Task: Historians attribute the cause of the Crusades to a diversity of sources. Using the documents provided, as well as any background knowledge, write an argumentative essay (multi-paragraph, thesis-driven) answering the following question. DBQ Question Evaluate whether the Crusades were caused primarily by religious devotion or by the desire for political and economic gain. Guidelines Create a thesis statement. Use evidence from the primary sources documents, as well as any helpful outside information to support your thesis, and cite. Provide analysis on how your evidence supports your position. Consider any alternatives or counter claims. Include an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. 9th century, CE Historical Background The feudal system takes hold in Europe, a loosely-organized system of rule in which lords divided their landholdings among lesser lords, in exchange for military service and crops. At the bottom were serfs who worked in the fields. Feudal or Medieval Europe is considered by historians to be a period of little wealth, learning or technological advance. At the same time, the Muslim world is led by the Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258 CE), extending from current-day Pakistan through the Middle East, northern Africa, and southern Spain. The Abbasid s Golden Age of technological and scientific advance, as well as wealth and culture, takes place between 750-945 CE. 1054 CE The Great Schism takes place splitting Greek-speaking Eastern Orthodox Church centered in Constantinople from the Latin-speaking Roman Catholic Church centered in Rome. 1071 CE The Seljuk Turks, who were Sunni Muslims, take over most of Asia Minor (from the Byzantines) and Jerusalem. 1073-1085 CE Pope Gregory VII argues for a new role for the Catholic Church in the world with rule over secular leaders and over clergy. He urged Christian princes to reclaim lands from Muslims in Spain. Nov. 1095 CE Pope Urban II preaches the First Crusade. The aim was to assist Byzantine Christians from attack by Seljuk Turks and to return Jerusalem to Christian control. 1095-1099 CE The First Crusade. The first crusade included 4,000 knights and 25,000 infantry from different parts of Western Europe (mainly France). About 40,000 peasants also participated led by Peter the Hermit, with most killed by the Turks in Asia Minor. Jerusalem was captured by the crusaders in 1099; the Jewish and Muslim population of the city was massacred. Four crusader states were established. 1124 CE Crusaders take Tyre and occupy all of the coast except for Ascalon. 1144 CE Zangi, the Muslim ruler of Damascus, takes Edessa, one of the four Crusader states. 1144-1155 The Second Crusade; crusaders hope to take Edessa but fail.
1169 CE Saladin controls Egypt for Nur al-din, and then seizes Damascus after Nur al-din dies in 1174. 1187 Saladin-led Islamic forces capture Jerusalem. 1187-1192 CE The Third Crusade; under the leadership of Richard the Lionhearted, the crusaders recover several cities including Jaffa and Acre, but not Jerusalem. Richard negotiates for the right for Christian pilgrims to enter Jerusalem. 1202-1204 CE Crusaders plan to attack Egypt. The crusaders contracted Venetian merchants to transport the knights, their horses and foot soldiers. When the crusaders could not pay the Ventians, the Venetian Doge Dandalo offered a deal: attack the Christian city of Zara on the Adriatic Coast instead. Zara-a Catholic city- had revolted against Venetian domination. The crusaders went on to invade Constantinople-capital of the Byzantine Empireat the request of Alexius, a prince with a claim to the throne. The crusaders invaded Constantinople in 1203 and again in 1204. The city was sacked for several days before the Pope ordered an end. The treasure was split between the crusaders and the Venetians. 1218-1270 CE The fifth, sixth and seventh crusades plan to invade Egypt. They each fail. 1258 CE The Mongol chief Hulegu, grandson of Genghis Khan, sacks Baghdad, massacring the population and killing the last Abbasid caliph. 1291 CE The Mamluk sultan Khalil, son of Qalawun, takes Acre, putting an end to two centuries of crusaders presence in the Middle East. Additional Information Maps in the Holy Lands by the Historical Atlas of the Mediterranean http://explorethemed.com/crusades.asp Christian States in 1100 by Fordham University http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/maps/crusaders2.jpg
