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25 Fulcher of Chartres’s History
26 Venetian Treaty
27 Laws of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
28 The Travels of Saewulf
29 John of Würzburg’s Pilgrim Guide
30 The Travels of Ibn Jubayr
31 Memoirs of Usamah Ibn Munqidh
32 The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela
Chapter Four: The Second and Third Crusades
33 Ibn al-Qalanisi on Zengi and Nur ad-Din
34 Ibn al-Athir on the Fall of Edessa
35 Letter of Bernard of Clairvaux
36 Bernard of Clairvaux: In Praise of the New Knighthood
37 The Rule of the Templars
38 Odo of Deuil: The Journey of Louis VII to the East
39 John Kinnamos: The Deeds of John and Manuel Comnenus
40 Analyses of the Second Crusade
41 Baha ad-Din’s Life of Saladin
42 Imad ad-Din on the Battle of Hattin
43 Roger of Wendover on the Fall of Jerusalem
44 Letters on the Fall of Jerusalem
45 Taxation and Regulations for the Third Crusade
46 Islamic Accounts of the Treatment of Prisoners
47 Accounts of the Third Crusade
Chapter Five: Setting Out and Returning Home 179
48 Gerald of Wales on Preaching a Crusade
49 Privileges and Indulgences
50 Personal Arrangements
51 Liturgy for Pilgrims and Crusaders
52 Financial Accounts
53 Travel Information
54 Accounts of Crusader Homecomings
55 Thomas of Froidmont: The Adventures of Margaret of Beverly, a Woman Crusader
56 Crusading Songs
Chapter Six: The Age of Innocent III
57 Letters of Innocent III
58 Accounts of the Fourth Crusade
59 Documents on the Sack of Constantinople
60 Bernard of Gui’s Manual for Inquisitors
61 William of Tudela’s Song of the Cathar Wars
62 Accounts of the Children’s Crusade
63 Decrees of the Fourth Lateran Council
64 Oliver of Paderborn on the Fifth Crusade
Chapter Seven: Crusades of the Holy Roman Empire
65 Charter to German Settlers
66 Poem Describing Cistercian Settlement
67 Proclamations of Northern European Crusades
68 Helmold’s Chronicle of the Slavs
69 The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia
70 The Rule of the Teutonic Knights
71 Nikolaus von Jeroschin on the Prussian Crusades
72 Philip of Novara on Frederick II’s Crusade
73 Frederick II on His Taking of Jerusalem and Sibt ibn al-
Jawzi’s Recording of the Event
74 Responses to Frederick II’s Crusade
Chapter Eight: Conflict and Coexistence in Spain
75 Chronicle of the Cid
76 The Conquest of Lisbon
77 Alfonso VIII’s Report on Las Navas de Tolosa
78 Muslim–Christian Treaty
79 Moorish Laws
80 Christian Laws
81 Constitutions of the Order of Merced
82 Expulsion of the Jews from Spain
83 Abu Abdilla Mohammed on the Expulsion of the Muslims
Chapter Nine: Crusades at the Crossroads
84 Joinville’s Life of St. Louis
85 Matthew Paris on the Shepherds’ Crusade
86 Ibn al-Athir on the Mongol Invasion
87 Ibn ‘Abd al-Zahir’s Biography of Baybars
88 Ludolph von Suchem on the Fall of Acre and Its Aftermath
89 Humbert of Romans on Criticisms of Crusading
90 Ramon Lull’s Plan to Convert the Muslims
91 Order for the Arrest of the Templars and Papal Bull Suppressing the Templars
92 John Mandeville on Prester John
93 Letters between Pope Innocent IV and Guyuk Khan
94 Johann Schiltberger on the Nicopolis Crusade
95 Kritovoulos on the Fall of Constantinople
96 Pius II’s Commentaries
97 Erasmus On the War against the Turks Chapter Ten: Modern Perceptions of the Crusades
98 David Hume on the Crusades
99 Edward Gibbon’s Evaluation of the Crusades
100 William Wordsworth’s Ecclesiastical Sonnets
101 Michaud, History of the Crusades
102 William Hillary’s Call for a New Crusade
103 Sayyid ‘Ali Hariri’s Book of the Splendid Stories of the Crusades
104 World War I Political Cartoons
105 Sayyid Qutb’s Social Justice in Islam and Muhammad Asad’s Islam at the Crossroads
106 The Hamas Covenant
107 Pope John Paul II’s Statements about Past Christian Actions
108 Crusading Rhetoric after 9/11
109 Modern Use of Images of Saladin
110 Umej Bhatia’s Analysis of the Crusades and Modern Muslim Memory
Sources
Index of Topics
PREFACE
Over ten years have passed since the publication of The Crusades: A Reader. In that time, interest in the Crusades has increased, fueled in part by the global interactions of the Muslim world and Western nations. It could be argued that the Crusades, more than any other medieval event, have become inextricably linked to present-day political and religious debates. As Christopher Tyerman aptly observes:
