Crusader Studies MA

Royal Holloway, University of London

This module will describe the key principles of academic integrity, focusing on university assignments. Plagiarism, collusion and commissioning will be described as activities that undermine academic integrity, and the possible consequences of engaging in such activities will be described. Activities, with feedback, will provide you with opportunities to reflect and develop your understanding of academic integrity principles.

You will carry out an extended piece of research. You will be appointed a member of academic staff who will act as your supervisor, providing you with support and guidance. You will produce a written report of between 10,500 and 12,000 words in length.

Students will take either Introductory Latin for Medievalists or Further Latin for Medievalists. In this module you will be given specific training in the reading of medieval documents. You will look at simple texts in classical Latin and learn how to parse all five declensions and indicative verbs. You will examine a range of documents in basic medieval Latin such as wills, deeds and accounts and translate two medieval passages plus an unseen passage.

Students will take either Introductory Latin for Medievalists or Further Latin for Medievalists. In this module you will be given specific training in the reading of medieval documents. You will look at simple texts in classical Latin and learn how to parse all five declensions and indicative verbs. You will examine a range of documents in basic medieval Latin such as wills, deeds and accounts and translate two medieval passages plus an unseen passage.

Centred on the largest crusade of the thirteenth century, the attempt by King Louis IX of France to recover Jerusalem and the Holy Land through the conquest of Egypt, this module looks at the origins, preaching and preparations for his invasion. We follow its disastrous progress and defeat, largely through the charismatic writings of the eyewitness John of Joinville, but also using texts from Arabic (including some unpublished translations). The crusade helped trigger upheaval in the Muslim Near East with the overthrow of the Ayyubid regime and the arrival of the formidable Mamluks. Into this potent mix appeared the Mongols, carving out an empire from Hungary to Japan, and briefly seeming to look to Louis for an alliance. Through the extraordinary account of William of Rubruck we can see western Europeans try to grasp the society and the beliefs of the terrifying steppe-warriors.

All students pursuing the MA in Medieval Studies and the MA in Crusader Studies take this course, and so it creates and fosters an intellectual community of medievalists during your time on the degree. The course aims to make you aware of the issues and topics associated with the study of the Middle Ages on a wide and interdisciplinary basis, give you the skills that you need to undertake research in the field of Medieval Studies, and provide opportunities for you to engage in and practise academic discourse, particularly in an oral context.

In this unique and ground-breaking module you will develop an understanding of the memory, impact and legacy of the crusades in the West and Muslim world since the medieval period. You will look at the evolution and mutation of the crusading idea over (especially) the last 200 years, examining how and why the European colonial and imperial powers adopted crusading during the nineteenth century, and how the idea was used in World War 1 and by General Franco in the Spanish Civil War. We will also consider how the idea has taken on, in the West, a more secular meaning. You will analyse how crusade and jihad have been treated in the Muslim Near East, tracing cultural developments in theatre and poetry, as well as politics and religion, from the nineteenth to the present day, with particular emphasis on the figure of Saladin, the hero of the Muslim world for recovering Jerusalem from the crusaders. We will see how his image, and the memory of the crusades has been used by Islamists such as Osama bin Laden and Arab Nationalists such as Nasser of Egypt, Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Hafez al-Asad of Syria and Yasser Arafat and the Palestinians.