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A History of the Near East
Haçlılar Çağı : 11. Yüzyıldan 1517'e Yakındoğu
Batı Avrupa'nın 10. yüzyıldan itibaren nüfusları ve tarımsal üretimleri aratan feodal krallıkları, 11. yüzyılın son çeyreğine gelindiğinde yeni pazarlar arayışındaydılar. Ancak Doğu'nun ticaret yolları ve limanları Müslümanların denetimi altındaydı. Öte yandan, 1071'de Anadolu'ya giren Türklerin İznik'i merkez edinerek Bizans İmparatorluğu'nu tehdit eder hale gelmesi ve başta Kudüs olmak üzere önemli hac yerlerinin Müslümanların elinde olması, Hıristiyan dünyası için büyük bir rahatsızlık kaynağıydı. Bu şartlar altında, birincisi 1095'te düzenlenen Haçlı seferleri birçok sonucu da beraberinde getirdi. Birbirlerine çok uzak olan halklar ve onların kültürleri, dilleri, dinleri karşılaştı, farklılaştı, karıştı. P. M. Holt sadece Haçlı seferlerini değil, Emevileri, Abbasileri ve Memluk Sultanlığı'nı da ele aldığı bu kitapta, 11. yüzyıldaki Birinci Haçlı Seferi arifesinden 1516-17'deki Osmanlı fetihlerine kadar Doğu Akdeniz topraklarının siyasi tarihini sunuyor.
(Arka Kapak)
(Arka Kapak)
243 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
3 people are currently reading
60 people want to read
About the author
P.M. Holt
25 books8 followersPeter Malcolm Holt (1918–2006), a Fellow of the British Academy, was an historian of the Sudan, of the Middle East more widely, and of the development of Arabic studies in early modern England. Born at Leigh in Lancashire, he went to Lord Williams's Grammar School at nearby Thame, and then read History at University College, Oxford from 1937 to 1940. Having obtained a Diploma of Education (1941), he joined the Education Department of the Government of the Sudan, where he worked as a secondary school teacher and inspector. In the year before the Sudan became independent in 1956, Holt was appointed as a Lecturer in the History Department of the School of Oriental and African Studies. Articles investigating aspects of the earlier period of Sudanese history represent part of his scholarly output during the 1960s. While the main body of Holt's academic research occupied three, approximately successive, phases (the Sudan, Egypt under Ottoman rule, and the early Mamluk sultanate in Egypt and Syria), the development of Arabic studies in seventeenth-century England remained an abiding interest.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 14, 2020
This is a textbook. I didn’t know that when I picked up the slender, 200 page paperback at a used bookstore for $2, but it is definitely a textbook. For one thing it is priced like one: a new copy on Amazon is $63 for the paperback, $70 for the eBook, and $123 for the hardcover. For another thing, it is written like a textbook, emphasizing facts over interpretation.
In the copy I bought the first twenty pages have extensive highlighting and marginal notes about reading assignments. After that, the previous owner either dropped the class or decided the book was too boring to spend any more time with, and I can sympathize. I stuck with it to the end, through chapter after chapter of of dry recitation of names and places, and eventually found myself developing an interest in the author’s hands-off approach to his subject.
I will give him credit for meticulous research. Every sultan, vizier, chief judge, and faction leader is mentioned, even the child rulers who were on the throne for only a few days. The book is all about who and when, and is devoid of references to culture or art. Such context as exists is only on the level of endless power struggles.
These were turbulent times, “turbulent” being a euphemism for “red in tooth and claw.” The Crusades themselves actually play a fairly minor role in the book, and it is clear they were doomed from the start. Divided by nationality, and just barely united in religion, they quickly separated into four separate, distrustful petty kingdoms. They had uneasy and occasionally intolerant relationships with the many Christian sects already in residence, whom they considered heretics, and with the Orthodox in particular, who had previously managed to work out a reasonable co-existence with the Muslim rulers. For a time the emperors in Constantinople provided military assistance, but the Byzantine armies tended to win the minor battles and lose the big ones, so soon it was all they could do to survive themselves. Even that, of course came to a bitter end in 1453.
