tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/crusades-24882/articlesCrusades – The Conversation2023-10-30T12:31:16Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2163352023-10-30T12:31:16Z2023-10-30T12:31:16ZPalestinian Christians and Muslims have lived together in the region for centuries − and several were killed recently while sheltering in the historic Church of Saint Porphyrius<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556003/original/file-20231026-17-mhk4es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C93%2C7791%2C5214&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children at an Orthodox Christmas Mass at the Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City on Jan. 7, 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/young-altar-servers-take-part-in-the-orthodox-christmas-news-photo/1246056243">Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/israeli-airstrike-hits-greek-orthodox-church-in-gaza-killing-more-than-a-dozen">A bomb struck the complex of the historic Church of Saint Porphyrius</a> in Gaza on Oct. 19, 2023, killing more than a dozen of the hundreds of Christians and Muslims taking shelter inside and wounding others. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://religion.utk.edu/people/christine-shepardson/">historian of Roman Christianity</a> who focuses on the Eastern Mediterranean, I am often confronted by the complexity of this region. Many Christian and Muslim families in Gaza today were <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/05/1136662">displaced in 1948</a>, after the United Nations divided this formerly Ottoman land into new Arab and Jewish states. Today’s Palestinian Christians occupy a complicated place in this contested land. </p>
<p>The Church of Saint Porphyrius, or Porphyry, is named for a fifth-century bishop remembered for building a church in the city and <a href="https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/porphyry.asp">destroying the local temples to the Roman gods</a>. The <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/2023/10/20/destruction-everywhere-leaves-gazas-heritage-sites-in-ruins/">current building</a> is a 19th-century renovation of a church European Crusaders built in the 12th century over the remains of its fifth-century predecessor, which had been converted to a mosque. While the <a href="https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-report-on-international-religious-freedom/israel-west-bank-and-gaza/west-bank-and-gaza/">number of Christians in Gaza</a> dwindled to a little over a thousand in 2022, with roughly 50,000 more in the West Bank and Jerusalem, the <a href="https://archive.org/details/PalestineCensus1922/page/n7/mode/2up">1922 census of the British Mandate of Palestine</a> reported over 73,000 in this region where Christians have lived ever since Christianity began.</p>
<h2>Gaza’s early Christians</h2>
<p>As Jesus’ first followers spread the word about the significance of his life, death and resurrection, church communities sprang up around the Mediterranean. In the early fourth century, the church historian Eusebius of Caesarea commemorated Christians who died in the Roman persecution under Emperor Diocletian, including Christians from Gaza and their bishop, Silvanus, in his “<a href="https://www.gorgiaspress.com/history-of-martyrs-in-palestine-by-eusebius-bishop-of-caesarea">History of Martyrs in Palestine</a>.”</p>
<p>Toward the end of the fourth century, a western Christian nun named Egeria <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/egerias-travels-9780856687105?cc=us&lang=en&">wrote a journal of her travels</a> to Christian sites in Egypt, Mount Sinai, Roman Palestine, Syria and Mesopotamia. She described stopping to see the places of biblical events and receiving the blessing of Christian monks living in each region.</p>
<p>Early Christianity flourished in the port city of Maiuma before spreading to the main city of Gaza, a center of Greek learning. In 325, Bishop Asclepas represented Gaza at Emperor Constantine’s famous Council of Nicaea, <a href="https://earlychurchtexts.com/public/nicene_creed.htm">which established the Nicene Creed</a> that defines the central tenets of Christian belief for most of the world’s Christians today. Twenty-first-century Palestinian Christians include a variety of communities with ties to this early history.</p>
<h2>Christians and Muslims in medieval Gaza</h2>
