Crusades

History Documentary hosted by Terry Jones, published by BBC in 1995 - English narration


Information
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Crusades

Co-writer and presenter of Crusades, Terry Jones has a solid academic background in medieval history, but he's also an ex-Python, which makes for an entertaining combination of erudition and wit in this four-part BBC series. Instead of the usual parade of talking heads, Crusades employs actors in costume, actors pretending to be mosaics, and some nifty computer animation to enliven proceedings--although nothing compares to the animation of the presenter himself, whose enthusiasm is repeatedly demonstrated, whether in his interview with the descendant of a divinely inspired goose or in his game attempt to walk across the desert in full armour. Jones tackles the Byzantine (pardon the pun) complexities of 11th- and 12th-century European and Middle-Eastern history with a confident lightness, for example when describing the knightly conflict over the apparently pacifist teaching of Jesus ("Knights had no teddy-bears, no wonder they lashed out in a crisis") or the recruiting methods for the first crusade (shown as a propaganda newsreel). Refreshingly, he is also at pains to redress the historical imbalance by presenting the Crusades from the Arabic perspective, too, devoting lengthy but always enthralling exposition to the origin of the Islamic Jihad, and travelling across the Middle East to do so. 




3)  Jihad 
Terry Jones describes how the crusaders lost Jerusalem in 1144 to Zengi, the Arab leader. A second crusade fell foul of Zengi's son, Nur el-Din, who planned to surround the crusaders by gaining control of Egypt. For this he employed a Kurdish general - Shirkuh - and his nephew Saladin. After Nur el-Din's mysterious death, Saladin succeeded him in Damascus, a daunting figure who was wholly committed to the jihad, or holy war.


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Technical Specs
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 * Video Codec: XviD ISO MPEG-4
 * Video Bitrate: 1858 kbps
 * Video Resolution: 720 x 528
 * Video Aspect Ratio: (4:3)
 * Frames Per Second: 29
 * Audio Codec: 0x2000 (Dolby AC3)
 * Audio Bitrate: 128 kb/s AC3 48000 Hz
 * Audio Streams: 2
 * Audio Languages: English
 * RunTime Per Part: 50.Mins
 * Number Of Parts: 4
 * Part Size: 700 MB
 * Source: DVD
 * Encoded by: Harry65



Links
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1)  Further Information 
http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/bible/crusades.stm/