The Field of Blood
The Battle for Aleppo and the Remaking of the Medieval Middle East
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Narrated by:
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Julian Elfer
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By:
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Nicholas Morton
About this listen
In 1119, the people of the Near East came together in an epic clash of horses, swords, sand, and blood that would decide the fate of the city of the Aleppo - and the eastern Crusader states. Fought between tribal Turkish warriors on steppe ponies, Arab foot soldiers, Armenian bowmen, and European knights, the battlefield was the amphitheater into which the people of the Near East poured their full gladiatorial might.
Carrying a piece of the true cross before them, the Frankish army advanced, anticipating a victory that would secure their dominance over the entire region. But the famed Frankish cavalry charge failed them, and the well-arranged battlefield dissolved into a melee. Surrounded by enemy forces, the crusaders suffered a colossal defeat. With their advance in Northern Syria stalled, the momentum of the crusader conquest began to evaporate, and would never be recovered.
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By: Frank McLynn
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Wars of Scottish Independence: A Captivating Guide to the Battles Between the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England, Including the Impact Made by King Robert the Bruce
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: David Patton
- Length: 3 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Explore the captivating events and people of the Wars of Scottish Independence. The borderland between Scotland and England has historically been a site of struggle, violence, and conflict. This was acutely so during the First Scottish War of Independence. The tumult during this medieval period was grand, presenting a historical stage filled with memorable larger-than-life figures such as Edward I, William Wallace, also known as "Braveheart”, and Robert de Bruce. In this audiobook, you'll discover the revolutionary events that formed both Scottish and English history.
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Good historical look at the borders of Scotland
- By Willy Staples on 10-04-18
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God's Wolf
- The Life of the Most Notorious of All Crusaders, Scourge of Saladin
- By: Jeffrey Lee
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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In a 2010 terrorist plot, Al-Qaeda hid a bomb in a FedEx shipment addressed to Reynald de Chatillon, a knight who had died centuries ago in the Crusades. A reviled figure in Islamic history, often portrayed as the very epitome of brutality, Reynald remains as controversial - and as vividly present in the minds of many in the Middle East - as the story of the Crusades themselves.
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A great look into the life of a great crusader
- By Jon on 02-28-19
By: Jeffrey Lee
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By the Spear
- Philip II, Alexander the Great, and the Rise and Fall of the Macedonian Empire
- By: Ian Worthington
- Narrated by: Phil Holland
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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For the first time, By the Spear offers an exhilarating military narrative of the reigns of these two larger-than-life figures in one volume. Ian Worthington gives full breadth to the careers of father and son, showing how Philip was the architect of the Macedonian empire, which reached its zenith under Alexander, only to disintegrate upon his death.
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Bueller..... Bueller...... Bueller...... Monotone
- By Jonathan Allen Beard on 02-15-15
By: Ian Worthington
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The Ghosts of Cannae
- Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic
- By: Robert L. O'Connell
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 13 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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For fans of Victor Davis Hanson, Donald Kagan, and Barry Strauss comes a rich, sweeping account of the most imitated---and vicious---battle in history.
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Hannibal's Legacy
- By Douglas on 11-10-10
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In Distant Lands
- A Short History of the Crusades
- By: Lars Brownworth
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
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In the late fall of 1095, Pope Urban II gave a speech in Clermont, France, and set all of Europe into motion. As many as 150,000 people eventually responded to the call, leaving everything they knew behind to undertake what appeared to be a fool's mission: marching several thousand miles into enemy territory to reconquer Jerusalem for Christendom.
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Pretty Good
- By Chris Russell on 05-15-19
By: Lars Brownworth
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In God's Path
- The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire
- By: Robert G. Hoyland
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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In just over a hundred years - from the death of Muhammad in 632 to the beginning of the Abbasid Caliphate in 750 - the followers of the Prophet swept across the whole of the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain. Their armies threatened states as far flung as the Franks in Western Europe and the Tang Empire in China. The conquered territory was larger than the Roman Empire at its greatest expansion, and it was claimed for the Arabs in roughly half the time.
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Islamic conquest history from the outside
- By SAMA on 01-22-15
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Hannibal
- By: Ernle Bradford
- Narrated by: Peter Jones
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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At the bloody battle of Cannae, he trounced a Roman army twice the size of his own. With his brothers, he subdued nearly all of Italy, Spain and Northern Africa. A cunning tactician, he secured victory for Bithynia at sea by catapulting poisonous snakes onto the decks of his enemy’s ships. Biographer Ernle Bradford draws on the historical writings of Livy, Polybius, Plutarch and others in re-creating the fantastic story of the greatest general since Alexander the Great.
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Perfect Balance of Narrative and Analysis
- By John on 11-28-23
By: Ernle Bradford
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Afghanistan
- A Military History from Alexander the Great to the Fall of the Taliban
- By: Stephen Tanner
- Narrated by: Raymond Todd
- Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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For more than 2,500 years, the forbidding territory of Afghanistan has served as a vital crossroads not only for armies but also for clashes between civilizations. As a result of the United States' engaging in armed conflict with the Afghan regime, an understanding of the military history of that blood-soaked land has become essential to every American.
