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Accursed Tower: The Fall of Acre and the End of the Crusades
From a New York Times-bestselling author, a stirring account of the siege of Acre in 1291, when the last Christian stronghold fell to the Muslim army
The 1291 siege of Acre was the Alamo of the Christian Crusades -- the final bloody battle for the Holy Land. After a desperate six weeks, the beleaguered citadel surrendered to the Mamluks, bringing an end to Christendom's two-hundred year adventure in the Middle East.
In The Accursed Tower, Roger Crowley delivers a lively narrative of the lead-up to the siege and a vivid, blow-by-blow account of the climactic battle. Drawing on extant Arabic sources as well as untranslated Latin documents, he argues that Acre is notable for technical advances in military planning and siege warfare, and extraordinary for its individual heroism and savage slaughter. A gripping depiction of the crusader era told through its dramatic last moments, The Accursed Tower offers an essential new view on a crucial turning point in world history.
The 1291 siege of Acre was the Alamo of the Christian Crusades -- the final bloody battle for the Holy Land. After a desperate six weeks, the beleaguered citadel surrendered to the Mamluks, bringing an end to Christendom's two-hundred year adventure in the Middle East.
In The Accursed Tower, Roger Crowley delivers a lively narrative of the lead-up to the siege and a vivid, blow-by-blow account of the climactic battle. Drawing on extant Arabic sources as well as untranslated Latin documents, he argues that Acre is notable for technical advances in military planning and siege warfare, and extraordinary for its individual heroism and savage slaughter. A gripping depiction of the crusader era told through its dramatic last moments, The Accursed Tower offers an essential new view on a crucial turning point in world history.
278 pages, Paperback
First published October 8, 2019
70 people are currently reading
1769 people want to read
About the author
Roger Crowley
15 books821 followersRoger Crowley was born in 1951 and spent part of his childhood in Malta. He read English at Cambridge University and taught English in Istanbul, where he developed a strong interest in the history of Turkey. He has traveled widely throughout the Mediterranean basin over many years and has a wide-ranging knowledge of its history and culture. He lives in Gloucestershire, England.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews
January 21, 2020
The familiar Crowley formula is there, but this one felt rushed. Crowley covers the hundred years leading up to the fall of Acre in about 120 pages. That's a lot of time covered in very few pages. The battle itself is well done- as you would expect from Crowley- but this one should have been 400-500 pages rather than the 200+ we get. Not Crowley's best work, but still pretty good. I highly recommend reading 'Conquerors' and 'Empires of the Sea' before this one.
January 24, 2020
I often say that the Crusades were a high point of Western civilization. And they were, but they were also an example of flawed glory. Certainly, the goal of the Crusades was peerlessly laudable, and the virtues shown by Crusaders admirable. At the same time, the Holy Land Crusades illustrated key weaknesses of the West, and, after all, if nothing succeeds likes success, nothing fails like failure. In Roger Crowley’s The Accursed Tower all of this is on display, though Christian valor is probably the dominant theme, as it should be. In a sane society, the events of this book would be used for a blockbuster movie featuring the Christians as doomed heroes. Not in today’s society, to be sure, but maybe in tomorrow’s.
The book’s focus is the final years of the Crusader States, which were founded after the epic success of the First Crusade in reconquering Muslim-occupied Palestine in A.D. 1099, and are generally deemed to have ended with the fall of the ancient city of Acre to the Mamluk sultan Al-Ashraf Khalil in 1291. The Crusader States had been in decline since Saladin’s victory at the Horns of Hattin in 1187, and what intermittent respite the Crusaders had gotten from Muslim pressure came from Muslim disunity, not Crusader gains. Then as now, Muslim discord was the norm (Frederick II took advantage of it to regain Jerusalem by treaty in 1228; it was was lost again in 1244). But off and on, due to religious fervor or political consolidation, which usually went hand-in-hand, pressure on the Christians spiked, so the writing had long been on the wall. In the end, it was simple: the Muslims were both rich and close to Outremer, effectively surrounding it, while at this time the West was relatively poorer and farther away.
The book’s title comes from one of the towers defending Acre, a sea port defended on its landward side by extensive fortifications, including a double wall and numerous barbicans and towers. (It mostly could not be approached from its seaward side, and its harbor was protected by the chain formerly guarding the Golden Horn in Constantinople, stolen by the Crusaders sacking Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade, in 1204.) As Crowley notes, much of the precise layout of both the city and its fortifications can only be conjectured at this point, but all agree that the Accursed Tower (a name of uncertain origin) lay at the crucial bend in the walls, and thus was the key pressure point during the Muslim siege. Acre had belonged to the Crusaders since it was retaken from the Muslims in 1104 (who had taken it from the Eastern Romans in the late seventh century), except for a two-year period after Saladin conquered it in 1187—it was retaken in a brutal siege in 1189, part of the Third Crusade.
But the Third Crusade failed to free Jerusalem from its occupiers, and the Crusader States for the next one hundred years were sadly diminished, consisting of a string of principalities and fortresses, the latter typically operated by the military religious orders, most famously the Hospitaller citadel at Krak des Chevaliers, north of Acre, near Tripoli (the Outremer Tripoli, not the one in North Africa). Acre became de facto the center of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, the south end of the Crusader States, both for trade and war, thus becoming a very wealthy and cosmopolitan city. It was also, in the way of rich port cities at the crossroads of civilizations, a pit of vice, although no doubt this was somewhat exaggerated by pious Western churchmen shocked upon their first arrival. And like most of the Crusader States, Acre debilitatingly lacked coherent political leadership. The King of Jerusalem was an absentee landlord and the strongest power was the Pope’s representative, the Patriarch of Jerusalem (who lived in Acre, not Jerusalem), but other powers, including the Templars and Hospitallers, were nearly independent.
Acre’s existence as a Christian stronghold throughout the century was therefore tenuous, but daily life not all that different from a hundred years before, or from any other Mediterranean port. Muslim and Christian merchants struck deals; the Genoese and Venetians traded with everyone, including the enemy, and fought each other; everybody got along in some years and not in others. The Christians talked about retaking Jerusalem and did nothing, but on the other side, chronic Muslim civil war, and the threat of the Mongols, kept the Muslims from concentrating on permanently dislodging the Crusaders. And, often as not, the trade brokered by the Christians was of great benefit to Muslim rulers, reducing their incentive to do more than issue vague endorsements of jihad and in practice to curb Muslim fanatics eager to fulfil the Prophet’s commands for ceaseless war against the infidel. All in all, no doubt daily life was fairly pleasant for most people, contrary to the myth of medieval suffering.
The first half of the book is a lively narration of the thirteenth century in Outremer. Crowley covers the mid-century Seventh Crusade, where Louis IX’s armies came to grief in Egypt. He covers the Mamluk defeat in 1260 of the Mongols at Ain Jalut, Goliath’s Spring, neither hindered nor helped by the Crusaders, who at least gave the Muslims safe passage to the battlefield. He narrates the takeover of Egyptian power by the military slave Mamluks from their Ayyubid overlords, and their welding into a disciplined conquering force under the sultan Baybars, the “Lion of Egypt,” a puritanical Muslim like so many successful conquerors. (As Crowley notes, because the Christians of Damascus had dared to drink wine and ring bells when the Mongols were admitted to Damascus, Baybars collectively punished Christians by, among other crimes, destroying “the hugely significant church of St. Mary in Nazareth, the supposed site of the Annunciation.”) Most relevantly for the current narrative, Baybars systematically increased pressure on the Crusader States, killing peasants in the fields and intermittently besieging and conquering towns and cities. These included the southern towns of Caesarea, Arsuf, and Jaffa, and the critical northern city of Antioch. He made life difficult for Christians, who were incapable of mounting a unified response, and lacked the military manpower to do much more than man their fortresses and battlements. And he didn’t care much that the Christians provided economic benefits to his realm; jihad was far more important, and this was what sealed the fate of the Crusader States.
The Christians in Europe were well aware of what was going on, but as so often, mustered only a feeble response accompanied by a great deal of hot air. Henry III’s son, Edward Longshanks (later Edward I, made famous several years back by the movie Braveheart), along with Louis IX, led the Ninth Crusade. Edward landed in Acre with his knights in 1271 (shortly after Baybars finally managed to capture Krak des Chevaliers), and won some major victories over Baybars, but soon enough departed (though he left behind several men who were critical to the final defense of Acre), changing nothing.