Even today, writers on the crusades are routinely interrogated by reviewers and readers as to whether they regard the crusades in a positive or negative light. While some still oblige, experts on few other medieval events are expected to provide such moral opinions.1
Crusade scholarship has also developed over the decade, with most works providing a much-needed re-examination of the nature and significance of crusading. There has also been a rise in popular and academic works of a more political, revisionist tone. It is, therefore, important to state from the outset that this new edition does not intend to promote any political or moral stance. We believe that the major strength of The Crusades: A Reader lies in its impartiality. It is, first and foremost, a sourcebook and as such is meant to facilitate a broad range of discussion and debate on crusading topics.
We did, however, recognize the need for a new chapter to address the history of perceptions of the Crusades in the modern period. The inclusion of post-medieval perceptions has become an accepted component of modern crusading scholarship. While many of these works focus on the historiography of the Crusades, we chose to include both popular and scholarly views, and to
show how these reflect the social, political, and religious contexts of the given periods.
Hence, Chapter X begins with the Enlightenment period as seen through the works of David Hume and Edward Gibbon (docs. 98 and 99). This is followed by sources that reflect the Victorian Romantic movement and the rise of imperialism. Here, Wordsworth’s poetical take on the Crusades (doc. 100) is provided alongside Michaud’s popular history of the crusading era with its patriotic and nationalistic overtones (doc. 101). The theme of imperialism is clearly seen in Hillary’s Suggestions for the Christian Occupation of the Holy Land, as a Sovereign State, by the Order of St. John of Jerusalem (doc. 102). Sayyid ‘Ali Hariri’s Book of the Splendid Stories of the Crusades (doc. 103) marks the first independently written Islamic history on crusading since the medieval period. Moreover, the work is one of the earliest Islamic sources to link crusading with contemporary European imperialism.
Documents from the first half of the twentieth century indicate how, for the West, the crusading image could be used to promote patriotism within the context of imperialism (doc. 104). Again, this ideal was highlighted and condemned by many Islamic writers, including Muhammad Asad and Sayyid Qutb (doc. 105). Qutb writes of “Crusaderism,” a term that defines a policy that seeks to destroy Islam, Islamic society, and Muslims. We can see how later institutions such as Hamas, building on Qutb’s use of this term, came to adopt the notion of an ongoing crusade, particularly in light of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (doc. 106). At the same time, there is evidence of the West’s growing awareness of these tensions and, in document 107, the Catholic Church’s desire to address actions of the past, such as the Crusades.
The final section of the chapter looks at crusading rhetoric within the twenty-first century. The events of 9/11 and subsequent hostilities again show the link between perceptions of the medieval Crusades and modern political and religious conflict.
Both sides employ the term “crusade” yet both have different ideas as to what it means (doc. 108).
Document 109, however, provides evidence of a new perception of medieval Crusades. A commemorative statue of Saladin and the use of his image in political posters show how some Muslims have begun to see the Crusades in more positive light. Such images promote the Islamic crusading story, extolling the heroism of its leaders as well as the Islamic values and culture of the period. The final document (doc. 110), Umej Bhatia’s Forgetting Osama bin Munqidh, Remembering Osama bin Laden: The Crusades in Modern Muslim Memory, considers modern perceptions of the Crusades, with the aim of reassessing this movement and facilitating an Islamic/Western reconciliation.
