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Titles in The Way People Live series include:

Cowbovs in the Old West

Life Among the Great Plains Indians
Life Among the Indian Fighters
Life During the Crusades
Life During the French Revolution
Life During the Great Depression
Life During the Renaissance
Life During the Russian Revolution
Life During the Spanish Inquisition
Life in a Japanese American Internment Camp
Life in Ancient Greece
Life in Ancient Rome
Life in an Eskimo Milage
Life in the Elizabethan Theater
Life in the North During the Civil War
Life in the South During the Civil War
Life in the Warsaw Ghetto
Life in War-Torn Bosnia
Life on a Medieval Pilgrimage
Life on an Israeli Kibbutz
The
People

_L lie #~V*i i c o #1
by Earle Rice Jr.

Lucent Books, P.O. Box 289011, San Diego, CA 92198-9011

^938

Librarv of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rice. Earle.
Life during the crusades / by Earle Rice Jr.

p. cm. — (The way people live)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISRX 1-56006-379-3 (alk. paper'
1. Crusades —Influence. 2. Europe — Social life and customs.
3. Civilization, Medieval. I. Title. II. Series.
D160.R53 1998
909.07—dc21 97-27994
CIP
AC

Copyright 1998 by Lucent Books, Inc., P.O. Box 289011, San Diego, California.
92198-9011

No part of this book mav be reproduced or used in anv other form or bv any
other means, electrical, mechanical, or otherwise, including, but not limited to.

photocopy, recording, or anv information storage and retrieval system, without

prior written permission from the publisher.

Printed in die U.S.A.

 Contents

FOREWORD
Discovering the Humanit) in Is All 6

INTRODUCTION
For Cod and (don 8

( HAFTERONE
Life in the Christian West 15

CHAPTER TWO
Soldiers of the Cross 25

CHAPTER THREE
Life in the Muslim East 35

CHAPTER FOUR
Warriors of the Crescent 45

CHAPTER FIVE
The Many Paths to Jerusalem 50

CHAPTER SIX
Sword and Scimitar: Battling for God and Allah 58

CHAPTER SEVEN
The Crusader States: Christian Life in the
Shadow of Islam 67

AFTERWORD
The Crusading Spirit and the March
of Civilization 75

Notes 79
Glossary 83
Chronology of Events 85
For Further Reading 86
Works Consulted 87
Index 91
Picture Credits 95
About the Author 96
 Discovering the
Humanity in Us All

Way People Live series focuses on permint candy that came with the coffee
The
pockets of human culture. Some of these shipment? The idea of tough cowboys vying
are current cultures, like the Eskimos of with one another to help "Coosie" (as they
the Arctic; others no longer exist, such as the called their cooks) for a bit of candy seems
Jewish ghetto in Warsaw during World War II. silly and out of place.
What many of these cultural pockets share, So is the vision of Eskimos playing \ideo
however, is the fact that they have been games and watching MTV, living in prefab

viewed before, but not completers' understood. housing in the Arctic. It just does not fit with
To reallv understand any culture, it is what "Eskimo'' means. We are far more com-
neeessarv to strip the mind of the common fortable with snow igloos and whale blubber,
notions we hold about groups of people. harpoons and kayaks.
These stereotypes are the archenemies of Although the cultures dealt with in
learning. It does not even matter whether the Lucent's The Way People Live series are of-
stereohpes are positive or negative; thev are ten historically and socially well known, the
confining and tiojit. Removing them is a cbal- emphasis is on the personal aspects of life.

lenge that's not easilv met, as anyone who has Groups of people, while unquestionablv af-
ever tried it will admit. Ideas that do not fit fected by their politics and their governmen-
into the templates we create are unwelcome tal structures, are more than those institu-
\isitors —ones we would prefer remain qui- tions. How do people in a particular time and
comer or forgotten room.
etly in a place educate their children?What do they
The cowboy of the Old West is a good ex- eat?And how do thev build their houses?
ample of such confining roles. The cowbov What kinds of work do thev do? What kinds
was courageous, vet soft-spoken. His time (it of games do thev enjov? The answers to these
is always a he, in our template) was spent al- questions bring these cultures to life. People s
ternatively saving a rancher's daughter from lives arerevealed in the particulars and only
certain death on a runaway stagecoach, or by knowing the particulars can we under-
shooting it out with rustlers. At times, of stand these cultures' will to survive and their
course, he was likely to get a little crazy in moments of weakness and greatness.
town after a trail drive, but for the most part, This is not to say that understanding poli-
he was the epitome of inner strength. It is tics does not help to understand a culture.
disconcerting to find out that the cowboy is There no question that the Warsaw ghetto,
is

human, even a bit childish. Can it really be for example, was a culture that was brought
true that cowboys would line up to help the about by the politics and social ideas of Adolf
cook on the trail drive grind coffee, just hop- Hitler and the Third Reich. But the Jews who
ing he would give them a little stick of pep- were crowded together in the ghetto cannot be

Life During the Crusades

understood b) tin- Reich's politics Their life to them and to those who want to understand
u.t> .1 day-to-da) battle for existence, and the thcin. To an object ol pity, the onh appropri-
creativity and methods the) used to prolong ate response becomes Those poor crea-
tlu-ir lues is a vital ston ol human persever hires!" and that reduces both the qualih ol

ance that would be denied In focusing onk on their struggle and the depth of their despair.

the institutions of Hitler's Germany. Knowing No one is served b\ such two-dimensional

that children as young as five or six outwitted \iews ol people and their cultures.
[uards on a dail) basis, that fewish police- With this in mind. The \\ a\ People Live
men helped the Germans control tin- ghetto, series strives to flesh out the traditional, two-
that children attended secret schools in the dimensional views ol people in various cul-
gjhetto ami even earned diplomas these art — 1
tures and historical circumstances. Using a
the things that reveal the fabric of life, that can wide variety ol primary quotations the —
inspire, intrigue, and amaze. words not onlv ol the politicians and govern-
Books in The Way People Live series al- ment leaders, but ol the real people whose
low both tin- casual reader and the student to lives are being examined —
each book in the
see humans as \ictims. heroes, and onlookers. series attempts to show an honest and com-
And although humans act in ways that can fill plete picture ol a culture removed from our
us with feelings of sorrow and revulsion, own by time or space.
it is important to remember that "hero," Bv examining cultures in this way, the
and "\icthn" are dangerous terms.
"predator." reader will notice not onlv the glaring differ-
Heaping undue pity or praise on people re- ences from his or her own culture, but also
duces them to objects, and strips them of willbe struck by the similarities. For indeed,
their humanity. people share common needs warmth, good —
Seeing the Jews Warsaw only as victims
of company, stability, and affirmation from oth-
is to deny their humanity. Seeing them onlv as ers. Ultimately, seeing how people really live,
the\ appear in surviving photos, staring at the or have lived can only enrich our understand-
camera with infinite sadness, is limiting, both ing of ourselves.

Discovering the Humanity in Us All

Introduction
For God and Glory

Roman Empire fell in A.D. 476. For shared a common classical Greek influence.
The
almost hundred
six years thereafter. In contrast to the Christian West, however,
Rome and Constantinople —the seats of many of the Eastern empire's dominant cul-
the Western and Eastern branches of Chris- tural influences also derived directly from its

tianity, respectively —\ied with each other for Middle Eastern heritage.
dominance. Each wanted to become the sin- Meanwhile, the rise and spread of Islam
gle leader of a unified Christian Church. Ulti- — the Muslim religion founded by Muham-
mately, their power struggles and irreconcil- —
mad the Prophet in A.D. 610 had progressed
able theological differences resulted in a at a phenomenal rate. By the mid-eleventh
permanent schism between the two factions. century, the Islamic Empire rimmed the
Thus, in 1054. the Christian Church split into southern and eastern shores of the Mediter-
the Roman Catholic (or Latin) Church, under ranean Sea and stretched from Spain to India,
the pope in Rome, and the Greek Orthodox unified by a commonality of faith and the Ara-
Church, led by the bishop in Constantinople bic language.
mow Istanbul). Although Palestine fell under Muslim rule
The Greek or Eastern empire became in 638. many Christians and Jews continued to
known as the Byzantine Empire, after B\"zan- inhabit the Holy Land. With few exceptions,
tium. a Greek colony once located in the re- the Muslims had go\*erned mildly allowing
gion. Both the Western and Eastern empires freedom of worship and access to religious

Pilgrims on their way to a religious shrine. During several centuries of Muslim

rule Christian pilgrims were allowed free access to the Holy Land.
 Battle of Manzikert

On August 19, 1071, the forces of Byzantine cavalrymen lost their mounts. The advance
emperor Roinanus Diogenes and Seljtik
I\ continued until dusk when Romanus oi
lurk sultan Alp Arslan dashed at Manzikert dered his army to return to camp. [owever, I

izgjrt, Turkey in a pivotal battle thai tin Hanks did not understand the signals
1

became a precursor to the Crusades In \ and the arm) began to collapse in confusion.

Dictionary ofMilitarv. History, historians R This was turned into chaos when Romanus,
Mantran and John Childs synopsize the bat- now separated from his rearguard and
tle this teat/. wings, con tinned to advance with his center
as the rearguard began to retreat tow aids

"Roinanus advanced his arm) ofheavj cav- the camp. The Turks attacked and defeated
alr) supported b) a strong
in a single line, the separated and disorganized sections ol
rearguard. "Hie links withdrew steadily but the Byzantine army in detail. Virtually all ol

their mounted archers constantly harried Romanus's army was killed or captured.
tlu' Byzantine flanks. Although human casu- with the exception ol the rearguard."
alties were probabl) few, many Byzantine

shrines to members of the other faiths. More- Turks, an aggressive group among the Turkish
ox er. both the Latin and Greek Churches en- hordes, advanced to the West and began
couraged Christians to make pilgrimages to threatening the balance of power between the
the Holv Land as a way of absolving their sins. Byzantines and the Muslims in the Near East.
Such pilgrimages, unhindered by the Mus- In 1071, during a major battle at Manzik-
lims, grew steadily in number during the first ert (now Malazgirt, Turkey), the Seljuk
millennium after Christ, reaching close to Turks, led by Sultan Alp Arslan, crushed the
twelve thousand people by 1064-1065. forces of Byzantine emperor Romanus IV
But early in the eleventh century, the Fa- Diogenes. Jerusalem fell to the Turks that
timid caliph al-Hakim —the Muslim spiritual same year. The Turks subsequently overran
and civil leader of Egypt—began persecuting nearly all the Bvzantine provinces in Asia Mi-
Christian pilgrims. Shortly afterward, increas- nor, stopping only a hundred miles short of
ingly aggressiye Turks started interfering with Constantinople itself.

Christian pilgrimages to Palestine. As the Comnenus, who had served in

Alexius I

century drew to a close, a clash between
lam and Christianity appeared both inevitable
and imminent.
Is- the army of Romanus IV, ascended to the
Byzantine throne in 1081. Of Alexius, histo-
rian Robert Payne, a superbly skilled story-
"He was an able commander in
teller, writes:

the field and uncompromising in his determi-

Alexius Pleads for Help nation to regain the lost provinces of his em-
pire."
1

During his thirty-eight-vear reign,

During the tenth century, the wandering Turks Alexius managed to recapture some of the lost
from the plains of Central Asia adopted the re- provinces. But after two decades of fighting,
ligion of Islam. A century or so later, the Seljuk his empire still faced a struggle for survival.

For God and Glory

 —

Alexius appeals to the leader

of Venice for help against the
Turks. Alexius wanted to
recover territ on/ that had
been seized by the Turks and
needed the cooperation of
the princes in the West.

Alexius became convinced that he would banner of Christendom. In 1093, in a letter to

never be able to recover all of his lost territory Robert, count of Flanders —a letter reviewed
in Asia without military aid from the West. Be- laterby Urban II, the papal head in Rome
cause of the rift that existed between the Latin Alexius first recounted atrocities committed
and Greek empires, Alexius realized that the b\ the Turks and then wrote:
\\ est might be more readily persuaded to en-

gage in a holy war for Christ than to bear arms Therefore in the name of God and be-
in support of Alexius. Accordingly, he ap- cause of the true piety of the generality of
pealed to Pope Urban II and to the Western Greek Christians, we implore you to
princes for military aid, imploring them to join bring to this city all the faithful soldiers of
his war against the Muslim Turks under the Christ ... to bring me aid and to bring aid
Life During the Crusades
 to Creek <. Ihristians Before ( lonstan Urban II Calls for a Crusade
tinople l. ills into their power, you should
do everything you can to be worth) oi re- Ironically, perhaps, the concept ol hoK war,
oeh ing heaven's benediction, an ineffable or jihad, originated in the Islamic world and
and glorious reward for your aid. It would in its earliest application represented a form
be better thai Constantinople lulls into olMuslim expansionism. 'The military clash
your hands than into the hands oi the pa- between religions has often proved a potent
gans This cit) possesses the most holy inspiration lor warriors." asserts French mili-
relics of the Savior [including] . . . part of tar\ historian Andre' Corvisier. "Islam and
the True Cross on which he was crucified. Christianit) have both fought each other in
holv wars although the degree and nature ol
Uexiuss letter went on to describe Constan- their motivation has differed."
tinople's 'wealth of treasure" that "no words In Arabic the word Islam means "surren-
can describe,*' ending with: der'" or "submission.'" hence the submission of

the true believer to the will of Allah, the one

C onie. then, with all your people and give God. The wordjihad often forms apart of the
battle with all your strength, so that all this phrase jihad fi Sabil Allah, meaning "effort
treasure' shall not tall into the hands ol the directed along the path of God." Muhammad
Turks and Pechenegs [hall-brothers to the the Prophet exhorted the jihad as one of the
Turks in Asia Minor]. . . . Therefore aet five obligations of the true believer. Taking
while there is still time lest the kingdom ol part in a jihad ensures entrance into paradise
the Christians shall vanish from vour sight to the faithful Muslim who falls in battle. In
and. what more important, the Holy
is Corvisier's view, "The Jihad is the driving
Sepulcher [Christ's tomb in Jerusalem] force and justification for the battle of Islam
shall vanish. And in your coming you will against unbelief."
4

find your reward in heaven, and if vou do Eventually, Christians borrowed a page
not come, God will condemn you. from the Prophets canon, as Corvisier
explains:
If all this glory is not sufficient for vou, re-
member that you will find all those trea- Christianity has also fought to convert or
sures and also the most beautiful women exterminate non-believers. The clearest
The incomparable beauty
of the Orient. examples were the wars fought by
of Greek women would seem to be a suf- Charlemagne against the Saxons, conflicts
ficient reason to attract the armies of the which were later carried on by the
Franks [Europeans] to the plains of Knights of the Teutonic Order against
Thrace [a region in the Balkan peninsula Prussia and the Baltic lands. After achiev-
extending to the Danube]. 2 ing conversion, these wars degenerated
into conquest. The Crusades to the Holy
From the enticement offered in his last para- Land were different in character. Their
graph, it appears that Alexius was leaving deeper origins are found in the ecclesias-
nothing to chance in his efforts to enlist the tical prescriptions of the ninth century
West's participation in a holy war waged in his which sanctified battle against the infidel
own behalf. [unbeliever with respect to a particular

For God and Glorv

 Muhammad, prophet of
Islam, expounds his creed to
the faithful. Adherents of
Islam believed it was their
clutij to battle inmbelievers.

religion] in order to protect Christians ining the physical event in isolation: vio-
who were suffering oppression.
5
lence was validated to a greater or lesser
degree by the state of mind of those re-
Prior to the Church's ninth-century sanc- sponsible, the ends sought, and the com-
tions, Christianity generally opposed warfare petence of the individual or body which
as being counter to the major themes of its re- authorized the act.

Although St. Augustine of

ligious doctrine.
Hippo (354-430) had argued for "the legiti- Thus allowed considerable ideological
macy of war under certain specified condi- flexibility, the Church was able to take an

tions," Christians only reluctantly accepted active interest in warfare on a number of

his conditional justification of war. According fronts, including those areas where Latin
to Edward Peters, professor of medieval his- Christendom came into direct contact
tory at the University of Pennsylvania, they with the Muslim world. 7
"had never regarded warfare as in any way
virtuousand often expressed concern for the Almost three years after Alexius I Comnenus s
possible salvation of those who killed enemies appeal to the Latin West for help, Pope Ur-
6
in battle." ban II, empowered by such "ideological flexi-
Over time, however, as Marcus Bull, a bility," called on his Frankish countrymen to
prominent historian of the crusading move- mount a crusade against the Muslim infidels
ment, points out: in the Holv Land.

The standard position [of the Church on

violence], which became associated with "God Wills It!"
Augustine and was refined in later cen-
turies, was that the moral rectitude of an On November 27, 1095, following a church
act could not be judged simply by exam- council meeting in Clermont, in Auvergne

Lite During the Crusades

 a Former province in south-central France), leadership in the West he was attempting
a \ .ist assemblage ol churchmen, knights, and todominate the quarreling princes ol En
laypeople gathered in .1 spacious field |ust rope l>\ declaring a lmK war in the Easi
outside the at) walls. From an elevated plat- and the Truce of God in the Wesl and he
form in their midst, Urban 11. speaking in was trying to give direction to a divided
French, "called on Frankish knights to \o\\ to Europe at a time when quarrels were be-
inarch to the Easl with the twin aims ol free- coming dangerous not onK to the papac\
ing Christians From tin' yoke ol Islamic rule I to the ver) survival ol Christendom.
> 1 1 1

ami liberating the tomb of Christ, the llol\ . By the Truce of God he meant to out-
. .

Sepulcher in [erusalem, from Muslim con- law fighting ol am kind from Sunda) to
trol."' Robert Payne explains: Wednesday, and to put an absolute ban on
lighting involving priests, monks, women,
It was not In am moans a sudden call laborers, and merchants on am da) of the
based noon an emotional sympathy lor the week. At Clermont the pope was able to
Christians who had suffered in Asia Minor impose a further ban on lighting on certain
and tin' HoK Land. It was more, and it was religions holidays [and seasons such as Ad-
loss. Urban II was assorting the pope's vent and Lent]. There was some irony in

This fourteenth-century French illustration depicts Pope Urban lis arrival in

France left and the Council of Clermont |
right !

. Urban urged the Frankish

knights to march against the Turks and to take control of Jerusalem.

For God and Glon

 The Deeds of Brave Men
Whether crusaders sought personal gain, ab-
solution for their sins, or merely the satisfac-
tionof serving God, their reward was often
an early death in a faraway land. But their
brave deeds lived on to inspire others. In the
prologue of his Chronicle of the First Cru-
sade, the eleventh-century cleric Fulcher of
Chartres scribed:
"It is especially pleasing to the living, and it
iseven beneficial to the dead, when the
deeds of brave men (particularly of those
serving as soldiers of God) are either read
from writings or soberly recounted from
memory among the faithful. For, after hear-
ing of the deeds of faithful predecessors
who rejected the beauties and pleasures of
the world and clung to God. and in accor-
dance with the precept of the Gospel, left
their parents and wives and possessions,
however great, to follow Him, those here on
earth are inspired to serve Him more ea-
gerly in that same spirit. It is beneficial to
the dead, especially to those dead in the
Lord, when the living, upon hearing of their
good and dev oted work, bless dieir faithful
souls, and out of love bestow alms with
prayers on their behalf whether they were
known to them, or not."

the fact that the pope who called so stren- it to yourselves. Jerusalem is a land fruit-
uously for peace in France was also calling ful above all others, a paradise of delights.
for a holv war in the Holv Land. 9 That royal city, situated at the center of
the earth, implores you to come to her
Five major versions of the pope's speech aid. Undertake this journey eagerly for
have been recorded and handed down the remission of your sins, and be assured
through time. Will Durant, the late, great of the reward of imperishable glory in the
American chronicler of the ages, called Ur- Kingdom of Heaven.
ban s plea "the most influential speech in me-
dieval history." One version of the popes elo- "Through the crowd," writes Durant, "an ex-
quent call to arms concludes with a plea to cited exclamation rose: Dieu li volt!
—'God
Europe's quarreling factions to end their dif- wills it!'Urban took it up, and called upon
ferences and unite in a holy cause: them to make it their battle cry." 10
In 1096-1097, upward of fifty thousand
Let hatred, therefore, depart from among Christian soldiers answered Urban's call. And
you; let your quarrels end. Enter upon for God and glory the followers of Christianity
the road to the Holy Sepulcher; wrest clashed v\ith the disciples of Islam in the first
that land from a wicked race, and subject of eight crusades that spanned three centuries.

Life During the Cnisades

 Life in the Christian West

considering the Crusades, mam histori- Men \ielded to the church's call out ol re-
Inans, and writers emphasize the
scholars, ligious Fervor (indulgences were granted
romantic aspects of the llolv Wars. His- lor participants), desire for gold and land.

tory's scribes often lotus on mounted knights because debts were postponed until a
in gleaming armor, sallying forth with sword crusader returned, and lor honor and
and lance to fight the good tight for God and glory, and other human reasons. Main . . .

glory Writers of romantic novels tend to por- men seized upon [the] notion of a di-
tra\ all enemies of Christendom as hated infi- vinely sanctioned war and used it to their
dels who sought to stamp out not only Chris- own purposes.
tianity, hut all that was good in a world lit only
by fire. More often than not, of course, the And as in all wars — both then and now, holy
truth generally lies somewhere in between or otherwise — money, or the of the
lack it, is

the extremes. key enabling factor. In the case of the crusad-

Except for occasional oblique references ing knight, Kenvon writes,
to life beyond the fields of valor, however,
more than a few chroniclers of the crusading the average cost of a knight going on a
past have left to the reader's imagination the crusade was four to five times his yearly
details of dailv living of both Christians and income. Money was needed for care of
Muslims during that fascinating period. Yet, his horses,pack animals, servants and ar-
to clearly understand the concept of crusad- mor. Money could be gained in a number
ing and the motivations of those on both of ways: taxation, sale of land and goods,
sides who took part in the Crusades, it is es- and loans. Dr. Elizabeth Hallam has
sential toexamine the nature and qualitv of stated that it would be virtually impossi-
dav-to-dav life in the Christian West and the ble for a landless knight to raise the
Muslim East. money needed unless he was in the em-
ploy of a wealthier lord."