The second half of the book narrows the focus to the Fall of Acre. In 1280, Baybars died (probably poisoned), to be succeeded as sultan (after the usual civil war) by another Mamluk general, Qalawun, who continued what Baybars had accomplished, following much the same religious and political policies. He prepared to attack Acre, but died in 1290, to be succeeded by Khalil, who again continued his predecessors’ program. Men and material, called to jihad with its dual rewards of paradise and booty, swarmed to Khalil from every direction, and he began the siege in April, 1291.
Unlike towns earlier conquered by the Muslims, however, Acre was very strongly defended (though, due to internal conflict, the defenders had not beefed up the defenses adequately before the siege) and had a full garrison, of infantry, mounted knights, and such ancillary critical personnel as Pisan siege engineers. It could be re-supplied from the sea (the Mamluks never had any navy to speak of) and thus had to be taken by force, not by starving out the defenders. On the debit side of the balance sheet, though, the defenders had unclear military command, and failed to coordinate properly, a problem the Sultan did not face. The man effectively in overall charge was the Patriarch, Nicolas de Hanapes (the only canonized Crusader), but his hold was persuasive, not dictatorial. And, the biggest problem of all, Khalil had functionally infinite resources with high morale and strong incentives, so the result was largely inevitable.
Crowley does an outstanding job of narrating the siege and the Fall. Attacks and counterattacks; siege machines; mining; sorties by land and sea. He uses fascinating stories from contemporary sources, both Muslim and Christian, most interestingly from the “Templar of Tyre,” an anonymous Arabic-speaking knight who was probably not a Templar but was included within the councils of the Templars. On both sides, the heroism often found in such battles, ancient and modern, was on display—the men from the book Red Platoon, fighting in twenty-first-century Afghanistan, would fit right in here, and the men fighting in Acre would fit in there. Over several weeks, the Muslims wore the Christians down; not enough men arrived to replenish losses, and the Christians grew short of ammunition.
By mid-May, the battle was nearing its end. On May 18, after bombardment and mining broke in the walls, Khalil’s troops, coming in endless waves of heavily armored, highly disciplined men, overcame Christian resistance at the Accursed Tower, and thereby entered the space between the double walls, which allowed them to spread out to attack the gates. Last-ditch resistance of the city itself was organized by the Marshal of the Hospitallers, Matthieu de Clermont, who is depicted on the cover of the book in a nineteenth-century French painting, which also shows the double walls.
Clermont and his men rode out and died in the streets, and the Muslims then slaughtered and raped their way through the city, killing or enslaving everyone not able to get away by ship. (Such behavior was the norm in medieval warfare, of course, but is always talked about nowadays as if it was only something Christians did, so it is refreshing to see historical honesty.) A few of the internal citadels, such as the Templar’s castle, held out for a while, but were soon ground down and the same treatment meted out to the survivors. Khalil then demolished much of the city, though its skeleton was a landmark for passing ships for centuries. So ended the Holy Land Crusades, mostly forgotten in the East until resurrected as part of resistance to colonialism in the nineteenth century, and remembered mostly only in distorted fashion in the West, a propaganda tool for Protestants and atheists up to the present day.
But today I am less focused on politics; today is mostly straight history. One reason I very much enjoyed this book is that I have long had a fascination with medieval weaponry and siege equipment, and Crowley also appears entranced by siege weaponry, especially catapults and trebuchets, about which he talks a great deal. Why I have such an interest, I have no idea, but it has always been true. I had castle-building Lego analogues as a child, with which I played endlessly. I had toy soldiers, knights in armor, one of which now stands by me as I write, wielding a morning star (a real, if rare, weapon, despite occasional modern claims to the contrary). I know from reading Howard Pyle’s Men of Iron at the age of five what a glaive-guisarme is (a weapon consisting of a blade on a wooden pole, used to slash and stab, with a hook on the other side, used in the novel in the climactic duel by the underdog). Perhaps my personal interests made this book more gripping to me than it would be to others, however, so if this type of thing bores you, maybe this book is not for you.
Accuracy is key for Crowley, to the extent that a narrative of any ancient event can be made fully accurate. Unlike many modern writers, he does not ascribe to Muslims inventions they did not make. He notes that the Chinese invented most of the catapult-type siege weapons used by Khalil, including the traction trebuchet, which the Byzantines had also used. The more powerful counterweight trebuchet, a vital weapon in Khalil’s arsenal, able to topple stonework like the Accursed Tower, was probably invented by the Byzantines, though the record is unclear. (With both stonethrowers and, later, gunpowder, the Europeans took the basic idea that had existed for hundreds of years with incremental improvements, and proceeded to reinvent and massively improve the technology within a few decades. No doubt that is why many of Khalil’s catapults were ifrangi, “Frankish catapults.”) The only error that Crowley does make is to claim, repeatedly, that the Mamluks used Greek Fire, by giving that name to all incendiaries, not actual Greek Fire, a liquid that burned on water and was dispensed under pressure, the secret of which was probably lost by this time even to the Byzantines. But that’s a pretty small and common error, that does not detract from the book.
Crowley wrote an even better earlier book, Empires of the Sea, which centers on the 1565 Siege of Malta, where the Christians won. I have been to Malta, and there is no experience like standing where such an epic battle took place, seeing in your mind’s eye what it must have been like. That’s not really possible in Acre, anymore, but reading this book nearly puts you there. Strangely, Crowley mentions modern Acre quite a bit, but never once mentions that it is in Israel, and most of its modern population is Jewish. Which goes to show that times change, I suppose. I won’t predict the future for Acre, but looking backward allows the reader to grasp, in outline, the life and death of the Crusades. The Fall of Acre is in many ways a microcosm of that age of action, showing both the good and the bad: heroic men performing acts of glory, and bad men betraying each other and indulging in vice. Often it was the same men. These are the sorts of stories we should tell our children, and, as I say, make movies about. One can hope.
The book’s focus is the final years of the Crusader States, which were founded after the epic success of the First Crusade in reconquering Muslim-occupied Palestine in A.D. 1099, and are generally deemed to have ended with the fall of the ancient city of Acre to the Mamluk sultan Al-Ashraf Khalil in 1291. The Crusader States had been in decline since Saladin’s victory at the Horns of Hattin in 1187, and what intermittent respite the Crusaders had gotten from Muslim pressure came from Muslim disunity, not Crusader gains. Then as now, Muslim discord was the norm (Frederick II took advantage of it to regain Jerusalem by treaty in 1228; it was was lost again in 1244). But off and on, due to religious fervor or political consolidation, which usually went hand-in-hand, pressure on the Christians spiked, so the writing had long been on the wall. In the end, it was simple: the Muslims were both rich and close to Outremer, effectively surrounding it, while at this time the West was relatively poorer and farther away.
The book’s title comes from one of the towers defending Acre, a sea port defended on its landward side by extensive fortifications, including a double wall and numerous barbicans and towers. (It mostly could not be approached from its seaward side, and its harbor was protected by the chain formerly guarding the Golden Horn in Constantinople, stolen by the Crusaders sacking Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade, in 1204.) As Crowley notes, much of the precise layout of both the city and its fortifications can only be conjectured at this point, but all agree that the Accursed Tower (a name of uncertain origin) lay at the crucial bend in the walls, and thus was the key pressure point during the Muslim siege. Acre had belonged to the Crusaders since it was retaken from the Muslims in 1104 (who had taken it from the Eastern Romans in the late seventh century), except for a two-year period after Saladin conquered it in 1187—it was retaken in a brutal siege in 1189, part of the Third Crusade.
But the Third Crusade failed to free Jerusalem from its occupiers, and the Crusader States for the next one hundred years were sadly diminished, consisting of a string of principalities and fortresses, the latter typically operated by the military religious orders, most famously the Hospitaller citadel at Krak des Chevaliers, north of Acre, near Tripoli (the Outremer Tripoli, not the one in North Africa). Acre became de facto the center of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, the south end of the Crusader States, both for trade and war, thus becoming a very wealthy and cosmopolitan city. It was also, in the way of rich port cities at the crossroads of civilizations, a pit of vice, although no doubt this was somewhat exaggerated by pious Western churchmen shocked upon their first arrival. And like most of the Crusader States, Acre debilitatingly lacked coherent political leadership. The King of Jerusalem was an absentee landlord and the strongest power was the Pope’s representative, the Patriarch of Jerusalem (who lived in Acre, not Jerusalem), but other powers, including the Templars and Hospitallers, were nearly independent.