The present edition also includes new medieval material. alSulami’s The Book of the Jihad offers a rare Islamic reaction to the fall of Jerusalem and its consequences (doc. 22). Further Islamic sources can be found in document 46, which records the treatment of prisoners after the Battle of Hattin (Ibn al-Athir) and later at Acre during the Third Crusade (Baha ad-Din). There is also an Islamic recording of Frederick II’s visit to Jerusalem in 1229 showing the unique character of the emperor and how he was received by the Muslim population of the city (doc. 73).
Chapter Five: Setting Out and Returning Home includes a selection of sources detailing the homecoming of those who had ventured to the Holy Land (doc. 54). The History of the Counts of Guines and Lords of Ardres provides two stories, one of a supposed apostate who faces a hostile reception upon his return, and the other a tale reminiscent of The Return of Martin Guerre, in which a man returns claiming to be a noble who left home for the crusades some 30 years previously From The Book of the Foundation of Walden Monastery we have an account of a noble whose return is celebrated and who ensures his favorable reception with gifts of silken cloth and relics. The most interesting of these there-and-back-again stories, however, is found in document 55, Thomas of Froidmont’s The Adventures of Margaret
of Beverly, a Woman Crusader. Newly translated from the Latin, this is a fascinating record of Margaret’s journey to the Holy Land, where she participated in the defense of Jerusalem in 1187, was wounded and, on several occasions, captured by the enemy. Her travels home were no less perilous, and they show the particular hazards faced by women who chose to travel to the Holy Land and back.
In drafting a new edition of the book we have had to make difficult decisions as to what documents to omit. No doubt we have cut someone’s key source and offer our apologies to those for whom this is the case. Publication restrictions necessitated difficult decisions, but we hope the new additions will be of some consolation.
As before, we are very grateful for the ministrations of our publisher We would especially like to thank the Series Editor Paul Dutton, as well as History Editor Natalie Fingerhut and Editorial Assistant Megan Pickard. We are also indebted to Professor Nicholas Paul for his excellent suggestions on crusader homecoming sources. The inevitable flaws that remain are entirely our own.
INTRODUCTION
Crusalem, the most holy of cities for the Christian West, lay at the heart of a series of movements known today as the Crusades. In its strictest sense, a crusade was a holy war called by the medieval papacy with the aim of gaining the Holy Land and, in particular, the city of Jerusalem. At the end of the eleventh century, when the Crusades began, Jerusalem and the surrounding territory were in the hands of Muslims, a people and religion little known in the West, save for the fact that they were not Christian. For Jerusalem did not belong solely, or even primarily, to Christianity Its sacred role had been founded in Judaism, and, in the tradition of “people of the book,” Islam too had ascribed a revered status to the city. Thus, each of these three great monotheistic religions laid claim to Jerusalem at the time of the Crusades, and each continues to do so today.
The evolution of the crusading ideal, however, went far beyond the restrictive definition given above. As will be evident from the primary sources provided here, crusading took on a much broader scope as it developed through the latter half of the Middle Ages and on into the early modern period. This development and its consequences form a central focus of this book. The crusading movement did not emerge out of a vacuum in 1095, nor did it end with the loss of the crusader states in the late thirteenth century. Moreover, the significance of these movements did not lie solely in battles and conquests. Just as important were the societies and institutions altered and created by the Crusades, as well as the legacy they left to both Europe and the Middle East.
The significance of Jerusalem and the Holy Land to Western medieval culture is established in the first chapter, “Background and Origins.” Here it can be seen how Christians of the West viewed the Middle East region, not simply with reverence, but with
a sense of ownership that created a strong spiritual bond. A journey to the Holy Land was seen as the ultimate Christian pilgrimage (doc. 1), and although the vast majority of the medieval population never visited the region, the writings of those who had made the journey established it as a fundamental part of the West’s religious heritage and birthright. This link was crucial to the ideology that would create the Crusades.