"The Great Task The knight, although a significant figure

of Feudalism" in the feudal system of the Middle Ages, rep-
resented only a slim segment of the medieval
The soldiers of Christ went off to fight their population in Europe. Feudalism was a social
holy wars with the Saracens (a broad term for system of rights and obligations that estab-
Muslims or Arabs) for a variety of reasons, on land-ownership pat-
lished classes based
both spiritual and material. According to me- About nine-tenths of the people living
terns.
dieval historian Sherrilvn Kenvon: under the feudal system were peasants,

Life in the Christian West

farmers, or village laborers. Of the feudal or- probably constituted a quarter of the total

ganization, Will Durant writes: population in Western Europe. 12

In those lands and times society consisted Feudalism blossomed in an age of disor-
of freemen, serfs, and slaves. Freemen in- der where the central government had failed
cluded nobles, clerics, professional sol- in its fundamental purpose of protecting its
diers, practitioners of the professions, citizenry. Building on the basic precept of land
most merchants and artisans, and peas- tenure, feudalism gave rise to a new, highly
ants who owned their land with little or structured way of life, ruled by the nobility,
no obligation to any feudal lord, or leased protected by knights and foot soldiers, and
it from a lord for a money rent. Such serviced by laypeople. "The great task of feu-
peasant proprietors constituted some four dalism was to restore political and economic
per cent of the farming population of En- order to Europe after a century of disruptive
gland in the eleventh century; they were invasions and calamities," Durant sunnises. "It
more numerous in western Germain, succeeded; and when it decayed, modern civ-
13
northern Italv, and southern France; they ilization rose upon its ruins and its legacy."

Crusaders leave for Palestine in an attempt to take the Holy Land from the
Saracens. Mam/ knights participated in the Crusades in hopes offinancial gain.

Life During the Crusades


The Birth of Feudalism
The Western Roman Empire tell in the year
rii.it -more often rounded oil to
yeai
in. nks the beginning of the Middle
-which are general!) categorized as the
millennium between 500 ami L500 \ seal
The Center of
Feudal Life
Before and even during the rise of towns
medieval Europe, the manor constituted the
basic economic and administrative unit in En-
gland, northern France, and elsewhere. The
manor, which varied in size, was presided
over by a lord and constituted the center of
feudal life. As described by lames Harpur — some of which were granted to the peas-
scholarly writer and editor specializing in his-
tory, religion, and mythology — a manor
a
tering ol barbarian kingdoms arose out oi
die breakup ol Koines ancient empire, the
longs ol which warred continual!) with one
another
Charlemagne (742 814), king of the
Franks, theGermanic tribe that conquered
Gaul France), tried to build a now Ihristian
(
empire in Rome's image. H\ 800 he had be-
come undisputed ruler ol western Europe.
1le succeeded in restoring much ol the unit)
of the old Roman Empire and paving the wa.)
for the development ol modern Europe. Hut
upon Charlemagne's death in SI 4. in the ab-
sence ol a strong successor, his empire fell
into decay amidst civil wars and revolts.
Unable to defend themselves in the face
of constant dangers from barbarian invaders
and others, people naturally began turning
to their strongest neighbors — landholding
nobles — for protection. But nobles wanted a
fee for providing protection. And because
money was in short supply, they willingly
agreed to accept land in payment for their
protective services. Thus feudalism was born.
Charlemagne, king of the Franks, tried to
model a Christian kingdom after Rome.
typically consisted of a village or \illages
whose nucleus was formed bv the lord's
castle or residence, a church, and the
houses and hovels of peasants. There
in
were also generally two or three large
arable fields, common and waste land,
and woodland, all of which belonged to
the manor.
Fields were split up into small strips,
ants for cultivation, while the others made
up what was called the lords demesne
Life in the Christian West
 —

The Feudal Pyramid

Feudalism in its broadest sense was the It was characterized by homage, the service
holding and working of land bv giving ones of tenants under arms and in court, ward-
service to the owner. Technically, it was a ship, and forfeiture.
system of political organization used during A vassal vowed homage (respect and
most of the Middle Ages, based on the rela- services) and fealty (loyalty) to a feudal lord
tion of lord to vassal with all land held in fee. in return for protection and the use of land
owned bv die lord. Under feudal law, a vas-
sal forfeited his rights to tenancy and the
lord's protection for failing to uphold his
sworn obligations. Also, when a lord acted
as guardian of a minor, he retained die right
to hold and use the ward's land, as well as
all accrued profits, until the minor came of

age at twenty-one. Sometimes a vassal

A king receives his vassal. The kins, was at
the top of the feudal pyramid.
would sublease part of his tenured land
(land held in return for services, and so on).
The sublessee would then become a vassal
to die vassal.
This intricate interrelationship among
landholders formed a pyramidal social struc-
ture, with die king or state at the pinnacle
and descending to lord and thence to vassal
and possibly even to several sublevels of vas-
salage, hence the term "feudal pyramid."

[land held for the lords own use as op- at sowing and harvest time. Although die
posed to tenured land]. . . . peasants were poor, thev still had to pay
the lord for certain senices and permis-
The manor was generally self-supporting sions. For example, they paid rent for
and required few goods from the outside their dwelling places —
usually in die form
— usually only salt, to preserve meat: iron of a pig or a chicken or two; for ha\ing
for implements: and luxury goods for the their grain ground at the lord's mill; or for
lord. And the community was served bv marrying a daughter to someone from an-
the necessary specialist craftsmen, for in- other manor. In addition to all this, they
stance blacksmiths, potters, millers, and had to give a tenth, or a tithe, of their pro-
cobblers. duce per year to the parish priest for the
support and upkeep of the local church. 14
In return for the lord's protection, the
peasants were bound to farm his demesne The lord of the manor generally em-
for a specific number of davs per week ployed a bailiff to assist him in managing his
usually two or three — as well as extra days estate. The bailiff oversaw dav-to-dav acthi-

Life During the Crusades

9
 .

tu-N and sometimes kept the manorial ac gressive interlopers, hut onl) the strongest
counts. With the help ol senior villagers, he castles huilt during the Middle Vges were ca
also judged manor dwellers accused ol pert) pable ol withstanding a strong assault or a
crirru -
sustained siege. \s historian Peter Draper
points out:

Castle Life The majorit) ol fortified structures . . .

ranging from the grandesl castles to forti-

A lord's castle or fortified manor house pro- fied manor-houses, were primarily demon-
vided some measure ol protection against ag- strative. . .

The layout of a typical

medieval manor, including
the surrounding land where
crops and livestock were
raised.

Life in the Christian West

 The more towers on a
building of one or vorite, and remains a distinction of aris-
manor-house may have afforded some tocracy today. Poorer people would be
means of defense against a small-scale at- lucW if they had wool at all, let alone fur
tack or riot, but the number and size of to line it with. The wealthier went
to bed
the towers were more significant as a re- naked and the luckier ones had curtains
flection of feudal status, of the owner's re- around their four-posters. Poorer people
lationship with his superior lord. . . . wore their clothes day and night, and had
16
little to put on their beds.

External appearance was important in all

these houses, but the sense of grandeur A castle household, in addition to the lord
was also expressed in the interior, mainly and lady of the manor and their children,
in the Great Hall, which served a variety comprised a staff that varied in size with the
of public functions. The grandest of these wealth of the lord. Some household staffs
halls were aisled, some having stone or numbered more than sixty servants. The
marbled piers [vertical structural sup- quantity of foodstuffs required to sustain such
ports]. Many of them also had impres-
. . . a large staff constituted a substantial expense,
sively elaborate timber roofs, splendid eveo for the wealthiest lord.
tiled floors and from the late thirteenth
century magnificent traceried [orna- A lord's family (pictured) made up only a small
mented] windows. 15 portion of the members of his entire household.

Earlier medieval castles were not quite so

sumptuous, however, as even a cursory exami-
nation of life in an eleventh-century castle re-
veals. For example, Philip Warner, a military
historian and lifelong student of castles, writes:

Home-life was based on the

in the castle
hall. . . . The
would be covered with
floor
rushes, dogs, scraps of food, bones, and
dirt. Food was prepared and cooked out

of doors; there was too much risk in hav-

ing ovens in wooden buildings. [Early
castles were built of earth and wood.]

. . . European most of the

castles were, for
year, cold, wet, and murky. Damp and
dark could not easily be countered in the
absence of heating, but cold could be al-
leviated by clothing. Castle-dwellers . . .

wore their bed covers as garments. The

wealthier people were able to have theirs
lined with furs, of which ermine was a fa-

Ej Life During the Crusades

 \ ttihlc set for a baron's
household The wealthy in

medieval society ate thret

meals a day and were sen id

a variety <>/ foods.

Dailv Bread and Other more inlK to describe [them] . . . the re-
lation would appeal hyperbolical
-

[greatly
Sustenance
exaggerated] in the ears of those not pre-
sent,and would give rise to ironical re-
An everyday dinner," write Joseph and
marks." Such feasts included boars'
Frances Cies, well-known chroniclers of me-
heads, venison, peacocks, swans, suckling
dieval life and times, "served between 10:00 17
pigs, cranes, plovers, and larks.
\ M and noon, comprised two or three
courses, each of several separate dishes, all re-
Aside from special occasions, three
peating the same kinds of food except the
course, which consisted of fruits, nuts, cheese.
last
meals —breakfast, dinner, and supper— were
served daily at the castle. "Supper at the cas-
wafers, and spiced wine." Yet such substantial
tle was a light meal served at sunset and usu-
fare paled in comparison to the typical feast
ally consisted of one main dish, several small
served on holidays and festive occasions. The
side dishesand cheese," writes Sherrilvn
Gies offer the following example:
Kcnvon, who further notes:

When Henry Ill's daughter married the After supper, castle occupants might be
king of Scotland on Christmas Day 1252 entertained by a traveling minstrel, acro-
at York. Matthew Paris [a Benedictine bat, contortionist, jongleur or storyteller
monk noted for his chronicles of the thir- who performed and were
for their food
teenth century] reported that "more than usually given coins as well. If no profes-
sixty pasture cattle formed the first and sional entertainers were present, games
principal course at table . . . the gift of the might be plaved, or the lady of the hall or
archbishop. The guests feasted by turns a knight might provide entertainment
with one king at a time, at another time with a song, instrument or story. 18
with the other, who \ied with one another
in preparing costly meals." As for the en- Peasants fared less well in the food
tertainment, the number and apparel of choices available to them under their fre-
the guests, the variety of foods: "If I were quently impoverished conditions. "Aai average

Life in the Christian West

Peasants milk livestock and churn butter. The manor was completely self-

sufficient, with peasants to work the land and process all of the crops.

meal consisted of porridge, turnips, dark fended the people of Constantinople with
bread (only the nobility had white bread), and their breath! I9

beer or ale," Kenvon recounts, continuing:

Just as the usual diet of villagers and peas-
A salad might be added that would consist ants, be they freemen or serfs (that is, people
of parsley, borage, mint, rosemary, thyme, who owned or leased land as opposed to those
purslayne, garlic or fennel. During hog bound to the service of a lord), compared un-
slaughtering season, peasants would eat favorably with that of castle householders,
pork and bacon, but usually fish was the their average dwelling also fell considerablv
primary source of meat. short of living conditions in the lord's castle or
manor house.
Villagerswould eat bread either rye, —
barley or wheat —
that was occasionally
mixed with peas or beans. They also en- Village Life
joyed oatmeal cakes, porridge, fish,
cheese curds, watery ale, mead [an alco- A peasant village might house anvwhere from
holic drink of fermented honey and wa- ten to sixty families. "The village rural house-
ter], cider and metheglin [a land of hold raised itsown vegetables [90 percent of
mead]. . . .
the feudal economy was agricultural] and
some of its meat, spun its wool or linen, made
All medieval dishes relied heavily on most of its clothing," writes Will Durant.
spices for a number of reasons, the largest
being that spices covered the taste of The village blacksmith hammered out
spoiling meat. Garlic was used so heavily iron tools, the tanner made leather goods,
by the French that the crusaders of- the carpenter built cottages and furni-

Life During the Cnisades

 hire, the wheelwright made carts; fullers rOUgh garb, with skins of annuals loi

[cloth craftsmen who cleansed and thick cover. A cooking fire ol peat or wood
ened newh woven Fabrics . dyers, ma burned drearih in a clearing on the dirt
sons, saddlers, cobblers, soapmakers . . . floor. The smoke seeped out through a
lived in the village or came there tran- hole in the rool or the open hall ol a two
sient!) to pl\ their crafts on demand; and piece door. The onlj furniture was a plank
a public butcher or baker competed \\ ith table on trestles, a lew stools, perhaps a
the peasant and the housewife in prepar- chest, and probably a loom lor (he
ing meat and bread.
1
women to make their own cloth. Even
hut had a vegetable patch.
In must cases the peasant built his own
house. Bach taniik lived in a hovel that pro- The mistress of the peasant household
vided minima] creature comforts at best. The made all the family's clothes, mostly of wool
typical peasant dwelling was or linen. Typical attire included a tunic, gath-
ered about the waist with a leather cord, a
a dark, dank hut made of wood or wicker cap. pants called breeches, and long stock-
daubed with mud and thatched with ings, usually pulledup over the pant legs and
straw or rushes. Layers of straw or reeds gartered. Peasants generally wore leather
covered the floor, fouled by the pigs, shoes in winter but went barefoot or wore
chickens, and other animals housed with wooden clogs in summer. Neither nobles nor
the family. The one bed was a pile of peasants wore undergarments or nightclothes
dried leaves or straw*. All slept in their until late in the Middle Ages.

Peasants harvest grain for the lord of the manor. A peasant's life consisted of
hard labor and long, hours.

Life in the Christian West

 "Very little separated the dress of the no- lage against village. Cockfighting and
bility from that of the peasantry," avers Sherri- bullbaiting flourished; and hilarity

lvn Kenvon. "The styles of clothing and the reached its height when, within a closed
types of fabric they wore were very much circle, two blindfolded men, armed with

alike." Kenyon attributes the similarity "mostly cudgels, tried to kill a goose or a pig.

caused by poor travel condi-

to limited trade Sometimes, of an evening, peasants vis-
tions." Nobles managed to set themselves ited one another, played indoor games,
apart from common folk, however, reiving on and drank; usuallv, however, they staved
jewels, which were more readily available in at home, for no streets were lit; and at

many North [of En-

areas, "especially in the home, since candles were dear, they
22
gland], where mining was prevalent." went to bed soon after dark. In the long
Hardships abounded in the daily lives of nights of the winter the family welcomed
medieval peasants, but, as many historians the cattle into the cottage, thankful for
2
maintain, perhaps no more so than in the lives their heat.
'

of today's peasants. Interestingly, because of

the main holy daws (holidays) in the Middle Clearly life at the lowest level of the feu-
Ages, peasants actually worked only about dal pvramid was hard, sufficientlv so as to en-
260 days a year. According to Will Durant, on courage more than a few enterprising individ-
Sundays and holv days uals to seek relief from its constricts. In much
the same way as many of todays youth seek to
the peasant sang and danced, and forgot better their lots on athletic playing fields or
in hearty rustic laughter the dour burden courts, many of their medieval predecessors
of sermon and farm. Ale was cheap, sought to similarlv improve their fortunes on
speech was free and profane, and loose more tournaments and con-
lethal fields of
talesof womankind mingled with awe- flict. who could meet
Knighthood, for those
some legends of the saints. Rough games its challenge, offered both enhanced re-

of football, hockey, wrestling, and weight spectabilitv and the chance to become a
throwing, pitted man against man, vil- member of the landed gentry.

Life During the Crusades

 Soldiers of the Cross

Knighthood flowered long ago under the torical figure ol the kni<Jit is not totalh at

feudal system, before the advent of guns odds with the popular image. He did in
and gunpowder fin. ilk rendered the deed wear plate armor, but plate super-
sword and lance ineffective and the knight seded mail onK late in his long career.
obsolete. Yet legends of the knight continue The "Sir" "Messire" in French also
to charm the lanc\ ol new generations drawn came late and in England still exists as a

to the chivalric notions ol an earlier day. Some title honor or ol minor nobility. \
ol

such notions rin»j; of truth and realit) ; some do knight sometimes lived in a castle, but the
not. The writings of acclaimed medieval his- castle was rarel) his own. He participated
torian Frances Came) Gies help to separate in tournaments, but the tournaments
truth from fiction in the Western world's en- character as pageant developed only in its

during fascination with knights: decadence. I le was certainly prone to ad-

venture in his often short life, but nearh
Ot all main types of soldier that have
the always in company and in search ol in-
appeared on the military stage in the come rather than romance.
course ot time, from the Greek hoplite.
the Roman legionary, and the Ottoman In short, even knights needed to earn a liv-
janissary members of specialized
to ing. And though a knight's life was often
branches of modern armed forces, none short, the lack of preparation and training
has had a longer career than the knight of could hardly be faulted in the event of his
the European Middle Ages, and none has earlv demise.
had an equal impact on history, social and
cultural as well as political. . . .

Training for the Knighthood

The knighthood summons
institution of
up in the mind of every literate person Training for the knighthood was mentally and
the image of an armor-plated warrior on physically tough and demanding. "The youth
horseback, with the title "Sir," whose who aimed at knighthood submitted to a long
house was a castle, and who divided his and arduous discipline,"
25
declares Will Du-
time between the pageantry of the tour- rant. His education began at an age that finds
nament and the lonelv adventures of present-day vouths still engaged in less seri-

knight-errantry The image has the defect ous pastimes involving space marauders,
of being static, and it represents a con- turtlelike masters of martial arts, rollerized
cept that belongs more to legend and lit- street hockey and so on, and it continued for
erature than to real life. Yet the real his- about eight years.

Soldiers of the Cross

 —

A fan rteenth-centu ry fresco

shows combat between two
knights at a tournament. A
knight's training was
rigorous and lasted about
fourteen years.

At age seven, an aspirant to a life behind knight and ranked immediately below him." 26
a lance was uprooted from his home and sent As a squire, the young man learned to handle
to live in a castle, often that of his father's the sword and the lance, to bear the bulk and
lord,where he served as a page to the lord weight of armor, and to serve the general
and The page waited on his hosts at
his lady. needs of the knight assigned to him.
the dinner table and accompanied them to Much of the squires training was focused
various affairs, available to render services as on physical conditioning and on hardening him
needed to his lord and lady. A castle chaplain to the pain and stresses that he might en-
schooled him in religion, and resident squires counter in future conflicts. Commenting on
introduced him to arms training. Under the such training, Roger of Hoveden, a twelfth-
tutelage of his mistress and her ladies, he century English chronicler who accompanied
learned to honor and protect all women. He Richard the Lionheart on his crusade to the
learned to sing and to play the flute; to hunt Holy Land, wrote: "A youth must have seen his
and to hawk. Most important, he learned to blood flow and felt his teeth crack under the
ride a horse. When a page successfully com- blow of his adversary and have been dirown on
pleted his early knightly apprenticeship at the the ground twenty times — thus will he be able
27
age of fourteen, he was elevated to squire. to face real war with the hope of victory."
"Squire" is the shortened form of "es- Since ceremony marked the service at the
quire," derived —
via esquier (Old French) dinner table,
from the Latin scutarius, or shield-bearer.
Thus, in the context of knighthood, a squire is part of a squire's training [as well as a
defined as "one who carried the shield of a page's] was learning how to serve his lord

Life During the Crusades

L^— LJL
 The Squire
In his prologue to The Canterbury Tales, His ,u iow s had no draggled feathers
tw elfih-century author Geoffrey Chaucer toy
dcfthj portrays <i tiouthful squirt this way: \nd in his hand he bore a might) bow.

\ cropped head had he and a sun

lu stature be was of average length, browned face. . . .

Wondrousi) active, aye, and great ol I pon his arm he wore a bracer [pro
strength. . . . lector] gay,
Short was Ins gown, with sleeves both \nd at one side a sword and bmkloi
long and wide. yea,
Well could he sit on .1 horse, and fairly And at the othei side a dagger bright,
ride. . . . Well sheathed and sharp as a spear
Ami he was clad in coat and hood ol point in the light;
green, On breast a ( !hristopher [medal] of sil-
A sheal ol peacock arrows bright and ver sheen.
keen I le bore a horn in baldric [shoulder
Under he wore carefully
his belt belt! of green;
-ill

(Well could he keep his tackle yeo- A forester he tniK was. I guess.
manry:

atmeals: the order in which dishes should

be presented, where they should be
placed, how many fingers to use in hold-
ing the joint for the lord to carve, how to
cut the trenchers [an edible bread platter
used instead of a plate] and place them on
the table. 28

A squire — usually, but not always, a

knight in training —was responsible for pol-
ishing and maintaining in good repair the
arms, armor, and equipment of his knight and
the armor and accoutrements of his knight's
horses. But a squire's duties went far beyond
the scope of his training within the friendly
confines of the castle.
It was the faithful squire who accompa-
nied his knight into every fray, assisting him in

A knight, his horse, and page ready themselves donning his armor and mounting his horse. It
for a tournament. A page, orkniglit-in-training, was he who stood bv his knight in the clutch
began his education at age seven. of mortal circumstance, always ready to bear

Soldiers of the Cross

 The Knighting Ceremony

Ostentation and symbolism marked the

knighting ceremony. "Rituals associated with
'knighting' were based on royal coronations,"
write British military historians Nicholas
Hooper and Matthew Bennett. "The giving of
arms, particularly tying on the sword belt (a
symbol of knighthood), was an ancient bond
between lord and follower." 50 Will Durant,
the articulate dean of American historians,
calls the ceremony "a ritual of sacramental

awe" and characterized it this wav:

The candidate began with a bath as a

symbol of spiritual, perhaps as a guaran-
tee of physical, purification; hence he
could be called a "knight of the bath," as
distinguished from those "knights of the
sword" who had received their accolade

A squire and knight in typical attire of the First

on some battlefield as an immediate re-

Crusade. After serving many years as a page and ward for bravery. He was clothed in a
squire, a young man could become eligible for white tunic, red robe, and black coat, rep-
knighthood. resenting respectively the hoped-for pu-
rityof his morals, the blood he might
a hand or wield a sword if his knight became shed for honor or God, and the death he
overmatched, or lend his steed should the must be prepared to meet unflinchingly.
knight lose his own. And it was the squire who
bore responsibility for carting off his master's For a day prior to his knighting, the candidate
body should wounds disable or death claim fasted and spent the night in church. He
the knight on the battlefield. Such were but a praved, confessed his sins to a priest, took
few of the many lessons learned and the in- communion, heard a sermon on the several
numerable duties and responsibilities shoul- obligations of a knight — moral, religious, so-
dered by the youthful knight-aspirant. cial, and military — and solemnly vowed to
At about age twenty-one, assuming a discharge them. Thus prepared, the knight-
creditable performance as page and squire. aspirant
the successful candidate became eligible to
accept the vows of knighthood. More than a then advanced to the altar with a sword
few knights-to-be, perhaps, underwent the hanging from his neck; the priest re-
elaborate knighting ceremony mindful of the moved the sword, blessed it, and replaced
musings of Roger of Hoveden: "The reward it upon his neck. The candidate turned to
for hours of toil waits where the temples of the seated lord from whom he sought
2.
victory stand.'" knighthood, and was met with a stern

Life During the Crusades

—— -
 question: "For what purpose ilo you de The lord, rising gave him the accolade
sire to enter the order? II to be rich, to |that on the neck]
is. three blows with
take your i\iM\ and be held in honor the Hat ol the sword upon the neck or
without doing honor to knighthood, you shoulder, and sometimes a skip on the
are unworth) oi it. and would be to the cheek, as symbols ol the last all routs that
order of knighthood what the simoniacal he might accept without redress; auc\
clerk is to the prelacj [that is. as one who dubbed" him w ith the formula "In die
buys or sells high religious office is to name ol God, St. Michael, and St ( Jeorge
church government]." The candidate was Imake thee knight. The new knight re-

prepared with a reassuring reply ceived a lance, a helmet, and a horse lie

adjusted his helmet, leaped upon his

Attendant knights or ladies then adorned the horse, brandished his lance, flourished his
candidate with a knightl) arra) consisting ol sword, rode out from the church, distrib-
hauberk (tunic of chain mail), cuirass (breast- uted gilts to his attendants, and gave a
plate . armlets, gauntlets (armored gloves), feast lor his friends.
sword, and spurs. Cold spurs symbolized the
ranking of a knight, while silver spurs signi- The newly dubbed knight had now
fied the status ot a squire; therefore to "win earned the right to participate in tourna-
his spurs" ol gold meant to achieve knight- ments. The tournament served both as a
hood. The ceremony concluded with the so- spectacular showcase of knightly prowess and
called dubbing rite. daring deeds and as a mock-combat training

A knight takes a solemn oath during a dubbing ceremony. Such ceremonies were
patterned after a king's coronation and acre extremely elaborate.