Acre’s existence as a Christian stronghold throughout the century was therefore tenuous, but daily life not all that different from a hundred years before, or from any other Mediterranean port. Muslim and Christian merchants struck deals; the Genoese and Venetians traded with everyone, including the enemy, and fought each other; everybody got along in some years and not in others. The Christians talked about retaking Jerusalem and did nothing, but on the other side, chronic Muslim civil war, and the threat of the Mongols, kept the Muslims from concentrating on permanently dislodging the Crusaders. And, often as not, the trade brokered by the Christians was of great benefit to Muslim rulers, reducing their incentive to do more than issue vague endorsements of jihad and in practice to curb Muslim fanatics eager to fulfil the Prophet’s commands for ceaseless war against the infidel. All in all, no doubt daily life was fairly pleasant for most people, contrary to the myth of medieval suffering.
The first half of the book is a lively narration of the thirteenth century in Outremer. Crowley covers the mid-century Seventh Crusade, where Louis IX’s armies came to grief in Egypt. He covers the Mamluk defeat in 1260 of the Mongols at Ain Jalut, Goliath’s Spring, neither hindered nor helped by the Crusaders, who at least gave the Muslims safe passage to the battlefield. He narrates the takeover of Egyptian power by the military slave Mamluks from their Ayyubid overlords, and their welding into a disciplined conquering force under the sultan Baybars, the “Lion of Egypt,” a puritanical Muslim like so many successful conquerors. (As Crowley notes, because the Christians of Damascus had dared to drink wine and ring bells when the Mongols were admitted to Damascus, Baybars collectively punished Christians by, among other crimes, destroying “the hugely significant church of St. Mary in Nazareth, the supposed site of the Annunciation.”) Most relevantly for the current narrative, Baybars systematically increased pressure on the Crusader States, killing peasants in the fields and intermittently besieging and conquering towns and cities. These included the southern towns of Caesarea, Arsuf, and Jaffa, and the critical northern city of Antioch. He made life difficult for Christians, who were incapable of mounting a unified response, and lacked the military manpower to do much more than man their fortresses and battlements. And he didn’t care much that the Christians provided economic benefits to his realm; jihad was far more important, and this was what sealed the fate of the Crusader States.
The Christians in Europe were well aware of what was going on, but as so often, mustered only a feeble response accompanied by a great deal of hot air. Henry III’s son, Edward Longshanks (later Edward I, made famous several years back by the movie Braveheart), along with Louis IX, led the Ninth Crusade. Edward landed in Acre with his knights in 1271 (shortly after Baybars finally managed to capture Krak des Chevaliers), and won some major victories over Baybars, but soon enough departed (though he left behind several men who were critical to the final defense of Acre), changing nothing.
The second half of the book narrows the focus to the Fall of Acre. In 1280, Baybars died (probably poisoned), to be succeeded as sultan (after the usual civil war) by another Mamluk general, Qalawun, who continued what Baybars had accomplished, following much the same religious and political policies. He prepared to attack Acre, but died in 1290, to be succeeded by Khalil, who again continued his predecessors’ program. Men and material, called to jihad with its dual rewards of paradise and booty, swarmed to Khalil from every direction, and he began the siege in April, 1291.
Unlike towns earlier conquered by the Muslims, however, Acre was very strongly defended (though, due to internal conflict, the defenders had not beefed up the defenses adequately before the siege) and had a full garrison, of infantry, mounted knights, and such ancillary critical personnel as Pisan siege engineers. It could be re-supplied from the sea (the Mamluks never had any navy to speak of) and thus had to be taken by force, not by starving out the defenders. On the debit side of the balance sheet, though, the defenders had unclear military command, and failed to coordinate properly, a problem the Sultan did not face. The man effectively in overall charge was the Patriarch, Nicolas de Hanapes (the only canonized Crusader), but his hold was persuasive, not dictatorial. And, the biggest problem of all, Khalil had functionally infinite resources with high morale and strong incentives, so the result was largely inevitable.
Crowley does an outstanding job of narrating the siege and the Fall. Attacks and counterattacks; siege machines; mining; sorties by land and sea. He uses fascinating stories from contemporary sources, both Muslim and Christian, most interestingly from the “Templar of Tyre,” an anonymous Arabic-speaking knight who was probably not a Templar but was included within the councils of the Templars. On both sides, the heroism often found in such battles, ancient and modern, was on display—the men from the book Red Platoon, fighting in twenty-first-century Afghanistan, would fit right in here, and the men fighting in Acre would fit in there. Over several weeks, the Muslims wore the Christians down; not enough men arrived to replenish losses, and the Christians grew short of ammunition.
By mid-May, the battle was nearing its end. On May 18, after bombardment and mining broke in the walls, Khalil’s troops, coming in endless waves of heavily armored, highly disciplined men, overcame Christian resistance at the Accursed Tower, and thereby entered the space between the double walls, which allowed them to spread out to attack the gates. Last-ditch resistance of the city itself was organized by the Marshal of the Hospitallers, Matthieu de Clermont, who is depicted on the cover of the book in a nineteenth-century French painting, which also shows the double walls.
Clermont and his men rode out and died in the streets, and the Muslims then slaughtered and raped their way through the city, killing or enslaving everyone not able to get away by ship. (Such behavior was the norm in medieval warfare, of course, but is always talked about nowadays as if it was only something Christians did, so it is refreshing to see historical honesty.) A few of the internal citadels, such as the Templar’s castle, held out for a while, but were soon ground down and the same treatment meted out to the survivors. Khalil then demolished much of the city, though its skeleton was a landmark for passing ships for centuries. So ended the Holy Land Crusades, mostly forgotten in the East until resurrected as part of resistance to colonialism in the nineteenth century, and remembered mostly only in distorted fashion in the West, a propaganda tool for Protestants and atheists up to the present day.
But today I am less focused on politics; today is mostly straight history. One reason I very much enjoyed this book is that I have long had a fascination with medieval weaponry and siege equipment, and Crowley also appears entranced by siege weaponry, especially catapults and trebuchets, about which he talks a great deal. Why I have such an interest, I have no idea, but it has always been true. I had castle-building Lego analogues as a child, with which I played endlessly. I had toy soldiers, knights in armor, one of which now stands by me as I write, wielding a morning star (a real, if rare, weapon, despite occasional modern claims to the contrary). I know from reading Howard Pyle’s Men of Iron at the age of five what a glaive-guisarme is (a weapon consisting of a blade on a wooden pole, used to slash and stab, with a hook on the other side, used in the novel in the climactic duel by the underdog). Perhaps my personal interests made this book more gripping to me than it would be to others, however, so if this type of thing bores you, maybe this book is not for you.
Accuracy is key for Crowley, to the extent that a narrative of any ancient event can be made fully accurate. Unlike many modern writers, he does not ascribe to Muslims inventions they did not make. He notes that the Chinese invented most of the catapult-type siege weapons used by Khalil, including the traction trebuchet, which the Byzantines had also used. The more powerful counterweight trebuchet, a vital weapon in Khalil’s arsenal, able to topple stonework like the Accursed Tower, was probably invented by the Byzantines, though the record is unclear. (With both stonethrowers and, later, gunpowder, the Europeans took the basic idea that had existed for hundreds of years with incremental improvements, and proceeded to reinvent and massively improve the technology within a few decades. No doubt that is why many of Khalil’s catapults were ifrangi, “Frankish catapults.”) The only error that Crowley does make is to claim, repeatedly, that the Mamluks used Greek Fire, by giving that name to all incendiaries, not actual Greek Fire, a liquid that burned on water and was dispensed under pressure, the secret of which was probably lost by this time even to the Byzantines. But that’s a pretty small and common error, that does not detract from the book.
Crowley wrote an even better earlier book, Empires of the Sea, which centers on the 1565 Siege of Malta, where the Christians won. I have been to Malta, and there is no experience like standing where such an epic battle took place, seeing in your mind’s eye what it must have been like. That’s not really possible in Acre, anymore, but reading this book nearly puts you there. Strangely, Crowley mentions modern Acre quite a bit, but never once mentions that it is in Israel, and most of its modern population is Jewish. Which goes to show that times change, I suppose. I won’t predict the future for Acre, but looking backward allows the reader to grasp, in outline, the life and death of the Crusades. The Fall of Acre is in many ways a microcosm of that age of action, showing both the good and the bad: heroic men performing acts of glory, and bad men betraying each other and indulging in vice. Often it was the same men. These are the sorts of stories we should tell our children, and, as I say, make movies about. One can hope.
