Crusades the 1st and 3rd

CRUSADES

THE 1st and 3rd CRUSADES and the MUSLIM VIEW

According to Jackson J. Spielvogel, one of the most important and influential manifestations linked to "the wave of religious enthusiasm that seized Europe in the High Middle Ages was the Crusades, a long, drawn-out series of attacks and battles against the Muslims that controlled the Holy Land and the city of Jerusalem. Overall, the Crusades made it possible for the revived papacy of the High Middle Ages "to demonstrate its influence over European society" and were "a curious mix of God and warfare, two of the chief concerns of the Middle Ages" (274).

Generally speaking, the First Crusade was ignited in 1095 by predominantly French Christians whose main intention was to seize the sacred city of Jerusalem from Muslim control. This First Crusade was considered as a magnificent success in 1099, due to the crusaders conquering Jerusalem and maintaining control of the Holy Land for seventy-eight years despite much Muslim restlessness and bitter resentment. Internal conflicts among these crusaders then began to increase as a result of more nations joining in their actions against the Muslims. Some of these conflicts include arguments on leadership, political differences and war strategies.

Saladin, the great Muslim leader, soon took advantage of this situation and managed to retake the city of Jerusalem in 1187, a long-awaited and strategic victory for the Muslims. As a result of the First Crusade and those that followed, numbering eight all together, Muslim perceptions of the Christian liberators and their religion greatly deteriorated which led to immense conflict between the two groups for many years to come.

The Crusaders themselves were known by various terms, such as fideles sancti petri or the "Faithful of St. Peter" or milites Christi or the "Knights of Christ." As a group, these crusaders "saw themselves as undertaking a peregrinatio or pilgrimage" and took a solemn oath or votus "to be fulfilled on successfully reaching Jerusalem." Upon taking Jerusalem, each crusader received a cloth cross or crux which was sewed into their clothes or uniforms; thus, the term "crusade" came about which by the 17th century a.D. came to mean "a righteous campaign... To root out evil." For Muslims, the term "crusade" came to be defined as "a hostile and foreign invasion by infidels," or those disrespectful of Muslim culture ("The Crusades," Internet).

In 1095, Alexius I Comnenus, the emperor of Byzantium, wrote to Pope Urban II and described the Muslim atrocities against Byzantium Christians while asking for military assistance. Obviously, Pope Urban II was very taken aback by this letter and became seriously concerned for the welfare of his fellow Christians. Urban then brought together a great council at Clermont in France to make plans for what would become the First Crusade against the Muslims with its major focus being to take back the sacred city of Jerusalem.

However, some scholars have maintained that Pope Urban and Alexius I exaggerated the anti-Christian acts of the Muslims in Byzantium; in essence, Urban "exhorted Christendom to go to war for the Sepulcher, promising that the journey would count as full penance (i.e. penance for their sins)" while also urging the Crusaders to adhere to the battle cry of Deus volt," meaning "God wills it" (Brehier, "Crusades," Internet).

Pope Urban's designs for the First Crusade came together on August 15, 1096 and consisted of two specific groups -- the People's Crusade and the Peasant's Crusade or the Pauper's Crusade, with the second made up mostly of commoners, peasants and the working classes. Exactly how many individuals were linked to these two groups is not known, but it has been estimated that between 30,000 and 300,000 persons gave their lives to the First Crusade in order to conquer Jerusalem and remove it from Muslim control. Numerous factors played major roles in this immense army of Christians coming together at the urging of Pope Urban to take back the city of Jerusalem, such as the high point of religious devotion during the time, "the prospect of territorial expansion and riches for the nobles... more freedom for the lower classes... The desire to expand trade with the East and "a general awakening to the lure of travel and adventure" (Brehier, "Crusades," Internet).

After some fierce fighting in the city of Antioch, the Crusaders headed for the holy city of Jerusalem, where they found the entire area surrounded by Muslims. However, they quickly surrendered, often without a fight. But within the great city, the Muslim governor quickly came to realize that the Crusaders intended on taking the city itself which provided some time for him and his armies to prepare for the coming siege. On June 7, 1099, the Crusaders arrived at the gates of Jerusalem and discovered that their Muslim enemies had poisoned all of the wells and had herded all the livestock from the surrounding countryside behind the massive walls of the city, thus leaving the Crusaders without water and food.

The first siege against Jerusalem failed miserably, but on June 17, a large fleet of ships arrived from England and Genoa, Italy, carrying some much-needed supplies and enough equipment to construct siege machinery, such as battering rams and catapults. By July 13, the Crusaders had managed to built two wooden siege towers, and on the night of July 14, the Crusaders launched a full-blown attack against the city which lasted for two full days and nights. To defend themselves, the Muslims behind the city walls hurled stones, flaming arrows and incendiary explosives.

On July 15, a large contingent of Crusaders crossed from one of the siege towers to the top of the city walls and then fought their way to the gates which were soon opened to allow thousands of Crusaders to enter the city. After a five-week siege, "the Holy City was taken amid a horrible massacre of the inhabitants" (Spielvogel, 276), an event which has come down as one of the bloodiest in Western civilization.

It should be mentioned that it took some three years for the Crusaders to accomplish the task of taking back the city of Jerusalem, three years in which they experienced hunger, thirst and sickness, especially while crossing the desert. After taking control of the city, the Crusaders literally abandoned it and on their way back to their homelands, they destroyed everything in their path, killing men, women and children.

