Oghuz Turkic dynasty
POPULARITY
8 episodes with seljuk turks
2 episodes with seljuk turks
2 episodes with seljuk turks
2 episodes with seljuk turks
2 episodes with seljuk turks
2 episodes with seljuk turks
2 episodes with seljuk turks
2 episodes with seljuk turks
2 episodes with seljuk turks
Historian and author Raymond Ibrahim joins The Winston Marshall Show for a powerful, eye-opening conversation on the hidden history of Islam's conquest of the Christian world—and why so few dare to speak about it today.Raymond traces the rapid Islamic expansion following Muhammad's death, showing how, within just one century, Muslim armies had violently overrun three-quarters of the original Christian world—from Syria and Egypt to Spain and deep into Europe.He dismantles the myth of Andalusian "tolerance," reveals the brutal realities behind the so-called Islamic Golden Age, and explains how the Islamic conquests shattered the Mediterranean world, plunging Europe into the Dark Ages.Raymond explores the modern censorship around Christian persecution, the resurgence of historical jihadist rhetoric in groups like ISIS, and the urgent lessons today's leaders refuse to learn.All this—the real story of the Crusades, the lost Christian heartlands, the enduring legacy of conquest, and the history the mainstream media won't touch…Learn more about Raymond belowRaymond's Website: https://www.raymondibrahim.com/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------To see more exclusive content and interviews consider subscribing to my substack here: https://www.winstonmarshall.co.uk/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA:Substack: https://www.winstonmarshall.co.uk/X: https://twitter.com/mrwinmarshallInsta: https://www.instagram.com/winstonmarshallLinktree: https://linktr.ee/winstonmarshall----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------00:00 – Introduction01:37 – Who is Raymond Ibrahim?02:21 – Personal Background: Egyptian Heritage and Academic Journey05:00 – From Academia to Writing: A New Path06:08 – Key Works: Sword and Scimitar and Christian Persecution07:12 – The Impact of His Work and Public Controversy10:00 – The Battle of Yarmouk: Turning Point in Islamic Expansion12:10 – The Expansion of Islam: From Arabia to the Christian World17:07 – The Battle of Tours: Stopping the Islamic Advance20:00 – The Dark Ages: How Islam Shaped Europe's Future25:00 – Why Was the Muslim Conquest So Successful?28:50 – The Reconquista: A Slow and Steady Christian Resistance33:13 – Andalusia: Myths of Peaceful Coexistence40:00 – The Seljuk Turks and Pre-Crusade Persecutions44:10 – Pope Urban II and the Call for the First Crusade50:00 – The Crusades: Misunderstood or Justified?55:30 – The Battle of Manzikert and the Beginning of the Crusades1:00:00 – Charlemagne and the Rise of Christian Defensiveness1:05:00 – Early Relations Between Islam and the West1:10:30 – The Persecution of Christians in the Middle East1:15:00 – Crusades: Religious Wars or Defensive Actions?1:20:00 – The Myths of Islamic Golden Age Contributions1:25:00 – Crusades and Their Aftermath: The Long-Lasting Impact1:30:00 – The Religious and Ideological Roots of the Conflict1:35:00 – Western Misunderstanding of Islamic History1:40:00 – The Rise of Jihadism and Modern Conflicts1:45:00 – The Importance of Historical Context in Modern Conflicts1:50:00 – The Ongoing Persecution of Christians1:55:00 – Reflections on Western Values and Islamic Influence2:00:00 – Conclusion: Understanding the Past to Navigate the Future Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
THIS WEEK! We have a returning guest in Steve Tibble. And we discuss some True Crime history with his most recent book called "Crusader Criminals". While The Crusades were mainly about regaining lost territory from The Muslim powers such as The Seljuk Turks, and The Fatimid Empires, this time were also ripe for crime. We take a look at some type of these crimes committed during the time of The Crusades such as gambling, prostituttion, Pirates, Horse Theft, and much, Much more. What Made the Crusades such a ripe for criminals to Flourish? How did they Thrive in the era of Holy War? Find Out This Week on "Well That Aged Wel", with "Erlend Hedegart". Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/well-that-aged-well. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In the course of human history wars have been waged primarily over two things, land and religion. Sometimes for both of those reasons at the same time. Sometimes you do it 8 times. The Crusades are the best example of using the "will of god" as an excuse to do what the Europeans did best, conquer and kill. The Church (you know the one) decreed the man up stairs wanted Jerusalem and the Holy Land back and lo and behold, if you went and fought you would be absolved of all your sins. Now for the ruling classes of Europe who were pretty much sin factories, this was music to their ears. Now coincidentally this whole reclamation of one of JC's hangouts also happened to bring the crusader armies through the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines were kinda like the Holy Roman Empire's hot ex who they fucked it up with and wanted them back. The Pope thought if they could help them out with the issues they were having on their borders with the Islamic peoples in the Middle East, maybe they would see how the H.R.E. had grown and matured and come back to them, and by come back, I mean start sending their money. And thus the Crusades, an almost 200 year mission for christianity to take back their shit when they really didn't have the shit to begin with. This one has it all folks. More Popes that you can shake his pope stick thing at, kings, knights, castles, battles, severe dysentary, friendship, betrayal. Why are you still reading this? Stop, just hit play. Support the show
THIS WEEK! We are joined by Thomas W. Smith, and we discuss The famous First Crusade. Jerusalem has been captured by The Seljuk Turks 90 years before Pope Urban II, launched What would later be known as "The First Crusade". So why was there no holy war before? And how many people actually went on crusade? From the battle of Manzikert to the Road to crusade, the capture of Antioch, and the aftermath of the Crusade. All this, and much, much more this week on "Well That Aged Well". With "Erlend Hedegart". Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/well-that-aged-well. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
THIS WEEK! We are joined by Nicholas Morton, and we discuss his recent book "The Mongol Storm". How did the Mongols help reshape geopolitical area of the 13th Century middle east? How did empires such as the Ayubids, The Seljuk Turks, or the once mighty Abbasid Caliphate fall so easilly to the Mongol storm? And how did the Mongols deal with their recently conquered areas of the middle east? Find out This week on "Well That Aged Well".You can find professor Morton on social media here: Twitter/X: @NicholasMorto11Instagram: @nicholasmorton123Bluesky: @NicholasMorto11Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/well-that-aged-well. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Send us a textIn this episode, we meet our first main character from Season Four. Theodore Laskaris started his career in Constantinople when he married the daughter of the Roman Emperor Alexios the 3rd. But after the city was sacked, the noble members of the Imperial fled in all directions. Theodore found himself in Nicaea, where he started a resistance against the Latins. After many successes, he was crowned the Emperor by the Patriarch and started the Empire in Nicaea. However, he was not the only member of the royal family to claim that title, and soon, five Roman emperors were running around the frontiers, with several offshoot Imperial states rising in the three corners of the old empire. Theodore Laskaris finds himself under attack by, not only the other Greek States, but also the Seljuk Turks and the Latin Crusaders in Constantinople.The History of Modern Greece Podcast covers the events from Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, and the fall of Constantinople in 1453, to the years under the Ottoman Empire, and 1821 when the Greeks fought for Independance... all the way to the Modern Day.Website: www.moderngreecepodcast.comMusic by Mark Jungerman: www.marcjungermann.comCheck out our 2nd Podcast: www.antecedors.com
Pending nuptials bring more attention to a royal fiancé and his questionable lineage.May 1933, Franklyn Hutton finally agrees to announce the engagement of Barbara Hutton and Prince Alexis Mdivani. Only now the prince's true royal ties are again called back into question.Other people and subjects include: Louise Van Alen, Prince Serge Mdivani, Mdivani siblings (referencing Nina Mdivani Huberich, Roussadana “Roussie” Mdivani Sert, David Mdivani), General Zakhari Mdivani, Solomon Mdivani, Charles Huberich, Countess Silvia de Rivas de Castellane, Irene Hutton, Prince of Wales – Prince David – future King Edward VIII – Duke of Windsor, Flying Prince, Flying Premiere, King Alfonso XIII of Spain, Prince Infante Alfonso – Prince of Asturias – Count de Covadonga, Maharajah of Alwar, Prince Infante Jaime – Duke of Anjou, Prince Infante Juan, King Juan Carlos I, Prince Felipe – King Felipe VI, Princess Leonor – Princess of Asturias, King John I of Castile / Spain, Prince Henry of Castile / Spain, Prince Charles – King Charles III of England, Princess Diana – Princess of Wales, Crown Prince Rudolph of Austro-Hungarian Empire, Baroness Maria von Vetsera, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Crown Prince Dipendra of Nepal, Jalal-al Din, King Mirian III of Georgia, female ruler Tamar, Georgian Tsar Heraclius II – Erekle II – Irakly II, King George XII of Georgia, Genghis Khan, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Prime Minister of Prussia – Captain Hermann Goering / Goring, fairy tales, royal history, empires, dynasties, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, hominins, Hittite, Fertile Crescent, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Persian Sasanian Empire, Arabs, Seljuk Turks, Mongols, Holy Roman Empire Byzantium, Khwarezm, Ottoman Turkish Empire, Persian Safavid Empire, Russian Romanov Empire, Soviet Union, Kuwait, Cambodia, France, England, Spain, Castile, Aragorn, Bagriotini dynasty, House of Capet, House of Bourbon, Hapsburg, Austro-Hungarian Empire, World War I, World War II, fall of monarchies, rise of republics, restored monarchies, 1978 Spanish Constitution, Spanish Royal Decree of 1977, 2006 Nepalese revolution, historiography, transliteration, contradicting dates & spellings, Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, H.G. Wells, The Outline of History, morganatic marriages, royal titles, heir apparent, heir presumptive, royal suicide, royal family massacre, mistress, renouncing titles, thrones, and succession, line of succession, pretenders, defunct thrones, retract, failed love matches, private air travel, ocean liners Chitral & Europa, Gare de Lyon train station, Ritz Hotel – Paris, Marseilles, France, Georgia – Russian province – Soviet state, Mayerling hunting lodge, ballet, childhood fantasies, wealth, fame, romantic fantasies, coveted prizes, Prince Harry of England, Meghan Markle, pseudo royalty, Nigeria, British royal family,…--Extra Notes / Call to Action:Royally Obsessed Instagram & podcasthttps://www.instagram.com/royallyobsessedpodcast/https://pod.link/1365334446https://lnk.bio/royallyobsessed/Share, like, subscribe --Archival Music provided by Past Perfect Vintage Music, www.pastperfect.com.Opening Music: My Heart Belongs to Daddy by Billy Cotton, Album The Great British Dance BandsSection 1 Music: You Turned Your Head by Jack Jackson, Albums The Great British Dance Bands & Tea Dance 2Section 2 Music: There's One Little Girl Who Loves Me by Jack Hylton, Album Fascinating Rhythm – Great Hits of the 20sSection 3 Music: It's the Talk of the Town by Ambrose, Album The Great Dance Bands Play Hits of the 30sEnd Music: My Heart Belongs to Daddy by Billy Cotton, Album The Great British Dance Bands--https://asthemoneyburns.com/TW / IG – @asthemoneyburnsTwitter – https://twitter.com/asthemoneyburnsInstagram – https://www.instagram.com/asthemoneyburns/Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/asthemoneyburns/
In this episode we'll explore the rise of the Seljuk Turks and the crises within the Byzantine Empire leading up to the pivotal Battle of Manzikert in 1071. We delve into the transformation of the Seljuk Turks from a steppe horde into a powerful empire under the leadership of Alp Arslan. His strategic brilliance and conquests have cemented his status as an Islamic hero today. As the Seljuk Empire expands its influence, their ambitions bring them into direct conflict with the Byzantine Empire, setting the stage for a major clash of civilizations. We trace the escalating situation within Byzantium, marked by political instability and military challenges. Amidst this turmoil emerges Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes, a soldier-emperor whose rise to power is fraught with internal strife and external threats. Romanos IV's reign is defined by his efforts to restore the empire's strength and counter the Seljuk advance. Join us as we explore the rise of the Seljuks under Alp Arslan and the Byzantine struggle for survival on the eve of Manzikert, a battle that would alter the course of the Byzantine Empire and the region forever. Help support the show on Patreon! Sources and Attributions on our website. Cost Of Glory Podcast CHAPTERS: 00:00:00-Introduction 00:02:13-Origins of The Seljuks 00:09:58-Tughril I & Chaghri Beg's exodus 00:21:13- Rise of Alp Arslan 00:27:27-Byzantium unravels 00:38:44-Fall of Ani aftermath 00:42:29-Romanos IV takes the throne Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“Our Empire is withering!” - Empress Eudokia Today, we'll explore the events leading up to the 1071 Battle of Manzikert through the reign of Byzantine Emperor Constantine IX. During Constantine IX's reign, the Byzantine Empire faces threats from all sides. We meet the Seljuk Turks, whose ambitions and determination set the stage for future conquest. Constantine IX struggles to maintain control amidst internal court intrigue and the frequent raids of the Pechenegs, a powerful nomadic tribe. Adding to his challenges is the Great Schism of 1054, a monumental religious split that weakens the unity of Christendom. The Normans, having established territories in Southern Italy, also become a threat, further straining Byzantine resources. Through Constantine IX's reign, the empire is stretched to its limits as it navigates alliances and conflicts. The Battle of Manzikert is a turning point in history. It marks the beginning of the Byzantine Empire's decline and opens the door for Turkish dominance in Anatolia. This battle changes the course of history, reshaping the balance of power in the region. Join us as we delve into the complexities and enduring legacies of these historical events, painting a vivid picture of the Roman Empire's struggle for survival on the eve of Manzikert. This is the story of a battle that changed history forever. Help support the show on Patreon! Sources and Attributions on our website. CHAPTERS: 00:00:00-Introduction 00:05:45-Constantine IX's rise to the throne 00:15:59-The legacy of Basil II 00:19:20-Where did the Normans come from? 00:24:52-Seljuks at the border 00:30:02-Leo Tornikios' rebellion 00:40:27-The Great Schism of 1054 00:44:06-Summary of Constantine IX's rule: Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The lights are dimmed. A hush has fallen. The curtain is rising. Season two of Empire is here. Our topic? The Ottoman Empire. In the opening episode, Anita and William are joined by Peter Frankopan to discuss Byzantium and the rise of the Seljuk Turks. To get your free two week trial for Find my past, go to www.findmypast.co.uk and sign up. LRB Empire offer: lrb.me/xempire Twitter: @Empirepoduk Goalhangerpodcasts.com Producer: Callum Hill Exec Producer: Jack Davenport Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
For centuries, the Crusades have been central to the story of the medieval Near East, but these religious wars are only part of the region's complex history. As Nicholas Morton reveals in The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East (Basic Books, 2022), during the same era the Near East was utterly remade by another series of wars: the Mongol invasions. In a single generation, the Mongols conquered vast swaths of the Near East and upended the region's geopolitics. Amid the chaos of the Mongol onslaught, long-standing powers such as the Byzantines, the Seljuk Turks, and the crusaders struggled to survive, while new players such as the Ottomans arose to fight back. The Mongol conquests forever transformed the region, while forging closer ties among societies spread across Eurasia. The Mongol Storm is the definitive history of the Mongol assault on the Near East and its enduring global consequences. Maggie Freeman is a PhD student in the School of Architecture at MIT. She researches uses of architecture by nomadic peoples and historical interactions of nomads and empires, with a focus on the modern Middle East. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
For centuries, the Crusades have been central to the story of the medieval Near East, but these religious wars are only part of the region's complex history. As Nicholas Morton reveals in The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East (Basic Books, 2022), during the same era the Near East was utterly remade by another series of wars: the Mongol invasions. In a single generation, the Mongols conquered vast swaths of the Near East and upended the region's geopolitics. Amid the chaos of the Mongol onslaught, long-standing powers such as the Byzantines, the Seljuk Turks, and the crusaders struggled to survive, while new players such as the Ottomans arose to fight back. The Mongol conquests forever transformed the region, while forging closer ties among societies spread across Eurasia. The Mongol Storm is the definitive history of the Mongol assault on the Near East and its enduring global consequences. Maggie Freeman is a PhD student in the School of Architecture at MIT. She researches uses of architecture by nomadic peoples and historical interactions of nomads and empires, with a focus on the modern Middle East. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history
For centuries, the Crusades have been central to the story of the medieval Near East, but these religious wars are only part of the region's complex history. As Nicholas Morton reveals in The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East (Basic Books, 2022), during the same era the Near East was utterly remade by another series of wars: the Mongol invasions. In a single generation, the Mongols conquered vast swaths of the Near East and upended the region's geopolitics. Amid the chaos of the Mongol onslaught, long-standing powers such as the Byzantines, the Seljuk Turks, and the crusaders struggled to survive, while new players such as the Ottomans arose to fight back. The Mongol conquests forever transformed the region, while forging closer ties among societies spread across Eurasia. The Mongol Storm is the definitive history of the Mongol assault on the Near East and its enduring global consequences. Maggie Freeman is a PhD student in the School of Architecture at MIT. She researches uses of architecture by nomadic peoples and historical interactions of nomads and empires, with a focus on the modern Middle East. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/military-history