December 18, 2023
This book is about half the length of the usual Roger Crowley history book. The book covers the siege and fall of Acre, the last stronghold of the Crusader in the Holy Land, in 1291. Acre was an important city during the Crusades as a maritime foothold on the Mediterranean coast of the southern Levant. The first half of the book covers the politics and events of the thirteenth century in Outremer leading up to the seige. The second half provides a detailed examination of the siege, from the various siege engines (catapults and trebuchets), the various parties and leaders involved (on both sides), the towers and defensive fortifications. An easily digestible and straightforward narrative history.
January 29, 2022
I first became interested in The Crusades when I read Sharon Kay Penman's books about Richard The Lionheart. Her books about Richard obviously told the story from the European viewpoint. In the last book she wrote, before her death, The Land Beyond the Sea, Penman stays in the Middle East with the story. After reading that last year, I started looking for and picking up nonfiction books on the subject, this is one of them.
The Europeans, from the First Crusade, captured Jerusalem from the Saracens in 1099. That war for the Holy Land lasted nearly 200 years. This is the story of the last crusade and the last battle fought for Acre, a strategically placed harbor city that both sides coveted.
Roger Crowley certainly does his research and he is a good writer for the arm chair historian. His telling of the tale, for the most part, is easy reading and not too technical. With the exception of the long description and explanations of how the medieval war machines worked, I was easily able to follow and enjoy the story. Studying the drawings of the machines and trying to figure them out, well it gave me a headache more then once.
This was a "new me to author" and I will give him another try if the opportunity arises. 3 stars for the work and research, 1 star for making it a readable account of history.
The Europeans, from the First Crusade, captured Jerusalem from the Saracens in 1099. That war for the Holy Land lasted nearly 200 years. This is the story of the last crusade and the last battle fought for Acre, a strategically placed harbor city that both sides coveted.
Roger Crowley certainly does his research and he is a good writer for the arm chair historian. His telling of the tale, for the most part, is easy reading and not too technical. With the exception of the long description and explanations of how the medieval war machines worked, I was easily able to follow and enjoy the story. Studying the drawings of the machines and trying to figure them out, well it gave me a headache more then once.
This was a "new me to author" and I will give him another try if the opportunity arises. 3 stars for the work and research, 1 star for making it a readable account of history.
February 18, 2021
I'm a fan of Mr. Crowley's books, they are usually well written engaging and exciting and this is no exception but my problem with it was that it felt like he padded the book to much. A good 3/4th of the book is not about the siege of Acre, it was instead a brief history of the crusades followed by the fall of the crusader states. When the book is small already, especially by Mr. Crowleys standards this makes the book seem like something that he had to force out for a quota or something along those lines.
Still a good book and an interesting story. Worth a read but just dont expect Mr. Crowleys usual standard of excellence.
Still a good book and an interesting story. Worth a read but just dont expect Mr. Crowleys usual standard of excellence.
January 8, 2022
A well-written narrative history, if a rather depressing account, of how the momentary reprieve in Mamluk in-fighting allowed Sultan Khalil to destroy Acre in 1291 and sweep the last remaining Crusader fortresses into the sea.
The book appears to make the case that the Holy Land was lost to Christendom not due to any particular ingenuity of the Muslims, but fundamentally due to a chronic shortage of manpower caused by the proliferation by successive popes of competing means of obtaining the remission of sins. These competing causes included crusades to Sicily, Moorish Spain and Prussia, in addition to the sale of indulgences. In the words of the Templar poet Ricaut Bonomel:
“For he [the pope] pardons for money people who have taken our cross
And if anyone wishes to swap the Holy Land
For the war in Italy
Our league lets them do so
For he sells God and Indulgences for cash.”
It proved to be a fatal error. To quote the final words of Templar Grand Master Guillaume de Beaujeu, upon being pierced by a Saracen javelin while making his last stand in Acre’s defence:
“Sirs, I can do nothing more, for I am dying. See the wound!”
The book appears to make the case that the Holy Land was lost to Christendom not due to any particular ingenuity of the Muslims, but fundamentally due to a chronic shortage of manpower caused by the proliferation by successive popes of competing means of obtaining the remission of sins. These competing causes included crusades to Sicily, Moorish Spain and Prussia, in addition to the sale of indulgences. In the words of the Templar poet Ricaut Bonomel:
“For he [the pope] pardons for money people who have taken our cross
And if anyone wishes to swap the Holy Land
For the war in Italy
Our league lets them do so
For he sells God and Indulgences for cash.”
It proved to be a fatal error. To quote the final words of Templar Grand Master Guillaume de Beaujeu, upon being pierced by a Saracen javelin while making his last stand in Acre’s defence:
“Sirs, I can do nothing more, for I am dying. See the wound!”
July 1, 2025
The tower in question is an oddly named strongpoint of the Crusader city, Acre. It fell in 1291, as did the whole city. This was “The Fall of Acre and the End of the Crusades”.
The Crusades are endlessly fascinating, being culturally so distant to (at least my own) contemporary thinking, yet still contemporary in our age of endless, tangled, wars in the region. Most of all, there are so many weirdnesses, twists of history, and tantalizing “what ifs”, and the line between tragedy and farce is so thin it disappears entirely at times. (The fourth Crusade diverts to sack Christian Constantinople. The near death of Islam, caught between the Mongols and the Crusaders—enemies briefly flirt with an alliance to crush Islam. Etc.)
Looking back, there are two large and opposite questions that strike me.
How could this European invasion succeed at all, let alone occupy parts of the Western Mediterranean for 200 years?
And, conversely, once established, how could the Crusader states fail to conquer the whole Islamic world?
The basic answer to these questions is that neither Christian nor Islamic forces were unified except by nominal religious affiliation. The Mongols and other Asian nomads were fearsome but ultimately disunited. Furthermore, as always, all the groups participated in commerce and trade, inevitably crossing nominal boundaries of religion, culture, and politics, dealing and competing with “friends” and “enemies” alike. This created strong motivation for cold war rather than hot.
Crowley captures this complex culture, with careful attention to the prejudices of the remaining sources. Most of the written sources are puffing their own guys, blaming others, and generally telling tales.
The city of Acre was heavily fortified, and for many years was the commercial and transport hub of the Crusader states. After the loss of Jerusalem, it was the entry point for many pilgrims and crusaders, and the seat of the “King of Jerusalem” and the military orders.
It was also a multicultural snake pit, disorienting to new arrivals from Europe. Expecting the fantasy land of pure, glorious, holy war, it was shocking to land in the real middle east, filled with real people with an array of backgrounds and loyalties, all jammed into one city.
There were all kinds of people. Jews, Muslims, and people representing numerous flavors of Christianity and Christian ethnic groups were found there, as well as Europeans born and native to the region. Many of these Christians were quite alien and heretical to Western European eyes, and the “orientalised” culture of the city unexpected and repulsive.
The port itself was a patchwork of enclaves, including self-governing sections of Italian merchants, Genoese, Pisan, and Venetian. These traders were outside the control of the church, and traded military material with the Moslem regimes in Cairo. These city states were fiercely competitive, to the point of actually fighting a war.
Acre was also home to the military orders, the Templars, the Hospitalliers, the Teutonics, and forces from France and England, among others. Nominally responsible only to the Pope and God, the military knights had no combined command, and followed their own, often competing, agendas.
On the Islamic side, too, there was an endless stream of infighting, many competing local Emirs, and frequent palace coups. Jihad was more often preached than practiced, and any success often ended with the death of the effective leader of the day.
During this period, Mongols and other tribes smashed into the region from Asia, for a time posing far greater threat to Islam than the Crusader states. In one of the greatest instances of “my enemy’s enemy is my friend” in history, the Vatican flirted with an alliance with the fierce shamanic nomads. Not happening but imagine the possibilities!
Both sides profited from trade, and local politics drove alliances and fights with neighbors and within ruling cliques. Realpolitic ruled, fueling coexistence and de facto cooperation, and many years of more or less stable detente.
It seems so familiar to us today.
The events of 1291 was the end of a long chapter in this history. The fall of Acre was the endgame for the Crusader occupation and the effective end of the military orders. This conclusion was the result of the strange twist in Moslem lands, as the Mamelukes seized power in Cairo. These military slaves, built up to fight the Crusaders, took the reins of power for themselves. “Slaves” became “kings”.
The early Mameluke Sultans were unusually competent and succeeded in uniting the region in Jihad. Their well-organized allied armies rolled up the remaining Crusader castles, which were well built strong points, but unsustainable. The final act was the siege and sack of Acre.
