Harl, Kenneth W.. Great Courses Audio.

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What were the forces that led to one of history's most protracted and legendary periods of conflict? How did they affect the three great civilizations that participated in them? And, ultimately, why did they end and what did they accomplish? In these 36 lectures, you'll look at the "big picture" of the Crusades as an ongoing period of conflict involving Western Christendom (we would now call it Western Europe), the Byzantine Empire, and the Muslim world. From this perspective, you'll study the complex but absorbing causes of the Crusades, which include the many political, cultural, and economic changes in Western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. You'll examine the Crusades in terms of the specific military campaigns-the eight "canonical" Crusades that took place from 1095-1291-proclaimed to retake Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Muslim hands and return them to Christendom. You'll consider the immediate circumstances-the leaders, purposes, key battles, and degrees of success or failure-surrounding these often-monumental expeditions. You'll also explore a wide variety of misperceptions and long-debated questions about the Crusades: Did the popes preach the Crusades as a way to increase their personal power and authority? Why did the members of the Fourth Crusade decide to sack Constantinople, turning the Crusades from Christian against "infidel" to Christian against Christian? Taken together, these historically rich lectures are an opportunity to appreciate fully how Western Civilization changed in many profound ways during the Crusading era. All Lectures: 1. The Heirs of Rome 2. Byzantine Orthodox Civilization 3. Byzantine Zenith in the Macedonian Age 4. The Failure of the Heirs of Basil II 5. Abbasid Baghdad and Fatimid Egypt 6. The Coming of the Seljuk Turks 7. The Recovery of Western Europe 8. Kings and Princes of Western Europe 9. Warfare in Western Europe 10. The Papacy and Religious Reform 11. Piety and Pilgrimage 12. Christian Offensives in Spain and Sicily 13. Alexius I and the First Crusade 14. From Clermont to Jerusalem 15. Conquest and Defense of Outremer 16. Frankish Settlement of Outremer 17. Comnenian Emperors and Crusader Princes 18. The Second Crusade 19. The Empire at Bay 20. The Rise of Saladin 21. Byzantine Recovery under the Comnenians 22. A Renaissance of Byzantine Letters and Arts 23. Trade and Currency in the Mediterranean 24. Cultural Exchange in Gothic Europe 25. The Horns of Hattin 26. The Third Crusade 27. From Jerusalem to Constantinople 28. The Sack of Constantinople 29. The World of Frankish Greece 30. Splinter Empires and Orthodox Princes 31. Ayyubid Egypt and Seljuk Anatolia 32. Crusader Cyprus and the Levant 33. Venice and Genoa 34. The Mongols and the Legend of Prester John 35. The Royal Crusaders 36. The Passing of the Crusades

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