In her preface to the Alexiad, Anna Comnena (often spelled Komnena or Komnene) describes her purpose, “to recount the deeds done by my father,” arguing that “they should certainly not be lost in silence, or swept away, as it were, on the current of time and the sea of forgetfulness.” She goes on to state that the deeds she is going to relate “should not be left unattested for future generations” or “extinguished in the obscurity of silence.” Books X and XI of the Alexiad focus on the events of the First Crusade and the impact that the European Crusaders had on the Byzantine Empire.