The version of the crusades that survived were romantic stories that either glamorized popular figures like Richard the Lionheart or presented them as misguided zealots compared to enlightened Muslim figures like Saladin. These in turn were pressed into service by the imperialist powers of the nineteenth century who recast them as early attempts to bring civilization to the benighted populations of the Middle East.
It was this garbled interpretation of the crusades that was reintroduced to the Islamic world by the colonial nations of Western Europe. The Europeans took great pains to point out both their civilizing mission and their romantic identification with the forgotten crusaders.149 It was a message that was deeply resented. The years between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries had been bewildering for Islam. The Muslim world became culturally stagnant and backwards, still clinging to the illusion of superiority, while the West vaulted past it. Muslims watched helplessly as the great Ottoman Empire was reduced to an impotent puppet, saved from complete collapse only by virtue of the fact that the Europeans couldn't agree on what to do with its territory.
The humiliation was made more acute in the wake of World War I when foreign offices in London and Paris decided the fate of the Middle East. There was no longer any hiding from the obvious. The infidels had far surpassed the faithful. To a Muslim world that felt belittled and ignored, the crusades suddenly became relevant, a galvanizing moment of resistance when the westerners were successfully evicted. Saladin, whose Kurdish ancestry and short-lived success had kept him out of most Arabic history books, was abruptly reclaimed as a great pan-Islamic hero.150
This newfound recognition only increased with the foundation of Israel, which – despite the fact that it's Jewish – was seen by the Muslim world as a new crusader state. In Syria, Saladin's face appeared on stamps and currency, and a great bronze equestrian statue – complete with two captive Christians in tow – was erected outside the capital of Damascus with the inscription, "Jerusalem's Liberation." Not to be outdone, the Iraqi dictator Sadaam Hussein called himself the new Saladin, and had four bronze statues of himself set up, each one wearing a helmet in the shape of the Dome of the Rock – a reference to the sultan's reconquest of the Holy Places of Jerusalem.151
Ironically, this caricature of the crusades, of thuggish uncivilized westerners launching unprovoked attacks on the more peaceful, enlightened East, has seeped back into the West. It was perhaps most famously vocalized by former President Clinton in 2001, when he mused that the terror attacks were essentially the chickens of the crusades coming home to roost.
Such a view is dangerous for many reasons, not least because it contorts the past to fit the political needs of the moment. 'History', the Roman poets Cicero and Virgil wrote, 'is the teacher of life...’ and ‘as the twig is bent, the tree inclines'. The temptation to misuse it is both pervasive and powerful, and must be resisted at all costs. One need not agree with Napoleon – that history is a set of lies agreed upon – to see the danger in attempting to control the present by inventing the past. The crusades were not the first great clash between East and West, or even between Christianity and Islam. They didn't irrevocably set the two Faiths against each other or cause one side to decline.
They were, however, immensely significant. At the start of the crusading period the medieval Church appeared on the way to becoming the central organizing force of Christendom. With a single speech, Urban II launched a movement that inspired as many as a hundred and fifty thousand people to uproot themselves and attempt to walk the nearly three thousand miles to Jerusalem. By the end of the period, this papal overreach had resoundingly failed, paving the way for the later Reformation.
The popes weren't the only ones who were diminished. Ironically – given the stated purpose of the crusades – Christendom was generally weakened by them. The shattering of the great bulwark of Constantinople by the armies of the Fourth Crusade tore the Christian world into 'Catholic' and 'Orthodox' halves. The two sides had been drifting apart for centuries, but after 1204, they no longer considered each other fully Christian.152
The crusades had a nearly opposite effect back home in Western Europe where they were a catalyst in the changing idea of what it meant to be a 'knight'. The men who had fought with William the Conqueror at Hastings in 1066, were little more than glorified mercenaries on horseback, effective, powerful, and brutal. This first began to change with Urban's speech where he argued that they should use their weapons in the service of a higher calling. These words were taken seriously, and the idea that knighthood should include a code of behavior eventually trickled back home.153 Within a century of the First Crusade, this idea of chivalry had crystallized in poems like the Song of Roland, and the legend of King Arthur. Both were given their most famous literary forms in the early twelfth century and became medieval best sellers.154 The crusades, in other words, helped to create the iconic image of the knight in shining armor that has come to symbolize the middle ages.
