3)Use the Map Above to Answer the Following
The Crusades
Document 1: The Crusades
1)Predictions:
- Based on your knowledge of world religions, and based on what you see in the above image, what do you predict The Crusades were?
- What can you predict is one economic, social, and political benefit to having a specific religion control an area of land?
2)When, if ever, is it necessary to convert people to believe what you believe? Is it ever okay to be violent with someone who has different beliefs? Explain your answer in 2-3 complete sentences.
Document 2: Crusaders Map
3)Use the map above to answer the following:
- Where did the Crusades start?
- Where did they end?
4)Based on your knowledge of world religions, why is the ending point of the Crusades a significant religious location? Why did the Crusaders want to control this city? (Explain in three well-constructed sentences)
Document 3: An Overview of the CrusadesThree major religious groups all claimed Jerusalem, in the land of Palestine,was their holy city.
- To Christians, it was the place where Jesus was crucified and ascended to heaven
- To Muslims, it was the place where Muhammad ascended to heaven
- To Jews, it was the site of the ancient temple built by Solomon
The First Crusade: The Problem:Around 1095, a new group of Arabs (Muslims) took control of Jerusalem. They closed the city to Jewish and Christian pilgrims.The Solution:The Pope Urban II called for a crusade. He assembled a volunteer army whose goal was to retake Jerusalem. Many people volunteered. About 30,000 men left Western Europe to fight in Jerusalem.
- For knights, this was a chance to use their expert fighting skills. They were delighted to have such a worthy battle to fight.
- For peasants, this was a chance to escape from their dreary life in the feudal system. Pope Urban II promised that if they died while fighting a holy crusade, they would automatically be welcomed into Heaven.
- For others, it was a chance to have an adventure, and perhaps even to get rich.
The Results:After about two years of harsh traveling, hunger, disease, freezing weather, and quarrels amongst themselves, the crusaders finally arrived in Jerusalem. After a two-month siege of the city, the crusaders took control of Jerusalem. Some men stayed, some headed home. Those who returned brought back new foods, culture, and ideas learned during their travels.
More Crusades:The Christian control of Jerusalem after the victory in the First Crusade was a short-lived. Less than 50 years later, Muslims once again conquered Jerusalem. Again the pope called for a crusade to take back the city.
- The Second Crusade lasted from 1147-1149. It was not successful.
- The Third Crusade lasted from 1189-1192. It was not successful.
- The Fourth Crusade lasted from 1202-1204. Instead of attacking Jerusalem, the crusaders attacked Constantinople. They stole statues, money, paintings, and jewelry. They burned libraries. They destroyed churches. Their excuse for acting this way was that they needed money to defend Constantinople from the Muslims, as well as to fund the rescue of Jerusalem. The people of Constantinople did not find this excuse acceptable, and they were filled with hatred for the West.
- The Children's Crusade in 1212 was a terrible tragedy. Many thousands of French and German children died trying to reach Jerusalem. They believed God would help them because they were children. Many died of hunger, others froze to death. When the survivors reached the Mediterranean Sea, they expected the waters to part and let them pass. When this did not happen, those who were left returned home.
- Over the next 70 years, there were several other crusade attempts, but they were motivated more by personal gain than by religious purpose. None succeeded. By 1291, 200 years after the first crusade, European leaders lost interest. Western Europe never admitted defeat. They simplystopped asking for new crusaders.
Questions for Document 3
5)What were the Crusades? Is this what you predicted they were in Document One?
6)Why did Pope Urban II create the Crusades?
7)In the above reading, it states that citizens who went to save the city of Jerusalem were “volunteers.” What reward do you predict the Catholic Church could promise to these volunteers to encourage them to join?
8)Based on the reading, were the Crusaders successful in taking back the city of Jerusalem? Cite specific quotes from the reading to defend your answer.
9)In your opinion, how should Christians today view the Crusades?
Document 4: The Pope Promises Eternal Rewards…."Although, O sons of God, you have promised more firmly than ever to keep the peace among yourselves and to preserve the rights of the church, there remains still an important work for you to do.
Freshly quickened by the divine correction, you must apply the strength of your righteousness to another matter which concerns you as well as God. For your brothers who live in the east are in urgent need of your help, and you must give them the aid which has often been promised. For, as the most of you have heard, the Turks and Arabs (Muslims) have attacked them and have conquered the territory of Romania [the Greek empire]. They have occupied more and more of the lands of those Christians, and have overcome them in seven battles. They have killed and captured many, and have destroyed the churches and devastated the empire. If you permit them to continue the faithful of God will be much more widely attacked by them. On this account I, or rather the Lord, begs you as Christ's children to publish this everywhere and to persuade all people of whatever rank, foot-soldiers and knights, poor and rich, to carry aid promptly to those Christians and to destroy that vile {disgusting} race from the lands of our friends... Moreover, Christ commands it.”
