Saladin

GOD WILLS IT,” cried the crowd gathered on November 18, 1095, in the northern French city of Clermont in direct response to Pope Urban II’s entreaty that they come to the aid of their Christian brethren in the east. The Byzantine emperor Alexius I Co

I left a personage out of my article last time. Saladin was not the commander of the force that took Egypt from the Fatimids. It was a guy named Shirkuh. Saladin was his nephew. When Shirkuh died, Saladin maneuvered to become the new commander of the

The famed Crusader Queen joined her husband King Louis VII for the Second Crusade, leading her own army and heading off in support of her uncle, Prince Raymond of Antioch, who had been requesting aid. An ambush on Mount Cadmus decimated their forces

For almost a year the mighty city of Acre held firm. Despite wave after wave of Christian knights pouring all their religious fervour and military might against its ancient walls, it had held back the tide and halted the progress of the foreign horde

The classic round shield design with a heavy boss in the centre continued to be popular for armoured fighters in Saladin’s army. For the cavalry, such a shield would mostly be of use for dismounted combat rather than while still on horseback. Materia

A short addendum to the last installment of this series. I lay in bed and actually READ the appropriate sections of Album’s Checklist of Islamic Coins, instead of just looking up coins in it. When I write about coins I tend to look at them from a “no

Romanus IV Diogenes is routed by the Turkish forces united under Sultan Alp Arslan (left). The Byzantines are routed and the emperor captured. Alexios I sends a delegation to Pope Urban II asking for mercenaries to help with the protection of Constan