Document 1 Context: In 1095, Alexios I Komnenos, the Byzantine emperor, dispatched a letter to Pope Urban II, seeking aid from the west against the Seljuk Turks, who had taken nearly all of Asia Minor from the Byzantine Empire. At the Council of Clermont, Urban addressed a great crowd and urged all to aid of the Greeks (Byzantines) and to recover Palestine from Muslim rule. The speech was not preserved, but below is one of the five accounts of the speech. Robert the Monk wrote this perhaps 25 years after the address, but he may have been present at the council. Oh, race of Franks, race from across the mountains, race chosen and beloved by God as shines forth in very many of your works set apart from all nations by the situation of your country, as well as by your catholic faith and the honor of the holy church! To you our discourse is addressed and for you our exhortation is intended From the confines of Jerusalem and the city of Constantinople a horrible tale has gone forth and very frequently has been brought to our ears, namely, that a race from the kingdom of the Persians, an accursed race, a race utterly alienated from God, a generation forsooth which has not directed its heart and has not entrusted its spirit to God, has invaded the lands of those Christians and has depopulated them by the sword, pillage and fire it has either entirely destroyed the churches of God or appropriated them for the rites of its own religion. They destroy the altars, after having defiled them with their uncleanness. They circumcise the Christians, and the blood of the circumcision they either spread upon the altars or pour into the vases of the baptismal font. When they wish to torture people by a base death, they perforate their navels, and dragging forth the extremity of the intestines, bind it to a stake; then with flogging they lead the victim around until the viscera having gushed forth the victim falls prostrate upon the ground. Others they bind to a post and pierce with arrows. Others they compel to extend their neck with a single blow. What shall I say of the abominable rape of the women? To speak of it is worse than to be silent. The kingdom of the Greeks is now dismembered by them and deprived of territory so vast in extent that it cannot be traversed in a march of two months. On whom therefore is the labor of avenging these wrongs and of recovering this territory incumbent, if not upon you? You, upon whom above other nations God has conferred remarkable glory in arms, great courage, bodily activity, and strength to humble the hairy scalp of those who resist you. Let the deeds of your ancestors move you and incite your minds to manly achievements; the glory and greatness of king Charles the Great, and of his son Louis, and of your other kings, who have destroyed the kingdoms of the pagans, and extended in these lands the territory of the holy church. Let the holy sepulchre of the Lord our Saviour, which is possessed by unclean nations, especially incite you, and the holy places which are now treated with ignominy and irreverently polluted with their filthiness. Oh, most valiant soldiers and descendants of invincible ancestors, be not degenerate, but recall the valor of your progenitors. But if you are hindered by love of children, parents and wives, remember what the Lord says in the Gospel, He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me. Every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my name s sake shall receive an hundredfold and shall inherit everlasting life. Let none of your possessions detain you, no solicitude for your family affairs Let therefore hatred depart from among you, let your quarrels end, let wars cease, and let all dissensions and controversies slumber.
