First Crusader

Traditionally, the word 'Crusades' has referred to the wars fought by the West after the late eleventh century to recover the Holy Land from Muslim domination. This controversial new book from best-selling historian Geoffrey Regan may mean that the history books have to be rewritten. Challenging the view that the term 'crusade' is only appropriate to western or Latin Christianity, Regan argues that the true first crusaders came from the East several centuries before. Regan asserts that the Crusades cannot be fully understood without studying the epic story of the struggle between the Christian Byzantine Empire and its 'infidel' neighbours. It begins in the seventh century with the conquest by the Sasanian Persians of much of the Byzantine Empire; Jerusalem itself was seized in a terrible massacre during which the Holy Sepulchre was destroyed and the True Cross, Christianity's most important relic, was taken back to Persia. At this moment of crisis a hero, the great emperor Heraclius, came from Africa to save Christianity and the Byzantine Empire. This 'new David' struggled for many years to overcome the threat from the east, and with a series of campaigns likened to those of Alexander the Great, he turned the tide. Using Christian propaganda to inspire his troops, he turned the war against the Persians into the first crusade. At the decisive battle of Nineveh, Heraclius overthrew the Persian Empire. He regained the True Cross and carried it as a penitent pilgrim into the recently regained holy city of Jerusalem in one of the greatest scenes of the ancient world and one of the epics of Christian history. However, tragedy was to strike the great emperor. In one of history's most remarkable parallels, Heraclius's career was unfolding at exactly the same time as that of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed and no sooner had Heraclius overthrown the power of Persia and regained the Holy Land, than he lost it to the irresistible strength of the desert Arabs. The first full account in English of these 'first crusaders', this book reveals an epic story of adventure and heroism which easily rivals that of the better known western crusades. Skilfully written by a master of narrative history, Regan's new work is an entertaining and challenging reinterpretation of one of the key events of the Middle Ages.