God's Armies: Crusade and Jihad - Origins, History, Aftermath

by Malcolm Lambert

With ramifications on geopolitics today, a vivid chronicle of the Christian and Islamic struggle to control the sacred places of Palestine and the Middle East between the seventh and thirteenth centuries.

Crusade and jihad are often reckoned to have represented two sides of the same each resonated on the opposing sides in the holy wars of the Middle Ages and each has been invoked during the war on terror.

A chronicle of the Christian and Islamic struggle to control the sacred places of Palestine and the Middle East between the seventh and thirteenth centuries, this dynamic new history demonstrates that this simple opposition ignores crucial differences. Placing an equal emphasis on the inner histories of Christianity and Islam, the book traces the origins and development of crusade and jihad, showing for example that jihad reflected internal tensions in Islam from its beginnings. The narrative also reveals the ways in which crusade and jihad were used to disguise ambitions for power and to justify atrocity and yet also inspired acts of great chivalry and heroic achievement. The story brims with larger than life characters, among them Richard the Lionheart, Nur al-Din, Saladin, Baybars, and Ghengiz Khan.

Lambert concludes by considers the long after-effects of jihad and crusade, including the role of the latter in French imperialism and of the former in the wars now afflicting the Middle East and parts of Africa. This vivid, balanced account will interest all readers who wish to understand the complexities of the medieval world and how it relates our own.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Middle East, War, Religion, Islam, Military Fiction

352 pages, Hardcover

First published February 5, 2015

Reviews

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Point by point read on all the battles of the Crusades and the response. Quite interesting when it's making big picture points instead of battle by battle descriptions.

Long story short, the author makes a convincing case that making an equivalence between jihad and crusade is incorrect. The intro and conclusion are quite interesting on this topic.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fresh look at the Crusades, its origins & legacies, that is written in concise manner yet manages to pack its pages with a wealth of information. It takes a gentle but pointed look at some assumed truths, and sheds light on a few new ways of comparing "crusading" to "jihad". An excellent volume.

[Ann D · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am probably not the intended audience for this book. The author uses a lot of specialized Arabic and Islamic vocabulary. It took me awhile before I figured out that there is a glossary in the back of the book. That explained part of what I needed to know, but not all of it. The book also assumes that the reader has a a basic understanding of medieval warfare, weapons, and ways to break a siege.

Still I persisted in reading this book because I am very interested in the subject. I think Lambert has a good grasp of his subject and this book would be appreciated much more by someone who has some background in the crusades and the changing meaning of Jihad.

This period in history (the seventh through the thirteenth century) was incredibly brutal. Both sides could be extremely vicious, although there were also combatants who were very occasionally surprisingly generous.

The attacks of the crusaders in the Holy Land as well as the counter attacks of the Muslims against the Europeans against their co-religionists are often described in excruciating detail. I was glad to get beyond that point and enjoyed reading other parts about politics or culture, for example the sections on the Mamluks in Egypt and the Janissaries in the Ottoman Empire. Both groups were Christian boys who were captured and turned into slave soldiers. They played very important roles in Turkey and Egypt.

The writer also treats the historiography of the crusades and jihad by both western European writers and Muslim writers. He finds that on both sides there were leaders who were sincerely motivated by their respective religions. Both Muslims and Christians had been promised a guaranteed entrance to heaven if they were killed doing this "holy" work, no matter what sins they had committed in the past. As always, there were also people on both sides motivated primarily by greed and power.

[Andrew Bishop · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive, detailed and informative examination of Christianity and Islam across the centuries through the lens of the respective crusades and jihads undertaken across the 7th and 13th centuries (and even into the 17th centuries) principally centred around the battle for control of the sacred places of Palestine and the Middle East. Along the way, the author examines aspects of both religions and the frequency with which historical figures and leaders falsely misrepresented their appropriate religion to justify violent conflicts. This spans centuries, and my takeaway was that the basis of the violence was not the religions but rather human greed and manipulation. The book covers off on the origins of Israel and the roles colonial powers had in the splitting of lands. The various historical characters e.g. Richard the Lionheart, Nur-al-Din, Saladin, Baybars, Ghengis Kahn) are examined in detail as to what drives them and the consequences of their actions. And across the centuries, the Jewish people were at times protected by the Muslims and the Christians and at other times slaughtered. However rarely were the positive actions occurring at the same time meaning they led a precarious existence in the Middle East over the centuries. This is a solid historical read, but once you are into the book you are taken on a fascinating and informative journey. Recommended.

[Teodora Petkova · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the storylines in the book - the details on the Islamic states in the beginning then the cool facts about siege weaponry and military engineering combined with the exposition about the religious structures of the time.