For centuries, the Crusades have been central to the story of the medieval Near East, but these religious wars are only part of the region's complex history. As Nicholas Morton reveals in The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East (Basic Books, 2022), during the same era the Near East was utterly remade by another series of wars: the Mongol invasions. In a single generation, the Mongols conquered vast swaths of the Near East and upended the region's geopolitics. Amid the chaos of the Mongol onslaught, long-standing powers such as the Byzantines, the Seljuk Turks, and the crusaders struggled to survive, while new players such as the Ottomans arose to fight back. The Mongol conquests forever transformed the region, while forging closer ties among societies spread across Eurasia. The Mongol Storm is the definitive history of the Mongol assault on the Near East and its enduring global consequences. Maggie Freeman is a PhD student in the School of Architecture at MIT. She researches uses of architecture by nomadic peoples and historical interactions of nomads and empires, with a focus on the modern Middle East. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/middle-eastern-studies
For centuries, the Crusades have been central to the story of the medieval Near East, but these religious wars are only part of the region's complex history. As Nicholas Morton reveals in The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East (Basic Books, 2022), during the same era the Near East was utterly remade by another series of wars: the Mongol invasions. In a single generation, the Mongols conquered vast swaths of the Near East and upended the region's geopolitics. Amid the chaos of the Mongol onslaught, long-standing powers such as the Byzantines, the Seljuk Turks, and the crusaders struggled to survive, while new players such as the Ottomans arose to fight back. The Mongol conquests forever transformed the region, while forging closer ties among societies spread across Eurasia. The Mongol Storm is the definitive history of the Mongol assault on the Near East and its enduring global consequences. Maggie Freeman is a PhD student in the School of Architecture at MIT. She researches uses of architecture by nomadic peoples and historical interactions of nomads and empires, with a focus on the modern Middle East. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/world-affairs
For centuries, the Crusades have been central to the story of the medieval Near East, but these religious wars are only part of the region's complex history. As Nicholas Morton reveals in The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East (Basic Books, 2022), during the same era the Near East was utterly remade by another series of wars: the Mongol invasions. In a single generation, the Mongols conquered vast swaths of the Near East and upended the region's geopolitics. Amid the chaos of the Mongol onslaught, long-standing powers such as the Byzantines, the Seljuk Turks, and the crusaders struggled to survive, while new players such as the Ottomans arose to fight back. The Mongol conquests forever transformed the region, while forging closer ties among societies spread across Eurasia. The Mongol Storm is the definitive history of the Mongol assault on the Near East and its enduring global consequences. Maggie Freeman is a PhD student in the School of Architecture at MIT. She researches uses of architecture by nomadic peoples and historical interactions of nomads and empires, with a focus on the modern Middle East. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/russian-studies
For centuries, the Crusades have been central to the story of the medieval Near East, but these religious wars are only part of the region's complex history. As Nicholas Morton reveals in The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East (Basic Books, 2022), during the same era the Near East was utterly remade by another series of wars: the Mongol invasions. In a single generation, the Mongols conquered vast swaths of the Near East and upended the region's geopolitics. Amid the chaos of the Mongol onslaught, long-standing powers such as the Byzantines, the Seljuk Turks, and the crusaders struggled to survive, while new players such as the Ottomans arose to fight back. The Mongol conquests forever transformed the region, while forging closer ties among societies spread across Eurasia. The Mongol Storm is the definitive history of the Mongol assault on the Near East and its enduring global consequences. Maggie Freeman is a PhD student in the School of Architecture at MIT. She researches uses of architecture by nomadic peoples and historical interactions of nomads and empires, with a focus on the modern Middle East. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
For centuries, the Crusades have been central to the story of the medieval Near East, but these religious wars are only part of the region's complex history. As Nicholas Morton reveals in The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East (Basic Books, 2022), during the same era the Near East was utterly remade by another series of wars: the Mongol invasions. In a single generation, the Mongols conquered vast swaths of the Near East and upended the region's geopolitics. Amid the chaos of the Mongol onslaught, long-standing powers such as the Byzantines, the Seljuk Turks, and the crusaders struggled to survive, while new players such as the Ottomans arose to fight back. The Mongol conquests forever transformed the region, while forging closer ties among societies spread across Eurasia. The Mongol Storm is the definitive history of the Mongol assault on the Near East and its enduring global consequences. Maggie Freeman is a PhD student in the School of Architecture at MIT. She researches uses of architecture by nomadic peoples and historical interactions of nomads and empires, with a focus on the modern Middle East. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
For centuries, the Crusades have been central to the story of the medieval Near East, but these religious wars are only part of the region's complex history. As Nicholas Morton reveals in The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East (Basic Books, 2022), during the same era the Near East was utterly remade by another series of wars: the Mongol invasions. In a single generation, the Mongols conquered vast swaths of the Near East and upended the region's geopolitics. Amid the chaos of the Mongol onslaught, long-standing powers such as the Byzantines, the Seljuk Turks, and the crusaders struggled to survive, while new players such as the Ottomans arose to fight back. The Mongol conquests forever transformed the region, while forging closer ties among societies spread across Eurasia. The Mongol Storm is the definitive history of the Mongol assault on the Near East and its enduring global consequences. Maggie Freeman is a PhD student in the School of Architecture at MIT. She researches uses of architecture by nomadic peoples and historical interactions of nomads and empires, with a focus on the modern Middle East. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/book-of-the-day
How the Mongol invasions of the Near East reshaped the balance of world power in the Middle Ages. For centuries, the Crusades have been central to the story of the medieval Near East, but these religious wars are only part of the region's complex history. As The Mongol Storm reveals, during the same era the Near East was utterly remade by another series of wars: the Mongol invasions. In a single generation, the Mongols conquered vast swaths of the Near East and upended the region's geopolitics. Amid the chaos of the Mongol onslaught, long-standing powers such as the Byzantines, the Seljuk Turks and the crusaders struggled to survive, while new players such as the Ottomans arose to fight back. The Mongol conquests forever transformed the region, while forging closer ties among societies spread across Eurasia. This is the definitive history of the Mongol assault on the Near East and its enduring global consequences.
Life Group Leaders' Notes Title: Blessing The Jewish People & Israel Key Text: Genesis 12:2-3 The Jewish nation which comprises many different ethnic backgrounds, a small nation, has contributed so much to humanity that it is astounding. It's on the frontline of research and development, innovation and global relations and is amazing to witness and see. God's promise to Abraham is that He would make Israel a great nation. Abraham was obedient to that call leaving everything behind him in Ur. Abraham became the father of the Jewish people and the nation Israel. And, he was blessed with great abundance. We are going to explore what we can do to bless Israel. What has Israel and the Jewish people given to you? (Romans 9:1-5, John 4:22, Revelation 5:5, Romans 11:1, Zechariah 2:8 Apply The Amplified Bible puts it this way: “And I will bless (do good for, benefit) those who bless you, And I will curse (that is, subject My wrath and judgment) the one who curses (despises, dishonors, has contempt for) you. And in you all the families (nations) of the earth will be blessed.” Finally, let's look at Matthew 25:32 and following: “All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.” “He will put the sheep on His right hand and the goats on His left. Then the king will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.' His disciples then asked when they did all these things and Yeshua's answer was this: “And the King will answer them and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least My (Jewish) brethren, you did it to Me.' The Jewish nation which comprises many different ethnic backgrounds, a small nation, has contributed so much to humanity that it is astounding. It's on the frontline of research and development, innovation and global relations and is amazing to witness and see. God's promise to Abraham is that He would make Israel a great nation. Abraham was obedient to that call leaving everything behind him in Ur. Abraham became the father of the Jewish people and the nation Israel. And, he was blessed with great abundance. So, the real question on my mind and our minds is: Why Israel? I think there is another prayer you all have heard taught but opens a key to understanding God's heart. Psalm 122:6 “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that love thee.” What has Israel and the Jewish people given to you? Romans 9:1-5 – I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. “I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart… For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren. My countrymen according to the flesh. Who are Israelites, to whom pertain the: Adoption The Glory The Covenants The giving of the Law The service of God The Promises Of whom atre the Fathers And from whom, according to the flesh , Messiah came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen Eight items the Jewish people gave to you and I for all eternity. The climax of all ages - The Messiah Jesus, Christ, the anointed one. And we dare oppose what in God's eyes He has chosen. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, ‘Salvation is of the Jews.' This is an undisputed fact. Revelation 5:5 is exciting for we know that not only in the past but in the future Jesus is referred to as a Jew: “Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed.” Paul writes in Romans 11:1 - “I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I am also an Israeli of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. Israel is mentioned 72 times in the New Testament and always means the Jews. Not the church! The church never ever replaced Israel and the Jews in God's prophetic promises. Another place we read in Zechariah 2:8 - “For thus says the Lord of Hosts, “After glory He has sent me against the nations which plunder you, for he who touches you, touches the apple of His eye.” Throughout history, Jerusalem and the Jews have survived against all odds: The land of modern day Israel was conquered and ruled by: the Persians, the Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Fatimids, Seljuk Turks, the Crusaders, Egyptians, Mamelukes, and Islamists. In 1000 BC King David conquered Jerusalem and made it the capital of the Jewish Kingdom. His son Solomon built the first Temple 40 years later. The Babylonians occupied Jerusalem in 586 BC and destroyed the Temple and sent the Jews into exile. 50 years later King Cyrus of Persia allowed Nehemiah and the Jews to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. Alexander the Great took control of Jerusalem in 332 BC. Where is his empire? The Ottoman Turkish Empire ruled Jerusalem and much of the Middle East from 1516 to 1917. Turkey's economy today is very dependent on doing business with Israel and the tourism dollars that Israelis bring to Turkey. The British then occupied for a short period Jerusalem and parts of Israel. Need I say more. The lesson to be learned is that Israel has prospered only after the Jewish people returned to what God had promised even though there was always a Jewish community and presence there. What can we do to bless Israel and why should we? Romans 11:30-31 tells us: “Just as you were (Gentiles) at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too (Israel) have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you.” What are some of the things we can do to bless Israel? Subscribe to the VFI News Visit Israel - Come on a tour with Pastors Wes and Adriana Bless Good Sound Projects both for the Physical and Spiritual restoration of Israel Take a stand against anti-semitism and replacement theology Support politicians who want to move your embassy to Jerusalem and keep strong relations with Israel and who fight against anti-semitism Be pro-active in intercession and place Israel on your prayer lists.
Life Group Leaders' Notes Title: Blessing The Jewish People & Israel Key Text: Genesis 12:2-3 The Jewish nation which comprises many different ethnic backgrounds, a small nation, has contributed so much to humanity that it is astounding. It's on the frontline of research and development, innovation and global relations and is amazing to witness and see. God's promise to Abraham is that He would make Israel a great nation. Abraham was obedient to that call leaving everything behind him in Ur. Abraham became the father of the Jewish people and the nation Israel. And, he was blessed with great abundance. We are going to explore what we can do to bless Israel. What has Israel and the Jewish people given to you? (Romans 9:1-5, John 4:22, Revelation 5:5, Romans 11:1, Zechariah 2:8 Apply The Amplified Bible puts it this way: “And I will bless (do good for, benefit) those who bless you, And I will curse (that is, subject My wrath and judgment) the one who curses (despises, dishonors, has contempt for) you. And in you all the families (nations) of the earth will be blessed.” Finally, let's look at Matthew 25:32 and following: “All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.” “He will put the sheep on His right hand and the goats on His left. Then the king will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.' His disciples then asked when they did all these things and Yeshua's answer was this: “And the King will answer them and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least My (Jewish) brethren, you did it to Me.' The Jewish nation which comprises many different ethnic backgrounds, a small nation, has contributed so much to humanity that it is astounding. It's on the frontline of research and development, innovation and global relations and is amazing to witness and see. God's promise to Abraham is that He would make Israel a great nation. Abraham was obedient to that call leaving everything behind him in Ur. Abraham became the father of the Jewish people and the nation Israel. And, he was blessed with great abundance. So, the real question on my mind and our minds is: Why Israel? I think there is another prayer you all have heard taught but opens a key to understanding God's heart. Psalm 122:6 “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that love thee.” What has Israel and the Jewish people given to you? Romans 9:1-5 – I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. “I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart… For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren. My countrymen according to the flesh. Who are Israelites, to whom pertain the: Adoption The Glory The Covenants The giving of the Law The service of God The Promises Of whom atre the Fathers And from whom, according to the flesh , Messiah came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen Eight items the Jewish people gave to you and I for all eternity. The climax of all ages - The Messiah Jesus, Christ, the anointed one. And we dare oppose what in God's eyes He has chosen. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, ‘Salvation is of the Jews.' This is an undisputed fact. Revelation 5:5 is exciting for we know that not only in the past but in the future Jesus is referred to as a Jew: “Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed.” Paul writes in Romans 11:1 - “I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I am also an Israeli of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. Israel is mentioned 72 times in the New Testament and always means the Jews. Not the church! The church never ever replaced Israel and the Jews in God's prophetic promises. Another place we read in Zechariah 2:8 - “For thus says the Lord of Hosts, “After glory He has sent me against the nations which plunder you, for he who touches you, touches the apple of His eye.” Throughout history, Jerusalem and the Jews have survived against all odds: The land of modern day Israel was conquered and ruled by: the Persians, the Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Fatimids, Seljuk Turks, the Crusaders, Egyptians, Mamelukes, and Islamists. In 1000 BC King David conquered Jerusalem and made it the capital of the Jewish Kingdom. His son Solomon built the first Temple 40 years later. The Babylonians occupied Jerusalem in 586 BC and destroyed the Temple and sent the Jews into exile. 50 years later King Cyrus of Persia allowed Nehemiah and the Jews to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. Alexander the Great took control of Jerusalem in 332 BC. Where is his empire? The Ottoman Turkish Empire ruled Jerusalem and much of the Middle East from 1516 to 1917. Turkey's economy today is very dependent on doing business with Israel and the tourism dollars that Israelis bring to Turkey. The British then occupied for a short period Jerusalem and parts of Israel. Need I say more. The lesson to be learned is that Israel has prospered only after the Jewish people returned to what God had promised even though there was always a Jewish community and presence there. What can we do to bless Israel and why should we? Romans 11:30-31 tells us: “Just as you were (Gentiles) at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too (Israel) have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you.” What are some of the things we can do to bless Israel? Subscribe to the VFI News Visit Israel - Come on a tour with Pastors Wes and Adriana Bless Good Sound Projects both for the Physical and Spiritual restoration of Israel Take a stand against anti-semitism and replacement theology Support politicians who want to move your embassy to Jerusalem and keep strong relations with Israel and who fight against anti-semitism Be pro-active in intercession and place Israel on your prayer lists.
