Crusades - The Illustrated History

228 Pages·2007·50.58 MB·English

CONTENTS
Crusades:The IllustratedHistory
Copyright©DuncanBairdPublishers2004
Textcopyright©DuncanBairdPublishers2004 INTRODUCTION 6
Commissionedartworkandmaps©DuncanBaird Thomas F.Madden
Publishers2004
-----------;;1-----------
Allrightsreserved
PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericaby CHRISTENDOM AND THE UMMA 12
TheUniversityofMichiganPress
AlfredJ.Andrea
FirstpublishedintheUnitedKingdomandIreland
in2004byDuncanBairdPublishersLtd Christian Unity andDivergence 14
Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedinany The Rise ofIslam 18
formorbyanyelectronicormechanicalmeans, Pilgrimage 22
includinginformationstorageandretrievalsystems,
The SharedHoly Land 24
withoutpermissioninwritingfromthepublisher.
Christian HolyWarandJihad 26
TypesetinBemboandTrajan ThevvestAwakes:The Eleventh Century 28
ColorreproductionbyColourscan,Singapore
PrintedinChinabyImago -------------u-------------
2007 2006 2005 2004 432 1 2 THE FIRST CRUSADE:
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-Publication "IMPELLED BY THE LOVE OF GOD" 32
dataappliedfor. John France
ISBN0-472-11463-8
Chaos in the East 34
TheArmies Depart 36
NOTES
TheabbreviationsCEandBCEareusedthroughout The Campaign inAnatolia 4°
thisbook: The Sieges ofAntioch 42
CE CommonEra(theequivalentofAD) The Road toJerusalem 44
BCE BeforetheCommonEra(theequivalentofBC) The Fallofthe Holy City 46
Captions to illustrations on pages I and 2: The Growth ofthe Latin East 48
Page I:A 13th-14th-centuryIslamicstucco ((tile/' The DiversityofCrusading 50
probablyfromToledo,Spain.Mudejarcraftsmeninserted ({WarriorMonks)):The Military Orders 52
thearmsoftheirChristianlordsintheshieldshapes The Rise ofIslamic Unity 54
whichformedattheintersections,thecentralstarscarried
emblemsoftheirown.ThisexamplehaslettersinKufic Crusader Castles 56
scriptintertwinedtoproducealobedarch,whichisthe
------------;;------------
mainfeature ofthetile.
Page 2:A 13th-centurymosaicofasoldierwithasword 3 THE SECOND CRUSADE:
inVeneto-Byzantinestyle,fromtheinteriorofthebasilica WAR CRUEL AND UNREMITTING
ofSanMarco,Venice.
John France
Captions to the chapteropenerillustrations
are on page 223. Disasterin the East 60
The Kingdom Recovers 64
European Settlementin theEast 66
The RaceforEgypt 68
The Rise ofSaladin 70
The Horns ofHattin 74
((SweetVictory)):SaladinTriumphant 76
4 THE THIRD CRUSADE:
The Fifth Crusade 148
A CAMPAIGN OF EUROPE'S ELITE 78
Prophecy IS2
HelenNicholson
The Crusade ofFrederick II IS4
The KingsTake the Cross 80 Disorderin the CrusaderKingdom IS6
The Crusade Heads East 82 The First Crusade ofLouis IX IS8
Barbarossa~ Crusade 84 The Mamluk Sultanate 160
The Siege ofAcre 86 The Endofthe Latin Empire 162
Control ofthe Sea 88 A KingdomWithout aKing 164
Advance toJerusalem 90 The Second Crusade ofLouis IX 166
DiscordandRivalry 94 The Decline ofthe Latin East 168
The Endofthe Enterprise 96 The Fall ofAcre 170
U ;;
5 THE FOURTH CRUSADE: 8 THE LAST CRUSADES:
A TRAGIC MISFIRE 98 THE OTTOMANTHREAT 172
Thomas FMadden Jonathan Harris
A ewPope, a ew Crusade 100 Crusading Projects and Dreams 174
veniceJoins the Crusade 102 Cyprus:The ewFrontline 176
Broken Promises 104 The Riseofthe Ottomans 178
The Conquest ofZara 106 The Maritime League 180
AnErrandofMercy 108 The Conquest ofthe Balkans 182
Relations Sour 110 The Crusade ofNicopolis 184
The Sack ofConstantinople 112 Disasteratvarna 186
The Founding ofthe Latin Empire 114 The Fall ofConstantinople 188
The Spoils ofm.r 116 Knights oftheMediterranean 190
The Reformation 192
;;
The Battle ofLepanto 194
6 CRUSADES IN EUROPE: INFIDELS, The Glories ofthe Ottomans 196
PAGANS,AND HERETICS 118 The End ofthe Crusades 198
WilliamL.Urban
U
The Reconquista 120
9 THE LEGACY OF THE CRUSADES 200
The Fruits ofThree Faiths ThomasF:Madden 124 Carole Hillenbrand
TheWendish Crusade 126
Crusades in the Eastern Baltic 128 Crusading in theWestern Imagination 202
TheAlbigensian Crusade 132 IslamicResponses to theWest 206
Popular Crusades 136 A Clash ofCivilizations? 210
Political Crusades 138
;;
The Hussite Crusade 140
FurtherReading 212
U
Chronology 214
