Petrie--Palæolithic man--Egyptian record of Israel--Egypt Exploration
Fund--The royal tombs at Abydos--Chronology of the early kings--Steles,
pottery, and jewelry-The temples of Abydos--Seals, statuettes, and
ceramics._


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CHAPTER I--THE CRUSADERS IN EGYPT


_The Ideal of the Crusader: Saladin's Campaign: Richard I. in Palestine:
Siege of Damietta: St. Louis in Egypt: The Mamluks: Beybars' Policy._


The traditional history of the Christian Church has generally maintained
that the Crusades were due solely to religious influence and sprang from
ideal and moral motives: those hundreds of thousands of warriors who
went out to the East were religious enthusiasts, prompted by the pious
longings of their hearts, and Peter the Hermit, it was claimed, had
received a divine message to call Christendom to arms, to preach
a Crusade against the unbelievers and take possession of the Holy
Sepulchre. That such ideal reasons should be attributed to a war like
the Crusades, of a wide and far-reaching influence on the political and
intellectual development of mediæval Europe, is not at all surprising.
In the history of humanity there have been few wars in which the
combatants on both sides were not convinced that they had drawn their