In this episode we will discuss how Islam was formed and organized as well as how and why it spread so quickly.Sources:The Essential World History by William Duiker and Jackson SpielvogelWestern Civilizations - by Joshua Cole, Carol Symes, Judith Coffin, and Robert Stacey
1071 - The Seljuk Turks came to power and threatened Byzantine territory more than any other society before. The Byzantines required a strong leader to stand up to this new powerhouse of the Middle East, and so a battle would take place with wider reaching ramifications to the world around it.
From the steppes of Central Asia, thousands of Turkish people migrate to Anatolia and the Middle East. These new arrivals become first the Seljuk Turks, then the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, and finally, the Osmanlis.
Another look forward to Volume Four and an insight into some of the episodes which take us through European politics after the fall of the Western Roman Empire through to the creation of medieval kingdoms and their Christianisation which led to the Crusades after the Seljuk Turks took control of Jerusalem and introduced a less tolerant religious attitude.
Dr. Patrick Hotle discusses the amazing story of the First Crusade. He explains the economic and political conditions that led thousands to make their way across medieval Europe to Constantinople and then on to the Holy Land. He discusses the Catholic Church of the Middle Ages and in the importance of pilgrimage and relics. Hotle describes the Peace of God and Truce of God and how Pope Urban II's call led to a massive movement to recapture the ancient city of Jerusalem. He discusses several key figures such as Godfrey, Bohemond, Raymond, and Baldwin. The amazing journey led to the capture of Antioch and several battles with the Seljuk Turks. He explains the capture of Jerusalem and the establishment of the Crusader States. He concludes with the early history of the Knights Templar.HOST: Rob MellonFEATURED BREW: Absolution Belgian-Style Quadrupel, Crusader Brewing Company, Bakersfield, CaliforniaMUSIC: Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/
In this episode of “On the Couch” I welcome back my Emily Leslie to talk about a heated issue, people are really afraid to touch. What's the issue you ask about the trouble between Israel and Palestine. The word Palestine derives from the Greek word, Philistia, which dates to Ancient Greek writers' descriptions of the region in the 12th century B.C. From the fall of the Ottoman Empire in World War I to 1948, Palestine typically referred to the geographic region located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. Arab people who call this territory home have been known as Palestinians since the early 20th century. Throughout history, Palestine has been ruled by numerous groups, including the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Fatimids, Seljuk Turks, Crusaders, Egyptians, and Mamelukes. When World War I ended in 1918, the British took control of Palestine. The League of Nations issued a British mandate for Palestine—a document that gave Britain administrative control over the region and included provisions for establishing a Jewish national homeland in Palestine—which went into effect in 1923. In 1947, after more than two decades of British rule, the United Nations proposed a plan to partition Palestine into two sections: an independent Jewish state and an independent Arab state. The city of Jerusalem, which was claimed as a capital by both Jews and Palestinian Arabs, was to be an international territory with a special status. More on history.com Stay tuned for the latest episodes from PTGtv and how you can support us in our effort to bring more content to you the people by navigating to our website. If you have, not already please follow my YouTube page to see the interview, like, and comment. https://www.ptgtv.online https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgbDUkeiyqxPWTfpiCdAqKw/ If you aren't listening in, you're missing awesome discussions with candidates and tech enthusiasts. Join the discord: https://discord.gg/xFEsWQbC9Q --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/ptg-tv/support
At the beginning of the 11th century, the Abbasid Caliphate was shattered and rival forces like the Roman Empire and the Shia Islam Fatimid Caliphate were carving up the region that would one day house the Outremer States between themselves. Yet, within the century, a new group would arrive to unite nearly all of the Caliphate's possessions under the rule and deal such crippling blows to the Romans that they would be forced to call in Frankish allies to recover their lost territory. In this episode, learn all about the origins of the Seljuk Turks in the Eurasian Steppe and their grand arrival into the Middle East. As always, maps and sources available at https://historyoftheoutremer.wordpress.com/ (historyoftheoutremer.wordpress.com )and new episodes every other week.
In this episode, we hear how Saladin continued to build his empire by taking Aleppo in 1183, which he added to his control of Damascus, so that he ruled a state stretching from Egypt to the borders of modern Turkey, completely encircling the Crusaders. Meanwhile, the Byzantine Empire had faded after its defeat by the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Myriokephalon in 1076, and the Crusaders themselves suffered from the lack of a capable leader, and were increasingly dominated by the irresponsible and self-seeking Reynald of Châtillon.
In this episode, we'll hear how things got worse for both the Byzantines and the Crusaders when Byzantium suffered a great defeat at the hands of the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Myriokephalon in 1176. This battle wasn't the game changer that the Battle of Manzikert had been for Byzantium since it had already lost its great power status. But it reduced Byzantium to a third rate power, making the Crusaders even more isolated in the Middle-East.
At the end of 1095, Pope Urban II called for the first of several crusades, wherein the Latin Christian Europeans were supposed to go take the Holy Land away from the Islamic rulers who held it at that time. So the nobility of Europe, mostly from France, started putting together forces and money, so as to travel and fight. That was the Prince's Crusade, the First Crusade, and it would leave Europe in the summer of 1096. It takes a while to gather the wherewithal needed for such a venture. Unless you just plan on being a mob! In that case, you can be the People's Crusade, and leave for the Holy Land in April! It takes no time at all to gather money if you just steal it from other people. The People's Crusade slaughtered the Jewish communities that they came across, creating the first of the giant massacres of the Jews of Europe which would continue on through the Middle Ages. They never got to the Holy Land; those of them that survived the journey (and the Hungarians, who managed to kill a lot of them) managed to get as far as Civetot, where the Seljuk Turks slaughtered them. Your hosts aren't sorry about this.
You wont find Eudocia on many lists, but she deserves to be on them. She may not have ruled long, but she made an impact. Also, we take a brief look into the Seljuk Turks. They may be important in the next few episodes…
I see such a metaphor for human forces here: how whatever Pope Urban II and Emperor Alexius had in mind for this holy war/armed pilgrimage, things quickly escalated out of their control and the message and mission as it came to actually be almost swept both men right off their feet. Never underestimate the power of human passion! Although doomed to failure and disaster, the first wave of people (under Peter the Hermit) to attempt the approach to the Holy Land would have important effects on how both the Seljuk Turks and the Byzantine Greeks perceived the following waves—underestimations both groups would later come to regret.
1031A.D.-Al Qaim becomes the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad.1032A.D.-The Church of Constantinople breaks with the Church of Rome over the issue of icons in the Church.1036A.D.-Taghril Beg becomes Seljuk Sultan.Al Mustansir becomes the Fatimid Caliph.1037A.D.-Death of Abu Ali ibn Sina, one of the greatest of physicians.Ferdinand I, king of Castille, captures Leon.1038A.D.-Death of Al Hazen, noted physicist.1043A.D-The Fatimid Empire begins to crumble. Mecca, Madina, Yemen and North Africa are lost by the Fatimids.1048A.D-Death of al Bairuni, historian, author of Kitab ul Hind.1050A.D-The Christians advance in Sicily.1051A.D-Beginning of the Murabitun revolution in West Africa.1056A.D-The Seljuk Taghril Beg and the Buyid Basisiri contest the control of Baghdad.1058A.D-Taghril Beg is anointed by Abbasid Caliph Kaim as “sultan of the east and the west” for his role in protecting the Abbasid Caliphate.1060A.D-The Seljuk Turks advance into Persia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.The Crusaders raid the coast of North Africa.1061A.D-The Murabitun capture Morocco.The Murabitun establish the city of Marrakesh as their capital.1063A.D-Taghril Beg dies childless. His nephew Alap Arsalan becomes the Seljuk sultan.1068Beginning of the Songhay Empire in West Africa.1072A.D-Battle of Manzikert. The Seljuk Turks under Alap Arsalan defeat the Byzantines under Emperor Romanus and open up Anatolia for Turkish settlement.The Christians capture Palermo in Sicily.1075A.D-The Seljuk Sultan Malik Shah retakes Syria from the Fatimids.Al Muqtadi becomes the Abbasid Caliph.1077A.D-Birth of Abdul Qader Jeelani, celebrated Sufi sage.1085A.D-Alfonso I of Castile captures Toledo, the ancient capital of Visigoth Spain. The extensive libraries of Toledo become accessible to Christian Europe.1086A.D-The Murabitun emir, Yusuf bin Tashfin, advances into Spain at the head of a powerful African force.The Nizamiya College is founded in Baghdad by Nizam ul Mulk, grand vizier to Sultan Malik Shah. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/history-of-islam/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/history-of-islam/support
A middle aged man, accompanied by a paltry group of followers, sought refuge from the hounds of their oppressors in a remote mountain fastness. For decades their people had been persecuted by one of the most powerful empires the world had ever seen. The Seljuk Turks. Today we discuss the original assassins. If you like what you hear make sure to give us a rating and review! You can find more info on our socials @CasualxHistory (Instagram/Twitter/Facebook) New 5 minute history episodes every Wednesday. New deep dive episodes every Sunday. - CH --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/casualhistory/support
This podcast series tells how the decline of Byzantium was the original cause of the Crusades. It is based on the book "The Byzantine World War" by Nick Holmes. In this episode, the year is 1070, just before the Byzantines launch their greatest offensive against the Seljuk Turks in 1071. The Byzantine Emperor, Romanos Diogenes, decides to stay in Constantinople rather than lead his army out on another campaign. Why does he do this? The reasons are much more surprising than you would imagine.
This podcast series tells how the decline of Byzantium was the original cause of the Crusades. It is based on the book "The Byzantine World War" by Nick Holmes. In this episode, the year is 1069, and the new Byzantine Emperor, Romanos Diogenes, is determined to save Byzantium from the raids of the Seljuk Turks. But the Turks are a formidable enemy, and the Emperor also finds that he has to contend with a rebellion of the Norman mercenaries in his own army.
This podcast series presents a new angle on the origins of the Crusades based on the book "The Byzantine World War" by Nick Holmes. In this episode, the year is 1068. The Byzantine Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes leads the newly trained Byzantine army to victory against the Emir of Aleppo and captures the Arab frontier city of Hierapolis. But, just as his army celebrates their victory in Syria, the Seljuk Turks launch a vicious assault into the heartland of the Byzantine Empire.
This podcast series presents a new angle on the Crusades based on the book called The Byzantine World War by Nick Holmes. It explains that Byzantium was the main cause of the First Crusade. This episode describes the new Byzantine army which the Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes put together in 1068 to fight the first of his campaigns against the Seljuk Turks.
This podcast series presents a new angle on the Crusades based on the book called The Byzantine World War by Nick Holmes. It explains that Byzantium was the main cause of the First Crusade. This episode explores the background to the pivotal Battle of Manzikert in 1071. It focuses on the fierce war fought in Armenia from the late 1040s to 1060s, as the Byzantine army struggled to contain the increasingly ferocious onslaught of the Seljuk Turks.
This podcast series presents a new angle on the Crusades based on the book called The Byzantine World War by Nick Holmes. It explains that Byzantium was the original cause of the First Crusade, following its devastating defeat at the Battle of Manzikert. Byzantium also continued to play a critical role throughout the Crusades, up until the Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople in 1204. But what really happened at Manzikert? In a mini-series of podcasts devoted to this battle, we try to unravel the truth about what really happened. This episode looks at the Seljuk Turks and their extraordinary rise to becoming a medieval superpower.
The Patriarch is captured and sold as a slave. The Seljuk Turks arrive to the Middle East. Announcing Joyful.gifts. The best way to do gifts! Visit Joyful gifts to start today! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/historyofthecopts/support
First Segment: We cover the years 1000 to 1200. Ish. Revival of the Byzantine Empire, Saints Francis and Dominic, the Sunni Seljuk Turks, launching the Crusades.Second Segment: Lightning Segments.Third Segment: My Dad during the Korean War. He was kept stateside and didn't like it. He didn't like it because bored officers imposed all sorts of petty rules. Welcome to life in the United States today. Will it get worse after Corona?
First Segment: We cover the years 1000 to 1200. Ish. Revival of the Byzantine Empire, Saints Francis and Dominic, the Sunni Seljuk Turks, launching the Crusades. Second Segment: Lightning Segments. Third Segment: My Dad during the Korean War. He was kept stateside and didn't like it. He didn't like it because bored officers imposed all sorts of petty rules. Welcome to life in the United States today. Will it get worse after Corona?
As the investiture controversy rages on, Pope Gregory VII and King Henry IV face off, forcing one to yield to the other. While the eastern empire is being overrun by Seljuk Turks, Gregory’s successor, Urban II, assumes the papal throne and, preaching at the Council of Clermont, initiates the First Crusade, which draws 60,000—peasants and nobles alike—to the cause of vanquishing the Arab and Turkish infidels.