The battle was nasty and pretty quick. It only took a relatively few days of competent siege work for the Islamic forces to breach the walls and overwhelm the outnumbered Crusaders.
The disaster was a shock to many in the West, and in the after math everyone blamed everyone else. If it wasn’t necessarily clear at the time, this truly was the end of the crusades, and the end of the military orders. It was the start of 600 years of Moslem rule in the whole area, which ended only with the nineteenth century incursions by the colonial powers of Europe.
While reading this book, I was thinking that this would make a great movie or TV series. Forget Mos Eisley and Kings Landing, this real-life town has everything! Castles! Knights! Catapults! Kings, Queens, Aristos of all stripes. Multiple weird religious military orders. Exiles. Pilgrims. Tourists. Merchants trading in everything, with everybody (including the Moslem “enemy”).
And that’s just the “Christians” in the city. In the surrounding “Moslem” country there are Arabs, Persians, Mongols. Local Emirs. Clerics and secular merchants. Camels! Scimitars! Catapults!
And no end of fortune hunters, pirates, refugees, outlaws, spies, and renegades everywhere.
For contemporary audiences, the chaotic, multiway conflict is both familiar and instructive. It’s hard to find “heroes” or “good guys”, and easy to find bigotry, violence, and folly.
Endless war, with lots and lots of folly.
Like I said, it would be great movie!
The Crusades are endlessly fascinating, being culturally so distant to (at least my own) contemporary thinking, yet still contemporary in our age of endless, tangled, wars in the region. Most of all, there are so many weirdnesses, twists of history, and tantalizing “what ifs”, and the line between tragedy and farce is so thin it disappears entirely at times. (The fourth Crusade diverts to sack Christian Constantinople. The near death of Islam, caught between the Mongols and the Crusaders—enemies briefly flirt with an alliance to crush Islam. Etc.)
Looking back, there are two large and opposite questions that strike me.
How could this European invasion succeed at all, let alone occupy parts of the Western Mediterranean for 200 years?
And, conversely, once established, how could the Crusader states fail to conquer the whole Islamic world?
The basic answer to these questions is that neither Christian nor Islamic forces were unified except by nominal religious affiliation. The Mongols and other Asian nomads were fearsome but ultimately disunited. Furthermore, as always, all the groups participated in commerce and trade, inevitably crossing nominal boundaries of religion, culture, and politics, dealing and competing with “friends” and “enemies” alike. This created strong motivation for cold war rather than hot.
Crowley captures this complex culture, with careful attention to the prejudices of the remaining sources. Most of the written sources are puffing their own guys, blaming others, and generally telling tales.
The city of Acre was heavily fortified, and for many years was the commercial and transport hub of the Crusader states. After the loss of Jerusalem, it was the entry point for many pilgrims and crusaders, and the seat of the “King of Jerusalem” and the military orders.
It was also a multicultural snake pit, disorienting to new arrivals from Europe. Expecting the fantasy land of pure, glorious, holy war, it was shocking to land in the real middle east, filled with real people with an array of backgrounds and loyalties, all jammed into one city.
There were all kinds of people. Jews, Muslims, and people representing numerous flavors of Christianity and Christian ethnic groups were found there, as well as Europeans born and native to the region. Many of these Christians were quite alien and heretical to Western European eyes, and the “orientalised” culture of the city unexpected and repulsive.
The port itself was a patchwork of enclaves, including self-governing sections of Italian merchants, Genoese, Pisan, and Venetian. These traders were outside the control of the church, and traded military material with the Moslem regimes in Cairo. These city states were fiercely competitive, to the point of actually fighting a war.
Acre was also home to the military orders, the Templars, the Hospitalliers, the Teutonics, and forces from France and England, among others. Nominally responsible only to the Pope and God, the military knights had no combined command, and followed their own, often competing, agendas.
On the Islamic side, too, there was an endless stream of infighting, many competing local Emirs, and frequent palace coups. Jihad was more often preached than practiced, and any success often ended with the death of the effective leader of the day.
During this period, Mongols and other tribes smashed into the region from Asia, for a time posing far greater threat to Islam than the Crusader states. In one of the greatest instances of “my enemy’s enemy is my friend” in history, the Vatican flirted with an alliance with the fierce shamanic nomads. Not happening but imagine the possibilities!
Both sides profited from trade, and local politics drove alliances and fights with neighbors and within ruling cliques. Realpolitic ruled, fueling coexistence and de facto cooperation, and many years of more or less stable detente.
It seems so familiar to us today.
The events of 1291 was the end of a long chapter in this history. The fall of Acre was the endgame for the Crusader occupation and the effective end of the military orders. This conclusion was the result of the strange twist in Moslem lands, as the Mamelukes seized power in Cairo. These military slaves, built up to fight the Crusaders, took the reins of power for themselves. “Slaves” became “kings”.
The early Mameluke Sultans were unusually competent and succeeded in uniting the region in Jihad. Their well-organized allied armies rolled up the remaining Crusader castles, which were well built strong points, but unsustainable. The final act was the siege and sack of Acre.
The battle was nasty and pretty quick. It only took a relatively few days of competent siege work for the Islamic forces to breach the walls and overwhelm the outnumbered Crusaders.
The disaster was a shock to many in the West, and in the after math everyone blamed everyone else. If it wasn’t necessarily clear at the time, this truly was the end of the crusades, and the end of the military orders. It was the start of 600 years of Moslem rule in the whole area, which ended only with the nineteenth century incursions by the colonial powers of Europe.
While reading this book, I was thinking that this would make a great movie or TV series. Forget Mos Eisley and Kings Landing, this real-life town has everything! Castles! Knights! Catapults! Kings, Queens, Aristos of all stripes. Multiple weird religious military orders. Exiles. Pilgrims. Tourists. Merchants trading in everything, with everybody (including the Moslem “enemy”).
And that’s just the “Christians” in the city. In the surrounding “Moslem” country there are Arabs, Persians, Mongols. Local Emirs. Clerics and secular merchants. Camels! Scimitars! Catapults!
And no end of fortune hunters, pirates, refugees, outlaws, spies, and renegades everywhere.
For contemporary audiences, the chaotic, multiway conflict is both familiar and instructive. It’s hard to find “heroes” or “good guys”, and easy to find bigotry, violence, and folly.
Endless war, with lots and lots of folly.
Like I said, it would be great movie!
August 28, 2020
Very uneven history. We are taken in the first part through bit highlights of the crusade prior to the siege and the rise of the sultan, but then the narrative radically slows when we reach the siege itself, which is really the heart of this story. While there is a lot of time spent on the ebb and flow of the skirmishing around the city walls, the jealousies and rivalries within the divided city of Acre, which seems to be the root cause of their weakness and lack of external support, does not get much coverage.
June 25, 2025
This book is not nearly as good as his book on the fall of Constantinople. The simple reason is that the fall of Constantinople was much more dramatic and more important from a historical point of view. Also there are better and more sources on the last days of the Byzantinian Empire and this means Crowley had many more and better stories to tell.
But still, I am happy to have read the book. I have been to Acre but was not very much impressed. Now that I have read the book I almost like to go there again.
The Crusaders had been living in Acre ever since King Baldwin sacked the city in 1104, except for a brief period when it fell back to the Saracens. It was only a matter of time before the Crusaders were expelled from the Holy Land, which finally happened in 1291.
The story of the final siege I did not find as interesting as some of the background Crowley gives us. (And a reason is that there are conflicting sources, so we do not even know whom to blame for the defeat.) I didn’t know that the Mamluks were originally slaves of the Arabs who were used as soldiers in their wars. When the Mamluks finally seized power, the first sultan did not even speak Arabic fluently. The Mongols sacked Baghdad in 1258, and there was a real possibility that they would end Islamic rule in the area. The Crusaders considered joining forces with the Mongols. But then Sultan al-Ashraf Khalil managed to win the final battle and the history of the Crusades ended.
One of the towers in Acre was called the Accursed Tower. It’s a great title for the book, but the tower does not really play much of a role in the tale.
7/10
But still, I am happy to have read the book. I have been to Acre but was not very much impressed. Now that I have read the book I almost like to go there again.
The Crusaders had been living in Acre ever since King Baldwin sacked the city in 1104, except for a brief period when it fell back to the Saracens. It was only a matter of time before the Crusaders were expelled from the Holy Land, which finally happened in 1291.