Finally, the crusades fueled the growth of the Italian Maritime Republics – namely Venice and Genoa – giving them almost unfettered access to the markets of the eastern Mediterranean – usually to the disadvantage of their Muslim and Byzantine counterparts. The wealth that this produced not only brought back novelties155 to Europe, but it also created a class of rich merchants whose descendants would be among the patrons of the Italian Renaissance.
These are reasons enough to explore the world of the crusades without twisting them beyond their proper context. They demonstrate the full range of human folly and idealism, boasting a cast of saints, scoundrels, and everyone between. They show that human nature is repetitive even if history is not, and offer a vision of a vastly different world than our own.
They also happen to be fascinating.
Also by Lars Brownworth
The Sea Wolves:
A History of the Vikings
“An axe age, a wind age, a wolf age”. Thus the Vikings described Ragnarok - the end of the world - a time of destruction and death that would follow three bitter years of ice and snow without the warmth of a summer. To Western Europeans during the two and a half terrifying centuries of Viking attacks, Ragnarok seemed at hand. The long winter began in the eighth century, when Norse warriors struck the English isle of Lindisfarne, and in the traumatized words of the scholar Alcuin “laid waste the house of our hope, and trampled on the bodies of saints in the temple of God.”
Wave after wave of Norse ‘sea-wolves’ followed in search of plunder, land, or a glorious death in battle. Much of the British Isles fell before their swords, and the continental capitals of Paris and Aachen were sacked. Turning east, they swept down the uncharted rivers of central Europe, captured Kiev and clashed with mighty Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire.
But there is more to the Viking story than brute force. They were makers of law - the term itself comes from an Old Norse word - and they introduced a novel form of trial by jury to England. They were also sophisticated merchants and explorers who settled in Iceland, founded Dublin, and established a trading network that stretched from Baghdad to the coast of North America.
In The Sea Wolves, Lars Brownworth brings to life this extraordinary Norse world of epic poets, heroes, and travellers through the stories of the great Viking figures. Among others, Leif the Lucky who discovered a new world, Ragnar Lodbrok the scourge of France, Eric Bloodaxe who ruled in York, and the crafty Harald Hardrada illuminate the saga of the Viking age - a time which “has passed away, and grown dark under the cover of night”.
The Normans:
From Raiders to Kings
There is much more to the Norman story than the Battle of Hastings. These descendants of the Vikings who settled in France, England, and Italy – but were not strictly French, English, or Italian – played a large role in creating the modern world. They were the success story of the Middle Ages; a footloose band of individual adventurers who transformed the face of medieval Europe. During the course of two centuries th
ey launched a series of extraordinary conquests, carving out kingdoms from the North Sea to the North African coast.
In The Normans, author Lars Brownworth follows their story, from the first shock of a Viking raid on an Irish monastery to the exile of the last Norman Prince of Antioch. In the process he brings to vivid life the Norman tapestry’s rich cast of characters: figures like Rollo the Walker, William Iron-Arm, Tancred the Monkey King, and Robert Guiscard. It presents a fascinating glimpse of a time when a group of restless adventurers had the world at their fingertips.
Also by Crux Publishing
PONTIFEX MAXIMUS:
A SHORT HISTORY OF THE POPES
by bestselling author, Christopher Lascelles
For many people, the popes are an irrelevance: if they consider them at all, it may be as harmless old men who preach obscure sermons in Latin. But the history of the popes is far from bland. On the contrary, it is occasionally so bizarre as to stretch credulity. Popes have led papal armies, fled in disguise, fathered children (including future popes), and authorised torture. They have been captured, assaulted and murdered. Some have been hated to such a degree that their funeral processions have been disrupted and statues of them torn down after their deaths. Many have been the enemies of freedom and progress – divisive rather than unifying figures.
In a fascinating and engaging read, Christopher Lascelles examines the history of the popes through the ages, laying bare the extent to which many of them fell so very short of the Christian ideals they supposedly represented. He explains how it was that, professing to follow a man who said ‘My kingdom is not of this world’ and 'Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth’, they nevertheless became the heads of a rich state that owned more land in Europe than any king, relying on foreign military aid to keep power; and how pride, greed and corruption became commonplace in an institution founded on love, faith and forgiveness.
This book is aimed at the general reader who is short on time and seeks an accessible overview unencumbered by ecclesiastical jargon and scholarly controversies.
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