- Department of History, Politics and Philosophy
Manchester Metropolitan University
Geoffrey Manton Building
Rosamond Street West
Off Oxford Road
Manchester
M15 6LL - +44 (0)161 247 1758
- Crusades, History of Crusades, CRUSADER KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM, Crusades and the Latin East, Byzantine Studies, Byzantine History, and 27 moreByzantine Literature, Byzantine historiography, Second Crusade, Hohenstaufen, Staufen Germany, Staufer, Mediterranean Studies, History of the Mediterranean, Mediterranean, History of the Eastern Mediterranean, Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and North Africa, Islamic History, Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations in the Middle Ages, Interfaith Studies, Medieval Iberian History, Kingdom of Sicily (1130-1300), Italo-Norman studies, Medieval Studies, Medieval History, Medieval Warfare, Medieval Spain, Medieval Southern Italy and Sicily, History of Southern Italy, Normans in Southern Italy, the history of southern Italy & Sicily, and History of the Crusades and the Latin Eastedit
- Senior Lecturer in Medieval Mediterranean History @JayTRoche Founder: Northern Network for the Study of the Crusades:... moreSenior Lecturer in Medieval Mediterranean History
@JayTRoche
Founder: Northern Network for the Study of the Crusades: https://www.northernnetworkforstudyofcrusades.com/
@nnscrusadesedit
Islamic State propaganda manipulated and combined a culturally embedded sense of Islamic history with a heady, potent mixture of classical and radical apocalyptic, and real and supposed Islamic authority, both sacred and profane. Tapping... more
Islamic State propaganda manipulated and combined a culturally embedded sense of Islamic history with a heady, potent mixture of classical and radical apocalyptic, and real and supposed Islamic authority, both sacred and profane. Tapping into a widespread belief in the approach of the Last Hour, the group attempted to change an established "crusader master narrative" by giving "crusaders" and their "crusade" integral roles in Islamic sacred history and an impending Islamic State apocalypse.
Research Interests: Crusades, Medievalism, Contemporary Medievalism, Apocalypticism, Eschatology and Apocalypticism, and 15 moreApocalyptic Eschatology, Cultural Memory, Commemoration and Memory, Collective Memory, Islamic History, Social Memory, Public Memory, Medieval Islamic History, Crusades and the Latin East, History of the Crusades, Crusaders, Islamic fundamentalism, Clash of Civilizations, Islamic State, and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
The introductory article proposes the hypothesis, which informed the decision making and editorial work in the Special Issue, that appropriations and weaponisations of the crusades in the modern era rely on culturally embedded master... more
The introductory article proposes the hypothesis, which informed the decision making and editorial work in the Special Issue, that appropriations and weaponisations of the crusades in the modern era rely on culturally embedded master narratives of the past that are often thought to encompass public or cultural memories. Crucially, medievalism, communicated through metonyms, metaphors, symbols and motifs frequently acts as a placeholder instead of the master narratives themselves. The article addresses differences between medievalists' and modernists' conceptions of crusades, especially highlighting how the very meaning of words - such as crusade - differ in the respective fields. But the matter at hand goes beyond semantics, for the notion that the act of crusading is a live and potent issue is hard to ignore. There exists a complex and multifaceted crusading present. That people can appeal to master narratives of the crusades via mutable medievalism, which embodies zero-sum, Manichaean-type "clash of civilisations" scenarios, helps explain the continued appeal of the crusades to those who seek to weaponise them. It is hoped that the contributions to the special issue, introduced towards the end of the article, further a better understanding of the ways this has happened in the modern era.
Research Interests: Crusades, Medievalism, Eschatology and Apocalypticism, Social and Collective Memory, Cultural Memory, and 15 moreHistory of Crusades, Collective Memory, White Supremacy, Public Memory, Spanish Civil War, George W Bush adminstration, Crusades and the Latin East, Woodrow Wilson, al-Qaeda, Extreme and Far Right, Clash of Civilizations, Islamic State, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and Dwight Eisenhower
This article offers a unique comparison of the descriptions of the Latin barbarians found mainly in the Greek sources for the First and Second Crusades with those of the ancient barbarians described in the works of the Byzantines’... more
This article offers a unique comparison of the descriptions of the Latin barbarians found mainly in the Greek sources for the First and Second Crusades with those of the ancient barbarians described in the works of the Byzantines’ favourite tragedian, Euripides. The Greek narratives of Anna Komnene, John Kinnamos and Niketas Choniates, to which should now be added little-known Greek verse encomia composed by so-called ‘Manganeios Prodromos’, are crucial to our understanding of the history of the crusades. Yet, until now, the fundamental reason these key texts portray the crusaders in the manner they do has not been fully exposed.
