How Did Christians Justify Their Claim to the Holy Land B
Final Paper
How did Christians justify their claim to the
Holy Land before and during the Crusades?
One of the most significant and remarkable incidents of the Middle Ages was the series of conflicts known collectively as the Crusades. Generally these conflicts were militant pilgrimages to the Levant (though sometimes elsewhere) undertaken by medieval Europeans in the name of Christendom. Though there were many political and social issues involved in the whole affair, the primary theme, however superficial, was religious. The adversaries in these “wars” were non-Christians, namely Muslims, who were widely seen as the oppressors of Eastern Christians. Those engaged in the Crusades, especially the authorities preaching and administering them, believed that the Saracens (Turks, Arabs, etc) were intruding on lands that were inherently Christian. Two important primary source texts which explain this justification for war are Robert of Rheims’ account of Urban’s Speech at Clermont and La Chanson d’Antioche (The Song of Antioch) by Graindor de Douai. Though they are very different types of sources, written at different times and for different purposes, they both illustrate the reasons why Crusaders felt they were fighting for land that was rightfully theirs. In the late 11th century, before the First Crusade was preached, the Byzantine Empire in the east was quickly losing land to the Seljuk Turks in Asia Minor. These Turks had rapidly expanded throughout the Near East since the 1040’s, and were now engaged in a rivalry with the Fatimid rulers of Egypt. Both of these Muslim entities now had strong presences in the Holy Land and its surrounding regions, though the Seljuks had fallen into disunity and division by the 1090’s. One faction of the original group was in control of Jerusalem itself in 1095 when the Council of Clermont was held. Some Christians were offended by the idea of these Muslims having authority over what they knew as the “Holy Land”; The
How did Christians justify their claim to the
Holy Land before and during the Crusades?
One of the most significant and remarkable incidents of the Middle Ages was the series of conflicts known collectively as the Crusades. Generally these conflicts were militant pilgrimages to the Levant (though sometimes elsewhere) undertaken by medieval Europeans in the name of Christendom. Though there were many political and social issues involved in the whole affair, the primary theme, however superficial, was religious. The adversaries in these “wars” were non-Christians, namely Muslims, who were widely seen as the oppressors of Eastern Christians. Those engaged in the Crusades, especially the authorities preaching and administering them, believed that the Saracens (Turks, Arabs, etc) were intruding on lands that were inherently Christian. Two important primary source texts which explain this justification for war are Robert of Rheims’ account of Urban’s Speech at Clermont and La Chanson d’Antioche (The Song of Antioch) by Graindor de Douai. Though they are very different types of sources, written at different times and for different purposes, they both illustrate the reasons why Crusaders felt they were fighting for land that was rightfully theirs. In the late 11th century, before the First Crusade was preached, the Byzantine Empire in the east was quickly losing land to the Seljuk Turks in Asia Minor. These Turks had rapidly expanded throughout the Near East since the 1040’s, and were now engaged in a rivalry with the Fatimid rulers of Egypt. Both of these Muslim entities now had strong presences in the Holy Land and its surrounding regions, though the Seljuks had fallen into disunity and division by the 1090’s. One faction of the original group was in control of Jerusalem itself in 1095 when the Council of Clermont was held. Some Christians were offended by the idea of these Muslims having authority over what they knew as the “Holy Land”; The
Bibliography: Graindor de Douai. La Chanson d’Antioche. c. 1180. Jotischky, Andrew. Crusading and the Crusader States. Edinburgh: Pearson Education Limited, 2004. Peters, Edward. The First Crusade: The Chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres and Other Source Materials. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1971. Robert of Rheims. Historia Hierosolymitana. 1107. Sweetenham, Carol. Robert the Monk’s History of the First Crusade. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2005.