But Muslims also had a link to Jerusalem. The rise of Islam during the early Middle Ages had altered the religious and political face of the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain and set the stage for later struggles over these territories (doc. 4). Critical to the understanding of this change is a knowledge of both Western and Islamic views of warfare. In the Qur’an (doc. 3) and the writings of churchmen such as Augustine (doc. 2), the origins of jihad and Christian holy war are evident. Important too are the attitudes each religion displayed toward those outside the faith. Documents such as the Pact of Omar (doc. 5), Ibnu Hayyan’s accounts of Muslim and Christian conflicts in Spain (doc. 7), and even The Song of Roland (doc. 8) demonstrate the tolerance and tensions that could be found among Muslims, Jews, and Christians in the centuries prior to the First Crusade.
The Crusades were, however, a western European enterprise, and their birth depended as much on conditions within Europe as on those in Spain or the Holy Land. The rise of popular piety, the sanctification of violence, the bonds of patronage and loyalty among the landed classes, and the ambitions of the papacy and church to strengthen ecclesiastical authority all played a part in the creation of the crusade mentality. Yet even all this was not enough to spark the crusading movement. The final element of the formula lay in eleventh-century conquests of parts of the Byzantine (Greek) Empire by the Seljuk Turks, and the subsequent pleas from the Byzantines to the West for aid. Pope Gregory VII’s call for military aid against the Turks (doc 11) in 1074 contained many elements of the ideology of holy war, including the horror of Christian places being in non-Christian
hands, the demonizing of the Muslims, and sympathy for eastern Christians. The development of these ideas from the level of fraternal aid to that of a holy war, complete with both spiritual and material rewards, fell to Pope Urban II (1088–99), who made the dream a reality at the Council of Clermont in 1095.
The second chapter, “The First Crusade,” begins with Urban’s call (doc. 12) and concludes with the fall of Jerusalem to the crusaders and reactions to the crusade’s success. Many of the ideologies and strategies developed during the First Crusade would persist throughout the medieval period. In addition, the sources reveal attitudes and perceptions that would continue to direct crusading policy and action both in Europe and abroad. From Urban onward, the documents demonstrate the ethos and driving force of the crusading movement. Its motivation is particularly evident in the sources dealing with the Peasants’ Crusade—an event that draws attention to the violence of the movement and its tendency toward intolerance and fanaticism (docs. 13–15). The massacres of European Jewish communities present the most obvious example of such extremism, which was further demonstrated in the atrocities committed by Peter the Hermit’s crusade and the concluding slaughter of Jerusalem’s inhabitants by the official crusading army (doc. 20). Also apparent are the political divisions between church and secular authorities, between the Byzantine Empire and the West, and among the crusade leaders themselves—divisions that undermined the progress of the First Crusade and the efforts of later campaigns. Despite these disturbing events and trends, the capture of Jerusalem was seen as a resounding triumph for the West, as Pope Paschal’s letter (doc. 21) illustrates. The impact of the capture of Jerusalem upon the world of Islam, though recognized only slowly by the Muslim world, is represented here in the poet Abu l-Muzaffar al-Abiwardi’s lament for Jerusalem (doc. 23).
With the fall of Jerusalem, the crusaders’ attention turned from warfare to control. Governance and society in the four crusader states—the county of Edessa, the principality of Antioch, the
county of Tripoli, and the kingdom of Jerusalem—are the subject of Chapter Three, “The Crusader States.” The establishment of Latin rule and a dominant western Christian community in Syria and Palestine had profound effects upon the Middle East, Byzantium, and Europe. Writers such as William of Tyre (doc. 24) and Fulcher of Chartres (doc. 25) tell of the difficulties in establishing a kingdom from scratch in a foreign land, while other sources highlight the day-to-day relations between the natives of Palestine and the European colonists. The Laws of the Kingdom of Jerusalem (doc. 27) and the memoirs of Usamah Ibn Munqidh (doc. 31) reveal the perceptions and misconceptions that these groups had about one another and how native peoples were treated by the ruling Franks. As the establishment of the crusader states made pilgrimage easier and more attractive, the number of Christians traveling to the Holy Land increased. Travel accounts from Christian writers (docs. 28–29), along with writings by a Muslim and a Jewish traveler (docs. 30, 32), give vivid accounts of life in the crusader states and go some way toward explaining how a multicultural society functioned under western rule.
