The First Crusade: The Call from the East

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE SILK ROADS

‘Filled with Byzantine intrigue, in every sense this book is important, compellingly revisionist and impressive in its scholarly use of totally fresh sources’ Simon Sebag Montefiore

In 1096, an expedition of extraordinary scale and ambition set off from Western Europe on a mass pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Three years later, after a journey which saw acute hardship, the most severe dangers and thousands of casualties, the knights of the First Crusade found themselves storming the fortifications and capturing the Holy City. Against all the odds, the expedition had returned Jerusalem to Christian hands.

In ‘the most significant contribution to rethinking the origins and course of the First Crusade for a generation’ (Mark Whittow, TLS), Frankopan paints a strikingly original picture of this infamous confrontation between Christianity and Islam. Focusing on Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire, a truly fresh interpretation of a very old story emerges that radically alters our understanding of the entire crusade movement.

Review

Frankopan has written a remarkable book that makes as strong case as the incomplete and episodic evidence permits ― Literary Review

Scholarly and yet accessible, and unashamedly partisan, The First Crusade, as any vibrant history should, is bound to set a lot of feathers flying ― Daily Telegraph

A dazzling book, perfectly combining deep scholarship and easy readability. The most important addition to Crusading literature since Runciman

A nuanced and often counterintuitive story of power politics, international diplomacy and war and, ultimately that very rare thing – a truly fresh interpretation of an old story ― Time Out

Frankopan’s qualities as a historian and writer are of a high order ― BBC History Magazine

About the Author

Peter Frankopan is currently Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College, Oxford and Faculty Fellow in Medieval and Modern Greek at Oxford University. He is Director-designate of the Centre for Byzantine Studies at Oxford. He took a First in History at Jesus College, Cambridge and completed his doctorate at Oxford, where he was Senior Scholar at Corpus Christi College, and Junior Research Fellow at Worcester College. He has lectured at leading universities all over the world, including at Cambridge, Yale, Harvard, NYU, King’s College London, the Institute of Historical Research and at Princeton. His work has been widely published in leading academic journals, including English Historical Review, Journal of Medieval History, Crusades, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies and in many edited volumes. His revised translation of The Alexiad by Anna Komnene was published in 2009.