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The book's short conclusion reminds the reader of how Manzikert is perceived, both by medieval Muslim and Byzantine chroniclers, as a pivotal event in the perennial conflict between Christianity and Islam. Manzikert is the set piece of Seljuq historiography. The capture of Romanus IV Diogenes, the Byzantine emperor himself, at the battle gave the incoming nomadic Turks enormous prestige in both East and West. His subsequent release by Alp Arslan, the Turkish sultan – a magnanimous deed recorded by both Christian and Muslim chroniclers – greatly enhanced the latter's prestige. This victory can be seen as the first step in a much wider process in which Turkish-led dynasties definitively defeated the Crusaders and eventually came to control the entire Middle East. For scholars nowadays, Manzikert can be seen as a distant but key precursor of the fall of Constantinople in 1453. And in the minds of the many millions of Turks today, it is above all the founding myth of the battle of Manzikert in 1071 that has determined their history.

Following the conquest of Ascalon by the Crusaders in 1153, al-Husayn's head was transferred to Cairo and interred by the tombs of the Fatimid imam-caliphs. Its shrine became a major sacred venue for the celebration of Shi`i festivals and Fatimid official ceremonies. It is argued that the commemorative rites performed there - such as al-ʿAshura, ʿId Ghadir Khumm - were imbued with particular Shi`i-Isma`ili symbolism and meaning.

This chapter re-examines the circumstances of the 'discovery' of the head of al-Husayn in eleventh-century Ascalon, the earlier sanctification of the place, and its lingering reputation as holy after the fall of the Fatimids. It emphasizes the belief in the power of the site, which persisted even after the transfer of its relic. The Cairene shrine, created under the Fatimid to protect the relic of their 'forefather', retained its sanctity and housed an active cult under the rule of the Sunni Ayyubids and Mamluks.

Athanasius bishop of the protected city of Qus was the compiler of the rite of the concoction of Myron in 1374. In 1374 he took an active part in the concoction of the Myron, giving a detailed description and full text; his name does not appear frequently in the text, as he left all the Sahidic readings to his colleague Gabriel, bishop of al-Marg, who was also a learned man. The condition of Copts at that time was not good. Many plagues took place in the fourteenth century, especially in the years 1347–49, 1374–75, and 1379–81, which contributed to the decrease of the population, especially in the villages and the monasteries. Historical sources mention the story of a crippled old Coptic woman who saved some of the treasured relics of her church by ceding all her possessions to the marauding Crusaders and thereby deflecting them from pillaging her Coptic church.

In 1961, when Ed was fifteen, he was moved from St. John's to St. Vincent's Home for Boys in an area of slums, notorious for drugs and crime, in downtown Brooklyn. After summer in Camp Christopher, St. Vincent's summer camp for its boys, he struggled to adjust to a new environment, one that was noisy, overcrowded, and frightening. Chapter 8 describes this urban institutional world, discussing its strict and militaristic schedule and staff no longer comprised of men and women from religious orders; the poor food preparation and delivery services; and how the institution dealt with frequently rebellious adolescents. The chapter also discuss Ed Rohs' participation on the St. Vincent's Crusaders, the home's football team and provides anecdotes relating to the overt racism he witnessed when the team went to play in other communities.

This chapter discusses the careers of Ann Petry, Richard Wright, and Willard Motley. Among postwar Black novelists, the personal stories of Petry, Wright, and Motley, sexual and political, provide the context for and part of the explanation for the artistic achievements of the Lonely Crusaders. Ann Petry, in tandem with Wright in The Outsider, was the supreme redactor of the postwar historical trauma of left-wing African Americans.

This chapter details the early life of Henry Mancini. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1924 as Enrico Nicola Mancini, the young Henry would grow up just over the Pennsylvania border in the steel town of West Aliquippa, where two great rivers, the Allegheny and the Monongahela, come together to become the Ohio River. The first time Mancini became aware of the music score behind a movie was during a trip to the local movie theater with his father in 1935. Something in the grandiose score to a picture called The Crusaders, composed by Rudolf Kopp, made him pay attention to the role that music was playing in the adventure story. That day Henry decided that he wanted to be a composer, to somehow be involved in music for the movies. On his eighteenth birthday, Mancini circumvent the draft and enlisted. He was sent to Atlantic City for basic training where he met members of the band that Glenn Miller was trying to form.

This chapter reviews how crusaders were considered as intuitive strategists. It explains crusader strategy that was inevitably formulated in the absence of a clear, intellectually rigorous, theoretical framework. It emphasizes how Franks were not exactly theorists, but in the Western medieval world they were the most experienced practitioners of the art of war. The chapter looks at theorists and military philosophers from the eighteenth century onwards that have identified a number of features that define and characterise “strategy.” It also analyzes the models of strategic thinking that have moved on radically over the past 50 years and exercised an obsessive attraction for military theorists.

The emperor Alexius I Comnenus took power while promising to restore the strength of a battered empire but, by the mid-1080s, the empire had lost even more territory in Asia Minor. Alexius had built a working relationship with pope Urban II and, in 1095, the pope organized the first Crusade. The Crusading movement did help the Romans recover lands in Asia Minor, but Roman interactions with Crusaders were often fraught. The tensions culminated in the capture of Constantinople by soldiers of the Fourth Crusade, an action that they justified on the grounds that Roman virtue and piety had declined. Even with the capital captured, the rhetoric of Roman renewal continued in works like the history of Nicetas Choniates. It first helped galvanize resistance to the Crusaders in the city of Nicaea and then, in 1261, it provided a platform to celebrate the emperor Michael Palaeologus after he recaptured Constantinople.

Chapter 7 Innovation and Cross-cultural Exchange in the Evolution of Near Eastern Warfare considers the armies raised by the Near East’s Frankish and Turkish commanders. It examines the troops under their command—their strengths and weaknesses—as well as the tactics employed by both groups. Particular attention is given to some of the most common features of Turkish and Frankish battlefield stratagems, in particular: the Frankish cavalry charge and ‘fighting marches’ as well as the Turks’ use of feigned flight tactics. A key theme considered throughout this chapter is the question of ‘innovation’ and ‘adaptation’—how far were generals in this period willing (or able) to amend their warcraft so as to better combat their foes?