7 THE FIFTH CRUSADE TO 1291: Index 2IS
THE LOSS OF THE HOLY LAND 142 TextAcknowledgments 222
James M.Powell Picture Credits 224
The CrusaderStates 144
Counciland Crusade 146
INTRODUCTION
Religious warfare, once thought to be an artifact ofa distant past,
has reemerged in recent years. A spate of Islamist terrorist attacks
have reminded the western world that for many people religion is
still a reason to kill and to be killed.That is a hard lesson for the
West, which long ago relegated religious beliefto personal prefer
ence and celebrates religious diversity;it requires westerners to look
beyondmodernsensibilitiesto amedievalworldviewthat,for them,
has largely passed away-for it has not passed away everywhere.
Out ofadesire to understand today's events,many commentators
turned to Christianity's holy wars: the crusades. It was their legacy,
some contended,that hadleddirectlyto the attacks.WhenPresident
GeorgeW Bush spoke ofthe new war on terrorism as a"crusade"
he was roundly criticized for the perceived suggestion that it was a
war ofChristianity against Islam. His aides apologized, saying that
the president had only used the term in its sense ofa campaign,but
in the Middle East the remark was thought to confirm a popular
-../ assessment ofAmericans and Europeans as "crusaders."
The taking ofJerusalem in 1099 during the First
Crusade)from amid-14th century edition of
History ofJerusalem byWilliam ofTyre. In
2001)justweeks afterthe terroristattacks against
us.
NewYork andWashington) D.C.)former
president Bill Clinton claimed that the captur~
andsack ofJerusalem was still remembered
byMuslims in the region) implying that the
descendants ofcrusaders ought to shouldertheir
burden ofthe blame.Many otherobservers likewise
began to see the rootcauses ofIslamist attacks as
lying in the crusades ofthe MiddleAges.
INTRODUCTION 7
So what were the crusades and who were the crusaders? After
many decades ofrigorous investigation by historians ofthe Middle
Ages we are nowmuchbetterable to answer.However,much ofthis
researchlies in academic publications aimed at specialists ratherthan
layreaders,whilemanybooksaimedatamassmarketperpetuateerrors
and misunderstandings that were corrected decades ago.As a result,
outside the academic world the crusades remain badly understood.
The purpose of Crusades: The Illustrated History is to satisfy the
populardesire for answers about the crusades with the fruits ofyears
ofexacting historical research.The professional historians assembled
here have each made significant contributions to our understanding
ofthe crusades-and here they have written fascinating narratives
that reflect the latest conclusions ofmodern scholarship.
Duringthe MiddleAges virtually all western Christians believed
that the crusades to the East were divinely sanctioned wars against
the enemies ofChrist and his church.Even after the fall ofthe cru
sader states in 1291 the recapture of the Holy Land remained an
important matter for western Christians.Then the expansion ofthe .
Islamic Ottoman empire (see Chapter Eight) forced Europeans to
put aside any ideas of reclaiming Jerusalem and instead defend
Europe. In the sixteenth century, when western Europe was in the
gravest danger ofMuslim conquest, the crusades as an institution
began to collapse utterly.As secular authority in Europe increased,
religious unity crumbled. The Protestant Reformation severely
undercut the crusades because doctrines were rejected that were
central to crusading-in particular the secularauthority ofthe pope
and the doctrine ofindulgence.Martin Lutherinsisted that the cru
sades were the tool ofa corrupt papacy. However, even Luther was
aware of the threat that the power of the Islamic Turks posed to
ChristianEurope,and the old ideal ofChristian unity in the face of
the Muslim threat never died entirely-in 15}1 the victory of a
Catholic admiral over the Turks at Lepanto was celebrated in
Protestant lands no less than in Catholic ones (see pages 194-195),
and more than a century later Protestants joined the ranks ofthe
pope's Holy League which, in the last crusades ofall, began to roll
back the frontier ofthe Ottoman empire (see pages 198-199).
