Byzantium and the Crusades (Crusader Worlds) - Hardcover

Harris, Jonathan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1852852984 ISBN 13: 9781852852986

Publisher: Hambledon Pr, 2003

Synopsis

The first great city the crusaders came to in 1089 was not Jerusalem but Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine empire. Almost as much as Jerusalem itself, Constantinople was the key to the foundation, survival and ulti-mate eclipse of the crusading kingdom.

The Byzantines had developed an ideology over seven hundred years which placed Constantinople rather than Rome or Jerusalem at the centre of the world. The attitudes of its rulers reflected this priority, and led to tensions with the cru-saders over military and diplomatic strat-egy At the same time, the riches and sophistication of the great city made a lasting impression on the crusaders, even though they found Byzantine society alien and remote. Tn the end, the lure of the city's wealth was irresistibly fatal to the claims of Christian unity In 1204 the Fourth Crusade, under the Venetian doge Enrico Dandolo, captured and sacked Constantinople, signalling the effective end of almost a thousand years of Byzantine dominance in the east.

About this title

About the Authors

Jonathan Harris is Lecturer in Byzantine Studies, Royal Holloway, University of London.

Jonathan Harris is Lecturer in Byzantine Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Jonathan Harris taught English in Turkey before completing his doctorate in Byzantine History in 1993. He is currently Reader in Byzantine History at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK. He is the author of Byzantium and the Crusades (Continuum).

Reviews

The Byzantine Empire was a diffident supporter of the Crusades' efforts to redeem Jerusalem from infidels. This tepidness of Christian solidarity over the more than two centuries of crusading provoked hostility in the knights and kings marching Constantinople's way, but the Byzantine emperors and their councillors had good reasons to be unenthusiastic about their visitors. Harris presents the Byzantine viewpoint in an unstuffy narrative well suited to the general reader, ascribing the conflict not to a West/East culture clash but to the pursuit of well-developed Byzantine ideology. This viewpoint rests on twin precepts of prestige: that Byzantium was the successor state to the Roman Empire, and that Orthodox Christianity was the universal creed of the faith. Recounting Byzantine policy to secure the crusaders' acknowledgment of Byzantine religio-political primacy, Harris enlivens the emperors or usurpers who conducted it, retrieving them from their flat portrayals as villains or saints in the source material. Assured and fluid, Harris perceptively narrates events in this tempting presentation for the history buff. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Hambledon Pr
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1852852984
• ISBN 13: 9781852852986
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256