<p>In the early fifth century, the small Christian community of Gaza found a zealous leader in Bishop Porphyry, whose forceful efforts to Christianize the city are commemorated by the historical church building dedicated to his memory today.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556004/original/file-20231026-25-9m3h1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Women, with their head covered, stand in church pews, along with children." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556004/original/file-20231026-25-9m3h1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556004/original/file-20231026-25-9m3h1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556004/original/file-20231026-25-9m3h1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556004/original/file-20231026-25-9m3h1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556004/original/file-20231026-25-9m3h1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556004/original/file-20231026-25-9m3h1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556004/original/file-20231026-25-9m3h1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Palestinian Orthodox Christians attend an Orthodox Christmas Mass at the Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church in Gaza City on Jan. 7, 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/palestinian-orthodox-christians-attend-an-orthodox-news-photo/503825408?adppopup=true">Mohammed Asad/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>In the decades after Bishop Porphyry’s death in 420, Christians in the eastern Mediterranean, including the Christians of Roman Palestine, were divided over politicized theological conflicts. Those came to a head in 451 at the Roman emperor’s church <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Acts_of_the_Council_of_Chalcedon.html?id=4WG1MQEACAAJ">Council of Chalcedon</a>, in modern-day Turkey, which defined the Son of God in two natures, one human and one divine. </p>
<p>Many of Roman Palestine’s neighbors in Egypt, Syria and Mesopotamia rejected this council because they believed the Son of God had a single nature, at once human and divine. They are called “miaphysite” Christians, which in Greek means “one nature.”</p>
<p>Most Christians of Roman Palestine, however, accepted the council and remained in the imperial church of Rome and Constantinople that centuries later, in 1054, divided into Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Miaphysites, Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholics today all have churches in the land that was Roman Palestine.</p>
<p>Less than a decade after the death of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad in 632, his followers governed Palestinian Christians, and as a result Arabic rather than Greek <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691146287/the-church-in-the-shadow-of-the-mosque">has been the first language</a> of most of the region’s Christians for more than a thousand years.</p>
<p>When medieval Christian <a href="https://www.pennpress.org/9780812220834/the-crusades-and-the-christian-world-of-the-east/">Crusaders reached Jerusalem</a> from western Europe in 1099, they found not only the Muslims they had come to attack but also these ancient local Christian communities caught in the complex conflicts of the region.</p>
<h2>Palestinian Christians today</h2>
<p>Most Palestinian Christians today are Arab Christians and part of the Eastern Orthodox Church under the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem. Other local Christians are miaphysites in the Syrian, Coptic, Ethiopian and Armenian Orthodox churches. </p>
<p>Still other Christians in this region, such as Maronites, Chaldeans, Syrian Catholics, Greek Catholics and local Roman Catholics, recognize the authority of the pope and are in communion with the Roman Catholic Church. A variety of Protestant churches have also more recently arrived in the region. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556008/original/file-20231026-25-f80a15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People wailing in grief around the covered body of a dead person." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556008/original/file-20231026-25-f80a15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556008/original/file-20231026-25-f80a15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556008/original/file-20231026-25-f80a15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556008/original/file-20231026-25-f80a15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556008/original/file-20231026-25-f80a15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556008/original/file-20231026-25-f80a15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556008/original/file-20231026-25-f80a15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Relatives mourn during an Oct. 20, 2023, funeral ceremony for Palestinians who were killed in Gaza’s Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/relatives-mourn-during-the-funeral-ceremony-for-news-photo/1735021871">Photo by Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>While diaspora communities span the globe, including many across North and South America, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Christians continue to live in Israel, the West Bank, Jordan and Lebanon, with <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-gaza-christians-christmas-celebration-permits-denied">smaller populations in Gaza</a> and other countries in the region. Christian and Muslim communities have been neighbors in this land for over 1,300 years. And last week they sheltered and suffered together in Gaza’s St. Porphyrius Church when it was bombed. </p>
