Essential Histories The Crusades Essential Histories The Crusades David Nicolle © 2001 Osprey Publishing Limited All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright. Design and Patents Act, 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner Enquiries should be addressed to the Publishers. For information write to: FITZROY DEARBORN PUBLISHERS 919 N. Michigan Avenue Chicago. IL 60611 USA or FITZROY DEARBORN PUBLISHERS 310 Regent Street London WIB3AX United Kingdom Every attempt has been made by the publisher to secure the appropriate permissions for material reproduced in this book. If there has been any oversight we will be happy to rectify the situation and written submissions should be made to the Publishers. ISBN 1 57958 354 7 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication data is available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available First published in 2001 Printed and bound in China by L. Rex Printing Company Ltd 01 02 03 04 05 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For more information about Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers see: www.fitzroydearborn.com Contents Introduction 7 Chronology 11 Background to war Christendom and Islam in the 11th century 12 Warring sides Byzantines,Turks, Crusaders and Saracens 18 Outbreak The First Crusade 23 The fighting Crusade and jihad; consolidation of Islamic resistance 29 Portrait of a soldier Brothers in arms; two crusaders; two fursan 55 The world around war The impact of the Crusades on the Mediterranean and beyond 60 Portrait of a civilian A saint, a lady, a scholar and a rabbi 73 How the war ended The rise of the Mamluks and the fall of the Crusader State 76 Conclusion and consequences 81 The failure of an idea and the rebirth of Islamic expansionism 89 Further reading 91 Glossary 94 Index Introduction The Crusades were among the most against Muslim, Orthodox Christian and controversial events during a long rivalry pagan neighbours. Astonishing economic between Christianity and Islam. From growth was accompanied by a major increase Pope Urban II's preaching of what became in population while the 12th-century the First Crusade in 1095 to the fall of Acre Renaissance produced a burgeoning of art, in 1291, and the loss of the offshore island architecture, literature and learning. During of Arwad 11 years later, they formed part of a the period of the Crusades Western Europe broader offensive by Western Christendom. also learned a great deal from and about its This offensive began in the Iberian peninsula Islamic neighbours. New technology, crops, much earlier, since when Sicily had also patterns of trade, trade-goods and fallen to Norman adventurers from southern philosophical, medical, scientific and Italy while Italian mariners were winning geographical knowledge all poured into a naval superiority throughout most of the Western Europe eager to learn, exploit, Mediterranean. dominate and conquer. Before the First Crusade, competition in The significance of the Crusades for the the Middle East had largely been between Orthodox Christian Byzantine Empire, and the Byzantine or Late Roman Empire and its for Christian communities within the Islamic Islamic neighbours, but this had not Middle East, was almost entirely negative. involved continuous warfare. Peaceful Byzantium was economically and militarily relations had been the norm, though weakened by Western European pressure as interrupted by many conflicts. It was the well as by the Muslim Turks. Some Christian sudden arrival of more fanatical Western communities in Syria, Egypt and elsewhere Christians - the Crusaders or 'Franks' as they still formed the majority of the population were known in the Middle East - that under Islamic rule in the 11th century, but resulted in two centuries of military struggle. declined into harassed minorities by the Even today the Crusades and the Jihad 14th century. 'counter-Crusade' which they stimulated are Within the Islamic world the Crusades still seen in a different way by most Western were of only local significance in Syria, Christians, Orthodox Christians and Egypt, Anatolia (modern Turkey) and to a Muslims. The historical reality of the lesser extent Iraq. Elsewhere the Crusader Crusades was also more complex than the conquest of coastal Syria and Palestine was simplistic views that are still used by discomforting, but of little immediate political, religious and cultural leaders concern to rulers and ordinary people. in both East and West. As a result the Certainly the Crusades were never seen as a Crusades and Jihad remained sources of mortal threat to Islam. Nevertheless they and misunderstanding and friction for more the Jihad which they prompted undermined than 700 years. the old culture of toleration which had During the 12th and 13th centuries the characterised the Middle East from the 7th to Crusades were of greater historical the 11th centuries. The savagery, intolerance importance for Christian Western Europe and sheer ignorance shown by Western than for the Islamic world. This was a period Europeans encouraged intolerance and of growing confidence in Catholic or 'Latin' conservatism among their victims, and Western Europe as well as physical expansion among the Sunni Muslim majority this was 8 Essential Histories • The Crusades The Anglo-Saxons defeat the Danes, shown in an Meanwhile the Islamic Middle East Anglo-Norman manuscript of c. 1125-50. Both armies had little to learn from the Western are equipped, mounted and fight in the Norman manner European 'Franks', who remained inferior in as fully armoured knights in close-packed conrois almost all aspects of culture until the later squadrons. (Life of St. Edmund. Pierpont Morgan Library. Ms. 736. f.7v. New York) 13th and 14th centuries. By that time the Islamic world was rapidly retreating into a directed not only against Western European cultural conservatism which made it 'barbarians' but also local Christians, Jews virtually impossible for Muslims to accept and the Shi'a Muslim minority. lessons from the West. Two centuries of Introduction 9 warfare had, however, created militarily The so-called Mihrab of the Prophet Sulayman (King powerful states, the greatest of which was Solomon in Judeo-Christian terms) is in the Well of Souls, beneath the famous rock in the Dome of the Rock the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt and Syria. Jerusalem. As a mihrab it marks the direction of prayer for These Mamluks halted the Mongol Muslims, many of whom believe that the souls of all the dead hordes, who had been a genuine threat to will assemble in this little cave on Judgement Day. The mihrab Islam, thus enabling Middle Eastern itself is not only one of the oldest in existence, perhaps dating from at least three centuries before the arrival of the First Islamic civilisation to survive and then Crusade, but is virtually unique in having a small piece of absorb its invaders. Meanwhile the meteoric rock embedded in its centre, comparable to the Mamluks also turned aside to mop up the larger meteoric rock which is embedded in one corner of remnants of the Crusader States. the Kaaba in Mecca. (David Nicolle photograph) The Mediterranean Sea 10 E s s e n tia l H is to rie s • T h e C ru s a d e s