Background to the Crusades

This is a second blog covering a fascinating book called God's Battalions, in which the author, Rodney Stark, dismantles incorrect assumptions about the Crusades. In his opening chapter, Stark shows that the history of the Crusades really began in the seventh century when armies of Arabs, newly converted to Islam, seized huge areas that had been Christian.

It all started with Mohammed. In his farewell address he told his followers, "I was ordered to fight all men until they say 'there is no God but Allah.'" Stark says this is consistent with the Koran (9:5): "slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them [captive], and beseige them, and prepare for them each ambush." With this as their marching orders, Arabs set out to conquer the world. So much for the "peaceful" religion of Islam.

The conquests started even before the death of Mohammed. His forces went into Syria and Persia, but much more was to follow. The Arabs attacked their neighbors at this particular time because they finally had the power to do so. The most important reason for expansion was to spread Islam.

Other conquests followed. After taking over Persia, Muslim forces went north to subdue Armenia and also moved east, eventually occupying the area of modern Pakistan. In addition they swept over the Holy Land, Egypt, North Africa, Spain, Sicily, and southern Italy. Their use of camels made the Arabs the equivalent of a mechanized force so that they could travel quickly. On the battlefield they used this mobility to attack an inferior enemy force and destroy it before reinforcements could arrive.

What was life like for the conquered peoples? Stark says much nonsense has been written about Muslim tolerance. This claim probably began with Voltaire, Gibbon, and other 18th-century writers who used it to make Christians look bad. It is true, he states, that the Koran forbids forced conversions. But this didn't mean much in the real world considering that many subject peoples were "free to choose" conversion as an alternative to death or enslavement since that was the usual choice presented to pagans as well as often times to Jews and Christians. In theory, Jews and Christians were supposed to be tolerated and allowed to follow their faiths. But repressive conditions abounded -- death was (and still remains to this day) the faith of anyone who converted to either Judaism or Christianity. In addition, no new church or synagogue could be built. Add to that the fact that Jews and Christians also were prohibited from praying or reading their scriptures aloud even in their homes, churches or synagogues. Then add one more thing. Jews and Christians who refused to convert to Islam (known as dhimmis) were, according to official policy, made to feel inferior and to know their place. This played out in the kind of animals they were allowed to ride, marks they were forced to carry on their clothing, a prohibition from being armed, and an incredibly severe tax rate compared with Muslims.

But it gets worse than that. For example, in 705 the Muslim conquerors of Armenia assembled all the Christian nobles in the church and burned them to death. There were indiscriminate slaughters of Christians as Arabs moved into other lands. Mohammed himself let Arabs know how to treat Jews when he had all the local adult Jewish males in Medina (approximately 700) beheaded after forcing them to dig their own graves. As time went on, massacres of both Christians and Jews became increasingly common. Stark mentions Morocco as one example where more than 6000 Jews were killed in the years 1032-1033. So, efforts to portray Muslims as enlightened supporters of multiculturalism are, in Stark's words, "at best ignorant."

Did the conquered peoples turned to Islam when they found out how wonderful the new religion was? No, answers Stark. It was a very long time before the conquered areas were truly Muslim in anything but name. For a long time very small Muslim elites ruled over non-Muslim populations. He points out this runs contrary to the widespread belief that Muslim conquests were quickly followed by mass conversions to Islam. Despite terrible conditions of second-class citizenship, conquered peoples only slowly converted to Islam.

Here's a key point to remember -- most of what has been regarded as Muslim culture and said to have been superior to that of Christian Europe was actually "the persistence of pre-conquest Judeo-Christian-Greek culture that Muslim elites only slowly assimilated, and very imperfectly." This will be discussed in more depth in a future blog.

Muslim invaders were bitterly resented in Europe as they took over many lands and actually invaded Europe itself. Most Christians believed during this time that war against the Muslims was justified partly because the Arabs had usurped lands by force where once Christians had lived and had abused the Christians over whom they ruled. There was a feeling it was time to strike back.