The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World (review)

This collection originated in a symposium held at Dunbarton Oaks in May, 1997. The fifteen papers printed here range over such issues as holy war, relations between Byzantium and other peoples, commercial relations with Latins and Muslims, and western influences on art and architecture. The volume opens with an introduction on "The Historiography of the Crusades" by Giles Constable. This essay is especially valuable since the last forty years have witnessed major changes in the study of the crusades, many of which have come quite recently. Not even the fundamental idea of crusade has escaped revision in the works of scholars like Hans Eberhard Mayer, Joshua Prawer, Jean Richard, [End Page 112] Jonathan Riley-Smith, and Christopher Tyerman. The work of some Byzantinists has also contributed to a better understanding of the place of the crusades in the history of the empire. This has been especially true of the work of Ralph-Johannes Lilie, Paul Magdalino, and a number of the contributors to this collection. But it is fair to say that Byzantine scholarship has, in the past, been too concerned about emphasizing its uniqueness, even to the point of overlooking the often close relations between East and West. Of course, there were differences, but these have too often swallowed up essential pieces of a complex history in which common needs brought about co-operation. While many of the essays in this volume make substantial contributions in specific areas, their agenda still lags behind recent trends in crusade historiography.