Rodney Stark is specialist in history and sociology of religion. In this work presents a convincing, balanced book on the Crusades, and he demonstrates that the Crusades were neither unprovoked nor colonialist. Their primary motivation, though some times abused, was both defensive and spiritual. They were not conducted for land, loot or converts. The Crusaders were not barbarians who victimized the cultivated Muslims. Stark can reach this conclusion after a detailed study of the Muslim invasions of Christian territories, and shows how only eighty years after Muhammad’s death in 632, a new Muslim empire had displaced Christians from most of the Middle East, all of North Africa, Cyprus and most of Spain. It is also very interesting the third chapter, entitled "Western 'Ignorance' Versus Eastern 'Culture'", where he challenges the received wisdom that while Europe slumbered through the Dark Ages, science and learning flourished in Islam.
J.S. (2009)