History of Crusades

Introduction et traduction en français de l’Histoire des Mongols de Jean de Plancarpin, accompagnée d’une traduction de documents ayant trait au voyage dans l’empire mongol de Jean de Plancarpin (lettres et privilèges missionnaires rédigés par Innocent IV, Histoire des Tartares du frère C. de Bridia, compte-rendu de Benoît de Pologne, extraits de la chronique de Salimbene de Adam avec la réponse au pape du grand-khan Güyük).

The article poses the thesis that the authors of the Gesta Francorum and the Historia de Hierosolymitano Itinere in their vision of the First Crusade’s events used a conventional, i.e., pre-existing tradition of missionary practice, and adapted it to their narrative on the foundation of the bishopric of Albara (Al-Bara). The article shows that a two-stage model of conversion to Christianity of abrenuntiatio diaboli (the renouncement of Satan) and confessio fidei (the profession of faith) was presented on the pages of the First Crusaders’ accounts, and it was manifested in a particular case of Albara in a quite unique, mostly institutional shape; i.e. the Muslim inhabitants of a city were not even given a chance to convert to Christianity; the act of confessio fidei was done through the election of a bishop; the rejection of Satan occurred through the sacralization of temples and their transformation into places of Christian worship. In this perspective it could be observed that the foundation of Albara’s bishopric was seen by the Gesta Francorum and Peter Tudebode as the confrontation of the spheres of sacrum and profanum known from missionary practice in other regions than Syria and Palestine at a similar time (e.g., in Pomerania).

Üç semavi dinin kutsal mekânı, Müslümanların ilk kıblesi Kudüs hakkında ne biliyoruz?
Uğrunda mücadeleler verilen ve asırlarca farklı hâkimiyetler altında kalan Kudüs tarih boyunca hep “Halilullah” şehri olarak saygı görmüştür. Mukaddes belde Kudüs, İslam Tarihi boyunca ama özellikle Osmanlı asırlarında bütün dinlerin bir arada yaşayabildiği bir barış adası olmuştur.
Bugün Filistin meselesi sürekli dünya gündeminde yüz yıldır çözüme kavuşturulamıyor. Bu kavganın sebebi bütün dinler nazarında mukaddes sayılan Kudüs’ün ve Mescid-i Aksâ’nın bu topraklar üzerinde yer almasıdır.
Elinizdeki kitap, dünyanın göz bebeği olan Kudüs’ün tarihine ve önemine ışık tutmak amacıyla kaleme alındı. Kudüs’ün tarih sahnesine çıktığı zamanlardan günümüze kadar olan serüveni ve semavi dinler için taşıdığı önemi bütüncül bir bakış açısıyla 100 soruda (başlıkta) anlatıldı. Tarihi süreklilik gözetilerek seçilen sorular cevaplanırken olay örgülerinin arka planı ve sonrasında ortaya çıkan durumlar akıcı bir dille aktarıldı. Eserde verilen soruların cevapları titiz bir çalışmanın ürünü olarak ortaya konuldu. Kitap, güvenilir kaynaklara ve arşiv belgelerine ve onlara dayalı yapılan akademik çalışmalara müracaat edilerek yazıldı.
Elinizdeki kitap, Kudüs okumaları yapacaklar için ilk başvuru kitabı; Kudüs'e seyahat edecekler için de bir tarihi rehber olarak hazırlandı.

The history of the Crusades is filled with stories that are sometimes ironic, sometimes interesting, sometimes admirable and sometimes horrific. Sometimes a fated war could have been tied to hours, siblings and friends could be subjected to pillage and massacre, and an anathematized emperor could take Jerusalem back in the name of Christianity, in a single voyage as well as a single sword.

The story in question is the main source feeding the prejudices against shall notify each other of the parties fighting alongside the phenomenon of religion, hatred and anger or generosity that show the contrary be full and in good faith. From Belek to Saladin and from I. Baudouin to Richard the Heart of the Lion, the stories of the heroes came out like this.

In this book, the stories that appeared as a reflection of the mentioned situations in the history of the Crusades were told and the Crusades were tried to be told from a different point of view.