Soldiers of the Cross

ground for knights to hone their fighting skills who died in 1066. "With their pageantry and
and horsemanship and further condition color,banquets and dances, tournaments took
themselves for the rigors of real warfare. on the atmosphere of a carnival, with all the
associated trappings," writes historian James
Harpur, an expert on medieval affairs. "And
Tournaments they drew the gamut of medieval charac-
full

ters, from armorers, harness makers, and

Often after a knighting ceremony, the host horse dealers to moneylenders, fortunetellers,
32
lord held a tournament, a colorful, lavish, and and Tourney competitions ini-
prostitutes."
sometimes brutal form of entertainment. tiallyresembled actual warfare, except that
Knights from miles around were invited to losing opponents were captured and ran-
participate and often came in such numbers somed rather than killed. They usually fea-
that the lord's castle overflowed with guests tured single engagements between two
and tents were pitched alongside the tourney knights —
tilting or jousting —
either on horse-
field, or accommodate latecomers.
lists, to back or on foot. Occasionally, however, large
Tournaments are said to have been in- group contests held sway, closely simulating
vented by Geoffrey of Preuilly, a Frenchman the dust and din of real martial engagements.

A knight is officially clubbed. After the ceremony, a knight participated in a

tournament to display his skills as a horseman and fighter.

Hi
Life During the Crusades
A jousting tournament turns into murder as one knight goes too far, stabbing his
opponent beneath his armor. Such slayings acre fairly uncommon, as jousting
tournaments acre mainly for demonstration purposes only.

Although touted as sporting competi- During the thirteenth century encour-—

tions, the mock sometimes turned ugly
battles aged by the use of lighter armor, blunted
and more than a few knights were slain. Ac- weapons, and formalized rules a newer. —
cording to military historian Michael Prest- gentler kind of tournament called a plaisance
wich. "Tournaments were celebrations of an evolved, that is, a pleasant tourney fought
international ehivalrie culture, and while in only for show. The church, which had long
glorifving knighthood they undoubtedly as- condemned tournaments for misdirecting
sisted and encouraged enthusiasm for war, knights from the service of God, smiled on
there was no necessity to turn them into na- this development.
33
tionalistic festivals." Nevertheless, once in a By the fifteenth century, only the
while, displays (or threatened displays) of pageantry and spectacle of the tournament
spirited nationalism among contestants ne- remained. Not long afterward, with the de-
cessitated the cancellation of tournaments in cline of feudalism and the advent of ar-
the interest of public safety Moreover, inci- —which
tillery changed the
drastically
dents involving knights and nobles ganging up makeup of armies and the and
strategies tac-
on individual foes and using the melee as a of warfare — the era of knighthood ended.
tics

cover for murder were not unknown. But not before the knight of ehivalrie creed

Soldiers of the Cross

 " —

emblazoned a romantic and virtually untar- der to put pressure on their rulers, much
nished image for all time in history's book of as indiscriminate "area bombing" was in

the brave and the bold. the Second World War.

Despite the widespread human suffering

Chivalry and Chevauchees wrought by the pillaging and torching con-
ventions of the chevauchee literally, a —
Alfred Lord Tennyson used only nine words to French term meaning "to be on horseback"
summarize the code of chivalry: "Live pure, no dishonor was associated with its practice.
speak true, right wrong, follow the king." " His Quite to the contrary; at least in the view of
economical use of words reflects the poetic Count Philip of Flanders, who, according to
grace that brought him acclaim but falls far Jordan Fantosme in his Chronicle, advised
short of fully defining the complexities of the military commanders in 1173:

chivalric creed. His terse summation lacks

even a hint of chivalry's darker side. "Contrary Destroy yourfoes and lay waste their
to the popular view of undisciplined knights, country.
the military values they celebrated were pru- By fire and burning let all be set alight,

dence, cunning, and caution, as well as brav- That nothing be left for them, either in

ery," assert military historians Hooper Nicholas wood or meadow,

and Matthew Bennett. "Thus, 'chivalric' com- Of which in the morning they could hare
manders were masters of ambushes, sudden a meal.
attacks, night marches, and deceptions." Con- Then with his united force let him
tinuing, Hooper and Bennett go on to explore besiege their castles.
the limits of chivalrous conduct: Thus should war be begun: such is my
advice.
Chivalry was not unique in appreciating First lay waste the land:''
1

courage, loyalty, generosity, and military

skill. The special quality of chivalry was More than two hundred years later, Britain's

that a vanquished fellow knight was king Henry V echoed Philip's advice. "War
spared: instead of death or slavery, which without fire," he said, "is like sausages without
he might have expected in the seventh mustard." 37 And for the next six centuries, bel-
century, for example, he would be ran- ligerents continued —and continue — vet to use
somed. However, this code only governed fire as a condiment for ravaging the popula-
relationships between knights, so rela- tions and scorching the lands of dieir enemies.
tively few were killed when knight fought
knight. Non-knights or "barbarians," for
example common infantry or the Welsh, Foot Soldiers All
Irish, or pagan Slavs, were not covered by
it. . . . Outside this [knightly] group, It might also be said that war without foot
chivalry did little to limit the brutality of soldiers is like no war at all. Historically, the

war. The plundering raid (chevauchee), romantic image of the knight has dispropor-
the normal practice of chivalric warfare, tionately claimed whatever glamour and glory
was aimed at the civilian population in or- can be culled from the blood and gore of

Life During the Crusades

 »

medieval wars Actually, however, most bal In! holding land 01 estate holding in re

tUs and wars have ultimately been won In rum foi services rendered] warriors irra

the relativel) lowK footsoldiei lalesaccen- tionall) driven l>\ their chi\ all ic dim
tuating the importance ol the omnipotent lighting an individualistic style ol combat
knight m medieval warfare are often dominated b\ battles between single
steeped in mytholog) rather than in realit) knights wild engage in mounted shock
Bernard S. Bachrach, a professor o\ histon combat. This \ iew is false. . . .

specializing in the period just prior to the

Crusades, declares: \l est important in creating a highly mis-
It lading picture of the medieval military in
There was a romantic time not long a >_r t all its aspects, the romantic epics known
when it was generall) believed that me- as thechansons de gcstc portrayed the
dieval warfare consisted ol undisciplined mounted knight as dominating medieval

Warhorses

Horses represented the most essential ele-

ments of a knight's equipment. In Annies
and Warfare in the Middle Ages, military
historian Michael Prestwich comments on
several breeds of horses:

"The warhorse was the most expensive pos-

session of a knight or man-at-arms. A de-
strier, the most specialized of warhorses. was
not an ordinary animal. It was a highly
trained, expertly bred beast, capable of ear-
ning an impressive load of man and armor in

the terrifying conditions of battle. . . . Cours-

ers were another highly prized tvpe of horse.
More ordinary animals were described [as]
rouncevs, or simply as equi, or horses. All of
these were suitable for use in war; in general,
warhorses were clearly quite distinct from
palfrevs, or riding horses, and from the vari-
ous tvpes of farm horses. . . .

Men needed more than just one horse;

important men needed a considerable num-
A knight rides his warhorse, a horse ber.Horses might become sick or lame, and
especially adept in battle. The warhorse often remounts were needed. Warhorses were not
wore sweat padding and protective annor, suitable for riding long distances: a knight
covered by elaborate trappings bearing the would possess at least two other horses in
owner's coat ofanris. addition to his charger."

Soldiers of the Cross

 —

warfare and more particularly the battle-

fields of Europe — much as the "West-
erns" of the American cinema show the
cowboy conquering the frontier with his
six-gun. Neither image is true. Medieval
literary entertainment and medieval
games popularized and magnified the im-
portance of the man on horseback, and
their posterity has for too long accepted
fiction and play as reality.

Nor were knights, according to Bachrach,

opposed to perpetuating their own mythic
image:

The willingness of those men in the mid-

dle ages, who saw themselves as the mili-
tary elite, to propagate the myth that they
were the essential feature of a medieval
army through song and story, and even
through the patronage of "historians" and
artists, is noteworthy. Nevertheless, the
"feudal host" of "knights" serving their
lords for forty days in return for fiefs
[land for services] was, in general, of rel-
atively little importance in medieval mili-
tary organization. . . . Furthermore, the
training of militias for local defense, to-
gether with the support of levies of foot
soldiers and substantial numbers of
archers and crossbowmen for offensive
military operations throughout medieval
Europe, clearly indicate the importance
accorded to such units by those who for-
mulated military policy or grand strategy
"Finally," concludes Bachrach, in relegating
the knight to his actual rather than mythical
role in the medieval military hierarchy, "the
training of mounted troops to fight on foot
A knight and common soldiers of the First
Crusade. The hulk of the crusaders' armies was
made up offoot soldiers.
and the dominance of siege warfare provide
more than a subtle hint regarding the multi-
faceted nature of medieval warfare in which
sieges dominated and the knight of romantic
literature was but one figure in a very com-
plex equation." 38
So, as the soldiers of the Cross forayed
toward the Muslim East to recapture the
Holy Land for the Christian West, it should
come as no surprise that their ranks swelled
with archers, crossbowmen, spearmen, for-
agers, and fire-raisers —
foot soldiers all
outnumbering horsemen by ratios of five or
six to one. The role of foot soldiers was no
less vital in medieval times than it is today.
No war has ever been won without them.

Life During die Crusades

li^
 Life in the Muslim East

the eleventh centur) drew to a (.lose. The influence ol Christendom was almost
As the Islamic and Byzantine civilizations limited to religion and war
nourished in the East, while the Christ-
ian West floundered in economic decline and Contrary, perhaps, to popular present-da)
struggled to recover from a series of barbar- imaginings, the world ol Islam at the onset ol
ian invasions. Observed the late W ill Durant: the Crusades represented aci\ ilization much
more advanced than its Western counterpart.
For five centuries, from TOO to 1200. Is-
lam loci the world in power, order, and ex- The elaborate interior oj a mosque reveals the
tent government, in refinement of
of Muslims' artistic abilities. In culture, art. and
manners, in standards of living, in hu- law, Muslims exceeded the accomplishments oj

mane legislation and religions toleration, their Christian counterparts.

in literature, scholarship, science, medi-

cine, and philosophv. In Islam art and cul-
ture were more widely shared than in me-
dieval Christendom. . . .

The Moslems [Muslims] seem to have

been better gentlemen than their Christ-
ian peers; thev kept their word more fre-
quently, showed more mercy to the de-
feated, and were seldom guilty of
brutality. . . . Christian law continued to
use ordeal by battle, water, or fire while
Moslem law was developing an advanced
jurisprudence and an enlightened judi-
ciary. The Mohammedan religion [Islam],
less original than the Hebrew, less em-
bracing in eclecticism [selection of the
best of various doctrines] than the Chris-
tian, kept its creed and ritual simpler and
purer, less dramatic and colorful than the
Christian, and made less concession to
the natural polytheism [belief in many
gods] of mankind. . . .

Life in the Muslim East

The Islamic World palace: thev were surrounded by ram-
parts and crowned bv a citadel [a fortress
Unlike the predominantly rural population that commands a city]. As seats of inter-

groupings that clustered about the widely scat- national or long-distance commerce and

tered estates of feudal lords in the West, much centers of regional exchanges, they fig-

of the Muslim populace was concentrated in ured among the largest cities in the
cities unrivaled in their day in both size and world, some with hundreds of thousands

splendor. For example, according to French of inhabitants. Western cities, by contrast,

historian Georges Tate, the Muslim world tended to be administrative and religious
settlements, rather than trading centers/"

boasted splendid cities like Baghdad,

Damascus, and Antioch. especially in Arabs constituted an overwhelming ma-
Syria and Mesopotamia [the area be- jorityof the Muslim populace. About 20 per-

tween the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers],
where the tradition of urban life went
back thousands of vears. The cities were
all laid out along the same design; a
cent of their numbers wandered the deserts
and trade routes of the Middle East and
North Africa. Members of wandering tribes
are called nomads, or Bedouins. Thev lived

mosque and markets in the center of (and still live) in tents and traveled by camel,
town and, in the principal cities, a ruler's existing primarily by tending flocks of
camels, sheep, and goats. Most Arabs, al-
though descended from nomadic tribes,
According to Islam, Muhammad recorded divine
lived on farms or resided in the bustling
revelations in the Koran, from which the laws of
cities of minarets, mosques, and bazaars
Muslim civilization are derived.
(towers, temples, and markets), engaged in
business and commerce.

Islamic Laws

Whether city dwellers, farmers, or desert

wanderers, the religion of Islam represented
the most powerful force in the lives of all

Muslims. Islamic laws derive from the di\ine

revelations accorded to Muhammad in the
seventh century and as such are virtually im-
mutable. The laws of Islam governed not only
their relations with Allah (God) but also their
relations with one another.
Of all the Islamic laws, those regulating
human relations — marriage, divorce, parental
care, and the like—were the ones most uni-
versally observed. "Until the nineteenth cen-
tury A.D.," notes John Alden Williams, a doc-

Lite During the Crusades

r^-- '
toroi philosopm who lectures on Islamic his
lory, "the general tendenc) ol the 'ulatna
[scholars was to expand the practical applica
bon ol the 1 aw ahead) in theon eternal
and universal so as to give religious value to
r\riA act and aspect ol life Personal rela-
tions begin at home with the famil) and
therefore mi ilo tin- laws governing them.

The Arab Family

As in most cultures, the famil) is the basic

unit ol Arab society. The Arab family, as well
as everything else in \rah life, is male domi-
nated. Male dominance is emphaticall) estab-
lished in the Koran, the Muslim holy book
equivalent to the Christian Bible, and re-
mains in place to this day. The Koran states:

Men have authority over women because

Allah [God] has made the one superior to
the others, and because they spend their Men in typical medieval Muslim garb. Islamic
wealth to maintain them. Good women society teas governedby men.
are obedient. They guard their unseen
parts because Allah has guarded them. As who are sane, adult, and Muslim." Ending a
for those from whom you tear disobedi- Muslim marriage was even less complicated:
ence, admonish them and send them to
beds apart and beat them. Then if they The most laudable divorce is where the
obex you, take no further action against husband repudiates his wife by a single
them. Allah is high, supreme. '4:34 formula with her term of ritual purity (not

during the menstrual period) and leaves

Accordingly; Arabs consider women to be the her (untouched) to the observance of the
property of their fathers or husbands. Islamic 'idda (period of waiting to ascertain she is

laws governing marriage are and com- mam not with child). . . . Express divorce is

plex including how thev were contracted and where husband delivers the sentence in
a
terminated. From the teachings of the Hanifa direct and unequivocal terms, as "I have
school, the chief law school of the Ottoman divorced you," or "you are divorced." (To
and Mogul Empires, we learn that between be final, the divorce must be pronounced
Muslims "marriage is contracted that is to — three times.) This effects a reversible di-
say, is effected and legally confirmed by — vorce such as leaves it in his power to take
means of declaration and consent." witnessed her back before the expiration of the
by two men or by "one man and two women idda. 42

Life in the Muslim East

 —

fear of redress, but a wife risked swift execu-

tion for her own infidelity.

For Muslim children, raised in strict ob-

servance of Islamic tenets, childhood's hour
passed swiftly. Girls were taught little beyond
prayers, a few chapters of the Koran, and do-
mestic skills. women of the upper
Except for
classes, literacy and the pursuit of higher
learning were mostly limited to male achiev-
ers. "Girls were usually married by the age of

twelve, and were mothers at thirteen or four-

teen; some married at nine or ten; men mar-
ried as earlv as fifteen," reports Will Durant.
Early marriages, multiple and successive
wives,and the legalized, widespread use of
concubines combined to create rather sizable
Muslim families, prompting Durant to hyper-
bolize that in some cases "a mans household
Muslim women had little power to govern their might contain as many children as an Ameri-

lives: their role in society was to bear and rear can suburb." 44
children.

Most Muslim marriages, generally ar- Muslim Dwellings and

ranged for children b\' their parents, were Personal Attire
—
monogamous one husband and one wife
but the Koran allows the man up to four wives A Muslim town was of modest size, as
typical
(4:2). Furthermore, as Will Durant observes. a rule accommodating about ten thousand
"Facility of divorce made it possible for a people. Quarters were cramped, usually little
Moslem to have almost anv number of suc- stucco houses with adjoining walls, built
cessive mates: Ali [son-in-law of Muhammad] within a drab external wall for protection
had 200; Ibn al-Teivib, a dyer of Baghdad who were unlit and
against attack or siege. Streets
lived to be eighty-five, is reported to have unpaved and dusty or muddy depending on
married 900 wives." 43 seasonal whims. More often than not, the
A woman, on the other hand, was allowed ever-present mosque provided the only sign
to have only one husband at a time and could of architectural aesthetics. Along with the
divorce him only at great expense. As to her population, most of the splendor of Muslim
options in matters of marital discord, the Ko- civilization was concentrated in the cities. To
ran states: "If a woman fear ill-treatment or illustrate, Basim Musallam, a Fellow of King's
desertion on the part of her husband, it shall College who teaches Islamic history at the
be no offense for them to seek a mutual University of Cambridge, asserts:
agreement [divorce settlement], for agree-
ment is best" (4:128). A husband might rou- To describe Islamic society as tradition-
tinely engage in extramarital liaisons without ally urban has become something of a

Life During the Crusades

 —

(.lulu- The InstoiA ol the Middle Easl is gardens ol flowers shrubs, and fruit trees
tin- histoi) oi it > cities, where commerce But such homes were exceptional. Basim
and learning, industn and art, govern Musallam's description ol houses in Fez \l<>

ment and t.utli flourished. Its hinterland rocco, provides a more representative exam
has rarel) known a landed gentr) with pie ol Muslim hollies;

power bases Power bases were ur

rural
ban Tribal chiefs often formed armies Houses van throughout the Islamic
from men ol desert or mountain, and led world according to the influence ol pic
tluMn to conquer the cities. But once the) Islamic cultures, climate, geography,
established their power, their interests la) building materials, and construction tech-
m a stable ami prosperous urban lite niques. Nevertheless, their nature is pro-
foundly influenced two concerns
1>\

Urban residences ol the rich ami power- widel) shared In Muslims: the right ol
ful wt'ii.' in some areas constructed in solid the laiuih to keep its af lairs secure from
masonry ami sometimes featured attached neighborhood and state, providing it did

The Cities of Islam

"Wherever Islam spread, from Andalusia to perfectly integrated with the arid environ-
India,its cities liad certain features in com- ment and the climate. The austere geomet-
mon," asserts H \. Cliaudfiuh. the Vascoda ric lines of the buildings, the artistic motifs
Gama Professor of European Expansion at created white plaster, and the ornate
in

the European University Institute in Flo-
rence. Italy. In "Tlie Economy in Muslim
Societies," part of The Cambridge
trated History of the Islamic World, Profes-
sor Chaudhuri explains:
"Most private houses, even in Damascus,
Cairo, or Baghdad, were built with sun-
dried bricks, whose fragility made the cities
seem constantlv dilapidated to foreign trav-
ellers. Only the architecture of power
mosques, palaces, citadels, and city walls
could make a claim to permanency by using
kiln-baked bricks or cut stones. However, in
the Yemen [in the southern Arabian penin-
sula] and many parts of Iran the town
houses of the wealthy were constructed in
solid masonrv. The skill of Muslim archi-
tects and builders showed itself in a style
that was varied by different materials but
painted timber ceilings inside expressed a
sensibility asunmistakably Islamic as the
Illus- Quranic [Koranic] inscriptions at the en-
trance to a mosque. While public buildings
were carefully planned and executed, the
rest of the city was left completely un-
planned.The original circular inner city of
Baghdad was an exception. Most other Is-
lamic towns were characterized by narrow,
winding streets flanked by tall structures
with very little space between them. The
main streets, lined with shops, were often
covered in order to provide shelter from the
fierce sun in summer and rains in winter.
The open space around the citadel palace
—
and the Friday mosque used for commu-
nal recreation, religious processions, and
—
the display of horsemanship compensated
to some extent for the dense and solid urban
landscape."

