When Urban decreed at the Council of Clermont,
A warfare soaked in religious persuasion,
Unleashed to liberate
Sacred Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulchre.
Of conflict, we know,
Bohemond! Richard! Saladin!
Great men led great armies
through fields of blood
and broken cities.
God did inspire them
remission of sins promised,
pilgrimage the undying extortion,
A Jihad clad in chainmail armour.
But much has been lost of the concurrent exchange
Of money and goods
Through the silk road connection
Of knowledge and art
To the backwater Franks
What once was forgotten
Through lack of inscription
Transpires in appearance
Through artefacts and depiction
These objects can lift the veil
upon the attitudes displayed
And answer
Were cultures embraced
Across the Mediterranean blue
or accrued through appropriation
And dissemination of a sacred manifestation?