"In his recent book „The Collapse of the Eastern Mediterranean“ (Cambridge 2012), Ronnie Ellenblum argues that a series of climatic disasters in the 11th cent. led to the decline of polities in the Near East and prepared the ground for both the advance of the Seljuks and of the Crusaders into the region. Focused on the Byzantine case during the „Comnenian period“, this paper will critically review this hypothesis on the basis of both textual and natural scientific evidence and propose a more nuanced picture of the interplay between society, climate and environment in the Eastern Mediterranean from the 11th to the 13th century. As will become clear, neither the complexity of natural phenomena nor the complexity of medieval societies should be reduced to mere linear lines of causation.
This research was made possible with support of the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit-Foundation during a stay at the Institute for Historical Research of the National Hellenic Research Foundation in Athens.
The following pages provide a first short overview over some material to be presented and discussed in this lecture.
Contact: Johannes.Preiser-Kapeller@oeaw.ac.at
"

Book Review of "Guerra Santa. Formação da ideia de cruzada no Ocidente cristão" (Campinas: Editora da UNICAMP, 2013), by Jean Flori.

Original Title: "La Guerre Sainte. La formation de l’idée de croisade dans l’Occident chrétien" (Paris: Aubier-Flammarion, 2001).

"Knjiga koja je pred nama, pod naslovom In nomine Dei: Kratka istorija krstaških ratova, zajedničko je delo nekoliko autora. Oni su svoj zadatak shvatili veoma široko, pa su dužnu pažnju posvetili i predistoriji krstaških pokreta tako što su dali kratak pregled stanja i događaja u istoriji Vizantije, latinskih država zapadne Evrope i muslimanskog sveta. Sve je to učinjeno u nastojanju da se budući čitaoci na pravi način uključe u epohu krstaških ratova i da bolje razumeju njihove tokove. Pisci knjige su pri tom izbegli opasnost da budu preširoki i da tako naruše unutrašnju strukturu i kompoziciju celine. Posebnu dragocenost ove knjige čine izvanredne ilustracije za koje njeni autori zaslužuju sve pohvale.

Ova knjiga, između ostalog, trebalo bi i da razbije uobičajene predrasude da su krstaški ratovi bili jedino motivisani koristoljubivim razlozima, a njihovi učesnici isključivo avanturisti i bezemljaši željni pljačkanja. Naime, još su žive snažne predrasude čiji tvorci u krstaškim ratovima vide samo pljačkaške poduhvate i versku zatucanost. Pri tome se zaboravlja na jednu od elementarnih naučnih istina o tome da je Srednji vek zaista bio epoha vere, ali "doba vere" i u najplemenitijem značenju tog izraza.

Prof. dr Radivoj RADIĆ
Filozofski fakultet Beograd

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Krstaški ratovi su jedan od najzanimljivijih fenomena, ne samo u istoriji srednjeg veka, već u celokupnoj istoriji čovečanstva. Ova tema ne prestaje da pobuđuje zanimanje kako stručnjaka tako i šire čitalačke publike. Knjiga obuhvata period od 1095. godine i sabora u Klermonu, do tragičnog kraja Luja IX Svetog avgusta 1270. Osnovnu nit knjige dopunjuju i kratki pregledi istorija Vizantije, zapadne Evrope i muslimanskog sveta.

Autori su uspeli da svojim zanimljivim opisima najvažnijih bitaka i pojava oblikuju knjigu koja čitaoce neće ostaviti ravnodušnim. Pored ratova, naročito je istaknut dvosmerni uticaj koje će dve sukobljene kulture ostvariti jedna na drugu. Susret istoka i zapada nije se ograničio i završio ratovima, nastavio je da traje i da se prožima. Pored brojnih ilustracija tekst je obogaćen i istorijskim kartama koje bliže određuju geografski prostor krstaških ratova."

