The Truth About the Crusades
First Crusade (1096)
This post is part of the series:
The Christian Crusades against Muslims began nearly
470 years after the first Muslim Crusades against Christians were
initiated in 630, when Muhammad himself led the way. From late in the
eleventh century until the middle of the thirteenth century, waves of
Christian crusaders attempted to recover lands lost to the Muslims after
630. Nearly 470 years passed from the time that Muslims began to
crusade against Christian lands until Christians responded with the
First Crusade, beginning on August 15, 1096! It should be noted that
originally Christians did not conquer these lands with the sword, but
with the life changing influence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. During
the lifetime of Muhammad, Islam began a bloody campaign of conquest that
has continued to the present era. A map of the progress of Islam will
demonstrate the way in which Islam put to the sword Christian nation
after Christian nation.
The Christian Crusades were attempts by Christians to save other
Christian nations from the sword and dominance of Islam. It is a
historical fact that sometimes Christian crusaders became opportunistic
and even pillaged other Christians, but the original intent of the
Crusades was to take back what Islam had taken from Christianity. The
following is a brief summary of the Muslim and Christian Crusades.
Table of Contents
* Click headings to navigate; click headings to return.
Muhammad Begins Crusades
The Progress of Muslim Crusades
Muslims Destroy Christian Capitol
Muslim Brutality Toward Christians
First Crusade (1096-1099)
Second Crusade (1147-1148)
Third Crusade (1189-1192)
Fourth Crusade (1200-1204)
Fifth Crusade (Children’s Crusade, 1212)
Sixth Crusade (1219-1221)
Seventh Crusade (1229)
Eighth Crusade (1248-1264)
Final Attempts (1291-1464)
Muhammad Begins Crusades
The beginning of Islamic aggression against Christian lands may be dated at 630––during Muhammad’s lifetime––but particularly 638 when the first major city, Jerusalem, fell to the Muslims. After being forced to flee from Mecca in 622 because of his beliefs, Muhammad spent the next ten years in conflict with Jews, Christians, and his fellow Arabs. Finally in 630, his military might had sufficiently grown to capture Mecca and begin the conquest of territories to the north and outside of the Arabian Peninsula. This militaristic advocacy of Islam was not the efforts of “radical Islam” as espoused by liberal Americans, but commonplace Islam as taught by Muhammad in his Koran:
And fight with them [unbelievers] until there
is no persecution, and religion should be only for Allah, but if they
desist, then there should be no hostility except against the oppressors
(2:193).
…slay the idolaters wherever you find them,
and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in
every ambush, then if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the
poor-rate, leave their way free to them (9:5).[1]
The Progress of Muslim Crusades
The Muslim crusades against Christians began during the life of Muhammad and continue into the present. In a well-written timeline documenting Muslim imperialism, James Arlandson, recounts Islam’s aggression against Christians. Two years before Muhammad died, he launched the Tabuk Crusades against Eastern or Byzantine Christians. Being ill-informed that the Byzantines were amassing a large army against him, Muhammad led 30,000 jihadists against an army that did not exist. Before returning home, he subjected non-Muslim areas to heavy taxation––the “privilege” of living under Muslim “protection.” After Muhammad’s death two years later, crusades against Christians continued. In 635, Muslim Crusaders besiege and conquer Damascus. James Arlandson lists nearly 70 incidents of major acts of aggression against Christians by Muslims from 630 to 1094––just prior to the First Christian Crusade against Muslims. What prompted the Christian Crusades were the numerous crusades of the Muslims.[2]Islam owes its character to its founder, Muhammad. Following the tradition of Arab people groups who were constantly at war with each other, Muhammad initiated his followers into the blood-letting that quickly came to characterize Islam by beginning to raid caravans, then making war against his home city of Mecca, and finally warring against the world beyond the Arabian Peninsula. Muhammad shaped the character of Islam. His disciples only continued to follow his example.
Muslim Brutality Toward Christians
Muslims Behead Christian
Early in the eighth century, sixty Christian
pilgrims [to the Holy Land] from Amorium were crucified [by Muslims];
around the same time, the Muslim governor of Caesarea seized a group of
pilgrims from Iconium and had them all executed as spies…
Brutal subordination and violence
became the rules of the day for [or against] Christians in the Holy
Land. In 772, the caliph al-Mansur ordered the hands of Christians and
Jews in Jerusalem be stamped with a distinctive symbol. Conversions to
Christianity were dealt with particularly harshly. In 789, Muslims
beheaded a [Christian] monk who had converted from Islam and plundered
the Bethlehem monastery of Saint Theodosius, killing many more monks.