Writing the History ofthe Crusades
By this time, histories ofthe earlier crusades had begun to appear.
In his very popular Historie of the Holy Warre (1639), the English
divineThomas Fuller questioned the wisdom ofthe medieval cru
sades, which, in his view, had spent European lives and wealth for
nothing more than a faraway plot ofland and a few relics. His view
8 INTRODUCTION
was not untypical ofProtestant writers. However, the FrenchJesuit
historian Louis Maimbourg praised the movement and its partici
pants in his own Histoire des croisades (History ofthe Crusades, 1675).
The eighteenth century saw a dramatic shift in western think
ing. Not only had the Ottoman threat been averted, but European
states were now expanding on a global scale.With the Muslim dan
ger passed,manyEuropeans belittledit and cast doubt on its former
gravity. It was the age ofthe Enlightenment, with its emphasis on
rational thought, religious toleration, and anticlericalism-in such
an intellectual atmosphere the medieval crusades did not fare well,
and they were denounced byVoltaire,Hume,and others as abloody
manifestation of medieval barbarism, ignorance, superstition, and
fanaticism in which thousands ofthe foolish had set out in a pitiful
attempt to save their souls. In Ober Volkerwanderung, Kreuzziige und
Mittelalter (On the Migration ofPeoples, Crusades, and the MiddleAges,
1791), Friedrich Schiller even suggested that the crusades could be
betterunderstood as a continuation ofthe barbarian migrations and
invasions that had destroyed ancient Rome.
However, the Romantic movement ofthe late eighteenth and
nineteenth century embraced the chivalric piety of the medieval
knight.In History ofthe Crusades (1820),the Britishhistorian Charles
Mills criticized Enlightenment scholars such as Edward Gibbon for
projectingmodernvalues on medieval men.Hejudgedthat the cru
saderswere heroic,selfless,and courageous.Nationalismalso changed
historians'views,particularlyin France,where the crusades began to
be seen as an important part ofthe national heritage.The six-vol
ume Histoire des croisades (1817-22) by Joseph-Fran<;ois Michaud
Opposite,top: Remainsofthecitadelof extolled the achievements ofthe French crusaders.
Antioch)oneofthemostancientofallcities Colonialism and racism were also interwoven into the fabric of
in Christendom andapatriarchalsee)conquered crusade history in this period. By the nineteenth century the
by the SeljukTurks in 1085.Itwas restored to
Muslim Near East had not only ceased to be a threat, but to most
Christendom by theFirst Crusadein 10g8)until
Europeans it appeared backward, quaint, exotic, or just barbarous.
Sultan Baibars destroyeditandmassacredthe
inhabitants in 1268. The crusades, therefore, were frequently celebrated as Europe's first
colonial expansion.Duringthe wars ofthe late nineteenth and early
Opposite,bottom:Anillustrationfrom the twentiethcenturies-includingthe FirstWorldWar (seepage204)
12th-centuryChirurgiabyRogerofSalerno)
the romantic image ofthe chivalric crusader marching offto fight a
showingadoctorextractingan arrowfrom aman5
foreign nemesis was pressed into service. Even after the carnage of
back.DevelopmentsinsurgeryinEuropewere
assistedbythepracticalexperiencederivedfrom the FirstWorldWar,Europeans andAmericans continued to charac
treatingbattlewounds)butmorefundamentally terize it as a noble "crusade" and the dead as fallen martyrs.
the debtwas owedto theMuslim world-firstly)
for thebrillianceofreferenceworkswritten by
The Crusades in the Twentieth Century
mensuch asAlbucasis)ascholarandsurgeonfrom
Cordoba) andsecondlybecauseoftheavailability In the twentieth centurynewmethodologies andsources gave anew
oftranslations of ancient Greekworks onsurgery. generation ofhistorians the tools to unlock many ofthe mysteries