Rethinking the Crusades for the next generation of students
Beyond Bitesize
Guild of Alexandria will seek to challenge traditional narratives surrounding the Crusades for GCSE and A-Level students, primarily that the era was one of conflict between Christian Europe and the Islamic East and ecclesiastically-driven representations of Islam as ‘the other’.
The blog will consist of interactive and accessible resources such as:
- Welcome page – you’re here!
- 5 core pages: Art, Commerce, Journey to Jerusalem, Military Technology and Religious Co-Existence
- Military historiography (bottom of Military Technology core page)
- Bibliographies for further reading (bottom of each core page)
- Teacher resources for lesson plans
- Quizzes to test your knowledge
Top Tip: Click on the resources above!
Top Tip: Look out for QR Codes on some pages for easier access to study material and quiz content
Guild of Alexandria aims to bridge the gap between GCSE and A-level knowledge. By filling this knowledge gap we aim to encourage more students to go on to study the Age of the Crusades at A-Level and beyond.
We will focus on what material culture can tell us about the nature of relations between the Christians and Muslims in the Age of Crusades in terms of religion, military, art and trade in contrast to traditional ecclesiastic manuscript culture.
The major conclusion that we hope you take away from the Guild is that the material culture from the Age of Crusades suggests that relations between Christians and Muslims were in many cases mutually beneficial and co-operative.
Ayyubid Caliphate Incense Burner, British Museum