The Libellus de expugnatione Terrae Sanctae per Saladinum (or Little Book about the Conquest of the Holy Land by Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn) is the most substantial contemporary Latin account of the conquest of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1187. Seemingly written by a churchman who was in Jerusalem itself when the city was besieged and captured, the Libellus fuses historical narrative and biblical exegesis in an attempt to recount and interpret the loss of the Holy Land, an event that provoked an outpouring of grief throughout western Christendom and sparked the Third Crusade. This book provides an English translation of the Libellus accompanied by a new, comprehensive critical edition of the Latin text and a detailed study in the introduction.
List of illustrations Preface Abbreviations Maps Introduction Structure Historical background Summary of text Reliability and authorship of Part I Style, language, and exegesis The continuation (Parts II and III) Manuscripts Date Notices, editions, and translations Principles of edition and translation Sigla used in this edition Text and translation Appendix 1—Ralph of Coggeshall’s Chronicon Anglicanum: Sources for 1187 Appendix 2—Gazetteer Appendix 3—Biblical references Bibliography Index
Keagan Brewer and James H. Kane are both historians of the Crusades at the University of Sydney, Australia. Keagan Brewer is an Honorary Research Associate at the Medieval and Early Modern Centre and James H. Kane is a lecturer in medieval language and literature.
