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Background to the holy wars and the
First Crusade's conquest of Jerusalem, a holy city for Jews, Christians and
Muslims.
The Crusades: An Arab Perspective is a four-part
documentary series telling the dramatic story of the Crusades seen through Arab
eyes, from the seizing of Jerusalem under Pope Urban II in 1099, to its
recapture by Salah ad-Din (also known as Saladin), Richard the Lionheart's
efforts to regain the city, and the end of the holy wars in 1291. In part one,
we explore the history of the First Crusade and the conquest of Jerusalem.
The Crusades are the epitome of "holy war". Yet the roots of
this 200-year conflict lay not just in religion, but also in the economic
condition of medieval Europe.
"Around the time of the Crusades,
Europe experienced several droughts which made people lose faith in
everything," says Antoine Domit, history
professor at the Lebanese University.
A struggle between church and state was taking place in Europe: Who
would rule over the people of Europe, the pope or the king?
After centuries of European domination, largely through the armies of
imperial Rome, the Mediterranean basin had fallen firmly under Muslim control.
So the Muslims surrounded Europe, from Spain in the west to the eastern
Mediterranean in the east.
"For Europeans, the east is 'A Thousand and One Nights'. It
represents wealth, beautiful clothing, young concubines, thriving public life,
songs and culture," says Elias al-Kattar, history professor at the
Lebanese University.
While the Muslim east lived in prosperity, Europe had slipped into
relative poverty and conflict.
"Medieval western society was a feudal society, which meant that
you had the aristocracy in charge of a large amount of people that had no land
possessions," says Jan Vendeburie, of the School of History, University of
Kent.
Ishaaq Abaid, history professor at Ain
Shams University, explains that "only one percent of people who had the titles of 'count', 'duke' or
'baron', owned all the agricultural lands. Ninety-nine percent of the European
population were called serfs and worked on these lands."
Most Europeans in the 11th century lived in poverty and were struggling
to survive, while war and conflict among knights were part of everyday life.
Pope
Gregory VII and the idea of a holy war
On the other side of the Mediterranean
lay relative prosperity and the cultural riches of the Muslims world, but the
glittering facade hid deep political and religious divisions. From the
mid-ninth century, the Abbasid Caliphate had gradually come under the control
of different dynasties. The caliphs, meant to be the universal leaders of
Islam, were no more than puppets in the hands of ministers, army commanders and
even servants.
“The crusaders didn't outnumber the population or have greater force
and fighting skills. Yet, they emerged victorious because of the Muslims'
demographic and political divisions”. Qassem Abdu Qassem, Head of the Hstory Department,
Zaqaziq University
|
The Muslim Seljuk Turks began expanding
their empire in every direction. The most significant and serious expansion was
in Asia Minor against the Christian Byzantine Empire. And after the Battle of
Manzikert in 1071, the Seljuks moved closer to Constantinople, the great
capital of the Byzantine Empire. They took Romanus Diogenes IV as a prisoner
and his successor, Emperor Alexios Komnenos, called for help from Western
Europe.
"Pope Gregory VII saw this as the
perfect opportunity to realise his dream of controlling the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre and of gathering all the armed forces under papal leadership in a
campaign he called, 'the Lord's Project'," says Qassem Abdu Qassem, head of the history department, Zaqaziq
University.
Zubeida Atta, a history professor at
Helwan University, says: "Pope Gregory has the idea of a holy war. It was he who came up with the idea of
sending a campaign to the east to recapture the tomb of Jesus Christ from the
hands of the Muslims, whom he believed had taken it by force."
When Pope Gregory died in 1085 before turning his project into reality,
his ambitious successor, Pope Urban II picked up the baton.
"He was a fanatic and believed deeply in exporting Catholicism and
in the militarisation of Christianity," says Muhammad Moenes Awad,
history professor, Sharjah University.
The First Crusade: 'It's God's will'
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| The Council of Clermont in 1095 [Getty Images] |
The First Crusade was called in November
1095 by Pope Urban II at the French town of Clermont, where he held a Catholic
Church council. But what started as a religious gathering, took a dramatic turn
when Pope Urban made a speech that would be the starting point of two centuries
of bloodshed.
