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Imperialist Rome employed a policy of colonization and confiscation of Jewish land, transferring it to foreigners who immigrated to the Land of Israel and settled there with the support of Roman governments. Jewish resistance to Roman policies in the Great Revolt (6670) and the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132135) was cruelly suppressed. Of a population of nearly 2.5 million Jews in the Land of Israel during the first century CE, only 800,000 or so remained by the end of Roman occupation in the fourth century CE. The Jewish majority in the Land of Israel was eliminated by war casualties, the sale of prisoners of war in Roman slave markets throughout the empire, and the flight of Jewish refugees. In re...
As a 'Medieval Warm Period' prevailed in Western Europe during the tenth and eleventh centuries, the eastern Mediterranean region, from the Nile to the Oxus, was suffering from a series of climatic disasters which led to the decline of some of the most important civilizations and cultural centres of the time. This provocative study argues that many well-documented but apparently disparate events - such as recurrent drought and famine in Egypt, mass migrations in the steppes of central Asia, and the decline in population in urban centres such as Baghdad and Constantinople - are connected and should be understood within the broad context of climate change. Drawing on a wealth of textual and archaeological evidence, Ronnie Ellenblum explores the impact of climatic and ecological change across the eastern Mediterranean in this period, to offer a new perspective on why this was a turning point in the history of the Islamic world.
From the Viking invasions to the Crusades to the Hundred Years War, wars were crucial agents of change in medieval Europe. They fostered many economic and political changes. They also affected the science, technology, religion, and culture of the parties involved. Examines all aspects of warfare and military technology in medieval times and provides an exhaustive and accurate view of how and why wars were waged throughout Europe, the Byzantine Empire, and the Crusader States from circa 500 CE to circa 1500.
From the Straits of Gibraltar to Sicily, the European northern Mediterranean nations to the shores of North Africa, the western Mediterranean is a unique cultural and sociopolitical entity which has had a singular role in shaping today’s global society. The Western Mediterranean and the World is the fascinating story of the rise of that peculiar world and of its evolution from the end of the Western Roman Empire to the present. Uniquely, rather than present the history of the region as a strict chronological progression, the author takes a thematic approach, telling his story through a series of vignettes, case studies, and original accounts so as to provide a more immediate sense of what ...
Perhaps never before has the potential impact of climate anomalies upon the fate of human societies and civilizations been in as sharp and as global a focus as it is today. Yet, the vulnerability to climate anomalies of the food supply upon which a society depends has accompanied humankind since its inception. The "fragility predicament," as Ronnie Ellenblum terms it in this ground-breaking book, has influenced the rise and fall of civilizations throughout history. Nevertheless, for the better part of the last century, most humanistic studies of history and society have drawn back from examining the historical impact of climate events. In the book's first part, Ellenblum traces the course of...
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This book offers a comprehensive listing of resources on Jerusalem's history, politics and government, ethnic relations, social conditions, and international status.
For the last 150 years the historiography of the Crusades has been dominated by nationalist and colonialist discourses in Europe and the Levant. These modern histories have interpreted the Crusades in terms of dichotomous camps, Frankish and Muslim. In this revisionist study, Ronnie Ellenblum presents an interpretation of Crusader historiography that instead defines military and architectural relations between the Franks, local Christians, Muslims and Turks in terms of continuous dialogue and mutual influence. Through close analysis of siege tactics, defensive strategies and the structure and distribution of Crusader castles, Ellenblum relates patterns of crusader settlement to their environment and demonstrates the influence of opposing cultures on tactics and fortifications. He argues that fortifications were often built according to economic and geographic considerations rather than for strategic reasons or to protect illusory 'frontiers', and that Crusader castles are the most evident expression of a cultural dialogue between east and west.