The Field of Blood: The Battle for Aleppo and the Remaking of the Medieval Middle East by Nicholas Morton
The Field of Blood: The Battle for Aleppo and the Remaking of the Medieval Middle East by Nicholas Morton
During the First Crusade, Frankish armies swept across the Middle East, capturing major cities and setting up the Crusader States in the Levant. A sustained Western conquest of the region appeared utterly inevitable. Why, then, did the crusades ultimately fail?
To answer this question, historian Nicholas Morton focuses on a period of bitter conflict between the Franks and their Turkish enemies, when both factions were locked in a struggle for supremacy over the city of Aleppo. For the Franks, Aleppo was key to securing dominance over the entire region. For the Turks, this was nothing less than a battle for survival -- without Aleppo they would have little hope of ever repelling the European invaders. This conflict came to a head at the Battle of the Field of Blood in 1119.
Fought between tribal Turkish warriors on steppe ponies, Arab foot soldiers, Armenian bowmen, and European knights, the battle was the amphitheater into which the people of the Near East poured their full gladiatorial might. Carrying a piece of the True Cross before them, the Frankish army advanced, anticipating a victory that would secure their dominance over the entire region. But the famed Frankish cavalry charge failed, and the well-arranged battlefield dissolved into a melee. Surrounded by enemy forces, the crusaders suffered a colossal defeat.
Their devastating loss marks a turning point in the history of the crusades -- the moment when the Christian advance in Northern Syria stalled and the momentum of crusader conquest began to evaporate. At the Field of Blood, the crusaders lost the Levant, and the face of the Middle East was forever changed.
BASIC BOOKS, HARDCOVER, 1ST EDITION, 1ST PRINTING, 2018
THIS IS A BRAND NEW BOOK.