The Cutting Edge of the Poet's Sword

The Cutting Edge of the Poet's Sword
Author: Osman Latiff
Publisher: Muslim World in the Age of the
Total Pages: 300
Release: 2017
Genre: History
ISBN: 9789004345218

In The Cutting Edge of the Poet's Sword Osman Latiff assesses anti-Frankish Muslim poetry during the crusades, specifically the topic of faḍāʾil al-Quds ('merits of Jerusalem') and jihād as they relate to the occupation and reconquest of Jerusalem.

The Cutting Edge of the Poet’s Sword: Muslim Poetic Responses to the Crusades

The Cutting Edge of the Poet’s Sword: Muslim Poetic Responses to the Crusades
Author: Osman Latiff
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 311
Release: 2017-09-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004345221

In this comprehensive analysis of Arabic poetry during the period of the crusades (sixth/twelfth-seventh/thirteenth centuries), Osman Latiff provides an insightful examination of the poets who inspired Muslims to unite in the jihād against the Franks. The Cutting Edge of the Poet’s Sword not only contributes to our understanding of literary history, it also illuminates a broad spectrum of religiosity and the role of political propaganda in the anti-Frankish Muslim struggle. Latiff shows how poets, often used by the ruling elite to promote their rule, emphasised the centrality of Islam’s holy sites to inspire the Muslim response to the occupation and later reconquest of Jerusalem, and expressed some surprising views of Frankish Christians.

Shadow of the Swords

Shadow of the Swords
Author: Kamran Pasha
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 420
Release: 2010-06-22
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1416580700

An epic saga of love and war, Shadow of the Swords tells the story of the Crusades—from the Muslim perspective. Saladin, a Muslim sultan, finds himself pitted against King Richard the Lionheart as Islam and Christianity clash against each other, launching a conflict that still echoes today. In the midst of a brutal and unforgiving war, Saladin finds forbidden love in the arms of Miriam, a beautiful Jewish girl with a tragic past. But when King Richard captures Miriam, the two most powerful men on Earth must face each other in a personal battle that will determine the future of the woman they both love—and of all civilization. Richly imagined, deftly plotted, and highly entertaining, Shadow of the Swords is a remarkable story that will stay with readers long after the final page has been turned.

Muslims and Crusaders

Muslims and Crusaders
Author: Niall Christie
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2020-04-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 1351007343

Muslims and Crusaders combines chronological narrative, discussion of important areas of scholarly enquiry and evidence from Islamic primary sources to give a well-rounded survey of Christianity’s wars in the Middle East, 1095–1382. Revised, expanded and updated to take account of the most recent scholarship, this second edition enables readers to achieve a broader and more complete perspective on the crusading period by presenting the crusades from the viewpoints of those against whom they were waged, the Muslim peoples of the Levant. The book introduces the reader to the most significant issues that affected Muslim responses to the European crusaders and their descendants who would go on to live in the Latin Christian states that were created in the region. It considers not only the military encounters between Muslims and crusaders, but also the personal, political, diplomatic, and trade interactions that took place between the Muslims and Franks away from the battlefield. Engaging with a wide range of translated primary source documents, including chronicles, dynastic histories, religious and legal texts, and poetry, Muslims and Crusaders is ideal for students and historians of the crusades.

Muslim Sources of the Crusader Period

Muslim Sources of the Crusader Period
Author:
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2021-10-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 1624669972

Drawn from greater Syria, northern Mesopotamia, and Egypt, the sources in this anthology—many of which are translated into English for the first time here--provide eyewitness and contemporary historical accounts of what unfolded in the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries. In providing representative examples of the many disparate types of Muslim sources, this volume opens a window onto life in the Islamic Near East during the Crusader period and the interactions between Franks and Muslims in the broader context of Islamic history. Ideally suited for use in undergraduate courses on the Crusades or the pre-modern Islamic Near East, this anthology will also appeal to any readers seeking a better understanding of the Islamic response to the Crusades and the general history of the Near East in this period.

