Crusades
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The Western View
The expansion of Islam and the Arab empire through the Seljuk Turks in the 11th century caused a note of distress to the clergy of Christianity. The conquest of areas in the Christian Byzantium empire helped to spur anger and resentment against Muslims. With an ever increasing population in the western world and the papal state’s need for power and territory the Crusades was the end result. There were a series of campaigns against Islam and against heretics and troublemakers in Europe itself.
They were led by kings, princes, knights and papal legates as well as by shepherds and hermits. Frequently, they were under the control of the Church but in some instances they were not. The Church also offered many incentives to encourage men to take the Cross and conquer the Muslims. There were altogether seven crusades that were launched to conquer or regain land from the Arabs. However, while the Crusades began as a move to conquer the Muslims, they became a battle within the Christian faith itself. Many of the Europeans lost their values and religious beliefs and thus the Crusades became a time of re-identifying their faith.
The First Crusade in 1096 was sprung from Pope Urban II’s sermon in 1095. This was the only crusade that the westerners successfully won. Future Crusades lacked disorganization and while many battles were won by the western world, the eventual outcome had the Arabs at the head. However, with thousands of dead from all faiths, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, who was the real victor?
The Eastern View
"Regard the Franj! Behold with what obstinacy they fight for their religion, while we, the Muslims, show no enthusiasm for waging holy war."-Salah Al-Din.*
To those of the Eastern world, the invasion of the Frankish people was not one of enlightenment. It was instead an attempt to conquer a land that was for centuries in the hands of eastern civilizations ranging from Arabs, Kurds, Armenians, and many more people of different ethnic descent. To the Muslims and the non-Muslims of the east, the Crusades was a war of a barbarous nature that needed to be repelled. It was a war against their faith and their customs. However, the decline of the Arab civilization soon after coming out victorious in the Crusades suggests that there were deeper issues in the conflict between the west and east. While the Crusades opened up new horizons and new trading areas for the west, the eastern world’s establishments began to decline and deteriorate and the lands they conquered became lost in the political power struggle between the Arabs.
*Quote Taken From
Maalouf, Amin. The Crusades Through Arab Eyes. Translated by Jon Rothschild, 1984. Al Saqi Books, 26 Wetbourne Grove, London W2.
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Invasion1095-1099 |
The First Crusade |
1096 | Kilij Arslan, sultan of Nicaea, crushes a crusaders invasion led by Peter the Hermit. |
1097 | First great expedition by the Crusaders, known as Franj in Arabia. |
1098 | The Crusaders take Edessa and then Antioch, and triumph over a Muslim rescue army commanded by Karbuqa, ruler of Mosul. The incident of cannibalism by the crusaders in Maarra. "For three days they put people to the |
1099 | Fall of Jerusalem, followed by massacres and plunder by the crusaders. The population of the holy city was put to the sword, and the |
Occupation1100 |
Baldwin, count of Edessa, escapes an ambush |
1104 | Muslim victory at Harran, which checks the Crusaders' eastward advance. |
1108 | Two coalitions made up of Crusaders and Muslims confront one another near Tel Bashir. |
1109 | Fall of Tripoli after a 2000-day siege. |
1110 | Fall of Beirut and Saida. |
1111 | Ibn al-Khashab, the qadi of Aleppo, organizes a riot against the caliph of Baghdad to demand intervention against the Frankish occupation. |
1112 | Victorious resistance at Tyre. |
1115 | Alliance of Muslim and Frankish princes of Syria against an army dispatched by the sultan. |
1119 | Ilghazi, ruler of Aleppo, crushes the Crusaders at Sarmada. |
1124 | The Crusaders take Tyre. They now occupy the entire coast, except for Ascalon. |
1125 | Ibn al-Khashab is murdered by the Assassins sect. |
1128 | Failure of crusaders thrust at Damscus. Zangi the ruler of Aleppo. |
1135 | Zangi fails to take Damascus. |
1137 | Zangi captures Fulk, king of Jerusalem, then releases him. |
1140 | Alliance of Damascus and Jerusalem against Zangi. |
1144-1155 | The Second Crusade |
1144 | Zangi takes Edessa, destroying the first of the four Frankish states of the Orient. |
1146 | Murder of Zangi. His son Nur al-Din replaces him in Aleppo. |
Victory1148 |
Debacle at damascus for a new Frankish |
1154 | Nur al-Din takes control of Damascus, unifying Muslim Syria under his authority. |
1163-69 | The struggle for Egypt. Shirkuh, lieutenant of Nur al-Din, finally wins. Proclaimed vizier, he dies two months later. He is succeeded by his nephew Saladin (Salahuddin). |
1171 | Saladin proclaims the overthrow of the Fatimid caliphate. Sole master of Egypt, he finds himself in conflict with Nur al-Din. |
1174 | Death of Nur al-Din. Saladin takes Damascus. |
1183 | Saladin takes Aleppo. Egypt and Syria now reunited under his aegis. |
1187-1192 | The Third Crusade |
1187 | The year of victory. Saladin crushes the crusaders armies at Hittin, near Lake Tiberias. He reconquers Jerusalem and the greater part of the crusaders territories. The crusaders now hold only Tyre, Tripoli and Antioch. |
1190-92 | Setback for Saladin at Acre. Intervention of Richard the Lionheart, king of England, enables the crusaders to recover several cities from the sultan, but not Jerusalem. |
1193 | Saladin dies in Damascus at the age of 55. After several years of civil war, his empire is reunited under the authority of his brother al-Adil. |
1194-1201 | The Fourth and Fifth Crusade |
1204 | The crusaders take Constantinople. Sack of the city. |
1216-1218 | The Sixth Crusade |
1218-21 | Invasion of Egypt by the crusaders. They take Damietta and head for Cairo, but the sultan al-Kamil, son of al-Adil, finally repels them. |
1227-1229 | The Seventh Crusade |
1229 | Al-Kamil delivers Jerusalem to the emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, arousing a storm of indignation in the Arab world. |
Expulsion1244 |
The crusaders lose Jerusalem for the last |
1245-1247 | The Eighth Crusade |
1248-50 | Invasion of Egypt by Louis IX, King of France, who is defeated and captured. Fall of the Ayyubid dynasty; replaced by the rule of the Mamluks. |
1258 | The Mongol chief Hulegu, grandson of Genghis Khan, sacks Baghdad, massacring the population and killing the last Abbasid caliph. |
1260 | The Mongol army, after occupying first Aleppo and then damascus, is defeated at the battle of Ayn Jalut in palestine. Baybars at the head of the Mamluk sultanate. |
1268 | Baybars takes Antioch, which had been allied with the Mongols. |
1270 | Louis IX dies near Tunis in the course of a failed invasion. |
1289 | The mamluk sultan Qalawun takes Tripoli. |
1291 | The sultan Khalil, son of Qalawun, takes Acre, putting an end to two centuries of crusaders presence in the Orient. |
REFERENCES:
Main reference: The Crusades Through Arab Eyes by Amin Maalouf, translated by Jon Rothschild, 1984. Al Saqi Books, 26 Wetbourne Grove, London W2.