Dr Tom Asbridge
Reader in Medieval History
Location: Arts Two 4.06email: t.s.asbridge@qmul.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0) 20 7882 8343
Dr Tom Asbridge studied for a BA in Ancient and Medieval History at Cardiff University, before undertaking doctoral research on the early history of the 'crusader' principality of Antioch at Royal Holloway, University of London. He then taught at St Andrews and the University of Reading, before joining Queen Mary in 1999.
Research interests:
Dr Asbridge specialises in the history of the crusades and the Latin settlement of the Levant between 1095 and 1291. His book The First Crusade: A New History was published to widespread international acclaim in 2004, prompting reviews and comments in publications as diverse as The Times, the Guardian, the Washington Post, the New Yorker and the Big Issue. His new book The Crusades – The War for the Holy Land was published in 2010. Between 1999 and 2011 he was co-convenor of the internationally renowned research seminar on The Crusades and the Eastern Mediterranean held at the Institute of Historical Research, London. Dr Asbridge is now director of the Queen Mary’s new MA in Islam and the West and chairs the Islam and the West Research Seminar.
Postgraduate supervision:
Dr Asbridge welcomes applications from candidates wishing to undertake doctoral research on any field of medieval history, with particular reference to military and religious history, the crusades and the crusader states, and cross-cultural contact between Islam and the West.
Publications:
Major Publications
The Crusades – The War for the Holy Land (UK Edition: London: Simon & Schuster, January 2010; US Edition: New York: Ecco, 2010), pp. 1-784. Translations include: Het Spectrum (Holland), Klett-Cotta (Germany), Edhasa (Spain), People’s Press (Denmark).
The First Crusade: A New History (UK Edition: London: Free Press, Simon & Schuster, 2004; US Edition: New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 1-408. Dutch translation: De Eerste Kruistocht: De oorsprong van het conflict tusen islam en Christendom (Amsterdam: Athenaeum – Polak & Van Gennep, 2006). Polish translation: Pierwsza Krucjata: Nowe Sporjzenie (Poznan: Rebis, 2006).
The Creation of the Principality of Antioch 1098-1130 (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2000), pp. 1- 272.
Walter the Chancellor’s ‘The Antiochene Wars’: A translation & commentary (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999), pp. 1-230, co-author with SB Edgington.
‘The Holy Lance of Antioch: Power, devotion and memory on the First Crusade’, Reading Medieval Studies, vol 33 (March 2007), pp. 3-36.
‘Knowing the Enemy: Latin relations with Islam at the time of the First Crusade’, Knighthoods of Christ, ed N Housley (Aldershot: Ashgate, March 2007), pp. 17-25.
‘Alice of Antioch: a case study of female power in the twelfth century’, The Experience of Crusading: Defining the Crusader Kingdom, ed P Edbury and J Phillips (Cambridge, 2003), pp. 29-47.
‘The impact of Islam and Byzantium upon the crusader community at Antioch’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th series, vol 9 (1999), pp 305-325.
‘The significance and causes of the battle of the Field of Blood’, Journal of Medieval History, vol 24.3 (1997), pp. 301-316.
‘The Jabal as-Summaq and the principality of Antioch’, The First Crusade: Origins and Impact, ed J Phillips (Manchester University Press, 1997), pp. 142-152.
Media
Thomas Asbridge wrote and presented BBC Two’s landmark three-part series The Crusades broadcast in January 2012. Tracing the history of this 200-year war between Christians and Muslims for control of the Holy Land, Thomas filmed on location across the Middle East, north Africa and Europe, and visited numerous archives – from Jerusalem’s Aqsa Mosque to an isolated island monastery in Venice – to reveal rarely seen manuscripts and artefacts.
Dr Asbridge developed and presented the documentary The Crusader’s Lost Fort for BBC2’s Timewatch strand. He has appeared in many other internationally broadcast documentaries, including The Crusades: the Cross and the Crescent for the History Channel and Channel 4’s The Real Da Vinci Code.
Dr Asbridge has been interviewed about his research by numerous national and local radio stations – including Today (BBC Radio 4) and Talk of the Nation, National Public Radio, USA – in the UK, Ireland, Holland and America.
Dr Asbridge has worked as a historical consultant for HBO, Company Pictures and Ridley Scott
Undergraduate teaching:
The Middle Ages (1000-1300) – Level 4The Crusades (1095-1291) – Level 5
Islam and the West in the Middle Ages - Level 6
The First Crusade - Level 6 Special Subject
Postgraduate teaching:
Director of the MA in Islam and the West
Islam and the West – MA Core Course
Saladin, Richard the Lionheart and the Third Crusade – MA Option