A History of the Crusades I: The First Crusade and the Foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem - Penguin Modern Classics by 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.