Furthermore, there were never enough settlers to make up more than a fraction of the population of the area, so the Crusader armies were too small to resist sustained campaigns against them, and their mountain fortresses invariably fell to siege. It probably didn’t help that they insisted on fighting in the European style, with heavy armor and lances in the desert heat, against far more mobile mounted archers.
Most of the book focuses on Egypt and its many sultans during this period. Although there was occasional greatness in them, such as Saladin and Baybars, they were for the most part an undistinguished lot. As one sultan quickly succeeds another the book becomes less interesting for its dismal list of who betrayed, poisoned, murdered, or usurped whom than for its look at how raw power manifests itself when it is unmoored from ideology, ethics, or religion. The same pattern played out over and over again: a strong sultan would emerge, conquer, and consolidate his position by distributing spoils to his associates. He would appoint as co-sultan a young son, and the leaders of the various factions would all swear pious oaths before Allah that they would support the young sultan after his father’s death. Once the father was out of the picture, however, those oaths would be conveniently forgotten and the knives would come out as they jockeyed for power and plunder. Many sultans ruled for less than a year, and fortunate indeed were the few who survived their removal.
The early dynasties were eventually replaced by Mamluk factions. Originally recruited from slaves captured in non-Muslim lands, most eventually converted. They were trained as cavalry with bow and lance, and for centuries formed a solid nucleus of the sultan’s power. Since they owed everything to him, their loyalty was absolute. However, they were loyal only to the sultan or lord who trained them, and that loyalty did not pass down to the sons and successors, so each new sultan had to recruit his own body of Mamluks. Eventually, power brought greed, sloth, and lawlessness, and from being elite soldiers they became parasites. As Egypt’s economy declined in the wake of the Black Death, the training and discipline of the Mamluks suffered as well. They were easy prey when the Ottoman Turks arrived and put an end to Egyptian independence in 1517.
Although Egypt is the focus of the book, it does cover events as far away as Persia and the Black Sea, describing the endless wars, revolts, and intrigues of the many mostly short lived kingdoms.
I suppose that if this book were used to provide the factual foundation of a university class, with an instructor who could enliven events and provide a broad historical context, it could be a good experience. As it is, however, there are many books about the Crusades and their times, and most of them would be more engaging than this one.
In the copy I bought the first twenty pages have extensive highlighting and marginal notes about reading assignments. After that, the previous owner either dropped the class or decided the book was too boring to spend any more time with, and I can sympathize. I stuck with it to the end, through chapter after chapter of of dry recitation of names and places, and eventually found myself developing an interest in the author’s hands-off approach to his subject.
I will give him credit for meticulous research. Every sultan, vizier, chief judge, and faction leader is mentioned, even the child rulers who were on the throne for only a few days. The book is all about who and when, and is devoid of references to culture or art. Such context as exists is only on the level of endless power struggles.
These were turbulent times, “turbulent” being a euphemism for “red in tooth and claw.” The Crusades themselves actually play a fairly minor role in the book, and it is clear they were doomed from the start. Divided by nationality, and just barely united in religion, they quickly separated into four separate, distrustful petty kingdoms. They had uneasy and occasionally intolerant relationships with the many Christian sects already in residence, whom they considered heretics, and with the Orthodox in particular, who had previously managed to work out a reasonable co-existence with the Muslim rulers. For a time the emperors in Constantinople provided military assistance, but the Byzantine armies tended to win the minor battles and lose the big ones, so soon it was all they could do to survive themselves. Even that, of course came to a bitter end in 1453.
Furthermore, there were never enough settlers to make up more than a fraction of the population of the area, so the Crusader armies were too small to resist sustained campaigns against them, and their mountain fortresses invariably fell to siege. It probably didn’t help that they insisted on fighting in the European style, with heavy armor and lances in the desert heat, against far more mobile mounted archers.