Yet the system was tenuous at best, held together not so much by the strength of the crusaders as by divisions among the Muslim emirs, who for forty years were more concerned with keeping one another in check than with ridding themselves of a foreign regime. The outnumbered crusaders were safe only so long as the Islamic emirates remained in such a fragmented state. The rise of Imad ad-Din Zengi upset the delicate balance and began to turn the tide in favor of the Muslims. The emergence of Zengi and his son and successor Nur ad-Din is chronicled in the first documents (33–34) of Chapter Four, “The Second and Third Crusades.”
It was the fall of Edessa to Zengi in 1144 that prompted St. Bernard’s call for the Second Crusade (doc. 35), a venture chronicled by Odo of Deuil, the chaplain of King Louis VII of France (doc. 38). The unexpected failure of the crusade resulted in widespread soul-searching and blame, here expressed in an anonymous, hostile view of the campaign from a German source
and Bernard’s own explanation of why things went wrong (doc. 40). This was the beginning of the end of Latin rule in the East.
Nur ad-Din died in 1174, and the mantle of Islamic leadership fell upon the shoulders of Salah al-Din Yusuf, known in the West as Saladin. The historian Baha ad-Din gives us a first-hand account of Saladin’s life and character (doc. 41), while Saladin’s secretary Imad ad-Din provides a poetic description of Saladin’s greatest victory, the battle of Hattin (doc. 42), in which the crusader forces were decisively crushed. On October 2, 1187, Saladin accepted the surrender of Jerusalem. The anguish of this loss to western Christians is recorded in the writings of Roger of Wendover and Pope Gregory VIII (docs. 43–44), while the Muslim reaction is represented by a letter from Saladin himself (doc. 44). In each of these documents, the growing confidence of the Muslim forces is clear. The successes of Zengi, Nur ad-Din, and Saladin strengthened and defined jihad, in the same way the crusaders had defined Christian holy war.
Bowed but not beaten, the West prepared for the Third Crusade. Led by two European kings, Philip II “Augustus” of France and Richard I “the Lionheart” of England (a third ruler, Emperor Frederick “Barbarossa,” drowned on his way to the East), this crusade was meticulously planned (doc. 45). The intrigues of European politics and the difficulties of Saladin’s reign are also made apparent in the eyewitness accounts of the expedition (doc. 47). Ending in an unsatisfactory stalemate, the Third Crusade left the West with only a foothold in the Holy Land and Saladin with a weakened claim to authority
Chapter Five, “Setting Out and Returning Home,” leaves the chronology of the Crusades aside for the moment to examine the general issues of undertaking a crusade and the journey there and back again. The chapter includes documents describing the preaching of crusades, the recruitment of soldiers (doc. 48), and the blessing of crusaders before their departure (doc. 51). To many potential soldiers, that first call to arms and the taking of vows marked the high point of their crusading careers. On the
practical side, they had also to be concerned not only with spiritual benefits (the crusade indulgence, doc. 49) but also with the more practical crusader privileges that protected their property while they were gone and with making their own arrangements for their prolonged absence (docs. 49–50). To provide an overview of the conduct of a crusade on a larger scale, the chapter includes financial accounts of Louis IX’s crusade (doc. 52) and excerpts from a guidebook for those planning military campaigns to the Holy Land (doc. 53).
One notable aspect of the culture of crusading was the ease with which military pursuits were merged with notions of Christian piety. Nowhere is this more marked than in the emergence of the military orders, most famously the Templars and the Hospitallers. Bernard of Clairvaux, the preacher of the Second Crusade, lent his support to the new institution in his treatise (doc. 36) on “the New Knighthood,” or the Templars, which he idealistically viewed as superior to secular knights. A more practical approach is taken in the Templars’ own Rule (doc. 37).