Research Interests: Late Antique and Byzantine History, Late Antique and Byzantine Studies, Byzantine Literature, Crusades, Byzantine Studies, and 12 moreHistory of Crusades, Byzantine History, Byzantium, Crusades and the Latin East, Byzantine historiography, Crusader States, History of the Crusades, First Crusade, Crusaders, CRUSADER KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM, History of the Crusades and the Latin East, and Byzantine history and archaeology
Published in summer 2017. So-called Islamic State (IS) continues to use its online propaganda magazine to appropriate the Crusades of the central middle ages. By blurring time periods and disparate historical phenomena, IS presents its... more
Published in summer 2017.
So-called Islamic State (IS) continues to use its online propaganda magazine to appropriate the Crusades of the central middle ages. By blurring time periods and disparate historical phenomena, IS presents its readers with a narrative of continuous Western “crusader” aggression as a rallying cry for support and a justification for its actions. This “crusader” narrative has little basis in historical fact – but it does make for powerful propaganda.
So-called Islamic State (IS) continues to use its online propaganda magazine to appropriate the Crusades of the central middle ages. By blurring time periods and disparate historical phenomena, IS presents its readers with a narrative of continuous Western “crusader” aggression as a rallying cry for support and a justification for its actions. This “crusader” narrative has little basis in historical fact – but it does make for powerful propaganda.
Research Interests:
The aim of this short article is modest: it means to fill a lacuna in scholarly output by offering a concise and accessible survey of the physical structure of the typical west Anatolian town in the High Middle Ages. Attempts to locate... more
The aim of this short article is modest: it means to fill a lacuna in scholarly output by offering a concise and accessible survey of the physical structure of the typical west Anatolian town in the High Middle Ages. Attempts to locate such a study meet with disappointment. If one wishes to look through the eyes of medieval travellers in Anatolia, whether they be merchants, pilgrims or soldiers, and discover what type of construction they witnessed when approaching and entering a typical town, one is compelled to trawl through a great number of specialist articles and monographs dealing with specific archaeological sites or particular narrow periods of history. This laborious exercise will be made somewhat redundant by a brief synthesis of the appropriate evidence which historians and archaeologists have addressed and compiled since the late 1950s when attempting to reconstruct the development of the Byzantine city. The article traces the slow development of the typical Anatolian urban form and aspect from the late fourth century, through the mid-seventh to mid-eighth centuries, and then through to a period of urban recovery until the latter part of the twelfth century. The choice of periods separated by some 800 years is
not arbitrary: the physical character (and function) of the typical town began to change in the late fourth century, and the form it obtained during the seventh and eighth centuries continued to be the one retained (with inconsequential variations to the general pattern)
during the intermediate periods of Byzantine recovery.
not arbitrary: the physical character (and function) of the typical town began to change in the late fourth century, and the form it obtained during the seventh and eighth centuries continued to be the one retained (with inconsequential variations to the general pattern)
during the intermediate periods of Byzantine recovery.
Research Interests: Late Antique and Byzantine History, Late Antique and Byzantine Studies, Anatolian Studies, Crusades, Anatolian Archaeology, and 19 moreAnatolian History, Byzantine Studies, Crusader Archaeology, History of Crusades, Byzantine History, Byzantine Architecture, Byzantine Archaeology, Anatolia, Anatolian Archaeology (Archaeology), Byzantium, Crusades and the Latin East, Late Roman and early Byzantine fortifications, CRUSADER KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM, Ottoman Anatolia (1200-1500) Comparative empire, Byzantine history and archaeology, Medieval Islamic and Turco-Iranian world, Mongol world empire, Seljuk, Mongol, post-Mongol, and Ottoman Anatolia (1200-1500), Comparative empire, frontier, and political culture, and Persian and Ottoman Turkish historical writing
The Second Crusade (1145-49) is thought to have encompassed near simultaneous Christian attacks on Muslim towns and cities in Syria and Iberia and pagan Wend strongholds around the southern shore of the Baltic Sea. The motivations... more
The Second Crusade (1145-49) is thought to have encompassed near simultaneous Christian attacks on Muslim towns and cities in Syria and Iberia and pagan Wend strongholds around the southern shore of the Baltic Sea. The motivations underpinning the attacks on Damascus, Lisbon and – taken collectively – the Wendish strongholds have come in for particular attention. The doomed decision to assault Damascus in 1148 rather than recover Edessa, the capital of the first so-called crusader state, was once thought to be ill-conceived. Historians now believe the city was attacked because Damascus posed a significant threat to the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem when the Second Crusaders arrived in the East. The assault on Lisbon and the Wendish strongholds fell into a long-established pattern of regional, worldly aggression and expansion; therefore, historians tend not to ascribe any spiritual impulses behind the native Christians' decisions to attack their enemies. Indeed, the siege of Lisbon by an allied force of international crusaders and those of the Portuguese ruler, Afonso Henriques, is perceived primarily as a politico-strategic episode in the ongoing Christian-Muslim conflict in Iberia – commonly referred to as the reconquista. The native warrior and commercial elite undoubtedly had various temporal reasons for engaging in warfare in Iberia and the Baltic region between 1147 and 1149, although the article concludes with some notes of caution before clinically construing motivation from behaviour in such instances.
