Christian Holy War And Jihad

In 1095 CE Pope Urban II launched the First Crusade to recapture the Holy Land of Jerusalem, and restore Christian supremacy in Anatolia (modern day Turkey) and the Levant (Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Jordan, and the Sinai Peninsula) (First Crusade). The cause for such an aggressive movement in the region is debated amongst historians. However, mainstream theories assert that the First Crusade was a direct result of rising Islamic confrontation in Anatolia (The First Crusade). Christians had not been in control of the Holy Land for over 400 years (Timelines of History). Though, as Islam crept into Europe through Spain and the East, Christian grip on Europe was threatened, and thus, the First crusade was launched (First Crusade).

In 1095, Pope Urban II called for an army to go to the Holy Land, Jerusalem. This was what was later known as the ‘First Crusade’. A crusade is a religious war or a war mainly motivated by religion. The first crusade consisted of 10’s of thousands of European Christians on a medieval military expedition to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims. This doesn’t mean that the first crusade was just motivated by religion. Throughout this essay, I will be suggesting the main reasons of why people went on crusades and which different people went for specific reasons and why.

The Crusades were one of the most prominent events in Western European history; they were not discrete and unimportant pilgrimages, but a continuous stream of marching Western armies (Crusaders) into the Muslim world, terminating in the creation and eventually the fall of the Islamic Kingdoms. The Crusades were a Holy War of Roman Christianity against Islam, but was it really a “holy war” or was it Western Europe fighting for more land and power? Through Pope Urban II and the Roman Catholic Church’s actions, their proposed motivations seem unclear, and even unchristian. Prior to the Crusades, Urban encouraged that Western Europe fight for their religion but throughout the crusades the real motivations shone though; the Crusaders were power

On November 27, 1095, Pope Urban II gave a supposedly important speech at the end of a church meeting in Clermont, France. In it he had called upon the nobleness of the Franks, to go to the East and assist their Christian “brothers”, the Byzantines, against the attacks of the Muslim Turks. He also apparently encouraged them to liberate Jerusalem, the most sacred and holy city in Christendom, for the Muslims had ruled it since taking it from the Christian Byzantines in A.D. 638. The Crusades were a series of wars between Christians and others to take back Jerusalem.

The Crusades were an important part of World History during the post classical era. Between 1096 and 1270, the Europeans attempted to acquire Christian sacred areas from the Muslims ("The Crusades"). Supported by Western Europe, Christian armies were sent to take over the Holy Land and other surrounding areas ("Crusades"). The Holy Land surrounds Jerusalem and, to this day, contains sacred sites to Christians, Jews, and Muslims ("Crusades"). These sacred sites were very important to people of these religions and many pilgrimages occurred there ("Crusades"). During the eleventh century, Muslims acquired the Holy Land and expanded their empire ("Crusades"). This prompted Alexius Comnenus, the Byztantine emperor, to write to Pope Urban II in need of trying to reacquire this sacred land ("The Crusades"). This prompted the start of the Crusades. There were four major Crusades and several others that occurred ("Crusades"). The first was probably the most significant out of all of them. The First Crusade allowed for the capture of The Holy Land and also prompted an influence of Middle Eastern culture and ideas to Western Europe.

Going against modern day religious beliefs, in 1095AD the Christians went to war to claim the holy city of Jerusalem, massacring the Muslims in a bloody attempt to worship their God. Pope Urban II’s speech at Clermont inspired by claims made by the Byzantium Emperor encouraged the Christians to partake in the First Crusade in an attempt to liberate Jerusalem. The religious and economic factors were the most relevant to cause this crusade, with some influence from desired political gain and little from social factors unrelated to religion. The immediate consequences were positive for the Christians and negative for the Muslims, but the First Crusade launched an ongoing conflict between the Christians and Muslims which had positive and negative consequences for both sides. There are a number of relevant modern sources which examine the causes and consequences of the First Crusade, but, while there are many medieval sources, they do not explicitly discuss the causes and consequences of the war. In order to fully comprehend the First Crusade, it is necessary to analyse the religious, economic, and political factors, as well as the short-term, long-term, and modern consequences.

The First Crusades was a military group that was started by Christians in Europe who wanted to gain back the Holy Land that was being occupied by the Muslims. Pope Urban II preached a sermon at Clermont Ferrand on November 1095. Most histories consider this speech to be the spark the fueled a wave of military campaigns to gain back the Holy Land. This speech was meant to unite the Europeans and to gain back what was taken from them. The holy land was a small area on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The First Crusades was a very successful military expedition that was driven by religious faith to reclaim Jerusalem and other holy places that fell under Muslim control. driven by religious faith. They wanted to gain back the Holy Land that was once theirs. Arabs and the Muslim Turks otherwise known as the Seljuk Turks were the Muslims that invaded and conquered land rightfully occupied by the Christian’s. Many European men, women, and children joined the Crusades and fought in the Middle East. Pope Urban II granted forgiveness of all sins to those who died in battle thus assuring them ascendancy into heaven. Which gave those who volunteered to fight assurance. Nobles and peasants responded in great numbers to the call and marched across Europe to the capital of the Byzantine empire. Having the support of the Byzantine emperor helped make them a stronger army. The Crusaders took over many of the cities on the Mediterranean coast and built a large number of fortified castles across the Holy Land to protect their newly established territories. Soon after seizing power the Seljuks face a very different challenge to Islamic civilization. It came from Christian Crusaders. Knights from western Europe who were determined to capture portions of the Islamic world that made up the holy land of biblical times. Muslim political division and element of surprise made the first of the Crusaders assaults, between 1096 and 1099, by far the most successful. Much of

