Today we had a guest lecturer in Professor Cargill’s absence and discussed Crusader Jerusalem. The emergence of Holy Roman Empire in Western Europe and the Great Schism along with the late reaction to persecution of Christian population of Jerusalem were factors that contributed to the Crusades. In 1095, Pope Urban II gave a speech calling upon the nobility in Western Europe and encouraging them to liberate. This proposed a situation of unintended consequences because no one was sure what would happen and the response of all the people who wanted to participate was significantly greater than what was anticipated. The first Crusade was also known as the Peasant’s Crusade because ill equipped peasants were slaughtered by the Turks. During this Crusade Jerusalem is conquered by Godfrey de Bouillon in 1099. He divided Jerusalem into four quarters: the Patriarch’s quarter where the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was, the Templar’s quarter, the Syrian quarter, and the Armenian quarter. This led to the modification of existing Islamic monuments (cross added to top of the Dome of the Rock), the rebuilding of ruined Byzantine churches, the rebuilding of the Holy Sepulcher in a Romanesque style, the establishment of Templars to protect pilgrims coming to Jerusalem, the conversion of the Al-Aqsa Mosque to Templar headquarters and a church, leading to a transformation of Jerusalem.
In the following year from the First Crusade, Baldwin became “King of Jerusalem” and led the Second Crusade which lasted 1147-1149. In1187 the Crusaders are conquered by Saladin. He gives the Holy Sepulcher to the Greeks and allows anybody who wants to leave to leave, however, if they stay they must obey his rule; he also led the purification and reclamation of the Haram, Temple Mount. But after his death, several other Crusades happened and resulted in the reestablishment of Crusaders in Jerusalem. Finally, in 1291, the Crusaders accomplished a successful defeat.
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