Armies of Heaven
The First Crusade and the Quest for Apocalypse
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- $20.99
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
At Moson, the river Danube ran red with blood. At Antioch, the Crusaders -- their saddles freshly decorated with sawed-off heads -- indiscriminately clogged the streets with the bodies of eastern Christians and Turks. At Ma'arra, they cooked children on spits and ate them. By the time the Crusaders reached Jerusalem, their quest -- and their violence -- had become distinctly otherworldly: blood literally ran shin-deep through the streets as the Crusaders overran the sacred city.
Beginning in 1095 and culminating four bloody years later, the First Crusade represented a new kind of warfare: holy, unrestrained, and apocalyptic. In Armies of Heaven, medieval historian Jay Rubenstein tells the story of this cataclysmic event through the eyes of those who witnessed it, emphasizing the fundamental role that apocalyptic thought played in motivating the Crusaders. A thrilling work of military and religious history, Armies of Heaven will revolutionize our understanding of the Crusades.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The years 1096-1099 marked a major turning point in the history of the Western world as Christian crusaders began their march toward Jerusalem in a quest to regain the holy city of Jerusalem from the Muslim invaders. Eight more crusades would follow, but this first effort left an indelible imprint on the historical record. Rubenstein, associate professor of medieval history at the University of Tennessee and a MacArthur Fellow "genius," insists that students of the period miss its real essence when they apply the accepted historical method of stripping away the myths and focusing on empirically provable facts. The author instead gives us a rich harvest of legends and writings from the period, often apocalyptic in nature, that give us a keener insight into the minds of those who lived these tumultuous years. Rubenstein offers up a heady mix of soldiers and prophets, militants and supplicants, weaving it all into a wonderfully readable account that puts flesh on the story. A satisfying and highly recommended read in every respect.
