Okay, I’ve been lazy. I’ve had the misfortune to become addicted to a city-building computer game called “Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom” that I bought for $19.95 after playing a demo on someone else’s computer.
The Crusades (Part 2)
In November 1095, Pope Urban II gave a public speech to his brethen, asking other fellow Christians to defend the Christian lands against the “frenzy of the barbarians [that] has devastated the Churches of God in the east”. Many heard his rousing speech, particularly the part about being allowed penance for all their sins should they choose to “take up the cross”. The crowd whipped themselves into religious fervour, and many demonstrated their allegiance by pinning red crosses to their clothes – making the tunic with a red cross the uniform of The Crusaders (including that of the Knights Templars). The crowd pledged to reclaim the Holy Lands – with their ultimate goal being Jerusalem.
In August 1096, the 30,000-150,000 strong Crusader army set off towards their destination from Europe, going mostly by land and stopping by Constantinople, the greatest Christian city in Europe at the time. The journey was long and excruciating, as The Crusaders were under-equipped in food, water and certain types of equipment, especially siege machinery. They were also hindered by the hot temperatures, poor sanitation and constant threat of disease. Undertaking the leadership of this army is a smattering of European Dukes and Counts, which only compounded problems due not only to differences in opinion, but the fact that most nobles only had a limited number of troops under their command. As a result, the Crusader army that reached the Islamic Empire was far from unified.
The Islamic Empire
By the time of the First Crusade, the Northern half of the Islamic Empire was in disarray, as one key development that led up to the events in the 11th Century AD was the collapse of the Abbasid Caliphate (7th Century AD – 9th Century AD). The Caliphate bordered the Byzantine Empire, and up until then, the relationship between the two has been more or less neutral, if not friendly. With the collapse, this was to be no more. Remember those Turkish tribes that were pushed West by the Chinese and Tibetans in Part 1 of this installment? Yes, from 8th Century AD onwards, they had moved further and further west, becoming Sunni Muslims along the way, until they had pretty much conquered much of the former Caliphate by mid-11th Century AD. One tribe in particular rose to prominence – the Seljuk Turks. And it was under some of these Turkish leaders that parts of the Byzantine Empire was attacked; itself already torn by internal conflict. And thus, the Byzantines could only plead to the Latin Papacy for help.
Islamic Empire and Religion
It’s important to look at The Crusades from the point-of-view of the Arabs, because most accounts of The Crusades only come from a Eurocentric perspective. Truth is, few 11th Century Europeans had any idea how big, well-organised and wealthy the Islamic Empire was – to them, they were just a menace to Christianity.
They were only half-correct. There were some Muslim Lords that persecuted Christians and Jews in their own cities, but they were in the minority. While Islam and Christianity are both monotheistic religions, the Islamic Empire was run very differently due to its size and influence. While the Latin Papacy is reknown for its intolerance, the Muslim World rarely persecuted other religions. That is because non-Muslims were charged a “religious tax” in the Islamic Empire – point being, you can worship almost whatever you want as long as you pay that tax. The tax is a lucrative form of revenue for many Islamic rulers, so rather than launching religious wars, large communities of Christians and Jews were able to live peacefully in Islamic cities. However, this form of tax gradually decreased in revenue as more people converted to Islam over time (perhaps to get their daily dose of spiritual needs without having to pay tax).
To Be Continued…