The story of the final siege I did not find as interesting as some of the background Crowley gives us. (And a reason is that there are conflicting sources, so we do not even know whom to blame for the defeat.) I didn’t know that the Mamluks were originally slaves of the Arabs who were used as soldiers in their wars. When the Mamluks finally seized power, the first sultan did not even speak Arabic fluently. The Mongols sacked Baghdad in 1258, and there was a real possibility that they would end Islamic rule in the area. The Crusaders considered joining forces with the Mongols. But then Sultan al-Ashraf Khalil managed to win the final battle and the history of the Crusades ended.
One of the towers in Acre was called the Accursed Tower. It’s a great title for the book, but the tower does not really play much of a role in the tale.
7/10
July 3, 2022
Roger Crowley writes an incredibly detailed, yet interesting, book on the crusades.
His focus is mainly on the city of Acre and its pivotal position as capital of the Holy Land. The book allows for a better comprehension of life in 13th century Levant. Joined with the geo-political spectrum of the Islam-Christian conflict.
Overall, it is a great read. It is written in an unbiased way and will surely enhance the readers knowledge on the topic.
His focus is mainly on the city of Acre and its pivotal position as capital of the Holy Land. The book allows for a better comprehension of life in 13th century Levant. Joined with the geo-political spectrum of the Islam-Christian conflict.
Overall, it is a great read. It is written in an unbiased way and will surely enhance the readers knowledge on the topic.
November 7, 2021
البرج الملعون هو أحد الأبراج المشهورة في قلعة عكا ، وهذا الكتاب يشرح بالتفصيل المئة سنة الثانية من الحروب الصليبية والتي اعقبت الحملة الصليبية الثالثة. المؤلف يركز على الأسباب السياسية والعسكرية التي أدت بالنهاية إلى حصار وسقوط عكا بأيدي المماليك ثم نهاية الوجود الصليبي في الشرق العربي.
August 10, 2022
Roger Crowley's accounts of historical events are craftily painted in vivid colours. However, the fall of Accre is but a final episode of the Crusaders' Era and therefore it lacks the canvas-like space that became familiar through his other writings. More like a chapter. But a well-written one.
December 12, 2021
Loved the way he painted every aspect of the account like a fine picture, it felt like it was a fictional story even though it was all history. Great read.
December 2, 2024
I'd previously read two of Mr. Crowley's books, specifically "1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West" and "Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World," and thoroughly enjoyed each.
Crowley is at his best when examining a single contest in detail. His vivid descriptions of battle and larger-than-life personalities allow the reader to experience the struggle on a personal level. Normally, the background for these struggles is concise and focused, bringing into sharp detail the main players and their backgrounds. However, here it felt as though the background was perhaps too broad to be completely relevant to his chosen battle.
Nevertheless, once into the thick of the fight, his writing style becomes laser-focused and engaging again. Would definitely recommend this book, but his two previously mentioned books showcase his writing skills at their best.
Crowley is at his best when examining a single contest in detail. His vivid descriptions of battle and larger-than-life personalities allow the reader to experience the struggle on a personal level. Normally, the background for these struggles is concise and focused, bringing into sharp detail the main players and their backgrounds. However, here it felt as though the background was perhaps too broad to be completely relevant to his chosen battle.
Nevertheless, once into the thick of the fight, his writing style becomes laser-focused and engaging again. Would definitely recommend this book, but his two previously mentioned books showcase his writing skills at their best.
December 11, 2022
It might be more indicative of my own attention, but I found the actual narrative of the siege a bit harder to stay engrossed in than the other Crowley books I've read. I appreciate this book the most for its background on Acre and the rise of the Mamluk Sultanate, but it's on a tier below 1453 and Empires of the Sea for me overall.
January 26, 2024
If only--
If only the self-serving Genoese, Venetians, and Pisans weren’t always fighting each other and trading vital martial slaves and material to the Mamluks. If only the military orders (Templars and Hospitallers etc.) weren’t always treating each other like rivals. If only the heads of the Crusader states could all get on the same page. If only the European countries were not always at loggerheads with each other and or the different Popes. If only the Mamluks were (finally) less organized, less united, and less proficient at treaty loopholes, military logistics, and drum and trumpet walls of sound. Then maybe Acre might've carried on Christian for a few more years (but THEN what?).
The catchy main title of Roger Crowley’s The Accursed Tower: The Fall of Acre and the End of the Crusades (2019) conjures up images of repeated foiled Muslim attempts to take a particularly stubborn and vital tower, but actually the final siege of Acre, the last Christian stronghold in the Holy Land does not really hinge on this one tower among the many defenses of the city, and the “accursed” appellation doesn’t really have any particular application to the history Crowley relates. Really the book is about its subtitle.
The first seven chapters—occurring from 1200 to 1290—set the historical and cultural context for the siege, including Crusader debacles in Egypt, the influential advent of the Mongols, and the increasing importance of the Mamluks of Egypt, with the Outremer Christian cities and castles getting captured or sacked one after the other in the thirteenth century, till the siege of Acre ends the two-hundred-or-so-year Crusader attempt to maintain a Western Christian presence in the Holy Land. The next six chapters relate the last siege of Acre led by the Mamluks from about April 10 till May 28 of 1291. The fourteenth chapter cleans up the last loose Crusader ends thereabouts, and the Epilogue gives a glimpse at the Acre of today superimposed over the Acre of a thousand and more years ago.
I found this book less suspenseful, absorbing, detailed, and informative than Ernle Bradford’s The Great Siege: Malta 1565 (1961), but I did get some interesting points from it:
--The disastrous disunity among the Christians. Through much Crusader history, the Muslims were not much more unified, but they got their act together in the latter half of the thirteenth century under Mamluk sultans like Baybars.
--The effective use by the Mamluks of religious fervor, booty lust, defenses mining, trebuchet engineering, Greek fire, kettle drums (mounted on camels!), and treaty loopholes.
--“A sixty-day siege [by an army of 25,000 men] would need the removal of a million gallons of human and animal waste and 4,000 tons of solid biological waste,” which is probably one reason the Mamluks catapulted their waste into Acre!
--The inherent unsustainability of Crusader satellite states so far away from Europe, and the precarious way they lasted as long as they did via trade with Muslim states.
I appreciated that Crowley quotes from a fair number of Muslim sources and seems even-handed in his depiction of the attackers and the defenders of Acre.
His Epilogue made me want some day to visit Acre (in today’s Israel…)
About the audiobook… If only a better reader than Matt Kugler read it! Although he reads clearly, he also reads like a sensational documentary narrator, too often overly dramatically emphasizing what he sees to be key words or syllables, such that he numbed me to the impact of the truly important key words:
“the Sultan’s SENior engineer” (why is it so important that we know this is “the Sultan’s SENior engineer”?)
“the equally imposing COMpound of the Knights Hospitallers.” (why is that syllable stressed so much there?)
Etc.
In short, Kugler is no Simon Vance! (Vance intelligently reads The Great Siege: Malta 1565, which must be one reason why I so prefer it to Crowley’s book.)
I’m not sorry to have listened to The Accursed Tower, but I didn’t learn enough or have a good enough time to recommend it highly, and probably other books by Crowley like 1453 and Empires of the Sea (read by better readers) would be better.
If only the self-serving Genoese, Venetians, and Pisans weren’t always fighting each other and trading vital martial slaves and material to the Mamluks. If only the military orders (Templars and Hospitallers etc.) weren’t always treating each other like rivals. If only the heads of the Crusader states could all get on the same page. If only the European countries were not always at loggerheads with each other and or the different Popes. If only the Mamluks were (finally) less organized, less united, and less proficient at treaty loopholes, military logistics, and drum and trumpet walls of sound. Then maybe Acre might've carried on Christian for a few more years (but THEN what?).
The catchy main title of Roger Crowley’s The Accursed Tower: The Fall of Acre and the End of the Crusades (2019) conjures up images of repeated foiled Muslim attempts to take a particularly stubborn and vital tower, but actually the final siege of Acre, the last Christian stronghold in the Holy Land does not really hinge on this one tower among the many defenses of the city, and the “accursed” appellation doesn’t really have any particular application to the history Crowley relates. Really the book is about its subtitle.
The first seven chapters—occurring from 1200 to 1290—set the historical and cultural context for the siege, including Crusader debacles in Egypt, the influential advent of the Mongols, and the increasing importance of the Mamluks of Egypt, with the Outremer Christian cities and castles getting captured or sacked one after the other in the thirteenth century, till the siege of Acre ends the two-hundred-or-so-year Crusader attempt to maintain a Western Christian presence in the Holy Land. The next six chapters relate the last siege of Acre led by the Mamluks from about April 10 till May 28 of 1291. The fourteenth chapter cleans up the last loose Crusader ends thereabouts, and the Epilogue gives a glimpse at the Acre of today superimposed over the Acre of a thousand and more years ago.
