Christian And Muslim Perspectives: The Crusades

The Crusades was a gory period in history where the Christians and Muslims had their own differences, which brought them into conflict and leading to a couple million deaths. Both sides had their own perspectives that the other would not agree on. I will be explaining the Western and Eastern Christian and Muslim’s perspectives and how it brought them to war. First I will be going over a summary of this time period so one can feel empathy and understand why things happened the way they did. Pope Urban II launched the first crusade in 1095. He wanted to pilgrimage to the East with armed pilgrims and knights. He told everyone that Jesus was the leader and not to fight with fellow Christians, but unite and push Muslim territory back (Historical …show more content…
Greek Historian Niketas Choniatēs had firsthand experience to the religious zeal and prejudice of the Roman Empire (O City Pg. 224). The crusaders broke through the city’s walls and killed every age and sex by sword while setting the city on fire (O City Pg. 225). Niketas stated, “how horrible it was to see the divine body and blood of Christ poured out and thrown to the ground.” He went on to describe the destruction of the religious property at Hagia Sophia, which underlines the crusaders incentive, which is the difference in religion (O City Pg. 226). The barbarians would not listen to anything that anyone would have to say. If someone spoke freely they were rebuked and would have had a sword drawn onto them or having a small difference in opinion (O City Pg. 227). Niketa’s experience shows how brutal and wicked these “religious” people were. They killed anyone impetuously regardless of sex or age and destroyed everything that they came across only because small differences in religion? The Byzantines looked at these crusaders as savages and barbarians and were very furious about their actions wanting to seek …show more content…
The Western Christians believed in fighting and conquering Jerusalem for God. The Eastern Christians believed that they were barbaric and wicked for killing without thought over small differences in religion. The Muslims believed that they were being treated unfair because of the disrespect of the invasion of their own territory. Muslims believed that they were more passionate about God than any other religion. They did not want Christians teaching the book of Quran to their children because they would misinterpret it. All three of these types of people were all stereotypical and ethnocentric. They did not fully understand the other religion and believed that their religion is the best religion causing millions of deaths between the 11th and 16th