The Crusades: Crescent and the Cross. Full version: pt 1 of 2 [Full Documentary]

Part 1 of of a monumental documentary on the crusades produced by the History Channel entitled "Crusades: crescent and the cross".

This is part one of two.

A must watch, and an excellent production!

- Hosted by Nahda Media -

for thousand of years the holy land of the middle east was run with blood. here the scars of battle was between the three of the great religion of the world. but the deepest would was made by the war between christians and muslims began at the close of the 11 century. fought for 200 years for a state a tiny strip of land which was a few hundred miles long. But with the greatest prize Jerusalem. now this holy war is passed as legd. there were those who saw it by their own eyes. great chronicles from two different worlds Christian and Muslim wrote of great deeds, great battles and great warriors. about men who laid down their lives.

this was the collision of two great faiths, the clash between the crescent and the cross.

this was the crusades.

Of all the cities in the world, Jerusalem has the most troubled past and the most troubling future.

For the Jews, it is the site of the great temple of Hewet and Solemn. For Muslims, the place where Mohammed ascended to heaven. For Christians,a place where their messiah was crucified.

After his death, the world of Jesus Christ took root and Jerusalem slowly shed almost 4 centuries of Roman occupation to embrace Christian rule.

But in the seventh century, the holy city was forcible seized by a new faith, Islam.

Now 400 years later, the Christians wanted the Jerusalem back. Across Europe some 60000 warriors were gathering, reading themselves for battle.

One of the leaders was veteran war lord Duke Lord Godfrey. He would head his own army of what would become a three year crusade across 3000 miles to reclaim Jerusalem in the name of God.

Godfrey was more than just an acclaimed fighter. A generous benefactor of the catholic church. He was also an immensely pious man.

As far as I am concerned, there is one key thing is driving people to take up the cross. And then it is they actually believe this crusade is a spiritual war and it is going to purify their souls of sin.

Yes, I am sure they've got all their agendas and looking forward at the same time. But there is one thing at the core and across larges range of people, is the spirituality.

It is the religion that is driving this.

The Franks which is catch old word for everyone who participated in the crusades were regarded for many centuries until this day, as barbarians who came to destroy the peak of Islamic civilization.

This is a very strong thing which goes down right to this day. So the word crusade is electric and people know it. They they know what happened in that world.

there was good reason why men would risk everything to journey to a distant land to which they might never return.

Lighted by famine and wrecked by petty wars, the European homeland was a cursed place.

They craved a better life in this world, and the next.

I think if you were to take a time machine back to the late 11th century, the first thing that probably strike you was what a violent society it was.

At a time where central government was not very well organized.

The great monarchies of France and Spain haven't developed. Its petty lordships, local Catalans, they raid they fight they strike one another. It is a time of endemic lawlessness.

One of the most learned men in the crusades, painted a disturbing portrait of this chaotic world.

A senior arch bishop and consort of king, William Artair wrote the history of crusades as he saw it.

In nearly all the circle on the earth, belief had failed.

The fear of lord no longer prevailed among men. Justice had perished from the world. Violence held sway among the nations.

Fraud, treachery overshadowed all things. All virtue had departed and cease to exist as useless.

Evil reigned instead.

There was only one organization which had the potential to stem this anarchy, the church.

The catholic faith dominated the 11 century western Europe.

World of the middle ages was a world that was deeply concerned with matters of religion. And it is almost impossible for us in secular age today to overestimate how concerned they were.

it is almost impossible for us to understand how concerned they were.

People are bombarded with the fact that they are threatened by sin from all corners of life. Just by everything they can do in life is potentially sinful. It is literally the air they are breathing is contaminated with sin.

The church could absorb a man of his sin. But it lacked the political muscle to wash away the ill of an entire society.

The secular rulers of Europe had pushed the papacy to the sidelines. Until 10AD when a new pope arrived in Rome, Pope Urban II.

Pope Urban was an astute individual a man who understood the political, social and religious currents and needs of his time.

Someone who know how to bring those things together and channel them into productive outlets.

Pope Urban needed a master plan to put the catholic church back on the political map.

The answers to his prayers would come in the form of a desperate plea for help from an old rival.

In 1095, a desperate call for help was dispatched to the head of the catholic church, Pope Urban II.

Sent from the imperial court of Constantinople, it came from the eastern christian rival. The political master of the Greek orthodox church.

The byzantine emperor, Alexius I. The power of Alexius's empire was slipping.

The influence of his orthodox church had once stretched as far as the holy land of the middle east.

Islam was now the dominant force in the region. The Celt Turks were recent converts to Islam.

They had emerged from the steps of central Asia and swept down into the middle east in search of land.

Fierce some warriors, their armies numbered tens of thousands.

They seized control of the Muslim territories of Persia, Syria and Palestine and finally captured the holy city of Jerusalem.

Then they turned their gaze north and stormed their way to the doorstep of the great Byzantine capital, Constantinople.

The status qua, the existing power politics and balance of the region had changed.

The Byzantine had lost great area of taxation, the recruitment of the troops. They had lost a lot of prestige as well.

By 1095, the emperor Alexius desperate to strike back. But he couldn't do it alone.

He appealed to the pope in the spirit of the Christian brotherhood to send an elite force of knights to help him keep the Turks at bay.

He presented pope Urban with the perfect opportunity to enhance his political power.

You've got to understand that the popes of that period were politicians.

Much more so than they are now. At that time the popes were big players, scheming, manipulating, intriguing, politicking.

They were basically, the politicians of the church.

Pope Urban was set to hijack the misfortune of the Byzantine empire.

He would launch his own holy war against Islam.

A crusade that would strengthen his papacy and put Rome back at the center of the world political stage.