Research Interests:
The volume brings together 'articles written by more than 40 leading experts in the field.' This short essay discusses the consequences of the crusading movement on the multi-layered development of medieval western Europe and on... more
The volume brings together 'articles written by more than 40 leading experts in the field.' This short essay discusses the consequences of the crusading movement on the multi-layered development of medieval western Europe and on inter-faith relations, and first appeared as ‘Crusades in the Holy Land and Egypt (Consequences)’ in 2011 on ABC-CLIO's online database: World at War: Understanding Conflict and Society.
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The volume brings together 'concise, accessible articles written by more than 40 leading experts in the field'. This short essay offers an overview of the modern scholarly debates and popular explanations for the origins of the crusading... more
The volume brings together 'concise, accessible articles written by more than 40 leading experts in the field'. This short essay offers an overview of the modern scholarly debates and popular explanations for the origins of the crusading movement, and first appeared as ‘Crusades in the Holy Land and Egypt (Causes)’ in 2011 on ABC-CLIO's online database: World at War: Understanding Conflict and Society.
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This introductory article serves a number of purposes. It offers an abridged narrative of the scope of the Second Crusade and introduces the major debates associated with the venture. All the contributions to the present volume are... more
This introductory article serves a number of purposes. It offers an abridged narrative of the scope of the Second Crusade and introduces the major debates associated with the venture. All the contributions to the present volume are introduced within this framework and, when applicable, their place in the current historiography is highlighted. While serving as a concise introduction to the multifaceted nature of the crusade and, for the first time, drawing attention to the main debates associated with it within a single article, the historiographical discussion of this remarkable mid-twelfth-century endeavour has necessarily proved to be a testing ground for a familiar although still unresolved debate: what do scholars mean when the employ the terms ‘crusading’, ‘crusade’ and ‘crusader’?
Research Interests:
Niketas Choniates’s well-known narrative of the Second Crusade is frequently cited as evidence that the Byzantines, and particularly the emperor, Manuel I Komnenos, were responsible for the destruction of the French and German crusades in... more
Niketas Choniates’s well-known narrative of the Second Crusade is frequently cited as evidence that the Byzantines, and particularly the emperor, Manuel I Komnenos, were responsible for the destruction of the French and German crusades in Anatolia in 1147. This short article in honour of the late Prof. Iþýn Demirkent of Boğazici University (Istanbul) argues that his history of the crusade is problematic owing to a number of reasons. Most notably, Roche demonstrates that Choniates's necessary dependence on oral evidence gathered some 55 years after the events recalled, and the manner in which he interpreted the fall of Constantinople in 1204 as an act of divine retribution, produces a highly distorted history of the events in 1147.
Research Interests: Late Antique and Byzantine History, Late Antique and Byzantine Studies, Byzantine Literature, Crusades, Byzantine Studies, and 8 moreHistory of Crusades, Byzantine History, Byzantium, Crusades and the Latin East, Byzantine historiography, Second Crusade, CRUSADER KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM, and Niketas Choniates
The main aims of this article are threefold. It initially seeks to address two popular misconceptions frequently found in crusade histories and general histories of the Byzantine empire concerning the Turkish invasion and settlement of... more
The main aims of this article are threefold. It initially seeks to address two popular
misconceptions frequently found in crusade histories and general histories of the Byzantine empire concerning the Turkish invasion and settlement of western Anatolia after the battle of Mantzikert in 1071. The article maintains that blurring the distinctions between the Seljuk Turks of Rum and the tribes of pastoral nomads or rather transhumants who came to be known as Türkmens or Turcomans is incorrect. The oft-repeated assumption that the Seljuk Turks of Baghdad oversaw the Turkish conquest of Anatolia is addressed when tracing the unstructured nature of the Turkish migration and the subsequent lack of unity amongst the invaders. After providing the context of the Turkish settlement in western Anatolia, the article throws new light on the relative ease with which the armies of the First Crusade traversed the Anatolian plateau and Byzantine forces compelled the speedy capitulation of Turkish towns and territories along the western coastal plains and
river valleys of Anatolia in 1097 and 1098 respectively.
