1. Older works on the First Crusade that did pay some attention to the sea are Charles W. David,Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy(Cambridge, MA, 1920), pp. 230–44, and Steven Runciman,A History of the Crusades. Volume 1: The First Crusade and the Foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem(Harmondsworth, 1965), pp. 219–35. Two other older works on maritime aspects of the Crusades – A. Deschard, “Les croisades et le rôle qu’y joua la marine,”Revue des études historiques103 (1936), 131–38, and Michel Mollat, “Problèmes navals de l’histoire des croisades,”Cahiers de civilisation médiévale10 (1967), 345–59 – are now superseded.
2. Modern works overlook the maritime perspective almost entirely. The unpublished Oxford D. Phil. thesis of Shirley M. Foster, “Some Aspects of Maritime Activity and the Use of Sea Power in Relation to the Crusading states, 1096–1169” (Oxford, 1978), lacks understanding of technological, logistical, and tactical aspects of medieval naval warfare. It contributes little to understanding the maritime forces of the early Crusades. The ‘Wisconsin’History of the Crusadesedited by Kenneth Setton neglected it for both the First Crusade and the Crusades as a whole, except for Louise B. Robbert, “Venice and the Crusades,” inThe Impact of the Crusades on the Near East[Setton,Crusades. Vol. V], ed. Norman P. Zacour and Harry W. Hazard, pp. 379–451, which hardly discusses the Venetian fleet for the First Crusade at all. Ralph-Johannes Lilie,Byzantium and the Crusader States 1096–1204(Oxford, 1993) pays little attention to the naval forces except in Appendix 1: “Laodicea, Antioch, and Byzantium between AD 1098 and 1105.” The article of Susan Rose, “Islam versus Christendom: The Naval Dimension, 1000–1600,”The Journal of Military History63 (1999), 561–78, does not address the First Crusade.
3. Elena Bellomo, “«Galeas . armatas strenue in Syriam direxerunt»: la prima crociata e il regno gerosolimitano del XII secolo nella cronachistica genovese sino al Duecento,” inMedioevo mediterraneo: cristiani, musulmani ed eretici tra Europa e Oltremare (secoli IX–XIII)[Vita e pensiero: scienze storiche, 74], ed. Marco Meschini (Milan, 2001), pp. 103–30, does not discuss the actual Genoese Crusade at all. Marie-Louise Favreau-Lilie, “Die italienischen Seestädte und die Kreuzzuge,” inKein Krieg ist heilig: Die Kreuzzüge, ed. H.J. Kotzur (Mainz, 2004), pp. 193–203, is a generalist overview but see herDie Italiener im Heiligen Land vom ersten Kreuzzug bis zum Tode Heinrichs von Champagne (1098–1197)(Amsterdam, 1989), pp. 43–79. See also Christopher Marshall, “The Crusading Motivation of the Italian City Republics in the Latin East, 1096–1104,”in EC, I, pp. 60–79.
4. Modern works that have attempted to address the issues include Bernard S. Bachrach, “The Siege of Antioch: A Study in Military Demography,”War in History6 (1999), 127–46, pp. 139–41; idem, “Some Observations on the Role of the Byzantine Navy in the Success of the First Crusade,”Journal of Medieval Military History1 (2002), 83–100 [repetitive of the previous]; idem, “Crusader Logistics: From Victory at Nicaea to Resupply at Dorylaion,” inLogistics of Warfare, ed. Pryor, pp. 43–62; John France, “The First Crusade as a Naval Enterprise,”The Mariner’s Mirror83 (1997), 389–97; idem, “The Western Mediterranean Powers and the First Crusade,”Journal of Mediterranean Studies10 (2000), 265–74 [repetitive of each other and of hisVictory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade(Cambridge, 1994), pp. 209–20]; idem, “Technology and Success of the First Crusade,” inWar and Society in the Eastern Mediterranean, 7th–15th centuries, ed. Yaacov Lev (Leiden, 1997), pp. 163–76.
5. For the Fāṭimid navy there are only the works of William J. Hamblin, “The Fatimid Navy During the Early Crusades, 1099–1124,”The American Neptune46 (1986), 77–83; Yaacov Lev, “The Fatimid Army and Navy and the Crusades,” ch. 6 of hisState and Society in Fatimid Egypt(Leiden, 1991), pp. 93–121; Aly M. Fahmy,Muslim Naval Organisation in the Eastern Mediterranean from the Seventh to the Tenth Century A.D.(Cairo, 1966); and Jean Richard, “Les bases maritimes des Fatimides, leurs corsairs et l’occupation franque en Syrie,” inEgypt and Syria in the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk Eras. II: Proceedings of the 4th and 5th International Colloquium Organized at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in May 1995 and 1996, ed. Urbain Vermeulen and D. de Smet (Leiden, 1998), pp. 115–29. Xavier de Planhol,L’Islam et la mer: la mosquée et le matelot VIIe–XXe siècle(Paris, 2000) has only passing comments on the Crusade and no independent analysis of the Fāṭimid fleet, or indeed of any other medieval Muslim fleet. Wilhelm Hoenerbach,Araber und Mittelmeer: Anfänge und Probleme arabischer Seegeschichte(Kiel, 1967) is of no consequence. Carole Hillenbrand,The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives(Edinburgh, 1999), pp. 556–78 (“The Naval Dimension”) misses the opportunity.