Renaissance Art

The Renaissance saw a rise in individuality and humanism. People began to do things because they enjoyed them rather than for God's glory. Part of the cause of this was an interest in Greek and Roman writings. The humanists aspired for universal knowledge through the Classical writings, as well to a universal truth and faith. (Wandel 77). One of the main ideas of humanist philosophy was that humanity was unique, the link between the mortal world and the spiritual one. This concept became the core of Renaissance style (Wandel 77).

The term Renaissance, adopted from the French equivalent of the Italian word rinascita, meaning literally "rebirth," describes the radical comprehensive changes that took place in European culture during the 15th and 16th centuries, bringing about that demise of the Middle Ages embodying for the first time the values of the modern world.

Michelangelo Di Lodovico Buonarroti Sumoni, was an Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect, and poet who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western Art. Michelangelo drew and helped paint the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. He drew everything in the chapel by himself and then he had professional painters come in and paint it, but he also helped with the painting. Michelangelo was apart of the High Renaissance period.

Michelangelo's drawings and paintings of the Sistine Chapel.

Renaissance artists studied perspective. or the differences in the way things look when they are close to something or far away. Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452 in the village of Vinci. His name means Leonardo of Vinci. Leonardo began his career working for a master painter in Florence. By 1478, Leonardo left his master and set up his own workshop. People have been trying to guess the secret behind the smile of his Mona Lisa, ever since he painted it around 1505. His Last Supper shows clearly the different feelings of Jesus and his followers.

Leonardo's fame grew, but not just for his painting. Leonardo was truly a "Renaissance Man," skilled in many fields. He was a scientist and an inventor as well as an artist. He made notes and drawings of everything he saw. Leonardo invented clever machines, and even designed imitation wings that he hoped would let a person fly like a bird.

The Mona Lisa that was one of Leonardo's paintings.

The Last Supper that Leonardo did.

Renaissance scholars studied the ancient Latin and Greek texts, scouring the monastic libraries of Europe for works of antiquity that had become obscure, in their quest for improving and perfecting their worldly knowledge. This was in complete contrast to the transcendental spirituality that medieval Christianity stressed. However, that does not mean that they rejected Christianity. On the contrary, much of the greatest works of the Renaissance period was devoted to it, with the Church patronizing a lot of the works of Renaissance art. However, there were subtle changes in the manner in which the intellectuals began to approach religion, which affected the cultural life of the society, which in turn influenced the artists of that period and hence was reflected in their art.

The Remaining Crusades after the fourth

After the fourth crusade there were many other crusades. The fifth crusade was from 1218 to 1221. The leaders were Pelagius, cardinal legate and John of Brienne, King of Jerusalem. Pope Innocent III called another crusade in 1213. Most of the Christian leaders were busy fighting eachother, and his request fell in deaf ears; the Christians didn't want another defeat. So, he found another way to launch a crusade, by appealing to the regular Christian citizens who were idle. In return he offered indulgence for every Christian who joined the fifth crusade. The crusaders left for Acre in 1217 and joined leaders John of Brienne, and Pelagius.

After some success in the Holy Lands, a large army from Germany and Holland prepared to reach the Holy land and re-capture Jerusalem. In June 1218, the crusaders attacked Damietta, an important Egyptian settlement. The Sultan Al-Adil was unprepared, but the city resisted the crusaders. It took the crusaders several months and thousands of lives to enter Damietta, but once they did looted it for several days finding enough loot to inspire them to attack Cairo next, their only obstacle to a powerless Egypt and an open road to Jerusalem. The fifth Crusade was the last crusade organized by the church where different nations fought jointly to recover the Holy Land. The sixth Crusade was the next attempt to fight the Muslims.

The sixth crusade started in 1249. It was led by the western emperor, Fredrick II of Germany. He had promised to continue on with the sixth crusade even though he was excommunicated (kicking out of the church). Frederick, after much procrastination. set off to the Holy Land with a formable army in 1228. There was really no fighting involved for the Syrians would not support a ruler at odds with the Pope and Frederick was too smart to fight when he could get what he wanted by diplomacy. There was tranquillity in the Holy Land for 15 years, and the peace raised the Latin's of Palestine to a prosperous condition. The results of the crusades were lost through the quarrel between the pope and the emperor.