Life in the Muslim East

 not flaunt wrongdoing, and the impact of Each house contained a segregated
Islamic law and Muslim preferences with woman's area called a harem (related to
regard to women. ha ram, meaning "sacred") from which \isitors
were excluded. If the man of the house kept
Little can be guessed of the interior of the more than one wife, he provided separate but
houses of Fez from their exterior. Tall equal apartments for each wife.
blank walls face the outside world. If they
are pierced bv windows at ground level, In effect, the houses looked inwards. Re-
they are small, grilled, and high enough to sources were spent in making beautiful
prevent passers by from peeping in. Win- interiors using tilework, stucco, and
dows higher up may be larger but must wood. The family lived around a court-
not overlook the courtyards of neighbors. vard, or courtyards, where trees and lush
Not a hint was to be given externally of vegetation would be grown for coolness
the nature of life within. Wisdom, more- and shade, and water might flow to cis-
over, taught men to conceal their women terns and fountains.
i:

from the prying eves of neighbors and

from the jealous sight of the
their wealth Like their houses, the attire of Muslims
46
authorities. varied from one area to another. The affluent

The teaman's area, or harem, of a large Aral) household.

jj Life During the Crusades

A dancer and musicians entertain bystanders on a public street.

wore white silk and carried swords; the com- diet: pomegranates, cherries, grapes, grape-
moner was typically garbed in a turban, fruits, quinces, strawberries, figs, dates, ba-
shapeless trousers, and pointed shoes. Urban nanas, oranges, lemons, and more.
women attracted admiring male eyes with en- Meat also graced the Muslim table in

sembles of tight bodices, bright girdles, and abundance, except as restricted by the Koran,
loose-fitting, gaily colored skirts. They wore which states: "It is lawful for you to eat the
veils below the eyes to screen themselves flesh of all beasts other than that which is

from the view of strangers, for only a woman's
husband could look upon her face. In smaller
towns and rural areas, women often wore
dark robes and covered their faces with a
shawl. Men might wear a long robe called a
jaUabiyah, with roomy pants and a long shirt,
draped outside and tailing to the knees.
hereby announced to you" (5:1). The holy-
book goes on to list a series of edicts, of
which, perhaps, the most important is:
You are forbidden carrion [dead and de-
caying flesh], blood, and the flesh of
swine; also any flesh dedicated to other
than Allah. You are forbidden the flesh of
strangled animals and of those beaten or

Food, Drinks, and gored to death; of those killed by a fall or

mangled by beasts of prey (unless you
Entertainment
make it clean by giving the death-stroke
yourselves); also of animals sacrificed to
Diners at a t\pical Muslim table partook of an
idols. (5:3)
enviable variety of foodstuffs. Some menu
mainstavs were secured through trade with The Koran also sanctions seafood: "It is lawful
Asia. Over time, manv of them were passed foryou to hunt in the sea and to eat its fish, a
along to the Christian West: rice, buckwheat, good food for you and for the seafarer" (5:96).
sugarcane, spinach, asparagus, olives, to name Intoxicating drinks made from fermented
a few. And fruits abounded in the Muslim grapes or dates are abominations to be

Life in the Muslim East

 »
p «i4 ro tcv runtr.^. \s u (08 put cgy *
c!tttwtttwr«aa<4WttC5<ttfc-

i moot*. 4 (i'-HtSi wptrnmt W

c> cr fell* tucj?-- cfttl ct Ufigtu '

»'! wntnbUmtcnr?

Two Arabic men play a

board game in a tent.
Although Islam allowed
games, it strictly forbade
gambling.

avoided, but "liquor produced bv means of given the title of caliph. Abu Bakr's appoint-
honey, wheat, barley or millet is lawful . . . pro- ment began die caliphate institution, the nom-
vided it not be drunk in a wanton manner." 48 inal ruling power in Islam from 632 to 1924.
The generally abundant availability of The title of caliph meant both "successor" and
food and drink makes it easy to see why feast- "deputy." Ibn Khaldun, a fourteenth-century 7

ing held a prominent place in a wide range of Muslim law professor and judge, writes:
Muslim amusements. Other popular enter-
tainments included "flirtation, poetry music, In later times he has (also) been called
and song; to which the lower orders added "the sultan," when there were numerous
cockfights, ropedancers. jugglers, magicians, (claimants to the position) or when, in
puppets." 49 Sports of all kinds —boxing, view of the distances (separating different
wrestling, gymnastics, weight lifting, archery, regions) and in disregard of the condi-
fencing, and many more —were as big in Is- tions goyerning the institution, people
lam during the Crusades as they are todav were forced to render the oath of alle-
"
around the world. giance to anybody who seized power. 5
Since the Koran forbade gambling, cards,
dice, and other games of chance were rarely Apart from differences in their respective
played. Horse racing enjoved a great follow- religionsand governmental systems of caliphs
ing among the wealthy and was patronized bv and kings,Muslims and Christians shared a
the caliphs. host of similar virtues and vices. Both Islam
and Christendom experienced continual cor-
ruption among governmental and judicial
East and West bodies. Although gambling and intoxication
were sternly denounced bv the Koran (5:90)
When Muhammad died unexpectedly in A.D. and more mildly condemned bv the Christian
632. Abu Bakr. his father-in-law and longtime Church, some gambling and much drinking
companion, was chosen as his successor and continued in both cultures.

Life During the Crusades

 T

In both Eastern and Western societies, the |ews the Moslems greeted out- anothei

women were subservient to men. Bui in one with a solemn how and salutation 'Peace
regard, at Muslim wife held slight
least. .1 .1 [salaam be with you' andthepropei reply ol
|

advantage over some European wives; She even Moslemwas On you be peace and the
owned whatever propert) sin- acquired in its mere) and blessings ol (aid " )n the other (

entirety, free oi an) claim oi her husband or side ol the nun. Muslim altitudes toward in i

Ins creditors believers were llSUall) no less sinister as those

In business and commercial dealings, held In ( linstians toward infidels.

Muslims oi medieval times often displayed

more honest) and general!) upheld a higher
moral standard than Christians of that era. The Gardens of Allah
Muslim tended to be generous and
hospitalit)
manners formal and congenial, and
universal, Of all the differences between East and West.
speech prone to effusive compliments. "Like perhaps do tradition more distinguishes the

The Meaning of the Caliphate

In the introduction Muqaddima to his mul- means. Natural royal authority means to
tivolume history of the world, the Kitab al- cause the masses to act as required by pur-
Ibar. the fourteenth-century North African pose and desire. Political (royal authorit) I

philosopher-historian Ibn Khaldun explains. means to cause the masses to act as required
in effect, that every ruler who governs in ac- by intellectual (rational) insight into the
cordance with the Koran is essentially a suc- means of furthering their worldly interests
>r of Muhammad the Prophet. The fol- and avoiding anything that is harmful (in that
lowing extract from his Muqaddima is taken respect). The caliphate means to cause the
from Islam, edited by John Alden Williams. masses to act as required by religions insight
into their interests in the other world as well
"Political laws consider only worldly inter- as in this world. (The worldly interests) have
ests. Thev know the outward life of this bearing upon (the interests in the other
world" (Koran 30:7). On the other hand, the world), since according to the Lawgiver
intention of the Lawgiver has concerning (Muhammad), all worldly conditions are to
mankind is their welfare in the other world. be considered in their relation to their value
Therefore, it is necessary, as required by the for the other world. Thus (the caliphate) in
religious law. to cause the mass to act in ac- reality substitutes for die Lawgiver (Muham-
cordance with the religious laws in all their mad), in as much as it serves, like him. to pro-
affairs touching both this world and the tect the religion and to exercise (political)
other world. The authority to do so was pos- leadership of die world. . . .

sessed by the representatives of the reli- The institute is called the caliphate' or
gious law, the prophets. (Later on, it was 'the imamate.' The person in charge is

possessed) by those who took their place, called 'the caliph' or the 'imam.' [Later, he
the caliphs. has also been called 'the sultan.
This makes it clear what the caliphate

Life in the Muslim East

Islamic world from all others than the call of

the muezzin. The muezzin, a Muslim crier.

calls out and chants from a minaret or bal-

cony at the local mosque (a house of commu-
nal worship), to summon the faithful to
prayer. Five times each day his cries resonate
across towns and cities — at sunrise, noon,
mid-afternoon, sunset, and midevening.
Islam allows personal, spontaneous
prayers to be offered at other times but con-
siders these five prayers to be "obligator) for
every Muslim who has reached puberty and
has the use of reason, except women who are
in their [menstrual] courses or recovering
from childbirth." Ubada b. al-Samit, accord-
ing to twelfth-century Islamic legal specialist
Ibn Qudama, reported:

I heard the Prophet say: "There are five

prayers which God has prescribed for His

servants in the space of a dav and a night.
He who observes the prayers has the Far above the citi/, a muezzin calls the faithful to
promise of God that He will cause him to prayer.
enter Paradise. He who does not perform
them has no promise from God: If God Believers, be ever on your guard. March
wills. He will punish him, and if He wills. in detachments or in one bodv. . . .

He will pardon him." 52

Let those who would exchange the life of
The path to Islamic paradise clearlv requires this world for the hereafter, fight for the
the total devotion of true believers aspiring to cause of Allah; whether thev die or con-
abide eternally in "gardens watered bv running quer. We shall richly reward them.
streams." as promised bv the Koran (4:122). (4:72-73)
During the last years of the eleventh cen-
tury, the fervent religious dedication of Is- At Nicaea (now Iznik, Turkev), commenc-
lam's adherents beganon a new, criti-
to take ing on May 14, 1097, the warriors of the cres-
cal relevance for soldiers of the Cross. As thev cent clashed with the soldiers of Christ, confi-
gathered in answer to Pope Urban 's call, thev dent of \ictorv and disdainful of death, for in
might have been well advised to peruse the their hearts thev carried the promise of rich re-
Koran, for there it is also written: wards and eternal life in the Gardens of Allah.

Life During the Crusades

 Warriors of the Crescent

Since men firs! banded together in oppos CUStomS were \rr\ similar on both sides
ing groups for the purposes ol war, com- The accounts oi the ( Irusades offer quite
batants on both sides have entered even a Dumber oi indications that, despite all

rraj convinced that onr) their own cause is fa- the religious and racial hatred, there was
vored b\ whatever god or gods the) honor. a certain similarity of the concept <>t

During the First Crusade, for example, classes between the Christian and
the knights of Christ rallied to cries <>l "Dieu Moslem knights.
1
"
li volt'" ("God wills it . heralding their belief
as to whose side God was on. At the same
time, the warriors ol Islam, confident ol the The Meteoric Rise of Islam
sanctity ot their own cause, rushed into battle
shouting "Death to the infidels!" It is. after However, just as there were similarities be-
all. written in the Koran that "the true believ- tween the combat customs ot Christians and
ers fight tor the cause ot Allah, hut the infi- Muslims, there were also marked differences.
dels light tor idols " 4:73 The period between A.D. 632 and 732 marked
Both Christians and Muslims placed their
faith in one god and fought in the name of Muslims (i>id Christians face off in the first battle

that god; both sides were unswervingly con- of the First Crusade. Both sides claimed their god
vinced of the tightness of their fight in the as their exclusive sponsor.

eves of that god. Onlv their approaches to bat-

tle differed.

The difference between the occidental

and oriental military systems was fundamen-
tally a matter of degree rather than approach,
which is clearly illustrated in this passage

from the works of the eminent German mili-

tary historian Hans Delbriick:

When the occidental knights held a tour-

nament in the Holy Land, it probably
happened that Moslem knights appeared
in the area and were finally invited to par-
ticipate in the tourney. The fact that thev
jousted together is proof enough that the
equipment, fighting style, and combat

Warriors of the Crescent

a centurv of dynamic change in the Mediter- and northward into Spain and southern
ranean Basin and the Middle East. Inspired by France. But their extraordinary advances
the charismatic leadership of Muhammad and came not without consequences, as the
fired by a religious zeal unequaled in military Dupuys point out:
history, Arab armies extended the limits of Is-

lam across nearly half of the civilized world. Once the initial headlong rush had run its

"No other religion has ever been able to course, the Moslems began to realize that
inspire so many men, so consistently and so even their own religious fervor could not
be completely heedless of
enthusiastically, to afford the appalling loss of life resulting
death and of personal danger in battle," de- from heedless light-cavalry charges al- —
clare renown military historians R. Ernest most entirely bv unarmored men wield-
Dupu\ and Trevor N. Dupuv. "Thus it was ing sword and lance— against the skilled
energy more than skill, religious fanaticism bowmen of China and Bvzantium, or the
rather than a superior military system, and solid masses of the Franks. Having by this
missionary zeal instead of an organized time come into contact with every impor-
scheme of recruitment which accounted for tant military system in the world, the Mo-
Moslem victories." 54 hammedans sensibly adopted many
Bv 732, when the Arab conquests lost Byzantine military practices. . . . Their
momentum, the Islamic world stretched from original fanaticism, nevertheless, com-
the mountains of central Asia in the East to bined with astute adoption of Bvzantine
the Atlantic coast of Morocco in the Y\ est, tactics and strategic methods, made them

Arabian Sea
The Islamic World at
Its Greatest Extent

Life During the Crusades

 np..r» • ,
~2 Moorish Dominions
The Reconquista -, Chnstian Domimons

still the most Formidable offensive force Castillo. Navarre, Aragon, and the County of
in the world at the close of this period Barcelona — seized advantage of Arab dis-
[circa 800]. . . . unity to commence the Reconquista —the
Christian reconquest of Spain.
Bv the end of the eighth century the Although the Christians captured Valen-
perimeter of Islam was generally stabi- cia, the Moors maintained a presence in
lized, but endemic [native to a particular Spain until the armies of Ferdinand and Is-
people or country] warfare persistedand — abella drove them out of Granada the last —
would persist for centuries along three — Moorish bastion in Spain in 1492. Thus—
Qaming frontiers: the mountains of An- ended the Reconquista.
dalusia [in southern Spain], the mountains
of Anatolia [the region of Turkey compris-
ing the Asia Minor peninsula], and the
Comparing Armor, Weapons,
mountains and deserts o^ central Asia." and Tactics

"Two things gave the Christian forces in Spain

The Reconquista superiority' over their Moslem foes," aver John
Matthews and Bob Stewart, specialists and
The Arab invasion of Spain in the early frequent lecturers on Celtic and Arthurian
eighth century wrested part but not all of the themes, "the weight of their armor and horses,
Iberian peninsula from the Visigoths. In the and their possession of massive siege engines."
of the Pyrenees several Christian
foothills The Moors lacked siege engines, such as the
kingdoms held fast to a precarious existence. powerful mangonel, which "could project
Upon the breakup of the Umayyad Caliphate massive boulders against the walls of a be-
into small disparate successor states during sieged castle"; or the trebuchet, which "could
the 1030s, the Christian states — Leon, lob the lifeless carcass of a horse (or more

Warriors of the Crescent

 often a human corpse) over the walls, to add
56
to the disease already raging within."
In the absence of these devastatingly
fearsome machines, the Arabs "depended
more on starvation tactics and in sheer weight
of numbers; they scarcely ever adapted to the
use of siege towers or other engines of war."
When on open ground, however, the
fighting
advantage swung to the Arabs, as noted by
Matthews and Stewart:
The Moors' skill as horsemen and the mag-
nificent Arab steeds they rode gave them a
positive advantage over the heavily ar-
mored war-horses of the Christians, which
were more like cart horses, slow and heavy
against the speedy, light Arab mounts.
The Moslems also wore much lighter ar-
mor and carried light swords, bows and
spears. Again, these gave them the advan-
tage when it came to the swift "attack-
and-run" tactics which they frequently
employed.'57
>] Life During the Crusades
"Arab tactics were based upon the razzia, the
traditional Bedouin raid," observes Lawrence
D. Higgins, a frequent waiter on military sub-
jects. "In fact, most campaigns [during the first
century of Islam's expansion] were just a series
of raids." But the razzia was not without de-
fects, as Higgins explains: "After the cavalry-
had driven home die charge, each warrior en-
gaged in single combat with an enemy sol-
dier— just as if he were on an intertribal raid in
Arabia. All unit cohesion disappeared." 58
On balance, in head-on cavalry clashes,
the heavily armored Christians with superior
armor-piercing capabilities routinely pre-
vailed over the more lightly armored and
equipped Muslims. In the words of Matthews
and Stewart, "The Christians were virtually
unstoppable." Concluding their assessment
of Christian and Arab fighting qualities,
Matthews and Stewart write:
Both sides made use of bows, though the
Moslems were by far the more proficient
in their use. In hand-to-hand fighting,
Christum knights had
certain advantages over the
Muslims in warfare,
including the use oftlie
mangonel which was used to
heave boulders against the
walls of a castle during a
siege.
 The Field of Blood

/V»Vi<//>\ n Muslim ferocity rode up and down the lines haranguing

inbat can found than a battle /<>i/g/u
/>< them and using all Ins eloquence to incite
near Antioch in 11 IV An invading force un- them to summon ever) energ) and use to
der llghazi, the emir ruL rdin, sur- '
the highest pitch ol enthusiasm, until the
prised and destroyed defending army of
tin- men wept with emotion and admiration.
\ nun prince Roger of Antioch at Balat, Then Tughan Vrslan ibn Dimlaj led the
west of Aleppo. In Francesco Gabrieli's \rah charge, and thearmy swept down on the en
Historians of the Crusades, twelfth-century em) tents, spreading chaos and destruction
Muslim historian KamalAd-dm II described God gave victor) to the Muslims The
tlu- action in the battle that came to be known Pranks who lied their camp were slaugh-
as the lit hi of Blood: tered The Turks Muslims] fought superbly,
|

charging the enem) from ever) direction

\-> dawn broke Roger's troops! saw the like one man. Arrows Hew thick as locusts
Muslim standards advancing to surround and the Franks, with missiles raining down
thom completely. The qadi [religious judge] on infantry and cavalr) alike, turned and
Aim l-Fadl ibn al-Khashshab was at their fled. The cavalr) was destroyed, the infantr)

head, mounted on a mare and carrying a was cut to pieces, the followers and sen ants
lance, and urging tlu 1
Muslims on to war. were all taken prisoner. Roger was killed,
One the [Muslim] soldiers, seeing him,
ol but (only) twenty Muslims were lost . . .

said scornfully: So we have left home and whereas only twenty Franks escaped. A lew
come all this way to march behind a turban of the leaders got away, but almost 15.000
[religious and legal scholars wore the tur- men lell in battle, which took place on Sat-
ban]!" but the qadi at the head of the troops urday (28 June) at midday."

once again the huge and heavy broad- The weapons and tactics developed over
swords of the Christians proved superior several centuries bv both Christians and Mus-
over the light, curved scimitars of their lims during the Reconquista hold particular
adversaries. Again, in the use of spears. relevance regarding the Crusades. As David
the Christian knight, crouched behind L. Bongard points out, "The idea of the cru-
his kite-shaped shield, atop his massive sade' probably arose in Spain, as part of the
war horse could topple a lightly armed warfare between Christian and Moor for con-
man completely out of the saddle — and trol of the Iberian peninsula." 8
probablv spear him through in the And while the knights of the Christian
process. . . . kingdoms struggled to reclaim Spain from the
Moors of Islam near the end of the eleventh
In a straight fight, the Christians usuallv century, many more thousands of Christian
won: in skirmishes, the Moslem forces knights were proceeding overland and by sea
held their own and often overcame their toward the Holv Land, intent on giving life to
5y
opponents with fanatical zeal. the crusading idea.

Warriors of the Crescent

 The Many Paths to Jerusalem

When considering the hardships and

deprivations endured by die armies of
They disliked leaving
crusade poetrv is
home: a theme
sadness at the abandon-
in

Christendom along the many paths to ment of loved ones. They dreaded the
Jerusalem, one can only marvel at how the journey especially if it was to be by sea.
crusaders were able to lift a lance or sword, During the long overland marches, far
let alone fight effectively, upon their arrival in from sources of regular supplies, they
the Holy Land. Small wonder, too, that many were often hungry and always had to for-
among their ranks —most, in fact — felt less age. There was a heavy death-toll of
than jovful about the prospect of a long march horses and pack animals, which meant
or voyage to the East. Jonathan Riley-Smith, that the knights lost status and had to
professor of ecclesiastical history at the Uni- fight on foot, reduced to carrying their
versity of Cambridge, explains: own arms and armor in sacks over their
shoulders. The marches were made bear-
It is now clear that most crusaders did not able, it seems, only by ritualization, a con-
particularly look forward to Crusades. stant round of processions, prayers and

A thirteenth-century
painting depicts a ship
carrying knights across the
Mediterranean to fight in the
First Crusade.

mj Life During the Crusades

 —

i>\ i'n fasting, which had the effect of bind

tag tin- crusaders together and helping to
alleviate their feelings oi homesickness
and isolation Then there wire the dan
gers inherent in fighting in an age before
tetanus injections or antibiotics, when
even .1 si nail scratch could lead to a
painful and lingering death.

The dependents of crusaders left .it home also

suffered great distress, explains Riley-Smith:

Their families and properties were sup-

posed to be protected In the ( Ihurch and
State during their absence, but neither
body was particularly effective in this re-
spect. Wives and relatives struggling to
manage farms with several of the men
away were always at a disadvantage. As crusaders march off to fight the Muslims,
Campaigning in the Fast would generally family and friends pray for their success and safe
involve an absence of at least two years return.
or two harvests —
which was enough to
ruin any agricultural business. No won- Oh, how much grief there was! How
der contemporary [medieval] writings many sighs! How much sorrow! How
were filled with the anxieties of cru- much weeping among loved ones when
61
saders' families. the husband left his wife so dear to him,
as well as his children, father and mother,
It is likely few experiences shared by
that brothers and grandparents, and posses-
the crusaders and the loved ones they left be- sions however great!
hind caused more anxiety than the moment of
their parting. And perhaps no medieval scribe But however so many tears those re-
portravs the panoply of human emotions at- maining shed for those going, these were
tendant to sad farewells better than Fulcher not swayed by such tears from leaving all
of Chartres. that they possessed; without doubt be-
lieving that they would receive an hun-
dredfold what the Lord promised to
Sadness and Joy those loving him.