Robert the Monk’s History of the First Crusade is an important account of the First Crusade. Although historians don’t believe that he actually went on the crusade, it is fairly certain that he was present at the Council of Clermont in November 1095.  Beyond the accepted view that he was an eyewitness to the council where Pope Urban II declared the crusade, his other information comes mainly from The Gesta Francorum. Robert the Monk’s work was popular at the time, especially due to the fact that it was the only source for the Crusades translated into the vernacular in the Middle Ages, other than William of Tyre’s work.  One of the earliest chronicles of the First Crusade, Robert the Monk’s book shaped many people’s perceptions of the Crusades in the Middle Ages.  It created a theological framework of holy war, a wave of historiography and may have been used to get men to participate in other crusades.

This course examines the interconnected medieval worlds of Europe, Africa, and Eurasia from the death of Muhammad to the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople. Content extends from the emergence of Islam to the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453. After a survey of late antiquity, Unit One of the semester, “The Shattering of Mediterranean Unity?” (632-1031), concentrates on the rise of Islam and the development of three distinct civilizations in the Mediterranean Basin: the Latin West, Byzantium, and the Caliphates. Unit Two, “Recovery and Revival” (1031-1227), examines the struggle between church and state, crusading and holy violence, the rise of towns and states, and trends in late medieval religion. Particular attention is given to women, religious minorities, and other marginalized groups. Unit Three (1215-1453) explores the close of the Middle Ages as signaled by the rise of the Ottoman Empire in the 1400s.

The nine-hundredth anniversary of the First Crusade (1095-99) saw hundreds of evangelical Western Christians trace the route of the medieval expedition apologising to local communities for the violence of the crusades. The Reconciliation Walk embodied an active and direct engagement with the crusading past and an attempt to defuse its perceived toxic legacies. The criticisms of the walk by crusade historian Jonathan Riley-Smith went beyond factual disagreement and illustrate tensions at the interface of popular and academic perceptions of the past. This article revisits Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s analysis of the rhetorical structure of an historical apology and his application to the Reconciliation Walk to reveal the ways in which both the organisers of the walk and their critics constructed continuities and discontinuities between communities over time. Rather than agreeing with Trouillot that the walk constituted an “abortive ritual”, I suggest that the performance and reception of the apology demonstrate the affective power of perceptions of the past, and reinforce the need for historians to take these – often factually inaccurate – collective memories seriously in considering the presentist significance of the past.

Karin Schneider-Ferber describes in her book "Knights in Exile"  (Darmstadt 2016) the extensive political changes in the Mediterranean since the 12th century till to the presence.  In the focus: the Knights Hospitallers in their difficult balance between military fighters  against the "muslims" and brotherhood of the sick.  Their way back from the Holy Land, first to Cyprus, then to Rhodos and finally to Malta is a dramatic story of the Christian presence in the Mediterranean. These "knights" show today that the most important work is the caritative engagement.

En juin 1366, Amédée VI de  Savoie, dit le Comte Vert, s'embarque à Venise pour porter secours  à l'Empire  byzantin, de plus en  plus menacé par les Ottomans. Placée sous le patronage du pape Urbain V cette croisade sera surtout le fait du comte de Savoie, entouré des principaux nobles de ses Etats. Durant une année, les croisés vont remporter de  grands succès, effectuant notamment la reconquête de la ville de Gallipoli dans le  détroit des Dardanelles et  affrontant pertes humaines, épidémies et difficultés financières. Cet épisode  de l'histoire militaire  de la Maison de Savoie connu grâce à un document administratif exceptionnel, le compte de la croisade, tenu par un certain Antoine  Barbier. Toutes les recettes et toutes les dépenses sont enregistrées  sur un rouleau de parchemin d'environ 7o mètres, ce qui permet de suivre les périples de l'armée croisée, jour après jour, de Venise  aux rivages de la mer Noire. Du financement de l'expédition à  la composition et à l'organisation de l'armée et de sa  force navale, en passant par les manœuvres  diplomatiques, ce travail analyse en  profondeur un sujet qui n'a pour l'instant été abordé que sous son aspect événementiel.
Complétée par  d'autres documents administratifs et narratifs publiés en annexe, cette recherche est ainsi une contribution à l'histoire des croisades et à la persistance de cet idéal dans l'imaginaire aristocratique du  Moyen Age tardif.