As the Crusades moved into the thirteenth century, the tone, direction, and purpose of the movement began to change. The prime instigator of this transformation was Pope Innocent III (1198 –1216). One of the most gifted pontiffs of the medieval period, Innocent was a passionate supporter of the Crusades and was committed to overseeing their planning and execution. Chapter Six, “The Age of Innocent III,” brings together documents relating to this innovative pope. His launching of a crusade against the heretic Albigensians (doc. 61), his extension of the ongoing crusades in Spain and the Baltic, and his legislative efforts to place the Crusades on a sound financial and strategic footing (doc. 57) redefined the movement and enabled it to adapt to the changing concerns and interests of the later Middle Ages. Notable trends in Innocent’s reign were the growing emphasis on the economic aspect of crusading; the use of crusades in response to any threat against the church, secular or religious; and the tendency within eastern Europe to merge crusading with the
conversion of non-Christian peoples. Innocent’s endeavors were not always successful, the Fourth Crusade being a case in point, nor could he stem the tide of heresy or of popular movements such as the Children’s Crusade (doc. 62). The Fifth Crusade came to grief in Egypt (doc. 64), despite a sound strategy aimed at the heart of Islamic wealth and power. Innocent’s efforts were nonetheless far-reaching: among their results were the Fourth Lateran Council (doc. 63) and the later rise of the Inquisition (doc. 60).
Innocent’s involvement with crusading in northeastern Europe was part of a long-standing commitment by the church to bring Christianity to a largely pagan region. These efforts happened to coincide with the territorial ambitions of the kings and princes of the Holy Roman Empire, and it is the story of this conquest and of the crusading activities of the German emperors that is addressed in Chapter Seven, “Crusades of the Holy Roman Empire.” German incursions into eastern Europe took many forms. Pressures for land in the West led many to migrate eastwards, either settling into so-called wilderness areas or taking lands from the native inhabitants. The church too participated in this movement, as is demonstrated by works such as the Cistercian settlement poem (doc. 66) and Henry of Livonia’s chronicle (doc. 69). But colonization and conversion were not always achieved peacefully Wends, Slavs, Prussians, Lithuanians, and other eastern European peoples found themselves the object of crusading campaigns. The Teutonic Knights, a German military order founded in the Holy Land, were also brought in to conquer and settle the region. The sources associated with these crusades show not only how the church was redefining the crusade ideal, but also how mercantile interests were becoming entwined with crusading activity—interests that foreshadow the exploration, colonization, and economic exploitation characteristic of the early modern period. The sources are also important for what they reveal about the pagan peoples of eastern Europe. Although brimming with Christian bias, writers such as Henry of Livonia,
Helmold (doc. 68), and Nikolaus von Jeroschin (doc. 71) impart valuable information about indigenous customs, beliefs, and lifestyles. The crusades in eastern Europe did achieve their objectives. Brutal at times, they helped to establish Christianity in the region while developing strong economic and political ties to the West. The chapter concludes with the crusading exploits of the Holy Roman emperor Frederick II (1197–1250) (docs. 73–74).
The Spanish crusades, like their eastern European counterparts, can also be counted as a victory for the medieval church and its secular allies. Chapter Eight, “Conflict and Coexistence in Spain,” illustrates how the region was the site for both cultural interaction and religious and political conflict. Muslim Spain brought Europe into contact with the learning and scholarship preserved and expanded upon by the Islamic world. The coexistence of Muslims, Jews, and Christians under Islamic control created a community that, if not free of discrimination, did at least exhibit more tolerance and cooperation than what would follow under Christian rule: the documents detailing the final expulsion of Jews and Muslims from Christian Spain display a very different attitude from that found in the earlier Muslim laws (docs. 82–83).
