The Crusades An Arab Perspective

The film “The Crusades: An Arab Perspective” is a TV series that was produced by Al Jazeera English which emphasizes the history of the holy war between crusaders and Islam. In the first place, the western European we know today was not the same in the 11th century. Europeans had no title of land and they were serfs who worked in agricultural lands. Most knights would rob people just to accumulate income. The church who had the power to govern wanted to conquer the Islam region. It was their calling to cleanse this region to begin the expansion of Christianity. By the time, the pope controlled the people, he was able to convince them to conquer the Eastern region. This film will explain how the Crusaders were led by the church or the European
The Church had more money than the kings so they had the power to govern the people. Pope Gregory VII had the plan of a holy war to capture the East. He used negative propaganda to lure fellow Christians to attack the Islamic community. Pope Gregory VII died before he started the plan, but pope Urban 2 continued his project. He encouraged people to kill the pagans, atheist, and eastern Christians to start the Holy war. Additionally, the Europeans were poor so they took the opportunity because they were promised of a reward of milk, honey, and wealth to fight for the church. In 1096, Raymond the 4th, King Phillip of France, Baldwin, and others were the first crusaders to find glory in warfare, but also to build a new empire. They arrived at the Byzantine empire and pledged an alliance with the King and to return any lands they would reclaim beyond the empire. These crusaders conquered Nicea, Edessa, Antioch, Jerusalem, and the Levant. They slaughtered all the people that was in Jerusalem that it took them ten days to finish. This worried many leaders such as the king of Caliph, Toghtekin, and Mawdoud. The Caliphs were helpless because the real power was possessed by the Seljuks. Mowdoud helped Toghtekin to fight off the Crusaders which they defeated them, but Mowdoud was assassinated by a secret organization which Toghtekin betrayed him. Imad Ed-den Zengi played an important role to the first Jihad movement. He reconquered the land of Edessa which gave people hope, but he was later assassinated by his slave. Nevertheless, his son Nour Ed-Din continued the movement. He was successful because he was more religious than his father. He had foreseen a future where he wanted to build a mosque after recapturing the land. The second crusaders wanted the land of Egypt because it dominated the economy status. This war lasted for five years before Nour Ed-Din defeated