A new show titled "The Crusades: Crescent & the Cross" is to air on the History Channel tomorrow and Monday nights (9pm/8c).


From the description on the site: "This November, The History Channel travels back in time for a historical, vivid, and clear-eyed look at the first three Crusades, the battle between the crescent and the cross, which still shapes the Middle East and relations between the two great religions in our present day world."

It is suppsed to be based upon contemporary accounts, both Muslim and Christian.

I don't know if I'll be able to catch it - I'm at work, and the satellite is acting up, so it may not be available, but I thought I'd bring it to everyone's attention if they weren't aware already. Don't know about programming outside of the US...

I don't have cable, but I might be interested in picking this up on DVD IF the show is any good. I would appreciate feedback from those in our community who are able to watch it.
From my limited experience (seeing some DVD's plus seeing cable while on business trips), the accuracy and presentation of the shows on the History Channel can be a bit uneven.

Judging from the quality of the photos on the HC website link I don't have much confidence in the production values of this one.

I saw those trailers at GDFB. While several of their products interest me that isn't one of them.

I see what you mean about Richard. That sword looks quite silly, too. In any case, I'm not surprised. They messed up quite a bit in 'Russia, Land of the Tsars' too. Alexius Comnenus looks about as Greek as Erik the Red.

I don't know what the site refers to when it mentions 'The city of Damascus called for Nur al-Din's help to defend them from the Crusaders.' True, the city was attacked by the Latins in 1126 and 1129, but this was during the rule of Zengi. Ah well!

They also like to dig towards the bottom of the barrel with the scholars that speak on their shows.

Funnily, though, their promotional partners are Spamalot, D&D, and (strangely) Osprey.

Yeah, that picture of King Richard was a little ..... 'scary.' No wonder the First was the only successful one! :p I'll watch it anyway. It might be neat. -Ted

I'm probably going to watch it tonight, but I will not expect it to be good. I was just watching a show on the Goths attacking the Romans and It was very sad. They often have clips of reenactments of the battles while the historians are talking. Well, in one scene, the Goths were charging, and I happened to notice one man had a round shield in one hand and a scottish claymore in the other!! Not exactly my idea for accurate.

I'm going to watch it. I'll post my thoughts after it's over.


Ben

Good for you Aaron you seem to be doing a good job recruiting new sword CULT members. :p :cool: :lol:

Aaron said: " Once in a while, though, we can make a difference ourselves... today, while hanging out in my office reading one of Tobler's books, one of my co-workers came in. Curious, he inquired what I was reading... I handed it to him. "

Sounds like fun, makes me sad that I live thousands of miles away in the GREAT, soon to be again, WHITE NORTH, I'm sure I would have enjoyed the conversation and the practical learning experience.

The first part was pretty good. I'm going to watch part two tomorrow. A good use of two hours.

I just got thru watching it. I thought it was pretty good and I learned a lot. I'm gonna try to watch the rest of it tomorrow night (either this or Monday night football :cool: ). What was particularly interesting was when the Crusaders defending Antioch were holding up the Holy Lance as they thought this would guarantee their victory over the approaching Turks. Apparently it did. -Ted