The idea of the crusade satisfy a number of particular agenda for the pope. It allows him to increase his authority over the knighthood of western Europe at the expense of other secular rulers.

It directs a violent knights away from their practices of brutalizing the church in the west.

It also rolls back the infidel, it begins to allow the Christians to reclaim the holy places.

In Nov 10, 1095, the pope performed a spell binding open air sermon outside the towm of Clermont in France.

It was a rally in call, to the princes, knights, clerks and the common man to wage a war under the banner of the catholic church.

Urban must have been a remarkably charismatic and effective speaker.

Being at his speech must have been like being at some kind of a mass rally. Elements of all of those things together.

There were thousands and thousands of people there.

His sermon was a cleverly crafted piece of religious spin.

Spiced with exaggerated tales of Muslim atrocities against Christian pilgrims living in the holy land.

It demonised the Turks and presented the crusade as the apocalyptic war of two faiths.

His words were received as words from Gods. They were received by young and old alike eagerly as a command from God.

A cradle of our faith, the native land of our lord, and the mother of salvation is now forcibly held by a people without God.

For many years now, the wicked rays of Satan sons, followers of unclean practices have oppressed with tyrannical violence the holy places where the feet of our lord rested.

Dogs have entered into the holy places. Priests have been slain in the sanctuaries. Virgins are forced to choose between prostitution and death by torture.

The emotional intensity of the moment was very high. And when the end of the speech was reached, Urban gave an appeal and people came forward to take the cross.

Literally to take the strip of clothes and put them on their clothing, over their breasts, over their heart perhaps.

And indicate that they were taking vows and going to go to east to rescue their brothers.

Inspired by the possibility of great prestige and honour, tens and thousands of men and women, families, even whole villages took vows to join pope Urban's crusade.

But for many as the young knight who wrote an eyewitness account of his journey to Jerusalem, there was another attraction, the promise of great riches.

Lord pope said if anyone wish to save their souls, they must not hesitate to undertake the humble spiritual way of the lord.

And if it did not have a great deal of money, the divine mercy should provide for.He said "take the world to the holy land and rescue it from the dreadful race.

Rule over yourselves, for that land floweth with milk and honey.

Nothing is ever motivated purely by religion or ideology. They knew perfectly well that there was a lot of wealth in that part of the world.

It was the center of trade all the trading caravans passed through this land. So they wanted part and they wanted the money, it was as simple as that.

But the lure of the unimaginable wealth and the chance to seize the land that was said to flow with milk and honey was just the beginning.

News soon spread of even greater incentive. Pope Urban took an unprecedented step, he offered to those who pledge their souls to the crusade, a ticket directly to heaven.

Those of you who once fought against brothers and relatives, now rightfully fight against barbarians.

Know them that who ever sets out on this journey not out of lucks of worldly advantage, but only for salvation of his soul and liberation of the church is remitted in entirety all penance of his sins.

Pope Urban marketed the crusade brilliantly, he struck a number of chords that the knight of western Europe wanted to hear.

He said, look you are living this violent lives if you don't atone to your sins, you are going to hell.

What the crusade offered was a way of carrying out fighting and also receiving the spiritual award. That was the deal.

If you went on crusade, you got the remission of all you sins, you will not go to hell.

The pope's sermon pushed the boundaries of Christian teaching.

In his holy war a crusade is now a blessing of God to ignore his 6th commandment, 'thou shall not kill as long as he was an infidel'.

This is what the Pope actually want and he wants it so much that he is going to give spiritual reward to people who participated.

Its literally like opening Pandora's box, I am not sure he is actually conscious of how dangerous an idea that he was tampering with.

But what it leads to is a very powerful out surge, a sense of hatred of the outside in western Europe.

And it is turning against anyone who seems to be other than the expected norm of a western christian.

Before the crusade had even left Europe, Christian fanatics swept up by the pope's words hankered to spill blood.

To these fundamentalists, any non-christian is an infidel.

And the infidels were all around.

The pilgrims rose up in a spirit of cruelty against the Jews. They inflicted the most cruel slaughter on them.

Claiming that the killings would be of service against the enemies of Christianity.

They decapitated many, and destroyed their homes.

They then divided all the looted money amongst themselves.

Across Europe, thousands of Jews were massacred in the name of God.

Murder and slaughter of the innocent had become the hallmark of the first crusade.

In the autumn of 1096, almost a year after the pope's sermon, armies from France, Jermany and Italy set out on the epic 3000 mile march to aid their Christian brothers and liberate their holy land from Muslim rule.

At the helm of the largest army from the Northern Europe was the Duke Godfrey of Bouillon.

Godfrey was one of the senior leaders of the first crusade.

He was a pious man, in fact we know that he brought many monks with him for the expedition to help him in his daily prayers.

He was also a great warrior, he won the repute of feats in single combat and he was a respected man that leaders of the expedition felt thay could all deal with.

At Godfrey's side was his younger brother Baldwin. The count of Bouillon, ruthless to the core.

Baldwin had once been destined for priesthood but it turned instead to a love of women and war.

Plagued by lust and sins of the flesh. We might be quite discreet about all of this but it is an aspect of his character.

He was also a very pragmatic man, somebody who would not hesitate to brush aside others if they crossed him.

Following in the footsteps of Duke Godfrey and Count Baldwin, military historian John France uses 11 century sources as his guide book.

These medieval records reveal the harsh realities of life on crusade.

To take the cross must have been very very expensive. We know that people sold their lands, they mortgaged their land.

They seem to try to raise about six year's income just to live through the crusade.

A rich man would have had a whole retinue. He would come with his household, with everybody who would normally accompany him.

And possibly wives and often forgotten many wives came in with their husbands. Because they too were inspired with this remarkable opportunity for salvation.