Do you want to make sure a foal never becomes thin? Of course you don't - so apparently, according to Livonian folklore rooted in the premodern era, you need to rub it with a living mole. Not a dead mole - that's totally different. Your move. This is from ⬇️

Today's arrival: "Medieval Maritime Warfare" By Charles D. Stanton Published by Pen & Sword

New arrival: "The Medieval Horse" By Anastasija Ropa I've already started it - it's really good!

Just published! "The Land and the Cross" Ed. Valentina Burgassi, George Alexander Said-Zammit and Valeria Vanesio This is the latest addition to the "Military Religious orders" series that I edit with Jochen Burgtorf @routledgehistory.bsky.social

Just published by Engelsberg Ideas My review of: "Crescent Dawn: The Rise of the Ottoman Empire and the Making of the Modern Age" Author: Si Sheppard engelsbergideas.com/reviews/the-...

Delighted to receive a copy of: "Military Orders and Crusades," ed. Edbury and Webster A collection of essays (including one by me!) celebrating Professor Helen Nicholson's immense contributions to scholarship on these topics.

It gives me great pleasure to announce the publication of the Turkish translation of my book: "Mongol Storm". Published by Kronik Kitap @kronikkitap.bsky.social Translated by Metehan Demirci

New arrival! It's "Assassins and Templars: A battle in myth and blood" By Steve Tibble ⁦‪

Crusader ships Ships carrying crusaders to the Holy Land grew in size very quickly during the 12th century with the largest transporting over 1000 passengers. This is a point maritime historians have been slow to recognise. Normally histories of ships ... (1/2)

The Byzantines and the Mongols In 1257 the Mongols sent a deputation to demand the submission of the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine Empire was small at this time and Emperor Theodore II wished to strengthen his bargaining position. ... (1/2)

What to do if your ship is attacked by Sirens Medieval mariners who travelled to the Holy Land told many stories about sea monsters. They also offered practical advice. If you are attacked by sirens then naturally you need to beware their alluring song. ... (1/2)

Templar leisure activities The below picture is misleading. In fact the Templars were not permitted to play chess or backgammon. They were allowed to wager, but only using candle stubs. Still, some allowance was made for fun in Templars' regulations.... (1/2

Silk Roads and Crusades The Crusader States' main ports, places like Acre, Tyre and Tripoli, lay at the western end of the Silk Roads. Lots of goods from China and Central Asia passed through their gates. These included porcelain ... (1/2)

A new area of #history for us, we’ve recorded an ep ‘Discussing the #TeutonicKnights’ with the excellent Dr @nicmorton.bsky.social So interesting how they were active from the Middle East to the Baltics in the 12th & 13th Centuries Coming soon in Nov/Dec Recorded via @podcastleai.bsky.social

The Mongols and the Apocalypse As the Mongol invasions gathered pace in the Middle East during the thirteenth century, many observers thought they were living in the end times with Christian and Muslim writers responding in remarkably similar ways. Some connected ... (1/2)

The kingdom of Jerusalem's army At full stretch the kingdom of Jerusalem - which one contemporary described as being the size of a barony - could raise an army of 20,000 troops. By contrast the vast German Empire could raise about 15,000 troops. The reason ... (1/2)

New arrival! "Depicting the Holy War: Crusader Imagery in Medieval French and English murals" By Elizabeth Lapina Pennsylvania State University Press

My favourite medieval fable A mother and her daughter were on their way to market with the daughter riding on a donkey. On the way, while passing through a village, the local people started laughing at them - "look at that ridiculous pair" they ... (1/6)

What C.S Lewis wrote to J.R.R.Tolkien after reading Lord of the Rings ... #Tolkien #LordoftheRings

Why the Crusader States did not endure (from a military perspective) On a military level, the reason the Crusader States did not endure derives from their basic warcraft. Theirs was an agricultural society capable of deploying contingents of heavily armoured ... (1/3)

The slow-burn reason for the disintegration of the Mongol Empire... Given time, Mongol rulers tended to adopt the cultures and religions local to the areas under their direct control. Ultimately this became a major reason for the empire's collapse as its different ... (1/2)

New podcast alert! "Crusaders and Castles: The Siege of Acre" with "Echoes of History" (an Ubisoft podcast by History Hit) hosted by Matthew Lewis podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/c...

The Crusader States needed a lot of big warhorses (Templars had four each). Some they bought or reared locally, but they imported a lot from stud farms in Italy and N Spain. Transporting horses by sea was difficult because the horses couldn't stand in their ... (1/2)

Behold! It's the next thrilling edition of the "Crusades" journal. It includes reviews by me covering: Harris and Chatzelis' "Byzantine Sources for the Crusades" and Kane and Brewer's "The Latin Continuation of William of Tyre"

The curious tale of the exiled Englishman During the Mongol invasions, an exiled Englishman travelled to the Crusader States where he gambled away all his money in the port of Acre. Without even a shirt on his back, he fled to Mongol territory... (1/2)

New podcast alert! I've recently recorded a new podcast entitled: "Dealing With Criticism in Academia" with @rozierhistorian.bsky.social for the Early Career Researcher Podcast (link below). open.spotify.com/episode/5P7o...

