Islam at War: A History

30 ISLAM AT WAR and sand at their back, more able in these circumstances to fight as indi- vidual warriors than their enemies we ...

THE GREAT CONQUESTS 31 coast. The first tentative expedition set out with only 3,500 men, crossing the frontier in late winter 6 ...

32 ISLAM AT WAR troops sat waiting at Pelusium, Theodore, the governor of the province, had moved troopships down the Nile and c ...

THE GREAT CONQUESTS 33 an unhappy affair that left the throne in the hands of weak and temporary rulers. The empire was wracked ...

34 ISLAM AT WAR of the second. This amazing feat was accomplished by previously disor- ganized and unruly tribal nomads who lack ...

THE GREAT CONQUESTS 35 633–34 Three Arab columns march on Syria. 634 Damascus is occupied and lost. 634 Muthanna commands on the ...

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Chapter 3 ISLAM AND THE CRUSADES InA.D. 1071, Alp Arslan led his Seljuq Turks to victory at the Battle of Manzikert in what woul ...

38 ISLAM AT WAR When the western troops came to the Eastern Empire, they would come with an idea different from Alexius’s. They ...

ISLAM AND THE CRUSADES 39 the first major engagement in a series of wars that would last for nearly two hundred years. It was al ...

40 ISLAM AT WAR mascus, and one from Aleppo, were defeated. After a desperate defense of six months, the city fell to treachery. ...

ISLAM AND THE CRUSADES 41 newcomers was nothing new. The lands where the crusader kingdoms were being built had been captured mo ...

42 ISLAM AT WAR troops from the front, in the tradition of the Turkish warrior caste. He was among the first Turkish rulers in S ...

ISLAM AND THE CRUSADES 43 Zangi. In July 1139 Mahmud was murdered, but before Zangi could take control of the city, the old Cali ...

44 ISLAM AT WAR Nur-al-Din took the city in April 1154. He struck no blow, but simply presented himself as the champion of the p ...

ISLAM AND THE CRUSADES 45 Shirkuh’s army was out of position, and the first Frankish attack was successful at capturing Bilbeis. ...

46 ISLAM AT WAR ful, generous, and highly intelligent man. Like all of his contemporary warlords, his ultimate goal was personal ...

ISLAM AND THE CRUSADES 47 of France. Richard actually defeated Saladin in a pitched battle, one of the few fights that Saladin l ...

48 ISLAM AT WAR alism, an idea that fit conveniently into the propaganda of the Cold War. In actuality, the Crusades hardly fit ...

ISLAM AND THE CRUSADES 49 traumatized a people who saw God as being on the side of the victors. How God could allow the lands of ...