<p>In oversimplifying the story of the Middle East to binary categories – Muslims and Jews, right and wrong, terrorists and innocent – we lose the ability to understand the deeply layered history of this complex region. Meanwhile, the land of Gaza itself is in mourning under a thick ashen shroud.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216335/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christine Shepardson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many Christian and Muslim families in Gaza today were displaced following the creation of new Arab and Jewish states. Today, Palestinian Christians occupy a complicated place in this region.Christine Shepardson, Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, Department of Religious Studies, University of TennesseeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2108572023-08-24T12:26:44Z2023-08-24T12:26:44ZWith fewer than 1,500 Catholics in Mongolia, Pope Francis’ upcoming visit brings attention to the long and complex history of the minority religious group<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542225/original/file-20230810-19-5i7hoe.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C0%2C1630%2C1070&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hulagu Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, seated with his Eastern Christian queen Doquz Khatun.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/hulagu-khan-also-known-as-hulegu-hulegu-or-halaku-was-a-news-photo/1354437053?adppopup=true">History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pope Francis is set to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/pope-visit-mongolia-will-thrill-tiny-catholic-community-cardinal-says-2023-07-17/">make the first-ever visit to Mongolia</a>, a country with fewer than 1,500 Catholics, all of whom have come to the faith since 1992. But the pope’s visit is a reminder that the country has a long and complex history with Christianity, among many other faiths. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-report-on-international-religious-freedom/mongolia">Mongolia has only 3.4 million people, and at least 87.4% are Buddhists</a>. The small Catholic community came into existence after this landlocked country, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, began to abandon its <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2645157">communist ideology and embraced different religions</a>. At that time, it also restored diplomatic relations with the Vatican and welcomed Catholic missionaries.</p>
<p>But Catholicism has been known to the Mongols <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Mongols-and-the-West-1221-1410/Jackson/p/book/9781138848481">since the early 13th century</a>. As a <a href="https://search.asu.edu/profile/1268668">scholar of religions in Asia</a>, I am aware that Nestorianism, a Christian tradition commonly known as the Church of the East, reached the periphery of the Mongolian plateau as early as the eighth century, long before the Mongols became active in that area. Several old tribes in the Mongolian steppes were <a href="https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/13943/">converted to Nestorianism around 1000 C.E.</a> </p>
<h2>The Mongol Empire</h2>
<p>The Mongol Empire was founded by Genghis Khan in 1206 after he conquered all the other nomadic tribes on the Mongolian Plateau. Later on, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-history-of-the-mongol-empire/339475953C6AECE567FA50F1AED951A7">the empire extended from Mongolia to the Eastern Mediterranean regions</a>.</p>
<p>Initially the Mongols practiced a Shamanic religion, worshipping the God Tengri. However, to be able to rule all conquered subjects across the vast empire, Genghis Khan issued the “Great Yasa,” a regulation allowing people under his regime the freedom to freely practice their faiths. Under the Mongol Empire, people practiced <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40109471">Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism and Islam</a>. </p>
<p>The conquered tribes included Nestorian Christians, who believed that Jesus Christ had both human and divine natures and rejected that Mary was the mother of God. Christian women dominated the inner court of the Mongol Empire <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25183572">following their marriages with several Mongol Khans</a>. </p>
<h2>The messengers of the papacy</h2>
<p>The Mongol conquest paved the way for long-distance cultural, religious and commercial exchanges across the vast Eurasian continent. For the first time Catholic missionaries were able to travel along the land route to East Asia.</p>
<p>Genghis Khan and his sons launched a series of military campaigns in Central Asia and West Asia, conquering vast land across the Eurasian continent and reaching the <a href="https://www.medievalists.net/2022/02/mongol-conquest-hungary/">borders of modern-day Hungary and Turkey</a>.</p>
