 
 
In the history conflict between East & West
The mightiest battle between Christianity and Islam
a Holy war the name of religion
For the first time
the story of Crusades
From an Arab perspective
The Crusades
of the epitomy of Holy war
Yet the roots of this two hundreds years conflict
Lay not on religion but in the economic condition of medieval Europe
while the Pope was trying to hang on to his historical authority
over the people of Europe
meanwhile
in the East internal divisons had weakened the previously all powerful Islamic Empires
I n the first episodes of this series
The story of the shock that engulf the Muslim world with the arrival of Crusades
The Mauritanian banes, the 11th century of the common era
The peak of the middle ages
After centuries of European domination, largely flew the armies of emperial Rome
The region had fallen firmly under under Muslim control
As the Muslim East lived in prosperity
The West Europe had declined in to poverty & conflict
The mid evil Western society  was a feudal society
Which meant they had military aristocracy in charge of
A large amount of people that had no land possessions
Despite the poverty and the suffering of the common people
Feudal lords were living a very different life
On the other side of the Mediterranean
Lay the prosperity and cultural riches of the Muslim world
But this glittering Fasaad
Hit deep political and religious dis-court
From the mid 9th centenary the Abbasid Caliphate
Had gradually fallen under the control of different dynasties
The Caliphs meant to be the universal leaders off Islam
Were no more the puppets in the hands of ministers, Army commandeers & even servants
The Saljooks began expending their empire in all directions
The most significant & serious expansion was an Asia minor
Against the Christian's Byzantine Empire
And after the victory of the battle of Manzicrds in 1071
The Saljooks moved closer to Constantinople
The great capital of the Byzantine Empire
Western Christian at the time didn't see Islam as a separate  religion
They tedit to see Islam as a Christian heiracy
They saw as diversion from Christianity Now they were completely wrong about that
Pope Gregory died in 1085
Before turning his project into reality
However three years later, an even more ambitious pope toke the post
Urban-II the second
In November 1095 in Claghmore, France
Pope Urban held the catholic church council
But what started as a religious gathering
took a dramatic turn on on its 10th day
On that day pope would make a speech
A speech that would be the starting point of two centuries of bloodshed
The Crusades
What Urban dose is that he addresses directly the spirit anxiety
So if you go on a crusade your sins the penalty or otherwise  you will had perform for your sins or remit
Pope Urban drew-up a scheduled for the first campaign
With winter approaching, he declare that the  campaign should setup the following summer of 1096
But their were many who would ignored this holy command
They found the leader prepared to guide them immediately to the East
An old monk called Peter the Hermit
This a very indiscipline group not many nobles taking part in it
Poor leadership, they desprite for money, poorly funded
They are out to kill & get money wherever they can
One of the criticism of Peter Hermit's armies and indeed other crusader's armies
Is that they attack fellow Christians, coreligionist
They often did this for practical reasons
Arm groups they are aught to sees whatever they can got to survive
So they would take property, crops, prisoners if they can anything to keep themselves going
And if that happens to be Christians what happens to be Jews
then that is as far as their concerns, the way it is, they are simply trying to keep themselves going
After over four months of exhausting marching across Europe
The people crusade reached the Byzantine capital, Constantinople
The crossing point to Asia and the holy land
The crusaders who cross the prosperous
Now themselves marching in territory control by hostile forces
Principally the Muslim Saljooks
A few weeks after they landed an Asia minor
They fell into a well set Saljook armwish
In a short battle the wast majority of the twenty thousands crusaders was slaughtered
But while the undisciplined rebel of people crusades were meeting a tragic end in Asia minor
Another wave of the holy war was formed
The nobility of Europe was gathering stronger, larger and more organized armies
Armies that would go down in history as the first crusade
Europe, the autumn of 1096
A year earlier, pope Urban the second had declared the war to reconquer the holy land from the Muslims                The Crusades
The first Christians to head toward Jerusalem
Enthusiastic but undisciplined had been crushed by the Muslim Saljook in Asia minor
But now much stronger, larger and more organized forces were gathering and advancing Eastwards
These armies forming the first crusades were commanded by figures of Europeans nobility
Ramon the fourth, count of Toulouse
Godfrey of Bouillon and his brother Baldwin of Boulogne
Hugh the first count of Vermandois
And brother King Philips the first of France
Robert duke of Normandy, Brother of King William the second of England
Bohemond the Norman, Prince of Toronto
A lot of male nobility that had a function as war-man as warlords
And they would see the crusade as a way to curve out a little kingdom in the East perhaps on their own
Or also to fin glory in warfare
By the end of 1096 the European armies started arriving at the Byzantine capital Constantinople
But the Byzantine Emperor Alexios Komnenos wouldn't allow them to into Asia minor before spring the following year
After crossing the bosphorus
The crusaders marched towards the Saljook's capital in Asia minor
The city of Nice
True to the oath they had sworn to the emperor, the city of Nice was return to the Byzantine
And as the crusaders continue their successful march in Asia minor
Their holy task of taking Jerusalem was set a side
Baldwin of Boulogne decided to abounded the armies heading southwards
And at the invitation of its Armenian Christian ruler march East to Edessa
Baldwin the first is one of the leaders of the first crusades
and among the many contingence he decided to move towards Edessa
This is a strategically important place, its also one of the few crusades leaders
Who wants to set up their own lands there,
so he looking to establish a territory that he can govern for himself
While Baldwin was heading toward Edessa
The main army marched on, reaching the wall of Antioch
A city nickname The Cradle of Christianity
As the term Christian first originated
But taking Antioch would prove a hard task for Christians now laying siege to the city
Nairouz a Christian, what previously converted to Islam
And a commander one of the city's guard towers was bribed to help the crusaders
Governor Yağısıyan call for assistance, was soon answered
Karbogha, the ruler of Mosul in Iraq
moved his army westwards, and late siege
To now Christians occupied Antioch
May appeared that if Crusaders almost defeated
They spend a couple of years getting to this place
All the affords all the lose of life
And really they so close to defeated, it pretty well need a miracle for them to survive and that pretty well what they got
They dig, in the end they find this lance
And this is something that inspire the troops, god has given them a sign that if they pursue they will succeed
The fact that actually seen another one in Constantinople  is they went through
seems to be completely forgotten, it was a moral booster
Meanwhile outside the wall of Antioch
The surrounding Muslim army was disintegrating
Some of the commanders fell out with the Aragon Karbogha
And decided to withdraw their troops
An opportunity seized on by the crusaders
The crusaders spent the rest of 1098 in the captured city
Arguing over who should be the ruler of the second crusaders settlement in the East
The principality of Antioch
The dispute was finally settled in favor of Bohemond  of Toronto
The rest of the armies set off South towards their main goal
Jerusalem
But this time their march along the Levantine costs
Met no resistance
In June 1099
And after three years of long march, Bloody battles
Flags & famans
The crusaders finally reached Jerusalem
But marching in the name of religion fail to bring down the walls
So the crusaders fell back on the usual method, WAR
For five weeks they late siege to the holy city
It was very difficult for crusaders to distinguish between local Muslim population
Local Jews Population & local Christian population because they all look the same
They all looks like Arabs
When the armies of the first crusades finally break into Jerusalem in July 1099
They release the pent up tensions of three years on the march having finally achieved as spiritual goal
So really it's a situation by the crusaders wish to purify the city and take it back for themselves
and those defenders that survives of then driven out of the city
With the capture of Jerusalem
The first crusade had achieved its greatest victory
But this initial success would not last
It was to be merely a dramatic opening scene, in a far longer struggle
And as the Muslim revival began
So the ground was layered  for another TWO centuries
Of the CRUSADES
