With the goal of reconquering the Holy Lands of the Middle East, many Western Europeans supported a series of military conquests called the Crusades. As seen in the documents the religious figures who supported the Crusades had an idealized vision of the unification and religious zeal the Crusades would bring to the Christian faith, but for many of the actual crusaders, the cause of the crusades was a hope for economic gain through pillage. Although one of the original causes of the Crusades, according to religious figures, was to support the Byzantines and perhaps reunify the Eastern and Western churches, they resulted in increased feelings of tension in the Christian churches and actually aided creating a closer connection between different …show more content…
Both Document 5 and Document 10 illustrate the political tension that ensued between the Byzantine Empire and Western Europe. Anna Comnena, the daughter of Alexius I, wrote in her history of her father’s reign, that the prospect of seizing Constantinople was an underlying motivation for many of the European crusaders (5). Anna was a high-class noble in the very sophisticated Byzantine state, so she, as well as many other Byzantine nobles, saw the Western European crusaders as uncultured and violent. Because of this she and many other Byzantines were suspicious of the Western crusader’s motives. The cultural differences between the two cultures eventually distracted from the original hope of unification. The Fourth Crusade was the most blatant example of this. Byzantine noble Nicetas Choniates described it as a massive plundering extravaganza in which the crusaders had no respect for their victims or the religiously significant items they destroyed (10). As a Byzantine resident, Nicetas was familiar with the uncouth manner of the crusaders, but even he was astonished by the Fourth Crusade. This was a huge violation of the trust between the East and the West and showed complete disregard for the Pope’s original hope for …show more content…
Documents 6, 7, and 9 illustrate the Muslim response to the crusades. Some Muslims saw those who died in the Crusades as martyrs chosen by God to die. Beh-el-Din, a member of Saladin’s court described Richard the Lionhearted’s massacre of a group of Muslim prisoners as the killing of such believers (9). He described them only as “Muslims” not specifying their nationality. This emphasized the connection between all Muslims regardless of nationality. As a member of Saladin’s empire, which was fighting the crusaders, Beh-el-Din wanted to gather support to defeat the crusaders. This is why he tried to gather sympathy an unite all Muslims. Similarly, Abu Sa’ad al Harawi, a qadi serving the Abbasid caliphate, urged his caliph to join his “brothers in Syria” who had been kicked out of Jerusalem by the crusaders (6). He used the word “brothers” in order to show the deep connection between all members of the umma, or community of believers. He then goes on to say how this loss was a disgrace to all Persians. As a proud member of the umma, Abu Sa’ad al Harawi, feels that his faith has been disgraced, and feels the need to protect it. The historian Ibn Al-Althir, described the First Crusade as being caused to interfere with the Sunni fight against the Fatimids in Egypt and a destructive pillage of the Muslim holy city of Jerusalem. By describing all of the
He also evaluates the pope’s speech declaring the crusades in depth, which he explains that the crusaders truly believed that they were fighting for god; they were fighting in “God’s battalions”. A major point Stark wants the reader to take away by the end of the monograph is that the Muslims did not hold a grudge on the Westerns because of the crusades. There was originally no hatred for the Christians and Westerners after the crusades; the hatred did not develop until later on. He provides examples from many historians saying that the Muslims hate Western Christians countries because of the crusades. Starks explains that the Muslims did not seem to pay much attention to the crusades when they were occurring and for centuries after.
Allen Cutler’s journal article delves in to the concept of military conflict and conversion to Christianity during the First Crusade. The author states that it was the intent of Pope Urban II who inherited his interest in crusading against Muslims from Pope Gregory VII, to Christianize Muslims, by words and example. There have been those who have argued Urban II had no interest in conversion, but Allen, counters their assumptions by presenting three document sources that imply that during Urban’s speech at Clermont he broached the subject of conversion, by referring to the Turks as “a race utterly alienated from God.” Allen surmises that Urban the implication is they were not “converted to Christianity” and therefore conversion was foremost on Pope Urban’s mind. The Pope also wanted to reinstall papal
Document 9 states that “In 1240,the Christian Crusaders sacked Constantinople, leaving the city in Ruins and plundering wealth.” This is relevant because It shows us that the violence and atrocities all of the Crusades clearly outweighed the positive and religious points of view that they say they were fighting for. Another example is that in document 10 it states that “ One day I entered the Mosaic, repeated the first Formula, ‘ Allah is great’, and stood up in the act of praying, upon which one of the Franks rushed on me got hold of me and turned my face East words saying “This is the way you should pray!” a group of Templars hastened to him seized him and pushed him away from me. I went back to my prayer.