<p>During the conquest, the Mongols often <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Mongols-and-the-West-1221-1410/Jackson/p/book/9781138848481">spared many Christians in Central and West Asia</a>, even though they killed those who resisted the Mongol rule. </p>
<p>The conquest shocked many in the Latin world in Europe and Muslims in the Middle East. In 1241, soon after the Mongol troops invaded Hungary and Romania, Pope Innocent IV sent Catholic missionaries, including an Italian Franciscan priest called <a href="https://open.bu.edu/handle/2144/585">John of Plano Carpini</a>, to the Mongol court seeking peace. </p>
<p>In 1246, on orders of the pope, Carpini visited the Mongol court and urged the new ruler of the Mongol Empire, Güyük Khan, Genghis Khan’s grandson, to convert to Catholicism. Güyük Khan instead asked that he summon the pope and other European rulers to <a href="https://open.bu.edu/handle/2144/585">swear allegiance to him</a>.</p>
<p>Catholic missionaries could not find a way to convert the Mongols but continued their efforts with the successive rulers. </p>
<p>In 1248 a Franciscan priest named William of Rubruck, a companion of French King Louis IX, met a Dominican priest, Andrew of Longjumeau, during his visit to Jerusalem. At that time, Louis IX was leading the crusades against Muslims in the Eastern Mediterranean region, and William of Rubruck was fascinated with Andrew of Longjumeau’s suggestion of building an alliance with the Mongols against the Muslims. </p>
<p>In 1253, William of Rubruck visited the Mongol court in Karakorum to urge Genghis Khan’s grandson Möngke Khan to convert. <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Mongols-and-the-West-1221-1410/Jackson/p/book/9781138848481">Möngke Khan instead handed him a letter for Louis IX</a> in which he not only refused to convert to Christianity but threatened to invade the heartland of Europe if the Europeans did not accept the Mongols’ eternal God, Tengri. </p>
<h2>Catholicism and Nestorianism</h2>
<p>William of Rubruck’s visit did not bring any immediate results in terms of conversions, but it left a more far lasting impact. </p>
<p>Before his visit there was not much communication between Catholic missionaries and Nestorians, but William of Rubruck was able to chronicle the activities of the Nestorian community within the Mongol Empire. The visits of Catholic missionaries also prompted many <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004288867_005">Mongol Nestorians to start going on pilgrimages to West Asia</a> as a way to expand their influence beyond their comfort zone under the Mongol Empire. </p>
<p>In 1287 a Nestorian monk, Rabban Bar Sauma, embarked on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem from Khanbaliq, near modern Beijing. Later Sauma’s student Rabban Markos became a patriarch with a title Yahballaha III, <a href="https://uni-salzburg.elsevierpure.com/en/publications/two-letters-of-yahballaha-iii-to-the-popes-of-rome-historical-con/publications/?type=%2Fdk%2Fatira%2Fpure%2Fresearchoutput%2Fresearchoutputtypes%2Fcontributiontobookanthology%2Fchapter">or the chief of the Nestorian Church</a>, in the Mongol-ruled Ilkhanate Empire in modern-day Iran.</p>
<p>At the same time, the Catholic missionaries also started to expand their influence in Central Asia. In 1307 a Franciscan priest, John of Montecorvino, built a Catholic church in Khanbaliq and <a href="https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/corvino1.asp">became the patriarch under the order of Pope Clement V</a>. He had converted about 6,000 people in Mongolia by 1313. </p>
<h2>Religious revivals in Mongolia</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544343/original/file-20230823-27-51fiyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A priest leads a service while worshippers, including two nuns, stand with prayer books and heads bowed." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544343/original/file-20230823-27-51fiyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544343/original/file-20230823-27-51fiyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544343/original/file-20230823-27-51fiyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544343/original/file-20230823-27-51fiyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544343/original/file-20230823-27-51fiyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544343/original/file-20230823-27-51fiyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544343/original/file-20230823-27-51fiyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Catholic Mongolians pray during a Mass at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church in Ulan Bator, Mongolia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/catholic-mongolians-pray-during-a-mass-at-st-peter-and-st-news-photo/2178763?adppopup=true">Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Over the next few centuries, the religious landscape in Mongolia continued to change, depending on who was ruling the region. </p>