The seventh crusade was from 1248 to 1254. It resulted when the Egyptians Mamelukes routed a local Christian army in 1244. It was led by Louis IX of France (Saint Louis), this also attacked Egypt, but failed amid great suffering.

The eighth Crusade was in 1270. Louis's second attempt to invade Muslim Africa, which ended in failure when he died. The ninth Crusade was from 1271 to 1272. It never actually reached the Holy Land, despite being led by Prince edward of England.

The most curious crusades were those preached against several enemies of the papacy, most notably against Fredrick II Von Hohenstaufen. In the 14th century, the French popes in Avignon raised several crusading armies to campaign Italy against those who supported German, rather than papal rule. Through this time the French popes had taken refuge in Avignon, the political situation in the Italian Papal states being to hostile to allow the popes and their servants to live in Rome.

Scenes from the seventh crusade.

Map of the Fifth crusade.

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The First Crusade

The first crusade played a very important part in Medieval England. The first Crusade was an attempt to re-capture Jerusalem. After the capture of Jerusalem by the Muslims in 1076, any Christian who wanted to pay a pilgrimage to the city faced a very hard time. Muslim soldiers made life very difficult for Christians and trying to get to Jerusalem was filled with danger for a Christian. This greatly angered all Christians.

Those who volunteered to go to fight the Muslims cut out red crosses and sewed them on their tunics. The french word "croix" means cross and the word changed to "croisades" or crusades. The fight against the Muslims became a Holy War. Many people did volunteer to fight in the First Crusade. There were true Christians who wanted to reclaim Jerusalem for their belief and get the Muslims out of the city. There were those who knew they had committed sin and that by going on the Crusade tehy might be forgiven by God. They had also been told by the pope that if they were killed, they would automatically got to heaven as they were fighting for God.

The first crusade had a very difficult journey getting to the Middle East. They could not use the mediterrean sea as the Crusaders did not control the ports on the coast of the Middle East. Therefore, they had to cross land. They travelled from France through Italy, then Eastern Europe and then through what is now Turkey. The covered hundreds of miles, through scorching heat and and also deep snow in the moutain passes. The Crusaders ran out of fresh water and according to a survivor of the Fisrt Crusade who wrote about his experiences after his return, some were reduced to drinking their own urine, drinking animal blood or water that had been in the sewage. Food was brought to them but it was very expensive.

After the success of the Crusaders, the Kingdom of Jerusalem was created and its first king was Godfrey of Bouillon who was elected by other crusaders. He died in 1100 and was succeeded by his brother Baldwin of Boulogne.

The capture of Jerusalem did not end the Crusades as the Crusaders wanted to get rid of the Muslims from the whole region and not just Jerusalem. The desire led to the other Crusades.

The Fourth Crusade

The author of the Fourth Crusade was the famous pope, Innocent III. Young, enthusiastic, and ambitious for the glory of the Papacy, he revived the plans of Pope Urban II and sought once more to unite the forces of Christendom against Islam. No emperor or king answered his summons, but a number of knights took the crusader's vow. None of the Crusades, after the Third, effected much in the Holy Land; either their force was spent before reaching it, or they were diverted from their purpose by different objects and ambitions. The crusaders of the Fourth expedition captured Constantinople instead of Jerusalem. 

The leaders of the crusade decided to make Egypt their objective point, since this country was then the center of the Muslim power. Accordingly, the crusaders proceeded to Venice, for the purpose of securing transportation across the Mediterranean. The Venetians agreed to furnish the necessary ships only on condition that the crusaders first seized Zara on the eastern coast of the Adriatic. Zara was a Christian city, but it was also a naval and commercial rival of Venice. In spite of the pope's protests the crusaders besieged and captured the city. Even then they did not proceed against the Muslims. The Venetians persuaded them to turn their arms against Constantinople. 

The possession of that great capital would greatly increase Venetian trade and influence in the East; for the crusading nobles it held out endless opportunities of acquiring wealth and power. Thus it happened that these soldiers of the Cross, pledged to war with the Muslims, attacked a Christian city, which for centuries had formed the chief bulwark of Europe against the Arab and the Turk. 