Also, the Jews of Jerusalem were treated with extreme prejudice, for when the Crusaders discovered that most of the Jews in the city had retreated to the synagogue, they set the building on fire and burned all those inside alive. For the next 200 years or so, the Crusaders "extended their power over the rest of the country through treaties and agreements, but mostly by bloody military victories," thus setting the stage for a Muslim reaction in the form of the Second Crusade ("The Crusader Period," Internet).

After the First Crusade, the relationship between the newly-established Crusader kingdoms and the Muslims was, to say the least, very tense, especially considering the role of the Franks in the Middle East who took advantage of the divisions between various Muslim factions in order to achieve additional territory. In 1128, the Turkish ruler Imad ad-Din Zangi began to make incursions into the kingdoms of the Crusaders and managed to capture several strategic Christian fortresses. In 1144, Imad ad-Din Zangi captured the city of Edessa, the capital of one of the main Crusader kingdoms, and like the Crusaders during the First Crusade, the Muslims slaughtered all of the Franks and sold every surviving woman and child into slavery.

In response, the king of Jerusalem appealed to the Pope for quick assistance which soon led to a declaration of a Second Crusade against the Muslims. However, this event came under the domination and control of King Louis VII of France and his immense army and Conrad II, the emperor of Germany. The monastic firebrand Saint Bernard of Clairvaux did his best to create passion and hatred in the hearts of all Crusaders and knights in Europe by exclaiming "Now, on account of our sins, the sacrilegious enemies of the cross (i.e. The Muslims) have begun to show their faces. What are you doing, you servants of the cross? Will you throw to the dogs that which is most holy? Will you cast pearls before swine?" (Spielvogel, 276-77).

On July 1, 1187, Saladin, the ruler of both Egypt and Syria, and his huge army stormed the Christian town of Tiberias near the Sea of Galilee but failed to capture the citadel which held "a small contingent of Frankish knights protecting the Christians who had sought refuge there" (Brehier, "Crusades," Internet). Eventually, Saladin and his army overtook the citadel while the Franks marched toward Tiberias to retake the town. On July 3, the Frankish army made camp near two hills then called the Horns of Hattin and on the morning of July 4, the Franks discovered that Saladin's army had them completely surrounded which then led to their slaughter by Saladin's warriors. The Battle of Hattin, as it has come to be known, was a very decisive event in the history of the Crusades.

After destroying the Christian army, Saladin and his Muslim brothers quickly conquered almost every Frankish city and on October 2, 1187, the Holy City of Jerusalem fell which signaled the beginning of the Third Crusade, "a reaction to the fall of the Holy City of Jerusalem to the Muslim forces under Saladin" (Spielvogel, 277).

When Western Christians learned of the fall of Jerusalem into Muslim control, the entire European continent reacted with shock and utter dismay. Almost immediately, the Pope declared a brand-new Crusade, led by the kings of France and England, being Phillip II and Richard I; however, they did not reach the Holy Land soon enough, for by 1191, Saladin had managed to lay siege to the town of Acre, yet on July 12, the Crusaders and their troops retook Acre. Phillip left for Europe soon after, yet his famous comrade-in-arms King Richard the Lionhearted remained behind to take command of the Crusaders.

The Third Crusade is undoubtedly best remembered for the year-long fighting that erupted under the domination of Richard the Lionhearted. In September of 1192, Richard and Saladin agreed to a treaty which granted the Frankish Christians a large portion of land along the Mediterranean coast while allowing the Muslims to control the rest of the area which included the city of Jerusalem. However, the Muslims guaranteed that all

Western Christians who wished to make a pilgrimage to the Holy City "would not be molested nor ill-treated." Although Richard did not take control of Jerusalem as planned, he did restore a modicum of peace and tranquillity between the Frankish Christians and the Muslim population.

Unfortunately, Pope Innocent III was not pleased with this agreement between his people and their bitter enemies and considered the Third Crusade as a complete failure. Thus, in 1198, Pope Innocent III ordained a Fourth Crusade with the "goal being to liberate the Holy City of Jerusalem from the hands of the Muslim heretics" (Brehier, Internet).

Therefore, it is not surprising that the Muslim view and attitudes toward Western Christians following the Crusades became extremely negative. First of all, Muslims considered the Frankish/Crusader kingdoms, towns and other settlements as "alien and illegitimate," due to being "established at the expense of the native population which had been displaced or massacred." Overall, Western Christians after the Crusades were viewed by the Muslim world as "ruthless, bloodthirsty and barbaric," due in part to the murders of thousands of Muslims at the hands of Christian Crusaders (Dajani-Shakeel, Internet).

In addition, every Muslim during the latter years of the Crusades viewed the loss of Jerusalem as "the greatest loss in their history," partially because two of Islam's most important religious shrines, being the Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, are located there. In Muslim eyes, "to profane Muslim shrines was to abuse Islam itself" which created a Muslim bitterness that endured for many centuries after the Crusades (and perhaps, as some scholars point out, has endured into modern times).

And when these and other holy shrines were taken back from the Crusaders, the result was the "destruction of Christian images and objects," a sign that the Muslims considered Christianity and Western man as not worthy of the ability to worship their Hebrew God. However, despite the fact that Muslims considered the Crusades as Western man's war against Islam and the teachings of Mohammad, "they considered Christians as more of a political enemy than a religious enemy. Thus, when Saladin recovered the Holy Land from the Christians, he gave them the choice of living in the area and paying a poll tax" or relocating to territories held by the Frankish Christians" (Dajani-Shakeel, Internet).