misconceptions frequently found in crusade histories and general histories of the Byzantine empire concerning the Turkish invasion and settlement of western Anatolia after the battle of Mantzikert in 1071. The article maintains that blurring the distinctions between the Seljuk Turks of Rum and the tribes of pastoral nomads or rather transhumants who came to be known as Türkmens or Turcomans is incorrect. The oft-repeated assumption that the Seljuk Turks of Baghdad oversaw the Turkish conquest of Anatolia is addressed when tracing the unstructured nature of the Turkish migration and the subsequent lack of unity amongst the invaders. After providing the context of the Turkish settlement in western Anatolia, the article throws new light on the relative ease with which the armies of the First Crusade traversed the Anatolian plateau and Byzantine forces compelled the speedy capitulation of Turkish towns and territories along the western coastal plains and
river valleys of Anatolia in 1097 and 1098 respectively.
Research Interests:
During the course of the Second Crusade in 1147, an army nominally led by King Conrad III of Germany advanced through the Balkan provinces of the Byzantine Empire en route to Constantinople. It has long been held that the German march... more
During the course of the Second Crusade in 1147, an army nominally led by King Conrad III of Germany advanced through the Balkan provinces of the Byzantine Empire en route to Constantinople. It has long been held that the German march through Byzantine territory and the crusaders’ stay outside the Byzantine capital posed significant threats to Constantinople’s security, were characterised by gratuitous plunder and destruction, and that they gave rise to mutual hostility between Conrad III and the Byzantine emperor, Manuel I Komnenos. These conventional notions stem from the work of Bernard Kugler, Ferdinand Chalandon and Steven Runciman, and they are heavily dependent upon literal readings of the Latin text of Odo of Deuil and the Greek narratives of Niketas Choniates and John Kinnamos in particular. This article will highlight a number of obvious concerns with the well-known Greek sources including the lack of supporting data for the testimonies they provide and the ways in which rhetorical conventions and the authors’ agenda influence their evidence. Through the exposition of two Greek verse encomia composed by the so-called ‘Manganeios Prodromos’, the article takes particular issue with John Kinnamos’s testimony. As will be seen, an appreciation of the eulogistic aims and rhetorical methods of the verse encomiasts, and an understanding of the ways in which the encomiastic rhetorical tradition is evident throughout the Greek narratives are essential to an interpretation of the Germans’ advance in the Byzantine empire.
Research Interests:
This book represents the first work of history dedicated to the crusade of King Conrad III of Germany (1146-1148), emperor-elect of the Western Roman Empire and the most powerful man yet to assume the Cross. Scrutinising and expounding... more
This book represents the first work of history dedicated to the crusade of King Conrad III of Germany (1146-1148), emperor-elect of the Western Roman Empire and the most powerful man yet to assume the Cross. Scrutinising and expounding the original source evidence to an unparalleled degree, and employing a range of innovative, multi-disciplinary approaches, this work challenges the traditional and more recent historiography at every turn leading to a significantly clearer and appreciably different understanding of the expedition’s complex and much-maligned history.
Research Interests: Anatolian Studies, Crusades, Anatolian History, Turkish and Middle East Studies, Byzantine Studies, and 15 moreHistory of Crusades, Byzantine History, Seljuks (Islamic History), Anatolia, Byzantium, Crusades and the Latin East, Medieval Germany, Turkish Studies, Medieval Warfare, Germany, Medieval Diplomacy, CRUSADER KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM, Manuel I Komnenos, Turkey Seljuks, and BYZANTIUM AND THE WEST
A seminal article published by Giles Constable in 1953 focused on the genesis and expansion in the scope of the Second Crusade, with particular attention to what has become known as the Syrian campaign. His central thesis maintained that... more
A seminal article published by Giles Constable in 1953 focused on the genesis and expansion in the scope of the Second Crusade, with particular attention to what has become known as the Syrian campaign. His central thesis maintained that by the spring of 1147 the Church ‘viewed and planned’ the Second Crusade as a general Christian offensive against the Muslims of Syria and the Iberian Peninsula and the pagan Wends of the southern Baltic lands. Constable’s work remains extremely influential and provides the framework for the recent major works published on this extraordinary twelfth-century phenomenon. This volume aims to readdress scholarly predilections for concentrating on the venture in the Near East and for narrowly focusing on the accepted targets of the crusade. It aims instead to place established, contentious, and new events and concepts associated with the enterprise in a wider ideological, chronological, geopolitical, and geographical context.