The crusaders, now better styled the invaders, took Constantinople by storm. No "infidels" (unbelievers) could have treated in worse fashion this home of ancient civilization. They burned down a great part of it; they slaughtered the inhabitants; they wantonly destroyed monuments, states, paintings, and manuscripts- the accumulation of a thousand years. Much of the movable wealth they carried away. Never, declared an eye witness of the scene, had there been such plunder since the world began. 

The victors hastened to divide between them the lands of the Roman Empire in the East. Venice gained some districts in Greece, together with nearly all the Aegean islands. The chief crusaders formed part of the remaining territory into the Latin Empire of Constantinople. It was organized in fiefs, (great pieces of land) after the feudal manner. There was a prince of Achaia, a duke of Athens, a marquis of Corinth, and a count of Thebes. Baldwin, Count of Flanders, was crowned Emperor of the East. Large districts, both in Europe and Asia did not acknowledge, however, these Latin rulers. The new empire lived less than sixty years. At the end of this time the Greeks returned to power. 

Constantinople, after the Fourth Crusade, declined in strength and could no longer cope with the barbarians menacing it. Two centuries later the city fell an easy victim to the Turks. The responsibility for the disaster which gave the Turks a foothold in Europe rests on the heads of the Venet. 

Pope Innocent III

The Third Crusade

Not many years after the second crusade, the Muslim world found in the famous Saladin a leader of the holy war against the Christians. Saladin in character was a typical Mohammedan, very devout in prayers and fasting, fiercely hostile toward unbelievers, and full of the pride of race. To these qualities he added a kindliness and humanity not surpassed, if equaled, by any of his Christian foes. The third Crusade was caused by the capture of Jerusalem in 1187 by Saladin, the sultan of Egypt.  

The news of the taking of Jerusalem spread consternation throughout western Christendom. The cry for another crusade arose on all sides. Once more thousands of men sewed the cross in gold, or silk, or cloth upon their garments and set out for the Holy Land. When the three greatest rulers of Europe, King Philip Augustus of France, King Richard 1 of England, and the German Emperor, Fredrick Barbarossa assumed the cross, it seemed that nothing could prevent the restoration of Christian supremacy in Syria. These great rulers set out, each at the head of a large army, for the recovery of the Holy City of Jerusalem. 

King Richard 1 of England was the central figure among the Christian knights of this crusade. He raised money for the enterprise by; the persecution and robbery of the Jews, the imposition of an unusual tax upon all classes, and the sale of offices, dignities, and the royal lands. When some one expostulated with him on the means employed to raise money, he declared that "he would sell the city of London, if he could find a purchaser."

The English and French kings finally mustered their forces beneath the walls of Acre, which city the Christians were then besieging. It is estimated that 600,000 men were engaged in the investment of the place. After on of the longest and most costly sieges they ever carried on in Asia, the crusaders at last forced the place to capitulate, in spite of all the efforts of Saladin to render the garrison relief. The expedition of the French and English achieved little, other than the capture of Acre. Philip and Richard, who came by sea, captured Acre after a hard siege, but their quarrels prevented them from following up this initial success. King Philip soon went home, leaving the further conduct of the crusade in Richard's hands. 

With so many trouble besetting him, Richard knew that he would have to settle the dispute over the Kingdom once and for all. He went back to Acre in April of 1192, summoned the barons of the kingdom, and asked for advice. All the barons now spoke for Conrad; only Guy's own kin would side with him. Given the precarious situation, Richard now reversed his support and agreed that Conrad should be made a king. Not least in Richard's calculations must have been the knowledge that once Conrad was king, he would bring his forces and join in the Crusade. Richard was now anxious to go home, but again events conspired to delay him. Rebellion had broken out in Saladin's family and he was busy dealing with that. In May, then, Richard went south to Daron and easily captured it. The Crusaders had now re-captured every coastal fortification that had been lost. The time seemed right to make another attempt on Jerusalem So, on June 7, 1192, Richard again set out to free the Holy City. He again drew close, within a few miles, but Saladin was there waiting for him. The two armies skirmished occasionally throughout the month, but no serious fighting developed. Richard could not risk a siege, for his army was not large enough. For his part, Saladin did not want to risk a pitched battle; all he had to do was defend Jerusalem and eventually the English king would have to retire. 

