The Real History of the Crusades

Crises ^ | 11/23/03 | Thomas F. Madden

[freedom44]

Much truth to the last sentence.. good article in general. It's long just an excerpt here.

[BunnySlippers]

Posted yesterday.

[Az Joe]

bump

[Rutabega]

Really informative article--thanks for posting it! I've read lots of fiction set during the crusades and was a history major at college, but never put two and two together and realized the actual reason for the beginning of the crusades, and bought into the story that the Europeans were just after property and gold. Thanks!

[BushCountry]

Didn't see it yesterday, so I am glad he posted it today. };O)

[KellyAdmirer]

The entire middle east was Christian-led for hundreds of years under the Romans/Byzantines, a fact few ever mention because there is no "Byzantine lobby." Under the peculiar reasoning of the region, where former occupation supposedly = right to current domination, Christians have as much right to rule everywhere from London to Basra as anyone else, Muslims or Jews or pagans or whatever.

[jonascord]

That White Euro Males are the Great Satan, dating back 2,000 years, is a given in most history. Roman, Vikings, Crusaders, English, French, Spanish, are all guilty of attacking the poor peace-loving Muslims. That Spain was ruled by the Moors (read Muslims) until 1490 or so, is conveniently forgotten.

[TWfromTEXAS]

So what is the truth about the Crusades? Scholars are still working some of that out. But much can already be said with certainty. For starters, the Crusades to the East were in every way defensive wars. They were a direct response to Muslim aggression—an attempt to turn back or defend against Muslim conquests of Christian lands.

Well someone finally got it right.

[freedom44]

Actually the Persian empire was Zoroastrian, hence the reference in the last sentence.

Zoroastrians--a very tolerant peoples who got savagly murdered by the Arabic tribes.

Course they did "Islamize Iran", but they were never able to "Arabized Iran"... Iran remains one of the only non-arabs countries in the Middle East.

[boycott]

ping

[cgk]

Bookmarked. I didn't see it yesterday, either.

[Lucy Lake]

Missed it yesterday, wish someone had pinged me!

[Restorer]

Without the Crusades, it might well have followed Zoroastrianism, another of Islam’s rivals, into extinction.

Well, not quite.

There are still a large number of Parsees in India who follow this religion, and even a few Gabours(sp?) remain in India, although heavily persecuted.

The Bahai religion was born of a fusion of Islam and Zoroastrianism.

[what's up]

I think many of the Crusaders were heroes.

Too bad we have not been educated to recognize them.

[Heatseeker]

Great post! I'd like to think scholars of the period are starting to reassess the Crusades, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Ben Chad]

Bookmark

[WFTR]

Posted yesterday.

Actually, it was posted many months ago. I've been looking for Dr. Madden's book ever since.

WFTR
Bill

[lanice8]

Hello. I know that this may seem like quite a strange reference, but I recently came across a thread on-line discussing the reconciliation walk, held from 1995-1999. I was excited to see the article as well as the name of the director, because I took part in the walk and am personal friends with the director. I was sorry to see your comments about the walk and the individuals involved. I know the organizers, and I know that they are sincere people, who in fact, are ardent followers of Christ, and whose desire was to open a door of dialogue with the descendants of those who were affected by some of the negative things done during the Crusades. Their goal wasn't to dispute whether or not the Islamic forces of the medieval period had committed atrocities or not, and I know for a fact that they do not deny any of the terrible things done by the Muslims. I participated in the walk, and would do it again. I am about the furthest person from a liberal that you could find. Please do not make blanket assumptions about attempts such as this, and the individuals involved. All of the individuals that were involved (at least the ones with whom I am familiar) are so dramatically different from anything that you all have described or discussed, that I am stunned. I would never have expected people to call us liberal, pc, and non-Christian. I can only hope that in the years which have passed since this thread began, there has been some change of opinion.

[leadpenny]

Was that a thread on FreeRepublic? What is a reconciliation walk?

[austingirl]

bttt