Welcome back to The Emancipation Podcast Station - the place to hear about history researched and retold through the eyes of Middle school and HS students. Byzantine Empire: 600 - 1450 Regional and interregional interactions European Middle Ages: feudalism and serfdom: Audrey - The Middle Ages lasted from the fall of the Western Roman Empire, which was a little before 500 AD, to 1500 AD. There are three major sections of the Middle Ages, the Early Middle Ages, lasting from the fall of the Western Roman Empire to 1000 ad, was the first, the High Middle Ages, from 1000 ad to 13 ad, which was a high point for the Middle Ages, and last, the late Middle Ages, this lasted from 1300 to 1500 ad and it wasn't a very pleasant time to live in Europe. Gabe - feudalism is where if your poor you live on some land that you don't own a really rich guy called a baron or duke owns it and you still don't have money so you share a plow with your neighbor and you combine your ox together just to plow the ground so you can make a little money and you cant even leave with permission from your landlord you're a serf in a serfdom which is a state of being a feudal laborer so your like a slave who gets paid enough to survive Ella - A Roman Emperor by the name of Charlemagne conquered Northern Italy, around modern day France, and many other places including Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Charlemagne was able to unify most of Western Europe and was considered a defining figure of the early middle ages. Emma - The word feudal comes from the medieval latin word feudum which means “landed estate”. It is a really broad term that refers to many types of landowner-tenant living situations that took place during the middle ages in Europe. In the seventeenth century, historians and lawyers studying the middle ages wanted to give a name to these types of lifestyles in this era, thus naming it feudalism. Modern day historians don’t necessarily agree that they should all be lumped under one name. Ben - And at that time around 1100 AD Rome was losing land to the Muslims that conquered some of the Byzantine area, So they sent some crusaders in 1096 to take the land back, (especially the holy land) and when they did, they decided instead of adding the land back into the byzantine empire they would just make some crusader kingdoms, so they made separate kingdoms that only advanced the divide between the east and west empires. Skylar - Peasant revolting was also called popular uprisings. The peasants revolted in England in 1831. The revolted because they felt that they were not getting treated equally as everyone else, ex. they were working harder than everyone else and barely surviving. Other reasons for popular uprisings/peasant revolting is the government taxing certain people more, cultural issues, and religious issues. 7.Ethan- The Byzantine Iconoclasm was the destroying of religious stuff. This brought up much controversy that lasted about a century. This also further differed the East and the West. The Western Church used religious images often and the Iconoclasm didn’t affect them as much. Origins of Islam: Audrey - The closest translation of the word Islam to English is surrender, and in the context of the Islamic faith it would be the surrender to the will of God. A Muslim is someone who practices Islam, and submits to the will of God. The central text of Islam is the Quran, which is believed by Muslims that it is the word of God revealed by the messenger Muhammad. Especially in older texts Islam might be referred to as Muhammadism, like Christianity, but this is incorrect because the Muslims didn’t view Muhammad as a divine figure but as someone God spoke through. Ella - Muslims and Christians biggest difference is that muslims do not believe in the crucifixion or the resurrection. They also don’t believe that Jesus is the son of god. They belief he was only and early prophet. Muslims also believe in a system of 5 pillars. These pillars are made up of faith, prayer, charity, fasting and pilgrimage. Emma - Islam is similar to Christianity in many ways. For example, they believe that Moses, Abraham, and Jesus were all doing God’s work. They also believe that parts of the Bible are indeed God’s word though they also believe that Muhammad is another of God’s messengers and that they word he conveyed is also divinely inspired. Ben - The biggest figure in Islam is Muhammad, Muhammad was born in 570 BC, sadly his mother died in 576 BC and his grandfather died in 578 BC. He got married in 595 BC. After he saw revelations and visions from god he went down to the big cube and told everyone “hey your gods are fake” but as expected, everyone got mad at him so he had to move to a place with a Christian king. He went to where is now Ethiopia and preached his teachings. Gabe - he started preaching in mecca and the Quraysh tribe did not like that so he moved to Medina or Yathrib and here he kind of became a spiritual ruler over the city And they actually fight the quraysh tribe 3 to 1 because there's only about 300 of them and there's 900 quraysh and they win this battle and quraysh fight them again in the battle of uhud and now there’s 750 so they are building in numbers but there’s 3300 And the quraysh win and then they have another war which is the battle of the trench and they actually dug a trench around the city and they fought 3000 to 10000 so three to one again and the muslims won and this is all by account of the muslims though because they are the only record we have of that time 6.Ethan- Muslims consider Muhammad as the last person in the line of disciples. These disciples include, Moses, Abraham, and Jesus. Also, as soon as Muhammad was born most of the Middle East abandoned polytheism. Skylar - the early part of Islamic faiths are center around revelations of the prophet, Muhammad. A lot of the revelations with Muhammad are about surrendering to god. Muslims believe that the Quran is the final testament. Sunni and Shia Islam: Ella - After the death of Muhammed, these two divisions known as Sunni and Shia came into play. 90% of the world's 1.6 billion muslims are Sunni and 10% are Shia. The word Sunni comes from the word Sunnah which is referring to Muhammad. The word Shia comes from Shi'atu ‘Ali which means followers of Ali. Audrey - The general division, between the Sunnis and the Shias, is who should succeed Muhammad, after his death, as leader of the Muslim community. The Shias believe that members of Muhammad’s family, especially his descendants, should become leader. The Sunnis disagree, and believe that it doesn’t really matter who succeeds Muhammad. Ben - As the divide gets more and more intense it causes the “Battle of the Camel” named after Aisha’s camel in 656 BC, then after that the “Battle of Siffin” happens merely a year after in 657 BC. Gabe - the shias believe even more so that ali should be his successor after a speech saying he is mawla and ali is also mawla and when muhammad died his very close friend abu bakr takes his place and then umar and then uthman who is assassinated and ali finally takes his place Emma - Ali became caliph in the year 656 AD, after the assassination of Uthman. At this time, Muawiya was the governor of Damascus and he felt that Ali was not putting in a full effort to punish the people who commited the crime. Because of this, he refuses to pledge his allegience to Ali. This started the Fist Fitna, or first Muslim civil war. Skylar - Muhammad was born in the year 570. He starts having revelations to god in the year 610, the Muslim calendar doesn’t start until 622 though. Muhammad married Khadijah and had several kids with her, one being named, Fatimah. Fatimah then married Ali, the son of Abu Talib. That’s where the word shi’atu ali comes from. 7.Ethan- The Shia are mainly based in places like Iraq and Iran, but are spread throughout the world itself. As you can probably guess, the Sunni are in many different places, since 9/10 Muslim are Sunni. Much blood was spilled through these 2 denominations throughout time.. Age of Islam: Ella - The Islamic Empire Grew as it obtained information from other civilizations such as the Byzantine and Persian empires. The collected knowledge and cultural ideas from surrounding empires and people they would meet around their area such as the Indians and the Chinese. Audrey - They collected and obtained this information all throughout the Umayyad dynasty but most of it happened during the Abbasid Caliphate. The Abbasid Caliphate built Baghdad and moved the of the empire there. Ben - In 786 Al-Ma’mun was born, but later in his life (813 BC) he created the Baghdad house of wisdom. The baghdad house of wisdom contained almost all advanced human knowledge from at the time, from mathematics to astronomy, the house of wisdom contained all great wisdoms, even those that were fictional such as poetry. Gabe - they built baghdad right on the route between europe and asia making it the place a prime spot to trade in allowing the abbasids very wealthy because they imported all sorts of good like silk glass tile paper ivory soap honey diamonds Emma - During this time, something called the translation movement took place. Some of the caliphs like al-Rashid and al-Ma’mun wanted to make popular Greek texts accessible to the Arab world, so they encouraged scholars to translate Greek works into Arabic. They were trying to preserve the thoughts of great scholars such as Aristotle. 6.Ethan- The Abbasid Dynasty built Baghdad which is the capital of Iraq. While this was not always so, Damascus was the original capital city. At the time, this was the perfect place for the capital, for it was by the Tigris and Euphrates river. Thus made is ideal for crop production which allowed larger population. Skylar - Al-Kwarizmi was a persian mathematician who studied at the house of wisdom. Al-Kwarizmi is the inventor of algebra. The word algebra comes from the Arabic word al-jabr. He also created the Hindu numerals. The Great Schism: Audrey - Emperor Nero had these purges of Christians like the Roman fire or fire of rome in 64 ad. Nero blamed the Christians for the fire and was lighting them alive for punishment. Many historians believe that the apostles Peter and Paul were killed in these purges. Ben - Around the early 4th century a new emperor comes along and we’ve talked about him previously, Constantine. But today I’m going to go more in depth into Constantine’s life. He was born in 280 AD. His father was the previous western emperor before him, being made emperor in 305 AD. At Constantine’s thirties he was fighting for power within the western region, becoming victorious and being crowned emperor in 312 AD, and later became emperor of not just western rome but all of it in 324. He instilled multiple laws protecting christian people and converted to christianity/was baptised on his deathbed. He died in 337 AD. Gabe - after constantine there was theodosius who made christianity the main religion of rome and persecuted other religions he was also the last to rule both sides of rome when he died the germanic tribes took the west side of rome leaving justinian to the east side who conquered modern day italy back from the germanic tribes leaving the germanic tribes with modern day france and modern day germany and modern day france is owned by the franks the tribe of france which is why you have french and german but they were actually just german to begin with Ella - The Christians of the time were missionaries, going around and spreading their beliefs to other Roman Civilizations. In some cases families were split apart when half of the family decided to abandon Roman practices. Emma - Under the rule of Justinian, there was a power struggle in the Roman Empire. There were many people who possessed large amounts of power with different titles. There was obviously the Emperor, but then there was also the Bishop of Rome, now known as the Pope, who considers himself to somewhat the head of Christianity. There were also several other patriarchs across the Empire who held power and influence over the people. Skylar - Christianity started from the Roman Empire, it started from a jewish sect in Judea and Galilee, from early ministries. Going into the third century christianity was becoming pretty big. There were more purges. In 312 Constantine wins the battle at Milvian Bridge, and shortly after christianity becomes legal, and the christians are no longer persecuted for doing something they believe in. Ethan- The Holy Roman Empire was called this by Voltaire, “It is neither holy, nor an empire”. This Voltaire was a french Enlightenment writer/speaker. Otto der Grosse or Otto the Great was a Roman emperor who originated in Germany. He unified the Empire around the 10th century. It started to split around the 11th century. The Crusades: Gabe - it was called the crusades because it was a war but from the pope so the pope wanted some land and he convinced a mighty Lord to go fight for him and his land so he goes and dies of starvation there and nevers sees his land again Audrey - Crusades were wars but they were considered just warfare. A war could be considered just if it had a just cause legitimate authority and the right intention. Ella - Eventually after losing a lot of territory, the Byzantine Empire was able to take back some of the Anatolian Peninsula from a muslim group called the Seljuk Turks. Supposedly, the crusades were made for the Byzantine Empire to get back the territory they lost, but the crusades usually took the land for themselves. Skylar -The Byzantine empire was losing the holy land, as the Arabians started to overrun it. Crusades were wars declared by the pope. Pope Urban II told all the christians they need to fight against the muslims to get the holy land back, and whoever fights will be forgiven of their sins. Emma - The crusades made a big impact on the expansion of European kingdoms and territories. In the north and est, crusading helped to expand parts of the Kingdoms of Sweden and Denmark. It also influenced the establishment of new political systems like Prussia. Ben - The one they hired to lead the charge against the Muslims that were taking over Jerusalem was Pope Urban II. This took place in 1095. His famous speech hat launched the crusades was, “Under Jesus Christ, our Leader, may you struggle for your Jerusalem, in Christian battle line, [that] most invincible line, even more successfully than did the sons of Jacob of old—struggle, that you may assail and drive out the Turks, more execrable than the Jebusites, who are in this land, and may you deem it a beautiful thing to die for Christ in that city in which he died for us. But if it befall you to die this side of it, be sure that to have died on the way is of equal value, if Christ shall find you in his army” 7.Ethan- The First Crusade was Jerusalem’s first military order. These military orders were more of taking on things like communal poverty, chastity, and obedience. But also violence… lots of violence… for the Christian faith of course. Examples consist of the Knights Templar, the Knights Hospitaller, and the Teutonic Knights. 8. Medieval Japan: Gabe - medieval japan becomes a militaristic japan and it gets kind of fragmented and doesn't get reunited till around the modern period every wonder why japanese and chinese is a lot alike because the japanese borrowed many ideas from the chinese because there so close together china was like your older sibling influencing you Skylar - The Heian period was a golden age for Japan. The Heians were very powerful. The Heian period was known for architecture, culture, arts, and philosophy. They had amazing cultural advancement for their time, around the year 1000. The women had a say in thing, like emperial arts. Lady Murasaki is known as the first novelist. A Shogun is a military dictator, the first Shogun was Minamoto Yuritomo. Audrey - China had a huge influence on Japan even though China never conquered Japan because of how close they are Japan borrowed many ideas from China in the Classical period. Japanese rulers sent delegations to China in the 7th century to better understand what the Chinese do to run their government. Ella - In the time he ruled, Oda Nobunaga took advantage of guns. He was able to use them to put most of the other lords into submission. He also worked towards unifying Japan. The next two rulers Tokugawa Ieyasu and Toyotomi Hideyoshi continued working towards unify Japan. Ben - (Y’all better be ready for me to correct your pronunciation since I’m learning Japanese. Nah Jk) The capital of Japan during the heian period was Heian-kyo (today’s Kyoto). Also another little fact about the golden age of Japan was that woman that were in the family of very important political figures had a significant amount of power themselves, unlike other civilizations like Rome. Japan in its early state was famous for taking things and ideas from other people and making their own version. This is how they became one of the first truly industrialized countries. Emma - The structure of Medieval Japan under the Bakufu system, or shogunate, was actually very similar to a lot of the European systems, and was even called a feudal system by some. In this time, the position of Emperor still existed, but all the power belonged to the Shogun who was a sort of military leader. Under the shogun there were several daimyo, which could be compared to lords. Beneath them was the warrior class of samurai, which are very similar to the knights of europe. Ethan- The Edo period is named for the castle Edo. This castle was ruled by the Tokuwaga shogunate which is still going. The shogun is at the top of the chain which how the bakufu system normally works. This system is considered the reason Japan began to be unified. Maya, Aztec, and Inca Skylar - The Aztec Empire starts to form when Azcapotzalca gets in a civil war, Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan for a triple alliance and conquer Azcapotzalca. The Aztec empire was very small at the time with only three city-states. The Inca empire called themselves the Tawantinsuyu, they called their ruler Inca. Gabe - after a while in the Aztec empire Tenochtitlan which was once the weaker city state before in entered the aztec empire actually became the capital of the Aztec empire and the Aztec empire is actually around for another hundred years When hernando cortes comes and conquered it in 1521 Audrey - The Aztec civilization and the Aztec empire are different from each other because the Aztec civilization was made up of broad groups of people over hundreds of years where the Aztec empire was a very specific entity that was formed in the hundred years before the Spanish colonization. Ella - Hernando Cortes was able to convince several hundreds of conquistadors to conquer empires for him. He collected people from neighboring city states who were having problems with the Mexico or Aztec Empires. He eventually took over the city of Tenochtitlan and it became a very advanced civilization. Ben - One of the biggest ways the English were able to conquer ancient Mexico was with the bringing of smallpox which the native Americans never really had before. Even before they started calling themselves the Inca, they already had a sort of advanced civilization. They taxed their citizens, but not in a traditional way, since they didn’t use a coin or currency system, citizens had to dedicate some of their working time to the government. Emma - The advancements of Inca Empire are on their own monumental, but to put it into perspective, from the historical evidence we currently have, there is no proof that the Incas had a written language. They did have a system of knots that they used, but that was the extent of and record keeping. Ethan- The Mayans were well known for their astronomics, mathematics, and their calendar. Their civilization was based in southeastern Mexico and Guatemala. There was also El Salvador, Belize, and Honduras. That’s all the time we have for today. THank for joining us outside of the box that is learning.
