Riley-Smith's acclaimed book is now regarded as a classic short study. The updated fourth edition of this essential introduction features a new Preface which surveys and reviews developments in crusading scholarship, a new map, material on a child crusader, and a short discussion of the current effects of aggressive Pan-Islamism.

What Were the Crusades?

Arts & Photography

Riley-Smith, Jonathan

History & Criticism

Red Globe Press

The Crusades were penitential war-pilgrimages fought in the Levant and the eastern Mediterranean, as well as in North Africa, Spain, Portugal, Poland, the Baltic region, Hungary, the Balkans, and Western Europe. Beginning in the eleventh century and ending as late as the eighteenth, these holy wars were waged against Muslims and other enemies of the Church, enlisting generations of laymen and laywomen to fight for the sake of Christendom. Crusading features prominently in today's religio-political hostilities, yet the perceptions of these wars held by Arab nationalists, pan-Islamists, and many in the West have been deeply distorted by the language and imagery of nineteenth-century European imperialism. With this book, Jonathan Riley-Smith returns to the actual story of the Crusades, explaining why and where they were fought and how deeply their narratives and symbolism became embedded in popular Catholic thought and devotional life. From this history, Riley-Smith traces the legacy of the Crusades into modern times, specifically within the attitudes of European imperialists and colonialists and within the beliefs of twentieth-century Muslims. Europeans fashioned an interpretation of the Crusades from the writings of Walter Scott and a French contemporary, Joseph-François Michaud. Scott portrayed Islamic societies as forward-thinking, while casting Christian crusaders as culturally backward and often morally corrupt. Michaud, in contrast, glorified crusading, and his followers used its imagery to illuminate imperial adventures. These depictions have had a profound influence on contemporary Western opinion, as well as on Muslim attitudes toward their past and present. Whether regarded as a valid expression of Christianity's divine enterprise or condemned as a weapon of empire, crusading has been a powerful rhetorical tool for centuries. In order to understand the preoccupations of Islamist jihadis and the character of Western discourse on the Middle East, Riley-Smith argues, we must understand how images of crusading were formed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The Crusades, Christianity, and Islam (Bampton Lectures in America)

History

Europe

Columbia University Press

"In this book, Jonathan Riley-Smith provides an approachable and expert introduction to the two most famous and most active military orders, the Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller, and their activities in the Levant. It is a first-rate study, energetically and engagingly written by the world's most accomplished historian of the crusades." --Thomas Madden, St. Louis University "The image of the military orders is mostly dominated by their military, political, or economic role while their spirituality and their religious character are often neglected. This book, from a great authority on crusading and military orders, offers an inspiring new perspective. Its chapters, concise and well-founded studies concentrating on the inner life of Templars and Hospitallers in the Holy Land, will thus contribute to a considerably better understanding of their history." --Juergen Sarnowsky, Universitaet Hamburg "Jonathan Riley-Smith, Grand Master of Hospitaller studies since the 1960s, offers the first systematic comparison of the two earliest, most famous, and most researched Military Orders--the Temple and the Hospital. Contrasting the Templars' exclusive commitment to warfare with the Hospitaller dedication to the care of the sick and poor as well as to warfare, Riley-Smith persuasively argues that this disparity influenced decisively not only the internal stratification and the governance of the two Orders, but also their chances of survival. The book, which will have a major impact on future studies, amounts also to an act of love for the Hospital." --Benjamin Z. Kedar, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem "There is no historian better equipped to define the nature of the two great orders of the Hospital and the Temple than Jonathan Riley-Smith. In this concise analysis he brings to bear his great depth of experience not only to show the similarities and differences between the two orders, but also to place them firmly in their contemporary context." --Malcolm Barber, University of Reading, UK The Templars and the Hospitallers were the two earliest and most famous of the major Military Orders of the Roman Catholic Church from the early twelfth to the middle of the thirteenth century. In this book, Jonathan Riley-Smith attends to the Templars' and Hospitallers' primary role as religious orders, not as military phenomena or economic powerhouses. In a prologue, four chapters, and an epilogue, Riley-Smith discusses the origins of the orders in dedication to the protection of pilgrims to the Holy Land (Templars) and to the care of the poor and the sick among them (Hospitallers). He examines their traditions and early history, the organization of their communities, modes of governance, and, in the fourth chapter, important differences between the orders and a brief account of their respective fates in the wake of the Crusades. The Templars were eventually persecuted by the Church and the order suppressed. Riley-Smith speculates that the violent end of the order was caused both by jealousy of its wealth and by internal problems of governance that left it vulnerable to accusations of conducting blasphemous rites. The Hospitallers survived in one form or another to the present day; vestiges of the original order inform the contemporary Knights of Malta.

Templars and Hospitallers as Professed Religious in the Holy Land (Conway Lectures in Medieval Studies)

Africa

University of Notre Dame Press

Provides an overview of the crusades from the eleventh to eighteenth century, discusses the motivations of crusaders, and looks at the political aspects of the crusades

The Crusades: A Short History

Smith-Riley, Jonathan

Ancient Civilizations

Yale Univ Pr

Yale University Press

Jonathan Riley-Smith here provides a comprehensive history of the Crusades: an account of the theology of violence behind the Crusades, the major Crusades, the experience of crusading, and the crusaders themselves. With a wealth of fascinating detail, Riley-Smith brings to life these stirring expeditions to the Holy Land and the politics and personalities behind them. His book will be the standard and authoritative account of the Crusades for years to come. This new edition includes revisions throughout as well as a new Preface and Afterword in which Jonathan Riley-Smith surveys recent developments in the field and examines responses to the Crusades in different periods, from the Romantics to the Islamic world today. From reviews of the first edition: “Everything is here: the crusades to the Holy Land, and against the Albigensians, the Moors, the pagans in Eastern Europe, the Turks, and the enemies of the popes. Riley-Smith writes a beautiful, lucid prose, . . . [and his book] is packed with facts and action.”—Choice
“A concise, clearly written synthesis . . . by one of the leading historians of the crusading movement. ”—Robert S. Gottfried, Historian 
“A lively and flowing narrative [with] an enormous cast of characters that is not a mere catalog but a history. . . . A remarkable achievement.”—Thomas E. Morrissey, Church History
“Superb.”—Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Speculum
“A first-rate one-volume survey of the Crusading movement from 1074 . . . to 1798.”—Southwest Catholic

The Crusades: A History

The book deals with the legitimising authority of the papacy, the nature of the crusade vow and of the privilege accorded to crusaders, the developments of the indulgence, and the role of Military Orders.

PALGRAVE~MACMILLAN

Second edition of this useful study of the crusades.

What were the Crusades?

Palgrave

Much has been written about the crusades, but very little about the crusaders. What moved them to go? What preparations did they need to make? How did they react to their experiences? This book comes up with detailed answers to these questions, and offers the first systematic reading of a large cache of contemporary source material. The author identifies family clusters of crusaders across Europe, whose collective commitment manifested itself in support for the new settlements in the East.

The First Crusaders, 1095–1131

Cambridge University Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Riley-Smith, Jonathan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Riley-Smith, Jonathan

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Riley-Smith, Jonathan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

What Were the Crusades?

The Crusades, Christianity, and Islam (Bampton Lectures in America)

The Crusades, Christianity, and Islam (Bampton Lectures in America)

Templars and Hospitallers as Professed Religious in the Holy Land (Conway Lectures in Medieval Studies)

The Crusades: A Short History

The Crusades: A Short History

The Crusades: A History

What Were the Crusades?

What were the Crusades?

The First Crusaders, 1095–1131