It worked. On July 4, Richard ordered a retreat. Many in his army were deeply disappointed, but the experienced commander was convinced that to attack Jerusalem would be to risk the entire army. He returned to Jaffa and again entered into negotiations with Saladin for a truce. While negotiations were proceeding, Richard moved up to Acre, to be ready to sail as soon as the treaty was signed. On July 27, Saladin took advantage of Richard's absence to make a sudden assault on Jaffa. The city fought for three days, but was badly outnumbered. Saladin's troops plundered and slaughtered, and the garrison retreated to the city's fortress. The Muslims were glutting themselves on the town's supplies and it took Saladin some time to bring them back to order.

The final treaty was signed on September 2, 1192. By its terms, Jerusalem would remain in Muslim hands, but Christian pilgrims were to be allowed to visit it, and all the holy places, freely and safely. The towns along the coast that the Christians had recovered would remain in their hands, except for Ascalon. It was to be returned to Saladin, but with all its fortifications demolished. There would be peace in Palestine for five years. It was not what had been hoped for, when the three greatest European monarchs had set out, three years previously. But the loss of Barbarossa had been a grievous blow, and Philip's disinterest had allowed the French to withdraw at every convenient excuse. The English alone were not enough to win back the City on the Hill.

The Third Crusade failed in its main objective: Jerusalem remained in Muslim hands. That it was regarded as a failure can be seen in the actions of Europeans: Henry VI was soon planning a new Crusade set for 1196.  Henry died on the very eve of his crusade and Germany fell into civil war, but the leadership was taken up almost immediately by the new pope, Innocent III. The English and the French were too preoccupied with their struggle against one another to try again right away, so there was no new efforts from that quarter, either. Yet, the Third Crusade did succeed in a very important way: it preserved Outremer. The valiant defense of Tyre by Conrad of Montferrat could not have been kept without reinforcements from the West. And Guy's mad assault on Acre would never have succeeded without those same armies. Because of the Third Crusade, Outremer still clung to a narrow strip of cities along the coast of Lebanon and Palestine, and those cities could serve as the basis for future efforts to reclaim Jerusalem. Moreover, the victories had served as a significant counter-balance to Saladin's early victories, and he emerged from the Third Crusade not quite as invincible as he had at first appeared. 

The Third Crusade also led to the acquisition of Cyprus by the Latins. This was a major addition to Outremer and one that outlasted the mainland. Its acquisition was important not only because it created a new crusader state, but also because it had been taken away from the Greeks. With Cyprus in Latin hands, the Byzantine Empire could no longer threaten Antioch from the sea. The Third Crusade also gave birth to the Teutonic Knights. This military order was formed at Acre by survivors of the German Crusade. They were never as important in the Holy Land as either the Templars or the Hospitallers, but they always maintained a contingent and were there at the end in 1291. The Teutonic Knights played an extremely important role, however, in the conquest of the Baltic Slavs and the history of Poland, Livonia, and Lithuania. Finally, in failing to regain Jerusalem, the Third Crusade marks the beginning of forty years of almost continuous crusading from Europe. None enjoyed very great success, and certainly none could claim even the modest victories on the field of battle that Richard had won.

The second crusade

The second Crusade much like the first, was a responce the a Muslim invasion of the city Edessa. The Muslims presented a greater threat now than before simply because the early Muslims of the first Crusade were not united but isolated weaker Muslim groups. The leader of the attack on Edessa and reunification of the Muslims was Imad ad-Din Zangi (1084-1146), ruler of Mosul and Aleppo. The papacy proclaimed the Second Crusade in 1145. King of France, Louis VII, and Holy Roman Emperor, Conrad III were among the people who chose to march against the Muslims. Conrads German army left in May 1147, the French followed about a month later. In Anatolia the Germans fell into an ambush, many didn't survive. The French suffered the same fate ,however, at least half of the army made it. After consulting with King Baldwin III of Jerusalem, the Crusaders attacked Damascus in July. They couldn't take the city and shorlty after the French king took what was left of his men and returned home.

