Far more has been written about
the crusades than the states they established and supported. Yet it was the threat to the Christian states
that justified every crusade after the First. Furthermore, the crusader states
were catalysts for a number of key developments in Western Europe from dramatic
improvements in shipping to the exchange of goods, technology and ideas with
Constantinople and the Arab/Turkish world.
Indeed, historian Claude
Reignier Condor wrote at the end of the 19th Century that: “…the
result of the Crusades was the Renaissance.” (The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem 1099 to 1291 AD, The Committee of
Palestine Exploration Fund, 1897, p. 163.)
Professor Malcolm Barber, a
distinguished scholar who has already produced seminal works about the Templars
and Cathers, has produced a long overdue work that provides a comprehensive
history of the crusader states rather than the sporadic crusades. It is
meticulously researched and documented, as one would expect from a professor of
history, and as such is an invaluable reference work for anyone interested in
the period and indeed in the West’s presence in the Near East.
Whereas histories of the crusades
invariably focus on military campaigns and so on “aggression,” Barber reminds
us that the crusader states themselves were builders rather than destroyers.
Barber concludes his comprehensive history by noting that: the crusaders “pragmatic
approach to the challenge of providing for defense, administration and economic
development produced political entities which resist stereotyping…and
predetermined models.” He furthermore stresses that their accomplishments
cannot be reduced to military conquests but also “entailed the rebuilding and
embellishment of the holy shrines” and notes that they “ultimately produced
their own independent and vibrant culture.”
Barber draws on a wide range of
primary and secondary sources in Latin, Arabic, French, and German, and his
bibliography alone is a treasure trove for the historian. However, the very detail of his account tends
to slow the pace and complicate the flow of the narrative. This is more a
reference or a research resource than a good read.
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