The Crusades is an authoritative, accessible single-volume history of the brutal struggle for the Holy Land in the Middle Ages. Thomas Asbridge—a renowned historian who writes with “maximum vividness” (Joan Acocella, The New Yorker)—covers the years 1095 to 1291 in this  big, ambitious, readable account of one of the most fascinating periods in history. From Richard the Lionheart to the mighty Saladin, from the emperors of Byzantium to the Knights Templar, Asbridge’s book is a magnificent epic of Holy War between the Christian and Islamic worlds, full of adventure, intrigue, and sweeping grandeur.

• The Crusades Through Arab Eyes (Saqi Essentials)
• The First Crusade: A New History: The Roots of Conflict between Christianity and Islam
• Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages
• The Great Caliphs: The Golden Age of the 'Abbasid Empire
• The New Concise History of the Crusades (Critical Issues in World and International History)