The World of the Crusades [2 volumes]

The World of the Crusades [2 volumes]
Author: Andrew Holt
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 681
Release: 2019-06-05
Genre: History
ISBN:

Unlike traditional references that recount political and military history, this encyclopedia includes entries on a wide range of aspects related to daily life during the medieval crusades. The medieval crusades were fundamental in shaping world history and provide background for the conflict that exists between the West and the Muslim world today. This two-volume set presents fundamental information about the medieval crusades as a movement and its ideological impact on both the crusaders and the peoples of the East. It takes a broad look at numerous topics related to crusading, with the goal of helping readers to better understand what inspired the crusaders, the hardships associated with crusading, and how crusading has influenced the development of cultures both in the East and the West. The first of the two thematically arranged volumes considers topics such as the arts, economics and work, food and drink, family and gender, and fashion and appearance. The second volume considers topics such as housing and community, politics and warfare, recreation and social customs, religion and beliefs, and science and technology. Within each topical section are alphabetically arranged reference entries, complete with cross-references and suggestions for further reading. Selections from primary source documents, each accompanied by an introductory headnote, give readers first-hand accounts of the crusades.

The Crusader States and their Neighbours

The Crusader States and their Neighbours
Author: Nicholas Morton
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2020-04-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 019255798X

The Crusader States and their Neighbours explores the military history of the Medieval Near East, piecing together the fault-lines of conflict which entangled this much-contested region. This was an area where ethnic, religious, dynastic, and commercial interests collided and the causes of war could be numerous. Conflicts persisted for decades and were fought out between many groups including Kurds, Turks, Armenians, Arabs, and the crusaders themselves. Nicholas Morton recreates this world, exploring how each faction sought to advance its own interests by any means possible, adapting its warcraft to better respond to the threats posed by their rivals. Strategies and tactics employed by the pastoral societies of the Central Asian Steppe were pitted against the armies of the agricultural societies of Western Christendom, Byzantium, and the Islamic World, galvanising commanders to adapt their practices in response to their foes. Today, we are generally encouraged to think of this era as a time of religious conflict, and yet this vastly over-simplifies a complex region where violence could take place for many reasons and peoples of different faiths could easily find themselves fighting side-by-side.

The Dangers of Poetry

The Dangers of Poetry
Author: Kevin M. Jones
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2020-09-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1503613879

Poetry has long dominated the cultural landscape of modern Iraq, simultaneously representing the literary pinnacle of high culture and giving voice to the popular discourses of mass culture. As the favored genre of culture expression for religious clerics, nationalist politicians, leftist dissidents, and avant-garde intellectuals, poetry critically shaped the social, political, and cultural debates that consumed the Iraqi public sphere in the twentieth century. The popularity of poetry in modern Iraq, however, made it a dangerous practice that carried serious political consequences and grave risks to dissident poets. The Dangers of Poetry is the first book to narrate the social history of poetry in the modern Middle East. Moving beyond the analysis of poems as literary and intellectual texts, Kevin M. Jones shows how poems functioned as social acts that critically shaped the cultural politics of revolutionary Iraq. He narrates the history of three generations of Iraqi poets who navigated the fraught relationship between culture and politics in pursuit of their own ambitions and agendas. Through this historical analysis of thousands of poems published in newspapers, recited in popular demonstrations, and disseminated in secret whispers, this book reveals the overlooked contribution of these poets to the spirit of rebellion in modern Iraq.

Crusades

Crusades
Author: Jonathan Phillips
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 413
Release: 2022-12-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000802485

Crusades covers the seven hundred years from the First Crusade (1095-1102) to the fall of Malta (1798) and draws together scholars working on theatres of war, their home fronts and settlements from the Baltic to Africa and from Spain to the Near East and on theology, law, literature, art, numismatics and economic, social, political and military history. Routledge publishes this journal for The Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East. Particular attention is given to the publication of historical sources - narrative, homiletic and documentary - but studies and interpretative essays are welcomed too. Crusades also incorporates the Society's Bulletin. The editors are Professor Jonathan Phillips, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK; Iris Shagrir, The Open University of Israel; Professor Benjamin Z. Kedar, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel; and Nikolaos G. Chrissis, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece.