The Crusades In 100 Objects
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The Crusades in 100 Objects
For half a millennium, throughout almost the entire medieval period, the Catholic church sanctioned military campaigns against what it perceived as its enemies. The rise of Islam and its spread across large parts of the Middle East, Asia, North Africa and even the peripheries of Europe, saw Muslim warriors seize the Holy Land, occupy Jerusalem and threaten Constantinople. In response, Pope Urban II advocated a crusade to retake the Holy Land – the first of nine military campaigns that stretched over the succeeding 200 years. Other, lesser-known crusades were subsequently mounted with the aim of Christianising the more remote regions of northern and north-eastern Europe, as well as against the Cathars in southern France. The advance of the Ottomans into the Balkans saw further crusades to halt the Muslims in Bosnia and Serbia, and the re-conquest of Spain from the Muslim Moors. Such diverse theatres of conflict have resulted in an equally diverse number of relics still to be found in a score of countries. From magnificent castles, swords, artillery and coats of arms, to Crusader-struck coins and even the brass pen box used by Muslim writers to spread the word of Islam, this remarkable collection of artefacts and structures tells the story, much of it largely forgotten, of the conflicts which shaped the nature of the Western World known today, both in spiritual and geographical terms. Beautifully illustrated and written by acknowledged period expert James Waterson, The Crusades in 100 Objects opens a window into the past as never seen before.
A History of the World in 100 Objects
This book takes a dramatically original approach to the history of humanity, using objects which previous civilisations have left behind them, often accidentally, as prisms through which we can explore past worlds and the lives of the men and women who lived in them. The book's range is enormous. It begins with one of the earliest surviving objects made by human hands, a chopping tool from the Olduvai gorge in Africa, and ends with an object from the 21st century which represents the world we live in today. Neil MacGregor's aim is not simply to describe these remarkable things, but to show us their significance - how a stone pillar tells us about a great Indian emperor preaching tolerance to his people, how Spanish pieces of eight tell us about the beginning of a global currency or how an early Victorian tea-set tells us about the impact of empire. Each chapter immerses the reader in a past civilisation accompanied by an exceptionally well-informed guide. Seen through this lens, history is a kaleidoscope - shifting, interconnected, constantly surprising, and shaping our world today in ways that most of us have never imagined. An intellectual and visual feast, it is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books published in years.
The Middle Ages in 50 Objects
The holy and the faithful -- The sinful and the spectral -- Daily life and its fictions -- Death and its aftermath