July 15 1099 One Of The Great Days In History. Jeru-salem Retaken.

In his book The First Crusade 1096-1099: Conquest of the Holy Land

, David Nicolle, a mid-East scholar and writer, displays a great depth of knowledge about Crusading history. It a book worth reading for one simple fact: Nicolle argues persuasively and correctly that the Crusades and in particular the First, were a success and that they marked a major realignment in European consciousness and in world geo-political competition.

The First Crusade is the expression of European confidence, wealth, power and economic-military sophistication. It was not just a march of religious zealots in the name of Christ to reconquer the Jewish spiritual capital. It was a display of European ingenuity, courage and talent in response to 400 years of Muslim predations, carnage, conquests and domination of the Mediterranean world. It was a display of self confidence long since lost in a Europe mired in relativity, self-loathing and with a distaste for reality.

In a mere 120 years Muslim armies had swept across North Africa and conquered Spain, Portugal, parts of Italy, pieces of the Balkans, with Arab navies even trying to invest the largest city in the world at that time, the Christian epiphany of Constantinople. The Mediterranean had become a Muslim dominated sea. After the Turks originally mercenaries from Central Asia used in Arab armies to conquer parts of Asia - converted to the cult of Mohammed in the 9th century, there was a resurgence in Muslim ferocity, expansion, and war making.

As Nicolle relates a Western response to Muslim imperialism was long overdue. Not only had the Muslim or Moslem appropriated all the Christian, Jewish and Greek lands in the middle East, North Africa and even in Europe, but they dominated Mediterranean trade from East to West, including valuable raw materials, cereals, minerals and manufactured items. There was a cost of living impact to having the Muslim squat on, and tax key trade routes. Even more important was the true temporal threat of maurading Islam. The Seljuk Turks recent converts to Islam, migrated West from the Asian steppes and in 1071 inflicted a monumental defeat on the poorly led armies of Byzantium at Manzikert. Shortly there-after the Turks conquered Jerusalem and the Levant, which impeded Christian trade, travel and made a holy pilgrimage to Jerusalem almost impossible.

The Turks of course viewed the Muslim Arabs as effeminate and lazy. For the Turk, the Arab conception of Islam was not pure or fundamental enough. The Arabs were happy to squat on superior cultures and civilisations and after 350 years of imperialism were content to enjoy the fruits of their warring. The Turks were imbued with a more missionary zeal. Islam was to dominate all of Europe and indeed the world, led by Turkish armies.

It was clear to the Byzantians that their shrunken empire would not long persist. So a call went out from East to West for help. Pope Urban II's call to arms at the Synod of Clermont (1095) was the response and it was a clear message that a Crusade was vital to defeat the invading Muslim forces which threatened to engulf the entire known world. Urban went on a speaking tour and galvanized enough public and political support some of it extraordinarily enthusiastic to effect the formation of a professional army for the recapture of the Holy Land.

by: Craig Read

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