The Role of Religion in the Crusades- Origins and Promotion

The Role of Religion in the Crusades- Origins and Promotion

Crusades were Christian expeditions that the western European Christians organized in the 11th century. The purpose of the crusades was to counter the many centuries of Muslim wars of expansions. Christians realized that the Muslims had fought for many tears expanding the Islam religion taking over the Christian territories; thus, the crusades aimed to stop the expansion of Islam and reclaim the once Christian parts, especially the Holy land in the Eastern Mediterranean (Asbridge, 2012). Thus, crusades were composed of series of religious wars initiated by Christians, supported and directed by the Latin Church during the medieval period to counter Islam.

Methods of Promoting the Crusades

The Roman Catholics used several methods or techniques to promote the crusades; the Pope himself was the leader of the crusades. Pope Urban II responded to the call by emperor Byzantine Alexius to help him fight the spread of Islam and Pope celebrated the call to the crusades at the Clermont in France in 1095 (Asbridge, 2012). Thus, he automatically became the head of the large army of vchr9ostian volunteers that were motivated by religious zeal to wage war against Islam. For more than two centuries, the Christian crusades remained powerful as the Pope headed them.

The second strategy was that the Roman Catholics waged numerous crusades in the Holy land, and the crusading ideals were applied to both the military and the religious campaigns (Asbridge, 2012). Thirdly, through the Pope, the Roman Catholic, away from waging war against Islam, launched crusades against the heretics and the opponents of the papal authority and managed to sanction the emergence of military orders.

Expansion of  Islamic Civilization

Umayyad caliphate led by Mu’awiya, a distant relative of Mohammed, used different methods in expanding Islam. First, Mu’awiya mainly relied on the army that was allegiance and only pertained to him. He managed to build such a loyal army through cunning ways such as hiring skilled Arabian troops and bribing the army leaders. Using this technique, he made a large army that he used to expand to new territories (Huzen, 2010). Mu’awiya also bribed the opponents’ leaders in the new regions to accept Islam and ditch their respective religions. Apart from the aim of expanding Islam, he did business and thus was rich; he used the wealth he acquired to bribe the leaders in the new territories to convoke their people to accept Islam (Huzen, 2010).  When a territory was taken over, Mu’awiya, the leader of the Umayyad caliphate, would leave those in charge in position.

On the other hand, the Abbasid caliphate depended on the willfully devoted Arab armies. The caliphate developed an imperial army with the official of the army on the payroll. Abbasid caliphate expanded rapidly because the leaders used the message of equality and opportunities for non-Arab Muslims (Khan, 2020). The new trading opportunities that the Abbasid Caliphate brought to the new territories convinced the opponents to accept Islam because they would advance to the Middle class, thus improving living standards.

The Significance Of Silk Roads The Growth Of Intercontinental Trade

The Silk Road was an important trading link route that connected the West to the East. The Silk Road was also a catalyst for the development of international trade during the development of civilization. Civilizations such as China, Japan, Indian, Korea, Iran, Europe, and Arabia fueled the sulk road network. The road was used to transport agricultural products, minerals, textile materials, and other valuable commodities enabling the exchange of goods among the civilizations (UNESCO, 2020). Nations prospered fast because of the Silk Road network since regions accessed goods they could not produce and sold off goods they produced in excess to other regions.

The Silk Road was the main conduit of trade between the West and the East, and it was also a conduit of historical deadliest pandemics (UNESCO, 2020). The Silk Road enabled the spread of one historical lethal disease called the Black Death along the Silk Road corridor. The Black Death spread and reached Europe, where it killed more than 50 million people right from 1346 to 1352. During the 7th century, the Silk Road facilitated smallpox, which became an endemic for many years.

References

Asbridge, T. (2012). The Crusades: The War for the Holy Land. Simon and Schuster

History.com. (2021). History Stories.  https://www.history.com/news/silk-road-black-death

Huzen, K. (2010). What factors enabled the expansion of the Muslim empire between 650 and 730, and why did that expansion slow in the Following century? https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336044710_

UNESCO. (2020). The Spread of Disease along the Silk Roads. Retrieved from https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/content/spread-disease-along-silk-roads

Khan, S. (2020). Abbasid Dynasty. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/Abbasid_Dynasty/

Kurin, R. (2002). The Silk Road: Connecting People and Cultures. https://festival.si.edu/2002/the-silk-road/the-silk-road-connecting-peoples-and-cultures/

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Explain the role of religion in the Crusades by doing the following (suggested length of 2–3 paragraphs):

Discuss the origins of the Crusades.

Describe the methods used by the Roman Catholic Church to promote the Crusades.

Differentiate the methods used by the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties to expand Islamic civilization by doing the following (suggested length of 2–3 paragraphs):

Describe the different methods of expansion used by the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties.

Contrast the religious policies and political administration of the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties.

Discuss the significance of the Silk Roads in facilitating one of the following (suggested length of 2–3 paragraphs):