The book contains a selection of studies which originated in a symposium organized by the authors and held at Dumbarton Oaks on 2-4 May, 1997 on the 900th aniversary of the appearance of the crusading armies outside of Nicaea. The authors felt a need of a conference that would look at the crusade from the perspective of those areas to which it was primarily directed, namely, the Eastern Muslim areas and the Byzantine Empire. The symposium was to examine several important issues that, in one way or another, affected the Byzantine and Muslim worlds at the time of the Cursades or because of them. The movement having been a lengthy and recurrent one, the timeframe extended to the late thirteenth century. The first essay published here analyzes the development of the historiography of the Cursades. The other essays discuss various topics ranging from the problems of the holy war in Byzantium and Islam to the question of attitudes and perceptions, the effect on art, and the impact of the Cursades on the economies of the East.