The Importance Of The First Crusades

In the year 1096, the First Crusade launched on a three year long campaign towards the Holy Lands. In that Crusade the Carolingian Empire was called to partake by the words of Pope Urban II, who proposed sending troops to fight the Seljuk Turks and take back Jerusalem. The Seljuk Turks started gaining power and territory in 1030 and took over Jerusalem in 1071, kicking out the Byzantines. The First Crusade had created tension between the Muslim Turks and the western Romans. In this essay, I will expand on the importance of the Carolingian Empire and the role they played in the First Crusade, the religious roles that the Arabs played in the Holy Land, as well as the relationship between the Crusaders and the Arabs and how the Crusaders were …show more content…
The Western Roman empire, including the Franks, saw the Islamic power as a threat to the christendom Nature in control by the Roman Empire whose authority is the Pope. However, the Franks did not fit the western image depicting them as heroic. The Arabs viewed the Franks as uncivilized compared to themselves. The differences of the two were drastically different by the mentioning of of the Franks chronicles of cannibalism. The Arabs had viewed the Franks as barbaric by their actions. The Crusaders had been given an offer by Pope Urban II to have eternal life in return to fight in the crusades to defeat the Muslims. However the arabs have been occupying the Holy Land with Islam for around four hundred years. The Prophet Muhammad being a big role on the journey towards heaven. The Arabs have been working on the spiritual journey and improve society with art and and science for centuries. This was their sacred place where Muhammad had prayed on the rock and was carried to have eternal life from God. Then in the 1096 around spring time 60,000 soldiers, accompanied by a large group of non-combatant pilgrims, with their wives and families, set off to the East. The Crusaders were vigorous and enthusiastic. The killing was not just in an ordinary battle of conquest; the Crusaders had fallen upon the Muslims of Jerusalem and slain them like the "avenging angels of the Apocalypse” The peace and forward thinking that of the Arabs in the Holy Land shows the love and compassion they have to practice their faith. As the killing of the crusades continue to progress during the First Crusade the Arabs start viewing the Franks as barbarak since "The Franks, racked by dearth, were reduced to feeding themselves from cadavers and animals they could get". The arabs