modern translation by D. S. Richards, complete with valuable annotated notes, titled The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin, which I recommend highly. Other contemporary chronicles are The Chronicle of Ibn al-Athir for the Crusading Period, from al-Kamil fi’l-Ta’rikh, Part 2, also translated by D. S. Richards, and a chronicle written by one of Salah al-Dīn’s scribes, Imad ad-Din al-Isfahani, translated into French by Henri Masse as Conquête de la Syrie et de la Palestine par Saladin. There is also Arab Historians of the Crusades, translated by Francesco Gabrieli. Non-crusading chronicles include The Chronicle of Richard of Devizes, translated by J. A. Giles; The History of William of Newburgh, translated by Joseph Stevenson; The Annals of Roger de Hoveden, translated by Henry T. Riley; and History of William Marshal, translated by S. Gregory and annotated by D. Crouch. The quotation from the Comtessa de Dia’s song, “Cruel Are the Pains I’ve Suffered,” in Chapter Eleven, comes from Lark in the Morning, translated by Ezra Pound, William De Witt Snodgrass, and Robert Kehew.
Moving on to Sicily and Cyprus, there is The Travels of Ibn Jubayr, translated by Roland Broadhurst, a remarkable account of a pilgrimage to Mecca made by a Spanish Muslim in 1183–1184; his description of a deadly storm in the Straits of Messina was my inspiration for Alicia’s shipwreck in Chapter One of Lionheart. The Kingdom in the Sun, by John Julius Norwich, is a beautifully written book about Norman Sicily, although his “take” on Richard is outdated. Another outstanding book about Sicily is Admiral Eugenius of Sicily, his Life and Work and the Authorship of the Epistola ad Petrum and the Historia Hugonis Falcandi Siculi, by Evelyn Jamison. For the history of medieval Cyprus, readers need look no further than Peter Edbury’s The Kingdom of Cyprus and the Crusades, 1191–1374. There is also George Hill’s four-volume A History of Cyprus; volume I concerns Richard’s conquest of the island.
The best book about the Crusades, IMHO, is Thomas Asbridge’s riveting The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land. Other books on my Favorites List include God’s War: A New History of the Crusades, by Christopher Tyerman; Holy Warriors: A Modern History of the Crusades, by Jonathan Phillips; Fighting for the Cross: Crusading to the Holy Land, by Norman Housley; the six-volume A History of the Crusades, edited by Kenneth Setton; and The Assassins: A Radical Sect in Islam, by Bernard Lewis. The definitive study of Salah al-Dīn is still Saladin: The Politics of the Holy War, by Malcolm Cameron Lyons and D. E. P. Jackson. I also recommend The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives, by Carole Hillenbrand. Some social histories are The World of the Crusaders, by Joshua Prawer; The Crusaders in the Holy Land, by Meron Benvenisti; Medicine in the Crusades: Warfare, Wounds and the Medieval Surgeon, by Piers D. Mitchell; and Daily Life in the Medieval Islamic World, by James E. Lindsay. For books dealing with warfare during the Crusades, a classic study is Crusading Warfare, 1097–1193, by R. C. Smail; there is also David Nicolle’s two-volume Crusader Warfare.
Lastly, for books that cover medieval warfare in general, I have several exceptional books to recommend: By Fire and Sword: Cruelty and Atrocity in Medieval Warfare, by Sean McGlynn; Noble Ideals and Bloody Realities: Warfare in the Middle Ages, edited by Niall Christie and Maya Yazigi; Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades, 1000–1300, by John France; Tolerance and Intolerance: Social Conflict in the Age of the Crusades, edited by Michael Gervers and James M. Powell; and War and Chivalry: The Conduct and Perception of War in England and Normandy, 1066–1217, by Matthew Strickland.
ALSO BY SHARON KAY PENMAN
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS
The Sunne in Splendour
Here Be Dragons
Falls the Shadow
The Reckoning
When Christ and His Saints Slept
Time and Chance
Devil’s Brood
THE MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES
The Queen’s Man
Cruel as the Grave
Dragon’s Lair
Prince of Darkness
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
CHAPTER 1 - JULY 1189
CHAPTER 2 - AUGUST 1189
CHAPTER 3 - NOVEMBER 1189
CHAPTER 4 - MARCH 1190
CHAPTER 5 - MARCH 1190
CHAPTER 6 - MARCH 1190
CHAPTER 7 - JUNE 1190
CHAPTER 8 - JULY 1190
CHAPTER 9 - SEPTEMBER 1190
CHAPTER 10 - OCTOBER 1190
CHAPTER 11 - OCTOBER 1190
CHAPTER 12 - FEBRUARY 1191
CHAPTER 13 - MARCH 1191
CHAPTER 14 - MARCH 1191
CHAPTER 15 - MAY 1191
CHAPTER 16 - MAY 1191
CHAPTER 17 - MAY 1191
CHAPTER 18 - MAY 1191
CHAPTER 19 - JUNE 1191
CHAPTER 20 - JUNE 1191
CHAPTER 21 - JUNE 1191
CHAPTER 22 - JULY 1191
CHAPTER 23 - JULY 1191
CHAPTER 24 - AUGUST 1191
CHAPTER 25 - AUGUST 1191
CHAPTER 26 - SEPTEMBER 1191
CHAPTER 27 - SEPTEMBER 1191
CHAPTER 28 - OCTOBER 1191
CHAPTER 29 - DECEMBER 1191
CHAPTER 30 - JANUARY 1192
CHAPTER 31 - APRIL 1192
CHAPTER 32 - MAY 1192
CHAPTER 33 - MAY 1192
CHAPTER 34 - JULY 1192
CHAPTER 35 - JULY 1192
CHAPTER 36 - AUGUST 1192
CHAPTER 37 - AUGUST 1192
AFTERWORD
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Acknowledgements
ALSO BY SHARON KAY PENMAN
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
CHAPTER 1 - JULY 1189
CHAPTER 2 - AUGUST 1189
CHAPTER 3 - NOVEMBER 1189
CHAPTER 4 - MARCH 1190
CHAPTER 5 - MARCH 1190
CHAPTER 6 - MARCH 1190
CHAPTER 7 - JUNE 1190
CHAPTER 8 - JULY 1190
CHAPTER 9 - SEPTEMBER 1190
CHAPTER 10 - OCTOBER 1190
CHAPTER 11 - OCTOBER 1190
CHAPTER 12 - FEBRUARY 1191
CHAPTER 13 - MARCH 1191
CHAPTER 14 - MARCH 1191
CHAPTER 15 - MAY 1191
CHAPTER 16 - MAY 1191
CHAPTER 17 - MAY 1191
CHAPTER 18 - MAY 1191
CHAPTER 19 - JUNE 1191
CHAPTER 20 - JUNE 1191
CHAPTER 21 - JUNE 1191
CHAPTER 22 - JULY 1191
CHAPTER 23 - JULY 1191
CHAPTER 24 - AUGUST 1191
CHAPTER 25 - AUGUST 1191
CHAPTER 26 - SEPTEMBER 1191
CHAPTER 27 - SEPTEMBER 1191
CHAPTER 28 - OCTOBER 1191
CHAPTER 29 - DECEMBER 1191
CHAPTER 30 - JANUARY 1192
CHAPTER 31 - APRIL 1192
CHAPTER 32 - MAY 1192
CHAPTER 33 - MAY 1192
CHAPTER 34 - JULY 1192
CHAPTER 35 - JULY 1192
CHAPTER 36 - AUGUST 1192
CHAPTER 37 - AUGUST 1192
AFTERWORD
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Acknowledgements
ALSO BY SHARON KAY PENMAN