UNIT EIGHT
CRUSADES
Introduction
For this unit, we are going back to the Middle East. When we left it, several chapters ago, the Muslims had taken it over. For the most part, these Muslims were Arabs. However, shortly after this, the Turks first made their appearance in the Middle East. They converted to the Muslim faith because they liked its strict rules and the jihad, which , remember is a holy war fought against the 'enemies of Allah'. Turks were fierce fighters who seemed to thrive on war, and the jihad gave them a reason to go on fighting wars. The Turks gradually built an empire called the Ottoman Empire, named after one of their chiefs, a man called Ozman. In the eleventh century, they took over the entire Middle East, including Palestine, and they were threatening Constantinople. No one wanted to lose Constantinople to the Turks. It was the capital of the Byzantine Empire, that still existing remainder of the old Roman Empire. There were treasures of art and books there that no one wanted to have fall into Turk hands. Lastly, Costantinople was located in a very strategic place. Once the Turks had it, it would be easy (or so they thought) for the Turks to conquer Europe. The Turks were feared for their fierce fighting. Europeans knew of them mainly by reputation, and no one wanted to take any chances.
There was also another problem. The Turks now held Palestine and the city of Jerusalem. Christians referred to this area as the "Holy Land" in those days. It was holy because Jesus was born, lived and died there. Jerusalem, the major city of the Holy Land, was where Jesus had been crucified and buried. In fact, there was a church, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, right over the spot Jesus was buried. Christians were in the habit of making pilgrimages to the Holy Land and Jerusalem to see the holy places. The church said it was good for your afterlife if you did; it increased your chances of going to heaven at best, and it took years off your punishment in hell or purgatory at the least. Because the area was sacred to Muslims as well as Christians, the area had been well -preserved.
You will remember from the earlier unit that when Muhammad preached to the Arabs, he told them that they were descended from Abraham through Ishmael. Therefore, Muslims accepted Abraham as a prophet just as Christians and Jews did. It is because of this that the Holy Land was sacred to Muslims as well as Jews and Christians. Jerusalem was sacred to Muslims because Muhammad was said to have ascended into heaven from a rock in Jerusalem. You will also remember that when Muhammad preached, he kind of expected that Jews and Christians would be anxious to hear his news that his was the final revelation, but they were not. Instead, they rejected him.. This made Muhammad mad, and he wasn't too fond of Christians and Jews after that. Muslims would also tell you that Abraham cheated Ishmael out of his inheritance, giving them yet another reason to dislike Jews, and by extension, Christians By the eleventh century, this attitude had hardened on both sides, and Christians and Muslims did not like each other. Arab Muslims, however, had been willing to allow Christians to visit the holy places, as long as they didn't stay too long. The Turks were a different story. The Turks refused to let the Christians visit the holy places. In fact, they let on if they saw a Christian, they'd kill first and ask questions later. In other words, a Christian making pilgrimage to the Holy Land took his life in his hands. Christians found this situation intolerable. This is why they went on the Christian ‘holy wars’ known as the Crusades.
The story of the Crusades
In 1095, the Byzantine Emperor, whose name was Alexius, asked the Pope, whose name was Urban , for help in defending Constantinople from attack by the Turks. The Pope thought this was a fine idea. Perhaps it would unite the Christian rulers and keep them from fighting each other to have a larger goal in life than looking out only for themselves. Perhaps it would save Constantinople, and perhaps Christians could get the Holy Land back. So the Pope called a big meeting, and asked for people to volunteer for the mission. As added incentive (other than just beating up Turks) the Pope said that if you went on a Crusade, as he called it, and were killed, your sins would be pardoned. It was very good for your afterlife just to go at all. The Pope called the fighting a "Crusade" because this was the only way he could justify asking Christians to kill-the Bible is pretty specific on the issue of killing-it is not to be done. Crusade meant that the fighting was for Christ, which seemed to make the idea acceptable to the Christian church of that day. Crusaders were to wear the sign of the cross. There was no shortage of volunteers. Knights signed right up; it sounded like a fine adventure, and they'd come home trailing clouds of glory! Besides, going would do great things for your afterlife.
A crusade took off right away. It was a lot of peasants led by a monk called Peter the Hermit. The Turks made short work of them, defeating them in 1096.
Meanwhile, the first real crusade got underway, led by French nobles and churchmen. Well equipped armies of knights gathered in Constantinople in 1097. The emperor Alexius was a little taken aback by these rough and ready crusaders. Some were there for reasons that you could not call religious. They had come for adventure and plunder. Some had their whole families with them! Those people were intending to take some land somewhere and settle down. From Constantinople the crusaders traveled on to Antioch, where they defeated a Turkish army, and then they came to Jerusalem. In 1099, the crusaders recaptured Jerusalem for the Christians. They slaughtered Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem. Duke Godfrey from Lorraine became the ruler of Jerusalem. Most of the knights went home, but some stayed and settled on the conquered lands they'd taken from Muslims. After Godfrey died, his brother Baldwin ruled Jerusalem. Two brotherhoods of fighting monks were formed to help defend Jerusalem. They were the Knights of St. John, usually known as the Hospitallers, and the Knights of the Temple, usually known as the Templars. There weren't enough of these guys to fight off Turks, so they built castles and defended them. They had learned of a new way to build a castle. The new castle had concentric walls (walls within walls), and was built kind of like a maze.
