The "Poor Knights of Christ of the Solomon Temple," commonly known as the Knights Templar or simply Templars, still attracts significant interest even 700 years after their dramatic downfall. The first Christian knightly order in history combined, in its own understanding, the ideals of nobility with those of monasticism. During its two centuries of existence, the elite order, founded around 1119 by some crusaders, not only actively participated in most battles against Muslims in the Holy Land but also quickly gained unprecedented political and economic power, becoming a formidable rival to both the Church and the State. Manfred Barthel provides a well-written overview of the order's history, its internal structure, the life of the knights, the battles in Palestine, and the dissolution of the order in his engagingly written non-fiction book.