The Crusades

Crusades

The objective of this study is to examine why the Western Christians were so brutal. Further, this study will examine the brutality of Western Christians against Eastern Christians in Byzantium.

Though many fail to admit the beginnings of the struggle between the Christians and Muslims, this struggle is as old as history itself as it began in the tents of Abraham nearly 8,000 years ago. The struggle is between Isaac and Ishmael, the two sons of Abraham, born of two different mothers. Isaac, the son of Sarah, and Ishmael, the son of Hagar, Sarah's maidservant.

The Crusades

The Crusades have been lauded in the mind of Westerners as being a time of "noble knights rescuing damsels in distress" however; the truth is that the Crusades "turned into campaigns of slaughter, rape, and pillage." [footnoteRef:1] Not only were Jewish people the victims of The Crusades but even more so the Muslims were victims. The brutality that The Crusades directed toward Muslims is reported to have "devastated the Arab peoples economically" as well as having "pushed the Islamic world to be more reactionary and closed, and contributed to the Arab hatred of the West."[footnoteRef:2] The first Crusade was supported by Pope Urban II in a response to assist Christians in Constantinople who had been attacked by the Muslims. The aim of the first crusade "was to beat back the 'infidels' and to recapture the Holy Land." [footnoteRef:3] Pope Urban II in a sermon stated "Let those who were formally brigands now become soldiers of Christ; those who once waged wars against their brothers…fight lawfully against barbarians; those who until now have been mercenaries for a few coins achieve eternal rewards."[footnoteRef:4] An armed force of 15,000 is reported to have "set off wearing a large red cross on their outer garments." [footnoteRef:5] There was also reported to have been a "peasant force" to have joined and it is stated that the peasant force needing to eat, did so "by pillaging the countryside."[footnoteRef:6] At the time of The Crusades the relations between the West and Byzantium is reported to have been characterized "as a clash of cultures." [footnoteRef:7] The Greeks are reported to have seen themselves as "civilized superiors to the barbaric and violent westerners." [footnoteRef:8] However, it is reported that the Western Christians did not have a monopoly on brutality, as "the Byzantines were capable of extraordinary unpleasantness. he death of Emperor Andronicus I Comnenus in 1185 bears witness to this. With one eye gouged out, his teeth pulled out and his right hand severed, he was paraded through the streets of Constantinople, pelted with excrement before being hung upside down, having his genitals hacked off and finally killed by sword thrusts into his mouth and between his buttocks."[footnoteRef:9] The Fourth Crusade resulted in the crusaders contracting the Venetians to supply a fleet and in 1202 in the Fall of the year 200 ships set sail. The Crusaders captured the suburb of Galata and broke through the harbor of the Golden Horn with only patchy resistance on the part of the Greeks. The battle raged on and finally the Crusaders got an upper hand and slaughtered many and women of all ages were raped. The Hagia Sophia cathedral was robbed and many other churches and palaces pillaged. [1: Judaism Today (2013) p.1] [2: Judaism Today (2013) p.1] [3: Judaism Today (2013) p.1] [4: Judaism Today (2013) p.1] [5: Judaism Today (2013) p.1] [6: Judaism Today (2013) p.1] [7: Phillips (2004) p.1] [8: Phillips (2004) p.1] [9: Phillips (2004) p.1]