Most of the book focuses on Egypt and its many sultans during this period. Although there was occasional greatness in them, such as Saladin and Baybars, they were for the most part an undistinguished lot. As one sultan quickly succeeds another the book becomes less interesting for its dismal list of who betrayed, poisoned, murdered, or usurped whom than for its look at how raw power manifests itself when it is unmoored from ideology, ethics, or religion. The same pattern played out over and over again: a strong sultan would emerge, conquer, and consolidate his position by distributing spoils to his associates. He would appoint as co-sultan a young son, and the leaders of the various factions would all swear pious oaths before Allah that they would support the young sultan after his father’s death. Once the father was out of the picture, however, those oaths would be conveniently forgotten and the knives would come out as they jockeyed for power and plunder. Many sultans ruled for less than a year, and fortunate indeed were the few who survived their removal.
The early dynasties were eventually replaced by Mamluk factions. Originally recruited from slaves captured in non-Muslim lands, most eventually converted. They were trained as cavalry with bow and lance, and for centuries formed a solid nucleus of the sultan’s power. Since they owed everything to him, their loyalty was absolute. However, they were loyal only to the sultan or lord who trained them, and that loyalty did not pass down to the sons and successors, so each new sultan had to recruit his own body of Mamluks. Eventually, power brought greed, sloth, and lawlessness, and from being elite soldiers they became parasites. As Egypt’s economy declined in the wake of the Black Death, the training and discipline of the Mamluks suffered as well. They were easy prey when the Ottoman Turks arrived and put an end to Egyptian independence in 1517.
Although Egypt is the focus of the book, it does cover events as far away as Persia and the Black Sea, describing the endless wars, revolts, and intrigues of the many mostly short lived kingdoms.
I suppose that if this book were used to provide the factual foundation of a university class, with an instructor who could enliven events and provide a broad historical context, it could be a good experience. As it is, however, there are many books about the Crusades and their times, and most of them would be more engaging than this one.
August 27, 2022
This is a brief history of the Crusades through the fall of Mamluk-controlled Egypt & Syria. What really makes it most interesting is his inclusion of data and information from the Eastern Mediterranean and the Mamluks.
August 11, 2023
This is an interesting short book about the Near east in the late middle ages.
The title is a bit misleading; there isn't that much here about crusades, but it's about the local powers in the timeframe where crusades happened. It was fortunately exactly what i was searching for.
The book focuses mostly on the Mamluks since they ruled the area in question for the longest during the book's timeframe. There are parts at the start of the books about the Fatimids, Zengids and Ayubids, but for the above mentioned reasons it quickly focuses more on the Mamluks.
There is a lot of information here, however due to the brevity of the book it's very superficial and non-critically assesed. If you only have this book as a reference you could get away with some very bad interpretations, but as something to add to your knowledge once you have some background it is really decent. The main bonus for the book is that there aren't many others that cover the same topic in the English language, which on it's own gives it 1 star more than i would otherwise give.
Recommended for people interested in the area and timeframe in question, but probably not the book that will make you interested in that if you weren't before.
The title is a bit misleading; there isn't that much here about crusades, but it's about the local powers in the timeframe where crusades happened. It was fortunately exactly what i was searching for.
The book focuses mostly on the Mamluks since they ruled the area in question for the longest during the book's timeframe. There are parts at the start of the books about the Fatimids, Zengids and Ayubids, but for the above mentioned reasons it quickly focuses more on the Mamluks.
There is a lot of information here, however due to the brevity of the book it's very superficial and non-critically assesed. If you only have this book as a reference you could get away with some very bad interpretations, but as something to add to your knowledge once you have some background it is really decent. The main bonus for the book is that there aren't many others that cover the same topic in the English language, which on it's own gives it 1 star more than i would otherwise give.
Recommended for people interested in the area and timeframe in question, but probably not the book that will make you interested in that if you weren't before.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews