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A History of the Crusades

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Christian warriors from France and adjacent parts of Western Europe set out in 1097 to free the Holy Land from Muslim rule. By 1099, when a band of Crusaders captured Jerusalem, they had me with success, largely because of local rivalries among the Muslim rulers of Syria and Palestine who failed to unite against the invaders from Europe. However, the Christian Crusaders were divided as well and, before long, war was happening again throughout the Holy Land and the Middle East When the Crusades were over, the Middle East was left with a lasting impact. The Crusades contributed to the development of connections between East and West. The two regions developed trade routes and gained new aspects on each other‘s culture The Crusades also led to the demise of the Islamic empires because soon after, the Mongols invaded the Middle East, During the fight between the Europeans and the Muslims, the soldiers from both sides started to develop a mutual acquaintance and some parts of a mutual respect for each other‘s culture.

Since the fighting had taken place over a large period of time, the soldiers gained vital knowledge into the different cultures that were present in the Middle East. The Crusades actually improved Western Christian ideas about Muslims, Muslim men came to be viewed as romantic, dashing, chivalric warriors, while Muslim women were beautiful, intelligent, resourceful, and loyal or wise, resourceful, and cunning, In contrast, the Muslims admired the Christian warriors’ courage, but regarded them as rash and uncultured barbarians, and uncaring about the honor of their womenfolk The Muslims thought that European Christian women were ‘loose’ and far too ready to be familiar with strange men.

From the writings of Uséma ibn Munqidh, a Muslim warrior during the crusades, he tells us of events of witnessing the different aspects of Western Culture. He gives us an instant in which to support the view by Muslims that the Christian warriors did not care about the honor of women through his encounter of a European who was sleeping with another man’s wife. Then in the readings, it tells an event where a Christian soldier has taken part in the Muslim culture, through his attire and his refusal to eat pork. “Among Franks are those who have become acclimatized and have associated long with the Moslems…l never eat Frankish dishes, but I have Egyptian women cooks and never eat except their cooking. Besides, pork never enters my home.” This story shows that the longer that the soldiers are stationed in the Middle East for, the more they become aware and adapt to the other culture.

Not only did the Crusades help the understanding of the different cultures, but because of this understanding trade routes from the West to the East were starting to become more frequent. The development of trade and their long-range effects on Western society on everything from feudalism to fashion are immeasurable. The Crusades ended in the 13‘h Century and during this time in the Middle East, the Mongols had taken over Syria, Iran and Iraq. Since the Muslims had been fighting in the Crusades even up to the Mongol invasion, there was nothing they could really do to stop the invasion from happening. The Crusades had been going on for such a long time that the forces of the Muslim nations had become depleted and could not withstand another invasion. With the conquest of the Middle East by the Mongols, the trade route with Europe opened up with the Middle East because the safety of the trade routes.

Since the West became less isolated from the rest of the world, few countries started to trade with the Middle East. Western Europe’s trade relations with East widened, In the thirteenth century, Venice and Genoa were bringing products from the Muslim East, China and India. The Venetians and Genoese established trading colonies in Egypt, and luxury goods of the East found their way to European markets. The Middle East and the Western Worlds received different amounts of goods through each other that help the cultures grow Middle Eastern scientific knowledge also grew with advances in medicine and improved advances in algebra and art.

The Crusades contributed to the development of connections between East and West, The two regions developed trade routes and gained new aspects on each other’s culture. During the actual fighting, the Muslims became more aware towards the cultures of the West and started to adapt some aspects of the Western cultures some through laws and customs Both the Muslims and the Westerners exchanged customs that the others could adapt and integrate into their own cultures. The Crusades also opened up trade routes from Europe to the Middle East.

This was significant because the Europeans were losing their isolation appear and starting to make an effort to learn about other the Islamic culture through the trading of goods, It was also after the Crusades, that we start to see a decline in the Golden Ages of Islam because of the invasion and conquest of the Mongols invaded around the 13m century right after the major fighting of the Crusades and imposed their will over the Muslims living in that area The Crusades had some positive and some negative impacts on the Middle East,

Cite this paper

A History of the Crusades. (2023, Jun 27). Retrieved from https://samploon.com/a-history-of-the-crusades/

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