The Crusades Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Crusades - Essay Example The first text comprises of an eyewitness account of the sermon of Pope Urban II and the details of Crusade as given by various Christian eyewitness. Pope’s sermon has been embellished with lots of imagination and gory details of mass killings of Christians by Turks in the city of Jerusalem. Robert The Monk’s account of Pope’s sermon is interspersed with gruesome details of the killing in order to incite Christians to take part in the war and avenge the desecration of Church. Baldric of Dol says that Pope had exhorted the Christian by telling them that ‘you may deem it a beautiful thing to die for Christ in that city in which he died for us’ (Allen and Amt, p44). Most importantly it tells that the crusaders not only fought for religious purpose but many had vested interests. Bohemond, a great warrior, had to be bribed by the Emperor with ‘land in extent from Antioch fifteen days’ journey and eight in width’ (Allen and Amt, p62). T he text shows that the crusades against Turks had defied human dignity with extreme brutality and violence. Indeed, Letter of Stephen of Bloise to his wife covers the religious fervor of the crusades and also describes the bloodshed and indiscriminate killing in the name of holy war. An Arab Syrian Gentleman and Warrior: Memoirs of Usamah gives insight into the Arab culture and shows a humane perspective of people who were viewed as barbarians during the period of crusades. He gives personal accounts of his experience of Christians with whom he had maintained good relationships. In a personal account, Usamah describes how Frankish physician had saved the life of the son of an Arab artisan, whose neck was afflicted with scrofula, a dreaded disease. The text gives a more civilized picture of Moslems in Jerusalem and shows that Moslems and Christians had co-existed peacefully as contrarily described in the earlier text.