Patrick Geary’s “Readings in Medieval History” contains four accounts of the invasion of the Middle East by the Europeans in 1095 A.D. These accounts all cite different motives for the first crusade, and all the accounts are from the perspective of different sides of the war. The accounts all serve to widen our perspective, we hear from the Christian and Middle Eastern side of the conflict. Fulcher of Chartres claims, Pope Urban the Second urged all Christians to intervene in the “East” at the council of Claremont, saying it was a sign of “Strength of good will”. (Readings in Medieval History, Geary, page 396).

In the first crusade the byzantine emperor was afraid of the Turks, Alexius I asked the roman church for help. he thought that eastern and western Christians should join forces and make the Turks moves from Anatolia and Palestine. This movement would be called a holy war or crusade. The pope whose name was Urban II, agreed to this plan for two reasons, the first reason was because he thought that combining the east and the west war against the Turks would reunite the eastern and western churches. The second reason was because he wanted to free Palestine and Jerusalem from Muslim rule

The age leading up to the first crusade is detailed by many current historians, as well as Pope Urban II, as a time period where inhabitants "rage[d] against [their own] brothers and cut each other [to] pieces" (Peters, Baldric of Dol, 31) for economic and social advancement. In spite of these references, many people today believe that the Pope instigated the crusades for the sole reason of reclaiming Jerusalem. However, other motivations such as supplementary religious factors and the chance for economic, social, and political gain also played major roles. These motivations were not experienced supremely by the Pope; in fact he needed to instill these inspirations in all Christians to evoke their will to fight. The holy land had long

The first crusade started in autumn of 1095. Pope Urban II initiated the first crusade by calling upon his Christians to reclaim the city of Jerusalem. The Crusade was also meant to seek revenge on the followers of Islam. The followers were accused of committing crimes against “Christendom”. Pope Urbans crusade was made possible by the work of St. Augustine on Christian Violence in the past. Many Christians joined the crusade because the Pope promised rewards for the afterlife. After the fourth century, Christianity underwent a transformation when it fused with the Roman state for which warfare was essential. St. Augustine and Pope Urban enabled violence to be an option for Christians and it can be described in this quote, “For the first time in Christian history, violence was defined as a religious act, a source of grace.” After the Pope’s Christian tour, many Christians were ready to destroy everything that stood in their way.

The primary target of the First Crusade (and the intended target of many more crusades), preached by Urban II at the Council of Clermont in 1095, was Jerusalem. In the version of this sermon by Robert the Monk, Urban urges those present to admire rulers who “have extended…the territory of the Holy Church”, and to “enter upon the road to the Holy Sepulchre; wrest that land from the wicked race, and subject it to yourselves. That land which as

First Crusade by Fulcher of Chartres and the collection of excerpts from the letters and chronicles by Jews and Muslims are two documents relating to the climax of the invasion and conquest of lands and cities in the Middle East by European armies during the First Crusade. The climax was the siege and capture of Jerusalem. The two documents have similar, contrasting, and incomplete information. Of this incomplete and one-sided information we will discuss the different perspectives of those who lived in and near Jerusalem to those who came from outside the region.

In 1095 Pope Urban II delivered a riveting call to arms that led to the formation of a divinely inspired army intent on retaking Jerusalem from Muslim control. He grounds this appeal on a command from God: “I, not I, but God exhorts you as heralds of Christ to repeatedly urge men of all ranks…to hasten to exterminate this vile race from our lands and to aid the Christian inhabitants” (Fulcher 66). Though Urban emphasizes the need to assist the Byzantine Christians, the hordes of common people, clergy, and nobility that answer his call have diverse motives for embarking on the crusade. The rationalization for the first crusade is revealed expressly by participants who authored chronicles. However, some of the most conclusive evidence is

Does such a combination of words as "a war in the name of God" make sense? The main principles, which underlie Christianity and Islam, are those of goodness, kindness, lack of aggression and respecting certain moral laws. Christianity and Islam provide human society with a code of ethics, which totally rejects war because it is something violent, inhumane and cruel. Still, over the course of human history many wars have been justified with religion and with imposing the "right faith". Because of misunderstanding of certain parts of religion or deliberate misuse of it European and Islamic states have often used violence to fulfill their goals.