The Crusades, the Kingdom of Sicily, and the Mediterranean (review)

This volume of collected studies brings together seventeen articles written between 1962 and 2003 by James M. Powell, a leading American historian of the crusades and the medieval Mediterranean period. Sixteen of these are previously published pieces. The text of an inaugural lecture delivered at the Malta Study Centre, Saint John's University, in 1999 ("Crusading: 1099–1999") is printed here for the first time. All but one of the articles is written in English ("Franceso d'Assisi e la Quinta Crociata. Una missione di pace"). The majority of the contributions treat some aspect either of the crusades or the Kingdom of Sicily under the Hohenstaufen rulers of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. A focal point in these groups of articles concerns the relationship between Christians and Muslims throughout the countries bordering the Mediterranean during this key period of intensified intercultural and interreligious conflict. The topics span a wide range: from the royal crusade projects of the Hohenstaufen, the contribution of women to the crusade movement, and Matthew Paris's comments on Muhammad to the trade relations of medieval Sicily. Quite a number of Powell's articles mark the departure of new avenues of investigation. For example, his 1977 article on Honorius III's crusade politics first confirmed the important role this pope played in implementing the strategies of his famous predecessor Innocent III. By the same token, Powell's 1992 article on the vow redemptions of a group of Genoese women and their contribution toward financing the crusade highlighted for the first time the important nexus between crusade propaganda,women, and finance in the thirteenth century. As exemplified by these articles, Powell's work has always been marked by an uncompromising approach that places reading, rereading, and freshly interpreting sources first. A master in searching for new evidence and in teasing out details of meaning, Powell has always insisted on an interpretation of history that closely follows the evidence. This explains why the publishers did not restrict this collection to Powell's more recent publications, but include articles written some thirty or forty years ago that have stood the test of time and still are essential reading for researchers in these fields. But Powell's articles should not only be read for his efforts to introduce and interpret new evidence. Throughout, his work is driven by an eagerness to understand medieval history from a modern perspective. For Powell, understanding the medieval crusade and the relation between Christians and Muslims in these past centuries always includes "lessons to be learned" (p. 13). He is far from drawing crude parallels or proposing simplistic solutions to today's problems from a past that was and always will be different. But reading through the closing pages of Powell's lecture at the Malta Study Centre, in which he comments that the study of the medieval crusade can help put the modern conflicts in the Balkans into perspective, gives readers an idea of just how much Powell's voice as a medieval historian is guided by and speaking toward the present. Researchers working in the fields covered by this collection will be ignoring Powell's work at their own risk. This collection will help to ensure that they do not.