It would be otiose to try and draw facile comparisons between events in the Middle East involving Christendom and Islam in the Middle Ages with current affairs: suffice to repeat the old adage that those who ignore the lessons of history are doomed to repeat its mistakes. The Crusades have often had, and retain, a certain aura of romanticism in the west, but they were in truth a largely inglorious series of episodes over several centuries from and throughout the Middle Ages into early modern times. Nor were they of simply strategic/religious local concern: whether or not the crusading ideal reached into all levels of western society, certainly the tax demands to help pay for it all and the demands for manpower did reach down to all levels of society. All this and much more are well covered in more than a thousand, for the most part quite detailed, articles on all aspects of the Crusades.
The first problem for the editor will have been one of definition. The “traditional” numbering of the Crusades was an arbitrary imposition by eighteenth century historians, and one which ignored much crusading activity not given numbers, both in east and west. All the relevant campaigns are dealt with here, including the Albigensian Crusade (the destruction of the Cathars), the Baltic Crusades and the re‐conquest of Spain from the Moors in the later fifteenth century.
If I describe this as a typical ABC‐Clio production, that is meant to indicate high praise. Coverage, presentation, authority are all exemplary. I have suggested the breadth of coverage in my previous remarks. The crusading movement is covered from the late eleventh century to the early modern period and as well as the Mediterranean and Middle East its geographical scope extends to all those countries which took any part in crusading and North to the Baltic states. There are entries for all the states and settlements in the course of the crusades, for persons and dynasties, for anonymous historiographical and literary sources, and for subjects. The latter class of entry covers a wide range, from castles and warfare to literature (ancient and modern), art and topics such as pilgrimage, propaganda or women.
The articles are all detailed discussions with interpretation as appropriate. The authors are some 125 specialist scholars from twenty‐five countries across the world, with strong representation from European and world as well as, inevitably, from North American universities. This leads to some range of opinion among contributors, but they are all identified, all expert in their subjects, and so any such range is to be welcomed. Each entry has its own specialist bibliography, while there is also a general bibliography repeated at the end of each of the four volumes. An appendix to volume 1 gives plans of four crusader castles, while the other appendix, to volume 4, prints in modern translation a selection of seven texts and documents. There are 52 line maps and a selection of photographs and illustrations throughout the work, some reproduced more clearly than others.
Presentation and arrangement is excellent and all designed to help the reader into and through the rich material presented in this encyclopaedia. In addition to a list of contributors there is an alphabetical list of all the entries, as well as cross‐referencing within the articles. There are also lists of maps and abbreviations and a helpful introduction “How to use this Encyclopedia” which deals with such topics as forms of names for entry and alphabetization between Roman and Arabic forms of names. There is a table of the principal narrative and legal sources for each of the major (numbered) crusades, although sources are well treated in a series of articles within the main body of the text. The introductory material is completed by an eighteen‐page introduction to and history and discussion of the Crusades by James M. Powell of Syracuse University. With the exception of this introduction, all the rest of the introductory material is repeated in each volume, as is a very comprehensive, 66‐page, subject index to the entire work.
The general bibliography itself indicates that this new work is by no means alone in its field. But it has its own place in the market for the range and depth of its coverage, making it an invaluable educational as well as reference resource for students from school to undergraduate level, and beyond. It is not cheap, but certainly it will prove a worthwhile investment for any educational or other library catering for students or scholars of history.
