MR. DUNN’S WORLD HISTORY CLASS
NOTES AND OUTLINE CH 11
2/9/2016
UNIT 2: The Rise of Islam
Chapter 11: From the Crusades to New
Muslim Empires
Standards Used
7.2 Students analyze the geographic, political, economic,
religious, and social structures of the civilizations of
Islam in the Middle Ages.
7.6 Students analyze the geographic, political, economic,
religious, and social structures of the civilizations of
Medieval Europe.
7.6.6 Discuss the causes and course of the religious Crusades and their effects on the
Christian, Muslim, and Jewish populations in Europe, with emphasis on the increasing
contact by Europeans with cultures of the Eastern Mediterranean world.
7.6.9 Know the history of the decline of Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula that culminated in
the Reconquista and the rise of Spanish and Portuguese kingdoms.
7.9 Students analyze the historical developments of the
Reformation.
7.9.7 Describe the Golden Age of cooperation between Jews and Muslims in medieval Spain
that promoted creativity in art, literature, and science, including how that cooperation
was terminated by the religious persecution of individuals and groups (e.g., the Spanish
Inquisition and the expulsion of Jews and Muslims from Spain in 1492).
THE SIX PEOPLE ARE:
 Richard I,
 Anna Comnena,
 Salah al-Din (Saladin),
 Usamah ibn-Munqidh,
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 Eliezer ben Nathan, and
 Eleazar ben Judah.
MR. DUNN’S WORLD HISTORY CLASS
NOTES AND OUTLINE CH 11
2/9/2016
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Richard I of England
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Richard I was born in England in 1157, the son of King
Henry II and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Henry died in 1189 & Richard was crowned king.
He had such a strong reputation for bravery in war, that
his name was Richard the Lionhearted.
He taxed the people heavily to raise money for himself and
his soldiers to fight the 3rd Crusade
Third Crusade was long and hard. The crusaders needed
to cope with a radically different environment (largely
desert), disease, and fierce fighting by the Muslims, led by
Salah al-Din.
In June 1191, Richard arrived at the Muslim town of Acre.
Fellow crusader King Phillip II of France had begun to
surround and attack Acre two months earlier. The Muslims
gave up and surrendered to the crusaders
However, when Richard felt that Salah al-Din was too slow
to follow through on a promised exchange of prisoners, he
became frustrated and ordered the deaths of all 2,700
Muslims inside Acre’s city walls.
By the time Richard and his soldiers finally neared
Jerusalem, the men were exhausted and many had been
hurt badly in battle. Realizing that he could not capture
the city from the Muslims, Richard turned around without
ever seeing Jerusalem and headed back to England.
He signed a truce with Salah Al-Din to allow Christian
Pilgrims to enter Jerusalem
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MR. DUNN’S WORLD HISTORY CLASS
NOTES AND OUTLINE CH 11
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Richard was devoted both to the Catholic Church and to
the knightly ideals of courage and honor in battle. He loved
the thrill and challenge of battle and the respect he
received for leading the fight in God’s name to capture the
Holy Land. According to legend, when Richard and his
troops were close to Jerusalem, Richard rode his horse to
the top of a hill overlooking the Holy City. When he realized
that after so long and so many battles, he might finally be
able to see Jerusalem, he threw his shield over his face to
cover his eyes and began to cry, pleading to God that he
never wanted to look upon the city if he could not have the
honor of capturing Jerusalem from the Muslims. Richard
refused to enter Jerusalem as a loser. He promised, “O
Holy Land, I commend thee to God, and, if His heavenly
grace grants me so long to live, I hope, pledge to come one
day to succor [help in time of distress] thee.”
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MR. DUNN’S WORLD HISTORY CLASS
NOTES AND OUTLINE CH 11
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ANNA COMNENA
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Born in 1083 CE daughter of Emperor Alexius Comnenus of
Byzantium
She wrote about the 1st Crusades:
It describes the problems she and her family faced when
the crusaders arrived, despite the fact that they had
supposedly come to help Anna’s family and the Byzantine
Christians against the Turks.