All who die by the way, whether by land or by sea, or in battle against the Muslims, shall have immediate remission {forgiveness} of sins. This I grant them through the power of God with which I am invested. Oh what a disgrace if such a despised and base race, which worships demons, should conquer a people which has the faith of omnipotent {all-powerful} God and is made glorious with the name of Christ!....
-SOURCE: Pope Urban II, 1095.
10) Give at least two reasons why Pope Urban II wanted Christians to go to the Middle East to fight?
11) What reward does the Popepromise to those who participated in the attempt to end Muslim
control of Jerusalem?(Use specific information from the reading)
12) What is your opinion of Pope Urban’s promise?
Document 5: Why Become a Crusader?We have already forgotten the places of our birth; already they have become unknown to many of us, or, at least, are unmentioned. Some already possess here homes and servants which they have received through inheritance. Some have taken wives not merely of their own people, but Syrians, or Armenians, or even Saracens (all Muslims) who have received the grace of baptism….Our parents and relatives from day to day come to join us, abandoning, even though reluctantly, all that they possess. For those who were poor there, here God makes rich. Those who had few coins, here possess countless coins; and those who had not had a home, here, by the gift of God, have one here. SOURCE: Chronicles of Fulk of Chartres, late 11c.
13) What were two specific economic benefits of fighting in the Crusades?
Document 6: Christians Encounter Jews….“At this time, Christians, who are arrogant people of strange speech (and a nation bitter and impulsive Frenchmen and Germans), set out for the Holy City of Jerusalem , to expel (get rid of) all Muslims living there. They came in large numbers until the number of men, women, and children exceeded a locust horde {large group} covering the city.…Now it came to pass that as they passed through the towns where Jews lived and they said to one another: ‘Look now, we are going a long way to seek out the Muslims when here, in our midst, are the Jews—they whose forefathers murdered and crucified Christians for no reason. Let us first avenge ourselves on them and exterminate them from among the nations so that the name of Israel will no longer be remembered, or let them adopt our faith.
SOURCE: The Jewish chronicler, Solomon bar Samson, 1096.
14) Based on the above excerpt, what was the issue that Christians had with the Jewish people they
encountered on their way to Jerusalem?
15) According to the reading, what could a Jewish person do if they wanted to live after an encounter
with a Crusader?
16) Based on what you read in Documents 3 and 4, how do you think the Pope reacted to the way
Christians treated Jewish people during the Crusades? (Explain your answer using specific
quotes from the readings in at least two complete sentences)
Document 7:
17) Based on the above image, who does the Pope begin to recruit to be Crusaders? How do you
know?
18) Why would the Pope start recruiting this group of people?
Document 8:The Children’s CrusadeThe history of the Children’s Crusade has been shrouded in mysterious silence, probably for a variety of reasons: in part, because the participants were mostly children with little or no education and of the lower social strata, and were unable to readily commit their experiences in writing; in part, because nearly two decades passed before anyone knew what had happened to many of them; in part, because the Children’s Crusade is a conundrum, that is, something difficult to fully understand and explain without challenging our notions of "acceptable" conduct; and in part, because many of the writers of the day would have had to stare straight into the face of their own failure to protect those children. Nevertheless, the sheer numbers of the participants and the incredible sacrifices made by them, cries out for their story to be told.-
Questions for Document 8
19) According to this passage, which childrenwere targeted to join the Crusades and why? (Use
specific quotes form the passage)
20) Why is the story of these children undocumented?
21) Do you believe there are places in the world today where children are being thrown into similar
situations? Who should document their story? (Explain your answer in 3 sentences)
Document 9 – A Muslim Perspective of the CrusadesThe importance placed on the Crusades in Europe is a direct reflection of the fear of Islam at the time, and its overwhelming presence as a superior civilization and power. And this idea survived until at least the beginning of this century.
The presence of the crusades in Muslim history and society, by contrast, is relatively low-key. Islam may have dominated European thinking; but for the Muslims, the Europeans were just another minor pest of an enemy, even allowing for the occupation of Jerusalem. This is a point which Hillenbrand, in this otherwise excellent book, fails to appreciate, particularly when she comments on the relative lack of work done on the crusades in Muslim historiography compared to European. This failure is all the more surprising as she specifically highlights and recognizes another aspect of the same point: the increased awareness of the crusades in modern Muslim thinking, which she correctly attributes to the west's recent rise as a dominant factor is Muslim affairs, including the loss of Palestine again. -
22) According to the above document, how important are the Crusaders in Islamic history?
23) According to this passage, why are the Crusades so important in Christian history?
Final Writing Assignment:
In a five sentence paragraph, explain why Christians believe the Crusades to be such an important part of history and Muslims do not?
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Final Writing Assignment:
In a five sentence paragraph, explain why Christians believe the Crusades to be such an important part of history and Muslims do not?