Welcome back to The Emancipation Podcast Station - the place to hear about history researched and retold through the eyes of Middle school and HS students. Byzantine Empire: 600 - 1450 Regional and interregional interactions European Middle Ages: feudalism and serfdom: Audrey - The Middle Ages lasted from the fall of the Western Roman Empire, which was a little before 500 AD, to 1500 AD. There are three major sections of the Middle Ages, the Early Middle Ages, lasting from the fall of the Western Roman Empire to 1000 ad, was the first, the High Middle Ages, from 1000 ad to 13 ad, which was a high point for the Middle Ages, and last, the late Middle Ages, this lasted from 1300 to 1500 ad and it wasn't a very pleasant time to live in Europe. Gabe - feudalism is where if your poor you live on some land that you don't own a really rich guy called a baron or duke owns it and you still don't have money so you share a plow with your neighbor and you combine your ox together just to plow the ground so you can make a little money and you cant even leave with permission from your landlord you're a serf in a serfdom which is a state of being a feudal laborer so your like a slave who gets paid enough to survive Ella - A Roman Emperor by the name of Charlemagne conquered Northern Italy, around modern day France, and many other places including Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Charlemagne was able to unify most of Western Europe and was considered a defining figure of the early middle ages. Emma - The word feudal comes from the medieval latin word feudum which means “landed estate”. It is a really broad term that refers to many types of landowner-tenant living situations that took place during the middle ages in Europe. In the seventeenth century, historians and lawyers studying the middle ages wanted to give a name to these types of lifestyles in this era, thus naming it feudalism. Modern day historians don’t necessarily agree that they should all be lumped under one name. Ben - And at that time around 1100 AD Rome was losing land to the Muslims that conquered some of the Byzantine area, So they sent some crusaders in 1096 to take the land back, (especially the holy land) and when they did, they decided instead of adding the land back into the byzantine empire they would just make some crusader kingdoms, so they made separate kingdoms that only advanced the divide between the east and west empires. Skylar - Peasant revolting was also called popular uprisings. The peasants revolted in England in 1831. The revolted because they felt that they were not getting treated equally as everyone else, ex. they were working harder than everyone else and barely surviving. Other reasons for popular uprisings/peasant revolting is the government taxing certain people more, cultural issues, and religious issues. 7.Ethan- The Byzantine Iconoclasm was the destroying of religious stuff. This brought up much controversy that lasted about a century. This also further differed the East and the West. The Western Church used religious images often and the Iconoclasm didn’t affect them as much. Origins of Islam: Audrey - The closest translation of the word Islam to English is surrender, and in the context of the Islamic faith it would be the surrender to the will of God. A Muslim is someone who practices Islam, and submits to the will of God. The central text of Islam is the Quran, which is believed by Muslims that it is the word of God revealed by the messenger Muhammad. Especially in older texts Islam might be referred to as Muhammadism, like Christianity, but this is incorrect because the Muslims didn’t view Muhammad as a divine figure but as someone God spoke through. Ella - Muslims and Christians biggest difference is that muslims do not believe in the crucifixion or the resurrection. They also don’t believe that Jesus is the son of god. They belief he was only and early prophet. Muslims also believe in a system of 5 pillars. These pillars are made up of faith, prayer, charity, fasting and pilgrimage. Emma - Islam is similar to Christianity in many ways. For example, they believe that Moses, Abraham, and Jesus were all doing God’s work. They also believe that parts of the Bible are indeed God’s word though they also believe that Muhammad is another of God’s messengers and that they word he conveyed is also divinely inspired. Ben - The biggest figure in Islam is Muhammad, Muhammad was born in 570 BC, sadly his mother died in 576 BC and his grandfather died in 578 BC. He got married in 595 BC. After he saw revelations and visions from god he went down to the big cube and told everyone “hey your gods are fake” but as expected, everyone got mad at him so he had to move to a place with a Christian king. He went to where is now Ethiopia and preached his teachings. Gabe - he started preaching in mecca and the Quraysh tribe did not like that so he moved to Medina or Yathrib and here he kind of became a spiritual ruler over the city And they actually fight the quraysh tribe 3 to 1 because there's only about 300 of them and there's 900 quraysh and they win this battle and quraysh fight them again in the battle of uhud and now there’s 750 so they are building in numbers but there’s 3300 And the quraysh win and then they have another war which is the battle of the trench and they actually dug a trench around the city and they fought 3000 to 10000 so three to one again and the muslims won and this is all by account of the muslims though because they are the only record we have of that time 6.Ethan- Muslims consider Muhammad as the last person in the line of disciples. These disciples include, Moses, Abraham, and Jesus. Also, as soon as Muhammad was born most of the Middle East abandoned polytheism. Skylar - the early part of Islamic faiths are center around revelations of the prophet, Muhammad. A lot of the revelations with Muhammad are about surrendering to god. Muslims believe that the Quran is the final testament. Sunni and Shia Islam: Ella - After the death of Muhammed, these two divisions known as Sunni and Shia came into play. 90% of the world's 1.6 billion muslims are Sunni and 10% are Shia. The word Sunni comes from the word Sunnah which is referring to Muhammad. The word Shia comes from Shi'atu ‘Ali which means followers of Ali. Audrey - The general division, between the Sunnis and the Shias, is who should succeed Muhammad, after his death, as leader of the Muslim community. The Shias believe that members of Muhammad’s family, especially his descendants, should become leader. The Sunnis disagree, and believe that it doesn’t really matter who succeeds Muhammad. Ben - As the divide gets more and more intense it causes the “Battle of the Camel” named after Aisha’s camel in 656 BC, then after that the “Battle of Siffin” happens merely a year after in 657 BC. Gabe - the shias believe even more so that ali should be his successor after a speech saying he is mawla and ali is also mawla and when muhammad died his very close friend abu bakr takes his place and then umar and then uthman who is assassinated and ali finally takes his place Emma - Ali became caliph in the year 656 AD, after the assassination of Uthman. At this time, Muawiya was the governor of Damascus and he felt that Ali was not putting in a full effort to punish the people who commited the crime. Because of this, he refuses to pledge his allegience to Ali. This started the Fist Fitna, or first Muslim civil war. Skylar - Muhammad was born in the year 570. He starts having revelations to god in the year 610, the Muslim calendar doesn’t start until 622 though. Muhammad married Khadijah and had several kids with her, one being named, Fatimah. Fatimah then married Ali, the son of Abu Talib. That’s where the word shi’atu ali comes from. 7.Ethan- The Shia are mainly based in places like Iraq and Iran, but are spread throughout the world itself. As you can probably guess, the Sunni are in many different places, since 9/10 Muslim are Sunni. Much blood was spilled through these 2 denominations throughout time.. Age of Islam: Ella - The Islamic Empire Grew as it obtained information from other civilizations such as the Byzantine and Persian empires. The collected knowledge and cultural ideas from surrounding empires and people they would meet around their area such as the Indians and the Chinese. Audrey - They collected and obtained this information all throughout the Umayyad dynasty but most of it happened during the Abbasid Caliphate. The Abbasid Caliphate built Baghdad and moved the of the empire there. Ben - In 786 Al-Ma’mun was born, but later in his life (813 BC) he created the Baghdad house of wisdom. The baghdad house of wisdom contained almost all advanced human knowledge from at the time, from mathematics to astronomy, the house of wisdom contained all great wisdoms, even those that were fictional such as poetry. Gabe - they built baghdad right on the route between europe and asia making it the place a prime spot to trade in allowing the abbasids very wealthy because they imported all sorts of good like silk glass tile paper ivory soap honey diamonds Emma - During this time, something called the translation movement took place. Some of the caliphs like al-Rashid and al-Ma’mun wanted to make popular Greek texts accessible to the Arab world, so they encouraged scholars to translate Greek works into Arabic. They were trying to preserve the thoughts of great scholars such as Aristotle. 6.Ethan- The Abbasid Dynasty built Baghdad which is the capital of Iraq. While this was not always so, Damascus was the original capital city. At the time, this was the perfect place for the capital, for it was by the Tigris and Euphrates river. Thus made is ideal for crop production which allowed larger population. Skylar - Al-Kwarizmi was a persian mathematician who studied at the house of wisdom. Al-Kwarizmi is the inventor of algebra. The word algebra comes from the Arabic word al-jabr. He also created the Hindu numerals. The Great Schism: Audrey - Emperor Nero had these purges of Christians like the Roman fire or fire of rome in 64 ad. Nero blamed the Christians for the fire and was lighting them alive for punishment. Many historians believe that the apostles Peter and Paul were killed in these purges. Ben - Around the early 4th century a new emperor comes along and we’ve talked about him previously, Constantine. But today I’m going to go more in depth into Constantine’s life. He was born in 280 AD. His father was the previous western emperor before him, being made emperor in 305 AD. At Constantine’s thirties he was fighting for power within the western region, becoming victorious and being crowned emperor in 312 AD, and later became emperor of not just western rome but all of it in 324. He instilled multiple laws protecting christian people and converted to christianity/was baptised on his deathbed. He died in 337 AD. Gabe - after constantine there was theodosius who made christianity the main religion of rome and persecuted other religions he was also the last to rule both sides of rome when he died the germanic tribes took the west side of rome leaving justinian to the east side who conquered modern day italy back from the germanic tribes leaving the germanic tribes with modern day france and modern day germany and modern day france is owned by the franks the tribe of france which is why you have french and german but they were actually just german to begin with Ella - The Christians of the time were missionaries, going around and spreading their beliefs to other Roman Civilizations. In some cases families were split apart when half of the family decided to abandon Roman practices. Emma - Under the rule of Justinian, there was a power struggle in the Roman Empire. There were many people who possessed large amounts of power with different titles. There was obviously the Emperor, but then there was also the Bishop of Rome, now known as the Pope, who considers himself to somewhat the head of Christianity. There were also several other patriarchs across the Empire who held power and influence over the people. Skylar - Christianity started from the Roman Empire, it started from a jewish sect in Judea and Galilee, from early ministries. Going into the third century christianity was becoming pretty big. There were more purges. In 312 Constantine wins the battle at Milvian Bridge, and shortly after christianity becomes legal, and the christians are no longer persecuted for doing something they believe in. Ethan- The Holy Roman Empire was called this by Voltaire, “It is neither holy, nor an empire”. This Voltaire was a french Enlightenment writer/speaker. Otto der Grosse or Otto the Great was a Roman emperor who originated in Germany. He unified the Empire around the 10th century. It started to split around the 11th century. The Crusades: Gabe - it was called the crusades because it was a war but from the pope so the pope wanted some land and he convinced a mighty Lord to go fight for him and his land so he goes and dies of starvation there and nevers sees his land again Audrey - Crusades were wars but they were considered just warfare. A war could be considered just if it had a just cause legitimate authority and the right intention. Ella - Eventually after losing a lot of territory, the Byzantine Empire was able to take back some of the Anatolian Peninsula from a muslim group called the Seljuk Turks. Supposedly, the crusades were made for the Byzantine Empire to get back the territory they lost, but the crusades usually took the land for themselves. Skylar -The Byzantine empire was losing the holy land, as the Arabians started to overrun it. Crusades were wars declared by the pope. Pope Urban II told all the christians they need to fight against the muslims to get the holy land back, and whoever fights will be forgiven of their sins. Emma - The crusades made a big impact on the expansion of European kingdoms and territories. In the north and est, crusading helped to expand parts of the Kingdoms of Sweden and Denmark. It also influenced the establishment of new political systems like Prussia. Ben - The one they hired to lead the charge against the Muslims that were taking over Jerusalem was Pope Urban II. This took place in 1095. His famous speech hat launched the crusades was, “Under Jesus Christ, our Leader, may you struggle for your Jerusalem, in Christian battle line, [that] most invincible line, even more successfully than did the sons of Jacob of old—struggle, that you may assail and drive out the Turks, more execrable than the Jebusites, who are in this land, and may you deem it a beautiful thing to die for Christ in that city in which he died for us. But if it befall you to die this side of it, be sure that to have died on the way is of equal value, if Christ shall find you in his army” 7.Ethan- The First Crusade was Jerusalem’s first military order. These military orders were more of taking on things like communal poverty, chastity, and obedience. But also violence… lots of violence… for the Christian faith of course. Examples consist of the Knights Templar, the Knights Hospitaller, and the Teutonic Knights. 8. Medieval Japan: Gabe - medieval japan becomes a militaristic japan and it gets kind of fragmented and doesn't get reunited till around the modern period every wonder why japanese and chinese is a lot alike because the japanese borrowed many ideas from the chinese because there so close together china was like your older sibling influencing you Skylar - The Heian period was a golden age for Japan. The Heians were very powerful. The Heian period was known for architecture, culture, arts, and philosophy. They had amazing cultural advancement for their time, around the year 1000. The women had a say in thing, like emperial arts. Lady Murasaki is known as the first novelist. A Shogun is a military dictator, the first Shogun was Minamoto Yuritomo. Audrey - China had a huge influence on Japan even though China never conquered Japan because of how close they are Japan borrowed many ideas from China in the Classical period. Japanese rulers sent delegations to China in the 7th century to better understand what the Chinese do to run their government. Ella - In the time he ruled, Oda Nobunaga took advantage of guns. He was able to use them to put most of the other lords into submission. He also worked towards unifying Japan. The next two rulers Tokugawa Ieyasu and Toyotomi Hideyoshi continued working towards unify Japan. Ben - (Y’all better be ready for me to correct your pronunciation since I’m learning Japanese. Nah Jk) The capital of Japan during the heian period was Heian-kyo (today’s Kyoto). Also another little fact about the golden age of Japan was that woman that were in the family of very important political figures had a significant amount of power themselves, unlike other civilizations like Rome. Japan in its early state was famous for taking things and ideas from other people and making their own version. This is how they became one of the first truly industrialized countries. Emma - The structure of Medieval Japan under the Bakufu system, or shogunate, was actually very similar to a lot of the European systems, and was even called a feudal system by some. In this time, the position of Emperor still existed, but all the power belonged to the Shogun who was a sort of military leader. Under the shogun there were several daimyo, which could be compared to lords. Beneath them was the warrior class of samurai, which are very similar to the knights of europe. Ethan- The Edo period is named for the castle Edo. This castle was ruled by the Tokuwaga shogunate which is still going. The shogun is at the top of the chain which how the bakufu system normally works. This system is considered the reason Japan began to be unified. Maya, Aztec, and Inca Skylar - The Aztec Empire starts to form when Azcapotzalca gets in a civil war, Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan for a triple alliance and conquer Azcapotzalca. The Aztec empire was very small at the time with only three city-states. The Inca empire called themselves the Tawantinsuyu, they called their ruler Inca. Gabe - after a while in the Aztec empire Tenochtitlan which was once the weaker city state before in entered the aztec empire actually became the capital of the Aztec empire and the Aztec empire is actually around for another hundred years When hernando cortes comes and conquered it in 1521 Audrey - The Aztec civilization and the Aztec empire are different from each other because the Aztec civilization was made up of broad groups of people over hundreds of years where the Aztec empire was a very specific entity that was formed in the hundred years before the Spanish colonization. Ella - Hernando Cortes was able to convince several hundreds of conquistadors to conquer empires for him. He collected people from neighboring city states who were having problems with the Mexico or Aztec Empires. He eventually took over the city of Tenochtitlan and it became a very advanced civilization. Ben - One of the biggest ways the English were able to conquer ancient Mexico was with the bringing of smallpox which the native Americans never really had before. Even before they started calling themselves the Inca, they already had a sort of advanced civilization. They taxed their citizens, but not in a traditional way, since they didn’t use a coin or currency system, citizens had to dedicate some of their working time to the government. Emma - The advancements of Inca Empire are on their own monumental, but to put it into perspective, from the historical evidence we currently have, there is no proof that the Incas had a written language. They did have a system of knots that they used, but that was the extent of and record keeping. Ethan- The Mayans were well known for their astronomics, mathematics, and their calendar. Their civilization was based in southeastern Mexico and Guatemala. There was also El Salvador, Belize, and Honduras. That’s all the time we have for today. THank for joining us outside of the box that is learning.
