Drawing on innovative scholarship, original research, and an intimate knowledge of the Levant, historian Thomas Asbridge sheds new light on the first crusade, from its inception to its bloody ending, and brings to focus the true nature of relations between Christendom and Islam and how it was transformed by the attack on the Holy Land.

The chilling reverberations of the brutal First Crusade still echo in the world today, as revealed in this gripping account of the titanic, three-year adventure. Maps.

Balances persuasive analysis with a flair for conveying with dramatic power the crusaders' plight throughout the nine-month siege of Antioch...should revitalize the study of this fascinating period in European history.