Ebook: Noble ideals and bloody realities: warfare in the middle ages

The contributions presented in this volume address several issues related to the topic of medieval warfare from a variety of disciplinary perspectives and examining a number of geographical regions. The contributors analyze social and economic issues, military strategy, technological and medical developments, ideology and rhetoric, and address warfare in Europe, the Byzantine Empire and the Muslim world. In three parts, the contributors explore warfare in theory, warfare in practice and warfare as perceived through medieval and modern historiography. In doing so, they present a number of engaging case studies that will be of use to students and scholars interested in warfare and its effects on medieval society.;Cover -- Contents -- LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS -- NOTES ON ARABIC TRANSLITERATION AND REFERENCES -- INTRODUCTION -- PART ONE. NOBLE IDEALS: PERCEPTIONS OF WARFARE -- "COLLATERAL DAMAGE?"; CIVILIAN CASUALTIES IN THE EARLY IDEOLOGIES OF CHIVALRY AND CRUSADE / David J. Hay -- MEDIEVAL WARFARE AND THE VALUE OF A HUMAN LIFE / Kelly DeVries -- RELIGIOUS CAMPAIGN OR WAR OF CONQUEST? MUSLIM VIEWS OF THE MOTIVES OF THE FIRST CRUSADE / Niall Christie -- PART TWO. BLOODY REALITIES: WAR IN PRACTICE -- THINKING ABOUT CRUSADER STRATEGY / John France -- THE TORTURE OF MILITARY CAPTIVES IN THE CRUSADES TO THE MEDIEVAL MIDDLE EAST / Piers D. Mitchell -- HOLY WAR, ROYAL WIVES, AND EQUIVOCATION IN TWELFTH-CENTURY JERUSALEM / Deborah Gerish -- ARMING THE ENEMY: NON-CHRISTIANS' ROLES IN THE MILITARY CULTURE OF THE CROWN OF ARAGON DURING THE RECONQUISTA / Paula R. Stiles -- COMMUNAL PIRACY IN MEDIEVAL ENGLAND'S CINQUE PORTS / David G. Sylvester -- WARTIME CORRUPTION AND COMPLAINTS OF THE ENGLISH PEASANTRY / Ilana Krug -- PART THREE. UNTO THE BREACH: RE-EXAMINING ISSUES IN MEDIEVAL AND MODERN MILITARY HISTORIOGRAPHY -- THE MILITARY REVOLUTION AND THE EARLY ISLAMIC STATE / Hugh Kennedy -- BYZANTIUM, THE RELUCTANT WARRIOR / Warren Treadgold -- REYNALD OF CHÂTILLON AND THE RED SEA EXPEDITION OF 1182-83 / Marcus Milwright -- INDEX.