Crusades

The Crusades (1095-1291) were a series of four major military expeditions made by Christians from western Europe seeking to free the Holy Land from Muslim domination.

The Crusades comprise a major chapter of Medieval History. Extending over three centuries, they attracted every social class in western Europe. Kings and commoners, barons and bishops, knights and comoners--even children--all participated in these expeditions to the eastern end of the Mediterranean. The motives of the crusaders were numerous: some sought riches; many sought adventure; most were moved by faith alone. The crusaders derived their name from the Latin word for "cross"--crux. A crusader went to the Holy Land with a cross of cloth sewn over his breast; when he returned, he had a similar cross for his back. Originally called to repel the Islamic forces dwelling in Jerusalem. The Crusades later evolved into a form of political decree called by the Papacy for political, social or economic reasons; In other words, a directive of war issued by the Pope to all Rome-friendly nations against forces who were hostile to the Papacy.

Background

The Byzantine Empire controlled Jerusalem until its fall in 614 to Kosrau II, ruler of the Persian Empire. The Byzantine Emperor Heraclius aimed to reconquer Jerusalem for religious reasons since Jerusalem was the centre of Christianity and the home of the True Cross. This set a precedent in Christian reasoning that Jerusalem and in turn Palestine rightfully belonged to Christianity, being the center of Christian tradition and religion.

The Arabs gained control of Palestine in the seventh century. Their successful invasion and occupation of the land had not interfered with Christians rights to pilgrimage or neither did it tamper with local Christian communities or monastries. It did however mark the beginning of Byzantine decline in the region. Palestine was traditionally an important link-up region to other, more important and wealthier nations; Egypt to the South, the Babylonians, Persians and Arabs to the east, and Macedonia and Rome to the North and West. The loss of Byzantine control in this region meant a ripple effect which caused the loss of Christian control over much of western Arabia and the emergence of the Muslims as a powerful entity at the expense of Orthodox Christianity.

In 1009 the Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered the destruction of the the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, although the Byzantines were allowed to rebuild it in 1039. Although pilgramages were largely unhindred, some Christian clergy had been killed and certain pilgrims had been heckled or murdered. It soon became clear however of the economic importance of Jerusalem as a holy site and therefore the persecution of pilgrims ceased.

First Crusade

The recently emergent Seljuks had won a great victory over the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert, 1071. This victory paved the way for Seljuk domination of Anatolia, making the pilgrims journey to Jerusalem all the more difficult. This concern for the pilgrims, as well as a heartfelt plea from Byzantine Emperor Manuel Comnenus for aid led to Pope Urban II to call for a holy war against the Muslims in the name of Christianity at the Council of Clermont, 1095. Although not originally intended to establish what would later be known as the Crusader States in the Levant, the movement gained wide support from aristocrat and peasant alike and thousands of Europeans prepared for the long hard march to fight the Seljuks and the other Muslim forces.

Interpretations

Accoprding to the intrerpretation of Sir Steven Runciman, the First Crusade was like a barbarian invasion of the civilised and sophisticated Byzantine empire and ultimately brought about the ruin of Byzantine civilisation. This mass crusader migration was unwittingly triggered by the Byzantine emperor, Alexius I Comnenus, when he had sent ambassadors to the pope in 1095 to ask for mercenary soldiers to enrol in his armies. The emotive appeal made in response by Urban II at Clermont, however, had the effect of sending thousands of Frankish knights to Constantinople under their own leaders, quite a different outcome from what Alexius had expected. There had been long-distance intellectual disputes between Byzantium and the West in the past, but since contact between the two societies was sporadic, there was little open hostility. Now that the westerners arrived in the center of the empire in large numbers, those differences became a serious matter. Especially important, Runciman argues, was tension between the Byzantine patriarfch and the pope, and the more tolerant attitude of the Byzantines towards Muslim powers. Although Runciman lays some of the blame at the door of the Byzantine emperors who reigned after 1143, the sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in April 1204 was the culmination of the mounting dislike and suspicion that all western Christendom now felt towards the Byzantines. Ever since Runciman announced his interpretation in 1951, it has been under challenge by scholars. They say he was too uncritical in accepting the main Byzantine source, which presents Alexius I’s actions as motivated solely by superhuman charity and places the blame entirely on the crusaders, particularly on the Norman, Bohemond of Taranto. Runciman also takes at face value Anna Comnena’s descriptions of some of the crusaders as uncouth louts and this is largely the basis for belief that the two peoples were mutually estranged from the start. Scholars argue that the classicising literary genre in which Comnena wrote dictated that foreign peoples be presented as ‘barbarians’ and that this did not necessarily mean that the entire populations of the two halves of Christendom were in a constantly increasing state of mutual antipathy.