Enter upon the road to the Holy Sepulchre 1 ; wrest that land from the wicked race, and subject it to yourselves. That land which as the Scripture says floweth with milk and honey, was given by God into the possession of the children of Israel. Jerusalem is the navel of the world; the land is fruitful above others, like another paradise of delights. This the Redeemer of the human race has made illustrious by His advent, has beautified by residence, has consecrated by suffering, has redeemed by death, has glorified by burial. This royal city, therefore, situated at the centre of the world, is now held captive by His enemies, and is in subjection to those who do not know God, to the worship of the heathens. She seeks therefore and desires to be liberated, and does not cease to implore you to come to her aid. From you especially she asks succor, because, as we have already said, God has conferred upon you above all nations great glory in arms. Accordingly undertake this journey for the remission of your sins, with the assurance of the imperishable glory of the kingdom of heaven. When Pope Urban had said these and very many similar things in his urbane discourse, he so influenced to one purpose the desires of all who were present, that they cried out, It is the will of God! It is the will of God! When the venerable Roman pontiff heard that, with eyes uplifted to heaven he gave thanks to God and, with his hand commanding silence, said: Most beloved brethren, today is manifest in you what the Lord says in the Gospel, Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them. Unless the Lord God had been present in your spirits, all of you would not have uttered the same cry. For, although the cry issued from numerous moths, yet the origin of the cry was one. Therefore I say to you that God who implanted this in your breasts, has drawn it forth from you. Let this then be your war-cry in combats, because this word is given to you by God. When an armed attack is made upon the enemy, let this one cry be raised by all the soldiers of God: It is the will of God! It is the will of God!... Whoever, therefore, shall determine upon this holy pilgrimage and shall make his vow to God to that effect and shall offer himself to Him as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, shall wear the sign of the cross of the Lord on his forehead or on his breast. When, truly, having fulfilled his vow he wishes to return, let him place the cross on his back between his shoulders SOURCE: Pope Urban II, 1095 as recorded by Robert the Monk. Vocabulary Holy Sepulchre the site where Jesus was crucified and buried. Succor assistance or help. Document 2 Context: Ekkeherd was a monk and German historian who wrote Hierosolymita: A World History in 1099. [After Urban had aroused the spirits of all by the promise of forgiveness to those who undertook the expedition with single-hearted devotion,] toward one hundred thousand men were appointed to the immediate service of God from Aquitaine and Normandy, England, Scotland, Ireland, Brittany, Galicia, Gascony, France, Flanders, Lorraine, and from other Christian peoples, whose names I no 1 The Church of the Holy Sepulchre refers to where Jesus was purportedly crucified and buried. Christians consider this place a holy site.
longer retain. It was truly an army of crusaders, for they bore the sign of the cross on their garments as a reminder that they should mortify the flesh, and in the hope that they would in this way triumph over the enemies of the cross of Christ, as it had once come to pass in the case of the great Constantine. Thus, through the marvelous and unexampled working of divine dispensation, all these members of Christ, so different in speech, origin, and nationality, were suddenly brought together as one body through their love of Christ. SOURCE: Ekkehard s Hierosolymita, a history, 1099. Document 3 Context: An anonymous writer from Würzburg, Germany conveys a hostile perspective about the Second Crusade. God allowed the Western church, on account of its sins, to be cast down. There arose, indeed, certain pseudo prophets, sons of Belial, and witnesses of anti-christ, who seduced the Christians with empty words. They constrained all sorts of men, by vain preaching, to set out against the Saracens [Muslims] in order to liberate Jerusalem. The preaching of these men was so enormously influential that the inhabitants of nearly every region, by common vows, offered themselves freely for common destruction. Not only the ordinary people, but kings, dukes, marquises, and other powerful men of this world as well, believed that they thus showed their allegiance to God. The bishops, archbishops, abbots, and other ministers and prelates of the church joined in this error, throwing themselves headlong into the great peril of bodies and souls... The intentions of the various men were different. Some, indeed, lusted after novelties and went in order to learn about new lands. Others there were who were driven by poverty, who were in hard straits at home; these men went to fight, not only against the enemies of Christ s cross, but even against the friends of the Christian name, wherever