Fulcher of Chartres, a member of the clergy, Then the wife reckoned the time of her
accompanied the entourage of Stephen, husband's return, because if God permit-
count of Blois, on the First Crusade. In chap- ted him to live, he would come home to
ter V of his three-volume Chronicle of that her. He commended her to the Lord,
crusade, Fulcher writes of poignant partings: kissed her, and promised as she wept that

The Many Paths to Jerusalem

 People's Crusade, 1096
Route of Peter the Hermit

Dorylaeum

he would return. She, fearing that she
would never see him again, not able to
hold up, fell senseless to the ground;
mourning her living beloved as if he were
dead. He, having compassion, it seems,
Simon Lloyd, a leading Crusade scholar, Pope
Urban II "had intended that the crusade army
should consist fundamentally of knights and
other ranks who would be militarily useful."
But news of Urban call to arms at Clermont
's

neither for the weeping of his wife, nor spread rapidly throughout the West and he
feeling pain for the grief of any friends, lost control of personnel recruitment.
and yet having he secretly suffered
it, for Lloyd comments on some of the early
severely, unchanging, went away with a "crusading" activity:
determined mind.
These bands, led by men like Peter the
And so those men of determined mind went Hermit and Walter Sans-Avoir [the Pen-
crusading — in the company of sadness, yes, niless], were the first to depart, as early as
but also filled with joy — for to a man thev felt, spring 1096. Collectively, they are known
"This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in traditionally as the People's Crusade, but
our eves." 62 in reality they were essentially indepen-
dent groups of the poor, lacking supplies
and equipment, though some contained
The People's Crusade or were even led by knights. Streaming
from northern France, the Low Coun-
In the eyes of many unfortunate souls who tries, the Rhineland, and Saxony in par-
lived along the several crusading routes to the ticular, they sought to reach Constantino-
East, the "Lord's doing" must have looked ple, but many failed to get even that far.

substantially less "marvelous." According to Their foraging for food and lack of disci-

Life During the Crusades

phne, combined with theii sheei Ferocity, The remnant," notes Lloyd, "fled back to Con
naturalh alarmed the authorities in the stantinople tojoinupwith what lias been iden
lands through which the) passed, above Hfied as 'the second wave <>l the crusade
all the Byzantines. Manx were killed in
the inevitable armed clashes ["hose who
dul gel through to Constantinople were
Bv Land and Sea to
hurriedh shipped across the Bosporus in Constantinople
August 1096, after which the) split into

two groups. One attempted to take Several contingents of troops were raised sep
Nicaea bul failed, the Turks surrounding aratel) l>\a number ol powerful princes, prin-
and lolling most; the other was ambushed cipally: Raymond oi Toulouse: (iod!ie\ ol
and massacred aearCivetot in August. Bouillon and his brother, Baldwin ol

A Remarkable Pile of Bones

In editor Elizabeth Hallam's Chronicles of returned to Helenopolis with their booty.

tin- Crusades, Anna Comnena, daughter of Upon learning ol the pillaging at Nicaea and
Byzantine emperor Alexius Comnenus, I elsewhere, the Turkish sultan Qilij Arslan
describes theamazement of her people at "placed men in ambush at suitable places
the sight of Peter the Hermit's "army" in on the approaches to Nicaea. He then sent
Constantinople: two messengers to the crusader camp to an-
nounce that some of Peter's followers
To look upon them was like seeing
rivers flowing together from all sides, had captured Nicaea and were dividing
and coming against us in lull force, for up the spoil from the city At the
the most part through Hungary. [Peter. news of plunder and money, they imme-
isnorin? the advice of Alexius to await diately set off along the road to Nicaea.
the other Christian forces] crossed the with no semblance of order, all forget-
[Strait of] Bosporus and pitched camp ting their military skill and the discipline
at a small village called Helenopolis. required of those going out to battle.
[where] as manv as thousand
ten
French crusaders separated from the . . . Since these men were advancing in
rest of the army. [Thev then] with the no sort of order or discipline, they fell
utmost cruelty, plundered the Turkish into the Turkish ambushes near Drakon
territorv around Nicaea. Thev dismem- and were miserably wiped out. Such a
bered some of the babies, others thev large number of Franks became the vic-
put on spits and roasted over a fire; tims of Turkish swords, that when the
those of advanced years thev subjected scattered remains of the slaughtered
to even form of torture. men were collected, thev made not
merelv a hill or mound or peak, but a
In a \iolent clash with the defenders of huge mountain, deep and wide, most re-
Nicaea. the raiders forced their retreat and markable, so great was the pile of bones.

The Main Paths to [erusalem jjgj

Boulogne; Robert of Normandy, his cousin,
Robert of Flanders, and his brother-in-law,
Stephen of Blois; and Hugh of Vermandois.
Added to thesewere the Normans of south-
ern Italy led by Bohemund of Taranto and his
nephew Tancred.
"The real military forces took longer to
assemble and organize," writes retired army
colonel John F. Sloan, a faculty member of
the U.S. Defense Intelligence College. "Be-
ginning in March 1096 as individual knights
and members of medieval hosts, they
marched and sailed from throughout France
and the Low Countries toward Constantino-
ple, arriving there between December 1096
and May 1097. M Their journeys on the way
"
to the Byzantine capital were anything but
uneventful, as R. Ernest Dupuy and Trevor
N. Dupuy illustrate:
Leaders of the First Crusade included (left to
right) Godfrey, Raymond, Bohemund, and
Tancred. The forces of these men made up the
true military might of the Crusade.
- --.
.
Life During the Crusades
Godfrey and Baldwin . . . followed the
Danube Valley through Hungary, Serbia,
and Bulgaria, thence over the Balkan
mountains, having several armed brushes
with local forces en route. Count Ray-
mond and others from southern France
proceeded through north Italy, continued
down the barren Dalmatian coast to Du-
razzo in a grueling march, thence east to
Constantinople. 63
Hugh, the two Roberts, and Stephen led
their contingents across the Alps and down
the Italian peninsula. "Hugh of Vermandois
. traveled by way of Rome to Bari, from
. .
where he set sail for Durazzo [Durres, Alba-
nia]," writes Jonathan Riley-Smith. "But a
storm scattered his fleet and Hugh, who was
forced to land some way from Durazzo, was
briefly detained before being escorted to
Constantinople." 66
Robert of Flanders and his contingent,
the next to arrive in Bari, crossed the Adriatic
at once and reached Constantinople at about
the same time as Bohemund. Robert of Nor-
mandy and Stephen of Blois arrived last in
Bari. Facing heavy seas and the objections of
local sailors, they decided to winter in south-
ern Italy On April 5, 1097, reports Fulcher of
Chartres:
They boarded ship at the harbor of Brin-
dision the eastern coast of Italy Oh how
deep and inscrutable are the decisions of
God: for before our very eyes, one of the
ships suddenly split in the middle, still
close to the shore, for no apparent reason.
Four hundred men and women drowned.
But all at once, joyous praise to God re-
sounded: for when those who were stand-
ing around went to collect the corpses,
the sign of the cross was found imprinted
 .

The Hazards of Sea Travel

titer traveling hi/ Unul <>/- hi/ sea, cru- from Genoa to tare left a vivid description
rs faced many dangers en route ti> the of the perils of travel on the treacherous wa
//i>/i/ ImikI In Inatom) ol a Crusade tersol the Mediterranean He described his
L213 1221. James SI PoweU, professor of fear during a storm in which the waters
history at Syracuse University, describes the were breaking Over and this was
his ship
hazards of sea travel during the Fifth Cru- despite the fad thai he was travelling on a
sade: newK constructed ship and the arrange-
ments on board were well suited to Ins epis-
"Some three hundred ships departed from copal rank. Still the trip was far from
. . .

Vlerdingen in the Netherlands on Maj 29, Comfortable. Contrary winds impeded their
1217. This was the first contingent ol tlu- Fifth progress. The) ran into a storm ol such
Crusade to actual]) get underway. It would magnitude that 'fifteen anchors could hardl)
not lv the first to arrive in the East. . . hold the ship back' .is the prow ol the \essel
The sea route chosen by the crusaders rose to the stars anil sank into the ab\ss.
was perilous. There is do way to document During the two days and nights that the
fully how mam of the ships that left mam had nothing to
storm lasted, eat, and

Vlerdingen were lost at sea. but the number fames himself ate nothing cooked, because
must have been substantial. Only a few days it was too dangerous to light a lire on the

from Mon-
out. in the sea of Brittany, a ship
heim was wrecked on the and the
tleet had to slow while its men were rescued
from the rocks onto which thev had
climbed. Three more ships were wrecked in
a storm off the Portuguese coast. Bishop
ship. Main on board took the opportunity to
rocks, confess their sins and prepare for death. Hut
finally the seas calmed and. with dolphins in
their wake, thev sailed toward Acre. Manx
travellers to the East were not so fortunate,
however, and for them the crusade ended at

fames of Yitrv. who had earlier travelled sea."

in the flesh of some above the shoulder- hope entirely in Almighty God, went to sea
blades. with foresails raised and trumpets blasting,
wafted by a moderate breeze. Four days
Of the remainder who struggled with later we reached land, about ten miles, I

death, very few survived. The horses and would guess, from the citv of Durazzo.
mules were drowned and a great deal of Our fleet landed in two harbors and from
money was lost. there, with great joy, we continued on dry
67
land and passed by Durazzo.
We were confused and terrified by the
sight of this misfortune, to the extent that The by the armies of the
tribulations suffered
mam who were weak in heart and had not First Crusade were experienced over and
yet boarded ship returned home, giving up again by succeeding crusaders, who flowed to
the journev, saving that they would never the Holy Land in an almost continuous flow
trust themselves again to the deceptive of individuals and groups for the next two
and treacherous sea. But we, putting our hundred vears.

The Many Paths to Jerusalem

Death Along the Way ceased ambushing with their poisoned ar-
rows se\eral of our men who were un-

In 1188 Holv Roman Emperor Frederick armed and walking carelessly, until the

Barbarossa took up the crusading cause as he bandits were completely surrounded by

approached the age of seventy. In May of the
following year, he departed for Jerusalem
with a large German army, a contingent of
the Third Crusade. In a letter to his son
Henry, written while en route to Constan-
crossbows and by our knights; being
caught red-handed they paid the price
and met their just deserts. On a single
day thirty-two were strung up like out-
laws and ended their li\ es miserably on a

tinople. Frederick reported on the difficul- gibbet [an upright post with a projecting

ties that he encountered along the way: arm for hanging the bodies of executed
criminals as a warning].

It seems worth reporting first that as soon

as we reached the borders of the empire None the less, the remaining bandits ha-

of our brother emperor of Constantino- rassed us from the mountain slopes

ple. Isaac II Angelus. we sustained no lit- throughout the whole wooded expanse of
tle loss in the plundering of our property Bulgaria and molested us in night attacks

and in the massacre of our men. a loss e\en though a \ast number of them were
reckoned to be clearly instigated by the dreadfully tortured in turn by all kinds of

emperor himself. [The alliance of West- de\ices by our army.

ern and Eastern Christendom against the

perceived Muslim threat was riddled with Frederick went on to write that Isaac II had

mutual dislike and distrust.] For some "infringed e\en single agreement, sworn in
bandit archers, lurking in dense thorn his name and on hisbehalf by his chancellor"
bushes by the public highway never and by his threats had almost withdrawn from

Holy Roman Emperor

Frederick Barbarossa stands
in a ship during the
Crusades. Seventy-year-old
Frederick's journey was one
of the most harrowing of the
crusaders.

Life During the Crusades

 —

Frederick drowns while trying to cross the Calycadnus River. Without their
leader. Iiis army quickly disbanded.

them "the right to exchange and trade." And Anatolia. He drowned en route to Antioch on
he told of several defenses — felled trees, June 10, 1190, trying to cross the shallow Ca-
great rocks, and refurbished fortifications lycadnus (Goksu) River. Leaderless, his army
put in them by the Byzantine
place against fell apart, thus contributing greatly to the fail-
emperor, adding: "But we Germans, sup- ure of the Third Crusade.
ported by heavenly aid, used Greek fire [a po- With regard to Frederick's death, Ibn al-
tent incendiary mixture, usually containing Muslim historian,
Athir, a thirteenth-century
pitch, used to spread fire] and reduced the had not deigned to show his
writes: "If Allah
defenses and stonework to embers and benevolence toward the Muslims by having
ashes." Lastly. Frederick noted that after the king of the Germans perish . . . today we
spending twelve weeks camped in Philip- would be writing: Syria and Egypt formerly
popolis, Bulgaria: "We have lost more than a belonged to Islam." 69
hundred pilgrims who by d\ing have gone to Of the inestimable thousands of knights
the Lord. Many of our pilgrims from our em- and soldiers killed during the Crusades, ex-
pire are held captive in Constantinople perts can only speculate as to how many died
Frederick eventually patched up his somewhere along the way, never to reach the
problems with Isaac II and proceeded into field of battle.

The Many Paths to Jerusalen

 —

Sword and Scimitar: Battling

S for God and Allah

armies of the First Crusade

The
(1096-1099)—under the principal lead-
ers Raymond of Toulouse, Robert of
Normandv, and Godfrey of Bouillon
crossed Europe to Constantinople, assem-
bling there in the spring of 1097. They pro-
ceeded across the Bosporus in May of that
year and entered the domain of Kilij Arslan,
Seljuk sultan of Rum. The crusaders first

forced him to surrender Nicaea, his capital

city, on June 19, after a siege of more than
seven weeks. The anonymous author of Gesta
Francorum [Deeds of the Franks), reputedly a
follower of Bohemund of Taranto, paid trib-
ute to the fighting qualities of the Turks:

What man is so learned and wise that he A twelfth-century French depiction of the
can describe the prudence and warlike crusaders taking control of Nicaea, the capital of
skill and courage of the Turks? Certainly the Seljuk sultanate of Rum. in 1097.
if they had always been firm in Christian-
ityand had been willing to confess the ar- of their terrifying arms? Their lances
ticles of our creed, no man would have flashed like sparkling stars; their helmets
found stronger or brayer men, or more and mailcoats like the glimmering light of
skilled in warfare; yet, by God's grace, our a spring dawn. The clashing of their anns
men had the upper hand. 70 was more terrible than the sound of thun-
der. When they prepare themselves for
The crusaders next defeated Kilij Arslan s battle they raise their lances high and
Turks at the Battle of Dorylaeum on July 1. then advance in ranks, as silently as
1097, thereby opening the route to Antioch. though they are dumb [mute]. When they
According to Peter the Monk, a scholarly draw close to their adversaries then, loos-
French monk of St. Remy, Kilij Arslan attrib- ing their reins, they charge with great
uted his defeat at Dorylaeum to men force like lions which, spurred by hunger,
thirst for blood. Then they shout and
who do not fear death or the enemy . . . grind their teeth and fill the air with their
Who could bear the sight of the splendor cries. And they spare no one. 71

Life During the Crusades

The crusading armies then marched \ irtuall) we wiic .ill numb with astonishment and
unhindered across \su Minor to tatioch ver) frightened ( kxlfre) <>i Bouillon and
During protracted siege .it Intioch, From
.1 his brother, Baldwin count oi Boulogni
October 1097 to June 1098, the crusaders were fighting bravel) in the siege tower,
overcame the heat, treacherous terrain, and Then one ol our knights, l.elhold l>\
the fluid tactics ol a nomadic enerm in learn- name, climbed up on to the wall ol the
ing lu'w to defeat tin Muslims city. As soon as he had climbed .ill the
1
it

defenders ol the cit\ lied along the walls

and through the citv and our men. lollow
The Fall of Jerusalem ing I ,ethold, chased alter them, lolling and
dismembering them as far as the Temple
On June 9, L099, tin- crusaders reached ol Solomon. And in that place there was
Jerusalem and placed the cit\ under siege. such a slaughter that we were up to our
Godfrey ol Bouillon had by thru emerged as ankles in their blood.
the principal leader. Five weeks later the) as-
saulted the city in force. In Gesta Francorum, Count Raymond ol Toulouse and his forces

its anonymous author recounts the final on- stormed the cit\ from the south, forcing the
slaught like this: defenders to surrender and open the gate.
The anonymous author continues:
On Friday 15 Jury 1099, early in the morn-
ing, we attacked the citv from all sides, but Our pilgrims entered the city, and chased
we could make no headway against it, and the Saracens, killing as they went, as far as

Routes of the
First Crusaders
North
Atlantic
Ocean

Robert of Flanders

— — — — Raymond ol Toulouse

Godfrey of Bouillon

Bohemundof Taranto

Sword and Scimitar: Battling for God and Allah

 the Temple of Solomon. There the enemy Land, which drew the attention of Europe for
assembled, and fought a furious battle for the next two hundred vears.
the whole day, so that their blood flowed
all over the Temple. At last the pagans

were overcome, and our men captured a The Second Crusade

good number of men and women in the
Temple; they killed whomsoever they A second expedition to the Holy Land led —
wished, and chose to keep others alive. by Conrad III, emperor of Germany and
—
Louis VII, king of France failed to recap-
The conquering crusaders spent the remain- ture territory lost to the Muslims after the
der of the dav "seizing gold and silver, horses First Crusade. The armies of the Second Cru-
and mules, and houses full of riches of all sade (1147-1149) set out for the Holy Land
kinds." The nameless scribe finishes his ac- by separate routes. The Germans followed
count this way: the same general route as the First Crusade;
the French traveled a longer route, clinging
In the morning our men climbed up cau- to the coast to stay within Byzantine territory
tiously on to the roof of the Temple and
attacked the Saracens, both male and fe- After taking Jerusalem, Godfrey of Bouillon gives
male, and beheaded them with un- thanks at the Holy Sepulcher, considered the site
sheathed swords. The other Saracens ofJesus' tomb. The fall of Jerusalem ended the
First Crusade.
threw themselves from the Temple.

Then our men held a council, and gave

out that everyone should give alms and
pray that God would choose whom he
wished to reign over the others and rule
the city. They further gave orders that all

the dead Saracens should be cast out on

account of the terrible stench; because
nearly the whole city was crammed with
their bodies. The Saracens who were still

alive dragged the dead ones out in front of

the gates, and made huge piles of them, as
big as houses. Such a slaughter of pagans
no one has ever seen or heard of; the
made were like pyramids. 72
pyres they

Eight days after the city's fall, the cru-

saders elected Godfrey of Bouillon as
Guardian of Jerusalem. He declined the title

of king. The First Crusade ended with the

capture of Jerusalem and the establishment of
the Crusader (or Latin) States in the Holy

[£!1 Life During the Crusades

 \ / t60 French depiction of
Conrad III and Louis \ II
(
entering 'onstantinople
during die Second (
'rnsade

as much Both armies engaged

as possible. he mounted his ass. hung a cross around
hostile forcesand took severe losses along the his neck, took two more in his hand and
way. By the time Conrad and Louis merged hung another round the ass's neck. He
forces in Jerusalem in 114S. both had lost had the Testaments and the crosses and
most ot their troops. the Holv Scriptures set before him and
Once united, the two kings deeided to at- assembled the army in his presence: the
taek Damascus, the seizure of which would only ones to remain behind were those
drive a wedge through Muslim territory. "The guarding the tents. Then he said: "The
military idea was a good one. " argues histo- Messiah has promised me that today 1

rian Henrx Treece. "but the crusaders had shall wipe out this city." At this moment
neither the force required nor the friendship the Muslims opened the city gates and in
between Germans and French which would the name of Islam charged as one man
75
have made such a nunc possible." into the face of death. Never, in pagan
After besieging the city for only lour daws, times or since the coming of Islam, was
the two kin^s withdrew their dispirited armies there a day like this. One of the men of
in the face of sporadic Muslim counterat- the Damascus militia reached the Priest,
tacks. Sibt ibn al-Jauzi. a thirteenth-century who was fighting in the front line, struck
Syrian historian, epitomizes the humiliating his head from his body and killed his ass
crusading reversals of the Second Crusade as too. As the whole Muslim army bore
follows: down upon them the Franks turned and
fled. The Muslims killed 10,000. smote
The Franks had with them a great Priest their cavalry with Greek fire, and pursued
with a long beard, whose teachings thev the army as far as the tents. Night sepa-
obeved. [During] the siege of Damascus rated them, and in the morning the

Sword and Scimitar: Battling for God and Alia

 —

Franks were gone and no trace of them

remained. 74

Conrad III, a proud man, embarked im-

mediately thereafter for Germany, shaken
and disgusted; Louis VII returned to France
a short time later."The effect of this great
movement was detrimental to the Frankish
position in the Holy Land," writes military
analyst John F Sloan. "In addition, the fiasco
so discredited the whole crusading idea that
75
efforts to recruit a new forcein 1150 failed."

The Third Crusade

Following the loss of Jerusalem on October 2,

1187, and most of the Holy Land after the

Battle of Hattin in July 1187, to the Muslim
forces of Saladin, sultan of Egypt, a third
campaign was mounted against the Muslims,
principally headed by Richard I Coeur de
Lion ("Lions Heart," or Lionheart), king of
England. The key events of the Third Cru-
sade (1189-1192) were the two-year siege of
Acre, the key seaport for Jerusalem; Richard's
"fighting march" down the Mediterranean
coastline to Jaffa, culminating "in an en-
counter outside Arsuf (7 September) in which
Saladin s forces were routed"; 7 and Richards
''
advance on Jerusalem.
Baha' ad-Din, who served with Saladin at
Acre, later recorded his recollections of the
sultan's courage in the face of Richard the Li-
Richard the Lionheart led die Third Crusade
against Saladin, but he died before he could
retake Jerusalem.
Saladin galloped from battalion to battal-
ion inciting his men to fight for the Faith.
. . . The Sultan moved through the ranks
crying: "For Islam!" his eyes swimming
with tears. Every time he looked toward
Acre and saw the agony she was in and
the disaster looming for her inhabitants,
he launched himself once more into the
attack and goaded his men on to fight.
That day he touched no food and drank
only a cup or two of the potion prescribed
for him by his doctor. Night fell, the
. . .

onheart s assault on the seaside city in 1191: Sultan returned to his tent after the final
evening prayer, exhausted and in anguish,
The Sultan, who learned of the assault and slept fitfully. The next morning he
from eye-witnesses and by an agreed sig- had the drums beaten, marshalled his
nal from the garrison —
a roll of drums army and returned to the battle he had
mounted his horse and ordered the army left the night before.
77

to mount and attack the enemy. A great

was fought that day. As deeply con-
battle Saladin's courageous attempts to save the city
cerned as a mother bereft of her child, ended in failure. The Muslim garrison in Acre

Life During the Crusades

surrendered to Richards crusaders on |ul\ The rhird (
'rusade failed t<> recapture
12, 1191. [erusalem But it restored the military bal
Almost a year months oi
later, after ance to the Franks and l<>r ih.it it was consid
marching and campaigning, Richards loins cicd successful
moved resolute!) tow. nil Jerusalem The/rin-
erarium regis Ricardi, a chronicle oi Richards
crusading travels and experiences, describes The Fourth Crusade
his approach to the 1 loK c "it\

In 1 198 Pope Innocent 111 raised a crusade in

On Frida) 12 [une 1 102 a sp) informed
France, hoping to attack the scat oi Muslim
king Richard that some Turks were am-
power in Egypt. Hut he lost control of the ex-
bushing travellers in the hiDs, Earh in the
pedition. Through a scries of political machi-
morning he set out from Brit Nuba
nations l>\ Crusading leaders to install a Latin
[twelve miles from [erusalem] to find
ruler in Constantinople, the Fourth Crusade
thorn, and surprised them at dawn h\ the
1202-1204 ended in tragedy. Elizabeth Hal
spring oi Emmaeus. In the attack twenty
lam. acclaimed scholar of medieval history,
Turks won- taken and the rest scattered.
writes:
The only prisoner to he spared was Sal-
whose dure it was
adin's personal herald,
Saladin, leader oj the Muslim army, gained ureal
to announce Three camels,
his decrees.
respect for Richard the Lionheart.
horses, mules and some fine Turkomans
[Turkic-speaking people of central Asia]
were captured. The king also obtained
two good mules laden with precious silk
garments, as well as main kinds of spices.
including aloes.

