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The Principality of Antioch, including parts of modern-day Turkey and Syria, was one of the crusader states created during the First Crusade.

"The Presentation of the Franks in Selected Muslim Sources from the Crusades of the 12th Century  By Niall G. F. Christie Submitted for the Degree of M.Litt. in the University of St. Andrews (September, 1996)"

"Story of medieval England 19/36 Richard the Lionheart and the Third Crusade" VIDEO

A noble mission to free the holy land, or a gigantic expedition of plunder and murder? Some 900 years ago, 10,000 Christians answered the pope's call and set off for Jerusalem. We discuss the crusade that transformed relations with the Islamic world forever

t was at a speech made outside Clermont Ferrand that Pope Urban II called for a Crusade to claim the holy city of Jerusalem for Christianity, and wrest it from Islamic control. This was the start of a movement that continued, some historians argue, for over 500 years.

The weakness of the Crusader States in Outremer came mostly from their build up - the same feudal system that was used in France and Germany. The situation in Outremer, however, was not fitting for the feudal system despite the fact that the Muslim states used a system relatively similar.

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short bios of the major players in the Crusades

A Tumultuous Period The defeat of the Byzantines at Manzikert in 1071 ushered a period of upheavals in the region we call Middle East. For a while the Seljuk empire was dominant but that dominance was challenged by the Crusaders who over a period of nearly 200 years fought not only the Muslim powers but also the Byzantines. The first Mongol invasion in the early 1200's produced more upheavals and it was not until the mid 1300's that a power had risen that was eventually going to dominate the region. These were the Ottoman Turks. A second Mongol invasion in 1402 delayed their rise, but in 1453 the Ottomans took Constantinople and dominated the region until the 20th century.

TMS - God Wills It, Understanding the Crusades - Thomas F. Madden Download the lecture

Then our leaders planned to attack the city with machines, in order to enter it and adore the sepulchre of our Saviour. They made two wooden towers and many other machines. . . . Day and night on the fourth and fifth days of the week we vigorously attacked the city on all sides; but before we made our assault the bishops and priests persuaded all by their preaching and exhortation that a procession should be made round Jerusalem to God's honour, faithfully accompanied by prayers, alms and fasting. Early on the sixth day we attacked 19th century illustrator Gustave Dore's conception of the seige of Jerusalemthe city on all sides and could do nothing against it. We were all surprised and alarmed. Then, at the approach of the hour at which our Lord Jesus Christ deigned to undergo the passion of the cross for us, our knights in one of the towers fought bravely, amongst them Duke Godfrey and his brother, Count Eustace

Throughout the siege, attacks were made on the walls, but each one was repulsed. The Genoese troops, led by commander Guglielmo Embriaco, had previously dismantled the ships in which the Genoeses came to the Holy Land; Embriaco, using the ship's wood, made some siege towers. These were rolled up to the walls on the night of July 14 much to the surprise and concern of the garrison. On the morning of July 15, Godfrey's tower reached his section of the walls near the northeast corner gate, and according to the Gesta two Flemish knights from Tournai named Lethalde and Engelbert were the first to cross into the city, followed by Godfrey, his brother Eustace, Tancred, and their men. Raymond's tower was at first stopped by a ditch, but as the other crusaders had already entered, the Muslim guarding the gate surrende

links to images in Wikimedia commons related to the Crusades.

"Abstract: Peter the Hermit: Straddling the Boundaries of Lordship, Millennialism, and Heresy demonstrates how eleventh and early twelfth century wandering preachers established millennial spiritual lordship over their popular movements. Peter the Hermit's Popular Crusade exemplifies this."

"The deadly assault on Jacob's Ford was launched at dawn, on Thursday 29 August 1179. The leader of the attack was the the Muslim warrior Saladin, b.1137?-d.1193 (known as Salah ad-Din in Arabic), the Sultan of Egypt and history's great opponent of the Crusaders."

The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem (lat.: Ordo Equestris Sancti Sepulcri Hierosolymitani, OESSH) is a prestigious Catholic chivalric order of Knighthood that traces its roots to Duke Godfrey of Bouillon, principal leader of the First Crusade.

The word 'Assassin' was brought back from Syria by the Crusaders, and in time acquired the meaning of murderer. Originally it was applied to the members of a Muslim religious sect - a branch of the Ismailis, and the followers of a leader known as the Old Man of the Mountain. Their beliefs and their methods made them a by-word for both fanaticism and terrorism in Syria and Persia in the 11th and 12th centuries, and the subject of a luxuriant growth of myth and legend. In this book, Bernard Lewis begins by tracing the development of these legends in medieval and modern Europe and the gradual percolation of accurate knowledge concerning the Ismailis. He then examines the origins and activities of the sect, on the basis of contemporary Persian and Arabic sources, and against the background of Middle Eastern and Islamic history. In a final chapter he discusses some of the political, social and economic implications of the Ismailis, and examines the significance of the Assassins in the history of revolutionary and terrorist movements.

Crusader Castles in the Holy Land 1097-1192 

The Oxford history of the Crusades

A Genoese Perspective of the Third Crusade