How did Islam spread so quickly? Islam a muslim community that forever changed the middle east In this paper I will explain how it spread through The message,trade,and conquest. Trade was one major thing that spread Muhammad 's word. Mecca being a trading hub in the Middle East helped the word spread.
1) The Albigensian Crusade is an example of one religion trying to remove the threat of another religion out of fear that one ideology would affect the other. This crusade is called to be one of the first genocides in European history for its gruesomeness and lack of humanistic behaviours. The Catholics of Northern France set up military campaigns to remove the perceived threat in Southern France. That threat to the Catholics at the time was the spread of Catharism.
Introduction: Provide background information on the Crusades, restate the DBQ question, state thesis with reasons. (include academic vocabulary and underline) The results of the Crusades was probably more negative than positive. In “Doc 4”, It states that “Moreover, the assault of one Christian people on another, when one of the goals of the Fourth Crusade was reunion of Greek and Latin churches, made the split between the Greek and Latin churches permanent.” The Crusades had a lot of hatred to the religions, and by 1204 the Crusaders had lost some of their appeal because the knights agreed to attack the Byzantine Capital instead.
This contributed to the shame of the event. Many inspired Christians “often pursued violence against other non-Christians”, they were brutal and left many for dead (Document #2, “The Crusades Assignment”). Crusaders were merciless and it was just shameful that they treated other religions this way. Along with violence their emotions they felt towards their actions were shameful. After reaching their goal, Jerusalem, they were filled with “mad with joy” and after killing many Muslims and Jews to get their they were also “full of happiness and weeping with joy” (Document #3, “The Crusades Assignment”).
This is because the Byzantine Empire, as the closest Christian state would have been able to provide the supplies and manpower which the Crusader polities so sorely needed. As well as these external political problems, the crusaders suffered from an almost chronic lack of support from their European parent states, as is shown by the fact that a Crusade was only arguably launched in response to one of as many as nineteen appeals between 1099 and 1186. The sustainability of the Crusader states was impossible due to these divisions, as it meant that there was not the influx of men, supplies and support necessary for their
Pope Urban II’s speech at Clermont in 1095 was a call to crusade given outdoors to the nobles, commoners and church leaders of the Western European Christians (the Franks). The people were moved by this speech and it changed history, launching the first crusade to capture Jerusalem from the Muslim Turks. After hearing Pope Urban II’s speech, thousands of Western European Christians were moved to embark on the dangerous journey and fight in the crusade. I believe the main reasons they were moved and persuaded to fight was; 1) they felt it was their Christian duty, 2) Pope Urban promised them absolution for their sins and 3) they felt compelled to defend Christianity, their holy land and the Eastern Christians.
The crusades were a religious dispute between Christianity and Islam that took place in order for the Christians to take back their holy land, Jerusalem, from the Muslims. Urban II initiated the crusades at the Council of Clermont through a speech, with an audience of noblemen and clerics. His main goal was to urge “European princes to stabilize Christendom’s borders and then go further to recapture Jerusalem and restore Christian rule to the holy land” (Bentley et al. 422). These expeditions sparked new political, religious, and economic developments for the world. The crusades were a huge accomplishment for the people of Christian faith because new people began to convert.
Many things happened during the crusades. First crusaders left there families, the women and children where left to fend for themselves. In the first and only successful crusade the crusaders killed all Muslim inhabitants of Jerusalem. Although the crusaded was successful, within 46 years the land had to be fought for agin. All thought there was other crusades they still didn 't manage regain the holy land.
Many later crusades lost sight of their original goal and created thievery and violence that tarnished the reputation of the Catholic Church. Two major effects of the Crusades were the
The Crusades were a series of nine wars that failed to get the holy land. They would fight both Christians and Muslims. They committed many atrocities, leaving a bitter hatred. They destroyed many communities, cities, and many lives were lost. They even caused the Byzantine political unit to not recover.
The Muslim people were the ones being attacked and had opposing viewpoints of what was going on. The views of the crusades were vastly different from two of the largest religious groups of their time, the Christians and the Muslims. The Christians looked at the crusade as their religious and personal mission and duty. After all, the Christians were the ones who were leading the crusades and they were the ones who were the biggest advocates of them.
These sudden changes for so many people prompted an array of religious, political, and economic changes throughout medieval Europe. The Crusades greatly impacted the two religions involved. Christian attacks and massacres of the Muslims encouraged bitterness and hostility between these groups of people. In addition to fighting with the Muslims, passing Christian armies often massacred and sacked entire Jewish communities without any provocation.