Every time someone trots out the Crusades to lecture Christians or the West, they leave out four centuries of history. I’m putting it back on the record.
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐁𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐧 𝐈𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲
Muhammad died in 632. Within three years, Muslim armies had taken Damascus (635). The next year, Antioch (636). The year after that, the entire Holy Land (637) — the spiritual center of Christendom, gone. Armenia became the first Christian nation fully conquered (639). Egypt, the Coptic Christian power, fell two years later (641). By 650, Muslim forces had reached southern Italy and Cyprus, taking thousands of captives as “𝘴𝘭𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘴” and “𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘶𝘣𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴.” Then came Spain — Muslim armies crossed from North Africa in 711 and overran most of Iberia by 715.
In roughly 80 years, Christianity lost the Middle East, North Africa, and most of the Iberian Peninsula.
𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞 — 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝𝐥𝐲
This was not exploration. This was conquest. In 717, Muslim forces besieged Constantinople itself — the capital of Eastern Christendom. The siege lasted a year before they were repelled. Had it succeeded, the path into Europe would have been wide open.
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In 730, they invaded France. Charles Martel stopped them at Tours. In 792, the ruler of Al-Andalus called for a second invasion of France. Repelled. In 848, a third invasion of France. Repelled again.
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In 827, Muslims invaded Sicily and Italy, persecuting monks and pillaging Christian communities. Sicily would remain under Islamic rule for 250 years. In 846, they invaded Rome itself and forced the Pope to pay tribute. By 909, they had taken Sardinia.
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This was relentless, coordinated, and existential.
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𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐀𝐭𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐌𝐨𝐬𝐭
In 937, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher — built over the site Christians believe is the tomb of Christ — was burned to the ground. More churches in Jerusalem were torched alongside it. In 1009, the Church of the Resurrection was destroyed. By 1012, Al-Hakim’s oppressive decrees against Christians had begun in earnest.
Christian pilgrims could no longer safely visit the sites of Christ’s ministry. The holiest city in Christendom was ruled by a hostile power systematically destroying the faith itself.
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𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐩
In 1071, Muslim Turkish forces shattered the Byzantine army at Manzikert and occupied most of Anatolia. Constantinople was now directly threatened.
In 1094, Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos sent envoys to Rome begging Western Christendom for military aid.
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In 1095, Pope Urban II declared the First Crusade.
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𝟒𝟔𝟑 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐞𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞. 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞. 𝟐𝟓𝟎 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐈𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐥𝐲. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐞. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐲 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐮𝐥𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝.
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𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧’𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐲.
Dr. Thomas Madden, a professor of medieval history at Saint Louis University and a leading scholar of the Crusades, argues that the campaigns to the East must be understood primarily as defensive wars rather than acts of unprovoked colonial expansion.
By the time Pope Urban II called the First Crusade in 1095, Muslim conquests had already taken much of the ancient Christian world, including Palestine, Syria, Egypt, North Africa and large parts of Asia Minor. The Byzantine Empire, facing further Turkish advances, appealed to the Christians of Western Europe for military assistance.
Madden argues that Christianity had reached a decisive moment: it could defend itself or risk being gradually absorbed. In his words:
“I have no doubt that had there been no Crusades at all, western Europe would have been conquered by Muslims in much the same fashion as southeastern Europe was.”
The Crusades were not an attack upon a peaceful world. They were Christendom’s long-delayed response to a threat that had already conquered much of its historic heartland.
The Mythistory of the Crusades
by Ibn Warraq (October 2013) thanks to the Tundra Tabloids
A new generation of Western scholars of the Middle Ages have been trying to put right the misconceptions that have grown up about the Crusades. As Jonathan Riley-Smith has argued “modern Western public opinion, Arab nationalism, and Pan-Islamism all share perceptions of crusading that have more to do with nineteenth-century European imperialism than with actuality.”1 Muslims in particular have developed “mythistories” concerning the putative injuries they have received at the hands of the Crusaders. The first point that needs to be emphasized is that the Crusades were proclaimed not only against Muslims, but also against many groups, and communities that the Catholic Church considered heretical, and enemies of the faith, groups such as the pagan Wends, Balts and Lithuanians, shamanist Mongols, Orthodox Russians and Greeks, Cathar and Hussite heretics.2 Continue reading The Crusades