The success of the Christians in the First Crusade had been largely due to the disunion among their enemies. But the Muslims learned in time the value of united action, and in 1144 A.D. they succeeded in capturing Edessa, one of the principal Christian outposts in the East. The fall of the city of Edessa, followed by the loss of the entire county of Edessa, aroused western Europe to the danger which threatened the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and led to another crusading enterprise. In the interval between the Second and the Third Crusade the two famed religious military orders, known as the Hospitallers and the Templars were formed. A little later during the Third Crusade still another fraternity, known as the Teutonic Knights was established. The objects of all the orders were the care of the sick and wounded crusaders, the entertainment of Christian pilgrims, the guarding of the holy places, and ceaseless battling for the Cross. These fraternities soon acquired a military fame that was spread throughout the Christian world. They were joined by many of the most illustrious knights of the West and through the gifts of the pious acquired great wealth and became possessed of numerous estates and castles in Europe as well as in Asia. The second crusade helped to crystalize Muslim feeling and was of special importance in the long range relations between East and West in the Middle Ages. 

In 1147–49, the Second Crusade, championed by the abbot Bernard of Clairvaux, attempted to take Damascus in Syria. The campaign was a dismal failure because the Muslims had regrouped. Led by Salah al-Din (Saladin), Muslim forces advanced across Syria and finally retook Jerusalem in October 1187. By the end of the Third Crusade (1189–92), however, Crusader forces had gained Cyprus and the city of Acre. With each crusade, relations between the Byzantines and the Western forces became more estranged. 

The Second Crusade, though begun under the most favorable auspices, had an unhappy ending. Of the great host that set out from Europe, only a few thousands escaped annihilation in Asia Minor at the hands of the Turks. Louis and Conrad, with the remnants of their armies, made a joint attack on Damascus, but had to raise the siege after a few days. This closed the crusade. As a chronicler of the expedition remarked "having practically accomplished nothing, the inglorious ones returned home." The strength of both the French and the German division of the expedition was wasted in Asia Minor, and the crusade accomplished nothing.

Even more important, perhaps, was the deterioration of relationships between Byzantium and the Crusaders and between the princes of the West and the rulers of the Latin states in the East. Most important of all, in the final analysis, was the effect of the Second Crusade upon the Muslims. The failure of the Crusade to achieve any victories whatever in the East emboldened Muslim military leaders, destroyed the myth of Western prowess in arms, and was to be responsible, at least in part, for causing the Muslim states of the East to draw closer together, to unite for further attacks upon the Latin states .

Charlemange

Charlemagne is the king of the Franks. He journeyed to Rome to help Pope Leo III, head of the Catholic church. On Christmas Day, Charlemagne, his family and a host of visitors crowed into Saint Peter's Basilica to attend mass. Pope Leo placed a crown on Charlemagne's head. "In keeping with ancient tradition, the people in the church shouted, "Long life and victory to Charles Augustus, crowned by God the great and peace-loving Emperor of the Romans. Charles had become the first Roman emperor since 476. This Roman emperor was actually a German king, and he had been crowned by the head of the Western Christian Church. The coronation if Charlemagne was a sign not of the rebirth of the Roman Empire but of the emergence of a new European civilization that came into being in western Europe after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. This new civilization, was formed by the coming together of three major elements. The Germanic peoples moved in and settled the Western Roman Empire, the legacy of the Romans, and the Christian Church. By 800, this new European civilization was taking shape. Increasingly, Europe would become the center of what we call Western civilization. European civilization emerged and developed during a period that historians call the Middle Ages or the medieval period. It lasted who first used the title, the Middle Ages was a middle period between the ancient world and the modern world. 

Charlemagne was a determined and decisive man who was highly intelligent and curious. He was a fierce warrior, a strong statesman, and a pious Christian. Although he was unable to read or write, he was nevertheless a wise patron of learning. During his lengthy rule from 768 to 814, Charlemagne greatly expanded the territory of the Frankish kingdom and created what came to be known as the Carolingian Empire. Charlemagne was a hardy warrior who undertook fifty-four military campaigns, which took him to many areas of Europe. His most successful campaigns were in Germany, especially the campaigns against the Saxons between the Elbe River and the North Sea. Charlemagne's empire covered much of western and central Europe. Charlemagne continued the efforts of his father, Pepin, in organizing the Carolingian Kingdom. 

