Books

The First Crusade

The Call from the East

In 1096, an expedition of extraordinary scale and ambition set off from Western Europe on a mass pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Three years later, after a journey which saw acute hardship, the most severe dangers and thousands of casualties, the knights of the First Crusade found themselves storming the fortifications and capturing the Holy City. Against all the odds, the expedition had returned Jerusalem to Christian hands.

Frankopan paints a strikingly original picture of this infamous confrontation between Christianity and Islam. Focusing on Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire, a truly fresh interpretation of a very old story emerges that radically alters our understanding of the entire crusade movement.

Peter’s book, The First Crusade: The Call from the East, was published to wide acclaim by Bodley Head (Penguin Random House) and Harvard University Press in 2012. Described as ‘an astonishing debut from a gifted young historian’, it was shortlisted for several prestigious awards, including the Criticos Prize and the Royal Historical Society’s Gladstone Prize.

Using sources from the east in Greek, Armenian, Arabic and Syriac that have been overlooked or ignored, Peter’s book sets out a new revolutionary story of one of the best known events in history that looks at the Crusades from Constantinople, capital city of the Byzantine Empire, Asia Minor and Palestine. It was hailed as ‘the most significant contribution to re-thinking the origins and causes of the First Crusade for a generation’ (TLS).

It has been translated into a dozen languages, including French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Polish, Italian, Vietnamese and Chinese.

‘A dazzling book, perfectly combining deep scholarship and easy readability’ John Julius Norwich

‘In every sense this book is important, compellingly revisionist and impressive in its scholarly use of totally fresh sources’ Simon Sebag-Montefiore