At
the start of each month + Real Crusades History + brings you a review
of a book relevant to the crusades or the crusader states. Since this month marks the 840th anniversary of the Battle of Hattin, we thought a book on the events leading to that fateful battle would be a good topic.
Bartlett’s
"Downfall of the Crusader Kingdom: The Battle of Hattin and the Loss of
Jerusalem" is a first rate account of the events leading up to the fall of
the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Bartlett has clearly based his account on the sources, Christian and
Muslim, and he has a firm and balanced grasp of the history, yet he writes in a
fluid and comprehensible prose.
One great
strength of this book is its comprehensive approach. Bartlett explains the
critical importance of Byzantium’s waning strength upon the Kingdom of
Jerusalem. He reminds the reader of developments in Western Europe that
impacted crusading enthusiasm and so the resources of the kingdom. He touches
on economic factors of importance, and provides succinct and useful
descriptions of the comparative arms, armor and tactics of the antagonists. He is careful to stress the ethnic and
religious diversity of both the Christian kingdom and Saladin’s vast empire,
for neither the Christian Kingdom nor Saladin’s empire were monolithic but
rather fractured by many internal divisions.
Bartlett
is
particularly adept — unlike far too many academics — at putting himself
into
the shoes of his subjects and examining possible explanations of known
behavior
and their motives. In consequence, Bartlett avoids making demons and
saints out
of any of the actors. Saladin’s military
achievements and famed chivalry are duly noted and praised — but so are
his
mistakes, ruthlessness and occasional acts of barbarism. Guy de
Lusignan is rightly castigated for his
indecisiveness and weakness, but Bartlett also highlights his difficult
situation. The very complex character of
Raymond de Tripoli is thoughtfully analyzed and both his apologists and
detractors given their say, enabling a balanced analysis of his actions.
Balian d’Ibelin’s
significant role as a voice of reason, a mediator and an effective
defender of
Jerusalem is likewise highlighted. Only
in the case of Reynald de Chatillion and Gerard de Rideford does
Bartlett’s
objectivity break-down somewhat.
One small
weakness with the book is that Bartlett appears unfamiliar with Bernard
Hamilton’s well-argued thesis about the strategic utility of Chatillon’s acts
of aggression. Likewise, Bartlett seems to have confused the period at which
Isabella was forcibly separated from her mother (from the age of 8 to 11), and
so blithely glosses over this brutal act of power politics on the part of Agnes
de Courtney as a mere “mother-daughter spat.” He also did not benefit from more
recent studies on leprosy in the Middle Ages and so inaccurately suggests that
leprosy was seen as a punishment for sin when, particularly in the
Latin East, it was more often seen as a sign of God’s grace. Yet these are very
minor flaws in an otherwise excellent historical account written for the public
rather than the academic community.
While Malcolm Barber’s
The Crusader States is the more valuable reference book to the
student of Christian Jerusalem, Bartlett is far and above the better read. For anyone who is not — and does not want to
be — a specialist in the subject, Bartlett’s book provides a rapid,
comprehensive and on the whole accurate introduction to the main issues and
personalities of this fascinating period.
Dr Helena P. Schrader holds a PhD in History.
She is the Chief Editor of the Real Crusades History Blog.
She is the author of numerous books both fiction and non-fiction, including a three-part biography of Balian d'Ibelin.
Nice review. I'll think about this one.
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