Author Description

"This book examines just how important the Fourth Crusade was as a turning point in the Middle East. The broad setting is the encounter of Byzantium with the West within the framework of the crusades. Differences of outlook and interest meant that this encounter was soon overburdened with mutual distrust. 1204 was a kind of a solution and created situations scarcely conceivable even two years before when the Fourth Crusade set sail from Venice."--BOOK JACKET.