Research Interests: Late Antique and Byzantine History, Late Antique and Byzantine Studies, Byzantine Literature, Crusades, Byzantine Studies, and 8 moreHistory of Crusades, Byzantine History, Byzantium, Crusades and the Latin East, Byzantine historiography, Second Crusade, CRUSADER KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM, and Byzantine history and archaeology
Authoritative and incisive, and spanning centuries and vast geographical distances, this beautifully illustrated book brings to life the incredible variety and richness of the crusaders’ material worlds. It sets the new standard for... more
Authoritative and incisive, and spanning centuries and vast geographical distances, this beautifully illustrated book brings to life the incredible variety and richness of the crusaders’ material worlds. It sets the new standard for entry-level books on the crusades.
Research Interests:
Remembering the Crusades in Medieval Texts and Songs is a slender volume published under the auspices of The Journal of Religious History, Literature and Culture. The seven short articles reflect the interests of a generation of scholars... more
Remembering the Crusades in Medieval Texts and Songs is a slender volume published under the auspices of The Journal of Religious History, Literature and Culture. The seven short articles reflect the interests of a generation of scholars and friends trained at UK universities who seek here to contribute to a very recent trend in crusade scholarship and wider interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary areas of research that pursue a greater understanding of the interrelationship between culture and memory.
Research Interests: Medieval Studies, Crusades, Historical memory, Memory Studies, Cultural Memory, and 14 moreCommemoration and Memory, Medieval Europe, History of Crusades, Medieval Culture, History of Religion (Medieval Studies), Manuscripts (Medieval Studies), Chivalry (Medieval Studies), Crusades and the Latin East, History of the Crusades, First Crusade, Crusaders, Nostalgia and Memory, CRUSADER KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM, and History of the Crusades and the Latin East
This is a volume of essays that utilise a variety of source material and a range of approaches and methodologies, some that seek to advance debate in core areas, and others that might well open new vistas for future research. Much like... more
This is a volume of essays that utilise a variety of source material and a range of approaches and methodologies, some that seek to advance debate in core areas, and others that might well open new vistas for future research. Much like Professor France’s own work, the fifteen essays address a wide variety of topics that span an impressive chronological and thematic range, although, perhaps rather fittingly, there is a concentration of essays that in one way or another address the military history of the First Crusade, to which so much is owed to John France. Dr John and Dr Morton are to be congratulated on producing a fine celebration of Professor France’s sustained contribution to the history of crusading and warfare in the middle ages.
Research Interests: Crusades, Medieval Islam, History of the Mongol Empire, Byzantium, Crusades and the Latin East, and 11 moreCrusader States, Medieval Warfare, History of the Crusades, First Crusade, Military Orders, Third Crusade, Medieval Anatolia (Seljuk, Mongol), CRUSADER KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM, Historical Studies, African medieval history, and Medieval Siege Warfare
In the popular imagination, the First Crusaders are often considered religious fanatics bent on killing Muslims and destroying Islam; the First Crusade (1095–1099), in other words, is popularly conceived as a “head-to-head confrontation... more
In the popular imagination, the First Crusaders are often considered religious fanatics bent on killing Muslims and destroying Islam; the First Crusade (1095–1099), in other words, is popularly conceived as a “head-to-head confrontation between the forces of Christianity and Islam” as the sleeve to Encountering Islam on the First Crusade notes. Nicholas Morton sets out to debunk this binary notion of the First Crusade by examining what Latin Christians actually knew – and did not know – about the Islamic and partly Islamised peoples encountered by the First Crusaders.
