Islam and the Crusades

Paper Summary:

This paper gives a historic overview of the Crusades from an Islamic perspective. Additionally, the author considers the Crusades from political and religious perspectives. The paper traces the consolidation of the Muslim world and the mass conversions to Islam. Also presented are the changes in Islamic outlooks from being open to outside influences such as science to a more dogmatic faith. The paper concludes by contrasting the centralized European church with the more factional Islamic world.

From the Paper:

"The Western powers fought the Crusades against the Muslims for several reasons, of which the religious element was only one. The Muslim world at the time was divided into factions, and Muslim Spain had started to go its own way in the eighth century. Much of the Muslim world was by then under attack from the Seljuk Turks, but the Muslims were also in control of the Holy Lands, the seat of Christianity. In the eleventh century, European Christians set out on the Crusades to recapture the Holy lands, especially the city of Jerusalem. The Crusaders saw an opportunity because of the divisions within the Muslim world at that time. The Christian world also suffered its own divisions, such as the splitting off of the Byzantine Empire because of the disintegration of the Holy Roman Empire. This left the Greeks in power in the East, while the remains of the Roman world were in power in the West. The Church now had eastern and western factions."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Egger, Vernon O. A History of the Muslim World to 1405. Upper Saddle River NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2004.

More papers on Islam and the Crusades:

• Essay # 48531 : "The Papacy and The Crusades"
• Book Review # 117177 : "The Crusades: A History, by Jonathan Riley-Smith"
• Essay # 124879 : "The Crusades Through Arab Eyes"

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