As Charlemagne's power grew, so too did his prestige as the most powerful Christian ruler. In 8oo, Charlemagne acquired a new title, emperor of the Romans. Charlemagne welcomed the new title. After all he was now an emperor on the same level as the Byzantine emperor. Charlemagne's coronation as Roman Emperor demonstrated the strength of the idea of an enduring Roman Empire. His coronation took place 300 years after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. It also symbolized the coming together of those Roman, Christian, and Germanic elements that made up the basis of European civilization. 

Charlemagne had a strong desire to revive learning in his kingdom, and attitude that stemmed from his own intellectual curiosity as well as from the need to provide educated clergy for the church and literate officials for the government. His efforts led to a revival of learning and culture that some historians have labeled a Carolingian Renaissance, or rebirth of learning. 

Charlemagne died in 814. After his death in the 9th and 10th centuries, western Europe was beset by a wave of invasions. The Muslims raided the southern coasts of Europe and sent raiding parties into southern France. The Magyars, a people from western Asia, moved into central Europe at the end of the ninth century and settled on the plains of Hungary. 

When royal governments could no longer defend their subjects, people turned to the local landed aristocrats or nobles to protect them. It became important to find some powerful lord who could offer protection in return for service. This led to a new political and military system known as feudalism.

Modern depiction of the crusades

Depiction means in a picture or scripture. The Crusades started after five centuries of Islamic Jihad had conquered and annihilated, or forcibly converted, over two-thirds of what had formerly been the Christian world. The crusades were actually expensive, many of the crusaders had to sell their property to raise money for the long journey to the Holy Land and knew that their chances of returning alive were slight.  Most who did manage to survive and return came back with nothing material to show for their efforts. They say that Crusaders attempted to forcibly convert Muslims to Christianity. The Crusaders saw themselves as Pilgrims seeking to recapture and liberate Christian lands from vicious invaders. A Spanish Muslim Ibn Jubayr who traversed the Mediterranean on his way to Mecca in the early 1180's and found that the Muslims were far better off in those lands controlled by the Crusaders than they were in Muslim ruled lands. Muslims preferred to live in the Crusader realms because those lands were more orderly and better managed. The Crusades brought Europe time. From the first century of Islam Muslim armies were invading Europe. The constant depiction of the Crusades as a failure is not justified by the historical record. The Crusades succeeded in seizing the initiative, throwing the Muslim invaders onto the defensive, for the first time after five centuries of attack. The Crusades were more than just military exploits. They built and touched upon almost every aspect of life in the day, in fact that is especially clear when one looks at their outcome. If the popes who promoted the Crusades gained the authority to muster and army and send it on a mission, it should be noted that they never acquired the actual power of a field commander to oversee a battle or call for specific maneuvers. In the end their excursion into the armed forces did more damage than good to the prestige of the papacy. By the last Crusade, many in Europe had come to see the Pope as just another war-mongering king, not the guardian of souls who stand before heaven's gate. But in other respects, these Church-sanctioned wars brought some benefit to Medieval Europe. Crusading brought no significant new territories or allies into the European cultural sphere, at best it can be said it opened the door slightly for western traders to do business abroad, but even that proved harmful by making the Church seem commercial and greedy. Worse yet the enormous drain of energy and manpower won the West little more than increased antagonism with it neighbors in the East. 

At a critical time, the Crusades united a divided Europe, and threw the Muslim invaders back, bringing a peace and security to Europe that had not been known for centuries. As a result of the tremendous sacrifices of the Crusaders, Christian Europe experienced Spiritual Revival and Biblical Reformation which inspired a great resurgence of learning, scientific experimentation, technological advancement, and movements that led to greater prosperity and freedoms than had ever been known in all of history.