Research Interests: Christianity, Near Eastern Studies, Medieval History, Anatolian Studies, Middle East Studies, and 15 moreHistory of Christianity, Medieval Studies, Crusades, Turkish and Middle East Studies, Islamic Studies, Medieval Europe, History of Crusades, Islamic History, Islam, Medieval Islamic History, Christian-Muslim Dialogue, Crusades and the Latin East, History of the Crusades, First Crusade, and Muslims
This volume provides clear challenges to the paradigm of the decline and destruction of Byzantine Christianity in Asia Minor at the hands of marauding Turkish raiders that was firmly established by Speros Vryonis in his The Decline of... more
This volume provides clear challenges to the paradigm of the decline and destruction of Byzantine Christianity in Asia Minor at the hands of marauding Turkish raiders that was firmly established by Speros Vryonis in his The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor and the Process of Islamization from the Eleventh through the Fifteenth Century (Berkeley, CA, 1971). The volume is therefore a substantial contribution to our understanding of Muslim–Christian interaction on the Anatolian peninsula during the medieval period. The process of the Islamisation of Anatolia remains enigmatic, but the scholarly strength of the types of micro-histories contained in a multi-disciplinary volume such as this can overturn grand theoretical edifices such as that created by Vryonis. The editors are to be applauded for demonstrating the potential of multidimensional approaches to studying the complex historical transformation that is the Islamisation of Anatolia.
Research Interests: Christianity, Late Antique and Byzantine History, Anatolian Studies, Anatolian Archaeology, Anatolian History, and 15 moreByzantine Studies, Islamic Studies, Anatolian Languages, Byzantine History, Byzantine Archaeology, Islam in Turkey, Anatolia, Anatolian Archaeology (Archaeology), Byzantium, Late Antiquity and Byzantium (History and Art), Arab-Islamic History and Civilization and their relations with Byzantium, Ottoman Anatolia (1200-1500) Comparative empire, Byzantine history and archaeology, Byzantium and Islam, and Seljuk, Mongol, post-Mongol, and Ottoman Anatolia (1200-1500)
Aimed at undergraduates and their teachers, Jarbel Rodriguez’s Muslim and Christian Contact in the Middle Ages: A Reader has brought together translations of over 90 documents and excerpts of texts originally composed by Muslim, Latin,... more
Aimed at undergraduates and their teachers, Jarbel Rodriguez’s Muslim and Christian Contact in the Middle Ages: A Reader has brought together translations of over 90 documents and excerpts of texts originally composed by Muslim, Latin, Byzantine and Jewish authors. The collection shines brilliant lights on the multifarious interfaith contacts of the Mediterranean world from the rise of Islam through to the end of the Middle Ages.
Research Interests: Medieval History, Medieval Studies, Crusades, Medieval Islam, Medieval Iberian History, and 14 moreMediterranean Studies, History of Crusades, History of the Mediterranean, Medieval Christianity, Crusades and the Latin East, Medieval Spain, Crusader States, Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations in the Middle Ages, History of the Crusades, History of Southern Italy, CRUSADER KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM, History of the Crusades and the Latin East, Normans in Southern Italy, and Medieval Southern Italy and Sicily
The Northern Network for the Study of the Crusades seeks papers for a strand on ‘Borders’ at the Leeds International Medieval Congress, 2022. Researchers at all stages of the careers and institutional affiliations are encouraged to send... more
The Northern Network for the Study of the Crusades seeks
papers for a strand on ‘Borders’ at the Leeds International
Medieval Congress, 2022. Researchers at all stages of the
careers and institutional affiliations are encouraged to send
proposals, as are medievalists of all fields interested in the
theory and practice of borders in all of their variety as they
relate to the history of the crusades and associated fields of
enquiry.
papers for a strand on ‘Borders’ at the Leeds International
Medieval Congress, 2022. Researchers at all stages of the
careers and institutional affiliations are encouraged to send
proposals, as are medievalists of all fields interested in the
theory and practice of borders in all of their variety as they
relate to the history of the crusades and associated fields of
enquiry.
Research Interests:
Friday 28th Feb 2020, Nottingham Trent University We invite proposals for 20-minute papers from postgraduate, ECR and established scholars from the fields of history, literature, art history, archaeology, music or any other relevant... more
Friday 28th Feb 2020, Nottingham Trent University
We invite proposals for 20-minute papers from
postgraduate, ECR and established scholars from the
fields of history, literature, art history, archaeology,
music or any other relevant discipline. The NNSC
links together scholars working on all aspects of the
Crusades in the Midlands and the North of England
but proposals are welcomed from anyone currently
working on a related topic. Papers may consider any
aspect or area of crusading activity, with a special
emphasis on those which explore the theory and
practice of Borders, Margins, and Interfaces in all of
their variety as they relate to the history of the
crusades and associated fields of enquiry.
