Issue 9: Burning History & the Ashing of Science

THE CRUSADES | 31
People In History
- Abraham -
First Jew and founder of
Judaism, the physical and
spiritual ancestor of the
Jewish people and one of the
three patriarchs of Judaism.
Pictured here:
Abraham and the Angels
[Aert de Gelder ca. 1680]
currently at Museum Boijmans
Van Beuningen, Rotterdam,
Netherlands.
By the end of the 11th century, chants of “Deus le
volt” (God wills it), announced the first Crusade
under way to fight Asia Minor, Egypt, and Syria.
The First Crusade
1095 to 1099
At the Clermont Council, Pope Urban II began the
Cluniac Reform movement and excommunicated
King Phillip of France for adultery. On November
27, 1095, Pope Urban II’s local speech drew such
a large crowd of commoners and local nobility
that the papal throne was moved from the cathedral
to a field outside of town. At this gathering,
the Pope asked all to gather arms and take the
Holy Land out of Muslim control, a request initially
made by Alexius I.
Receiving tremendous response from the military,
lords, and ordinary citizens, an armed pilgrimage
began wearing a cross to symbolize the
Church. Peter the Hermit led a band of knights
and commoners before the four armies and destroyed
everything in their path fighting through
the Byzantine empire before the Turks at Cibotus
crushed them. Count Emicho led a group of crusaders
that murdered Jews in many towns of
Rhineland. The four main armies arrived in Constantinople,
swore allegiance to Alexius I and
conquered Anatolia, followed by Antioch.
130 AD Rome has conquered Jerusalem and
Hadrian renames the city Aelia Capitolina,
establishing it as a Roman Colony completed
with a temple to the deity Jupiter, as pictured
here by a scale model. [hiro-o | cc by-sa 3.0]
866 BC King David of Israel establishes
Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Later it serves as
the capital of the Kigdom of Judea.
423 BC King Nebuchadnezar II destroyed
Solomon’s Temple and enslaved many Jews. Later
to be rebuilt under King Cyrus the Great of Persia.
Pictured here: model of the second temple of
Jerusalem at the Israel Museum. [Ariely | CC BY 3..0]
In 1099, the armies reached Jerusalem and
camped outside the city, forcing the governor
to surrender. Hundreds of men, women and children
were slaughtered as they made the victory
march into the city. Both Muslims and Jews were
banished from Jerusalem. The war was short
and many Crusaders returned home. Four large
western settlements were established: Jerusalem,
Edessa, Antioch and Tripoli.
The Second Crusade
1144 to 1155
Around 1130, the Muslims began a jihad against
the Christians. Edessa was captured in 1144 by
General Zangi leading to the Second Crusade.
King Louis VII of France and King Conrad III of
Germany assembled an army of 50,000 in Jerusalem
to take the Syrian stronghold Damascus. Nur
Origins Scientific Research Society