Western Civilization I
Professor Sarah M. Lane
The crusades were religious wars promoted by the Catholic Church to regain entrance in holy places in Jerusalem in the thirteenth century. Both, Muslims and Jews had similar opinions about the crusades differing from the Christians who approved of them.
Pope Urban, organizer of the papal monarchy and the Roman Curia, was a faithful believer of the crusades. At his speech in Clermont in 1095, he warned Europeans to accept the crusades, which he believed would free the Holy Land from Muslims. He believed that Christians were the chosen ones. He argued that Muslims had overpowered the land of the Christians while torturing them and destroying their Christian churches; as well as raping women. He also affirms that Muslims took control over Greek. Pope Urban claims the crusades are created to continue the job of Christian’s ancestor, who dismantled pagan territories. He exclaims that Christian should fight for their land. On the other hand, Muslims believe almost the opposite from the claims of Pope Urban.
Muslims had a negative view about the Crusades. They believe crusaders invaded the land of Islam by attacking and overpowering Sicily as well as Syria and trying to take control of African coast. Muslims argue Crusaders put together an army to overpower land and convert to Christianity; while trying to ally with an emperor to attack Muslims. Concisely, crusaders slayed all Muslims they found. Jews also receive punishment from the crusades.
As soon as Jews learned about the crusades, some worried but some did not fear. In Speyer, a city in the Rhineland, Jews were able to exercise religion, grow economically; but could not preach their religion. Many Jewish women knew how to read unlike Christian women. Jews and Christians had a pacific relationship. Although they had a decent relation, Christians observed Jews as foreigner and envied the Jews because they were sheltered by the bishop and were economic competition. In 1096, Crusaders slaughtered Jews, burned synagogues, and destroyed the Torah, the book of Jews.
The crusades started in an effort to free the Holy Land from Muslims. They invaded territories and killed innocent people.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
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…
- 2423 Words
- 10 Pages
Powerful Essays -
In the First Crusade, Christian knights that came from Europe went and capture Jerusalem. They had been massacring almost all the city’s Muslim and Jewish population. The reason this happened was because Christians were being persecuted in Jerusalem, because the Holy City was passed from Egyptians to Seljuk. A Pope called for a crusade to help Christians in the east and to recover the holy lands. And then people went over there immediately. A Crusade called “People’s Crusade” had went a far way with killing, to Constantinople, but they were soon killed after that. Then another crusade went in killing a lot more people than “People’s Crusade” ever did. This crusade was led by Raymond of Toulouse, Godfrey of Bouillon, Robert of Flanders, and…
- 277 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
The Crusades were a bunch of wars during the Middle Ages where the Christians of Europe tried to retake control of Jerusalem and the Holy Land from the…
- 188 Words
- 1 Page
Satisfactory Essays -
Document 1 states that Christians and Muslims both committed appalling atrocities in the name of religion.…
- 135 Words
- 1 Page
Satisfactory Essays -
The Crusades were very big wars that took place in the Byzantine Empire, and in Jerusalem. The Crusades took place in about 1095. The Crusades happened because at one point in history, people wanted land. It was most likely the Byzantine area. The outcome wasn’t always what they desired.…
- 485 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
The Crusades were wars between Christians and Muslims, fought in Palestine. In 1071, Turkish Muslims captured Jerusalem. The Muslims stopped the Christians from visiting the holy places in Palestine. Naturally, Christian rulers in Europe were very angry about this.…
- 381 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
The pope’s speech specifically gave the crusaders permission to kill Muslims, and only Muslims. However, the crusaders massacred as many as 25,000 Jews on their way to Constantinople, and killed almost all of the Jews in Jerusalem. Furthermore, Pope Urban specifically said in his speech, “carry aid promptly to those Christians and… destroy that vile race from the land of our friends.” The crusaders were supposed to go help the Christians put down the Turks, but many Christians ended up getting killed anyway. After they successfully besieged Antioch, the crusaders began to raid the cities near Antioch, one of which was Ma’arat al-Nu’man. At Ma’arat al Nu’man, the crusaders were driven to eating Muslim bodies, or cannibalism. “After the siege of Ma’arrat an Nu’man (December 1098) Muslim graves were dug up and the bodies slit open to check if any treasure had been swallowed. Acts of a similarly brutal nature were repeated elsewhere”(Phillips 6). This clear violation shows that many crusaders’ motive to go on the Crusade was definitely not religious…
- 828 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
The Holy Land was a very important piece of land to the Christians because of The Great Temple. This caused the Christians to create the Crusaders taking serious measures to gain back the Holy Land. On the other hand, the Muslims believed that the land was not the Christian's property and believed the attack was unfair. The bloodbath that took place in this confrontation was very violent with the favor leaning towards the Christians. The scene that happened at Jerusalem was very bloody and had many different views and…
- 677 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
The idea that was the driving force behind the crusades was that Christianity must replace previously held Islamic and Judaic beliefs at any price, even the lives of others. The people of the world must be saved through their belief in the Christian God, no matter the cost, even if violence was to be used. All throughout Europe, Jews were persecuted, and eventually Jerusalem was captured. Jewish and Muslim people living within the city were murdered; this included the slaughter of women and children. All this blood-shed for a short-lived Christian kingdom in the Middle-East which eventually proved to be unsustainable, and forced other civilizations to distrust the Roman Catholic Church by the end of the crusades. The Animosity grew heavy between Byzantine and the Roman Catholics and the crusaders pushed to take over the capital of the Byzantine Empire,…