1071. Byzantine-Seljuk War. The Byzantine Emperor Romanus IV attempts to defeat the Seljuk Turks to stop the problem of raiding and secure his newly won throne. Sultan Alp Arslan is outnumbered, but not unwilling to play the game. Strategic planning, tactical mistakes, and political infighting all show up on the board game of history. Artwork by O. Mustafin, Istanbul Military Museum
1097, The First Crusade. The Seljuk Turks attempt to crush the Norman vanguard of the First Crusade. Can the speed and mobility of the Turks overcome the heavy armor of the Normans? Formation are key, but morale takes center stage in central Anatolia on one hot day. Painting by Gustav Dore
In the 10th century, a succession of Byzantine rulers reversed centuries of strategic policy by embarking on a series of campaigns that dramatically reshaped their empire. This effort and its consequences for the history of the region is the focus of Anthony Kaldellis‘s Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood: The Rise and Fall of Byzantium, 955 A.D. to the First Crusade (Oxford University Press, 2017), which provides the first survey of this important era of Byzantine history written in over a century. Kaldellis sees the campaigns that began in the 950s as a consequence of the collapse of the Carolingian empire and the decline of the Abbasid caliphate, which provided the Byzantines with an opportunity to stabilize their southeastern frontiers and to extend and consolidate their holdings in the Balkans and in Italy. Effected through a combination of military conquest and traditional Byzantine “soft power,” the result was a greatly expanded domain, one centered now in Europe rather than in Asia. As Kaldellis explains, what brought this period to an end was not any factor internal to the empire but the simultaneous threats posed in the late 11th century by the Normans, the Pechenegs, and the Seljuk Turks, which in the end proved too much for the Byzantine state to manage successfully even with the help of the warriors of the First Crusade.
In the 10th century, a succession of Byzantine rulers reversed centuries of strategic policy by embarking on a series of campaigns that dramatically reshaped their empire. This effort and its consequences for the history of the region is the focus of Anthony Kaldellis‘s Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood: The Rise and Fall of Byzantium, 955 A.D. to the First Crusade (Oxford University Press, 2017), which provides the first survey of this important era of Byzantine history written in over a century. Kaldellis sees the campaigns that began in the 950s as a consequence of the collapse of the Carolingian empire and the decline of the Abbasid caliphate, which provided the Byzantines with an opportunity to stabilize their southeastern frontiers and to extend and consolidate their holdings in the Balkans and in Italy. Effected through a combination of military conquest and traditional Byzantine “soft power,” the result was a greatly expanded domain, one centered now in Europe rather than in Asia. As Kaldellis explains, what brought this period to an end was not any factor internal to the empire but the simultaneous threats posed in the late 11th century by the Normans, the Pechenegs, and the Seljuk Turks, which in the end proved too much for the Byzantine state to manage successfully even with the help of the warriors of the First Crusade. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In the 10th century, a succession of Byzantine rulers reversed centuries of strategic policy by embarking on a series of campaigns that dramatically reshaped their empire. This effort and its consequences for the history of the region is the focus of Anthony Kaldellis‘s Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood: The Rise and Fall of Byzantium, 955 A.D. to the First Crusade (Oxford University Press, 2017), which provides the first survey of this important era of Byzantine history written in over a century. Kaldellis sees the campaigns that began in the 950s as a consequence of the collapse of the Carolingian empire and the decline of the Abbasid caliphate, which provided the Byzantines with an opportunity to stabilize their southeastern frontiers and to extend and consolidate their holdings in the Balkans and in Italy. Effected through a combination of military conquest and traditional Byzantine “soft power,” the result was a greatly expanded domain, one centered now in Europe rather than in Asia. As Kaldellis explains, what brought this period to an end was not any factor internal to the empire but the simultaneous threats posed in the late 11th century by the Normans, the Pechenegs, and the Seljuk Turks, which in the end proved too much for the Byzantine state to manage successfully even with the help of the warriors of the First Crusade. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In the 10th century, a succession of Byzantine rulers reversed centuries of strategic policy by embarking on a series of campaigns that dramatically reshaped their empire. This effort and its consequences for the history of the region is the focus of Anthony Kaldellis‘s Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood: The Rise and Fall of Byzantium, 955 A.D. to the First Crusade (Oxford University Press, 2017), which provides the first survey of this important era of Byzantine history written in over a century. Kaldellis sees the campaigns that began in the 950s as a consequence of the collapse of the Carolingian empire and the decline of the Abbasid caliphate, which provided the Byzantines with an opportunity to stabilize their southeastern frontiers and to extend and consolidate their holdings in the Balkans and in Italy. Effected through a combination of military conquest and traditional Byzantine “soft power,” the result was a greatly expanded domain, one centered now in Europe rather than in Asia. As Kaldellis explains, what brought this period to an end was not any factor internal to the empire but the simultaneous threats posed in the late 11th century by the Normans, the Pechenegs, and the Seljuk Turks, which in the end proved too much for the Byzantine state to manage successfully even with the help of the warriors of the First Crusade. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In the 10th century, a succession of Byzantine rulers reversed centuries of strategic policy by embarking on a series of campaigns that dramatically reshaped their empire. This effort and its consequences for the history of the region is the focus of Anthony Kaldellis‘s Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood: The Rise and Fall of Byzantium, 955 A.D. to the First Crusade (Oxford University Press, 2017), which provides the first survey of this important era of Byzantine history written in over a century. Kaldellis sees the campaigns that began in the 950s as a consequence of the collapse of the Carolingian empire and the decline of the Abbasid caliphate, which provided the Byzantines with an opportunity to stabilize their southeastern frontiers and to extend and consolidate their holdings in the Balkans and in Italy. Effected through a combination of military conquest and traditional Byzantine “soft power,” the result was a greatly expanded domain, one centered now in Europe rather than in Asia. As Kaldellis explains, what brought this period to an end was not any factor internal to the empire but the simultaneous threats posed in the late 11th century by the Normans, the Pechenegs, and the Seljuk Turks, which in the end proved too much for the Byzantine state to manage successfully even with the help of the warriors of the First Crusade. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In the 10th century, a succession of Byzantine rulers reversed centuries of strategic policy by embarking on a series of campaigns that dramatically reshaped their empire. This effort and its consequences for the history of the region is the focus of Anthony Kaldellis‘s Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood: The Rise and Fall of Byzantium, 955 A.D. to the First Crusade (Oxford University Press, 2017), which provides the first survey of this important era of Byzantine history written in over a century. Kaldellis sees the campaigns that began in the 950s as a consequence of the collapse of the Carolingian empire and the decline of the Abbasid caliphate, which provided the Byzantines with an opportunity to stabilize their southeastern frontiers and to extend and consolidate their holdings in the Balkans and in Italy. Effected through a combination of military conquest and traditional Byzantine “soft power,” the result was a greatly expanded domain, one centered now in Europe rather than in Asia. As Kaldellis explains, what brought this period to an end was not any factor internal to the empire but the simultaneous threats posed in the late 11th century by the Normans, the Pechenegs, and the Seljuk Turks, which in the end proved too much for the Byzantine state to manage successfully even with the help of the warriors of the First Crusade. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In the 10th century, a succession of Byzantine rulers reversed centuries of strategic policy by embarking on a series of campaigns that dramatically reshaped their empire. This effort and its consequences for the history of the region is the focus of Anthony Kaldellis‘s Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood: The Rise and Fall of Byzantium, 955 A.D. to the First Crusade (Oxford University Press, 2017), which provides the first survey of this important era of Byzantine history written in over a century. Kaldellis sees the campaigns that began in the 950s as a consequence of the collapse of the Carolingian empire and the decline of the Abbasid caliphate, which provided the Byzantines with an opportunity to stabilize their southeastern frontiers and to extend and consolidate their holdings in the Balkans and in Italy. Effected through a combination of military conquest and traditional Byzantine “soft power,” the result was a greatly expanded domain, one centered now in Europe rather than in Asia. As Kaldellis explains, what brought this period to an end was not any factor internal to the empire but the simultaneous threats posed in the late 11th century by the Normans, the Pechenegs, and the Seljuk Turks, which in the end proved too much for the Byzantine state to manage successfully even with the help of the warriors of the First Crusade. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In 1071 the Byzantine Empire, weakened by the mismanagement of a series of weak emperors, suffered a catastrophic defeat at the hands of the Seljuk Turks, newly arrived in the region. www.historyeurope.net See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
The music of Turkey includes diverse elements ranging from Central Asian folk music and music from Ottoman Empire dominions such as Persian music, Balkan music and Byzantine music, as well as more modern European and American popular music influences. In turn, it has influenced these cultures through the Ottoman Empire.[1] Turkey is a country on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, and is a crossroad of cultures from across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, the Caucasus and South and Central Asia.The roots of traditional music in Turkey spans across centuries to a time when the Seljuk Turks colonized Anatolia and Persia in the 11th century and contains elements of both Turkic and pre-Turkic influences. Much of its modern popular music can trace its roots to the emergence in the early 1930s drive for Westernization.[2]With the absorbance of immigrants from various regions the diversity of musical genres and musical instrumentation also expanded. Turkey has also seen documented folk music and recorded popular music produced in the ethnic styles of Armenian, Greek, Polish, Azeri and Jewish communities, among others.[1] Many Turkish cities and towns have vibrant local music scenes which, in turn, support a number of regional musical styles.Historical backgroundTraditional music in Turkey falls into two main genres; classical art music and folk music. Turkish classical music is characterized by an Ottoman elite culture and influenced lyrically by neighbouring regions and Ottoman provinces, such as Persian and Byzantine vocal traditions and South European cultures.[3] Earlier forms are sometimes termed as saray music in Turkish, meaning royal court music, indicating the source of the genre comes from Ottoman royalty as patronage and composer.[4] Neo-classical or postmodern versions of this traditional genre are termed as art music or sanat musikisi, though often it is unofficially termed as alla turca. In addition, from the saray or royal courts came the Ottoman military band, Mehter takımı in Turkish, considered to be the oldest type of military marching band in the world. It was also the forefather of modern Western percussion bands and has been described as the father of Western military music.[5]Turkish folk music is the music of Turkish-speaking rural communities of Anatolia, the Balkans, and Middle East. While Turkish folk music contains definitive traces of the Central Asian Turkic cultures, it has also strongly influenced and been influenced by many other indigenous cultures. Religious music in Turkey is sometimes grouped with folk music due to the tradition of the wandering minstrel or aşık (pronounced ashuk), but its influences on Sufism due to the spritiual Mevlevi sect arguably grants it special status.[6]It has been suggested the distinction between the two major genres comes during the Tanzîmat period of Ottoman era, when Turkish classical music was the music played in the Ottoman palaces and folk music was played in the villages.[7][3] However, with the type of cultural cross-breeding the empire allowed, both genres relate to the multitudes of ethnic groups to be found in the make-up of the Ottoman Empire. In that sense they are the first examples of their kind in world music.[7][3] Although Turkish classical and folk music have generally enjoyed a broad popularity regardless of subcultures, regional classical music has had lapses in prominence.When the modern Turkish state was proclaimed in 1923, the new republic aimed at creating a nation with a distinct and unified culture. This included replacing the culture of Istanbul, which was perceived as the Ottoman elite, by the culture of rural Anatolia, which was considered Turkish. Hence, folk music was promoted, while classical music became less popular.[2] Moreover, western classical music was introduced and encouraged in accordance with one of the most important policies of the new state, westernization of the society.[2] By the 1960s, western popular music had been introduced to Turkey, with the name hafif-batı müziği (light-western music). At the same time, socialist movements were getting popular in accordance with the world. Musicians who were inspired by these movements started adapting folk music with contemporary sounds and arrangements, giving rise to Anatolian rock and protest music or özgün muzik (authentic music). Increasing immigration in the 1970s from southeastern rural areas to big cities in the west, and particularly to Istanbul, gave rise to a new cultural synthesis, which was regarded as a degeneration of Istanbul music by some musicologists whom favoured Ottoman classical music. Paradoxically things had come full circle; a genre that had once been thought as foreign was now viewed as Turkish or alla turca, as it was reminiscent of a time when Turks were at the height of their power in world events.[2]The new residents of metropolitan areas suffered from hard economical conditions and had difficulties in adapting to the big city from rural life. This newly constructed culture proceeded to generate its own music, derogatively termed by Istanbul musicologists as arabesque or arabesk, due to its high pitched wailing and exaggerated symbolisms of suffering. Arabesque was a synthesis of Turkish folk and middle-eastern music, similar to the growing left-wing subculture's own "arabesque", which was a new version of protest music fused in folk traditions. In the era influenced by the military government, arabesque and özgün genres were labeled "degenerate" and discouraged by the government, while Turkish classical music and contemporary music were promoted.[2]Despite this however, western-style pop music lost popularity to arabesque in the late 70s and 80s, with even its greatest proponents Ajda Pekkan and Sezen Aksu falling in status. It became popular again by the beginning of the 1990s, as a result of an opening economy and society. With the support of Aksu, the resurging popularity of pop music gave rise to several international Turkish pop stars such as Tarkan and Sertab Erener. The late 1990s also saw an emergence of underground music producing alternative Turkish rock, electronica, hip-hop, rap and dance music in opposition to the mainstream corporate pop and arabesque genres, which many believe have become too commercial.[8]Ottoman classical musicAs the Empire grew, musics of conquered peoples of the Balkans and the Mediterranean were incorporated into an increasingly diverse Ottoman music. The Ottoman Empire was a multi-ethnic state, and cultural influences, including music, were shared by groups including the Turks, Armenians, Greeks, Kurds, Arabs, Persians, Assyrians and Jews.With the beginning of the decline of the empire in the early 19th century, one branch gradually evolved from serious artistic music to "urban entertainment music".[2] But the essence of classical Turkish music— a refined aesthetic, a vast repertoire, a sophisticated makam system of melodic modes, a variety of usul rhythmic modes, a rich body of Ottoman poetry—survived throughout the 19th and 20th centuries and continues in the 21st century.Though akin to today's classical Arab music, classical Turkish music has a broader repertoire, utilizes a wider range of makams and usuls, and enjoys a strong following of audiences, performers, and students. One can find more distant similarities with Azerbaijan, Uzbek, and other Turkic musics. [3]Three of the best known composers of Turkish classical music are Buhurizade Itri, Dede Efendi, and Haci Arif Bey. Throughout its history until the late 20th century, classical Turkish music was transmitted orally from teacher to student via the meşk system. Some compositions lost from the oral repertoire have survived in Hamparsum notation, developed by composer and musician Hamparsum Limonciyan by request of Sultan Selim III.In 1934, the government of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk banned Ottoman classical music, though the ban was lifted the following year. Even though the Republic of Turkey has a considerably less multiethnic character than the Ottoman Empire, important performers and composers like Yorgo Bacanos and udi Hrant Kenkulian came from minorities, while favourite Turkish composers include Sadettin Kaynak.Some of the important musicologists involved with this genre are Prince Cantemir, Cinuçen Tanrıkorur and Rauf Yekta Bey who wrote the first modern account of Turkish classical music available in a Western language. [4]Modern Turkish singers of neo-classical music include Münir Nurettin Selçuk, Müzeyyen Senar, Zeki Müren, Bülent Ersoy and Emel Sayın. Safiye Ayla ranks as one of the great secular classical singers of the early 20th centery. Kâni Karaca is considered one of the great singers of mosque music and Mevlevi music in the last third of the 20th century. Leading instrumentalists include Necdet Yaṣar (tanbur), Niyazi Sayın (ney), İhsan Özgen (kemenche), Akagündüz Kutbay (ney—deceased).Listen
