his book appears to be the definitive
volume of cartography on the Crusades. Dr Riley-Smith and a team of very
learned historians have put forward a complete set of maps, diagrams, and
supplementary data to give the reader a concise, yet thorough picture of
the fantastic era of the Crusades.
o the person interested in Templars
there are the following maps: The Templars and Hospitallers; The Defence
of Latin East; Success in Spain and Portugal; Saladin's Conquests; The Crusader
States; Acre: a Crusading City (with a very detailed picture of the city);
The Fall of the Templars. Of course, the other maps (52 in total) provide
a wealth of data, but for a Templar buff, these named maps are a treasure
trove.
he Crusades have often been seen as
a relatively insignificant period of skirmishes and bloodletting from involuntary
persons. Nothing could be further from the truth, and this book goes a long
way to explain just why it is so. The Crusades were a vital period in the
forming of the Western culture as we know it today. The whole complex web
of events is unfurled before the eyes of the reader, who after this book
has a much larger picture of the chain of events in the Crusades.