Other monasteries in the region suffered the same fate. Early in the
ninth century, the persecutions grew so severe that large numbers of
Christians fled to Constantinople [the eastern center of Christianity]
and other Christian cities. More persecutions in 923 saw additional
churches destroyed, and in 937, Muslims went on a Palm Sunday rampage in
Jerusalem, plundering and destroying the Church of Calvary and the
Church of the Resurrection.[4]
Muslims Destroy Christian Capitol
Muslim Attack Christian Constantinople
By the name of Allah, by the name of Muhammad and the
four thousand prophets, by the soul of his father, Sultan Murand, by the
heads of his children, and by his scimitar, Mahmud swears that when the
town has been taken by storm the troops will have unrestricted right to
three days’ rapine. Everything within the walls-furniture, jewels and
trinkets, gold and silver, men, women, and children-shall belong to the
victorious soldiery, the Sultan himself renouncing any reward beyond the
glory of having conquered this last bulwark of the Western Empire.[5]
The following day, May 29, the 8,000 defenders viciously struggled
against the 150,000 invading Moslem Turks. For a time, it seemed that
the city would be saved, but then a fateful thing happened. A few Turks
at the walls of the city discovered that a small door, a kerkaporta,
used by travelers who came to the city on foot during peacetime, was
unlocked. Through the small door streamed hordes of Turks, overthrowing
the city’s defenses. One observer reported the horror of what ensued:
Nothing will ever equal the horror of this
harrowing and terrible spectacle. People frightened by the shouting ran
out of their houses and were cut down by the sword before they knew what
was happening. And some were massacred in their houses where they tried
to hide, and some in churches where they sought refuge.
The enraged Turkish soldiers . . . gave no
quarter. When they had massacred and there was no longer any resistance,
they were intent on pillage and roamed through the town stealing,
disrobing, pillaging, killing, raping, taking captive men, women,
children, old men, young men, monks, priests, people of all sorts and
conditions . . . There were virgins who awoke from troubled sleep to
find those brigands standing over them with bloody hands and faces full
of abject fury. This medley of all nations, these frantic brutes stormed
into their houses, dragged them, tore them, forced them, dishonored
them, raped them at the cross-roads and made them submit to the most
terrible outrages. It is even said that at the mere sight of them many
girls were so stupefied that they almost gave up the ghost.[6]
First Crusade (1096)
First Crusade (1096-1099)
|
Chief
Motivator(s)
|
Urban II, Peter the Hermit, Walter the Penniless |
|
Notable
Participants
|
Walter Sansavoir, Peter the Hermit, Gottschalk, Godfrey, Tancred, Robert of Normandy |
|
Goal
|
Liberation of Jerusalem from the Turks |
|
Results
|
Urban II, at the request of Emperor Alexius of Constantinople, urged a
crusade against the Muslims at a synod at Clermont in November 1095.
Peter the Hermit and Walter the Penniless were also some of the chief
motivators of the first crusade. This crusade experienced two waves of
crusaders. The first, composed mainly of peasants, was either massacred
by the Turks or taken prisoners and sold as slaves. Nobles led the
second wave, which was far more organized, from France, Belgium, and
Norman Italy. They were successful in capturing Nicea, Antioch, Edessa,
and Jerusalem and established feudal Crusader kingdoms. |
Second Crusade (1147-1148)
|
Chief
Motivator(s)
|
Bernard of Clairvaux, Eugene III |
|
Notable
Participants
|
Konrad III, Louis VII |
|
Goal
|
Retake Edessa from the Turks |
|
Results
|
The Muslims had recaptured the feudal fief of Edessa in the twelfth
century. In 1146, Bernard of Clairvaux initiated the Second Crusade to
recover Edessa. The king of France and Holy Roman Emperor lead the
crusade but were unsuccessful in their attempt. |
Third Crusade (1189-1192)
|
Chief
Motivator(s)
|
Alexander III |
|
Notable
Participants
|
Frederick Barbarossa, Philip Augustus, Richard I |
|
Goal
|
Retake Jerusalem form Saladin and Saracens |
|
Results
|
The Second Crusade’s failure to recapture Edessa only encouraged the
Muslims toward further aggression. In 1187, Jerusalem also fell to the
Muslims under the leadership of Saladin. Philip Augustus of France,
Richard of England, and Emperor Frederick led the Third Crusade, known
as the King’s Crusade. Frederick drowned; Philip, after quarreling with
Richard, returned home; and Richard captured Acre and Joppa, but was
unsuccessful in capturing Jerusalem. However, he did manage to make a
treaty with Saladin to ensure pilgrims access to Jerusalem. |
Fourth Crusade (1200-1204)
|
Chief
Motivator(s)
|
Innocent III |
|
Notable
Participants
|
Thibaut of Champagne, Lois of Blois, Baldwin of Flanders, Simon De Montfort, Henry Dandolo |
|
Goal
|
Undermine Saracen power by invading Egypt |
|
Results
|
Innocent III ardently preached the need for a fourth crusade. He
envisioned Egypt being captured and used as a base of operation against
Palestine. Transportation and supplies for the crusade were arranged
with the chief magistrate (Doge) of Venice at a very high price.