Richard hunted the Saracens closely as

thev fled through the hills, killing as he
went. Pursuing one of them into a valley,

he had just unhorsed him. pierced and dy-

ing, and was crushing him underfoot when

he looked up. There, afar off. the city of

Jerusalem appeared before his eves.""

Richard the Lionheart never reached

Jerusalem. On September 2. 1192. Richard,
wean and bv then losing interest in the cam-
paign, agreed to a treatv with Saladin. "I will
return in three years to conquer the Holv
Land." Richard wrote to the sultan. Saladin
replied: "If I must lose the Hole Land, there
is no one to whom I would rather lose it than
-

the English king."

Sword and Scimitar: Battling for God and Allah

 In 1204 the army of the Fourth Crusade est cities in the world you could find such
attacked and sacked Constantinople, treasure as we found in Constantinople.
capital of the Byzantine Empire, seat of The Greeks used to say that two-thirds of
the patriarch of the eastern church, and the world's wealth was concentrated in
treasure-house of a magnificent her- Constantinople and the other third scat-
itage, cultural, artistic, and intellectual, tered throughout the rest of the world. 81
that stretched back to the heyday of the
Roman Empire. 80 Crusading leaders commandeered innumer-
able Byzantine palaces that also contained
Robert of Clari, a humble knight and great treasures, such as the palace of
noted chronicler of the Fourth Crusade, de- Boukoleon, occupied bv Boniface, marquis of
scribed the booty that awaited the conquerors Montferrat and commander of the victorious
of Constantinople: army. Shortly after the city fell to the cru-
saders, Baldwin, the first Latin emperor of
There was so much treasure heaped up Constantinople, rewarded the marquis by
there, so many precious gold and silver granting the land of Salonika to him. But the
vessels, cloth of gold and rich jewels, that marquis enjoyed his new wealth and promi-
it was a wonder to behold. Never since nence for only three years.
the beginning of the world has such In 1207 Boniface, while returning from
wealth been seen or been won not in — Adrianople with a small party of knights, was
Charlemagne's day, nor even in Alexan- ambushed by a band of Bulgarians. As re-
der's. I do not think that in the fortv rich- ported by Geoffrey of Villehardouin, a cru-

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Life During the Crusades

sading leader and loyal subordinate ol the rhose who werenearest to tin- marquis
marquis, upon hearing his rear guard raise a held I up he Was losing SO much hlood
in n

en ol alarm, Boniface that he began to faint Realizing that the)

could expect no further help from their
leapt on Ins horsf. all unarmed as he was. leader, his men gave wa) to panic and be
with onK a lance in lus hand, When he ran to desert him So. In an unluck)
reached the place where the Bulgarians chance, the) were defeated. Those who
were at grips with the rear-guard, he remained with the marquis and there
charged right in amongst them, and drove wereven lew were killed. The Bulgari-
them back a good way. ans CUt oil the marquis's head and sent it

to [ohanitza. That was one ol the greatest

\v he flev* alter them, the marquis was la- jo\s the king ol Wallaehia [a region in
talk wounded in the thick of the arm. be- south Romania] had ever experienced
low the shoulder blade, and began to lose
blood. When his men saw what had hap- \s a result of the Fourth ( !rusade, the cru-
pened, their courage began to ebb, the) sading movement moved further awa) from
lost their heart ami started to give wax. spiritual motivation ami church control and

Joinville's Priest

Except during the First and Third Crusades, horseback saw their lords flying towards
the crusaders failed in achieving most of diem, they spurred forward to rescue them,
their objectives. But their failures resulted while at the same time some tiftv of our
not through a lack of valor. In Chronicles of sergeants came rushing out of camp. The
the Crusades, edited hi/ Elizabeth Hallam, mounted Saracens continued to urge on
Jean de Joinville. a French nobleman who their horses, but not daring to attack our
participated in the Seventh Crusade, re- footmen, thev suddenly swerved aside.
counts the following example of individual After the\ had done this two or three
heroism. Under a shower of arrows from times, one of our sergeants grasped his
eight of the Saracens' leading officers, one of lance b\ the middle and hurled it at one of
Joinville's priests left camp alone and the Turks, so diat it stuck him between the
ribs. The wounded man turned back with
"advanced towards the Saracens, trailing his the lance hanging by its head from his body.
spear behind him under his arm. with the On seeing this the Turks no longer dared to
point towards the ground, so the Saracens advance, and retreated before us. . . . From
should not catch sight of it. that time onwards my priest was very well
When he came near the Saracens, who known throughout the army, and one man
scorned him because they saw he was all or another would point him out and say:
alone, he quickly drew his spear from under Look, that's my Lord of Joinville's priest.
'"

his arm and ran at them. Not a single one of who got the better of eight Saracens.
the eight thought of defending himself, but
all turned and fled. When the Saracens on

Sword and Scimitar: Battling for God and Allah

 In a bizarre tarn of events,
the crusaders, who have
pledged to uphold
Christianity, ransack and
loot Constantinople, the seat

of Christianity in the East.

more toward political and economical stimuli Blade of the Victor

and state control.The sacking of Constantino-
ple effectively marked the end of Byzantine
dominance in die East. But the Franks' rule
Constantinople was neither long nor happy.
"The simple-minded, bluff European
stood no more chance of survival there than
he had done earlier in the wind-blown waste
Henry Treece, master narra-
of Svria," attests
tor of the Crusades. "By 1261 the crusaders
had become so decadent that the ever-surging
primitives about them, the Bulgarians and
Serbs, the Wallachians and the Greeks, beat
them out of Constantinople like figures of
mockery in an old play."*3
Four more crusades followed over the next
in sixty-eight years and are generally considered
to have fallen short of their objectives. Most
historians regard only the First and Third Cru-
sades as having been successes, and the latter
only moderately so. Comments Will Durant,
"The power and prestige of the Roman Church
were immensely enhanced by the First Cru-
84
sade, and progressively damaged by the rest."
Ultimately, when the clank and clang of sword
against scimitar echoed for the last time across
the Holy Land, it was the curved blade of Islam
that was sheathed in victory.

Life During the Crusades

 The Crusader States:
Christian Life in the Shadow
of Islam

Crusade, most or prince." This colonizing effort In the

After the First ol the cru- kni'j;

saders returned home. But a Fev re- Western invaders surprised the vanquished
mained in the Hok Land to establish Muslims, .is noted In ( ieorges Tate:
Christian colonics, namely, Baldwin in the
Count) o\ Edessa, Bohemund in the princi- Lor the Muslims the loss of Jerusalem
palit) of Antioch, Raymond in the count) of hail been a religions defeat, but not a
Tripoli, and Godfrey in the kingdom ol great disaster. The) assumed that, like

Jerusalem. Technically, the Greek emperor, to other invaders, the Franks would either
whom the crusaders had pledged their alle- eventuall) move on or gradually assimi-
giance in Constantinople, ruled over late. To the surprise of the Muslims and
Jerusalem, and Jerusalem hold nominal feudal Eastern Christians, the Franks were not
authority over the other three Latin states. In
reality, however, die crusaders disavowed their Godfrey remained in the Hohj Land and
pledges to the Byzantine ruler and pledged established a Christian colony in Jerusalem.

themselves anew to the pope in Rome. More-

over, the four Latin states operated more as a
loose confederation than as a unified sover-
eignty ruled bv the king of Jerusalem.

A Powerful Coalition

These colonies became known as the Cru-

sader (or Latin) States. "With Muslim Syria
divided among its many factions, the four
Latin states —Jerusalem. Antioch, Edessa,
and Tripoli — formed a powerful, if fragile,

coalition," writes French historian Georges

Tate, a specialist in the history of the East
from the third centurv B.C. to the twelfth cen-
tury AD. "Their strength came from the solid-
itv of their political institutions, which con-

ferred a large measure of authority on the

The Crusader States: Christian Life in the Shadow of Islam

 like other invaders. They sought to domi-
nate the people they had defeated.
distinguished between victor and van-
quished, Frank and non-Frank, on the
basis of origin and religion. There was no
solidarity between the crusaders who set-
tled in the East and the native popula-
tions. The Franks —
Roman Catholic and
originally from Europe —
clustered in the
cities. Periodic waves of immigration in-
creased their numbers, but they re-
mained a minority, separated from the
5
rest of the people by a huge rift.*
Establishing the
siege [of Antioch] lasted seven months and
They was ended with typical Norman ruthlessness
and craft by Bohemond; who got in touch
with Firuz, one of the besieged Turkish emirs
known to be tired of the whole affair," writes
Henry Treece. "He was promised all safety
and honors if he would betray the city.' ss But
Bohemund stipulated that the emirs safety
was contingent upon himself being made
when it fell.
prince of that citv
The emir did his job. "The tower which he
commanded overlooked the valley; its gates
were opened, and a large number of Franks
managed to get in by using ropes," reported
Arab historian Ibn al-Athir about a century
later. In the subsequent confusion, one of the

Crusader States city gates was opened inadvertently. "The

Frankish army entered through the open gate,
Edessa became the first of die four Latin states ransacked the town and killed any Muslims
sy
established in the East as a result of the First that thev came across." After several months
Crusade. Baldwin of Boulogne left the crusad-
ing army at Konya in Asia Minor, in October Baldwin of Boulogne (on horseback) ruled the
1097 and proceeded east into Cilicia in search Latin state of Edessa after overthrowing Prince

of land and booty. When

he reached Edessa, Thoros.

then ruled by the unpopular Prince Thoros, a

Byzantine subject, Baldwin allegedly con-
spired to overthrow the prince. "Baldwin dis-
covered e\il counsellors in Edessa, traitors who
plotted with him to have Thoros killed and
promised to hand Edessa over to him," writes
Matthew of Edessa, an Armenian chronicler.
"Baldwin agreed to join them." 86
According to Albert of Aachen, Thoros
tried to escapefrom his would-be usurpers,
but they "immediately shot him down in the
middle of the street, with a thousand arrows.
And cutting off his head, they carried it fixed
on a spear through all the quarters of the city
foreveryone to mock." ST Baldwin readily suc-
ceeded Thoros and became Prince Baldwin of
Edessa.
The principality of Antioch became the
second Crusader State in 1098. "The grim

Life During the Crusades

 mountain Lebanon t<> tins da)
villages ol
writes crusading authority Malcolm Billings
"The Assassins 01 Hashishiyun Muslim i

Shiite seel renown .is political assassins] were

.ilso neighbors ol the Pranks in Syi ia < h ig

inally from Persia Iran the Assassins estab

lished themselves in .1 group ol castles easl ol

Antioch and Tripoli during the earl) 1 100s.

I .istlv the kingdom <>l [erusalem was
founded on Friday, Jul) 15, 1099. It stretched
from just north ol Beirut and extended south
ward along the coast to just south ol ( la/a \

edge oi the desert

string oi castles along the
encompassing Palestine and continuing as far
south as the Red Sea marked its eastern
boundary. "On the eighth da) after the cit) was
captured, [the crusaders] chose Godfre) of
Bouillon as ruler of the city [advocate of the
Hok Sepulcher and Guardian ol [erusalem],
to subdue the pagans and protect the Chris-
tians," scribed Fulcher of Chart res. "So too
they chose as patriarch that wise and noble
man by the name of Arnull, on I August
1099." 92 Godfrey reigned for only a year before
he died, probably of disease. He lived just long
enough to ensure the survival ol the infant

After a seven-month-long siege, crusaders storm Christian state. His brother. Baldwin, count of

Antioch, ransacking the town and slaying its Edessa. succeeded him and was crowned
Muslim inhabitants. Baldwin I, the first king of Jerusalem.

of haggling with Raymond of Toulouse for

possession and control of Antioch. "Bohe- Unique in Its Time
mond." in the words of Will Durant, "became
90
by grateful consent Prince of Antioch." The new kingdom of Jerusalem was unique in
Immediately to the south of Antioch. in a its time, its makeup and government, its pop-

narrow of land between Mount

strip ulation mix, and the way its people lived. Mal-
Lebanon and the coast, Raymond of colm Billings, a scholar of the crusading phe-
Toulouse founded the county of Tripoli. nomenon, explains how Jerusalem partially
"Southern French made up the bulk of the governed and otherwise interacted with the
European settlers who ruled a mainly Mus- other three Latin states:

lim population: among the Christian minori-

ties were the Maronites [Syrian Christians] The fledgling crusader states [the leaders
who have maintained their identity in the of the First Crusade] founded were a

The Crusader States: Christian Life in the Shadow of Islam

 crusader states governed themselves, and
Latin States After pursued foreign policies that suited their
the First Crusade regional aspirations at the time. The King
and the ruling lords devolved the admin-
istration further by granting large
still

and towns or castles to fief

tracts of land
holders who were given a free hand in the
93
way they ran their lordships.

With respect popu-

to the multicultural
lace in the Latin East, over which the Christ-
ian conquerors seized control, Jonathan
Phillips, a historian of that era, comments:

The settlers [crusaders] had conquered

an area inhabited by a bewildering variety
of races and creeds. There was a native
Jewish population; Druzes; Zoroastrians;
Christians such as Armenians, Maronites,
JERUS( I£M
i7 SELJUK and Nestorians, together with a
TURKS Jacobites,
W
!M I sizeable Greek Orthodox community.
County of Edes sa
.
J
There were also Muslims: both Sunni and
Fv f x
\
Principality of P ntioch
Shi'i. Some Europeans were familiar with
Kfe"-'^;] County ot Tnpo i

AQA8A the eastern Mediterranean [not] on ac-

| Kingdom of Jer usalem
count of pilgrimage and commerce[,] but
because the crusaders wanted to capture
potpourri of race and religion and to gov- and settle the Holy Land[,] the relation-
ern them the crusader lords superim- ship between the Franks and the indige-
posed the sort of feudal society they were nous population was very different to that
familiar with in the \\ est, with the Crown in any of their previous encounters.
[Jerusalem] presiding over a collection of
quasi-independent fiefs: Antioch was An important element in the process of
legally separate because technicallywas it settlement was the Latins' treatment of die
a vassal state of the [Byzantine] Empire; native inhabitants. The early years of the
the counts of Tripoli and Edessa were conquest were marked by a series of mas-
personally vassals of the Kings of sacres, probably as a result of a policy
Jerusalem but otherwise their counties whereby sites of religious or strategic sig-
were semi-independent: the crusader nificance were to be reserved to Chris-
lords of Palestine were obliged to render tians. But it soon became apparent that
military service to the King of Jerusalem this was counterproductive.
and accept his judgements, handed down
by the Higli Court, which was composed The crusaders found themselves in a situation
of his chief vassals. But by and large the in which they had acquired so much territory

Life During the Crusades

 Baldwin I Arranges His Own Funeral

Baldwin I. tin- first king of Jerusalem, con- the and exertion the) could muster,
skill

tracted a fatal disease during a raid againsl the) Ins corpse hack to
should can)
tin- Katimid caliphate m Egypt in Ills In [erusalem, and bur) it next to his brother
Historia Hierosolymitona, twelfth-centui) ( Sodfre) ol Bouillon.
Christian historian Albert of Aachen writes
about Baldwins last requests (as excerpted 1 lis followers protested that it would be im-
in Elizabeth HallanVs Chronicles of the possible to preserve his corpse in the sum-
Crusa mer heat, whereupon he instructed them:

Baldwin told all who were present. vei) \s soon as I die. I entreat \ou to open
insistently and appealing to their good my stomach with a knife, embalm my
faith, that if he died, they should never body with salt ami spices and wrap it in

bury his body in am grave in the land of a skin or hangings, and in this wa\ it

the Saracens, lest it he held in derision ma) he taken hack to a Christian fu-
and mocken by the infidels, hut with all neral in Jerusalem and buried next to
my brothers grave."
Without delay he summoned Addo
the cook, who was one of the house-
hold, and he bound him with an oath
concerning the cutting of his stomach
and die throwing-out of his internal or-
gans. He also said to him: 'You know-
that I am shortly to die. On this subject,
as you love me. or as vou used to love
me when I was alive and well, so should

you keep faith with me when I am dead.

Disembowel me with the knife; rub me
inside and outside especially with salt:
fill my eves, nostrils, ears and mouth

generously; and be sure to take me back

with the rest. In this way know that you
are fulfilling my wishes, and believe you
are keeping faith with me in this mat-
ter.' And so it was arranged.

_"=t Surrounded by his faithful troops, Baldicin

§g| on }iis deathbed after returningfrom
lies

The Crusader States: Christian Life in the Shadow of Islam

that they "lacked sufficient manpower to re- Within the houses would be pillows and
buildand defend urban communities. In con- divans stuffed with fine down for the trav-

sequence their approach to the local popula- ellers to recline upon. The floors would
tion changed." 91 be of brightlv colored mosaic: the dishes
A twelfth-century Muslim writer, appar- of wrought copper: there would be ivon
ently impressed by the way Christians dealt boxes caned as delicately as lace, con-
with those of other religions when he was trav- taining preserved fruits, almond paste
eling through Palestine, writes. "We passed and fragrant spices. And always there
through a series of villages and cultivated would be quietlv smiling women dressed
lands all inhabited by Muslims, who live in in fine muslin, their anus and legs jingling

great well-being under the Franks." He noted with bracelets of gold, silver and bur-
that they were paying less tax under the Chris- nished copper.
tians than they had before. "One of the chief
tragedies of the Muslims is that they have to Nor would newcomers lack for medicinal aid
complain of injustices of their own rulers, in times of sickness or injury or after too main-
whereas they cannot but praise the beha\ior sips of the grape:
of the Franks, their natural enemies. May Al-
lah soon put an end to this state of affairs!"*' Even the medicines for the sick had
about them the air of magic — potions
containing opium and powdered gold,
Christians in the pastes of rose-jellv and spiced cream for
Crusader States delicate stomachs —so different from the
crude northern "remedies" the crusaders
Insofar as Christian life in the Crusader States had known: tinctures drawn from earth-
is concerned, it is perhaps no overstatement worms; poultices of adder's flesh,
to say that few can improve on Henry Treece s pounded together with wood-lice and spi-
terse commentary on how the mystical quali- ders; broth compounded of human
ties of the Latin East must have appeared to brains, oil, wine, and ants' eggs. 96
new comers from the West, "many of them
still boys": For those adventurers from the \\ est who
proved incapable of coping with the extrava-
The towns of the Holv Lands must have gances and temptations of the East, and there
seemed incomparably beautiful: white were many, the mesmerizing mystique of the
houses, decked with laurels and vines, East worked in adverse ways:
their doors and windows protected by
striped awnings, standing along the steep The average European adapted himself
and narrow roads: and where roads met, quickly to the rich and civilized life of
cool fountains playing, and white doves Jerusalem without regrets. Quickly he
hovering in the sunlight: turbaned and learned to smoke opium, and to make use
bearded Armenians speaking with naked of the Negro slaves who were so easilv
black Africans: olive-faced Creeks or Vene- procurable from Genoese and \ enetian
tians arguing with sallow Arab or yellow- shipment. Any crusader who had spent
haired men from the far north. . . . more than five years abroad tended to

Life During the Crusades

 The Lion and the Ox
\ Crusader St<it> * were established
tlii' Some alread) possess here homes and ser-

Land, FulchercfChartres wrote

in tin Holt/ vants winch the) have received through in-

about "The Latins in the Levant" in Hook III heritance. Sonic have taken wives not

of his Chronicles, The following account oj merely ol their own people, bul S) nans, or

Fulcher is extracted, in part, from Edward Armenians, or even Saracens who have re-
Peters's The First ( Irusade: ceived tin- grace ol baptism. Some have
with them father-in-law, or daughter-in-law,
"Consider, I pray, and reflect how in our or son-in-law. or step-son. or step-father.
time C-ool has transferred the West into the There arc here. too. grandchildren and
Kast Forwe who writ' Occidentals now great-grandchildren. One cultivates vines,
have been made Orientals. He who was a another the fields. The one and the other
Roman or a Frank is now a Galilaean, or an use mutually the speech and the idioms of
inhabitant of Palestine. One who was a citi- the different language'. Different languages,
zen of Rheims or Chartres now has been now made common, become known to both
made a citizen of Tyre or of Antioch. We races, and faith unites those whose forefa-
have already forgotten the places of onr thers were strangers. As it is written, 'The
birth: al reach they have become unknown lion and the ox shall eat straw together."'
to many of us. or. at least, are nnmentioned.

speak Arabic with a fair accuracy and to area known as the Levant. To do so, the major
think of new arrivals from Europe as "for- Levantine ports had to be captured and forti-

eigners." No longer did one cause, or one fied, along with other inland areas. This, of
leader, excite his interest. Indeed, sur- course, led tomore fighting and spawned the
rounded bv a wealth of luxuries he had development of a system of crusader castles.
never known before, and in a climate that According to R. C. Smail, a noted historian of
seemed to absolve the average European crusading warfare, the Frankish colonists oc-
from \iolent he soon lost all desire
action, cupied existing castles and
to serve am cause or master whose needs
were different from his own. new castles were built in those areas into
which it was desired to cam' the Latin do-
Concludes Treece: "Out of such luxury in- minion and in those in which force was
97
exitablv grew disunity of purpose." And dis- particularly required to support the work
unity of purpose fostered a complacency of administration or exploitation. It is easy
among the crusaders that ultimately enabled to see that therewas a military element in
the Muslims to wrest back the lands that had such use of fortified buildings, but it was
for centuries belonged to Islam. fused with administrative, economic, and
In order to secure and sustain the Cru- social considerations.
sader States in the East, it was essential to

control some 625 miles of coastline along the The walled town and castle are seen most
eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, the clearly as military instruments during the

The Crusader States: Christian Life in the Shadow of Islam

 ct)ons

A thirteenth-century plan of
Antioch shows the city's

walls and gates.

