Conference Handbook on the Later Crusades
Scientific Coordinators: Magnus Ressel and Emir O. Filipović
Venue and Date: Online meeting previously planned at the University of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main (Germany) – July, 13-14, 2021
Meeting call:
In the last decades, research on the “Later Crusades” has increased significantly. As a result of this a new consensus among researchers has been reached which considers that the crusading movement did not stop after the year 1400. Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe continued to be profoundly influenced by crusading desires across denominational boundaries and through all levels of society. The impact became certainly less “visible” as the centuries after 1400 no longer saw the dispatch of large international armies that had the specific goal of liberating Jerusalem. Yet, apart from the still manifold military activities, the crusading discourse retained a powerful influence and it profoundly shaped not only the European but also the Muslim societies that responded with their own (re-)conceptualization of a holy or just war.
This conference is intended to help in the preparation of a “Handbook on the Later Crusades” which will summarize the findings of the last three decades and serve especially for teaching at universities. We wish to prepare the Handbook with six larger chapters, which each containing 4-5 specific subchapters of 20-25 pages in English. The structure is as follows:
- Spaces
- Actors
III. Crusading plans
- Reception
- The Muslim World
- Events
We invite experts on specific themes within this array to submit an application for a subchapter. A subchapter for the Handbook should have its “individualistic” tones but mostly it ought to be a presentation of the current state of research and thus be based on secondary literature. It should give a reader without specialist knowledge an insight into the topic and an orientation.
Some preparations for the publication have already been made at this stage and we would like to especially encourage proposals and applications that would treat the issues of Crusading plans and Reception. These can range from historiography, literature, works of art etc. We would particularly welcome interdisciplinary contributions and submissions treating art or music history, literature studies or the history of ideas.