opportunity appeared, in order to relieve their poverty. There were others who were oppressed by debts to other men or who sought to escape the service due to their lords, or who were even awaiting the punishment merited by their shameful deeds. Such men simulated a zeal for God and hastened chiefly in order to escape from such troubles and anxieties. A few could, with difficulty, be found who had not bowed their knees to Baal, who were directed by a holy and wholesome purpose, and who were kindled by love of the divine majesty to fight earnestly and even to shed their blood for the holy of holies. SOURCE: Annales Herbipolenses, s.a. 1147 Vocabulary Prelate a high ranking member of the clergy. Baal a false god. Document 4 Context: Fulcher, who may have been a French priest, accompanied Count Stephen of Blois and Robert of Normandy on the First Crusade. Consider, I pray, and reflect bow in our time God has transferred the West into the East, For we who were Occidentals now have been made Orientals. He who was a Roman or a Frank is now a Galilaean, or an inhabitant of Palestine. One who was a citizen of Rheims or of Chartres now has been made a citizen of Tyre or of Antioch. 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 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 besants [gold coins]; and those who had not had a villa, here, by the gift of God, already possess a city. Therefore why should one who has found the East so favorable return to the West? God does not wish those to suffer want who, carrying their crosses, have vowed to follow Him, nay even unto the end. SOURCE: Chronicles of Fulk of Chartres, late 11c. Document 5 Context: Solomon ben Samson was a Jewish scholar in Worms. His account tells the story on an attack on the Jewish community in Mainz in 1096. Crusaders killed thousands of Jews on their way to Jerusalem in large German cities like Speyer, Worms, Mainz and Cologne. It was on the third of Siwan... at noon [Tuesday, May 73], that Emico the wicked, the enemy of the Jews, came with his whole army against the city gate, and the citizens opened it up for him. Emico a German noble, led a band of plundering German and French crusaders. Then the enemies of the Lord said to each other: look! They have opened up the gate for us. Now let us avenge the blood of the hanged one [Jesus]. The foe Emico proclaimed in the hearing of the community that the enemy be driven from the city and be put to flight. Panic was great in the town. Each Jew in the inner court of the bishop girded on his weapons, and all moved towards the palace gate to fight the crusaders and the citizens. They fought each other up to the very gate, but the sins of the Jews brought it about that the enemy [W]hen those in the chambers saw the deed of these righteous ones, how the enemy had already come upon them, they then cried out, all of them: There is nothing better than for us to offer our lives as a sacrifice. [The outnumbered Jews had no chance to win: Emico is reported to have had about 12,000 men.] The women there girded their loins with strength and slew their sons and their daughters and then themselves. Many men, too, plucked up courage and killed their wives, their sons, their infants. The tender and delicate mother slaughtered the babe she had played with, all of them, men and women arose and slaughtered one another. The maidens and the young brides and grooms looked out of the Windows and in a loud voice cried: Look and see, O our God, what we do for the sanctification of Thy great name in order not to exchange you for a hanged and crucified one... SOURCE: The Jewish chronicler, Solomon bar Samson, 1096. Vocabulary Siwan a month in the Hebrew calendar. Plundering robbing or taking by force. Girded their loins prepared themselves.
Document 6 Context: Usamah ibn Munqidh (1095-1188), an Arab warrior and gentleman, was four years of age when the armies of the First Crusade captured Jerusalem in a blood bath in 1099. He lived long enough, however, to see Jerusalem reconquered in 1187 by his friend and patron Salah al-din ibn Ayyub (known in the West as Saladin), the sultan of Egypt and Syria. Late in life, sometime past his ninetieth birthday, Usamah undertook the narration of his memoirs. His descriptions of the Franks (as all Westerners were called in the Levant), collectively constitute only a small portion of this amiably rambling work. Everyone who is a fresh emigrant from the Frankish lands is ruder in character than those who have become acclimatized and have held long association with the Muslims. Here is an illustration of their rude character. Whenever I visited Jerusalem I always entered the Aqsa Mosque 2, which stood a small mosque which the franks had converted into a church. When I used to enter the Aqsa Mosque, which was occupied by the Templars, who were my friends, the Templars would evacuate the little adjoin mosque so that I might pray in it. One day I entered this mosque, repeated the first formula, Allah is great, and stood up in the act of praying, upon which one of the Franks rushed on me, got hold of me and turned my face eastward saying, This is the way you should pray! A group of