<p>Many Mongols converted to Tibetan Buddhism during the later part of the 13th-century reign of the Kublai Khan, another grandson of Genghis Khan, who favored the religion. But after 1368, when <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108687645">the Mongols withdrew from central China and left Khanbaliq</a>, the practice of Tibetan Buddhism and Catholicism was suppressed. The Nestorian community gradually disappeared and never revived again.</p>
<p>However, <a href="https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/our-great-qing-now-available-in-paperback/">under the Qing dynasty</a> that ruled China and Mongolia in the 17th century, Buddhism was revived. But again, in the 20th century Mongolian politics changed drastically when the country adopted communism following the Soviet Union’s intervention, and the practice of <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520244191/modern-mongolia">Buddhism declined again</a>.</p>
<p>After Mongolia became a democracy in 1992, Mongols were allowed to freely practice their faiths again: Buddhism began to flourish, and Catholic missionaries arrived in the country and built a small Catholic community.</p>
<p>When the pope visits this complex religious terrain, his visit will be significant from the geopolitical and religious perspective: In June 2023, the pope’s peace envoy visited Russia as part of international peacemaking efforts. But no pope has ever visited its other close neighbor, China, which <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2022/05/china-vatican-relations-in-the-xi-era/">does not have diplomatic relations</a> with the Vatican. </p>
<p>Overall, I argue that the pope’s groundbreaking visit to Mongolia might <a href="https://aleteia.org/2023/08/06/vietnam-oks-permanent-papal-representation-in-the-country">send important signals</a> in East Asia and, in particular, to the much larger Catholic community in China.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210857/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Huaiyu Chen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Catholic community that Pope Francis will visit later this month has a complex history that goes back to the 13th century, when the Mongol Empire was founded by Genghis Khan.Huaiyu Chen, Professor of Religious Studies, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1816992022-05-04T12:34:49Z2022-05-04T12:34:49ZWhat makes religious relics – like pieces of the ‘true cross’ and hair of saints – sacred to Christians<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461043/original/file-20220503-43085-in1z5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=83%2C58%2C5474%2C3641&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Christian clergymen carry a wooden relic believed to be from Jesus' manger at the Notre Dame church in Jerusalem in 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/HolyLandJesusManger/aee3c0798d49413ca518397ae20040db/photo?Query=%20relic%20christian&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=63&currentItemNo=1">AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A Russian missile cruiser Moskva, the flagship of its Black Sea fleet, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/22/europe/moskva-russia-casualties-intl/index.html">sunk after it was heavily damaged</a> in April 2022. Kremlin officials said that a fire on board caused munitions to explode, while <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/04/14/1092799610/moskva-flagship-damaged">Ukrainian officials claimed</a> they had attacked the Moskva. Several <a href="https://www.jpost.com/christianworld/article-704498">media reports noted</a> that the ship might have been carrying a relic of the “true cross,” a piece of the actual wooden cross on which Christians believe that Jesus suffered and died. </p>
<p>The possibility of the relic being on the sunken ship cannot be ruled out. A collector is said to have donated the relic in 2020 to the Russian navy, which planned to place it <a href="https://tass.com/society/1123855">in the Moskva’s onboard</a> chapel. It is unclear, however, whether the relic was on board the ship in its chapel when the vessel went into combat. But the widespread interest in the possibility of this ancient relic being on board points to its importance for many Christians.</p>
<p>As an <a href="https://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/religious-studies/faculty/joanne-pierce">expert in medieval Christian liturgy and worship</a>, I know that veneration of relics has a long history in Christian devotional practice.</p>
<h2>Venerating martyrs</h2>
<p>In the first three centuries of Christianity, Christians, whose religion was outlawed, prayed at the entombed bodies of martyrs, who were executed for refusing to renounce their new faith.</p>
<p>After the Roman Empire legalized Christianity in the early fourth century, smaller buildings called <a href="https://www.catholicsandcultures.org/practices-values/shrines-pilgrimage">shrine churches</a> were sometimes built around the tomb of a martyr. At times, the <a href="https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/ambrose-letter22.asp">bodies of the martyr were exhumed by local bishops</a> and reburied within the city itself, in a special tomb beneath the floor of a larger church or basilica. </p>
