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PREFACE 
 Having devoted nearly a quarter of a century to this series of volumes on
the crusades, and having known for at least a decade that eventually this
preface would be required of me, I nevertheless have accumulated no philosophical
profundities to share with the reader, merely some deeply felt apologies
and regrets, gratitude and hopes. 
 Apologies for the inordinate delays in producing this and its companion
volume, now in press, are due both to the readers who have—we trust—been
impatiently awaiting their appearance, and to the contributors, many of whom
have conscientiously revised chap ters submitted in the ' fifties and ' sixties
to take into account subse quent research. Regrets parallel the apologies,
for the inexorable passage of time has claimed the lives of four of our contributors—Sir
Harry Luke and Professors Ettore Rossi, Mustafa Ziada, and Edgar Johnson—so
that we have had to prepare their chapters for publica tion without the benefit
of their advice, in rueful awareness that we could never duplicate their
specialized knowledge. I can only hope that such footnotes and bibliographical
additions as I have supplied, and such modifications as. I have had to make
in their original manuscripts, would have met with their approval. 
 Gratitude, of course, is due primarily to our other contributors, not only
for revising their chapters but for their forbearance with editorial exigencies
and suggestions. Many others have helped, over the years, and our deep appreciation
is here acknowledged, to Mrs. Jean T. Carver for extensive impeccable typing,
to Mrs. Margaret T. Setton and Dr. David L. Gassman for meticulous proof-reading,
to Mrs. Mary Maraniss of the University of Wisconsin Press for equally meticulous
preparation of the manuscript for the printer, to Profes sor Randall T. Sale
and his staff for the maps which embellish these pages, to the anonymous
printers who have cheerfully incorporated countless revisions and corrections,
and not least to the ever-helpful director of the Press, Thompson Webb, Jr.
 As for our hopes, without which the effort of assembling and editing such
collaborative works as this would be intolerable, they will surprise no one:
the hope that this third volume is as generously received as its two predecessors,
and stands up as well over the years; the hope that volume IV will appear
shortly, and that volumes V and 
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