Logistics of Warfare in the Age of the Crusades

Bibliographic Data

ID9799952
AuthorsC J Tyerman (Manchester College, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume122
Issue499
Pages1377-1378
Publication date2007-12-21
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe English Historical Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-8266 • E-ISSN: 1477-4534
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/ehr/cem366
OpenAlexW2091531852
LanguageEN
Citations received21

While much recent research has studied the ways in which crusaders funded their expeditions, very little has hitherto been done to examine how that money was spent or, more generally, how large military and naval contingents actually managed to travel the great distances involved. The enormous problems of supplying large bodies of men and animals with sufficient food and drink evidently determined much of the character, tactics and direction of crusader armies and navies. The detailed course of each crusade revolved, at the most mundane but crucial level, on logistics. Yet the direct evidence for how such expeditions were managed and conducted tends, for much of the medieval period, to be tantalisingly elusive. To begin to tackle this lacuna in crusader and medieval military studies, a workshop on crusade and related logistics was held at the University of Sydney in 2002, the proceedings of which are now gathered in this volume. Not the least of the book's many virtues is the attempt by a number of contributors to establish coherent models, by reference to earlier and later periods with more plentiful evidence as well as to techniques borrowed from other disciplines, ranging from geography to medicine. These are used to confront the central logistical issues, such as the carrying capacity of men and beasts, their dietary requirements, and the terrains and roads, or winds, channels and currents through which they passed

Character (mathematics · Operations research · Engineering · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Medieval History and Crusades

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