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The Crusades
The city of Jerusalem was the center of faith for three major world religions.
For the Jews it was their homeland. It had been promised to them by
Jehovah, who they believed had covenanted with Abraham to give him the
land of Israel. To the Muslims, Jerusalem was the location where the Prophet
Muhammad had ascended into heaven. After Makkah, and Medinah,
Jerusalem was Islam’s third most holy city. To the Christians, Jerusalem was
both the location of Christ’s birth and the location of his death.
Jerusalem was conquered by Islam in the 600s CE
and would remain in their control for many centuries
to come. In 1095, Pope Urban II called for
volunteers to travel to Jerusalem and fight to take it
back from the Muslims. He called their mission a
crusade. The word “crusade” comes from the word
Crux, which means “cross” in Latin. Those who
volunteered for the crusade would be called
crusaders, meaning that they took the cross of
Jesus upon them. These crusaders were promised
that they would receive eternal life if they died while fighting non-Christians.
As a result of the rhetoric these Christians killed thousands of nonChristians, including Jews and Muslims, as they traveled to Jerusalem. In
some cases they slaughtered entire Jewish communities.
People were so enthusiastic that several
groups set off for Jerusalem. While the
nobles were planning their crusade, the
peasants grew restless and organized their
own crusade. Thousands of peasants from
France
and
Germany
set
out
for
Constantinople.
They believed that God
would just knock down the walls of
Jerusalem anyway as soon as they got
there, so there was no need for fighting or
weapons. Some of them didn't even take
any money. Most of these groups found that traveling and fighting were harder
than they had imagined, and most of them died on the way. One group decided
it was too hard to get to Jerusalem to fight the Muslims, and instead stopped in
Germany to fight the Jews. Thousands of Jews were robbed and killed by these
Crusaders, just because they were not Christians.
Finally in the fall of 1096 the main Crusade left for Jerusalem. They went by
different routes, some by land and some by sea, to Constantinople. By the time
the Peasant’s Crusade reached Constantinople, they lost one third of their
members. Here the Emperor Alexius was quite surprised to see them and not
altogether pleased. He expected trained soldiers, not peasants. The emperor
gave them supplies and sent them to Asia Minor to fight the Turks. The
peasant army was almost completely wiped out by Turkish bowmen.
This “Nobles Crusade” would be the first of nine total crusades that
Christians would carry out as they attempted to control Jerusalem. When the
Crusaders reached Jerusalem in May, 1098, they were surprised to see all the
civilized things in the city of Jerusalem - mosques, and hot baths, and advanced
medicine. By 1097, the nobles finally set out on their crusade.
Approximately, 30,000 crusaders arrived in Asia Minor
and defeated the Turks. After two years of traveling in
the desert, the crusaders finally reached Jerusalem. They
laid siege upon the city, surrounding it for two months.
Finally the city fell and the crusaders entered, killing
almost all of the non-Christians who inhabited the city,
including men, women and children. The Crusaders
managed to take Jerusalem, as well as some other
important cities along the Mediterranean coast. They settled
down there as the kings of Jerusalem, in their own new country. So the First
Crusade was a big success for the Europeans, and a setback for the Muslims.
Eight more crusades would follow, in an effort to
keep control of the city in the hands of the
Europeans. The fall of Jerusalem sent a wave of
fury throughout Europe. Pope Gregory VIII
declared a third crusade – The Crusade of Kings.
The kings of Europe, realizing that Saladin could
not be dealt by only one or two armies, allied
themselves to take revenge. Many European
kings took part including Richard the Lion-heart,
Frederick Barbarossa, Philip II, and King Guy de Lusignan. All the crusaders
achieved was the capture of the city of Acre which was only conquered after
a siege of two years and the death of about one million and twenty thousand
crusaders. When the city was finally acquired, a treaty was signed in which
the Muslims had to pay 200,000 gold coins within one month and the Holy
Cross was to be returned to the crusaders. Otherwise, the 2,700 captives
inside the city (who were to be released if the payment was fulfilled) would
become slaves. However, since Saladin could not pay the price because the
distances were far between Muslim lands and he did not have enough
resources to pay it, the Muslims were all massacred.
Other crusades include the Children's Crusade that took
place in 1212 CE. A French boy, speaking in the manner
of Peter the Hermit, lead several thousands of his young
followers. The young crusaders arrived at Marseilles,
expecting the water for them to open so that they could
walk to the Holy Land. However, most of the crusaders
were sold to slave dealers by merchants. This crusade
was a great embarrassment to the Church.
Another crusade, the Fourth Crusade (also known as the
Sack of Constantinople) that took place in 1204 CE was a
total failure. Instead of fighting the Muslims to get
Jerusalem, they ended up fighting themselves. They sacked
the city of Constantinople and did a great amount of looting
in it.
The history of the crusades is filled with the mercilessness of the crusaders
and the kind-heartedness of the Muslims. The Muslims were massacred
everywhere the crusaders arrived, while the Christians were treated kindly
by the Muslims. The crusaders achieved the main purpose of the crusades
and kept Jerusalem for a while. But the spirit of the people seen before the
first crusade took place was never matched again. Later all of the cities
taken by the Christians were to be taken back by the Muslims. In short, the
crusades acquired what they wanted for a short while, but then lost all of it
to the Muslims and instead made one another an enemy.
The Crusades