The word ‘crusade’ covers today a wide variety of meanings in most European languages. The link between these uses and the historical phenomenon labelled as ‘crusade’ by historians is often very narrow and particularly changing. Understanding the real meaning of the word ‘crusade’, its connotations and implications, and thus the conscious or unconscious intentions of its uses requires a precise knowledge of the historical evolutions of the word, from its first appearance in the 13th century until nowadays. This book offers the first comprehensive view of the historical construction of the meaning of the word ‘crusade’ through comparative perspectives from the Middle Ages to the 21st century. Its 11 articles, introduction and conclusion examine different uses of the word, in a single language or within a specific context, and analyse each of them as a different conceptualisation of the crusading phenomenon. The book explains the progressive widening of the meaning of the term, from a military expedition to Jerusalem to the most metaphorical uses. It demonstrates the differences between the connotations of the word in various languages and cultures and, thus, the variety of its possible uses. It insists on the reluctance and reticence that ‘crusade’ has always provoked since the Middle Ages, precisely because the conceptualisation it implied was not shared by all. The book will be of interest not only for crusade scholars and for diachronic linguists but also for anyone interested in understanding better modern discourses and references to the ‘crusade’ by politicians, activists, and journalists, through a precise inquiry on the historical developments of the word and the variety of its meanings.

Table of Contents:
01. Introduction – Benjamin Weber 02. From Kriuzvart to Kreuzzug. German Words for Crusade and their Usage from the Thirteenth to the Eighteenth centuries – Christoph T. Maier, University of Zurich, Switzerland 03. Crociata in the history of Italian language – Daniele d’Aguanno, University of Naples, L’Orientale, Italy 04. Krucjata, krzyzowcy, krzyzacy. A Short Historical Outline of the Polish Crusading Terminology – Paul Srodecki, University of Kiel, Germany 05. Croisade : sens et usages entre deux rives encore opposées – Fatma Ahmad Kamel, University of Cairo, Egypt / University of Paris XII, France 06. Histoire du mot croisade dans le Dictionnaire de l'Académie française. Un chassé-croisé sémantique et une construction lexicographique tardive – Caroline Salagnac, Praxiling, Université de Montpellier, France 07. Croisade(s) et dictionnaires français : une étude diachronique – Rosa Cetro, University of Pisa, Italy 08. Crucifixion, Cross and Crusade: Crusading Terminology in Old French Crusading Chansons de Geste – Carol Sweetenham, University of Warwick / Royal Holloway, London, England 09. Crusading against France, 1789-1815 – Elizabeth Siberry, Independent Scholar 10. Lutter contre l’immoralité : une « croisade morale » ? L’exemple des ligues de vertu sous les débuts de la Troisième République – Philippe Fache, Université Sorbonne Paris-nord, France 11. “The last crusade”? The Italian Public Opinion in front of the Conquest of Jerusalem in 1917 – Francesco Cutolo, University of Pisa, Italy 12. Crusade(s) Reloaded. On the Ideological Use of a Polymyth in the Twenty-First Century – Paul Srodecki, University of Kiel, Germany 13. Conclusion – Daniele Menozzi, scuola normale superiore di Pisa, Italy Bibliography