Search Results: Raymond keene

The Pillow Book (Makura no Soshi) is a personalised account of life at the Japanese court by Sei Shonagon which she completed c. 1002 CE during the Heian Period. The book is full of humorous observations (okashi) written in the style of a...

Izumi Shikibu was a writer, poet, and member of the Japanese court during the Heian Period (794-1185 CE). Her birth date is variously given as sometime in the 970's CE, and she died in the 1030's CE. In her celebrated memoirs, known as the...

The Albigensian Crusade (aka Cathars' Crusade, 1209-1229 CE), was the first crusade to specifically target heretic Christians - the Cathars of southern France. Not successful in repressing the heresy, the on-off campaigns over two decades...

The Manyoshu or 'Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves' is an anthology of ancient Japanese poems compiled c. 759 CE during the Nara Period but including many earlier works. The most likely person to have assembled the collection is Otomo no...

Ono no Komachi was a poetess of great renown during the Heian Period (794-1185 CE) of ancient Japan. The Kokinshu anthology, compiled in 905 CE, contains many of her poems, and her work and life inspired later writers of Noh drama. She is...

A 19th century CE illustration of Raymond IV of Toulouse (c. 1041-1105 CE), one of the principal leaders of the First Crusade (1095-1202 CE). (Palace of Versailles, Paris)

The Battle of Marj Ayyun (10 June 1179, also given as the Battle on the Litani) was a military engagement between Baldwin IV, King of Jerusalem (r. 1174-1185) and Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria (r. 1174-1193). Saladin decisively won the...

The Crusader States (aka the Latin East or Outremer) were created after the First Crusade (1095-1102) in order to keep hold of the territorial gains made by Christian armies in the Middle East. The four small states were the Kingdom of Jerusalem...

The Second Crusade (1147-1149) was a military campaign organised by the Pope and European nobles to recapture the city of Edessa in Mesopotamia which had fallen in 1144 to the Muslim Seljuk Turks. Despite an army of 60,000 and the presence...

The capture of Jerusalem from Muslim control was the primary goal of the First Crusade (1095-1102 CE), a combined military campaign organised by western rulers, the Pope, and the Byzantine Empire. After a brief siege, the city was captured...