We invite proposals for 20-minute papers from
postgraduate, ECR and established scholars from the
fields of history, literature, art history, archaeology,
music or any other relevant discipline. The NNSC
links together scholars working on all aspects of the
Crusades in the Midlands and the North of England
but proposals are welcomed from anyone currently
working on a related topic. Papers may consider any
aspect or area of crusading activity, with a special
emphasis on those which explore the theory and
practice of Borders, Margins, and Interfaces in all of
their variety as they relate to the history of the
crusades and associated fields of enquiry.
Research Interests: Crusades, Crusader Archaeology, History of Crusades, Crusades and the Latin East, Crusader States, and 14 moreHistory of the Crusades, Crusader Art and Architecture, First Crusade, Baltic Crusade, Later Crusades, Late Medieval History: Military Orders, Crusades, Ecclesiastical History, Crusaders, Third Crusade, Fourth Crusade, CRUSADER KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM, History of the Crusades and the Latin East, Literatures and Cultures of the Crusades, Crusader Jerusalem, and Fifth Crusade
The Northern Network for the Study of the Crusades seeks papers for a strand on ‘Borders’ at the Leeds International Medieval Congress, 2020. Papers from researchers at all stages of the careers and institutional affiliations are... more
The Northern Network for the Study of the Crusades seeks papers for a strand on ‘Borders’ at the Leeds International Medieval Congress, 2020. Papers from researchers at all stages of the careers and institutional affiliations are encouraged to send proposals, as are medievalists of all fields interested in the theory and practice of borders in all of their variety as they relate to the history of the crusades and associated fields of enquiry.
Research Interests: Border Studies, Crusades, History of Crusades, Frontier History, Borderlands Studies, and 14 moreFrontier Studies, Crusades and the Latin East, Crusading, Borders, History of the Crusades, Borders and Frontiers, Border and Frontier Dynamics, Borderlands, History of Frontiers, Frontier, Borders and Borderlands, CRUSADER KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM, FRONTIERS, and Comparative Frontiers
The Northern Network for the Study of the Crusades @nnscrusades seeks papers for a strand on ‘Materialities’ and the Crusades' at Leeds International Medieval Congress 2019.
Research Interests:
Fulcher of Chartres famously remarked of early twelfth century western settlers in the Crusader States: 'we who were Occidentals now have been made Orientals'. He described the processes of acculturation which had led to this... more
Fulcher of Chartres famously remarked of early twelfth century western settlers in the Crusader States: 'we who were Occidentals now have been made Orientals'. He described the processes of acculturation which had led to this transformation of collective identity, including intermarriage and the acquisition of wealth and property. This highlights the fertile ground which crusading activities and their impact offer for explorations of the construction and performance of medieval identities. Both individual and collective identities were the product of a range of socio-cultural factors, such as age, gender, status, religion, nationality and ethnicity, among others. Identity could be self-fashioned through experience and conduct, but was also imposed on individuals and groups. This symposium aims to bring together medievalists working in a range of disciplines to consider the ways in which both individual and collective identities were forged or changed by going on crusade, or by engaging with crusaders. It also seeks to examine the role of identity in determining the nature of an individual or group's experience of crusading. We invite proposals for 20 minute papers from postgraduate, ECR and established scholars from the fields of history, literature, art history, archaeology, music or any other relevant discipline. We also welcome the submission of poster presentations which will be displayed at the symposium. Papers may consider any aspect or area of crusading activity from the late eleventh to the sixteenth centuries, and might consider issues such as: The nature and construction of crusader identities. The expression of crusader identities via conduct, dress, the production of literary and material culture, etc. The influence of specific aspects of identity on the experience of crusading (e.g. age, gender, status, etc). The role of crusading in defining or supporting other aspects of identity (e.g. devotion, masculinity, family and lineage). The role of crusading in the adaptation or transformation of an individual's identity. Cross-cultural accounts and comparisons of specific aspects of individual or collective identity (e.g. religious, regional, ethnic). A title and 250 word abstract should be sent to Dr Katherine Lewis by 7 December 2018 k.lewis@hud.ac.uk Registration for the symposium will be free and will include refreshments and lunch.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Northern Network for the Study of the Crusades February 2021 Seminar
