The Poor Fellow Soldiers of Jesus Christ and the Temple of Solomon, better known as the Knights of Templars is the story told by Peirs Paul Read in his book The Templars.

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        The Poor Fellow Soldiers of Jesus Christ and the Temple of Solomon, better known as the Knights of Templars is the story told by Peirs Paul Read in his book The Templars.  These military monks of the middle ages surround the crusades of the 12th and 13th centuries. In his book, Read addresses all aspects of the Templars, from their history to the politics involved as he creates a fully rounded understanding of that time period and the events circulating around.  Read tells the story of the Templars and of the Crusades basically into three broken down parts, origins of the Templars, the historical events of the Templars and the eventual downfall of the Templars.

Read begins his book with explaining to his audience why Jerusalem is considered to be “at the centre of the world” (Read, p3) to al three religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Here where Read really begins to dive into the book, right at the beginning, spending almost eighty pages on something that could have been briefly summed up in the preface. Read tells the story of Abraham and Isaac, and the sacrifices that were to be preformed. Abraham is a belief all three religions have in common. The importance of the Temple mound is also explained by Read and as to why this sited was where the Templars choose that site for their founding and as their area to defend Christianity. Read also goes on to for the first chapter to further explain the experiences of the Jews (pages 3-15) including Herod and the temple he allowed the Jews to rebuild. Read not only describes the Jewish religion, but goes on to explain how Muslims (pages 44-55) and Christians (16-26) differ, as well as some of their fundamental similarities. By doing this Read is able to give a good description of the paranoia’s that turns into conflict between the three different religions.

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        In the book it is explained that the Order of the Temple is the birth of the Templars. At the beginning the Templars were only guards to the sacred sites from the Muslims in outlaying areas after the First Crusade (pages 72-83) when Jerusalem was taken over. After a time, the Muslims were to regain their territory from the European invaders and the Templars had to become more militant monks than just guards in Jerusalem, they were to protect Christ’s homeland from invaders in a Holy War.

        In the second part of the book, Read really spends a lot ...

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