SOURCE: “Principal Sources for the History of the First Crusade” in A History of the Crusades, Vol. I: The First Crusade and the Foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Cambridge University Press, 1951, pp. 327–35.

In the following essay, Runciman surveys the contemporary and nearly contemporary source material related to the First Crusade, discussing Greek, Latin, Arabic, Armenian, and Syrian sources.

The story of the First Crusade is almost entirely covered by contemporary or almost contemporary sources. … [The] chief primary sources on which we are continuously dependent and which do not always agree among themselves need a general critical appreciation in order to assess their relative value.

1. Greek

The only Greek source of prime importance is the Alexiad of Anna Comnena, which is the life of the Emperor Alexius by his favourite daughter. Anna wrote her book some forty years after the events of the First Crusade, when she was...