A picture of what Europe might be like today had Islam succeeded in conquering it, one can look at the previously Christian civilizations of Egypt and what today is called Turkey. The Copts in Egypt now make up just 100% of the total Egyptian population, and are severely oppressed. What today is called Turkey was once the vibrant Christian Byzantine Empire, the economic and military superpower of its day. Today the Christian civilization which had flourished there for a thousand years has all but been extinguished. The last Christian city in Asia, Smyrna, was massacred by the Turkish Army in 1922.

The crusaders were reacting to over four centuries of relentless Islamic Jihad, which had wiped out over 50% of all the Christians in the world and conquered over 60% of all the Christian lands on earth-before the crusades ever began. Many of the towns liberated by the crusaders were still over 90% Christian when the crusaders arrived. The Middle East was the birthplace of the Christian Church. It was the Christians who had been conquered and oppressed by the Seljuk Turks. So many of the towns in the Middle East welcomed the crusaders as liberators. Far from the crusaders being the aggressors, it was the Muslim armies which had spread Islam from Saudi Arabia across the whole of Christian North Africa into Spain and even France within the first century after the death of Muhammad. Muslim armies sacked and slaughtered their way across some of the greatest Christian cities in the world. Including, Alexandria, Carthage, Antioch, and Constantinople. These Muslim invaders destroyed over 3,000 Christian churches just in the first 100 years of Islam. When we think about the Middle Ages, we inevitably view Europe in the light of what t became rather than what it was. The fact is that the superpower of the Medieval world was Islam, not Christendom. The Crusades were a battle against all odds with impossibly long lines of supply and cripplingly inadequate logistics. 

An expert named Robert Spencer says that the crusades may be causing more devastation today than they ever did in three centries when most of them were fought, according to Robert Spencer. 

The Crusades

What is Jihad?

What is Jihad?

      Jihad is a "holy war". It means the legal, compulsory, communal effort to expand the territories ruled by Muslims at the expense of territories ruled by non-Muslims. The purpose of jihad, is not directly to spread the Islamic faith but to extend sovereign Muslim power. Jihad did have two variant meanings through the centuries, one more radical, and one less so. The first holds that Muslims who interpret their faith differently are infidels and therefore legitimate targets of jihad. The second meaning, associated with mystics, rejects the legal definition of jihad as armed conflict and tells Muslims to withdraw from the worldly concerns to achieve spiritual depth. Jihad in the sense of territorial expansion has always been a central aspect of Muslim life. 

  Today, jihad is the world's foremost source of terrorism, inspiring a worldwide campaign of violence by self-proclaimed

jihadist groups. For two decades, under government auspices, jihadists have physically attacked non-Muslims. Jihadists

then enslaved thousands of females and children, and forced them to convert to Islam. They sent them on forced marches,

beat them and set them to hard labor. The women and older girls also suffered ritual gang-rape, genital mutilation and a

life of sexual servitude. Sudan's state-sponsored jihad has caused about 2 million deaths and the displacement of another

4 million making it the greatest humanitarian catastrophe of our era. It would be great were jihad to evolve into nothing

more aggressive than controlling one's anger, but that will not happen simply by wishing away a gruesome reality. Jihad

obstructs serious efforts at self-criticism and reinterpretation.

Jihad is an effort to practice religion in the face of oppression and persecution. The effort may come in fighting the evil in your own heart

or in standing up to a dictator. Military effort is included as an option, but as a last resort and not "to spread Islam by

the sword" as the stereotype would have one believe. The Qur'an describes jihad as a system of checks and balances,

as a way that Allah set up to "check one people by means of another". One example: "And did not Allah check one set of

people by means of another, the earth would indeed be full of mischief; but Allah is full of bounty to all the words".

Qur'an 2:251.

Jihad, or in other words "struggle in the way of God." The jihad grew out of the Arabic tradition of tribal raids, which

were allowed as a way to channel the war like energies of the Bedouin tribes. There are many definitions of jihad such as,

an individual striving for spiritual self perfection. A Muslim holy war or spiritual struggle against infidels. A bitter strive

or crusade undertaken in the spirit of a holy war. Also some people believe that jihad is an eternal war that will never end.

Violent jihad will probably continue until it is crushed by a superior military force. Only when jihad is defeated will moderate

Muslims finally find their voice and truly begin the hard work of modernizing Islam.