I found this book less suspenseful, absorbing, detailed, and informative than Ernle Bradford’s The Great Siege: Malta 1565 (1961), but I did get some interesting points from it:
--The disastrous disunity among the Christians. Through much Crusader history, the Muslims were not much more unified, but they got their act together in the latter half of the thirteenth century under Mamluk sultans like Baybars.
--The effective use by the Mamluks of religious fervor, booty lust, defenses mining, trebuchet engineering, Greek fire, kettle drums (mounted on camels!), and treaty loopholes.
--“A sixty-day siege [by an army of 25,000 men] would need the removal of a million gallons of human and animal waste and 4,000 tons of solid biological waste,” which is probably one reason the Mamluks catapulted their waste into Acre!
--The inherent unsustainability of Crusader satellite states so far away from Europe, and the precarious way they lasted as long as they did via trade with Muslim states.
I appreciated that Crowley quotes from a fair number of Muslim sources and seems even-handed in his depiction of the attackers and the defenders of Acre.
His Epilogue made me want some day to visit Acre (in today’s Israel…)
About the audiobook… If only a better reader than Matt Kugler read it! Although he reads clearly, he also reads like a sensational documentary narrator, too often overly dramatically emphasizing what he sees to be key words or syllables, such that he numbed me to the impact of the truly important key words:
“the Sultan’s SENior engineer” (why is it so important that we know this is “the Sultan’s SENior engineer”?)
“the equally imposing COMpound of the Knights Hospitallers.” (why is that syllable stressed so much there?)
Etc.
In short, Kugler is no Simon Vance! (Vance intelligently reads The Great Siege: Malta 1565, which must be one reason why I so prefer it to Crowley’s book.)
I’m not sorry to have listened to The Accursed Tower, but I didn’t learn enough or have a good enough time to recommend it highly, and probably other books by Crowley like 1453 and Empires of the Sea (read by better readers) would be better.
December 22, 2024
"The Accursed Tower" by Roger Crowley, who is a popular historian best known for his maritime histories and various social and narrative histories based on the medieval and pre-modern Mediterranean world. "The Accursed Tower" is a narrative and social history that details the fall of the city of Acre which is situated on the Mediterranean coast in modern day Israel. Acre was the last city in the "Holy Land" held by the crusaders, as the author attests, it was a city far older than the conflict between the Muslims and Christians "a honeycomb of older civilizations built upon by newer ones." The title of the book gets its name from the center of the defense of Acre, the Accursed Tower, an ancient Phoenician tower and cult center of the god Baal and in the Old Testament a "cursed place." Crowley brings the city to life in its twilight, detailing the various enclaves that ran the city; Acre lacked a centralized government instead it was a melting pot of various peoples and interests, from the mighty fortresses of the Teutonic Knights and the Templars to the grandiose palace of the Knights Hospitaller. Towards the sea shore Crowley details the role of the various Venetian, Genoese, and Pisan colonies that vied for the Italian sea trade mostly based in slaves (from the Turkish tribes lining the Black Sea), war materials (from Europe), and luxury items (from the enormous Mongolian Empire), that passed through the city's port. I found "The Accursed Tower" to be an excellent follow up to another one of the popular author's earlier texts, "In Distant Lands," which gives a narrative history of the Crusades, mainly the Peoples, the First, Second, and Third Crusades; with the "Accursed Tower" serving as the perfect end to that saga. The text sees the crusaders fighting among themselves, or as the author puts it "dancing on the edge of an abyss" having outlasted all of their crusader neighbors and secured by trade alliances with the Egyptian sultans, they did not see their end coming. The author details the rise of the Mongol Empire and the King (later saint) Louis's crusades to Egypt, which saw the overthrow of a complacent and haughty sultanate by its caste of slave warriors, known as Mamelukes. Crowley gives a superb history of the Mamelukes, a fascinating society of Turkish slaves brought from the Black Sea (yes by the same Italian merchants who visited Acre), raised to believe in Sunni Islam, though many held onto the animistic religious beliefs of the steppes. They created a warlike Egypt that united the Islamic states of the Eastern Mediterranean against Acre. The text is worth reading simply for Crowley's treatment of the Mameluke's rise. This includes a few chapters about the infamous Mameluke sultan Baibars. An excellent book, Crowley had me hooked from the first page.
February 23, 2021
Roger Crowley is perhaps one of my favorite writers of history. In addition to the prerequisite extensive research, he brings the events alive by providing rich background on the key players; using vivid language; and demonstrating an excited passion for the topics he approaches. His previous works have focused on the Mediterranean and the conflict between Muslims and Christianity in Empires of the Sea and 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West.
The Accursed Tower brings us to the fall of Acre in 1291. As with his other books, he spends a lot of time setting the scene before events are unleashed. He also brings the reader up close to the battle, hovering and descending across both sides of the battle lines. Although we know the outcome with the hindsight of history, his approach immerses the reader at a personal level to the unknowable struggles of both attackers and defenders.
However, compared to his other works, this one felt a little rushed and unfinished.
It’s possible that there is simply a lack of source material from firsthand chroniclers. He is able to give more detail on some well-document characters; however, as to the Templars, Hospitalers, Venetians, and others who occupy the city at the time of the siege, not much information is provided. He is able to spend a little more time detailing the Muslim side of events, but again, not to the level of detail seen in his other works.
The Accursed Tower remains highly recommended nonetheless, and serves as a good companion to the crusades for other armchair historians.
The Accursed Tower brings us to the fall of Acre in 1291. As with his other books, he spends a lot of time setting the scene before events are unleashed. He also brings the reader up close to the battle, hovering and descending across both sides of the battle lines. Although we know the outcome with the hindsight of history, his approach immerses the reader at a personal level to the unknowable struggles of both attackers and defenders.
However, compared to his other works, this one felt a little rushed and unfinished.
It’s possible that there is simply a lack of source material from firsthand chroniclers. He is able to give more detail on some well-document characters; however, as to the Templars, Hospitalers, Venetians, and others who occupy the city at the time of the siege, not much information is provided. He is able to spend a little more time detailing the Muslim side of events, but again, not to the level of detail seen in his other works.
The Accursed Tower remains highly recommended nonetheless, and serves as a good companion to the crusades for other armchair historians.
December 31, 2024
I finished Thomas Asbridge's "The Crusades" history omnibus before this (see my review) and it's a testimony to the professor's skills how he's able to condense a lot of the source material drawn of course upon by Crowley. In "The Accursed Tower," the difference is that Crowley expands excerpts from the chroniclers. That's about it. I learned more about sapping, trebuchets, and siege tactics.
As military history's not my bent (I prefer social/ religious foci), that Crowley as in "1453" about the final fall of Constantinople, elaborates the strategies of the leaders, the details about the supposedly "eyewitness" documents extant to enrich the scenes, and in an appendix the archeological evidence that does or does not bolster the claims of the medieval storytellers. It's compact, and the last section helpfully updates the lingering impacts over Christendom of this symbolic, fearful defeat.
He agrees with Asbridge as to the decline of spiritual fervor, the diversion of indulgences used by the papacy to generate funds, and the practice of buying off one's service in Outremer similarly. It's a brisk summation of the fortress as it rises a century before after Richard the Lionheart's troops brought down Muslim defenders, and the eerie tit-for-tat payback exactly a century later exacted.
As military history's not my bent (I prefer social/ religious foci), that Crowley as in "1453" about the final fall of Constantinople, elaborates the strategies of the leaders, the details about the supposedly "eyewitness" documents extant to enrich the scenes, and in an appendix the archeological evidence that does or does not bolster the claims of the medieval storytellers. It's compact, and the last section helpfully updates the lingering impacts over Christendom of this symbolic, fearful defeat.
He agrees with Asbridge as to the decline of spiritual fervor, the diversion of indulgences used by the papacy to generate funds, and the practice of buying off one's service in Outremer similarly. It's a brisk summation of the fortress as it rises a century before after Richard the Lionheart's troops brought down Muslim defenders, and the eerie tit-for-tat payback exactly a century later exacted.
