Lecture 15

This lecture we spoke about Crusader Jerusalem.  There were several factors that contributed to the start of the Crusades, but the primary ones were Political and Religious reasons.  Here are notes for both:

o   Political

§  Emergence of holy roman empire in western Europe

·         Divisions in Christianity

o   Religious

§  Late reaction to persecution of Christian population of Jerusalem

·         Holy sepulcher set on fire, dome collapses and kills patriarch of Jerusalem (965)

·         Al-Hakim destroys holy sepulcher (1009) in connection with the “descent of the holy fire” on Easter

·         Difficulty of Christian pilgrimage to Jerusalem

o   Massacre of german pilgrims in 1064 (William of tyre)

It can be said that the speech by Pope Urban II instigated the crusades.  His speech is trying to get the people to go fight against those in the way of their faith.  They were told to go on a crusade, which is a journey on "Christ's behalf" where they would head to the holy land.  There were several crusades, and once a particular group took over there would be a new establishment of rules.  After the end of the first crusade, the Crusaders decided to rebuild the Holy Sepulcher.

Upon these crusades, there were different sects of people, one of which were the templars.  Here are notes on them:

·         The templars

o   Stayed at the modern day temple mount

o   Protect pilgrims making their way through Jerusalem

o   Order of knights Templars founded in 1118

§  “brethren of the soldiery of the temple”

o   Domain located on temple mount

o   Meant to protect people making the pilgrimage to Jerusalem

From all this we see the Crusades as a bloody time, one where several injustices were done against many unsuspecting people.  How did the bloodshed end?  We see that around 1100 at the Battle at Hartin, Saladin won Jerusalem from Richard the Lionheart of England.  How did Saladin's rule compare to others?