Audiobook6 hours
The Field of Blood: The Battle for Aleppo and the Remaking of the Medieval Middle East
Written by Nicholas Morton
Narrated by Julian Elfer
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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About this audiobook
In 1119, the people of the Near East came together in an epic clash of horses, swords, sand, and blood that would decide the fate of the city of the Aleppo-and the eastern Crusader states. Fought between tribal Turkish warriors on steppe ponies, Arab foot soldiers, Armenian bowmen, and European knights, the battlefield 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 them, and the well-arranged battlefield dissolved into a melee. Surrounded by enemy forces, the crusaders suffered a colossal defeat. With their advance in Northern Syria stalled, the momentum of the crusader conquest began to evaporate, and would never be recovered.
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Reviews for The Field of Blood
Rating: 3.9166666666666665 out of 5 stars
4/5
6 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Where the author provides a signal service is to put the contingency back into the Frankish period of Middle Eastern history, when a relatively small band of European soldiers (with local help), with a unique military system (the premier heavy shock cavalry of the time), could box above their weight. The question becomes why could the Franks never quite close the deal by taking the major city (Aleppo, Damascus or Cairo) that might have allowed them to settle down for the long haul. At the end of the day it may simply boil down to how Muslim leaders such as Nur al-Din, Zangi or Saladin were always better equipped to play a more subtle political game with these cities, where only total military victory (which even the Frankish leaders seemed to realize was a low probability event) was the sole viable option for the Crusader states.Morton chooses to end on the note that while some have tried to draw links between the intervention of the Crusaders, and the current violence in Syria, the reality is that the contemporary disaster owes more to the sorry modern traditions of "total war," than the limited outcomes that these Medieval contenders for power were fighting for.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Field of Blood is a thesis book as such focuses on certain events and people, it is specialized, but easy to read. Making the case that while we tend to view the Crusader States as doomed follies, they actually came close to succeeding. Why not? Morton says the tide broke at the Battle of Ager Sanguinis in 1119, the high-water mark of Crusader expansion. Reasons for this are "contingent", but generally the Middle East at this time was highly populated with Morton recalling a case where a crusader army stormed a large city, breached the walls and charged inside only to disappear into the warrens never to be seen again. They were too few in number and the Frank's tactical fighting advantage, the heavy horse cavalry charge, was limited to open flat places. Morton also makes some excellent points generally - that the Crusades were not a culture clash between Christianity and Islam as traditionally told, being more complex and interesting with alliances between Christians and Muslims against common enemies and inter-Christian and inter-Muslim fighting. The interchange of customs and ideas. He is also a very good writer, the journey from Anatolia to Egypt on the wings of a goose was really memorable. This is an excellent book for what it is.