Fortifications like these
helped the crusaders
maintain control of the Latin
states in the East until the
end of the century.

crusaders' conquest and settlement in
Syria, and during the great Muslim
counter-attacks on the Latin states. When
the Franks were the invaders, the castle
was used as an offensive weapon. When
they themselves were invaded, the castles
were the final refuge of their authority. 98
The fall of Acre in 1291 marked the end
of the Christian dominions in the East. Dur-
ing the next centurv, according to military his-
torians R. Ernest Dupuv and Trevor N.
Dupuy, "the crusading spirit died a lingering
99
death." Crusading movements of one kind
or another continued for several centuries.
Some modern historians view the Crusades as
extending over seven centuries in many the-
aters of war. But the interest of most histori-
ans fades abruptlv with the conclusion of the
numbered crusades in 1272.

Life During the Crusades

 The Crusading Spirit and the
March of Civilization
had been made' intolerant In attack.
Will"theDurant described the Crusades
culminating of the medieval
act
as sity,

The Palestinian and Syrian ports that had

drama, and perhaps the most pic- been captured for Italian trade were
turesque event in the history of Europe and without exception lost. Moslem civiliza-

the Near East." Few students of that era tion had proved itself superior to the
would disagree. At tin* same time, most histo- Christian in refinement, comfort, educa-
rians speak with a single voice in pronouncing tion, and war. 100
the Crusades a failure. Durant himself Opines:
Feudalism recovered but with great diffi-
Of their directand professed purposes culty. Both the western and eastern Roman
the Crusades had failed. After two cen- Empires were severely weakened; the regime
turies of war. Jerusalem was in the hands in Constantinople never regained its former
of the ferocious Mamluks [Egyptians], power or stature. The Christian Church and
and Christian pilgrims came fewer and its leaders suffered enormous losses in pres-

more fearfvil than before. The Moslem tige and influence. Nor did Islam escape the
powers, once tolerant of religious diver- deleterious effects of the Crusades, for it also

Christians return home after

the First Crusade. Overtime
the territory won during the
hard fought battles was
taken from the crusaders.

The Crusading Spirit and the March of Civilization

 — —

suffered an erosion of strength and later fell sades, ends his three-volume history with a
victim to the Mongol flood from the East. high degree of moral indignation:

The triumphs of the Crusades were the

"A Long Act of Intolerance" triumphs of faith. But faith without wis-
dom is a dangerous thing. ... In the long
Through two centuries of Holy Wars, the sol- sequence of interaction and fusion be-
diers of Christ won many battles but overall tween Orient and Occident out of which
lost the wars. Steven Runciman, perhaps the our civilization has grown, the Crusades
dean of modern-day historians of the Cru- were a tragic and destructive episode. . . .

A Crusader Laments Leaving His Love

To have perfect joy in paradise Do I believe that I can stay away
I must leave the land I love so much, From you, whom I used to kiss and to
Where she lives whom I thank every embrace,
day. Nor have I in me such power of absti-
Her body is noble and spirited, her nence.
face fresh and lovely; A hundred times a night I shall recall
And my true heart surrenders all to your beautv:
her. It gave me such pleasure to hold your
But my body must take its leave of her; body!
I am departing for the place where When I no longer have it I shall die of
God suffered death desire.
To ransom us on a Friday.
Good Lord God, if I for you
Sweet love. I have a great sorrow in my Leave the country where she is that I
heart love so,
Now that at last I must leave you, Grant us heaven everlasting joy,
in
Withwhom have found so
I much My love and me, through your mercy,
good, such tenderness, And grant her the strength to love me,
Joy and gaiety to charm me. So that she will not forget me in my
But fortune by her power has made long absence,
me For I love her more than anything in
Exchange my joy for the sadness and the world
sorrow And I feel so sad about her that my
I will feel for many nights and many heart is breaking.
days.
Thus will I go to serve my creator. From a translation by Louise Riley-Smith in
No more than a child can endure The Crusades: Documents of Medieval His-
hunger tory. Reprinted in Malcolm Billings, The

And no one can Crusades: Five Centuries of Holy Wars.

chastise him for crying
because of it

Life During the Crusades

 There was so much courage and so little "Next to the weakening oi Christian belief,
honor, so much devotion and so little un- the duel 'effect of the Crusades was to stimu-
derstanding. High ideals were be- late the secular life ol Europe l>\ acquain-
smirched In cruelt) and greed, enter- tance with Moslem commerce and industry,"
prise and endurance b) a blind and Surmises Will Durant. "War does one good
narrow self-righteousness; and the llol\ it teaches people geography.""
War itself was nothing more than a long
act of intolerance in the name of God,
Renewal
which in itself is a sin againsl the Holy
Ghosl
"Although the crusading movement died out
In fairness to most crusaders it should be re-
in northern Europe, some ol its ideas found
membered, however, that their actions were New World." asserts
fertile soil in the Eliza-
initiated in the firm, unquestioned belief that who goes on to explain:
beth Hallam.
"Godwins it!"
Whether motivated b) God or by greed,
Monarchs who financed the voyages of
the impact of the Crusades on the individual
discovery, and the men who undertook
crusader, his family and friends, and his ten-
them, were strongly influenced by the
ants, was devastating. Historian Simon Lloyd
goals which had characterized the crusad-
submits that
ing movement. . . .

it was at this very personal and human

level that the crusading movement If modern historians of the crusades find

wrought perhaps most powerful and

its
it increasingly difficult to say when the

poignant influence for those caught up movement drew to a close, it is because

within it at the time. As in all wars, main its attributes and features can be detected
participants returned physically or men- in so manv areas of activity and thought in

tallv scarred, if thev returned at all: their the 16th century and later, in the Old

lives could never be the same again. Nor World and the New. 104
could the lives of crusaders' wives and

children,and those otherwise entwined in "The Crusades had begun with an agri-
the crusader's fate for one reason or an- cultural feudalism inspired by German bar-
other.Modern historical research is onlv barism crossed with religious sentiment."
now beginning to unearth the profundi- concludes Will Durant. "They ended with the
ties of the crusading movement's impact rise of industry, and the expansion of com-
102
at this fundamental level. merce, in an economic revolution that her-
alded and financed the Renaissance." 105 And
There were, of course, some mitigating civilization marched on from there in the
consequences emanating from the Crusades. clearer light of renewed awakening.

The Crusading Spirit and the March of Civilization

 Notts

Introduction: For God and Glorj lization \c\\ York: Simon and Schuster
L950,p.587.
1. Robert Payne, The Dream <ni<l the
Tomb A HistoryCrusades
o/" the Chapter 1: Life in the Christian West
Chelsea, MI: Scarborough House. L991,
1 1. Sherrilyn Kenyon, The Writer's Guide to
P-
27
Everyday Fife in theMiddle Ages. The
2 Quoted in Payne, The Dream and the
British Isles from 500 to 1500. Cincin-
Tomb, pp. 28-29.
nati: Writer's Digest Books, 1995, pp.
\ \mliv Corvisier, "Hoi) War," in Andre
160-61.
Corvisier and John Childs, eds., A Dic-
12. Durant. The Age of Faith, pp. 553-54.
tionary of Military History. Trans. Chris
Turner. Cambridge, MA: Black-well 13. Durant, The Age of Faith, p. 579.

Publishers. 1994. p. 359. 14. James Harpur. with Elizabeth Hallani.

4. Corvisier, "Hoi) War." in Corvisier and consultant. Revelations: The Medieval
Childs. eds.. A Dictionary of Military World. New York: Henry Holt. 1995.
History, p. 359. pp. 54—55.
5. Conisier. "Holy War," in Corvisier and 15. Peter Draper, "The Architectural Set-
Childs. eds.. A Dictionary of Military ting of Gothic Art," in Nigel Saul, ed..
History, p. 360. Age of Chivalry: Art and Society in Fate
6. Edward Peters. "Introduction." in Ed- Medieval England. London: Brock-
ward Peters, ed.. The First Crusade: hampton Press, 1995, pp. 62, 64.
The Chronicle of Fulcher of Chart res 16. Philip Warner. The Medieval Castle.
and Other Source Materials. Philadel- New- York: Barnes & Noble, 1993, pp.
phia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 189, 192.
1971. p. xv.
17. Joseph and Frances Gies. Life in a Me-
7. Marcus Bull, "Origins," in Jonathan dieval Castle. New York: Harper & Row,
Riley-Smith, ed.. The Oxford Illustrated
1974, pp. 116-17.
History of the Crusades. New York: Ox-
18. Kenyon, The Writers Guide to Every-
ford University Press, 1995. p. 16.
day Life in the Middle Ages, pp. 12-13.
8. Jonathan Rilev-Smith. "The Crusading
19. Kenvon, The Writers Guide to Every-
Movement and Historians," in The Ox-
daij Life in the Middle Ages, p. 15.
ford Illustrated History of the Crusades,
p.l. 20. Durant, The Age of Faith, p. 558.

9. Pa\iie. The Dream and the Tomb, p. 32. 21. "Middle Ages —The Peasants Life." in

10. Quoted in Will Durant, The Age of Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia, ver-
Faith: A History of Medieval Civiliza- sion 3.00, Compton's New Media, 1995.

tion — Christian, Islamic, and Judaic — 22. Kenvon, The Writer's Guide to Every-
from Constantine to Dante: AD. day Life in the Middle Ages, p. 19.
325-1300. Vol. 4 of The Story of Civi- 23. Durant, The Age of Faith, p. 559.

Notes
Chapter 2: Soldiers of the Cross Cambridge Illustrated Historyof War-
fare. New York: Cambridge University
24. Frances Gies, The Knight in History.
Press, 1995, pp. 88,90-91.
New York: Harper & Row, 1987, pp. 2-3.
25. Durant, The Age of Faith, p. 572.
Chapter 3: Life in the Muslim East
26. Ebenezer Cobham Brewer. Dictionary
39. Durant, The Age of Faith, pp. 341-42.
of Phrase and Fable, 14th ed.. Ivor H.
Evans, ed. New York: Harper & Row, 40. Georges Tate, The Crusaders: Warriors
1989, p. 392. of God. Trans. Lory Frankel. New York:
27. Quoted in A. V. B. Norman, The Me- Harry N. Abrams, 1996, p. 16.

dieval Soldier. New York: Barnes & No- 41. John Alden Williams, ed., Islam. Vol. 5
ble, 1993, pp. 151-52. of Great Religions ofModern Man. New
28. Gies and Gies, Life in a Medieval Castle, York: George Braziller. 1962. p. 132.

p. 115. 42. Quoted in Williams, Islam, p. 121.

29. Quoted in Hans Delbriick, Medieval 43. Durant, The Age of Faith, p. 222.
Warfare. Vol. 3 of History of the Art of 44. Durant, The Age of Faith, p. 222.
Warfare. Trans. Walter Renfroe Jr.
J.
45. Basim Musallam, "The Ordering of Mus-
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,
lim Societies," in Francis Robinson, ed.,
1990, p. 241.
The Cambridge Illustrated History of the
30. Nicholas Hooper and Matthew Bennett,
Islamic World. Cambridge, UK: Cam-
The Cambridge Illustrated Atlas of
bridge University Press, 1996, p. 165.
Waifare: The Middle Ages 768-1487.
46. Musallam, "The Ordering of Muslim
New York: Cambridge University Press,
Societies," in Robinson, ed., The Cam-
1996, p. 155.
bridge Illustrated History of the Islamic
31. Durant, The Age of Faith, pp. 572-73.
World, p. 169.
32. Harpur, Revelations, p. 38.
47. Musallam, "The Ordering of Muslim
33. Michael Prestwich. Armies and Warfare
Societies." in Robinson, ed., The Cam-
in the Middle Ages: The English Experi-
bridge Illustrated History of the Islamic
ence. New Haven, CT: Yale Universitv
World, p. 169.
Press, 1996, p. 227.
48. Williams, Islam, p. 130.
34. Quoted in Gies, The Kjiight in History.
p. 206. 49. Durant, The Age of Faith, p. 224.

35. Hooper and Bennett. The Cambridge Il- 50. Quoted in Williams, Islam, p. 125.

lustrated Atlas of Waifare. p. 156. 51. Durant, The Age of Faith, p. 223.
36. Quoted in Hooper and Bennett, The 52. Quoted in Williams, Islam, p. 99.
Cambridge Illustrated Atlas of Waifa re.
p. 156.
Chapter 4: Warriors of the Crescent
37. Quoted in Hooper and Bennett. The 53. Delbriick, Medieval Warfare, pp. 210-11.
Cambridge Illustrated Atlas of Warfare. 54. R. Ernest Dupuy and Trevor N. Dupuv,
p. 156. The Encyclopedia of Military History,
38. Bernard S. Bachrach, "On Roman Ram- New York: Harper & Row, 1977,
rev. ed.
parts." in Geoffrey Parker, ed.. The pp. 199-200.

Life During the Crusades

 55 Dupu} and Dupuy, The Encyclopedia oj 6, . Quoted in Elizabeth Hallam, ed.,

Military History, p. 200. ( of the I 'rusades. Godalming,

'hronicles

56 |ahn Matthews and Bob Stewart, War- UK: Bramle) Hooks. L996,p.66.
riors of Christendom: Charlemagne, II 68. Quoted in Hallam, Chronicles of the
('/(/. Barbarossa, Richard Lionheart. C 'rusades. pp. 173 74.

Poole, Ik Firebird Books, L988, pp. 69. Quoted in Tate, The Crusaders, p, 1 17.

58 !

57 Matthews and Stewart, Warriors oj Chapter tt: Sword and Scimitar:

Christendom, p. 59.
Battling for God and Allah
58. Lawrence D. Higgins, "Arab Tactics," in 70. Quoted in Hours Troooo, The ('nisades.
Franklin D. Margiotta, ed., Brassey's Now York: Barnes & Noble, 1994. p. 100.
Encyclopedia of Military History and
71. Quoted in Jonathan Riley-Smith, The
Biography. Washington, DC: Brassey's,
First Crusade and the Idea of Crusad-
1994. p. 57.
ing. Philadelphia: University of Pennsyl-
59. Matthews and Stewart. Warriors of
vania Press, 1994, p. 148.
Christendom, p. 60.
72. Quoted in Hallam, Chronicles of the
60. David Bongard, "History, Medieval Mil-
Crusades, p. 93.
itary." in Margiotta, ed., Brassey's Ency-
73. Treece, The Crusades, p. 126.
clopedia of Military History and Biog-
476.
74. Quoted in Francesco Gabrieli, ed. and
raphy, p.
trans., Arab Historians of the Crusades.

Chapter 5: The Many Paths Translated from the Italian by E. J.

to Jerusalem Costello. New York: Barnes & Noble,

1993, pp. 62-63.
61. Jonathan Rilev-Smith in "Foreword" to
75. Sloan, "Crusades [1097-1291]," in Mar-
Malcolm Billings, The Crusades: Five
giotta, ed., Brassey's Encyclopedia of
Centuries of Holy Wars. New York:
Military History and Biography, p. 239.
Sterling, 1996, pp. 11-12.
76. Hooper and Bennett, The Cambridge Il-
62. Quoted in Peters, The First Crusade,
lustrated Atlas of Warfare, p. 101.
pp. 37-38.
77. Quoted in Gabrieli, Arab Historians of
63. Simon Lloyd, "The Crusading Move-
the Crusades, p. 216.
ment," in Rilev-Smith, ed., The Oxford
Illustrated History of the Crusades, pp.
78. Quoted in Hallam, Chronicles of the
34-35. Crusades, p. 193.

64. John F. Sloan, "Crusades [1097-1291]." 79. Quoted in Treece, The Crusades, p. 134.

in Margiotta, ed., Brassey's Encyclope- 80. Hallam, Chronicles of the Crusades, p.

dia of Military History and Biography, 199.

p. 238. 81. Quoted in Hallam, Chronicles of the

65. Dupuv and Dupuy, The Encyclopedia of Crusades, p. 223.
Military History, p. 312. 82. Joinville and Villehardouin, trans., with
66. Jonathan Rilev-Smith, The Crusades: A an introduction by M. R. B. Shaw,
Short History. New Haven, CT: Yale Chronicles of the Crusades. New York:
University Press, 1987, pp. 20-21. Barnes & Noble, 1993, p. 159.

Notes
 83. Treece, The Crusades, pp. 181-82. 95. Quoted in Billings, The Crusades, p. 74.

84. Durant. The Age of Faith, p. 611. 96. Treece, The Crusades, pp. 123-24.
97. Treece, The Crusades, pp. 123-24.
Chapter 7: Christian Life in the 98. R. C. Smail, Crusading Warfare (1097-
Shadow of Islam 1193). New York: Barnes & Noble,

The Crusaders, pp. 63, 66. 1995, p. 215.

85. Tate,

86. Quoted in Hallam, Chronicles of the 99. Dupuy and Dupuy, The Encyclopedia of
Military History, p. 386.
Crusades, pp. 77-78.
87. Quoted in Hallam, Chronicles of the
Afterword: The Crusading Spirit and
Crusades, p. 78.
the March of Civilization
88. Treece, The Crusades, p. 105.

89. Quoted in Hallam, Chronicles of the 100. Durant, The Age of Faith, p. 609.
Crusades, p. 81. 101. Quoted Jonathan Riley-Smith, "The
in

90. Durant, The Age of Faith, p. 591. Crusading Movement and Historians,"
91. Malcolm Billings, The Crusades: Five in Riley-Smith, ed., The Oxford Illus-

Centuries of Holy Wars. New York: trated History of the Crusades, p. 6.

Sterling, 1996, p. 71. 102. Lloyd, "The Crusading Movement," in

92. Quoted in Hallam, Chronicles of the Riley-Smith, ed., The Oxford Illustrated
Crusades, p. 93.
History of the Crusades, p. 65.

93. Billings, The Crusades, pp. 71-72. 103. Durant, The Age of Faith, p. 612.
94. Jonathan Phillips, "The Latin East 104. Hallam, "The New World," in Chroni-
1098-1291," in Riley-Smith, ed., The cles of the Crusades, p. 366.
Oxford Illustrated History of the Cru- 105. Durant, The Age of Faith, p. 613.
sades, p. 113.

Life During the Crusades

 (;l ossai\

aunilii-v: \ multitiered cabinet for displaying Franks: The Germanic tribe that conquered
banquet service objects or food before serving. Gaul alter the lull of the Roman Empire,
whence the name France.
caliph: V tide given to successors oi Muham-
mad as temporal and spiritual head oi Islam. fuller: A cloth craftsman who cleansed and
thickened newly woven fabrics.
caliphate: The office or dominion ot a caliph.

carrion: Dead and decaying flesh. Caul: Ancient country in western Europe
comprising chiefly the region occupied by
Christianity: Tin- religion derived from Je-
modern fiance and Belgium and at one time
sus ( hiist. based on tin Bible as
1
sacred scrip-
including also the Po valley in northern Italy.
ture and professed by Eastern, Roman
Catholic, and Protestant bodies. gibbet: An upright post with a projecting arm
for hanging the bodies of executed criminals
crusade: Any of the military expeditions un-
as a warning to others.
dertaken by Christian powers in the eleventh,
twelfth, and thirteenth centuries to win the Holy Sepulcher: Christ's tomb in Jerusalem.
Holv Land from the Muslims; a remedial en-
homage: An act done or payment made by a
terprise undertaken with zeal and enthusiasm.
vassal in keeping his obligation to his feudal
demesne: Land held for a lord's own use as lord.
opposed to tenured land.
Islam: The religious faith of Muslims, in-
destrier: \\ arhorse; a large, highly trained, cluding the belief in Allah as the sole deity
expertly bred horse capable of earning great and in Muhammad as his prophet; literally,
loads of man and armor under horrifying bat- "surrender" or "submission," hence the sub-
tlefield conditions in medieval warfare. mission of the true believer to the will of
Fatimids: An Arab dynasty riding in Egypt Allah, the one God.
and North Africa (909-1171), descended jihad: A holy war waged on behalf of Islam as
from Fatima and her husband Ali. a religious duty; a crusade for a principle or

fealty: Loyalty; the fidelity- of a vassal or feu- belief.

dal tenant to his lord. A religion developed among the an-

Judaism:
feudalism: A method of holding land during cient Hebrews and characterized by belief in
the Middle Ages in Europe by giving one's one transcendent God who has revealed him-
senices to the owner. self to Abraham, Moses, and the Hebrew
prophets and by a religious life in accordance
feudal lord: The master from whom men
with Scriptures and rabbinic traditions.
held land and to whom they owed senices
under the feudal system. liege: A vassal bound to feudal service; a
ruler or feudal lord.
fief: A feudal estate; something over which
one has rights or exercises control. Muslim: An adherent of Islam.

Glossan
paradigm: Something serving as an example Saracen: An Arab or Muslim at the time of
or model of how something should be done. the Crusades; a member of a nomadic people
of the deserts between Syria and Arabia.
patriarch: Any of the bishops of the ancient
or Eastern Orthodox sees [seats of power] of Seljuk: Of or relating to any of several Turk-
Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and ish dynasties ruling over a great part of west-
Jerusalem or the ancient and Western see of ern Asia during the eleventh, twelfth, and
Rome with authority over other bishops. thirteenth centuries; also Seldjuk and Seljuq.

Pechenegs: Nomadic Turks from the Russian Thrace: A region in the Balkan peninsula ex-
steppewho once threatened Constantinople; tending to the Danube.
half-brothers to the Turks in Asia Minor; also
tracery: Architectural ornamental work, es-
Petchenegs.
pecially decorative openwork in the head of a
A vertical structural support; a vertical
pier: Gothic window.
member that supports the end of an arch or
tunic: A hip-length or longer blouse or jacket.
lintel, the horizontal member spanning an
opening. vassal: A person under the protection of a
feudal lord to whom he has vowed homage
pogrom: An organized massacre of helpless
and loyalty; a feudal tenant.
people; specifically, such a massacre of Jews.
wattle: A structure of interwoven sticks or
polytheism: Relief in or worship of more
twigs, often used as the underlying frame-
than one god.
work for medieval huts.
Reconquista: The Christian reconquest of
Spain in ca. 1000-1492.