She was shocked and amazed at seeing such vast
numbers of fanatical crusaders storm into Constantinople.
Her father, according to Comnena he treated them kindly
because they were Christians.
Comnena had mixed feelings about the crusades. She
respected the crusaders because they were, like herself
and the Byzantines, Christians.
She understood that one of the reasons for the crusade
was her father’s need for help in fighting the Turks and
defending the Byzantine Empire.
At the same time, Comnena expressed fear and dislike of
many of the crusaders, whom she described as unstable
and dangerous, even cruel
She saw that huge numbers of fanatical Christians were
overtaking her city. To Comnena, this seemed to be an
invasion.
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MR. DUNN’S WORLD HISTORY CLASS
NOTES AND OUTLINE CH 11
ANNA
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COMNENA continued
She believed that once the Europeans had begun to fight
for a cause, they were uncontrollable.
She included descriptions of crusaders roasting children
in the fire and tearing off the limbs of others, like a
massacre
Comnena was also suspicious of the crusaders. Although
she admired the dedication of some of the soldiers to
Christianity, she questioned whether many were truly
fighting for God.
She believed that some of the crusaders, men like the
leader Bohemond, fought mainly for glory in battle and the
greedy urge to acquire more wealth and land.
Emperor Alexius was similarly suspicious. Comnena
defended her father’s decision to stay in Constantinople
as emperor and not to go on the crusade.
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Salah al-Din
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(Saladin) was born in 1138 CE
As a soldier, Salah al-Din was respected and successful.
Salah al-Din’s military performance brought him more
honors and leadership positions
In 1169, he was chosen commander-in-chief of the entire
army
Salah al-Din was a strong leader and was widely
respected among many different Muslim groups.
In 1174, he became Sultan of both Syria and Egypt.
On October 2, 1187, Salah al-Din and the Muslim army
reconquered Jerusalem.
Unlike the crusaders who massacred Muslims and Jews
when they captured the holy city in 1099, Salah al-Din was
generous with the Christians and other inhabitants of
Jerusalem who surrendered to his army.
The Third Crusade was difficult for Salah al-Din and his
army. The crusaders were vicious to the Muslims they
attacked and captured.
After the crusaders’ victory under King Richard I at Acre
in 1191, many Muslims were massacred and the others
left exhausted.
Salah al-Din’s army began to lose some of its energy and
spirit. Salah al-Din was a devout Muslim, dedicated to the
cause of Islam and his people.
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Salah al-Din continued
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He was also wise and careful. When he realized he could
not defeat the Christians in the Third Crusade, he signed a
peace treaty with King Richard in September 1192.
Under the agreement, the crusaders remained in control of
the cities on the Mediterranean coast and the Muslims
remained in control of Jerusalem and surrounding lands,
but the Christians were still able to visit the holy sites in
Jerusalem.
It was largely due to Salah al-Din’s leadership that the
crusaders failed to recapture Jerusalem during the Third
Crusade and that Richard turned around and went home to
England.
Despite the pain and deaths the Muslims had endured from
the crusaders, Salah al-Din was able to talk reasonably
with King Richard.
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Usamah ibn-Munqidh
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Usamah ibn-Munqidh (oo-SAW-mah ib-in moon-KEED) was
born in 1095 CE
Usamah was strongly influenced by his father.
Usamah’s father was widely respected for his strength in
battle, bravery, honor, and religious devotion, especially
the Qur’an.
Born one year before the First Crusade, Usamah spent his
childhood surrounded by danger.
He fought many battles against Christians during the 2nd
Crusade.
He also wrote extensively about the conflict. His memoir,
Memoirs of an Arab-Syrian Gentleman, is filled with
descriptions battles.
He describes his first battle against the crusaders and
comments:
“O my lord that was the first fight in which I took part [August 4, 1119]….
But the moment I saw that the Franks [crusaders] were in contact with
our men, and then I felt that death would be an easy matter for me. So
I turned back to the [crusaders], either to be killed or to
protect that crowd.”
Yet Usamah fought in battle after battle, neither fearing
death nor injury he endured.