February 3, 2021
It's a hoot -- but not overly surprising -- to learn that the pope sought an alliance with the pagan Mongol khan to save his last Christian stronghold from its Islamic Mamluk besiegers. It's also fascinating to learn that the seafaring Venitian traders were profitably supplying the Egyptian Mamluks with fresh Turkic mercenaries to erase the last Crusader states, leaving the heavy lifting in the maritime defense of Acre to the Pisans and Genoese. This excellent historical account from the age before gunpowder also demonstrates that Islamic armies were every bit equal in military art and engineering to the best of feudal Europe. What is surprising is that the fractious collection of late medieval Crusaders actually survived a couple of centuries in the Levant while expending much of their energy opposing one another. Still more suprising is that the West is still reinacting this same farce on the same turf in own own time. Crowley has rendered a rock solid historical account drawn from extensive written records of both sides of the struggle for Acre. And he has made a delightful read of this story of siege warfare and political intrigues. A masterful narrative.
December 1, 2020
While I enjoyed the book, it falls short of its title. This is a really good description of the actual battle and technology used (including an in-depth discussion of mining and trebuchets), but didn't really tell the story of the "End of the Crusades"
Obviously the battle was an overwhelming defeat for the crusaders, but I would have liked a deeper exploration about the political, cultural, and societal contributions that lead to the actual ending of the crusades.
There is some good discussion of the politics of the sultanate and power dynamics on the Muslim side, but the Christian side of the formula is almost more of a primer or review of some general trends that lead to disinterest in prolonged crusading. That brief discussion is not directly linked to the battle itself leading one to wonder if this just happened to be a final loss coinciding with a decline in appetite for the crusades or was in fact a driver for that decline.
Obviously the battle was an overwhelming defeat for the crusaders, but I would have liked a deeper exploration about the political, cultural, and societal contributions that lead to the actual ending of the crusades.
There is some good discussion of the politics of the sultanate and power dynamics on the Muslim side, but the Christian side of the formula is almost more of a primer or review of some general trends that lead to disinterest in prolonged crusading. That brief discussion is not directly linked to the battle itself leading one to wonder if this just happened to be a final loss coinciding with a decline in appetite for the crusades or was in fact a driver for that decline.
June 15, 2023
Crowley's Accursed Tower presents a detailed, and often bloody description of events surrounding the fall of Acre, the last stronghold of Templar, Hospitaller, and Teutonic Knight Christian military orders in the holy land. Much of the story, taken from first hand accounts, provides a true rendering of people, places, and events leading to, and the actual 1291 downfall, of this vibrant crusader city. While many would think of Acre as strictly a crusader fort, it actually was a major trading center, where Saracen and Christian alike depended on its imports. A surprise for me, was to learn of the alliance of Christian and invading Mongols in their joint resistance of Mamluk assaults. Ultimately, the lack of military cooperation and strategic coordination among the Christian orders, who viewed each other as competitors, served to ensure Acre's destruction. Well written, and a great read for anyone who has interest in the late crusading years.
January 6, 2022
The Accursed Tower, by Roger Crowley, is great for the true history buff. To use a sports analogy, Crowley gives the reader the pre-game show, the play-by-play, and the post-game show of Muslim siege and conquest of the Christian stronghold in Acre. Given that Crowley wrote about events in the 1200s, the amount of detail he complied is truly amazing. Yet, as he tells of the march of history, Crowley doesn’t lose the reader in obscure facts or side stories. There is “action.” There is “drama.” There are also the author’s well-reasoned insights.
Still, medieval history is of interest to a relative few. A five-star book needs broad appeal. However, if you are a history buff, or looking for a gift for the history buff in your life, The Accursed Tower, would make a fine choice.
Still, medieval history is of interest to a relative few. A five-star book needs broad appeal. However, if you are a history buff, or looking for a gift for the history buff in your life, The Accursed Tower, would make a fine choice.
May 7, 2020
Roger Crowley is one of my favorite historical authors, and I eagerly awaited this book's release. However, it was a bit disappointing. I got the feeling that Crowley was working with less source material than in his previous books. The fall of Acre isn't an event chronicled in as much detail as other sieges such as Constantinople or Malta, with the result that the book often felt stretched to provide a fulfilling narrative. It's a much shorter read than his other works, but even still a lot of space is filled with tangents (he went on about trebuchets for ages). In the end the final battle was quick and anticlimactic. I'd love to see more work by Crowley about the crusades, but I'd recommend one of his other books over this one.
June 5, 2021
I admit that I know next to nothing about the Crusades. This book was a good entry point into learning about them; the author explained (relatively briefly, so I didn't get bogged down the details) the first hundred years of the Crusades before moving onto the fall of Acre, which pretty much signified the end. I learned a good amount, and I left feeling very lucky that I was not alive during this time (which seems very brutal). The very specific details about the siege weapons kind of made my eyes glaze over, but I'm sure other people would enjoy that a great deal, so YMMV. Altogether, it was a good book, and a quick read (the book is only 215 pages long [the rest being notes, indices, sources, etc] and the font was quite large).
January 19, 2022
This book details the final years of the last Crusader city to fall in the middle east to the forces of Islam in the 1291. It details famous leaders and factors that led up to the fall of this city and the shift away from launching crusades from Western leaders.
Overall, its a very entertaining read and is an area of history that few have written extensively. Its not as good as Roger Crowley's other historical books but he may be limited by a lack of written source material. When Acre fell, most of Europe was occupied by other issues and it didn't play as big a roles as other events of this era with exception of contributing to the downfall of the order of the Templars several decades afterwards.
Overall, its a very entertaining read and is an area of history that few have written extensively. Its not as good as Roger Crowley's other historical books but he may be limited by a lack of written source material. When Acre fell, most of Europe was occupied by other issues and it didn't play as big a roles as other events of this era with exception of contributing to the downfall of the order of the Templars several decades afterwards.
November 28, 2019
Долго ждал эту книгу, однако, получил не совсем то, что хотелось. Вернее, совсем не в тех объемах, кои предполагались. То ли Кроули было нечего рассказать, то ли он не слишком утруждался, однако, ценной информации внутри немного. Нет, все по-прежнему интересно и увлекательно, однако того накала и эпичности, что была в предыдущих книгах, уже нет. Впрочем, стоит признать, что за отдельным исключением и сама Акра не смогла дать мамлюкам достойный отпор, став заключительной точкой в агонии христианских королевств на Ближнем Востоке. Колесо сделало свой оборот и вскоре уже турки топтали европейский континет.
April 9, 2020
This is the second book i've read from Roger Crowley (the first being '1453: The Holy War For Constantinople'). Once again I am impressed with the level of detail and well sourced accounts provided to give an exciting and emotional account of the siege.
The fall of Acre unquestionably ended the age of crusades and Crowley's style and prose brings the testimonies to the life of those who fell. While the first portion of the book focuses on the preparation for the siege (or lack thereof), and squabbling from the various Monastic Orders and Italian trading colonies.
A very concise summary of an important moment in history.
The fall of Acre unquestionably ended the age of crusades and Crowley's style and prose brings the testimonies to the life of those who fell. While the first portion of the book focuses on the preparation for the siege (or lack thereof), and squabbling from the various Monastic Orders and Italian trading colonies.
A very concise summary of an important moment in history.
January 3, 2024
Fascinating and uneven.
The first part of the book is a pretty whirlwind overview of the Crusades in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and is worth reading for the absolute terror of the Seventh Crusade alone. (Mansurah! Fariskur! People doing horrible things to each other in the name of religion isn't new (hell, this is a book about the Crusades in the high Middle Ages it is inherently not-new!), but this particularly horrified me -- the flooding, the mud, the barge disasters.)
The transition from the first part to the second -- and from the breakneck speed to the hour-by-hour siege timeline -- was jarring and felt like a separate book. A good book! But a separate one.
The first part of the book is a pretty whirlwind overview of the Crusades in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and is worth reading for the absolute terror of the Seventh Crusade alone. (Mansurah! Fariskur! People doing horrible things to each other in the name of religion isn't new (hell, this is a book about the Crusades in the high Middle Ages it is inherently not-new!), but this particularly horrified me -- the flooding, the mud, the barge disasters.)
The transition from the first part to the second -- and from the breakneck speed to the hour-by-hour siege timeline -- was jarring and felt like a separate book. A good book! But a separate one.
April 11, 2022
As others have mentioned a rather short volume. I wish the author had concentrated more on the military organization of each group of combatants as well as their tactics. There was quite a bit on the siege engines as would be expected but little on anything else concerning the opposing forces as a opposed to the mini-history about previous expeditions. I would have liked a few more maps of the area and the fortress to illustrate what was done when.
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