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A Great Overview
- By Colin on 10-16-08
By: Stephen Tanner
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A Brief History of the Samurai
- Brief Histories
- By: Jonathan Clements
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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From a leading expert in Japanese history, this is one of the first full histories of the art and culture of the Samurai warrior. The Samurai emerged as a warrior caste in Medieval Japan and would have a powerful influence on the history and culture of the country from the next 500 years. Clements also looks at the Samurai wars that tore Japan apart in the 17th and 18th centuries and how the caste was finally demolished in the advent of the mechanized world.
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An Excellent History of the Samurai
- By Michael on 08-08-14
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Hannibal
- Rome’s Greatest Enemy
- By: Philip Freeman
- Narrated by: John Lescault
- Length: 5 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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More than 2,000 years ago one of the greatest military leaders in history almost destroyed Rome. Hannibal, a daring African general from the city of Carthage, led an army of warriors and battle elephants over the snowy Alps to invade the very heart of Rome's growing empire. But what kind of person would dare to face the most relentless imperial power of the ancient world? How could Hannibal, consistently outnumbered and always deep in enemy territory, win battle after battle until he held the very fate of Rome within his grasp?
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very excellent book on Hannibal; highly recommend
- By Michael E. B. on 10-04-22
By: Philip Freeman
What listeners say about The Field of Blood
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Eternl Rayne
- 09-08-20
A battle that (indirectly) defined the Middle East
The Field of Blood is a book about the Middle East during the 11th century and tells the reader why the Christian states in this era were not as doomed to failure as historians previously surmised. The idea of a majority Christian Middle East is unthinkable today, but as this book argues, it nearly became a reality.
First, the narration. Elfer is a narrator that does something I consider to be very difficult. He manages to narrate a book of this subject without imprinting his nature on the book. Many narrators either help or hurt the reading and as such, help or hurt the source material. Elfer does neither and instead reads exactly as if you were reading. Pronunciations are spot on, or at the very least consistent (everyone seems to pronounce Acre differently) while pacing is rhythmic and engaging. This is a narration that deserves praise for being subdued and excellent.
Second, the book. The Field of Blood is deceptively titled. If you search for “The Battle at The Field of Blood” you get a battle in the early 11th century for the city of Aleppo in Northern Syria. This book is actually about a wider narrative and poses an interesting question to readers; could Christian crusaders have actually held their conquered cities in the Middle East for an extensive period of time? While this book does not make an overtly persuasive argument about this, this question is the driving force behind the book as a whole. The book begins with the fall of Jerusalem in 1099, essentially ending the grueling First Crusade. At the turn of the 11th century, Christianity controlled four major centers of power in the Middle East; Jerusalem, Antioch, Tripoli (in Lebanon) and Odessa. They desperately needed to capture one of the four remaining centers of power held by Islam. What happened next?
The Field of Blood expertly lays out the decisions made by the Frankish nobility and its immediate outcome. It also discussed the complex political situations in Syria that led to Franks against Franks and Muslims against Muslims. The strength of this book is in its understanding that the subject matter is as complex as the time period. It was never just “Us vs. Them” as each side fought with religious enemies against former friends. The rise of the Crusader states and their fall; is all detailed here, helping the reader understand a crucial century of history.
The end of the book also deserves some praise. While most history books end with the topic, the author spends the time to tie everything he just discussed with out modern world. Understanding how so many inroads into the Middle East by modern armies turned out the way they did (in the broadest sense) was an unexpected treat. The struggles over community ties, religious fervor, outside influences and wars over the same land that the crusaders faced are expertly explained and juxtaposed with todays on going struggles in the region. The Field of Blood is a wonderful, if not quick take on the 11th century, that is sure to answer the question of what happened immediately after that initial holy pilgrimage that became known as the First Crusade.
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- Christopher Riedel
- 10-04-20
A different view of the Crusades
Morton is part of the recent generation of scholars who have finally taken both sides of the Crusades with equal seriousness, and in the process demonstrated that there are far more than two sides. But Morton has carved out a compelling niche by carefully examining an overlooked period: after Jerusalem’s conquest in 1099 but before the new Kingdom flourished in the 1050s. What we get is a fascinating look at the early Crusader States and, more importantly, one of the clearest examples of a carefully crafted hostorical investigation and argument I have ever read. Contrary to many pessimistic historical views that fixate on the failure of the Crusading venture, Morton argues that the Crusaders had a brief window in which they could have succeeded in establishing a self-sustaining and unassailable position had they captured one of the three key Muslim cities, but most critically Aleppo. His argument is clear, lucid, and compelling, and alongside his focus on this neglected era truly gives a different perspective on a subject that has been retrodden many times. Like nearly all Crusade histories, this one can get a bit bogged down in battle after battle, but Morton lives this up a great deal by interspering background information adroitly throughout to break up the war stories that all too often in other books all blend together. A masterful display of historical writing.
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