His greatest sadness came in old age when he was forced to
accept his physical weakness
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Usamah ibn-Munqidh
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Usamah lived to know that the Muslims recaptured
Jerusalem in 1187.
He died a year later in Damascus.
Usamah also wrote extensively about dedicated Muslims—
including the heroic actions of Muslim women—defending
themselves against the enemy.
Usamah called the crusaders “devils” and “infidels” who
were betraying, according to him, the true religion of
humankind, Islam.
After mentioning the crusaders in his writing, Usamah
often made the comment that they should be cursed by
God, when he wrote, “May Allah render them helpless!”
He compared the crusaders to animals whose only good
quality is their bravery in battle.
An important reason for Usamah’s relatively open-minded
attitude toward the crusaders was his intense belief in
Islam, considering Christians and Jews spiritually similar
to Muslims sharing the belief in 1 God.
He was not afraid of being killed in battle, because he was
confident he was fighting for a just cause: the liberation of
the Holy Land from the crusaders.
This confidence came from his view that whether he lived
or died, he would be fulfilling the role God had assigned
him.
This belief enabled Usamah to fight courageously time
after time, never showing cowardice in the face of his
adversaries.
Usamah continues to be recognized for his inquisitive mind and his
keen observations of life during the crusades.
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ELIEZER ben NATHAN
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Eliezer (pronounced ell-ee-AY-zar) ben Nathan, a Jewish poet and
writer, was born around 1090CE
He studied the Talmud, a book of writings about the Jewish Torah,
with some very famous men.
His chronicle The Persecutions of 1096 told about the violence in
the European Jewish cities of Speyer, Worms, Mainz, & Cologne.
The Persecutions of 1096 was probably written many years after
1096, and Eliezer may have relied on other sources besides his
own.
With passionate language, he describes how the European
crusaders stole from the Jews, destroyed their homes, and
murdered anyone who refused to convert to Christianity and be
baptized.
He writes that the crusaders stole the Torah, stomped on it in the
mud outside Jewish homes,
One of the most shocking parts of Eliezer’s account of the
crusades is his description of Jews who killed their children and
themselves rather than be forced to give up their religion and
convert to Christianity or be killed
Although many of the Jews who did choose to convert in order to
save their lives continued to secretly practice Judaism, Eliezer
still felt that the Jews who killed themselves displayed more
dedication to God.
Eliezer’s description of the effect of the First Crusade on Jews is
extremely emotional. He wrote about his enormous feeling of
sadness that God allowed so many Jews to be killed.
Toward the Christian crusaders, he expresses great hate,
describing them as arrogant (excessively proud) enemies and
oppressors whose anger and violence caused great harm to
Eliezer’s people.
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MR. DUNN’S WORLD HISTORY CLASS
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ELIEZER ben JUDAH
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Eleazar (pronounced ELL-ah-zar) ben Judah was born around the
year 1165 CE
Eleazar was born in the town of Mainz and later spent a great deal
of time traveling and studying in Germany and France.
He lived most of his life in the town of Worms, where he was one of
the most famous Jewish scholars of the MA.
His work and writing covered many fields, including the Talmud (a
book of writings about the Torah), poetry, astronomy, and the
Kabala.
Eleazar was personally and deeply affected by the Second
Crusade.
He and all the Jews of Worms and the surrounding towns were
forced to leave their Torah scrolls, books, & other belongings
behind in order to escape crusaders.
Several years after this escape, in 1196, Eleazar was at home,
when two crusaders forced their way in.
The crusaders killed Eleazar’s wife, Dulcina, his two daughters,
Belat and Hannah, and his son, Jacob. Eleazar was badly hurt, but
he survived the attack.
After this night, Eleazar’s life changed dramatically. Dulcina had
sold parchment scrolls to support the family and allow Eleazar to
spend all his time studying and writing. Now Eleazar had no one to
support him.
After seeing the tragedies that happened to his family and to other
Jews in his town, Eleazar wondered if his people and their religion
would survive in Europe
During the crusades, Jews did their best to defend themselves in
any way possible.
Many Jews who were captured by crusaders refused to become
Christians, even when savagely tortured to death.
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