History
The Crusades
Two centuries of holy war
4 min, Intro
Between 1095 and 1291, European Christian armies launched a series of wars to take and hold Jerusalem and the Holy Land. For Muslims of the time, they were one conflict among many. Their memory grew much larger later.
Draft written with AI help: awaiting scholar review
The thread
In 1095 a pope calls Christians to take Jerusalem. In 1099 a divided Muslim world loses it. Salah al-Din unites Egypt and Syria, and in 1187 takes it back. By 1291 the last major crusader city has fallen. But the memory of the Crusades grows much larger later.
The First Crusade, 1099
The story starts with a call. In 1095 Pope Urban II called on Western Christians to aid the Byzantines and take Jerusalem.
The Muslim world they marched on was divided between rival rulers. In 1099 the crusaders took Jerusalem. They killed many of its Muslim and Jewish inhabitants.
Then they stayed. They founded crusader states along the eastern Mediterranean coast, some lasting until 1291.
Division between rival rulers made the Muslim world easy to attack.
Salah al-Din and Jerusalem, 1187
The Muslim world had been divided. Then Salah al-Din, a Kurdish commander, united Egypt and Syria.
In 1187 he crushed the crusader army at Hattin. Then he took Jerusalem back.
What happened next was remembered on both sides, because of the contrast with 1099. Most of the inhabitants were allowed to ransom themselves and leave, though thousands who could not pay were enslaved. Churches were left standing.
Even European writers made him a model of chivalry.
Salah al-Din's mercy in 1187 was remembered by both sides.
How it ended, and how it was remembered
Next came the Third Crusade, led partly by Richard I of England. It won coastal cities but not Jerusalem. It ended with a truce that let Christian pilgrims visit.
The end came in 1291. The Mamluk sultans of Egypt took Acre, the last major crusader city.
Medieval Muslim writers often treated the crusaders as one enemy among several. The Mongols seemed the greater threat.
The memory grew later. In the modern era, especially under European colonialism, the Crusades became a much bigger symbol on all sides.
The memory of the Crusades grew larger than the wars themselves.