The First Crusade
There were four major Crusades that took place over 300 years in which crusaders attempted to take over Jerusalem, but in this blog I will be focusing on the First Crusade. In 1095 Emperor Alexius Comnenus asked Pope Urban II for military help and Emperor Alexius Comnenus along with devoted Christians took off on an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The Crusaders mission was to recover the holy land and “Liberate the Tomb of Christ form Islam” (Armstrong 274). After the crusades' success in Jerusalem, Jews were either killed along with Muslims or expelled from Jerusalem. Muslims were now viewed as the “vile and abominable race, absolutely alien to God, and fit for only for extermination” in the West” (Armstrong 275). Moreover, Muslims, Jews, and local Christians were banned from the holy city.
Once the crusaders won over Jerusalem it became a ghost town. Armstrong quotes William of Tyre, saying “the people of our country were so few in number and so needy that they scarcely filled one street” (Armstrong 276). The crusaders burned the bodies of the people they had killed that were lining the streets so they could feel better about themselves when they headed to church. Armstrong also says the crusaders burned the bodies so they wouldn’t have to continue “suffering the inconvenience of tripping over severed limbs” (Armstrong 275). How could the crusaders feel like it was respectful and not immoral to have corpses lined along the holiest city where Jesus was crucified and laid to rest? Armstrong says the Crusaders “had turned Jerusalem into a stinking charnel house” due to all the corpses being burned and lying in the street (Armstrong 275). The Crusaders carried on with their lives without a second thought and “With great festivities and celebration, they sold their loot, blithely unconcerned about the carnage they had inflicted and the hideous evidence lying at their feet” (Armstrong 275).
An interesting question is whether or not the Crusades were a Holy War?
I believe the crusades can be considered a Holy War because they were fighting to take back sacred Holy Spaces from Muslim control for God and to be closer to God. However, I believe the killings of innocent Muslims and Jews is unholy and immoral, especially because they continued on with their lives, festivities, and celebrations like nothing happened.
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