Readers will find that the Spanish crusading texts exhibit much of the rhetoric and many of the customs of the larger crusading movement. In fact the long history of Muslim–Christian conflict on the Iberian Peninsula had created many of the very crusading traditions usually ascribed to the campaigns of the Holy Land. The establishment of specialized religious orders and the religious overtones in Christian war stories show how the West was able to equate these Spanish campaigns with the struggles in the Holy Land. They had the backing of the papacy and the spiritual recompense that accompanied such support. In addition, the Spanish crusades, being closer to home, offered a more assured opportunity for material rewards and perhaps the added satisfaction of providing aid to what was perceived as a palpable threat to Christian Europe.
Not that the Holy Land had been forgotten. The ideal of taking the cross to go to Jerusalem remained strong in the face of the crusading calamities of the thirteenth century. But the century that had begun with the reforms and crusading visions of Innocent III now found itself floundering amidst successive defeats and mounting criticism. Chapter Nine, “Crusades at the Crossroads,” documents this critical period. Beginning with the launch of the French king Louis IX’s crusade in 1249 (doc. 84), the sources reflect, on the one hand, a desire to preserve the ideal of crusading and, on the other, a growing realization that the ideal was unobtainable in its time-honored form. Europe still longed to see and feel a part of a traditional crusade, yet the reality of the times did not allow for such activity. The crusade of the pious Louis IX came to nought. Popular movements such as the Shepherds’ Crusade (doc. 85) continued to appear, though they were not endorsed by the church or secular authorities. Divisions among the crusading forces left in the Holy Land weakened their ability to defend themselves against the Muslim world, now led by the Mamluks. And both Franks and Muslims faced difficulties with the arrival from eastern Asia of the destructive Mongols (doc. 86).
The fall of Acre to the Muslims in May of 1291 and the subsequent loss of the last remnants of the crusader states triggered a number of European critiques and recovery schemes. The criticisms were directed primarily against the military orders, of which the Templars bore the brunt of Europe’s disgust (doc. 91). A recovery scheme, by Ramon Lull (doc. 90), is excerpted in Chapter Nine. Lull’s work reflects a new approach to what European thinkers still saw as the problem of Muslim rule in the Holy Land, emphasizing conversion over combat and settlement over occupation. Needless to say, the scheme did not yield its desired results. Conversion and colonization would become the central focus of Europe’s attention as it moved into the Age of Discovery, but the recovery of Palestine would no longer be the object of these efforts.
John Mandeville’s fanciful account of the Christian ruler Prester John demonstrates the West’s growing awareness of a world beyond its borders and the opportunities such a world might afford (doc. 92). Rumors of the Mongols sparked curiosity among those who had not had the misfortune of direct contact with these destructive nomads. The popes, in particular, saw the arrival of the Mongols as a golden opportunity to create an alliance that would once and for all rid the Holy Land of Islam. In this they were mistaken, as the correspondence between Pope Innocent IV and Guyuk Khan clearly shows (doc. 93). In time the invading Mongols would convert to Islam and be absorbed into Eastern society There would be no support from that quarter, and indeed the dream of a Latin Christian Jerusalem was dealt a further blow with the rise of a new Islamic dynasty, the Ottoman Turks.
The Ottomans expanded their empire right up to the borders of western Europe. But even the proximity of the threat did not spur the West into any unified action. Accounts of the Nicopolis Crusade of 1395 (doc. 94) detail a resounding defeat due in part to disagreements within the Christian leadership. Ineffective as it was, the crusade of Nicopolis would be the last help given by the West to its eastern Christian neighbors. Devastating internal wars, a major papal schism, and the struggle against heresy occupied the West and made any response to the Ottomans impossible. Fortunately for the West, the Turks suddenly found themselves under attack from the forces of the brutal Tamerlane, a Mongol who defeated the Ottomans in 1402 and thus perhaps kept them from moving into Europe. But with the death of Tamerlane in 1405, the Ottomans once more turned to the task of attacking Christian holdings; this time their efforts were focused on the long-sought prize of Constantinople. The Byzantine Empire had slowly weakened since the sack of the city by the Fourth Crusaders in 1204. In 1453 the great city fell to the Ottomans, and the eastern empire came to an end (doc. 95).
And what of crusading? While schemes for regaining Constantinople from the Ottomans and even the dream of
