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★ Crusades

The Muslims had had a very clear idea of what the peoples of northern Europe were like.  They were of the wrong religion, they were boorish, they were unhygienic, they were like lumbering animals.  Professor Carole Hillenbrand, author The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives

 

 

There is no doubt on both sides of the historiography for this event that the crusaders were exceptionally bloodthirsty.  The memory of the brutality of the crusaders is still with Muslims today.  Professor Carole Hillenbrand

 

 

Saladin failed to remove the Crusaders permanently from Muslim soil.  Carole Hillenbrand

 

 

He [Saladin] allows the Crusaders to leave.  Carole Hillenbrand

 

 

Saladin is the heir of centuries of development of a political and legal culture in the Islamic world.  Reuven Amitai, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

 

 

He [Saladin] allows those who can ransom themselves to go.  And then when those people cannot afford to pay ransom he allows them to go and pays for them by his own estates.  Akbar Ahmed, American University

 

 

He [Saladin] realises he cannot actually capture Jerusalem.  He didn’t have control over the landscapes surrounding Jerusalem ... And then he makes a retreat.  Professor Shimon Gibson

 

 

When the Crusaders captured Jerusalem the first thing that happened – there was a bloodbath of almighty proportions.  They slaughtered everybody: Christian, Jew, Muslim alike.  It’s not a pretty event.  Tim Wallace-Murphy, co-author Custodians of Truth

 

 

Islam at that point did not have any equivalent of the Holy War.  This was how the very word Jihad changed its meaning as a result of the Crusades.  Tariq Ali, author Class of Fundamentalisms

 

 

In 1095 Pope Urban II instigated the first Crusade by declaring Deus Vult, Latin for God wills it.  Over the next two hundred years a total of nine brutal crusades devastated the Holy Land and its Muslim inhabitants.  The Dark Ages, History 2007  

 

The Crusades spawned a rebirth of trade and architecture unseen in Europe since the fall of Rome.  ibid.

 

 

Jerusalem was stormed in 1099.  The entire population of the holy city was put to the sword.  Jews and well as Muslims.  70,000 men, women and children perished in a holocaust, which raged for three days.  In places men waded in blood up to their ankles and horsemen were splashed by it as they rode through the streets.  Desmond Seward, The Monks of War

 

 

The French Knights wanted more land.  Italian merchants hoped to expand trade in Middle East ports ... Large numbers of poor people joined the expedition simply to escape the hardships of their normal lives.  Donald E Queller, Crusades

 

 

Between 1095 and 1291 A.D. the Pope launched seven blood-baths called the Christian Crusades – torturing, burning, beheading, and mass-murdering hundreds of thousands of Muslims and Jews in the name of God.  The Pope’s brutal soldiers were called Knights Templar, or Knights of the Temple of Solomon.  And evolved into today’s secretive brotherhood called the Freemasons.  Ring of Power, 2008 

 

 

Almost one thousand years ago Richard I King of England set out to war.  Not for power or wealth but for God.  This was a new kind of war.  One that still casts its shadow today.  For it would pit Crusader against Jihadi.  East against West.  Richard the Lionheart: Warriors

 

Saladin’s scorched earth tactics began to work like a cancer in the Crusader army, spreading dissension.  Richard, as the only king among the commanders, led the crusade in battle.  But he was not in political control.  Important political decisions were taken by the Council of War, a body made up of all the different factions.  ibid.

 

The retreat from Jerusalem was a humiliation for Richard.  During the next six months he tried everything to make amends, moving down towards Egypt and attacking Saladin’s supply routes.  But without the French he never had enough men to strike a decisive blow.  ibid.

 

 

They think Holy War is just a cover story.  They think it’s a cover story to take the riches of Constantinople.  Professor Jonathan Phillips, University of London

 

 

Savagery and piety.  Conquest and colonisation. The Normans used every weapon in their armoury to re-shape Norman France and the British Isles.  They were powerful rulers and state builders.  And their legacy can be seen all around us.  Professor Robert Bartlett, The Normans III: Normans of the South, BBC 2010

 

In 1099 an international force of 10,000 soldiers stormed through the streets of Jerusalem.  This would be the most divisive part of the Norman inheritance: the first Crusade.  Among the leaders were Norman knights, including the son of William the Conqueror.  As the Crusaders tore through the Holy City they cut down thousands of Muslims.  According to one chronicler the slaughter was so great men waded in blood up to their ankles.  ibid.

 

On their way to Jerusalem the Crusaders arrived at the capital of the Byzantine Empire – Constantinople was one of the greatest cities of the medieval world.  ibid.

 

Bohemond established a new Norman state – the principality of Antioch.  ibid.  

 

On the night of 10th July 1099 the Crusaders attacked in force from both north and south using battering rams and siege towers.  For two days the conflict hung in the balance.  Then the Crusaders broke into the city.  Tancred was amongst the leaders.  Pillage and massacre followed.  The Crusaders rampaged through the city seizing gold and silver as they went.  The slaughter of the Muslims was savage.  Chroniclers record that thousands were killed.  ibid.  

 

The Normans had taken part in a slaughter that would never be forgiven.  ibid.

 

 

The actions of one Muslim warrior echo down the centuries.  An Islamic champion will rise and influence the rules of war.  Mystery Files: Saladin, National Geographic 2011

 

Over the next two decades Saladin builds an empire with Damascus in Syria as his capital.  ibid.

 

Amongst the Christian ranks are two zealous orders of warrior monks known as the Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitaller.  To Saladin they are the ultimate enemy.  ibid.  

 

Saladin marches from Damascus towards Jerusalem as the head of any army of 30,000 men.  ibid.

 

Two hundred and thirty detested Templars and Hospitallers are handed over to Muslim clerics.  Again, Saladin acts to Muslim rules of war.  ibid.

 

They are granted freedom from slavery on condition they quit the Holy Land for ever.  Many return to Europe with tales of Saladin – a Muslim warrior with greater chivalry than any European knight.  ibid.

 

Saladin knows the Crusaders will return.  ibid.

 

Hearing of Richard’s sickness he sends gifts of fruit and water.  ibid.

 

Saladin’s legacy of mercy and compassion is echoed today on the modern battlefield.  ibid.

 

 

Saladin’s rise to power was quite meteoric.  Dr Abdul Azzam, author Saladin

 

 

From Fez the realm will reach those of Europe,

Their city ablaze and the blade will cut:

The great one of Asia by land and sea with a great troop,

So that blues and pers[ians] the cross will pursue to death.  Nostradamus VI-80

 

 

From the Christian perspective the first crusade was a startling, almost a miraculous, success.  Against all the odds the first crusaders managed to travel to the Holy Land and retook the holy city of Jerusalem.  Tom Asbridge, Templar researcher, University of London

 

 

The Pope proclaimed a new Holy War against Islam.  For control of the most hallowed site in the Christian cosmos – the sacred city of Jerusalem.  Thomas Asbridge, The Crusades 1/3: Holy War, BBC 2012

 

The story of the Crusades is remembered as a tale of religious fanaticism and unspeakable violence.  Of medieval knights and Jihadi warriors.  ibid.

 

From the summer of 1096 between sixty and a hundred thousand Christians – men, women and children, set out to walk some two and a half thousand miles.  ibid.

 

The Pope created an anti-Islamic onslaught, peppered with propaganda.  ibid.

 

I think most people joined this Crusade because they earnestly believed that the coming campaign would cleanse their souls of sin.  ibid.

 

The Crusaders decided to divide their army in two.  ibid.

 

Lack of water became a real issue.  ibid.

 

Christian numbers were severely depleted by an epic journey.  ibid.

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