Among recent scholars, Paul Magdalino’s and Ralph-Johannes Lilie’s close studies of Byzantine policies towards the crusader states of Syria show not steadily mounting tension, but periods of animosity interspersed with co-operation and alliance. Jonathan Shepard re-examines the whole question of Byzantine involvement with the genesis of the First Crusade in two influential articles. Adopting a more critical stance towards Anna Comnena, Shepard argues that there was far more to the episode than an innocent Byzantine emperor taken aback by the turn of events and that Alexius was cleverly exploiting the situation for his own ends. While Runciman denounces Bohemond, the Norman leader, as a "villain" whose greed soured relations with the Byzantines, Shepard argues that this picture depends on an uncritical reading of Anna Comnena, who glorified her own family and vilified Bohemond mercilessly. In reality in 1096-7, Alexius viewed Bohemond as a potential tool, ally and recruit, a kind of imperial agent to oversee the re-conquest of Asia Minor.

Image and memory

Legend and literature surrounded the Crusades with an aura of romance and grandeur, of chivalry and courage. The myth is only remotely related to reality. The countless tales of the gallant knights of the Cross glitter in hyperbole. Many stories are true about the crusaders' feats of valor. However the crusaders occupied the Holy Land only temporarily. In their major mission, the crusaders lost in the very long run.

While the Crusades achieved only temporary military success, they had a powerful impact on western Europe. The crusaders returned with a vastly widened knowledge of the world they lived in, and a willingness to explore that became a permanent part of the west Europen mindset. In religion, culture, and commerce, post-Crusades Europe was visibly affected by its prolonged encounter with another continent and another way of life.

The historical memory of the crusades has been sharply divided. The Catholic tradition in Europe looked upon them favorably, but the Protestant historians were more negative. In recent decades a sense of western guilt is apparent, as in the 1995 BBC television series, presented by Terry Jones, which portrayed the crusades as a long, misguided war of intolerance, ignorance and barbarism against a peaceful and sophisticated Muslim world.

Bibliography

• Andrea, Alfred J. Encyclopedia of the Crusades. Greenwood Press, 2003.
• Asbridge, Thomas. The First Crusade: A New History: The Roots of Conflict between Christianity and Islam (2005) excerpt and text search
• France, John. Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades, 1000-1300 1999 online edition
• Harris, Jonathan. Byzantium and the Crusades. 2003. Pp. 276pp
• Hillenbrand, Carole. The Crusades, Islamic Perspectives. New York, 2000.
• Holt, P.M. The Age of the Crusades: The Near East from the Eleventh Century to 1517. 1986.
• Housley, Norman. The Later Crusades, 1274-1580: From Lyons to Alcazar 1992 online edition
• Maalouf, Amin. Crusades Through Arab Eyes (1989) excerpt and text search
• Madden, Thomas F. The New Concise History of the Crusades. 2005.
• Madden, Thomas F. ed. The Crusades: The Essential Readings (2002) ISBN 0-631-23023-8 284pp, articles by scholars
• Peters, Edward. Christian Society and the Crusades, 1198-1229 1971 online edition
• Queller, Donald E., and Thomas F. Madden. The Fourth Crusade: The Conquest of Constantinople (2nd ed. 1999) excerpt and text search
• Riley-Smith, Jonathan.The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading. 1986.
• Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The Crusades: A History (2005) excerpt and text search
• Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The Oxford History of the Crusades. 1995. online edition; excerpt and text search
• Riley-Smith, Jonathan, ed. The Atlas of the Crusades (1991)
• Runciman, Steven. A History of the Crusades, Volume I: The First Crusade and the Foundations of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.; Volume II: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East 1100-1187. and Volume III: The Kingdom of Acre and the Later Crusades (1951), the classic history; very hostile toward the crusaders
• Setton, Kenneth ed., A History of the Crusades. (1969-1989), the standard scholarly history in six volumes, published by the University of Wisconsin Press complete text online.

Includes: The first hundred years (1969); The later Crusades, 1189-1311 (1969); The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (1975); The art and architecture of the crusader states (1977); The impact of the Crusades on the Near East 1985); The impact of the Crusades on Europe (1989)

• Tyerman, Christopher. God's War: A New History of the Crusades (2006)

Primary sources

• Villehardouin, Geoffrey, and Jean de Joinville. Chronicles of the Crusades ed. by Sir Frank Marzials (2007) excerpt and text search

Villehardouin's Conquest of Constantinople is a standard reference work on the Fourth Crusade; it is the first work in medieval French prose. Joinville's life of St. Louis is a classic description of the life and times of King Louis IX; it is written in Old French and is perhaps the best biography written in the Middle Ages.

External links

• Angeliki E. Laiou, The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World, (e-book online), includes chapter on Historiography of the crusades.
• E.L. Skip Knox, The Crusades, a virtual college course through Boise State University.