History of the Crusades I (Penguin Modern Classics) Steven Runciman

The first volume of Steven Runciman's classic, hugely influential trilogy on the history of the Crusades

'On a February day in the year AD 638 the Caliph Omar entered Jerusalem, riding upon a white camel'

An enthralling work of grand historical narrative, Steven Runciman's A History of the Crusades overturned the traditional view of the Crusades as a romantic Christian adventure, and instead shifted the focus of the story to the East. With verve and drama, volume one of Runciman's trilogy tells the story of the First Crusade - from its unlikely beginnings in pilgrimage to the horrors of the siege of Jerusalem and the carving out of new territory on the edge of the eastern Mediterranean.

'Without question one of the major feats of contemporary historical writing' The New York Times

'The historian whose magisterial works transformed our understanding of Byzantium, the medieval church and the crusades' Guardian