Life During the Crusades

 Chronolog) of Events

L096-1099 121S-1221
The First Crusade The Fifth Crusade

1147-1149 1228-1229
The Second Crusade The Sixth Crusade

1189-1192 1248-1254
The Third Crusade The Seventh Crusade

1202-1204 1270-1272
The Fourth Crusade The Eighth Crusade

Chronology of Events
 For Further Reading

Timothy Levi Biel, The Black Death. San ues his treatise on the Middle Ages, cov-
Diego: Lucent Books, 1989. Biel de- ering the period from 1000 to 1500.
scribes how the Black Death shattered
Eleanor Shiplev Duckett, Death and Life in
the lives of medieval people and ulti- Ann Arbor: University
the Tenth Century.
mately ended the Middle Ages.
of Michigan Press, 1991. Duckett depicts,
with charm and grace, both the evils and
-. The Crusades. San Diego: Lucent
Books, 1995. The author re-creates the good of the world during one of its least

written about periods.

series of massive military campaigns
that changed the Middle Ages and feu- Einhard and Notker the Stammerer, Two
dal society. Lives of Charlemagne. Translated by
Lewis Thorpe. London: Penguin Books,
Bullfinch's Mythology, The Age of Chivalry
1969. This volume presents two fascinat-
and Legends of Charlemagne, or Ro-
ing, contrasting perceptions of the leg-
mance of the Middle Ages. Garden City.
endary king of the Franks and first Holy
NY: Doubledav Book & Music Clubs, n.d.
Roman emperor of western Europe.
This thrilling treasury brings the epic
sagas and legends of the Middle Ages to Amy Kellv, Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four
life; and
recalls kings, knights, damsels, Kings. New York: Book-of-the-Month
noble quests. Club, 1996. Kellv reveals Eleanor's great-
ness of vision, intelligence, and political
Glyn Burgess, trans.. The Song of Roland.
sagacity.
London: Penguin Books, 1990. The old-
est extant epic poem in French: a cele- Don Nardo, Life on a Medieval Pilgrimage.
bration of the crusading and feudal values San Diego: Lucent Books, 1996. Nardo
of the twelfth century. vividly re-creates the medieval world, fo-
cusing on the importance of pilgrimages.
Robert Chazan, In the Year 1096: The First
Crusade and the Jews. Philadelphia: The Bradlev Steffens, The Children's Crusade.

Jewish Publication Societv, 1996. A San Diego: Lucent Books, 1991. A tragic

chronicle of die events of 1096, illuminat- tale of a legion of children naive enough
to think that they could recapture the
ing thepogroms unleashed bv the First
Crusade upon the Jews in the Rhineland. Holy City of Jerusalem from the Muslims
in 1212 and brave enough to try.
James A. Corrick, The Earh/ Middle Ages. San
Stephen Turnbull, The Book of the Medieval
Diego: Lucent Books, 1995. Corrick re-
Knight. London: Anns and Armour Press,
futes the popular view that the Middle
1995. Turnbull tells the story of the knight
Ages were stagnant and full of superstition.
during the fourteenth and fifteenth cen-
i
The Late Middle Ages. San Diego: turies —from the victories of Edward III to
Lucent Books, 1995. The author contin- die fall of Richard III on Bosworth Field.

Lite During the Crusades

 Works Consulted

Malcolm Billings, The Crusades: Five Cen- \ volume ol interesting ct\ mological and
turiesofHoly Wars New York: Sterling, and explanations
historical facts of me-
1996. An authoritative look at the trials dieval words and phrases.
of the crusaders and the obstacle's the)
foseph Dahmus, A History of the Middle
overcame.
Ages. New York: Barnes & Noble. 199.1.

Charles Boutell, Arms and Armour in Antiq- Traces the continuity of the Middle Ages
uity and the Middle Ages. Translated by with ancient and modern history, illumi-
M. P. Lacombe. Conshohocken, PA: nating events and personalities.
Combined Books. 1996. This hook illus-
Hans Delbriick, Medieval Warfare. Vol. 3 of
trates how armor and weaponry are
History of the Art of Warfare. Translated
closely linked to the development ol tac-
by Walter J. Rcnfroe Jr. Lincoln: Univer-
tics and the outcome of battles.
sity of Nebraska Press, 1990. The first

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer. Dictionary of modern military historian covers me-

Phrase and Fable, 14th ed.. Ivor H. dieval warfare with scholarly enthusiasm.
Evans, ed. New York: Harper & Row,
1989. One of the best-known and best-
R. Ernest Dupnv and Trevor N. Dupny, The

loved of reference books, with an aston- Encyclopedia of Military History. Rev.

ishing range of information; a bibliophiles
ed.New York: Harper & Row, 1977. A
delight.
monumental work on warfare by two
noted historians; includes an analysis of
Norman F. Cantor, ed., The Medieval Reader. the Crusades and their effect on East-
New York: HarperCollins, 1994. An in-
West relations.
triguing collection of almost a hundred
firsthand accounts of the medieval period. Will Durant, The Age of Faith: A History of
Medieval Civilization — Christian, Is-
Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia, version
lamic, and Judaic —from Constantine to
3.00. Copyright © 1994, 1995, Compton's
Dante: AD. 325-1300. Vol. 4 of The Story
New Media. The CD-ROM version of New York: Simon and
of Civilization.
the venerable encyclopedia.
Schuster, 1950. A masterful survey of the
Andre Conlsier and John Childs, eds., A Dic- achievements and modem significance of
tionanj of Military History. Translated by Christian, Islamic, and Judaic life and cul-
Chris Turner. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell ture during the Middle Ages.
Publishers, 1994. A worldwide history- of
John Fines, Who's Who in the Middle Ages.
armed warfare, including insightful arti-

on crusading warfare
New York: Barnes & Noble, 1995. A dic-
cles in the Middle
tionary of biography that chronicles the
Ages.
lives of the men and women who domi-
Madeleine Pelner Cosman, Medieval Word- nated the time between the collapse of
book. New York: Facts On File, 1996. the Roman Empire and the Renaissance.

Works Consulted
Francesco Gabrieli, ed. and trans., Arab His- Robert Maynard Hutchins, ed., Chaucer. Vol.
torians of the Crusades. Translated from 22 of Great Books of the Western World.
the Italian by E. J.
Costello. New York: Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1952.
Barnes & Noble, 1993. This book pro- Contains Chaucer's Troilus and Cressida
vides a sweeping and stimulating view of and The Canterbury Tales, with modern
the Crusades as seen through Arab eyes. English versions of both works.

Frances Gies, The Knight in History. New Joinvilleand Villehardouin, trans., with an in-
York: Harper & Row, 1987. The Los Ange- troduction by M. R. B. Shaw, Chronicles
les Times lauds this history as "a carefully of the Crusades. New York: Barnes & No-
researched, concise, readable and enter- ble, 1993. Two famous firsthand accounts

taining account of an institution that re-
mains a part of the Western imagination."
Joseph and Frances Gies, Life in a
Castle. Harper & Row, 1974.
New York:
A well-researched documentary of me-
dieval life as rightfully centered on the
castle.
, Life in a Medieval City.
Harper & Row, 1969. An excellent ac-
count of what is known of life among me-
dieval city dwellers.
Elizabeth Hallam, ed., Chronicles of the Cru-
sades. Godalming, UK: Bramley Books,
1996. Illuminates Muslim civilization as
well as the Christian West during the
Holy Wars in the Middle Ages.
James Harpur, with Elizabeth Hallam, con-
sultant, Revelations: The Medieval World.
of the Holy Wars, written by two noble-
men who fought in the French Crusades.
Medieval Sherrilyn Kenyon, The Writer's Guide to
Everyday Life in the Middle Ages: The
British Isles from 500 to 1500. Cincinnati:
Writer's Digest Books, 1995. Provides a
captivating overview of life in northwest-
ern Europe during the Middle Ages.
New York:
Franklin D. Margiotta, ed., Brassey's Ency-
clopedia of Military History and Biogra-
phy. Washington, DC: Brassey's, 1994.
Informative accounts of the world s great
wars and the men who lead them.
John Matthews and Bob Stewart, Warriors of
Christendom: Charlemagne, El Cid, Bar-
barossa, Richard Lionheart. Poole, UK:
Firebird Books, 1988. The story of four
great warlords from the early medieval

New York:Henry Holt, 1995. An illus-

era and how they were influenced by the
chivalrous traditions that were beginning
trated volume that reviews the medieval
to characterize medieval culture.
period from a human perspective.

Nicholas Hooper and Matthew Bennett, The A. V. B. Norman, The Medieval Soldier. New
Cambridge Illustrated Atlas of Warfare: York: Barnes & Noble, 1993. Examines
the medieval warrior's life, training,
The Middle Ages 768-1487. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1996. An weapons and equipment, and rights and
obligations under feudalism.
invaluable companion and guide to the
role of warfare throughout the medieval Geoffrey Parker, ed., The Cambridge Illus-
period; excellent coverage of the crusad- trated History of Warfare. New York:
ing epic. Cambridge University Press, 1995. A vi-
Life During the Crusades
 Mi.il. detailed accounl ol \\.u in the West . ed., The ( hfoul Illustrated History oj

from antiquit) to present. the Crusades. New York: Oxford Univei

Mt\ Press, L995 \handbook of the Cru-
Robert Payne, lln Dream and the Tomb: A
sades, written l>\ a team ol leading Cru-
History of the Crusades. Chelsea, Ml
sade scholars.
S trborough House, 1991. S. splendidly
wrought saga of the medieval world, from Francis Robinson, ed., The Cambridge Illus-

peasant's hovel to princes palace. trated History of the Islamic World.

Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Universit)
Edward The First Crusade: The
Peters, ed.,
Press, 1996. This volume surveys the
Chronicle of Fulcher oj Chartres and
whole range of Islamic histor) and cul-
Other Source Materials. Philadelphia:
ture, from its origins in the tilth centuT)
Universit) of Pennsylvania Press, 1971. A
to the present.
collection of literary evidence dealing
with hoi) war and pilgrimage, including Nigel Saul. ed.. Age of Chivalry: Art and So-
firsthand accounts of experiences by men ciety in Late Medieval England. London:
who participated in the events ol Brockhampton Press, 1995. Medieval his-
109.5-1099. torians explore the nature of the society
that produced and patronized the arti-
James M. Powell, Anatomy of a Crusade
facts of the chivalric age.
1213-1221. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press. 1986. Powell exer- R. C. Smail. Crusading Warfare (1097-1 193 '.

cises great sensitivity toward the confu- New York: Barnes & Noble, 1995. Rare
sion of war and the plight of leaders com- information on the so-called blank period
pelled to grapple with poorly organized in the historv of the Crusades, from 1129
armies. to 1187.

Michael Prestwich. Armies and Warfare in Georges Tate, The Crusaders: Warriors of
the Middle Ages: The English Experience. God. Translated bv Lorv Frankel. New
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996. A brief but
1996. Prestwich argues that on the whole revealing tale of how the Europeans ulti-
medieval warfare was no more chivalric mately defeated themselves in the bloody
than warfare of other periods. two-hundred-vear confrontation between
two worlds.
Jonadian Rilex -Smith, The Crusades: A Short
History. New Haven, CT: Yale Universitv Henry Treece, The Crusades. New York:
Press, 1987. A behind-the-scenes look at Barnes & Noble, 1994. Treece describes
the fierce battles that bloodied the sands this revolutionary period with psycholog-
of the Holy Land. ical depth as well as historical accuracy
and provides an unforgettable portrait of
The First Crusade and die Idea of
1

the crusaders.
Crusading. Philadelphia: Universitv of
Pennsylvania Press, 1994. A view of the Richard Vaughn, trans, and ed.. The Illus-
inner workings of the First Crusade, in- trated Chronicles of Matthew Paris: Ob-
cluding organization, finances, and the di- servations of Thirteenth-Century Life.
vision of authoritv and responsibility. Cambridge, UK: Alan Sutton. 1993.

Works Consulted
 A unique record of thirteenth-century life York: George Braziller, 1962. An informa-
with more than a hundred full-color re- tive overview of the youngest of the
productions of the original manuscript worlds great religions.
decorations.
Terence Wise, The Knights of Christ. Vol. 155
Philip Warner, The Medieval Castle. New of Men-at-Arms series. Martin
the
York: Barnes & Noble, 1993. A hand- Windrow, ed. London: Osprey, 1995. A
somely illustrated volume explaining why concise, informative, well-illustrated (by
and how castles were built and why they Richard Scollins) summary of the military
dominated medieval life. orders in the Holy Land.

John Alden Williams, ed., Islam. Vol. 5 of

Great Religions of Modern Man. New

Bill Life During the Crusade

 hid o\

Abu-Bakr, 12 Boniface (crusader), 6 1 65 tor knighting ceremony,

Bosporus, straits, 53, 58 2s
fall of, 74 Boukoleon, palace of, 64 Muslim, 37, 10 II

Alexius I Comnenus, 9-12, Brindisi, Italy, 5 t of peasants and nobles

I Bulgarians. 6 I 65 23-24
Allah, 36 Byzantine Empire, 8, 35, 66 Conrad 111.60-62
Anatolia, 57 Constantinople. 8, 9. 11. 58,

tatioch, 36, 49, 57-59, 67 caliphate. 42-43 75

as Crusader State, 68-70 Canterbury Tales attacked during the
Arabs Chaucer). 27 Fourth Crusade, 64-66
family life of, 37—38 castles. 19-20 Christian attempt to
dso Muslims in Jerusalem. 73-74 regain, 10-11

armor, 47-4S chanson de geste (epic as destination in People's

Arslan, Alp, 9 poems), 33-34 Crusade, 52-54

Arslan. Qilij (Kilij), 53.58 Charlemagne, 17 crusaders, 50-52
11,
Assassins, the, 69 chevauchee (raid), 32 Crusader States, 60, 67-69
Augustine, St., 12
chivalry, 31. 32 Crusades

Christendom, 10. 12, 13, 35

consequences of, 66,
Baha' ad-Din. 62
75-77
affected by the Crusades,
Baghdad. 36. 39
75
Dieit li volt! (God wills
bailiff. 18-19
it!), 14,45
Baldwin of Boulogne. 59 Christian Church
end of, 74, 77
funeral of, 71 attitude towards warfare,
misconceptions about, 15
as leader of Edessa, 67, 68 12
reasons for, 65-66
as leader of First Crusade. encourages pilgrimages, 9
see also First Crusade;
53-54 split of, 8
Fourth Crusade;
Barbarossa. Frederick, Christians, 49
People s Crusade;
56-57 in Crusader States, 72-74
Second Crusade;
Battle of Dorylaeum, 58 vs. Muslims, 35, 42^43,
Third Crusade
Battle of Hattin, 62 45, 75
cuirass, 29
Battle of Manzikert, 9 \ices of, 42
Bedouins, 36 citadel, 36 Damascus, 36, 39, 61
Beirut, 69 cities, Islamic, 39 deaths. 57
Bible. 37, 61 Civetot, 53 destrier, 33
Bohemund of Taranto, 54, Clermont, 12-14, 52 divorce, 37-38
58, 67, 68, 69 clothing, 20 Drakon, 53

Index
 1

dwellings gambling, 42 as Crusader State, 67,

in Jerusalem, 72 gauntlets, 29 69-70, 72

Muslim, 38-40 Gaza, 69 as destination of First

peasant, 23-24 Germans, 60-62 Crusade, 50-55

see also manor house Godfrey of Bouillon, 53, 58, seized by crusaders,

59, 67, 69 59-60

East (Eastern World), 8, 13,
as leader of Jerusalem, 60 Jews, 8, 43
72 Greek Orthodox Church, jihad, 11
Edessa, 67, 68 8-9, 10-11 Jihad fi Sabil Allah , 1

Egypt, 63 Hakim, al-, 9 Joinville, Jean de, 65

England. 17
harem, 40
hauberk, 29 knighthood
faith, 45, 76
Helenopolis, 53 ceremony for, 28-30
families
Historia Hierosolymitana training for, 25-28
Arab, 37-38
(Albert of Aachen), 71 see also tournaments
fanning, 18
holidays, 13, 24 knights, 50, 52
feudalism, 18-24
Holv Land. See Jerusalem expenses on Crusades, 15
affected by Crusades, 75
Holv Sepulcher, 11, 13 misconceptions about,
defined, 15-16
horses. See warhorses 33-34
origins of, 17
houses. See dwellings see also chivalry
feudal lord, 17-20
Hugh of Vermandois, 54 Koran, 37, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45
Fez, 40
Field of Blood, 49 Hungary, 53
languages, 73
Fifth Crusade, 55
Iberian Peninsula, 49 Latin Church, 8-9, 12
First Crusade, 45, 53-55,
Ibn al-Athir, 57 Latins in the Levant
58,66
deaths caused by, 54-55 'idda (ritual time), 37 (Fulcher of Chartres), 74

routes of, 59 Ilghazi of Mardin, 49 laypeople, 13, 16

food, 21-22 Innocent III (pope), 63 Levant, 72

Muslim, 41-42 Iran, 39 liquor, 41-42

Fourth Crusade, 63-66 Isaac II Angelus, 56-57 lords. See feudal lords

France, 14, 17, 54 Islam, 9, 11,42 Louis VII, 60-62

Franks, 12, 13, 49, 74 affected by the Crusades,

attack Antioch, 68-69 75 Mamluks (Egyptians), 75

in People's Crusade, 53 laws of, 36-37 manor house, 17-20
ruling Constantinople, 66 rise of, 45-47 Manzikert, Battle of, 9
ruling Jerusalem, 67-68, Islamic Empire, 8, 35 markets, 36
72 '

Maronites, 69
in Second Crusade, 60-62 jallabii/ah (robe), 41 marriage, 37-38
in Third Crusade, 63 James of Vitrv, 55 meat, 41
Fulcher of Chartres, 51 Jerusalem, 9, 13, 14, 49, 72 medicine, 72

Life During the Crusades

 1 1

men, role of, 3" ^

s plaisance tournament I, 31 sultan. 12. 13

Mesopotamia, 16 prayer, 1 S) ii. i 36, 66, 7 I

Middle ^ges, 15, 17, 19,24 Pyrenees, 17

unlit. in systems, 15 Tancred, 5 l

Mongols, 75 l\.i\ mond oi Toulouse, 53, Temple ol Solomon, 60

Moors, 17, W 58 59 60, 67. 69 Third Crusade, 56 62 63,

mosques, 35, ;s razzia (raid), is 66

muezzin, 44 Beconquista, 47. 19 deaths caused by, 56
Muhammad the Prophet, 8, Richard 1 the Lionheari . routes ol, 64
12, 16 62 -63 Thoros, Prince, 68
consequences oi death Robert of Clari, 64 Thrace. 1 I

of, 36 Robert of Flanders. 10. 54 tournaments. 25. 29. 30 32

as Islam's lawgiver, 8, 1 Robert of Normandy, 54, 58 Tripoli. 69
Muslims. S-9. 12 Roman Catholic Church, 8 Tughan Arslan ibn Khnlaj
vs. Christians, 35, 42-43. Roman Empire, 8 Turks. 9-10,49. 53
75 Romanus IV Diogenes, 9 Seljuk. 9

Islam and, 36 Rome, 8 as warriors. 58

lifestyle, 42 rouncev, 33 see also Muslims
prayer and. 44
also Arabs: Turks Saladin. 62-63 ulama (scholars), 37
Salonika. 64 Umayyad Caliphate, 47
Nicaea, 44. 53. 58 Sans-Avoir, \\ alter, 52 Urban II (pope), 10-14
nomads. See Bedouins Saracens, 59-60, 63, 65
see also Arabs; Muslims vassal, 18
opium. 72 sea travel, 55 villages, 22-24
Second Crusade, 60-62 violence, 12, 52
page, 26 deaths caused by, 61
Palestine. 8, TO Seljuk Turks, 9 warhorses, 33
peasants. 15, 17-18 slaves. 72 weapons, 47-49
foods. 21-22 soldiers women
lifestyle, 22-24 foot, 16, 32-34 Arab, 37-38
Pechenegs, 11 Muslim, 49 role of, 40, 43
People's Crusade. 52-53 reasons for fighting, 15 see also marriage
deaths caused by, 53 see also crusaders
Peter the Hermit. 52. 53 Spain, 47, 49 Yemen, 39
Philip of Flanders, 32 spices, 22
pilgrimages. 9 squire, 26-28
pilgrims, S-9. 57. 75 Stephen of Blois. 51, 54

Index
 Picture Credits

Cover photo: \K.C London Historical (\>stnin< in Pictures, Dover Publi-

\ivlmc PhotOS, 1:2. 5 I cations, Inc.,© 1973. 2d 2S 34 37 38
Corbis-Bettmann, 27, 50, 56, 57, 68 Erich Lessing \rt Resource, NY, 19
s Illustrations of the Crusades, Gusta> Library of Congress, 17. 62
Dove. Dover Publications, Inc., © 1997. North Wind Picture Archives, 8, is 19. 21.

51,1 '.71
Giraudon Art Resource, NY. 13, 42. (SI
Heck's Pictorial Archive oj Military Science.
tgraphy and History, Ed. }. G. Heck,
Dover Publications. Inc.. © 1994. 16. 29.
JO, 31,41,75
22. 23. 33, 35, 36, 58, 60, 67. 74
JeffParis.40,44
A.M. RosabVArt Resource, NY. 26
Weapons 6 Armor, Ed. Harold H. Hart,
Dover Publications. Inc.. © 197S. 45, 4S

Picture Credits
 About the Author

Earle RiceJr. attended San Jose City College and Foothill College on the

San Francisco peninsula, after serving nine years with the U.S. Marine
Corps.
He has authored twenty-three books for young adults, including fast-
action fictionand adaptations ofDraeula, All Quiet on the Western Front.
and The Grapes of Wrath. Mr. Rice has written numerous books for Lu-
cent, including The Cuban Revolution. The Salem Witch Trials. The Final
Solution. Life Among the Plains Indians, and seven books in the popular
Great Battles series. He has also written articles and short stories, and has
previously worked for several years as a technical writer.
Mr. Rice is a former senior design engineer in the aerospace industry
who now devotes full-time to his writing. He lives in Julian, California,
with his wife, daughter, two granddaughters, four cats, and a dog.

Life During the Crusades

 I

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