Templars hastened to him, seized him, and repelled him from me. I resumed my prayer. The same man, while the others were otherwise busy, rushed once more on me and turned my face eastward, saying, This is the way you should pray! The Templars again came in to him and expelled him. They apologized to me, saying, This is a stranger who has only recently arrived from the land of the Franks and he has never before seen anyone praying except eastward. Thereupon I said to myself, I have had enough prayer. So I went out and have never been surprised at the conduct of this devil of a man, at the change in the color of his face, his trembling and his sentiment at the sight of one praying towards the qiblah. SOURCE: From Kitam al-l tibar (The Book of Reflections), as a gift to Saladin, 1183 CE Document 7 Context: Mesarites was a church official in the Orthodox Church in Constantinople. His account describes the crusaders takeover of the Byzantine capitol, Constantinople in 1204, part of the Fourth Crusade. And so the streets, squares, houses of two and three stories, sacred places, nunneries, houses for nuns and monks, sacred churches, even the Great Church of God and the imperial palace, were filled with men of the enemy, all of them maddened by war and murderous in spirit, all clad in armor and bearing spears, swords and lances, archers and horsemen boasting terribly, barking like Cerberus and exhaling like Charon, as they sacked the sacred places and trampled on the divine things [and] ran riot over the holy vessels.... Moreover, they tore children from their mothers and mothers from their children, and they defiled the virgins in the holy chapels, fearing neither God s anger nor man s vengeance. They searched breasts of women to find out whether some womanly ornament or gold 2 The mosque of al-aqsa, the site of Muhammad s Ascent to Heaven, is located on the Temple Mount, the site where the ancient Jewish Templars of Soloman and Herod the Great had been located. Following the crusader capture of Jerusalem, the mosque had been converted into a palace of the Latin king of Jerusalem. Subsequently, King Baldwin II handed over a portion of this mosque-palace to a community of knights who proposed to live a semimonastic life while defending the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem. As a consequence, this new elite fighting force became known as the Knights of the Temple, or simply the Templars.
was attached or hidden in the body; hair was loosened and head-coverings removed, and those without homes or money were struck down. SOURCE: Nicholas Mesarites, 1204. Vocabulary Cerberus a multi-headed hound in Greek mythology Charon the ferryman who takes souls to Hades in Greek mythology Document 8 Description of the economic impact of the Crusades: unknown source. Merchants in Venice and other northern Italian cities built large fleets to carry crusaders to the Holy Land. They later used those fleets to open new markets in the crusaders states. Even after the Muslims had recaptured the city of Acre, Italian merchants kept these trade routes open. Our words sugar, cotton, rice, and muslin, which were borrowed from Arabic, show the range of trade goods involved. Document 9 Context: The author describes the impact the 4th Crusade had on the Catholic Church. Thus in April 1204, the crusaders and Venetians stormed Constantinople, sacked the city, destroying its magnificent library, and grabbed thousands of relics that were later sold in Europe. From destruction, the Byzantine Empire as a political unit never recovered. Moreover, the assault of one Christian people on another, when one of the goals of the Fourth Crusade was reunion of Greek and Latin churches, made the split between the Greek and Latin churches permanent. It also helped discredit the entire crusading movement. Document 10 Context: The Islamic leader Saladin s speech urging his people to retake Jerusalem, 1187 If God blesses us by enabling us to drive His enemies out of Jerusalem, how fortunate and happy we would be! For Jerusalem has been controlled by the enemy for ninety-one years, during which time God has received nothing from us here in the way of adoration. At the same time, the zeal of the Muslim rulers to deliver it languished. Time passed, and so did many indifferent generations, while the Franks succeeded in rooting themselves strongly there. Now God has reserved the merit of its recovery for one house, the house of the sons of Ayyub [Saladin s family], in order to unite all hearts in appreciation of its members. Document 11 Context: The Perfect History by Ibn Al-Athir (Arab Muslim Historian), 1200s The population was put to the sword by the Franks, who pillaged (raided) the area for a week In Masjid al-aqsa [mosque next to the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount] the Franks slaughtered more than 70,000 people, among them a large number of Imams and Muslim scholars The Franks stripped the Dome of the Rock of more than forty silver candelabra and a great silver lamp weighing forty-four Syrian pounds, as well as a hundred and fifty smaller silver candelabra and more than twenty gold ones, and a great deal more booty.