inhabitants of a kingdom converted to Christianity early in the fourth century who developed their own script to translate the Bible and declined to accept Byzantine doctrinal authority.

  arnaldia see murrain.

  arquebusiers Firearm-wielding soldiers, marksmen.

  Artuqids Heirs to Artuq I, Seljuq governor of Jerusalem, removed in August 1098, also known as Ortoqids.

  Assassins Extremist Shiites angered at the corruption of the Fatimid caliphate in Cairo and hostile to Sunnis, based in the inaccessible Elburz mountains. They used murder to eliminate individuals.

  atabeg Ostensibly a guardian of a young heir; in fact, atabegs were contenders for power in the twelfth century.

  Ayyubids Descendants of Saladin.

  bahriyya An elite force of slave soldiers kept on the island in the Nile, Bahr al-Nil.

  bailli Another name for seneschal.

  batin The deeper meaning of the Quran, which could be elucidated by the Ismaili Shiites.

  Berbers Inhabitants of North African mountains used as troops for the Fatimid caliphate.

  bila kaif ‘Without speculation’.

  Buyids Opportunist, loosely Shiite warriors from the Iranian mountains, dominating Abbasid caliphs.

  Byzantium Ancient title of the strategic site taken by the Emperor Constantine and named Constantinople; it became half of the Roman Empire, Greek Orthodox Christian in belief; above all, a naval power.

  caliph A leader of Islam, a successor to Muhammad; Sunnis gave the caliph the title Commander of the Faithful.

  carapace A hard outer shell.

  castellan Governor or keeper of a castle.

  cenacle The room traditionally believed in Christianity to be the room where the Last Supper was held.

  Circassians Soldiers recruited from the Western Caucasus by the Ottomans.

  Companions Adherents of Muhammad in Mecca who fled for safety to Medina and were subsequently known as the Emigrants.

  concomitant Occurring simultaneously.

  Coptic Egyptian Christians, believers that Christ had one nature;

  Monophysites condemned as heretics by the Byzantine Church.

  couched spears Spears carried by cavalry to thrust at the enemy, a sophisticated technique used by Bohemond in ambushing Ridwan at Antioch.

  dais Fatimid missionaries.

&
nbsp; dhimmis Peoples of the Book, Christians and Jews.

  dirhams Silver coinage of Muslims.

  diwan System of pensioning warriors devised by Caliph Umar.

  dower Dowry given to a husband on marriage; an endowment.

  Druze Followers of the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim.

  ecumenism A movement seeking unity among different branches of the Christian Church.

  Emigrants see Companions.

  encyclical A formal pronouncement by a pope.

  excommunication An institutional act of religious censure used to deprive, suspend or limit membership in a religious community or to restrict certain rights within it: in particular, reception of the sacraments.

  Faisal I Protégé of T. E. Lawrence who was made king of Iraq in a kingdom made by the British.

  Fatimid Dynasty of Shiite caliphs holding power in Egypt, named after Fatima, Muhammad’s daughter.

  furusiyya Military guides to cavalry techniques and the use of horses.

  Ghadir Khumm Oasis between Mecca and Medina where Shiites believe that Muhammad conferred spiritual powers on Ali, his son-in-law.

  ghazi A Muslim fighter against non-Muslims.

  Ghazznavid Arabs who supported Byzantium, thought of as traitors by

  dynasty Islamic armies fighting Byzantium.

  Great Schism The split between the Roman and Avignonese claimants to the Papacy, 1378–1417.

  Gregorian Reform A tradition created by Pope Gregory VII, insisting on the independence of the Church and seeking to end practices of buying and selling ecclesiastical offices and the priesthood passing from father to son.

  hadith A collection of sayings and actions attributed to Muhammad, used in the Sunni tradition to support customs and beliefs.

  Hanbalism The belief that the Quran was uncreated and not susceptible to any modification, associated with the scholar Ahmed ibn Hanbal.