<p>Prior to this practice, bodies of the dead were kept in <a href="https://ontheruinofbritain.wordpress.com/2019/02/21/christianity-and-relics-part-four-the-public-cult/">tombs and catacombs built outside of the city’s walls</a> so as to separate them from the “city” of the living. But Christians believed in the power of the martyrs and, later, other saintly persons to intercede on their behalf with God. Saints were respected and their relics and images venerated, but they <a href="https://www.catholic.com/qa/why-veneration-isnt-idol-worship">were not adored or worshipped</a> as God might be.</p>
<h2>Jesus’ cross</h2>
<p>After Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity, Jerusalem became an important center for Christians who wanted to make religious trips to visit the places where Jesus and his apostles lived and preached. The term pilgrimage, <a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/pilgrim#:">meaning journey</a>, originated at the time.</p>
<p>During this time, what was believed to be a piece of the “True Cross” <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-history-of-the-cross-and-its-many-meanings-over-the-centuries-123316">was brought back to Europe</a> – supposedly by St. Helena, the emperor’s mother – and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2015/03/23/living/jesus-true-cross/index.html#:%7E:text=The%20true%20cross%20of%20Jesus%20had%20been%20revealed.,make%20a%20big%20ship%2Dload">broken up into smaller pieces</a>. </p>
<p>Another section remained in Jerusalem and was venerated there, until in the early seventh century a Persian emperor, a Zoroastrian, conquered the city and removed the relic among the spoils of war. Several years later, the Persians were themselves conquered by the Christian emperor Heraclius, <a href="https://aleteia.org/2019/09/14/when-an-emperor-tried-to-carry-jesus-cross-with-great-pomp-this-miracle-happened/">who returned the relic to Jerusalem</a>. There it remained, even after the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem later that century. </p>
<h2>Pilgrimage to see relics</h2>
<p>As Christianity spread throughout Europe, beyond the boundaries of the Roman Empire, so did the practice of venerating the saints. </p>
<p>The demands for a saintly “body” increased, and so the remains of famous or local saints were divided into pieces, which included clippings of hair, or sometimes whole body parts. These “relics” – from a <a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/relic">Latin word meaning</a> “something left behind” – were frequently placed in special containers or display cases, called reliquaries. </p>
<p>These were usually especially elaborate, <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/relc/hd_relc.htm">made of precious metals and adorned with jewels</a> as a reflection of the special reverence for these elements that had touched the body of Jesus Christ. </p>
<p>The more famous the relic, the more pilgrims would make their way to the church or monastery where it was kept, and the more the clergy <a href="https://blog.oup.com/2011/12/pilgrimage/">could earn through the offerings visitors made at the shrine</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461047/original/file-20220503-6157-f74bu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Devotees carrying the relic of Saint Gregory, in a procession through green fields in Sorlada, northern Spain." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461047/original/file-20220503-6157-f74bu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461047/original/file-20220503-6157-f74bu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461047/original/file-20220503-6157-f74bu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461047/original/file-20220503-6157-f74bu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461047/original/file-20220503-6157-f74bu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461047/original/file-20220503-6157-f74bu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461047/original/file-20220503-6157-f74bu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Devotees take part in a pilgrimage with the ancient relic of Saint Gregory in Sorlada, northern Spain, in 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/APTOPIXSpainSaintGregoryRomeria/d248fee6cfd940b3bb75fff0dd695869/photo?Query=%20relic%20pilgrimage&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=27&currentItemNo=20">AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By the turn of the millennium, the number of pilgrims traveling to visit Jerusalem from Europe increased, but <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/story-of-christianity-volume-1-the-justo-l-gonzalez?variant=32130902097954">tensions mounted</a> between Muslim rulers and Christian leaders. There was friction among various Christian nobles and kings as well. Because of this, in the late 11th to the late 13th centuries, Christian political and religious leaders <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-history-of-the-cross-and-its-many-meanings-over-the-centuries-123316">led a series of major wars – the Crusades</a> – to regain control of the Holy Land from its Muslim ruler. </p>
