Vol. 52, No. 1, 2009 - Alpha Chi

6 Th e Cr u s a d e s a s Pr o pa g a n d a
unable to take advantage of the dissension” (117). Outright hostilities between Muslims
could be quite common. The experience of Zangi is a pertinent example. When Zangi, an
Arab figure of authority, marched on Baghdad to confront the caliph there, his troops were
slaughtered and he escaped only with the aid of a Kurdish officer, Ayyub. He later rewarded
this officer, who happened to be the father of Saladin (Maalouf 117). Additionally, the city
of Damascus actually requested protection from the French against attack by their Muslim
neighbors (Maalouf 127). Those who wish to condemn the West for the part it played in the
Crusades must also recognize the part that Muslims played in the destabilization of the Holy
Land as well as the violence that ensued. Solely attributing the violence of the Crusades to
the Europeans fails to consider the violence and destruction wrought by Arabs as well.
If the Crusades are examined through the lens of these conflicts and their history, a very
different interpretation emerges. Clearly, a tradition of violence and bloodshed between
Muslims and Christians had existed long before the Crusades began. The First Crusade
and each subsequent Crusade did not arise in a vacuum, nor did they fail to influence each
other. Although the historical association of Christianity and Islam is very important, several
events did help to stimulate a response from many echelons of society that may not have
engaged in an outright war before.
Pilgrims had been traveling to the Holy Land since the beginning of Christianity, but in
the early 11th century, restrictions were placed on Christian pilgrims by the Fatimid imam
al-Hakim. Sentiments were further exacerbated when the Church of the Holy Sepulcher
was destroyed in 1009. These events inflamed the West, especially the papacy, and may
very well be attributed as
“contributory causes of
the Crusades” (Zacour and
Hazard 42). The many conflicts
between Islam and
Christian territories may
have already produced an
environment susceptible
to crusader rhetoric, which
was only compounded by
pleas from the Byzantine
Empire for aid against the
invading Muslims. If all of
Clearly, a tradition of violence
and bloodshed between
Muslims and Christians
had existed long before
the Crusades began.
these events are considered, the conflict in the Holy Land was not an aggressive invasion
without prior contributory events but was rather a continuation of a conflict that had existed
for centuries. Thus, the Crusades were not examples of wanton aggressive Western imperialism,
as they have been depicted for centuries, but were rather another conflict in a series
of violent relations.
III. Historical Irrelevance of the Crusades in the Holy Land
While the Crusades and the many conflicts with Arabic armies have been incorporated
into Western history as an integral part of that history, such was not the case in the histories
of the Middle East. In the 20th and 21st centuries, many organizations and governments
have harkened back to the Crusades as a propaganda tool to inflame anti-Americanism and