The Real History of the Crusades

Crisis Magazine ^ | 4/1/2002 | Thomas Madden

[The_Expatriate]

our thinking is trite

That's the first thing you've said that makes any sense.

[Calculus_of_Consent]

It is clear to me that with all the acts of terrorism and the price of gas going up, we must start a Crusade.

A Crusade that will free the oily lands from the infidels.

[patricia]

I have only read of one childrens crusade.

When I lived in Greece during the early sixties ... there were slave auctions of men, women, and children in Turkey.

[The_Expatriate]

Impuning the source rather than addressing the content of a post: it seems you're the one who spends his free time at DU picking up tips. Yes, I did save myself some time and trouble by going to an online source to get the Bible quotes; it seems you've done the same to save yourself the time and trouble of thinking of a rebuttal.

[MoJoWork_n]

Thanks for the background on the Fourth Crusade. St. Mark's square is still decorated with gold, jewels and art plundered from Constantinople.

But it might be interesting to do a search on amazon for the writer's take on the subject. His bio at the end lists a book that he co-wrote on the 4th crusade. Curious to know what's in it.

By and large, though, in terms of the Big Picture... he does a pretty decent job. I saw the A & E special he mentioned at the beginning of his article (hosted by Terry Jones, one of the guys from Monty Python) and it was incredibly one-sided, in favor of the Muslims. It had to have been bought and paid for by the Saudi royal family, or someone else with an equally skewed agenda (and collosal bankroll).

[The_Expatriate]

Under what OTHER religious teachings would women and slaves been better treated?

Doesn't this say something to you about religious teachings in general?

[The_Expatriate]

The Christian nations abolished slavery and embraced equality before any others because of the Bible.

My point has been made -- that the Bible does not preach abolition or equality between the sexes -- and you have yet to cite anything from the Bible to support your baseless assertion. Go ahead, make my day.

[Brian Kopp DPM]

My My. Touchy. I just posted your source. A source with a bit of bite, not exactly kind to us Christians, mind you. I take it you are agnostic/pagan/atheist/feminist? But I shouldn't judge.

[Brian Kopp DPM]

Doesn't this say something to you about religious teachings in general?

I always trust my instinct.

[LarryLied]

As a medieval studies graduate myself..

Good. I've been looking for one. What is your opinion, and that of other scholars, of the 1908 edition of The Catholic Encyclopedia?.

I'm not Catholic but, since first finding it a few months ago on the net, have enjoyed it immensely. It is very even handed and gives a good history of Unitarianism (my faith) but I wonder how other subjects fare.

[edsheppa]

But we should be mindful that our medieval ancestors would have been equally disgusted by our infinitely more destructive wars fought in the name of political ideologies.

I guess he means saving Europe from Hitler and Asia from Hirohito. And saving Europe again from Stalin et. al. Yep, it was all just about political ideologies.

[pax_et_bonum]

ping

[Deb]

I said nothing about "the sexes". Are you braindead? Obviously, since you're only capable of pulling quotes from some old text book. But your little book neglected to mention the American Indians and their enslavement of women. Sort of selective, ain't ya?

Personally, I've gotta go with the Bible on the equality of the sexes. There is none. Men are far superior. Completely.

The Jews are right to follow God and keep themselves separate, away from the women. And the founding fathers were right to keep women away from the voting booth.

Women gave us Bill Clinton...for which they'll never be forgiven.

[brat]

I can't thankyou enough! I knew that the Christians were being persecuted and butchered by Islam, thus the crusades, but I couldn't remember specific facts to back it up. I was going to do some research when I had time. Now I won't have to. THANKYOU! You may have noticed the presence of Jihad here on FR......now, thanks to you, we'll be armed and dangerous next time they come to call! LOL

[The_Expatriate]

... you're only capable of pulling quotes from some old text book.

I've never heard a soi-disant Christian refer to the Bible as some old textbook, but it's certainly no skin off my nose. As you appear unfamiliar with any of the Biblical quotations I gave, let me recommend you pick up the Bible someday (I believe it's available at major bookstores) and read it yourself.

But your little book neglected to mention the American Indians and their enslavement of women.

Yes, I just don't understand why the New Testament never got around to discussing the American Indians; I guess the Church Fathers weren't very well-traveled. Perhaps you should check out the sequel -- the Book of Mormon -- if you're that interested in Indians.

[Aquinasfan]

Thank you, thank you, thank you for this article.

Muslim thought divides the world into two spheres, the Abode of Islam and the Abode of War.

Something we should keep in mind and call to the attention of others.

[livius]

Thanks for posting this. One always feels like a (very faint) voice in the wilderness when trying to explain what the "Crusades" really were. Of course, Islamists and PC folk don't want people to know this, anyway....

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

What a wonderful article!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you. I couldn't put it down until I finished. I'm e-mailing it out to other people.

[Antoninus]

Magnificent article. I've attended the Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo three times as a book exhibitor and found it wonderful and informative every time.

This period in history is fascinating, if you ask me, and much misunderstood. Here are two good books on the subject, if anyone's interested:



The Crusades by Hilaire Belloc. A good overview of the First Crusade for those with little knowledge of the who, what, when, where and why.



Angels in Iron by Nicholas Prata. A historical fiction account of the Great Siege of Malta of 1565. A great epic story of Cross vs. Koran [and for the record, a book published by my company ... so I'm a bit biased!].

[Antoninus]

Unfortunately, this article is clearly written with an agenda in mind and the author has done some very selective omitting here of any number of important background factors as well as painted an exaggerated view of the piety and religious motivations of the Crusaders.

As opposed to the selective omitting that "mainstream" scholars "without" an agenda commonly do ... denigrating the religious motivations of the Crusaders and assuming that Freudian or Marxist interpretations of why they did what they did are the only possible ones. No, I think this article is just about right on.