<p>One result was an increase in the number of “relics” of Jesus, Mary and other New Testament figures brought back to Europe and circulated as authentic. </p>
<p>Some of these included fragments of bone or hair from apostles or other saintly figures, while others consisted of scraps of fabric from their clothing. Most esteemed of all were objects that <a href="https://www.medievalists.net/2016/04/crusaders-pilgrims-and-relics-bearers-of-the-cross-material-religion-in-the-crusading-world-1095-1300/#:">supposedly had touched the body of Jesus himself</a>, especially those connected with his suffering and death, such as the spikes used to nail him to the cross.</p>
<h2>Power of relics</h2>
<p>By the end of the medieval period, there was an overwhelming number of stories associating relics with miracles, such as unexpected healings or protection from the dangers of weather. </p>
<p>Many ordinary Christians treated the relics as a kind of lucky rabbit’s foot, owned or reverenced for personal protection. This was true for relics of the true cross as well. In Venice, for example, several <a href="https://brewminate.com/medieval-relics-and-society-the-miracles-of-the-true-cross/">miracle stories of the true cross</a>, especially of it saving ships from storms, circulated widely.</p>
<p>During the Reformation of the 16th century, many European Protestant writers objected to the Catholic veneration of relics. Most felt that it was a practice not found in the Bible; others felt that many believers were worshipping saints as if they were divine, and that many devotional practices involving relics involved fraud and superstition, not genuine prayer. The Protestant theologian John Calvin <a href="https://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/treatise_relics.v.html">suggested</a> that if all of the supposed fragments of the “True Cross” were gathered together, they would fill an entire ship. </p>
<p>Even some Catholic scholars of the period, notably Erasmus of Rotterdam, <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/30201/30201-h/30201-h.htm">criticized the fraudulent manipulation of believers</a> for cash offerings when visiting shrines, and questioned the authenticity of many relics. </p>
<p>In 1563, the Catholic Council of Trent responded to all of these criticisms by clarifying the Catholic view of relics in an official decree. In the document, the assembled bishops stressed that <a href="https://history.hanover.edu/texts/trent/ct25.html">devotional activities involving relics should not border on superstition</a> in any way, that “filthy lucre” – buying and selling of relics – be “abolished” and that veneration ceremonies not devolve into “revellings and drunkenness.”</p>
<h2>What makes a relic more precious</h2>
<p>Until very recently, Catholic tradition divided relics into several classes, depending on their relationship to Christ or the saints. A <a href="https://www.scripturecatholic.com/catholic-relics/#First_Class_Relics">first-class relic</a> was a fragment of a saint’s actual body, like a tooth, hair clipping, or sliver of bone.</p>
<p>Pieces of objects involved in the Passion of Christ were also included in this class, since traditional theology teaches that Jesus Christ <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2024%3A1-12&version=NRSV">rose again from the dead after three days in the tomb</a> and ascended bodily into heaven 40 days after. </p>
<p>Whether prized as a lucky charm or venerated as a powerful reminder of the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, this Russian relic of the true cross has taken its place in the paradoxical history of these valuable religious objects: The peaceful message of Jesus has often been lost in the violent chaos of war.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanne M. Pierce does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Relics often provided a way to bring more pilgrims into a church – and therefore, more offerings.Joanne M. Pierce, Professor Emerita of Religious Studies, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1434202020-09-25T12:24:50Z2020-09-25T12:24:50ZSacred violence is not yet ancient history – beating it will take human action, not divine intervention<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359633/original/file-20200923-18-1l3rzje.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5660%2C3810&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pope Urban II giving marching orders ahead of the First Crusade.