The Crescent and the Cross

The BBC World Service have loads of free documentaries available.  Whilst browsing the list I noticed a four part series on the Crusades which the BBC describe as follows:

“The borders between Christendom and the Islamic world have shifted for over a millennium, and at several key moments has erupted into war.

The list of combatants from the past includes: Richard the Lionheart, Saladin, Suleiman the Magnificent, the Mahdi, Gordon of Khartoum and now George W Bush and Osama bin Laden.

The Crescent and the Cross, a four-part series, presented by Owen Bennett-Jones, examines several turning points in the relationship between Christianity and Islam covering Muslim Spain, the Crusades, the Ottoman Empire and the struggle for Africa.

It has recently become fashionable to argue that the gulf between Islam and Christianity is deep and eternal. The series assesses whether such a claim can survive the scrutiny of history?”

I liked the second episode, on the Third Crusade, Saladin and Richard the Lionheart, a lot as there’s a fair amount on military matters but I also liked the first episode on Muslim Spain which doesn’t; it provides some very interesting background.

If you’d like to hear more of the series, or download the programmes as mp3 files, follow these links:

1. Muslim Spain.
   
2. The Third Crusade
   
3. The Siege of Malta in 1565.
   
4. The Madhi.