Episode 54 – The Crusades – Part 1In the first episode of Communio Sanctorum, we took a look at the various ways history has been studied over time. In the Ancient world, history was more often than not, propaganda. The old adage that “History is written by the winners” was certainly true for the ancients. With the implementation of the Scientific Method in the Modern Era, the researching and recording of history became more unbiased and accurate. It was far from a pure report, but it could no longer be considered blatant propaganda. The Post-Modern Era has seen a return to bias; this time an almost knee-jerk suspicion of ALL previous attempts at recording history. Even attempts of Modernity to document history are suspect and assumed guilty of recording little more than the bias of the authors, though their works were footnoted and peer-reviewed. Post-modern critics adopt a presupposition all recorded history is fabrication, especially if there's anything heroic or virtuous. If it's a dark tale of hopelessness and tragedy, well, then, maybe it can be accepted. It's almost as though Post-moderns want to make up for the ancient historians' penchant for propaganda. Post-Moderns cast history as “neg-paganda” if I can coin a word.Let's attempt a shedding of our bias, even though we can't fully do that, as we look at the Crusades. Instead of layering onto the Christians of Europe in the 11th and 12th Cs the sensibilities of people who live a thousand years later, let's attempt to understand the reasoning behind the idea of taking up a pitchfork or sword and making a life-altering trip over hundreds of miles, through strange lands, to risk one's life for è What? Oh yeah, to rid the Holy Land of pagan infidels.Wait; Mr. Crusader-person; have you ever been to the Holy Land? Do you own land there that's been stolen? Do you have relatives or friends there you need to protect? Have you ever met one of these infidels? Do you know what they believe or why they invaded?No? Then why are you so amped about marching half-way around the world to liberate a land you've not been all that interested in before from a people you know nothing about?See? There must have been some powerful forces at work in the minds and hearts of the people of Europe that they'd go in such large numbers on a Crusade. We may find their reasons for crusading to be horribly ill-conceived, but they were totally sold out to them.The Crusades reflected a new dynamism in the Christianity of Medieval Europe. People were driven by religious fervor, a yearning for adventure, and of course if some personal wealth could be thrown in, all the better. For 200 years, Crusaders tried to expel the Muslims from the Holy Land. It seems all the colorful figures of this era were caught up in the cause, from Peter the Hermit in the 1st Crusade, to the godly Louis IX, King of France, who inspired the 6th and 7th.Many Europeans of the medieval period viewed a pilgrimage as a form of especially poignant penance. These pilgrimages were usually trips to a local holy place or shrine erected to commemorate a miracle or to cathedrals where the relics of some saint were kept in a reliquary. But there was one pilgrimage that was thought to gain a special dose of grace – a trip to the Holy City of Jerusalem. The merchants of Jerusalem did a good business in keeping the constant flood of Christian pilgrims supplied with food, lodging and of course sacred mementos. Some pilgrims went by themselves; others in a group—ancient versions of the modern day Holy Land Tour. When pilgrims arrived in Jerusalem they'd make the rounds of all the traditional points of interest. They walked the Via Dolorosa to Calvary then sat for hours praying. When these pilgrims returned home, they were esteemed by their community as real saints; towering figures of spirituality.For centuries, peaceful pilgrims traveled from Europe to Palestine. The arrival of Islam in the Middle East in the 7th C didn't interfere. By the 10th C European bishops organized mass pilgrimages to the Holy Land. The largest we know of set out from Germany in 1065, with some 7,000 ! That's a lot of buses.To impede a pilgrim's journey was considered by the medieval Church as a serious breach of protocol because you endangered the pilgrim's salvation. If his pilgrimage was penance for some sin, you might deny him pardon by your altering his course. The mind-set of European Christians became one of extreme care to not interfere with Pilgrims once they'd set out.All of this faced a major problem in the 11th C when a new Muslim force took control of the Middle East. The Seljuk Turks, new and fanatical converts to Islam, came sweeping in to plunder the region. They seized Jerusalem from their fellow Muslims, then moved north into Asia Minor.The Byzantine Empire tried desperately to stop their advance, but at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 the Turks captured the eastern emperor and scattered his army. Within a few years nearly all Asia Minor, the chief source of Byzantine wealth and troops, was lost, and the new Byzantine emperor sent frantic appeals to the West for help. He pleaded with Europe's nobility and the Pope, seeking mercenaries to aid in the rescue of lost territory.Then, reports began to trickle back about the abuse of Christian pilgrims on the Turkish controlled roads to Jerusalem. The trickle turned to a stream, the a river. Even when pilgrims weren't mistreated, they were subject to heavy fees to travel thru Muslim lands.The standard, brief description of the inception of the First Crusade goes like this ... In 1095, the Eastern Emperor Alexius I sent an urgent appeal for help against the Muslims to Pope Urban II. The Pope responded by preaching one of history's most influential sermons. In a field near Clermont, France he said to the huge crowd that had gathered, “Your Eastern brothers have asked for your help. Turks and Arabs have conquered their territories. I, or rather, the Lord begs you, destroy that vile race from their lands!”But there was more to Urban's appeal than just liberating the East from infidel hordes. He also mentioned the European need for more land. He said, "For this land which you inhabit is too narrow for your large population; nor does it abound in wealth; and it furnishes scarcely food enough for its cultivators. Hence it is that you murder and devour one another, enter upon the road to the Holy Sepulcher; wrest that land from the wicked race, and subject it to yourselves.”Popes and bishops were accustomed to making such bold proclamations and issuing stirring appeals. They were nearly always met by loud “Amens!” and affirmations of the rightness of their call. Then people went home to lunch and promptly forgot all about what they'd just heard. So the response to Urban's sermon that day was astonishing. The crowd began to chant, “Deus vult = God wills it!” But they did more than chant. People across the entire socio-economic spectrum of Europe began preparations to do precisely what the Pope had said è Go to Jerusalem and liberate it from the Muslims. They sewed crosses onto their tunics, painted them on their shields, fired up the smithies and made swords, spears and maces. Commoners who couldn't afford armor or real weapons, made clubs and sharpened sticks.They were going to go on a new kind of pilgrimage. Not as humble worshippers but as armed warriors. Their enemy wasn't the world, the flesh and the devil; it was the Muslim infidel defiling the Holy Places.As the Pope ended his impassioned appeal to the loud affirmation of the crowd, he declared their slogan Deus Vult! would be the crusader battle cry in the coming campaign.The pilgrims agreed to make their way east any way they could, gathering at Constantinople. Then they'd form into armies and march south toward the enemy.The First Crusade was underway.As word spread across France and Germany of the holy mission, people from across all social levels were caught up in Crusader fervor. A similar excitement was seen in the California and Yukon Gold Rushes. It's not difficult to understand why. We need to be careful here because removed by a thousand years we can't presume to know the motivations that shaped every Crusader's actions, even though there are not a few historians who claim to be able to do so. Surely motives were mixed and diverse. Some, out of simple obedience to the Church and Pope, believed it was God's will to expel the Muslims from the Holy Land. Being illiterate peasants, they couldn't read the Bible or know God's will on the matter. They believed it was the Pope's duty to tell them what God willed and trusted him to do it. When the Pope declared anyone who died in the holy cause would bypass purgatory and enter directly into heaven, all the incentive needed to go was provided for thousands who lived in the constant fear of ever being good enough to merit heaven.Another powerful incentive was the opportunity for wealth. Medieval Europe was locked in a rigid feudalism that kept the poor in perpetual poverty. There was simply no rising above the social level one was born into. A Crusade offered a chance at the unthinkable. The loot of a successful campaign could bring great wealth, even to a peasant. And those who returned gained a reputation as a warrior that could see them and their sons raised into positions of relative honor in a noble's army.The risks were great; but the benefits both tangible and significant. So thousands took up the crusader cause.The problem for the thousands of peasants who wanted to go was that no noble would lead them. On the contrary, the nobles wanted their serfs to stay home and tend their fields and farms. But the Pope's appeal had gone out to all and no noble wanted to be seen as contradicting the Church. So they just hoped no one would rise to lead them. It was one of those moments of profound leadership vacuum that just begged to be filled; who filled it was a man known as Peter the Hermit.Of all the Crusaders, Peter surely had the strongest scent. The monk had not bathed in decades. He rode a donkey that, eyewitnesses said, bore a remarkable resemblance to its owner. Peter's preaching was even more powerful than his odor. In 9 months, he gathered 20,000 peasants under his banner, then began the long and difficult trek east to Constantinople.They created chaos as soon as they arrived. Complaints of robbery poured into the Emperor's office. He knew these Western European peasants were no match for the Muslims, but he couldn't let them camp out in his city. They were ferried across the river where they immediately began pillaging the homes of Eastern Christians. Many of these poor, uneducated and illiterate peasants had come for loot and saw plenty of it right there. They'd already travelled a long way from home and were now among a people who spoke a different language, wore different styles and ate different foods. “Why, they don't look like Christians at all! And what's that you say? These people don't follow the Pope? Well, then maybe they aren't Christians. Didn't we set out to fight unbelievers? Here are some. Let's get to work.”“But these aren't Muslims!”“Okay. We'll compromise. We won't kill them; we'll just take their stuff.”Peter's peasant army put additional strain on the already poor relations between the Eastern and Roman churches. Two months later, the peasants marched straight into a Muslim ambush and were wiped out. Peter, who was in Constantinople rounding up supplies—was the lone survivor. He then joined another army, this one led by European nobility who arrived well after the peasants. These Crusaders defeated the Muslims at Antioch then continued on to Jerusalem.The Muslims failed to take this second movement of the Crusade seriously. It's not difficult to understand why. They'd just defeated a huge force of Europeans easily. They assumed they'd do the same to the smaller force that came against them now. What they didn't realize was that this force, while indeed smaller, was the cream of Europe's warrior class; mounted and armored knights who grew up on battle.On July 15, 1099, Jerusalem fell to the Crusaders. It was a brutal massacre. Around the Temple Mount, blood flowed ankle-deep. Newborn infants were thrown against walls. It wasn't just Muslims who knew the Crusaders' wrath. A synagogue was torched, killing the Jews trapped inside. Some of the native Christians were also put to the sword. To this day, the wholesale slaughter of the First Crusade affects how Jews and Muslims perceive the Christian faith.But -- and this in no wise is meant to be a justification for the brutality of the Crusades; it seems just a tad hypocritical for Muslims to decry the atrocities of the Crusades when it was by the very same means they'd laid claim to the holy land in the 7th C. In truth, while crusading under the Christian cross is a horrible violation of the morality of Biblical Christianity—Jihad, Holy War is one of the main tenets of Islam. Long before the Pope erroneously offered absolution to Crusaders and the promise of heaven to those who died in the campaign, Islam promised paradise to Muslims who died in Jihad. Historically, while the Christian faith has spread by the work of humanitarian missionaries, Islam has spread by the sword. Or we might say, while true Christianity expands by the sword of the Spirit, Islam spreads by a sword of steel.Following the conquest of Jerusalem, the Crusaders carved out four states in the Middle East; the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the County of Tripoli, the Principality of Antioch, and the County of Edessa.This First crusade was followed by eight more, none of them really able to accomplish the success of the first, if we can call it success. All told, the gains of the Crusades lasted less than 200 years. But one major accomplishment was the reopening of international trade between Europe and the Far East, something that had languished for a few hundred years.The Crusades have proven to be the focus of much historical study and debate. They're usually linked to the political and social situation in 11th C Europe, the rise of a reform movement within the papacy, and the political and religious confrontation of Christianity and Islam in the Middle East. The Umayyad Caliphate had conquered Syria, Egypt, and North Africa from the predominantly Christian Byzantine Empire, and Spain from the Arian Christian Visigoths. When the Ummayads collapsed in North Africa, several smaller Muslim kingdoms emerged and attacked Italy in the 9th C. Pisa, Genoa, and Catalonia battled various Muslim kingdoms for control of the Mediterranean.The Crusaders were emboldened in their prospects for success in the Holy Land because of the successes they'd had in the Reconquista, the conquest of the Muslom Moors in the Iberian Peninsula. Earlier in the 11th C, French knights joined the Spanish in their campaign to retake their homeland. Shortly before the First Crusade, Pope Urban II encouraged the Spanish Christians to reconquer Tarragona, using much of the same symbolism and rhetoric he later used to preach Crusade to the people of Europe.Western Europe stabilized after the Saxons, Vikings, and Hungarians were brought into the Church by the end of the 10th C. But the demise of the Carolingian Empire gave rise to an entire class of warriors who had little to do but fight among themselves. The incessant warfare sapped Europe of its strength and wealth. Europe needed an external enemy they could turn their wrath on. As we saw in a previous episode, while the violence of knights was regularly condemned by the Church, and there was the attempt to regulate them in the treaties known as the Peace and Truce of God, the knights largely ignored these attempts at pacification. The Church needed an external threat they could direct the knights lust for battle toward.It was also at this time that the Popes were in constant competition with the Western emperors over the issue of investiture - the question of who had the authority to appoint bishops; the Church or the nobility. In some of the squabbles between Church and State, the popes weren't above calling out knights and nobles loyal to them to back down the power of the Emperor and recalcitrant nobles. So the Pope's mobilizing an armed force wasn't that far out of context.Another reason Pope Urban called for the First Crusade may have been his desire to assert control over the East. Remember that the Great Schism had occurred 40 years before and the churches had been rent ever since. While historians suggest this as one of several reasons driving Pope Urban's decision to start the Crusade, there's no evidence from any of his letters this factored into his plans.Until the crusaders' arrival, the Byzantines had continually fought the Muslim Turks for control of Asia Minor and Syria. The Seljuks, Sunni Muslims, had at one time ruled the Great Seljuk Empire, but by the First Crusade it had divided into several smaller states at odds with each other. If the First Crusade and been waged just a decade before it would probably have been crushed by a united Seljuk force. But by the time they arrived in the Middle East, the Seljuks were at odds with each other.Egypt and most of Palestine was controlled by the Arab Shi'ite Fatimid Caliphate, which was far smaller since the arrival of the Seljuks. Warfare between the Fatimids and Seljuks caused great disruption for the local Christians and western pilgrims. The Fatimids lost Jerusalem to the Seljuks in 1073, then recaptured it in 1098 just before the arrival of the Crusaders.As I said at the outset of this episode, this is just a summary of the First Crusade. Because this is such a crucial moment in Church History, we'll come back to it in our next episode.As we end, I want to once again say, “Thanks” to all the kind comments and those who've given the CS Facebook page a like.Every so often I mention that CS is supporter solely by a few subscribers. You can probably tell the podcast is your typical sole-author, “guy, a mic, and a computer” arrangement. I'm so thankful for those who occasionally send in a donation to keep CS going.