Research Interests: Crusades, Mongolian Studies, History of Mongolia, History of the Mongol Empire, History of Crusades, and 15 moreSeljuks (Islamic History), Mongols, Crusades and the Latin East, History of the Crusades, Mongolia, Mongol, Mongolian and Central Asian Studies, Medieval Anatolia (Seljuk, Mongol), Art History-Seljuk art, Mongol world empire Seljuk, Mongolic Studies, Mongolian history, Turkey Seljuks, Great Seljuk Empire, and Seljuk, Mongol, post-Mongol, and Ottoman Anatolia (1200-1500)
These three panels interrogate the reality of movement and mobility in the Middle Ages adopting a longue durée perspective. Considering both a wide range of source material and immediate contexts, the panels are designed to allow... more
These three panels interrogate the reality of movement and mobility in the Middle Ages adopting a longue durée perspective. Considering both a wide range of source material and immediate contexts, the panels are designed to allow discussion between and across both chronological and geographical boundaries but at the same time permit detailed consideration of specific localities and contexts. How did individuals on the ground perceive and understand movement in the Mediterranean world? What does this tell us about the responses of both societies and individuals to those who moved through and between the spheres of a multidimensional Mediterranean? These are the key questions which these three panels will approach and discuss
Research Interests: Medieval History, Crusades, Early Medieval History, Papacy (Medieval Church History), Medieval Italy, and 7 moreMedieval Mediterranean, First Crusade, Lombard Italy, Trade and travel in medieval Europe and the Mediterranean, Mediaeval Cult of Relics and Saints, Henry II of England, and Barbarian Law
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Islamic State propaganda manipulated and combined a culturally embedded sense of Islamic history with a heady, potent mixture of classical and radical apocalyptic, and real and supposed Islamic authority, both sacred and profane. Tapping... more
Islamic State propaganda manipulated and combined a culturally embedded sense of Islamic history with a heady, potent mixture of classical and radical apocalyptic, and real and supposed Islamic authority, both sacred and profane. Tapping into a widespread belief in the approach of the Last Hour, the group attempted to change an established “crusader master narrative” by giving “crusaders” and their “crusade” integral roles in Islamic sacred history and an impending Islamic State apocalypse.
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Remembering the Crusades in Medieval Texts and Songs is a slender volume published under the auspices of The Journal of Religious History, Literature and Culture. The seven short articles reflect t...
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This article offers a unique comparison of the descriptions of the Latin barbarians found mainly in the Greek sources for the First and Second Crusades with those of the ancient barbarians described in the works of the Byzantines’... more
This article offers a unique comparison of the descriptions of the Latin barbarians found mainly in the Greek sources for the First and Second Crusades with those of the ancient barbarians described in the works of the Byzantines’ favourite tragedian, Euripides. The Greek narratives of Anna Komnene, John Kinnamos and Niketas Choniates, to which should now be added little-known Greek verse encomia composed by so-called ‘Manganeios Prodromos’, are crucial to our understanding of the history of the crusades. Yet, until now, the fundamental reason these key texts portray the crusaders in the manner they do has not been fully exposed.
Research Interests: Late Antique and Byzantine History, Late Antique and Byzantine Studies, Byzantine Literature, Crusades, Byzantine Studies, and 12 moreHistory of Crusades, Byzantine History, Byzantium, Crusades and the Latin East, Byzantine historiography, Crusader States, History of the Crusades, First Crusade, Crusaders, CRUSADER KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM, History of the Crusades and the Latin East, and Byzantine history and archaeology
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The Second Crusade (1145-49) is thought to have encompassed near simultaneous Christian attacks on Muslim towns and cities in Syria and Iberia and pagan Wend strongholds around the southern shore of the Baltic Sea. The motivations... more
The Second Crusade (1145-49) is thought to have encompassed near simultaneous Christian attacks on Muslim towns and cities in Syria and Iberia and pagan Wend strongholds around the southern shore of the Baltic Sea. The motivations underpinning the attacks on Damascus, Lisbon and – taken collectively – the Wendish strongholds have come in for particular attention. The doomed decision to assault Damascus in 1148 rather than recover Edessa, the capital of the first so-called crusader state, was once thought to be ill-conceived. Historians now believe the city was attacked because Damascus posed a significant threat to the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem when the Second Crusaders arrived in the East. The assault on Lisbon and the Wendish strongholds fell into a long-established pattern of regional, worldly aggression and expansion; therefore, historians tend not to ascribe any spiritual impulses behind the native Christians’ decisions to attack their enemies. Indeed, the siege of Lisbon by a...