The newly formed Kingdom of Jerusalem did not last long. Turks reconquered part of it in 1144. This led to the Second Crusade which was a disastrous failure. From that point on the Kingdom of Jerusalem became steadily weaker. In 1187, the Turkish ruler, Saladin, re conquered Jerusalem. When news of this disaster reached Europe, a Third Crusade was organized. The plans were that Richard of England, Philip of France, and Frederick of Germany would go together to the Holy Land and throw Saladin out. Well, Frederick drowned on the way over, and Philip and Richard started off together from France. On the way, they split up and Richard decided to conquer Cyprus on the way to the Holy Land. He arrived in the Holy Land to find crusaders already fighting. Philip was already there. At this point, Philip decided he'd done enough, and he went home, leaving Richard, as they say, 'holding the bag'. Richard and his men got to within sight of Jerusalem, but they were unable to take it. Richard, hearing that he had troubles at home (his brother was plotting against him with Philip of France), made peace with Saladin in 1192, and went home. On the way home , Richard was taken hostage, as you read in the last chapter.
All together , there were eight crusades. None met with any lasting success. A Fourth Crusade never got to the Holy Land at all; they were too busy plundering Constantinople to get there. Frederick II of Germany recovered Jerusalem for 15 years, beginning in 1229. However, Jerusalem was lost for good in 1244. King Louis IX of France led two crusades which were also disastrous failures. On one of them, he was captured by the Turks and held for ransom. On a final crusade, Edward I of England fought in the Holy Land but failed to win anything.
One of the saddest stories of the Crusades is that of the Children's Crusades. There were two of them, one from France and one from Germany. The French one is the best known. In this one, a French shepherd boy claimed he'd seen visions telling him he was to lead a crusade of children to re conquer the Holy Land. He persuaded thousands of children to go with him. When the children got to Marseilles, they needed someone to take them across the water to the Holy Land. Dishonest seamen promised they'd take the children, who all went on board ships for the journey. The ships were either shipwrecked, or if the ship was not wrecked, the children were all sold into slavery.
By 1291, the Christians had been thrown out of the Holy Land entirely. The Crusades were over. In 1453, Constantinople was taken by the Turks. It looked as though the Crusades had been a complete and utter failure.
Why the Crusades are important
In terms of the original objectives, which were to save Constantinople, free the Holy Land and unite Christian rulers, the Crusades were, indeed, a failure. However, in another way, they were a resounding success. The Crusades were to have far reaching consequences, one of which is that you are sitting in a classroom in a continent called America in a country that was founded here some 200 years ago. Those who found America were not looking for America. They were looking for a shorter way to get to the Far East to get spices and other goods that Europeans had first seen in the Crusades. It is quite possible to say that you would not be here if the Christians had never gone on crusades.
The Crusades were the first time great numbers of Europeans had traveled any great distance away from home or encountered other kinds of people besides themselves in centuries; in fact, since the fall of the Roman Empire. In the Middle East, they were exposed to a new culture, a culture they'd been told was awful, but, upon closer examination, maybe wasn't so awful after all. They couldn't help but notice that the Muslims had a more advanced lifestyle than they did and that Muslims knew a lot. They couldn't help but notice the things Muslims had for sale in their bazaars. Like all human beings, they were impressed with what they didn’t have. They wanted to get what they didn't have. They were going to have to solve the problem of how to get what they didn't have, which is going to make them think and reason for the first time in a long, long time. You might say the Crusades "woke Europe up" as to what there was out there to have and to learn. Europe was never the same again.
At this point, we are going to review from the earlier chapter on the Muslims what they had in terms of technology, what goods they had to sell, and what they knew. You need to know this well, not only for this chapter, but for others coming up.
Muslim knowledge
Muslims, remember, had taken the Greek books, had translated, and in some cases, edited and added to them. They had taken arithmetic and numerals from India, added the zero, and had developed algebra. They had taken geometry from the Greeks. They had developed the 'science' of alchemy, including something like the modern scientific method. They had identified certain chemical substances. They were advanced in medicine for their time, knowing things like that dirt and disease were somehow related, and being willing to operate on the body. They also studied the stars for astrological purposes.
Muslim technology
Muslims had learned a lot of technology from the Chinese. They had learned to make paper, to make gunpowder, and how to print. They had learned about the astrolabe, and they were beginning work on the compass. They had improved the clock. They knew how to make steel. On their ships, they had developed the movable mast with triangular sails. They had learned to make glass.
MusliM goods
Arab caravans brought goods for sale from all over their empire and other places as well. At any Arab bazaar you would find the following items. These were the things that impressed crusading Christians the most.
From India, Arabs had tea, spices, jade, cotton cloth, and jewels. From Africa, the Arabs had salt, gold, pepper, vegetable oils, and ivory. From Persia, there were satin cloth, brocades, rugs, tapestries, and scents (sweet-smelling body oils). From the Chinese, the Arabs had brought silk, porcelain, paper, gunpowder, glass, clocks, tea, jewels, astrolabes, and compasses. From Syria, the Arabs brought fine steel knives, glass and muslin, another cloth.
The goods in the above lists originally come from Africa and the Far East. The problem for Christians now will be how to get the goods. We will examine how they did this in the following chapter.
Chapter Questions and Outline
The Crusades(title of outline)
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Extra Credit Projects and Questions
Chapter9-The Great Discoveries