I have two issues with the book - one is the anachronistic mention of the nation-state idea and the nation-state names (like Iran, Iraq, Turkey, etc), which is conusing in the context of the 13th - 15th centuries. My other issue is the lack of references - I saw a lot of mentions of really cool stories, like one about a military engineer who had to travel all the way from Lombardy to the Holy Land to construct a siege weapon and the crusaders were simply waiting for him while keeping a city under siege, or another about how Suleiman the Magnificent used mining in his attacks on Rhodes and Malta, and I terribly wished that there were some sources which I could check and read more about these stories.

[Doug Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was particularly interesting in not being a military history of the major crusades. but rather an entire history of the crusading movement as well as that of jihad, starting from about the birth of Mohammed right up to the present day (and ISIL). Although I've read a number of books about particular early crusades in detail, I was not really knowledgeable about the history of Islam, so most of that was new to me. It also put a lot of pieces in context, such as the relationship of the Mamluks, Janissaries, Ottomans, etc.

Always an interesting subject matter, and well presented in an unbiased and not-too-academic manner by a respected historian.

[Sash · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for those who want to learn more about the origin of Islam and its impact on the world. A milenia of history conflicts between the Muslim and the Christian forces as well as between the separate Muslim groups.

It feels like an overload of information in less 300 pages, but it is still a very enjoyable read for those who want to learn more about the subject.

[Stefano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Analisi complete, spassionata, e critica degli eventi che hanno preceduto, portato, e seguite le Crociate in Medio oriente. Il contesto storico è spiegato chiaramente ed i punti di vista sono bene articolati.

La prosa mi è risultata a tratti arcaica e pesante da seguire. Consigliata a chi ha un interesse storiografico più che narrativo, anche se i commenti dell'autore sono interessanti.

[Jonathan Cantor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not particularly interesting. The book cuts through wide swaths of history in a mere paragraph. I was hoping this would be more in depth.

[Stephen Hull · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very difficult read, albeit a very worthy one. The author has attempted a comprehensive survey of a staggeringly large amount of history and the result, unfortunately, is hundreds upon hundreds of names, places and events, many of which are only present for a few pages.

The opacity of the book does vary. The first 100 or so pages covering Islam upuntil the first crusade is the slowest going -- not the way you really ought to begin a book -- but the chapters on the Crusades, and particularly the 1st and 3rd ones, are fascinating if occasionally confusing. The book would have benefited tremendously from more and better maps as well.

Having said this, it does provide the reader with some additional insights into the current state of the Middle East and (most importantly) the way that the history of the area affects the differing perspectives of the people whose ancestors were on opposing sides back in the 12th century.

[Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very general overview of the development in the Middle East. The book tells of the development of the Islamic faith under Mohammed and the various Caliphs and Viziers that took up the banner after he passed away, Ottoman's, Ummayed's etc. It tells of the various crusade's and the Pope's and Kings of Europe who led them. The fighting religious order who developed and held territory, Hospitatlers, Templar's, within the Holy Land. It ends with what has happened there in more modern times. It doesn't spend a lot of time on one specific subject, Saladin, Richard the Lionhearted, Mehmet etc. so you probably want to look elsewhere for anything other than a overview of the Crusades and History of the Middle East.

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

FTC Disclosure: I received this book free from Goodreads hoping I would review it.

[Gary Brecht · Rating 4 out of 5]

Making some sense of the current conflict between the West and the Middle East, (and to some extent other countries with significant Muslim populations), requires some knowledge of the history of these frequently warring factions. This is where Malcolm Lambert’s history of the crusades and jihad fills some very large gaps. It is an overview covering centuries and while there is ample detail provided, many of the major events and participants introduced by the author beg for further elucidation in other histories and biographies. This overview, although it spans hundreds of years, gives the reader some basic information that may shed more light on this continuous religious and cultural feud. For example, the origin of the Shiite/Sunni schism accounts for some of the internal antipathy within the Muslim religion. On the Western side of the ledger we learn of the roles played by Popes and various European and Byzantine rulers during the crusades.

Many of the terms in this book are foreign to speakers of English, which is why the book includes a very helpful glossary as well as an extensive list of sources for follow-up reading.

[John W. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A first rate history of the Crusades and the Muslim resistance. Unfortunately, sometimes the text is so condensed as to obscure the story.

The book describes the religious convictions which inspired the First Crusade although not hiding the brutality of the battles and the massacres which took place upon the conquest of Jerusalem. Describes the Crusader States which in the early twelfth century were a stable and prosperous group. Explains the several branches of Islam and the various peoples Arabs, Turks, Mongols, etc.which competed from the time of Mohamed to the present day and the violence and massacres which happened.

Once again the importance of the separation of church and state is demonstrated