God's Battalions

About this book

The truth about the Christian Crusades and Muslim Jihad.Rodney Stark reconstructs the centuries of military expansion that absorbed Christian North Africa, Egypt, and Spain. Western pilgrims bound for Jerusalem faced robbery, captivity, and the desecration of sacred shrines.The book examines the heads of noble houses who bankrupted their estates to fund the long march east. European defenders deployed heavy cavalry and crossbows to preserve the embattled kingdom of Jerusalem. First Crusade: How Pope Urban II's call at Clermont mobilized French and Norman nobility to march over two thousand miles and breach the fortified walls of Antioch and Jerusalem. Byzantine Empire: Imperial defense of Constantinople against early caliphate sieges, relying on massive multi-tiered stone walls and naval deployments of Greek fire. Middle Ages: Agricultural and transport revolutions across Europe, from moldboard plows and three-field crop rotations to high-backed saddles and deadly crossbow units. Knights Templars: The origins of elite monastic warrior orders established to protect pilgrim routes, finance fortresses across Outremer, and field heavily armored cavalry. Also by This Author: The Rise of Christianity, Cities of God and Discovering God.