About the book: 2022 / Why did European monarchs, knights, the poor and children, under the influence of sermons and rumors, go to the East? During the Middle Ages, Western European knighthood, inspired by the Catholic Church, went to Palestine to liberate the Holy Land from Muslims, where, according to legend, Jesus Christ suffered. This movement was called the Crusades, which became the bloodiest religious wars of the 11th-13th centuries. The fanatical movement of Christians to the East soon transformed into a series of wars of conquest. The book by the famous Russian medievalist historian Mikhail Zaborov (1920-1987) fascinatingly tells about all the Crusades to the East. The author describes the battle between European armies and Muslims in Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, examines the reasons for the emergence of the crusader movement, the influence of the Catholic Church on it and various forms of European participation in campaigns, the formation of Christian states and military monastic orders in the East. Much attention is paid in the book to conflicts among the crusaders, their confrontation with the Venetians and Byzantines, the capture of Constantinople and the victors of the crusaders - the Seljuk Turks. The publishing layout of the book is saved in PDF A4 format.