The Crusades/PBS
I was taught history to a high level at my school, so much so that a fellow pupil who later achieved a first at Oxford said he was able to rely upon his school tuition in the first year of university. However, in the teaching of the Crusades, I do not believe we had an accurate assessment.
The conventional (but inaccurate) view was that this was a contest between the valour of Christianity and the infidel.
This three-part documentary presented by Dr Asbridge of Queen Mary University reveals a more correct view.
Barbarities were committed on both sides but, as the Christian army of pilgrims marched to Jerusalem on the first Crusade called by Pope Urban, Jews were massacred in the Rheinland and every Crusade had a pogrom.
Nor were the Muslims as uncivilised as depicted.
The Alhambra in Granada attests fine Islamic architecture and the Moors – until expelled by Ferdinand and Isabella – (along with the Jews) co-existed in Spain peaceably.
Finally, the Crusades were not a military success as, although the first crusaders recaptured Jerusalem, Saladin took it back and no further Crusade drove the Muslims out.
Part of the misconception lies in the word ‘crusade’ which you could define as a legitimate campaign against a proven enemy.
The word has slipped into popular usage but is hardly appropriate historically as it was neither legitimate nor against a proven enemy. Indeed the enemy changed identity many times – from Seljuk Turks, to Marmeluks, to Mongols.
The fiction of victory was created in art as the above picture of Richard the Lionheart reflects. Yet he returned to his Kingdom with not one crusader having set foot in Jerusalem. There were Christian enclaves fortified by castles funded by the Knights Hospitallers but these were retaken too. No, it was a long war which Islam won.
The documentary, like so many nowadays, focussed on the presenter with a cut-away shot after a significant remark. It did not have the force of the World at War or a Ken Burns documentary. Nor did I agree with the conclusion that the Crusades should be consigned to the past.
I do not see how you can possibly understand the region with its present conflict without knowing its history.