Lying In The Byzantine Empire

Circa 1000 C.E, the Catholic Kingdoms, Byzantine Empire, and Islamic Caliphates kept their own beliefs and ideas for land to strive successfully. What lied in Western Europe was the properties of the Catholic Kingdom. For the Church and existing Christians, the most important thing was to get as many people to convert and become part of the religion. Families all over and the people of the villages were focused strongly on God and their everyday lives based off the teachings of the Church (Ellis 191). There were assigned people to work on farms with crops as well as women who never really had a choice in their favor. This was one issue they had when it came to this religion, but was soon recovered. Feudalism was a new system that was introduced
and allowed powerful lords to divide their land and give it to some lower lords (Ellis 186). This gave a variety of control through western Europe and completely changed the way people would live. From peasants to the monarchs, all took part in the feudal society and were able to survive both economically and physically (Ellis 188). Moving towards central Europe lied the Byzantine Empire who had their own beliefs and ideas. Luckily, Constantinople was a vital part of this empire, which at the time had a great harbor and trade routes that extended to many areas. Wealthy items and desired products were easily delivered here to increase their economy. Constantinople effortlessly became the empire’s capital being the place with the most income and activity. Later, the empire strived even farther with its emperor Justinian as people started creating the Justinian laws and follow them to build a government and also manage religion. These laws were thought of as a guidebook for the citizens and brought them into moral law and order. Christianity was influential in the Byzantine Empire, but there were divisions and certain borders. In Constantinople’s center lied the church and state (Class Notes Jan 23 2016). The North African and the Middle Eastern areas were conquered by the Islamic Caliphates. They were the final society of the Mediterranean Basin and were powerful with their religious beliefs and land. Being a group that rose and based off mainly from one man’s encounters with an angel, they started by heavily relying on religious actions and matters. The first people known here were the Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula, which was a harsh environment so it beneficially affected the people living there. They worked with a lot of cropping, farming, and feeding to supply themselves and anyone who would take hospitality there (Ellis 192). They were heavily influenced by Gods and worked hard to obey them. Things in Europe did not stay as peaceful and productive after a while when several events started building up to form troubles against each other.
The Byzantine Empire was striving very well until the constant wars and problems over succession kicked in (Ellis 237). The failure of the empire made them weaker and the enemies became stronger. The Muslim nomadic people called the Seljuks had more control and believed it would be easy to conquer this area. The emperor of the Byzantine Empire, Alexios I Komnenos, was in charge when the Seljuk Turks attacked. He wanted was to make sure that the Islamic people would not overpower and conquer his land. There was nothing left to do so the Byzantine Emperor called for help to Pope Urban II and his people to fight them off (Ellis 238). Even after the “Great Schism” of 1054, it was loyal of the Pope to help the eastern Christians to make sure it was not conquered by the Seljuks. In the Pope’s speech, the problem that the Byzantines were facing is addressed and then about the fact that all the listening people must obey the “God” and fight for their lives. The Pope strongly stood for his religion and also about not letting people of a different religion conquer a special
land. The main question for this essay is to determine whether the Crusades were motivated by religious fanaticism or by land and wealth. Once again the speech by Pope Urban can be taken into consideration and his quote, “O what a disgrace if such a despised and wicked race, which has the faith of omnipotent God and is made glorious with the name of Christ!” helps support the idea that he and the Crusades were heavily motivated by wealth/land (Pope Urban’s Speech). This Holy Land may be very important for both the Muslims and the Christians but they both wanted it for themselves. It was as if the Pope was very direct on wanting the land while the people who fought were concentrated on God. As fight went on, the Pope had an impact and eventually the people who were fighting desired land. The Pope in the Catholic Kingdoms was the head of the church. This gave him a lot of power and ability to tell people what to do and why if stated from God (Class Notes Jan 5 2016). The Pope was quick to respond to the Byzantine Emperor and declared a fight immediately. It was also stated, “Urban hoped to increase his power in Europe and perhaps heal the schism” which helps prove the point that he was hoping for the powerful reward. The most important thing for Christians at the time was to spread the religion and have as many diverse people convert as possible, like stated before (Ellis 191). With the Catholics fighting and conquering this whole area, it was a chance to become powerful and overcome the people there and give more power to the Christians. The Crusader’s continuation and will to keep fighting was another sign that they heavily fought for land and power.
The First Crusade was able to capture Jerusalem in 1099 and made them very proud. The Second Crusade came and this was the next major fight to help rebuild Edessa against the Islams. After a defeat, the Crusaders sought to fight again. After the loss of Jerusalem over Saladin, they approached and attacked the Byzantines in hopes of regaining their power and some land (Charting The First Four Crusades). This clearly shows their strength and want for land and wealth. The Crusaders continued an on-going fight for 200 years just to keep regaining land and power. As important as obeying God was, these Christians began to feel a wave of competition and need for defeating the Muslims to make sure they didn’t gain anymore power than they did. In the same concept, the Crusaders were able to increase the power of feudal monarchs and soon developed rights to collect more taxes to support their mission ( Ellis
218). The Muslims on the other hand seemed to be more motivated by religion and fight for their God and people. One example was when al-Hawari gave his speech to the people in Baghdad. He interrupted during a very religious time for the Muslims just to warn them about something and tell them the importance of what was happening to their brothers in other places (Speech by Al-Hawari). Another example is from Ibn Jubayr when it stated, “when he hears disgusting words spoken about the Prophet, particularly by the most besotted..” and talks about the ways many people were dying and being destroyed while offending Muslims and this was not right at all (I. In most of the readings by the Muslims, it is visible that the safety of the people and the Prophet came before killing the opposite religion and this was very powerful in informing everyone that religion was really important to them. Muslims originated from the visions and messages that people claimed to have and this explains their high level of spirituality.