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Papers by Michael Lower
The American Historical Review, 2020
A little more than a month before he planned to go on crusade to the Holy Land,
A Call to Arms and Its Consequences, 2005
Medieval European mercenaries are often seen as impediments to state formation because European m... more Medieval European mercenaries are often seen as impediments to state formation because European monarchies found them expensive and difficult to control. By taking a broader comparative approach to their deployment that encompasses North Africa, I show that these soldiers could serve as effective agents of state power. Abandoning the mercenaries is sometimes represented as a positive break with the medieval past that accelerated European progress into the modern political order of states and standing armies. From a comparative point of view, however, this transition looks more like a gradual retreat from a system for organizing violence that continued to function well in other parts of the world.
Across many cultures and historical eras, the figure of the mercenary has often been associated w... more Across many cultures and historical eras, the figure of the mercenary has often been associated with outlawry and religious transgression. Strangely enough, the medieval Christian mercenary who fought for Muslims usually avoided this negative portrayal. Most Muslim and Christian medieval religious authorities permitted interfaith mercenary warfare, with only Maliki jurists placing significant restrictions on the practice.
In the medieval period, Muslim rulers frequently hired Christian mercenary soldiers to defend the... more In the medieval period, Muslim rulers frequently hired Christian mercenary soldiers to defend their persons and bolster their armies. Nowhere was this practice more common than in North Africa, a region, then as now, linked to Europe through migration, diplomacy, and trade. From the twelfth century to the sixteenth, North African regimes of all types found it useful to recruit European fighters to their sides. Some of these mercenaries were former prisoners of war, while others were prominent political exiles. Most, though, were of humbler origin, fighting men who found a lively market for their services in the decentralized, fiercely competitive political environment of the late medieval Maghrib. 1 Though their terms of service were informal at first, by the thirteenth century Christian mercenaries were a well-defined presence in North Africa. Treaties negotiated between their homelands and the governments that hired them specified their wages, weapons, and supplies in minute detail. 2 Despite the increasingly contractual nature of their employment in the Maghrib, there was nonetheless much that remained uncertain about the status of these Christian mercenaries serving in Islamic lands. The treaties might detail how much barley a mercenary's horse could eat while on campaign, but they had nothing to say about the larger questions of propriety, belonging, and allegiance that loomed over the mercenary I am grateful to Lianna Farber, Thomas Burman, Carol Hakim, and the anonymous reviewers at Speculum for their valuable comments on earlier versions of this paper. A New Directions Fellowship from the Mellon Foundation and a Faculty Development Leave from the College of Liberal Arts of the University of Minnesota supported my work on this project.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. currently apply three models to the relations be-Medievalists tween Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Middle Ages. One treats Latin Christian Europe as a religiously unified society locked in conflict with the Jewish minority in its midst and the Muslim world beyond its borders. Latin Christians, who regarded all other groups as a single religious 'other', onto which they projected their anxieties over power and status, forged an intolerant, persecuting society.1 The second, contrasting, model paints a sunnier picture. By stressing the amount and variety of trade among Christians, Muslims, and Jews, it portrays medieval Christendom as open to peaceful contact with other religions.2 The third model, influential since the period of European colonization in the nineteenth century, avoids both the first's stress on religious unity and the second's focus on peaceful contact. It emphasizes the competition among the Christian powers of medieval Europe to dominate non-Christian lands.3
A little more than a month before he planned to go on crusade to the Holy Land,
Books by Michael Lower
Why did the last of the major European campaigns to reclaim Jerusalem end in an attack on Tunis, ... more Why did the last of the major European campaigns to reclaim Jerusalem end in an attack on Tunis, a peaceful North African port city thousands of miles from the Holy Land? In the first book-length study of the campaign in English, Michael Lower tells the story of how the classic era of crusading came to such an unexpected end. Unfolding against a backdrop of conflict and collaboration that extended from England to Inner Asia, the Tunis Crusade entangled people from every corner of the Mediterranean world. Within this expansive geographical playing field, the ambitions of four powerful Mediterranean dynasts would collide. While the slave-boy-turned-sultan Baybars of Egypt and the saint-king Louis IX of France waged a bitter battle for Syria, al-Mustansir of Tunis and Louis's younger brother Charles of Anjou struggled for control of the Sicilian Straits. When the conflicts over Syria and Sicily became intertwined in the late 1260s, the Tunis Crusade was the shocking result.
While the history of the crusades is often told only from the crusaders' perspective, in The Tunis Crusade Lower brings Arabic and European-language sources together to offer a panoramic view of these complex multilateral conflicts. Standing at the intersection of two established bodies of scholarship - European History and Near Eastern Studies - The Tunis Crusade contributes to both by opening up a new conversation about the place of crusading in medieval Mediterranean culture.
