3/1/11 Tuesday Lecture

The Crusades
Note: guest lecturer did not use Cargill's slides


Factors contributing to the Crusades

1. Political - Holy Roman Empire
2. Religious - Christian population of Jerusalem
• Holy Sepulcher destruction by Caliph Al-Hakim 1009
• Difficulty of Christian pilgrimage to Jerusalem

Christian & Muslim sources of the Crusades

1. William of Tyre - Christian POV
2. Ibn Al-Qalanisi(sp?) - Muslim POV

Pope Urban II's speech 11/27/1095

• Called upon the nobility of western Europe
• Example of unintended consequence
• Brought in a religious element and reward
• Indulgence - remission of penalties due to sins by donating, preaching, and settling in the Holy Land

1st Crusade

• Peasant's Crusade was poor, ill-equipped, took many routes, had waves of people at different times, and were defeated by the Turks
• Arrived at Jaffa Harbor/Akko (Crusader architecture)

Ruthless attack of Jerusalem from the North in 1099; many Muslims killed

Crusader Principalities

• 4 latin states: odessa, antioch, tripoli, Jerusalem (most powerful)
• Quarters: Patriarch (NW), Templars (SE), Syrian (NE), and Armenian (SW)

Crusader period monuments

1. Existing Islamic monuments were modified
• Dome of the Rock --> templum domini
• Al-Aqsa Mosque --. templum solomonis
2. Rebuild ruined Byzantine churches
3. Build new churches - 42, Armenian quarter
4. Holy Sepulcher
• Complex architecture with many things under one roof
• A Muslim family holds the key to the doors
• Divided between many Christian sects
5. St. Anne's Church at Pool of Bethesda
• Anne = mother of Mary; assume church location is near Anne's birth
• Amazing acoustical properties
• Citadel?

The Templars

• Modern day Temple Mt.
• Order of Knights Templar founded in 1118 to protect pilgrims coming to Jerusalem as all Christians wanted to come to Jerusalem
• Coin with two people riding one horse

Remaking Jerusalem Christian

1. 1st Crusade by Urvan II at Clermon 1095
• Jerusalem conquered by Godfrey de Bouillon
2. 2nd Crusade by St. Bernard at Vezelay
3. Battle of Hattin
• When Saladin and his army were stranded in the dessert, he made a Muslim victory, obtained water, and it was an easy march to Jerusalem
4. Ayyubid Jerusalem and later crusades
• Saladin unified all Muslim factions against the Crusaders to obtain Jerusalem.  Islamic people liked him, while Crusaders didn't
• Victory at "Horns of Hattin"in July 1187
• Jerusalem surrenders to Saladin on 9/26/1187
• Saladin legend from contrast btwn Saladin and Crusaders
• Purification and reclamation of the Haram
• Church of Holy Sepulcher given to Greek Orthodox
• Settlement of Jews again in Jerusalem: Jews from Ashkelon settled in Maghribi Qtr (Jewish qtr) in 1190
• Christian topography replaced w Muslim shrines
• Saladin's successors struggle for power (similar to Alexander the Great)
• 3rd, 4th, and 5th Crusades happened with not much success.  5th crusade was when Jerusalem's walls were destroyed.  
• --> Jerusalem becomes an unimportant city bc it cannot protect people any more.  Similar to when people fled Samaria to Jerusalem for protection when Samaria was destroyed
• Crusaders regain control of Jerusalem in the 6th Crusade when al-Kamid cedes Jerusalem for 10 years in a treaty.  Some Muslims didn't want to make peace and called him a traitor to Islam.
• 7th and 8th Crusades
• Akko, last Crusader outpost, falls 1291

End of the Crusader era

• Lasted less than 100 years, Muslims have control of Jerusalem again
• Truce with Richard the Lionheart for Muslims to let pilgrims enter Jerusalem

Were there only 3 crusades?

Interesting to see that familiar things like the Nights Templar actually make sense under a historical background.  (:
With parallels drawn to Alexander the Great and also the destruction of Samaria, is was interested to see specific examples of how history truly does repeat itself.  But this kind of takes out the magic of history and religion for me.  If history does repeat itself, if is just a repetitive, predictable, understood process.