The Crusade of King Conrad III of Germany

Abstract

aged a turn towards the West. Muslims and Jews used Christian ships and benefitted from Venetian anti-piracy measures. While Tunis was the most important node, the Maghreb had a more spread-out range of nodes than the Mamlūk world. Following this period of revitalisation, the centre of gravity eventually moved into the Atlantic; Maghrebi networks held up against Portuguese-Atlantic competition until the colonisation of the Americas in the sixteenth century definitively tipped the balance. Valérian’s book is a superb temperature check of the state of scholarship on the medieval Maghreb, and as such it will be of immense value to anyone wishing to acquire a knowledge of the sources and debates in the field. The clearly labeled parts, chapters and sections quickly reveal the outline of his analysis, and the reader is helped further by the inclusion of multiple excellent maps. A thorough reading will be rewarded with the discovery of a wealth of detailed observations on many economic, social, political and geographical matters. Valérian demonstrates that Maghrebi actors were both reactive and proactive as they participated in determining the form and function of the networks in which they participated. The problematic stereotyping of the Maghreb as a passive periphery has here been thoroughly interrogated and found deeply wanting; Valérian’s study of the development of ports and networks of exchange presents a robust and nuanced alternative.