The Assassins and Edward I One of the Assassins' favourite tactics was to enter the service of their target, win his confidence, then strike. They tried this with Prince Edward of England (future King Edward I) while he was on crusade and almost killed him with ... (1/2)

There's signed copies of Mongol Storm available in the Oxford Blackwells!

Siege tactics The crusaders tended to use siege towers as their weapon of choice when attacking towns, but they often proved ineffective; many were burned down with Greek Fire. They were also slow to build and it was frequently difficult to find enough ... (1/2)

The expansion of the Crusader States After the First Crusade (1095-99), the states they founded expanded rapidly along the Eastern Med.'s coastlands. Then they advanced inland where they faced the major cities of Damascus (pictured below) and Aleppo. They tried ... (1/2)

Crusader castles often had dry moats protecting them on their most vulnerable side. Look at the size of this moat at Saone (now known as Saladin's castle) in the principality of Antioch (modern day Syria)

Before Friar William of Rubruck traveled to visit the Mongols, he consulted many books about Central Asia. These were all ancient classical texts and they reported that he would encounter communities of monsters on his journey. In his account of his travels, ... (1/2)

The siege of Shaizar (Syria) 1111 In his memoirs the nobleman Usama Ibn Munqidh recalled an occasion when a Frankish (Crusader) army attacked his town of Shaizar. His family repelled the besiegers and they might have routed the Frankish army, had a single knight... (1/2)

Dragons in the Medieval Middle East One of the things that always strikes me about medieval Middle Eastern sources is the sheer number of cultures that mention dragons, either as mythical beasts, or in some cases as actual living creatures. My favourite story is... (1/2)

Did you know that the Knights Templars kept a defanged pet crocodile in their headquarters in Acre which they employed to haul building stone? (Yes this is a medieval picture of a crocodile)

A lot of ideas, stories, technologies, fashions and architectural styles changed hands in the medieval Middle East. One cookbook belonging to an Ayyubid (Saladin's family) ruler includes ... (1/2)

I've been giving it some thought and I've devised a format for a new tv show. Lots of medieval historians make sandcastle copies of real castles, then a panel of judges has to identify them - Netflix take note!

Medieval historians aren't necessarily faster, stronger or wealthier than everyone else (definitely not wealthier!) but we build pretty good castles.

New online course alert! "The Knights Templar: 1120-1314" Starting in November I will be running a six session online course on the history of the Knights Templar in co-operation with @medievalists.bsky.social For more information see below: medievalstudies.thinkific.com/courses/temp...

The Mongols in the thirteenth century believed with absolute confidence that they had a right to rule the entire planet and for many decades it seemed quite likely that they would achieve this goal. In their early diplomacy, the Mongols' position was ... (1/2)

The Cave of Tyron This is one of my favourite Crusader Castles. If you can't see it - don't worry that's because its not there. The "Cave of Tyron" was one of the few wooden castles constructed by the crusaders, in this case in the foothills of the Lebanese mountains... (1/2)

Digging up Egyptian tombs was big business in the 13th century. There was a lot of money to be made. One author reports that chopped up bits of mummy wrappings were used as price labels in local markets. Apparently the pyramids were difficult to access and full of bats.

Templars are often shown riding in pairs on a single horse. In fact the Templars never rode this way and their statutes forbade it - very harmful to the horse. The purpose of this distinctive image was to show the poverty of the order in its early years.

Medieval war galleys Ancient Roman and Greek war galleys are famous for their use of an underwater ram as their main armament. Rams fell out of use by the Sixth Century when more resilient hull designs made them obselete. Later Byzantine warships used a heavy spur ... (1/2)

Sidon (Lebanon/kingdom of Jerusalem) This is the sea castle in Sidon, built by King Louis IX of France in the 1250s. Soon after its construction, the castle was put to the test when in 1260 the Mongols attacked and sacked the town, but didn't take the sea castle.

Medieval bearcubs It was commonly believed in the medieval period that bearcubs had no actually shape but were born as just bundles of fur. They only took shape later when their mothers licked them into bear-form.

New in ... it's the latest edition of BBC History Including my review of Jonathan Phillips' classic history of the Second Crusade!

The Templar barn at Cressing (Essex, UK) Arguably, the Templars’ most important buildings were not their great castles, but storehouses like these. They served to gather the Templars’ crops and manufactured goods either for sale or for export. Acting as ... (1/2)

Kerak This is Kerak, centre of one of the most powerful lordships in the kingdom of Jerusalem (modern day Jordan). Its size reflects the substantial revenues it could draw from the trade routes passing beneath its walls, which connected Damascus and Egypt. Notice its ... (1/2)

Undermining a castle This photograph shows an unsuccessful attempt by an army from the Mamluk Empire to undermine Montfort castle in 1271 (northern kingdom of Jerusalem). The castle's defenders were the Teutonic Knights, a military order similar to the Templars. ... (1/2)