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 *

Prizes: Short-listed for Gladstone History Book Prize 2013 (UK).