Genesis, Creation, and Early Man for a proper defense of the creationist viewpoint.
The Alexiad by Anna Komnene, it's a medieval biography of sorts, very valuable book for understanding the Eastern Roman viewpoint during the first crusade.
“The stream of Time, irresistible, ever moving, carries off and bears away all things that come to birth and plunges them into utter darkness, both deeds of no account and deeds which are mighty and worthy of commemoration; as the playwright [Sophocles] says, it 'brings to light that which was unseen and shrouds from us that which was manifest.' Nevertheless, the science of History is a great bulwark against this stream of Time; in a way it checks this irresistible flood, it holds in a tight grasp whatever it can seize floating on the surface and will not allow it to slip away into the depths of Oblivion.
I, having realized the effects wrought by Time, desire now by means of my writings to give an account of my father's deeds, which do not deserve to be consigned to Forgetfulness nor to be swept away on the flood of Time into an ocean of Non-Remembrance; I wish to recall everything...”
“The Latin customs with regard to priests differ from ours. We are bidden by canon law and the teaching of the Gospel, ‘Touch not, grumble not, attack not—for thou art consecrated.’ But the barbarian Latin will at the same time handle sacred objects, fasten a shield to his left arm and grasp a spear in his right…Thus this barbarian race is no less devoted to religion than to war.”
The Knight in the Panther's Skin by Shota Rustaveli. There's quite a fascinating story behind this one. It is kind of the magnum opus of Georgian medieval literature. We know virtually nothing about Shota Rustaveli, or Rustveli, as he is referred to in manuscript codices. The name "Rustveli" suggests that he was a native of Rustavi. The general scholarly convention, supported by a centuries-long written and oral tradition, is that Rustaveli was born around 1150-65, died in the first half of the 13th century, and was part of the court of Queen Tamar. Like other medieval sources, Rustaveli's Prologue refers to her as "King" Tamar, presumably to ensure she receives full monarch status. Tradition has it that he was a
mechurchletukhutsesi, the equivalent of a finance minister. There is a medieval fresco in the former Georgian monastery of The Holy Cross in Jerusalem, with an inscription upon it: "The one who painted it [or: who commissioned this painting] - Shota, may God have mercy upon his sins, Rustveli". The kneeling old man depicted there is clothed in a noble layman's vestments. If this is a portrait of Rustaveli, he would have had the social standing to hold a high position.