Episode 55 – The Crusades, Part 2As Bruce Shelly aptly states in in his excellent book Church History in Plain Language, for the past 700 years Christians have tried to forget the Crusades, though neither Jews nor Muslims will let them. Modern Christians want to dismiss that era of Church History as the insane bigotry of the illiterate and superstitious. But to do so is to show our own kind of bigotry, one neglectful of the historical context of the European Middle Ages.The Crusaders were human beings, who like us, had mixed motives often in conflict. The word crusade means to “take up the cross,” hopefully after the example of Christ. That's why on the way to the Holy Land crusaders wore the cross on their chest. On their return home they wore it on their back. [1]In rallying the European nobility to join the First Crusade, Pope Urban II promised them forgiveness of past sins. Most of them held a deep reverence for the land Jesus had walked. That devotion was captured later by Shakespeare when he has King Henry IV say:We are impressed and engag'd to fight … To chase those pagans in those holy fields, Over whose acres walked those blessed feet, Which fourteen hundred years ago were nail'd, For our advantage on the bitter cross.For Urban and later popes, the Crusades were a Holy War. Augustine, whose theology shaped the Medieval Church, laid down the principles of a “just war.” He said that it must be conducted by the State; its broad purpose was to uphold an endangered justice, which meant more narrowly that it must be defensive to protect life and property. In conducting such a just war there must be respect for noncombatants, hostages, and prisoners. And while all this may have been in the mind of Pope Urban and other church leaders when they called the First Crusade, those ideals didn't make it past the boundary of Europe. Once the Crusaders arrived in the East, the difficulties of their passage conspired to justify in their minds the wholesale pillaging of the innocent. Even those who'd originally taken up the Crusader cross with noble intent, didn't want to be left out of acquiring treasure once the looting began. After all, everyone else is doing it?As we return to our narrative of the First Crusade, let's recap …What triggered the Crusade was a request for assistance from Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos. Alexios worried about the advances of the Muslim Seljuk Turks, who'd reached as far west as Nicaea, a suburb of Constantinople. In March 1095, Alexios sent envoys to the Council of Piacenza to ask Pope Urban II for aid against the Turks. Urban's reply was positive. It's likely he hoped to heal the Great Schism of 40 yrs before that had sundered Western and Eastern churches.In the Summer of 1095, Urban turned to his homeland of France to recruit for the campaign. His journey ended at the Council of Clermont in November, where he gave an impassioned sermon to a large audience of French nobles and clergy, detailing the atrocities committed against pilgrims and Christians living in the East by the Muslims.Malcolm Gladwell wrote a bestseller in 2000 called The Tipping Point. The Pope's speech was one of those, an epic tipping point that sent history in a new direction. Urban understood what he proposed as an act so expensive, long, and arduous that it amounted to a form of penance capable of discharging all sins for those who went crusading. And he understood how his audience's minds worked. Coming from a noble house himself and having worked his way up through the ranks of the monastery and Church, he understood the puzzle that lay at the heart of popular religious sentiment. People were keenly aware of their sinfulness and sought to expunge it by embarking on a pilgrimage, or if that wasn't possible, to endow a monk or nun so they could live a life of sequestered holiness on their behalf. But their unavoidable immersion in the world meant it was impossible to perform all of the time-consuming penances which could keep pace with their ever-increasing catalog of sin. Urban saw that he could cut the Gordian knot by prescribing a Crusade. Here at last was a way for men given to violence, one of the most grievous of their misdeeds, to USE it as an act of penance. Overnight, those who were the most in need of penance became the very ones most likely to be the cause of the Crusade's success.While there are different versions of Urban's sermon, they all name the same basic elements. The Pope talked about the need to end the violence the European knights continued among themselves, the need to help the Eastern Christians in their contest with Islam, and making the pathways of pilgrims to Jerusalem safe again. He proposed to do this by waging a new kind of war, an armed pilgrimage that would lead to great spiritual and earthly rewards, in which sins would be remitted and anyone who died in the contest would bypass purgatory and enter immediately into heaven's bliss.The Pope's speech at Clermont didn't specifically mention liberating Jerusalem; the goal at first was just to help Constantinople and clear the roads to Jerusalem. But Urban's later message as he travelled thru Europe raising support for the Crusade, did include the idea of liberating the Holy City.While Urban's speech seemed impromptu, it was in fact well-planned. He'd discussed launching a crusade with two of southern France's most important leaders who gave enthusiastic support. One of them was at Clermont, the first to take up the cause. During what was left of 1095 and into 96, Pope Urban spread the message throughout France and urged the clergy to preach in their own regions and churches throughout Europe.Despite this planning, the response to call for the Crusade was a surprise. Instead of urging people to JOIN the campaign, bishops had to dissuade certain people from joining. Women, monks, and the infirm were forbidden, though many protested their exclusion. Some did more than protest; the defied officials and made plans to go anyway. When Pope Urban originally conceived the crusade, he envisioned the knights and nobility leading out trained armies. It was a surprise when thousands of peasants took up the cause.What was the bishop to say to these peasants when they indicated their intent to go? “You can't. You have to stay and tend your fields and herds.” When the peasants asked why, the bishops had no good answer, so they formed companies and set off. The clergy was forced to give grudging permission. They gathered local groups of peasants and had them take a vow of devotion to the Holy Cause, setting as their destination, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.Alongside the enthusiasm of the peasants, Urban courted the nobility of Europe, especially in France, to lead the Crusade. Knights from both northern and southern France, Flanders, Germany, and Italy were divided into four armies. Sadly, they often saw themselves in competition with each other rather than united in a common cause. They vied for prominence in bringing glory to God; oh, and of course, the loot that went along with it.While it was the scion of the noble houses that led a few of the armies, the bulk of the knights were lesser sons of the nobility whose only route to wealth lay in conquest. The eldest brother was set to inherit the family name and estate. So hundreds of these younger sons saw the Crusades as a way to make a name for themselves and carve out their own domain in newly acquired lands. If they didn't return to Europe laden with treasure, they hoped to settle down on land they'd won with the sword.One of the many sad results of the spin-up for the First Crusade was the persecution of Jews in Northern France and the Rhineland. Anti-Semitism bubbled beneath the surface of this region for generations. It spilled over now as peasants and commoners mobilized to remove the infidels form the Holy Land. Some began to question why a trip to the Middle East was needed when there were Christ-haters living right at hand. So Jews were attacked, their homes burned, businesses sacked.As we saw in our last episode, the peasants formed into bands and rampaged their way across Europe to Constantinople. They lacked the discipline and supplies of the knights so they foraged their way East like Sherman on his march to the Sea during the American Civil war. Though we don't know the numbers, thousands of these peasant crusaders were killed along the way as armed defenders came out to oppose their trek across their lands.When they finally arrived in Constantinople, they were hurriedly escorted across the Bosporus in August of 1096. At that point they split into two groups. One tried to recapture Nicaea but failed when the Turks surrounded and wiped them out. The other group was ambushed and massacred in October.This phase of the First Crusade is called The People's Crusade because it was made up of btwn 20 and 30,000 commoners. Its leadership include some minor nobles but its most visible leader was the odd Peter the Hermit.Peter's leadership of The People's Crusade was due to his fiery recruitment sermons. He wasn't so skilled in the tactical management of 30,000 would-be warriors. Once they arrived in Constantinople, his lack of administrative skill became obvious and the handful of knights who'd joined up realized they need to take control. But they refused to submit to one another and fragmented into different groups based on nationality. This lack of leadership proved fatal. They lost control of their so-called army which set to looting the homes and towns of Eastern Christians. The German contingent managed to seize a Seljuk city and the French began agitating for their leaders to do likewise. A couple Turkish spies spread a rumor in the French camp that the Germans were marching on Nicaea. So the French rushed out to beat them to it. While passing thru a narrow valley, they were wiped out by waiting Seljuk forces.A remnant made it back to Constantinople where they joined up with the knights who were just then, at the end of the Summer, arriving from Europe. This force formed into contingents grouped around the great lords. This was the kind of military force Pope Urban II and the Emperor Alexius had envisioned.The Crusaders realized they had to conquer and occupy Antioch in Syria first or a victory over Jerusalem would be short-lived. They took the city, but then barely survived a siege laid in by the Turks. Breaking the siege in the Spring of 1099, the leaders of the Crusade ended their quarrels and marched South. Their route took them along the coast to Caesarea, where they headed inland toward their goal. They arrived in the vicinity of Jerusalem in early June.By that time the army was reduced to 20,000. The effect of seeing the Holy City for the first time was electrifying. These men had fought and slogged their way across thousands of miles, leaving their homes and cultures to encounter new sights, sounds and tastes. And every step of the way, their goal was Jerusalem—the place where Jesus had lived and died. Accounts of that moment say the warriors fell on their knees and kissed the sacred earth. They removed their armor and in bare feet w/tears, cried out to God in confession and praise.A desperate but futile attack was made on the City five days later. Boiling pitch and oil were used by Jerusalem's defenders, with showers of stones and anything else they could get their hands on that would do damage. Then the Crusaders set a siege that took the usual course. Ladders, scaling towers, and other siege-engines were built. The problem is, they had to travel miles to get wood. The trees around Jerusalem had all been cut down by the Roman General Titus twelve centuries before. They'd never grown back.The City was surrounded on 3 sides by Raymund of Toulouse, Godfrey, Tancred, and Robert of Normandy. It was a hot Summer and the suffering of the besiegers was intense as water was scarce. Soon, the valleys and hills around the city walls were covered w/dead horses, whose rotting carcasses made life in camp unbearable.Someone got the brilliant idea to duplicate Joshua's battle plan at Jericho. So the Crusaders took off their shoes and with priests leading, began marching around Jerusalem, hoping the walls would fall down. Of course, they didn't. I wonder what they did with the guy who came up with the idea. Help at last came with the arrival of a fleet at Joppa harbor from Genoa carrying workmen and supplies who went to work building new siege gear.The day of the final assault finally arrived. A huge tower topped by a golden cross was dragged up to the walls and a massive plank bridge was dropped so the Crusaders could rush from tower to the top of the wall. The weakened defenders couldn't stop the mass of warriors who flooded into their City.The carnage that followed is one more chapter in the many such scenes Jerusalem has known.Once they'd secured the City, the blood-splattered Crusaders paused to throw God a bone. Led by Godfrey, freshly changed into a suit of white linen, the Crusaders went to the church of the Holy Sepulcher and offered prayers and thanksgiving. Then, devotions over, the massacre recommenced. Neither the tears of women, nor the cries of children, did anything to halt to terror. The leaders tried to restrain their troops but they'd been let off the chain and were determined to let as much blood out of bodies as possible.When it was finally over, Muslim prisoners were forced to clear the streets of the bodies and blood to save the city from pestilence.Remember Peter the Hermit, who'd lead the peasant army to disaster? He made it to Jerusalem before returning to Europe where he founded a monastery and died in 1115.Pope Urban II also died just 2 weeks after the fall of Jerusalem, before the news reached him.Looking back, it's clear the First Crusade came at probably the only time it could have been successful. The Seljuk Turks had broken up into rival factions in 1092. The Crusaders entered into the region like a knife before a new era of Muslim union and conquest opened. That's what those newly arrived Crusaders would now have to face.Just eight days after capturing Jerusalem, a permanent government was set-up. It was called “The Kingdom of Jerusalem.” Godfrey was elected king, but declined the title of royalty, unwilling to wear a crown of gold where the Savior had worn a crown of thorns. He adopted the title Baron and Defender of the Holy Sepulcher.From the moment of its birth, the Kingdom of Jerusalem was in trouble. Less than a year later they made an appeal to the Germans for reinforcements. And Godfrey survived the capture of Jerusalem by only a year. He was buried in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where his sword and spurs are still on display. On his tomb is the inscription: “Here lies Godfrey of Bouillon, who conquered all this territory for the Christian religion. May his soul be at rest with Christ.”Rome immediately moved to make The Kingdom of Jerusalem part of it's region of hegemony. The archbishop of Pisa, Dagobert, who'd been a part of the Crusade, was elected to be Jerusalem's Patriarch.The new rulers turned from conquest to defense and governing. They tried to layer the feudal system of Europe onto Middle Eastern society. The conquered territory was distributed among Crusader barons, who held their possessions under the king of Jerusalem as overlord. The four chief fiefs were Jaffa, Galilee, Sidon, and east of the Jordan River, a region called Kerat. The counts of Tripoli and Edessa and the prince of Antioch were independent of Jerusalem but were closely allied due to the nearby Muslim menace.The Crusader occupation of Israel was far from peaceful. The kingdom was torn by constant intrigues of civil rulers and religious clerics. All that while it faced unending threats from without. But it was the inner strife that was the main cause of weakness. Monks settled in swarms all over the country. The Franciscans became guardians of the holy places. The offspring of the Crusaders by Moslem women, called pullani, became a blight as they were given over to unrelenting greed and the most grotesque immorality.When Godfrey died, he was succeeded by his brother Baldwin, count of Edessa. Baldwin was intelligent and the most active king of Jerusalem. He died after eight years; his body laid next to his brother's.During Baldwin's reign, the kingdom grew significantly. Caesarea fell to the Crusaders in 1101, then Ptolemais in 1104. Beirut in 1110. But Damascus never fell to the Crusaders. With the progress of their arms, they built castles all over their holdings in the Middle East. The ruins of those fortifications stand today and are premier tourist sites.Many of the Crusaders, who began the adventure planning to return to Europe, decided rather to stay once the work of conquest was finished. One wrote, “We who were Westerners, are now Easterners. We have forgotten our native land.” Other Crusaders did return to Europe, only to return later. Even several European kings spent long stays in the Holy Land.During Baldwin's reign most of the leaders of the First Crusade either died or went home. But their ranks were continually replenished by fresh expeditions from Europe. Pope Pascal II, successor to Urban II, sent out a call for recruits. The Italian cities furnished fleets, and coordinated with land forces. The Venetians, Pisans, and Genoese established quarters of their own in Jerusalem, Acre, and other cities. Thousands took up the Crusader cause in Lombardy, France, and Germany. They were led by Anselm, archbishop of Milan, Stephen, duke of Burgundy, William, duke of Aquitaine, Ida of Austria, and others. Hugh who'd gone home, returned. Bohemund also came back with 34,000. Two Crusader armies attacked the Islamic stronghold at Bagdad.Baldwin's nephew, also named Baldwin, succeeded his uncle and reigned for 13 years, till 1131. He conquered the strategic city of Tyre on the coast. It was 1124 and that marked the high-water point of Crusader power.Over the next 60 yrs, Jerusalem saw a succession of weak rulers while the Muslims from Damascus to Egypt were uniting under a new band of competent and charismatic leaders. The last of these was Saladin. He became caliph in 1174 and set out to retake Jerusalem.But that's for our next episode . . .[1] Shelley, B. L. (1995). Church history in plain language (Updated 2nd ed.) (187–188). Dallas, Tex.: Word Pub.
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