The First Crusade: A New History (Book Review)

As the title suggests, Thomas Asbridge’s The First Crusade: A New History begins at the beginning. The First Crusade was called in 1095 by Pope Urban II in response to an urgent plea for assistance from the Byzantine Empire, the last Christian state in the East. Things had been going badly for Christians for several centuries, ever since the explosion of Muslim warriors out of Arabia in the seventh century. Egypt, Palestine, Syria, North Africa—the core of the Christian world—had been conquered by Muslim jihad warriors and subjected to Islamic rule and law. When Turkish jihad warriors invaded and conquered Asia Minor, they reduced Christendom to a tiny corner of the world.

Urban took the plight of Eastern Christians and the continued subjugation of the Holy Land to the knights of Europe; he asked them to take up the cross and turn back these conquests as an act of penance. Thousands responded. The First Crusade, which was, in typical medieval fashion, governed by a committee of barons, marched thousands of miles across eastern Europe, crossed the Bosporus at Constantinople, and then pushed on to Nicaea, which served as the capital of the Turkish sultanate. After restoring Nicaea to the Byzantine emperor, the Crusaders crossed Anatolia and against all odds restored to Christian control the city of Antioch, one of the ancient patriarchates of Christianity. The Crusaders also acquired nearby Edessa and then continued south along the coast until they finally turned inland and caught their first glimpse of the holy city of Jerusalem. After prayers, penances, and many hardships, they captured it in July 1099.

The modern historian can only marvel at the First Crusade. I know of no other instance in human history in which so many soldiers marched thousands of miles from their home and endured numerous hardships deep in enemy territory for no good strategic or economic reasons. Their reasons had much more to do with the next world than with this one. It is equally amazing that a loosely organized enterprise like this with no clear understanding of the local terrain or sure means of provisioning could so often snatch victory from the jaws of apparent defeat. As Asbridge notes, “Modern historical analysis can offer a rationalization of their accomplishments, but for contemporaries living in the medieval age one thing alone explained the spectacular triumph of the First Crusade—God’s omnipotent will.”

Asbridge’s history works well on many levels. He tells his story vividly, but he does not shy away from details that may muddy his otherwise clear picture. When a scholarly debate exists on a point, he brings it up forthrightly and describes it succinctly. Throughout his narrative he liberally sprinkles footnotes that direct interested readers to the best scholarship available. With knowledge of medieval siege weapons, armor, and basic army conditions, Asbridge argues that the internal command of the First Crusade was not as fractious as historians have generally believed. What really adds depth and color to this history, though, is Asbridge’s familiarity with the region and the careful attention with which he describes it. Readers see the landscapes and fortifications through the eyes of someone who has studied them closely.

I know it is hard to believe, but at one point in history, the countries of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Turkey and Iraq had large populations of Christians. These countries were peacefully converted to Christianity by word of mouth.

They were conquered by Muslim armies (along with all of North Africa and Spain) and forcibly converted to Islam by the sword (conversion or death). There were even Muslim raiding parties penetrating deep into France from the west. Muslim armies in the east put Vienna to siege in 1683. Muslim pirates and raiding parties from North Africa enslaved the populations of the entire northern Mediterranean until well in to the 1800's. They depopulated entire Christian communities as far north as Ireland and England and were only checked with the advances made in European sea power. The spread of Islam was an invasion.

What were the people of Europe to do? Wait to be fully conquered? The Crusades were a reaction to an invasion and defensive in nature. Yes, there were horrific events perpetrated by both sides but the cause and effect need to be put into perspective. It would be like trying to understand the American-Japanese conflict in WWII by only reading about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

But as time, conquered Christians had more and more restrictions were heaped on them, and, although technically regarded as "People of the Book" and permitted to practice their religion in private, unlike other faiths which were given the alternative of death or conversion, Dhimmis suffered cruel discrimination. They couldn't participate in government, they were forbidden to carry arms, they couldn't testify against a Muslim, the could be enslaved while a Muslim could not, they could not make improvements on the exterior of their churches or synagogues, they had to wear a distinguishing badge marking them as Dhimmis, they couldn't practice their religion in public, they were forbidden under pain of death from converting or attempting to convert Muslims, and were subjugated to the same periodic programs Jews in Europe enjoyed.

In today's Wahhabist Saudi Arabia, other religions, even other forms of Islam, are simply and totally forbidden. So things have hardly improved.

Never read anything by him [there's only 2 hrs in a day and I have to go to the bathroom sometime :-)] I'm about 1/2 through this book and all I can say is this strikes me as being very even handed (not all sweetness and light on either side). A major plus (for me) is it's heavily footnoted, always nice to be able to go to the writers sources.

According to Asbridge the crusades had a lot to do with European politics and church reform than I have been lead to believe.

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