Misconceptions About The Crusades

The Crusades are often one of the most romanticized periods by the common population due to popular films and shows depicting the holy war in a much more heroic light. With the mighty Christian army taking the fight to the savage Muslims who greedily talk their holy land of Jerusalem. Or in some other cases the barbaric Christian army that unprovoked attacks the wise peace loving Muslims. Thus, leading to a ton of misconceptions about the crusades, there are four myths that professor Crawford a Crusade historian believes are the most fundamentally wrong when thinking about the Crusades. They are: The Christians for without a just reason just attacked Muslims, The Crusades presented an opportunity for Christians to make copious amounts of money from Muslim lands, Crusaders did not actually believe in their religious reason to be there and instead had other plans, lastly the Crusades made Muslims despise Christians and want to hurt them. Crawford debunks these myths by using vast amounts of historical sources, thus providing the actual way the Crusades should be viewed. For the first myth, the claim that the Christians were the ones that invaded the Islamic states unprovoked becomes just a myth by examining who was in power during the time. Crawford examines the countries of Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, North Africa, Spain, France, and Italy in 632 C.E and sees that they were all predominately Christian lands, however fast forward 100 years the Arabs have taken …show more content…
If people read this article and learn the truth as to how the Crusades really were maybe there would not be such resentment that some Muslims have towards Christianity. Altogether, by learning what Crawford argues in that Christian soldiers in the Crusades were religious people that were not greedy the real neutral knowledge of the Crusades can finally come