This is a new edition (the first since 1936) of the classic text on Crusader castles and their relation to Western military architecture written by T.E. Lawrence in 1910. This volume reproduces Lawrence's text, drawings, and photographs; provides a new introduction, critical notes, and index; and reassesses in light of recent scholarship Lawrence's controversial claim that Crusader castles of the 12th century owed more to castles in the West than to anything the Franks found in the East, and that western military architecture absorbed little or nothing from the Orient before the 12th century.
T.E. Lawrence was born on 16th August 1888 in Tremadog in Wales. He was one of five illegitimate children born to the Seventh Baron of Westmeath. He studied at Jesus College, Oxford where he became interested in the Middle East. He worked for British Intelligence during the First World War and fought with the Arab forces to defeat the Turks. His exploits earned him the title of "Lawrence of Arabia" back in Britain.Her resigned in 1922 and sought anonymity in the RAF where he enlisted as John Hume Ross. He later changed his name by deed poll to T.E. Shaw. Shortly after retiring from the RAF, T.E. Lawrence died in a motorcycle accident on 19th May 1935.
