Encounters: The Crusades in 50 Objects

From the late eleventh to the late thirteenth century, during the existence of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and other crusader states, Latin Christians did not only frequently encounter Muslims on the battlefield, but also engaged in unprecedented commercial and cultural exchanges with the Muslim, Eastern Christian, and Jewish inhabitants of the Middle East. Through a focused analysis of fifty objects, this volume examines what material culture can tell us about interpersonal, interfaith, cross-cultural, and trans-regional encounters during this period.

This richly illustrated volume explores a variety of Latin Christian, Eastern Christian, Muslim, and Jewish objects, including sculpture, glassware, metalware, manuscripts, textiles, painting, coins, and seals. Addressing the themes of Belief, Conflict, Exchange, Power, and Memory, the essays examine the conception of these objects and the uses to which they were put throughout their history. As a result, there emerges a picture of the Middle East as a place of profound cultural diversity and of multiplicity of encounters between different communities.

The book stands as a valuable resource for students and scholars of the medieval crusades, the medieval Middle East and Europe, as well as all those interested in archaeology, art history, global history, and religious studies more broadly.

Cathleen A. Fleck is Professor of Art History and Director of the School of Visual Studies at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She has published articles and monographs on the court art of Naples and Avignon and on representations of Jerusalem in the crusader era of the Middle Ages (c. 1187–1356).

Elizabeth Lapina is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her main interest is in perceptions and representations―textual and visual―of the crusading movement in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, on which she has published widely.

Richard A. Leson is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. His research and publications focus on the art and architectural patronage of elite French families, with a special emphasis on heraldry. He is currently writing about the life and artistic patronage of Jeanne of Flanders (ca. 1272–1333).

Vardit Ruth Shotten is an architect and archaeologist working in the Archaeological Research Department, Israel Antiquities Authority, whose research and writing focuses on medieval architecture, particularly in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. She is currently leading the research project on ‘Atlit Castle and teaches at the University of Haifa.