In this podcast Professor Rebecca Rist of the University of Reading provides an overview of medieval Europe and the Near East on the eve of the First Crusade.

1. What nations/empires represented the major powers in medieval Europe and the Near East on the eve of the First Crusade?
2. What were relationships like between these powers?
3. How interconnected was trade in medieval Europe and the Near East?
4. How much do the peoples of Europe and the Near East know of each other?
5. How important was Christianity in the Latin and Byzantine Empires? How important was faith?
6. What do students need to think about to get inside the medieval European mind?
7. What was the role and significance of the Pope?
8. How was the Muslim world divided between Sunni/Shia on the eve of the First Crusade? What was the importance of this division?
9. What footprint did Islam have in Europe and Africa?
10. What led to the rise of the Seljuk Turks? What was the significance of their emergence?
11. What did medieval European minds know about the geography of their world? What did they know about their Islamic neighbours?
12. What did medieval Islamic minds know about the geography of their world? What did they know about their European and Christian neighbours?
13. Was the First Crusade inevitable?

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