He addressed the spiritual anxieties of the common man and promised
penance for those who would go and fight in the holy war.
"Fighting is your duty, you have to continue fighting to defend our
property, our lands. Our property that is yours. We have to combat these
non-believers and reclaim our holy land. It's God's will."
Pope Urban II drew up a schedule for the first campaign which should set
out in the summer of 1096. But some ignored the holy command and found a
leader who would immediately guide them to the east: an old monk called Peter
the Hermit.
These first enthusiastic, but undisciplined, Christians to head towards
Jerusalem were crushed by the Muslim Seljuks in Asia Minor.
But now, in the summer of 1096, much stronger, larger and more organised
forces were gathering and advancing eastwards. These armies forming the First
Crusade were commanded by figures of European nobility.
"The armies set off from Western Europe and headed towards the Holy
Land. Some went to defend their reputation, while others sought to acquire new
land and build an empire," says Abdu Qassem.
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| The First Crusade's armies heading eastwards in 1096 were commanded by figures of European nobility [Getty Images] |
According to Professor Said al-Bishawy of the Open University of
Jerusalem, the crusaders swore allegiance to the Byzantine emperor, Alexios
Komnenos, and promised to return the lands taken by the Seljuk Turks. This
bargain was necessary for them to be granted permission to head east.
After crossing the Bosporus, the crusaders marched towards the Seljuk's
capital in Asia Minor, the city of Nicaea. True to the oath they had sworn to
the emperor, the city of Nicaea was returned to the Byzantines. But as the crusaders
continued their successful march in Asia Minor, their holy task of taking
Jerusalem was momentarily set aside some of their numbers made a detour to
the city of Edessa.
One of the commanders, Baldwin of Boulogne, headed to Edessa which
became the first crusader state to be founded in the east.
"The taking of Edessa shows that the crusaders weren't guided by
any religious dictates. Crusaders came under the pretence of freeing the Holy
Sepulchre from infidels and non-believers. But Edessa wasn't on the way to
Jerusalem, had no tomb of any of Jesus' disciples and is not a place of
pilgrimage," says Muhammad al-Makhzoumy, history professor at the Lebanese
University.
The main army, however, marched on to the walls of Antioch, a city
nicknamed "the cradle of Christianity" as the term
"Christian" first originated there.
In June 1098, Antioch fell and was ruled by Bohemond the Norman, Prince
of Taranto.
When the crusaders first arrived, they'd sworn their allegiance to the
Byzantine emperor. But when they took Antioch, they didn't return it to the
emperor as promised. They kept it for themselves.
After Antioch, the armies finally headed south, towards Jerusalem.
Conquering Jerusalem: 'An infamous massacre'
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| In July 1099 the crusaders finally entered Jerusalem [Getty Images] |
In July 1099, and after three years of a
long march, bloody battles, plagues and famines, the crusaders finally entered
Jerusalem.
"They released the pent-up tensions of three years on the march and
having finally achieved their spiritual goal. So really it's a situation where
the crusaders wished to purify the city and take it back for themselves,"
says Jonathan Phillips, history professor at Royal Holloway, University of
London.
According to Antoine Domit, they started "with an infamous
massacre. They killed people in the streets, in their houses and in
alleyways."
Venderburie explains that it was very difficult for the crusaders to distinguish
between local Christian, Muslim, and Jewish population because they all looked
the same to them, they all "looked like Arabs".
"The success of the First Crusade in conquering Jerusalem is
important not only because it realised a European dream, but also because it
punished the Muslims and Arabs for their divisions and infighting," says
Abdu Qassem.
With the capture of Jerusalem, the First Crusade had achieved its
objective. But this initial success would not last, it was to be merely a
dramatic opening scene in a far longer struggle. And as the Muslim revival
began, so the ground was laid for another two centuries of the Crusades.
Source: Al Jazeera
07 Dec 2016 12:32 GMT
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