In December 1235, Pope Gregory IX altered the mission of a crusade he had begun to preach the yea... more In December 1235, Pope Gregory IX altered the mission of a crusade he had begun to preach the year before. Instead of calling for Christian magnates to go on to fight the infidel in Jerusalem, he now urged them to combat the spread of Christian heresy in Latin Greece and to defend the Latin empire of Constantinople. The Barons' Crusade, as it was named by a fourteenth-century chronicler impressed by the great number of barons who participated, would last until 1241 and would represent in many ways the high point of papal efforts to make crusading a universal Christian undertaking. This book, the first full-length treatment of the Barons' Crusade, examines the call for holy war and its consequences in Hungary, France, England, Constantinople, and the Holy Land.
In the end, Michael Lower reveals, the pope's call for unified action resulted in a range of locally determined initiatives and accommodations. In some places in Europe, the crusade unleashed violence against Jews that the pope had not sought; in others, it unleashed no violence at all. In the Levant, it even ended in peaceful negotiation between Christian and Muslim forces. Virtually everywhere, but in different ways, it altered the relations between Christians and non-Christians. By emphasizing comparative local history, The Barons' Crusade: A Call to Arms and Its Consequences brings into question the idea that crusading embodies the religious unity of medieval society and demonstrates how thoroughly crusading had been affected by the new strategic and political demands of the papacy.
Book Reviews by Michael Lower
Published by Amsterdam UP by Michael Lower
This book examines the role of the papacy and the crusade in the religious life of the late twelf... more This book examines the role of the papacy and the crusade in the religious life of the late twelfth through late thirteenth centuries and beyond. Throughout the book, the contributors ask several important questions. Was Innocent III more theologian than lawyer-pope and how did his personal experience of earlier crusade campaigns inform his own vigorous promotion of the crusades? How did the outlook and policy of Honorius III differ from that of Innocent III in crucial areas including the promotion of multiple crusades (including the Fifth Crusade and the crusade of William of Montferrat) and how were both pope's mindsets manifested in writings associated with them? What kind of men did Honorius III and Innocent III select to promote their plans for reform and crusade? How did the laity make their own mark on the crusade through participation in the peace movements which were so crucial to the stability in Europe essential for enabling crusaders to fulfill their vows abroad and through joining in the liturgical processions and prayers deemed essential for divine favor at home and abroad? Further essays explore the commemoration of crusade campaigns through the deliberate construction of physical and literary paths of remembrance. Yet while the enemy was often constructed in a deliberately polarizing fashion, did confessional differences really determine the way in which Latin crusaders and their descendants interacted with the Muslim world or did a more pragmatic position of 'rough tolerance' shape mundane activities including trade agreements and treaties?
Convegni e Seminari by Michael Lower
The American Historical Review, 2020
A little more than a month before he planned to go on crusade to the Holy Land,
A Call to Arms and Its Consequences, 2005
Medieval European mercenaries are often seen as impediments to state formation because European m... more Medieval European mercenaries are often seen as impediments to state formation because European monarchies found them expensive and difficult to control. By taking a broader comparative approach to their deployment that encompasses North Africa, I show that these soldiers could serve as effective agents of state power. Abandoning the mercenaries is sometimes represented as a positive break with the medieval past that accelerated European progress into the modern political order of states and standing armies. From a comparative point of view, however, this transition looks more like a gradual retreat from a system for organizing violence that continued to function well in other parts of the world.
Across many cultures and historical eras, the figure of the mercenary has often been associated w... more Across many cultures and historical eras, the figure of the mercenary has often been associated with outlawry and religious transgression. Strangely enough, the medieval Christian mercenary who fought for Muslims usually avoided this negative portrayal. Most Muslim and Christian medieval religious authorities permitted interfaith mercenary warfare, with only Maliki jurists placing significant restrictions on the practice.
