The Atlas of the Crusades: The Only Full Mapped Chronicle of the Crusades

The editor, Jonathan Riley-Smith, emeritus Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Cambridge University, is without a doubt the world's leading expert on the crusades, and this atlas reflects his mastery of the field. He chose first-rate historians as contributors, and his choice of topics for some of his chapters (e.g. "The Home Front" and "Settlers, Traders and Missionaries," "and "Crusading in a Changing World") reflect both his "pluralist" perspective (the crusades involved much more than the military campaigns in the Levant from 1096 to 1291) and his conviction that crusade history is so much more than campaigns, military strategy, and battlefield tactics. What is more, the maps and illustrations are first-rate. Do not waste your money on third-rate competition; buy this atlas. You will not be disappointed.

I 'borrowed' this book from my school library many years ago and have loved it ever since. It combines wonderful maps with insightful charts and symbols detailing every aspect of the crusades from weapons used to the political ranks of the Muslim rulers. This book details every crusade, from the first in 1099 that captured Jerusalum, to the last ones that were foguth in places as distant as north Africa and even on crusade that only sucededed in capturing Byzantium. There are other historical atlas's and even another atlas of the crusades but this is the superior volume. THis volume illimunate the crusades in a new way and help you understand the propoganda that claims they were wrong and for greed. In fact the crusades were a response to Islamic aggression whereby Christian chruchs were destroyed in the holy land and christians enslaved. The Crusades helped resuce the holy land and this book will help you understand the truth that during this time christians still lived in the middle east, like the Armenians.This book will help you understand the claims christianity has to maintaining a presence in the holy land.

"The Atlas of the Crusades" is one of my all time favorite books. While it's enormously helpful to the specialist, the book is also a perfect introduction to the Crusades -- visually describing this interesting historical phenomenon from beginning to end. Beyond the route maps which can be found in every atlas of the Middle Ages, this book has everything from birds-eye views of Acre and Constantinople to the layout of Crusader castles, churches, and villages, to a schematic diagram of the Mamluk Chain of Command. You can't go wrong adding this to your library.

Twenty-one historians under the guidance of Jonathan Riley-Smith have provided us with an invaluable resource for the crusades. This atlas offers 150+ pages of beautiful maps punctuated with painstaking detail -- geographical features, historical dates, battle sites, travel routes, castles & fortresses, monasteries & holy sites, cities & towns -- all set against the backdrop of splendid color plating. The expeditions to the holy lands (1095-1291 CE) are charted in great detail, as well as the campaigns in Spain and the Baltic region. This provides for a collective 500-year time period (1000's-1500's CE) of the crusades. One's knowledge of medieval Christendom and the Islamic world will be strengthened beyond measure by this handsome tome. It reflects highly specialized research and is a tool for students and professors alike. Definitely worth $40.00 Riley-Smith is today's top crusades historian whose works have rivaled even Runciman's three-volume classic. Four textual sections in the atlas briefly present Riley-Smith's newer theories which depict crusaders as zealous pilgrims (not colonial boors), motivated by ideology (more than land and booty). There were few rewards to be won in Palestine, people knew it, and the costs involved in embarking on a crusade were astronomical. We certainly don't accept the crusading world-view today, but we are obligated to understand it and describe it as accurately as we can. Riley-Smith has done so, and this atlas stands as a monument to his scholarship of the past three decades.

The maps are wonderful. They are well-researched and provide an overview of the Crusades, along with all the peripheral things going on in the world of the Middle Ages. The text gives a good objective summary of events, which is difficult to find elsewhere in sources on the Crusades. Riley-Smith has chosen his topics well, including aspects of specific cultures of the time. He achieves a vivid picture of the political, economic, and social life of the time in all of the world's hot spots. This perhaps does not give the most comprehensive picture possible, since it does not take into account conflicting primary sources on the Crusades, but Riley-Smith achieves his goal. Readers looking for more information can easily find other sources; the Atlas of the Crusades is an excellent supplement to these and does a good job pulling them together.