- 329 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Thousands slaughtered, pillaged, razed, and raped the Muslim and Jewish communities under the Cross of Christ. Though such moral stains are present, the Crusades were not the unjustifiable attack and persecution of Muslims and an attempt to take their lands. The purpose of this essay is to counter the negative myths that Christianity led unprovoked aggression against a peaceful Islam World, that the Crusades were colonialism of Christianity, and that the Muslims have a good reason to the hate the West today because of the Crusades.…
- 1490 Words
- 6 Pages
Good Essays -
The two major purposes of the Crusades were the desire to indicate how Christianity is more superior to another religion and domination of lands. The Crusades were prominently known as the Holy Wars between the Christians and Muslims. In addition, religious conflicts and wars between Christianity and Muslim resulted in a prolong battle within the Western civilization. Many people from lower class to higher-class citizens, who strongly believed in Christianity and its interpretation of salvation, were all participated in retrieving the liberation in the Holy Land. Most of the Christians perceived that they needed more lands for their children to inherit, and that Muslims were not worthy to rule the Holy Land. In fact, the Holy Land was prosperous…
- 267 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
The ways religious people perceive the crusades in different religion differ from one another. For many Christian the crusades were a force of reconquering the “holy land”. However, for many other people such as Muslims and Jews the crusades were a catastrophic destruction of their beliefs. The crusades during the 11th and 16th for many people had different motives. For people, who were attacked by Christians the crusades meant something very different from the people, who were conquering and killing people on “the name of God”. During these times, people began to feel confuse because they did not know the “real” purpose of the actions of the Christians. On the other hand, Christian felt competent and glorious because they had the power to order and perform on the name of God. In the text by Fulcher of Chartres, one can see how what the crusades signified for the Christian population, and why they perform the way, they did. On the other hand, in text written by Solomon Bar Simson one can experience how the Jews community felt regarding the crusades. In addition, one can see how these texts have differences when describing the reasons behind and why the crusades happened.…
- 560 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Albeit, the Crusaders left a memorable architectural imprint on the Holy Land. Compared to the rest of the Land, the Crusaders left a more minor effect on Jerusalem. Meinhardt describes the renewal of the Dome of the Rock, symbolic to both the Jews and the Muslims as the rock where Abraham sacrificed Isaac and where Muhammad saw heaven: “they later covered the massive rock inside the building with elaborate marble casing, to serve as an altar; they also filled the building’s niches with sacred carvings, erected an intricate iron grille around the building’s inner octagon, and placed an iron cross on top of the dome.” Among other works, Crusaders built a covered market, a city gate, and a hospital, along with various other buildings (“When Crusader Kings Ruled Jerusalem”). One also views the growth of Jerusalem into a crossroads for learning. It allowed the Crusaders to come into contact with the profoundly advanced intellectual culture of the Middle East. In fact, one might suggest that because of Jerusalem, Crusaders quickly came into contact with other civilizations, setting up Europe for the Renaissance. Jerusalem, nestled in much of the combat, while allowing for the wealth of Europe, ultimately suffered as a result of the Crusades. A far-reaching aspect of the Crusades’ effect on Jerusalem remains in the minds of individuals of the modern day and age: the massacre of the city in 1099. After reading a modern account of Jewish historians, one might still sense understandable bias and unsettlement towards the Crusaders. As stated by Riley-Smith, “the fact is that holy war, whatever the religion involved, has the tendency to turn in on the society that has bred it” (25). In this case, it seems that modern opinions turn against the depicted brutal and greedy Christians. The…
- 1323 Words
- 6 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Have you heard of the Crusades before? Well if you haven’t the Crusades were a group of people that believed strongly in the Christian religion. They had big crusades around Europe giving Jews and Muslims the choice to either convert or die. The first crusade was in 1096. They burned the Jews and Muslims alive leaving 5,000 victims and 1,000 deaths. The Crusades also had a big influence on the Holocaust. The crusades started anti semitism which led to the anti semitism during the Holocaust. The crusades…
- 651 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Popes were determined to recover Jerusalem, as they believed it was Christian territory. The Christians had seen Jerusalem as a significant place for Christianity as they described it as being “the centre of the earth”. This is because it was “glorified by his burial” and emphasises the importance of Jerusalem for Christians. Men who went and fought in Jerusalem also know as “the Holy Land” were given spiritual rewards which were to “have immediate remission of sins” therefore you were given a passport to heaven despite having committed multiple sins in the past. The result of the fall of Edessa to Muslims caused Pope Eugene the second to start the second crusade. Similarly to the First Crusade, the Muslims were still threatening to retake the Holy Land. The want and need for securing Jerusalem was a high priority for the Christians as it signified a meaningful place and symbolises their…
- 991 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays