Kevin Crossley-Holland Quotes
When I was a boy, I took over the shed at the bottom of the garden and displayed fossils and potsherds and coins in it and proudly called it my 'museum'. I charged people to come in, and my most prized possession was a Saracen shield dating from the Crusades.
Crossley-Holland, Kevin. The Hidden Roads: A Memoir of Childhood. Quercus, 2009, p. 14.
Christians of 1 thousand years ago were barbarous and immoral compared to Christians of today, even though their Bible is the same. He argued that Islam may well also reform. In looking at Islam compared with Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism, it is useful to remember that these are much older religions than Islam. They have had more time to reform and develop. Compare Christians 700 years ago to Christians today. They were pretty barbaric in comparison. They burned heretics at the stake and "witches" also. But Islam is 700 years younger than Christianity and thousands of years younger than the other 3 religions mentioned. It may well need more time to develop and reform.
In addition to the Muslim world during the Crusades losing control of the Holy City for the first time in 400 years, the Christians stabled their horses on the Al Axa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, two of Islam’s holiest places. In addition, the Crusaders, after taking the city, slaughtered most of the inhabitants—Muslims, Jews and even fellow Christians who were Eastern Orthodox—more than 30,000 in just a day or so. It was a reign of terror on a scale that even today, it is shocking to most. So where as to us the Crusades were an interesting of aberrant part of history, to many Muslims of the Middle East the thought or discussion of the Crusades is traumatic even today.
This is the first mention of a flame thrower in the history of warfare. The ancient Greeks had developed “Greek Fire” which was a type of naphtha tar that could be launched with a sling or trebuchet at enemy ships, but they never developed both the liquid form and the pumping and pressure device to send it over a distance. But apparently the Byzantines did develop the technology. However, it was likely that it was almost as much danger to the Byzantines who manned the equipment as it was to the enemy against whom they used it. However, they were not able to deploy enough of the weapons to have made a material difference in the outcome of any large battles as none of the military leaders and observers made any significant mention of it.
Kevin John William Crossley-Holland is an English translator, children's author and poet. His best known work is probably the Arthur trilogy (2000–2003), for which he won the Guardian Prize and other recognition.