Crusaders arrived at Venice without sufficient funds. To compensate for
the disparity, the Venetians asked the crusaders to help them recapture
the city of Zara. Following the sack of Zara, the crusaders laid siege
to Constantinople and finally captured it in 1204. Constantinople
remained under Latin domination until 1261. The notion that the Holy
Land could be secured by attacking through Egypt became a controlling
force in most of the succeeding crusades. |
Fifth Crusade (Children’s Crusade, 1212)
|
Chief
Motivator(s)
|
Nicholas, Stephen |
|
Goal
|
Conquest of the Holy Land by those who were “pure in heart” |
|
Results
|
The most pathetic crusade is the Children’s Crusade of 1212. Stephen
and Nicholas, not yet in their teens, believed that the purity of their
lives would provide success where the adults had failed. Children from
France and Germany marched across southern Europe to Italy. Most of the
children were lost at sea, sold into slavery, or slaughtered. |
Sixth Crusade (1219-1221)
|
Chief
Motivator(s)
|
Honorius II |
|
Notable
Participants
|
William of Holland, John Brienne |
|
Goal
|
Again, undermine Saracen power by invading Egypt |
|
Results
|
Under William of Holland and John of Brienne, crusaders succeeded in
taking Damietta in Egypt, but soon lost it again to Muslim forces. |
Seventh Crusade (1229)
|
Notable
Participants
|
Frederick II |
|
Goal
|
Retake Jerusalem |
|
Results
|
Fredrick II successfully negotiated a treaty that brought Bethlehem,
Nazareth, Jerusalem, and a corridor to the sea under Christian control
until 1244. |
Eighth Crusade (1248-1264)
|
Notable
Participants
|
Louis IX |
|
Goal
|
Provide relief of Holy Land through invasion of Egypt |
|
Results
|
In an attempt to provide relief to the Holy Land, the king of France, Louis IX, invaded Egypt. However his efforts were crushed. |
Final Attempts (1291-1464)
The last remaining Christian possession, Acre, fell to the Muslims in 1291. From 1291 to 1464, a series of intermittent attempts were made by Rome to check the progress of the Ottoman power in the East.What is often forgotten is the fact that the Christian Crusades were in response to the Muslim Crusades against Christians. Muhammad initiated and endorsed these Crusades against Christians as demonstrated by his own example, beginning in 630. The facts concerning Muslim aggression have been forgotten and deliberately concealed from the public by liberal pundits. The historical reality is that Christians were forced to respond to the Muslim Crusades after centuries of being terrorized by the disciples of Muhammad:
Though European Crusaders may have been
sincere, they wandered off from the origins of Christianity when they
slashed and burned and forced conversions. Jesus never used violence;
neither did he call his disciples to use it. Given this historical fact,
it is only natural that the New Testament would never endorse violence
to spread the word of the true God. Textual reality matches historical
reality.
In contrast, Muslims who slashed and burned
and forced conversions did not wander off from the origins of Islam, but
followed it closely. It is a plain and unpleasant historical fact that
in the ten years that Muhammad lived in Medina (622-632), he either sent
out or went out on seventy-four raids, expeditions, or full-scale wars,
which range from small assassination hit squads to the Tabuk Crusade
[630]… Sometimes the expeditions did not result in violence, but a
Muslim army always lurked in the background. Later on, Muhammad could
exact a terrible vengeance on an individual or tribe that double-crossed
him. These ten years did not know long stretches of peace.
Therefore, it is only natural that the Quran
would be filled with references to jihad and qital, the latter word
meaning only fighting, killing, warring, and slaughtering. Textual
reality matches historical reality.
But this means that the Church had to fight
back or be swallowed up by an aggressive religion over the centuries.
Thus, the Church did not go out and conquer in a mindless, bloodthirsty,
and irrational way––though the Christian Crusades were far from
perfect.
Islam was the aggressor in its own Crusades, long before the Europeans responded with their own.[7]
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