In the medieval period, Muslim rulers frequently hired Christian mercenary soldiers to defend the... more In the medieval period, Muslim rulers frequently hired Christian mercenary soldiers to defend their persons and bolster their armies. Nowhere was this practice more common than in North Africa, a region, then as now, linked to Europe through migration, diplomacy, and trade. From the twelfth century to the sixteenth, North African regimes of all types found it useful to recruit European fighters to their sides. Some of these mercenaries were former prisoners of war, while others were prominent political exiles. Most, though, were of humbler origin, fighting men who found a lively market for their services in the decentralized, fiercely competitive political environment of the late medieval Maghrib. 1 Though their terms of service were informal at first, by the thirteenth century Christian mercenaries were a well-defined presence in North Africa. Treaties negotiated between their homelands and the governments that hired them specified their wages, weapons, and supplies in minute detail. 2 Despite the increasingly contractual nature of their employment in the Maghrib, there was nonetheless much that remained uncertain about the status of these Christian mercenaries serving in Islamic lands. The treaties might detail how much barley a mercenary's horse could eat while on campaign, but they had nothing to say about the larger questions of propriety, belonging, and allegiance that loomed over the mercenary I am grateful to Lianna Farber, Thomas Burman, Carol Hakim, and the anonymous reviewers at Speculum for their valuable comments on earlier versions of this paper. A New Directions Fellowship from the Mellon Foundation and a Faculty Development Leave from the College of Liberal Arts of the University of Minnesota supported my work on this project.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. currently apply three models to the relations be-Medievalists tween Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Middle Ages. One treats Latin Christian Europe as a religiously unified society locked in conflict with the Jewish minority in its midst and the Muslim world beyond its borders. Latin Christians, who regarded all other groups as a single religious 'other', onto which they projected their anxieties over power and status, forged an intolerant, persecuting society.1 The second, contrasting, model paints a sunnier picture. By stressing the amount and variety of trade among Christians, Muslims, and Jews, it portrays medieval Christendom as open to peaceful contact with other religions.2 The third model, influential since the period of European colonization in the nineteenth century, avoids both the first's stress on religious unity and the second's focus on peaceful contact. It emphasizes the competition among the Christian powers of medieval Europe to dominate non-Christian lands.3
A little more than a month before he planned to go on crusade to the Holy Land,
Why did the last of the major European campaigns to reclaim Jerusalem end in an attack on Tunis, ... more Why did the last of the major European campaigns to reclaim Jerusalem end in an attack on Tunis, a peaceful North African port city thousands of miles from the Holy Land? In the first book-length study of the campaign in English, Michael Lower tells the story of how the classic era of crusading came to such an unexpected end. Unfolding against a backdrop of conflict and collaboration that extended from England to Inner Asia, the Tunis Crusade entangled people from every corner of the Mediterranean world. Within this expansive geographical playing field, the ambitions of four powerful Mediterranean dynasts would collide. While the slave-boy-turned-sultan Baybars of Egypt and the saint-king Louis IX of France waged a bitter battle for Syria, al-Mustansir of Tunis and Louis's younger brother Charles of Anjou struggled for control of the Sicilian Straits. When the conflicts over Syria and Sicily became intertwined in the late 1260s, the Tunis Crusade was the shocking result.
While the history of the crusades is often told only from the crusaders' perspective, in The Tunis Crusade Lower brings Arabic and European-language sources together to offer a panoramic view of these complex multilateral conflicts. Standing at the intersection of two established bodies of scholarship - European History and Near Eastern Studies - The Tunis Crusade contributes to both by opening up a new conversation about the place of crusading in medieval Mediterranean culture.
In December 1235, Pope Gregory IX altered the mission of a crusade he had begun to preach the yea... more In December 1235, Pope Gregory IX altered the mission of a crusade he had begun to preach the year before. Instead of calling for Christian magnates to go on to fight the infidel in Jerusalem, he now urged them to combat the spread of Christian heresy in Latin Greece and to defend the Latin empire of Constantinople. The Barons' Crusade, as it was named by a fourteenth-century chronicler impressed by the great number of barons who participated, would last until 1241 and would represent in many ways the high point of papal efforts to make crusading a universal Christian undertaking. This book, the first full-length treatment of the Barons' Crusade, examines the call for holy war and its consequences in Hungary, France, England, Constantinople, and the Holy Land.
In the end, Michael Lower reveals, the pope's call for unified action resulted in a range of locally determined initiatives and accommodations. In some places in Europe, the crusade unleashed violence against Jews that the pope had not sought; in others, it unleashed no violence at all. In the Levant, it even ended in peaceful negotiation between Christian and Muslim forces. Virtually everywhere, but in different ways, it altered the relations between Christians and non-Christians. By emphasizing comparative local history, The Barons' Crusade: A Call to Arms and Its Consequences brings into question the idea that crusading embodies the religious unity of medieval society and demonstrates how thoroughly crusading had been affected by the new strategic and political demands of the papacy.
This book examines the role of the papacy and the crusade in the religious life of the late twelf... more This book examines the role of the papacy and the crusade in the religious life of the late twelfth through late thirteenth centuries and beyond. Throughout the book, the contributors ask several important questions. Was Innocent III more theologian than lawyer-pope and how did his personal experience of earlier crusade campaigns inform his own vigorous promotion of the crusades? How did the outlook and policy of Honorius III differ from that of Innocent III in crucial areas including the promotion of multiple crusades (including the Fifth Crusade and the crusade of William of Montferrat) and how were both pope's mindsets manifested in writings associated with them? What kind of men did Honorius III and Innocent III select to promote their plans for reform and crusade? How did the laity make their own mark on the crusade through participation in the peace movements which were so crucial to the stability in Europe essential for enabling crusaders to fulfill their vows abroad and through joining in the liturgical processions and prayers deemed essential for divine favor at home and abroad? Further essays explore the commemoration of crusade campaigns through the deliberate construction of physical and literary paths of remembrance. Yet while the enemy was often constructed in a deliberately polarizing fashion, did confessional differences really determine the way in which Latin crusaders and their descendants interacted with the Muslim world or did a more pragmatic position of 'rough tolerance' shape mundane activities including trade agreements and treaties?