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Medieval Warfare Source Book: Christian Europe and Its Neighbors

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In Volume Two of his intrepid study on the wars and warfare of the Middle Ages, Nicolle - despite the implications of his title - places his focus upon the Muslims, the Byzantines, the Asians, and the Indians, with only the Frankish Crusader States providing any glimpse of "Christian Europe."

This is no easy-reading book to occupy a lazy Saturday afternoon; it is a thick, detailed overview of all of the Middle Eastern, Far Eastern, and South Asian areas from the time of the Roman Empire's dissolution to the late fourteenth century. Each chapter is divided into sections dealing with army recruitment, military organization, weaponry and harness, fortifications, siege warfare, and naval warfare in the respective areas dealt with in individual chapters. Nicolle's information is succinct and to the point, if not necessarily very entertaining.

He closes with an expansive list of his sources, a brief chapter highlighting the biographies of certain notable warlords, and finally a lengthy chapter of "miscellanea."