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pope-urban-ii-preaching-the-first-crusade-in-the-square-of-news-photo/903375550?adppopup=true">Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Along with their swastikas borrowed from Nazi Germany, white supremacists marching in the U.S. and elsewhere have <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/local/charlottesville-videos/">in recent years</a> displayed <a href="https://time.com/5696546/far-right-history-crusades/">crosses embellished with the Latin phrase “Deus Vult</a>” – “God wills it.” Taken from the medieval crusades, the slogan’s <a href="https://www.history.com/news/how-hate-groups-are-hijacking-medieval-symbols-while-ignoring-the-facts-behind-them">misappropriation</a> by today’s far right seeks to cloak violent ideology in religious justifications. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=r5bf0-IAAAAJ&hl=en">professor of medieval history</a>, I know this phenomenon is nothing new. I have amassed an arsenal of examples of the <a href="https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/holy-violence-then-and-now">holy violence</a> that ancient and medieval people believed God encouraged them to commit. In my seminar on sacred violence, my students and I also consider modern instances of violence that gets sanctified even absent a religious frame. </p>
<h2>The violence of yore</h2>
<p>In the Judeo-Christian tradition, God played the part of an authorizing agent, <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/sanctified-aggression-9780567112774/">encouraging hurtful and aggressive acts</a>. In the Bible, God demanded that Abraham show obedience by <a href="https://bibleproject.com/blog/why-did-god-ask-abraham-to-sacrifice-isaac/">killing his son Isaac</a>. </p>
<p>Moses followed God’s instructions in <a href="http://www.land-of-the-bible.com/Israel_Ancient_Enemies_Part_I">annihilating external enemies</a>, such as when the pharoah’s army drowned in the Red Sea, and <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/esv/numbers/15/32-36">smashing internal dissent</a> – for instance, by stoning to death a man who gathered sticks on the Sabbath, a day reserved for rest. </p>
<p>According to the Hebrew Bible, Moses’ successor Joshua followed God’s command in destroying the ancient city of <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/article/951/early-jericho/">Jericho</a>, home to the Israelites’ enemies the Canaanites. Every man, woman and child was killed in the process. </p>
<p>Perpetrators of medieval violence similarly deemed God a co-conspirator. It was in 1095 that the crowd assembled in Clermont, modern-day France, shouted “God wills it” as they listened to <a href="https://www.history.co.uk/this-day-in-history/27-november/pope-urban-ii-orders-the-first-crusades">Pope Urban II’s speech</a>.</p>
<p>Even if shared by warmongers across centuries, the slogan in itself is not proof of divine motivations. The first waves of those who followed Urban’s call were motivated more by greed than heavenly zeal and never got around to retaking the Holy Land. Instead, they stole food and money in the German Rhineland, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/medieval-concepts-of-the-past/rhineland-massacres-of-jews-in-the-first-crusade-memories-medieval-and-modern/A20AC5B7F948CB580B36411C9FDBCF5F">slaughtered Jews in Mainz and Cologne</a>, then went back home.</p>
<h2>Transgressed boundaries</h2>
<p>Modern scholars recognize that many biblical, medieval and modern narratives of violence cloak human agency in divinizing propaganda. They have looked for explanations that make humans rather than God the chief agents of sanctimonious harm. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359609/original/file-20200923-16-12er1qw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359609/original/file-20200923-16-12er1qw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359609/original/file-20200923-16-12er1qw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359609/original/file-20200923-16-12er1qw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359609/original/file-20200923-16-12er1qw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359609/original/file-20200923-16-12er1qw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359609/original/file-20200923-16-12er1qw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A crusader cross on display at a rally by the racist Pegida movement in Germany.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/cross-with-quot-deus-vult-quot-is-seen-in-the-picture-quot-news-photo/918877342?adppopup=true">Alexander Pohl/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In his 1972 book “<a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/violence-and-sacred">Violence and the Sacred</a>,” French historian and philosopher René Girard observed that when a society’s sense of order breaks down, its leaders often look for a scapegoat, someone to blame. After harming or even executing the scapegoat, the society can create <a href="http://girardianlectionary.net/res/atonement_webpage.htm">myths of atonement</a> that sanctify social structures.</p>
<p>Even if Girard’s theory seems to fit some ancient God-centered societies – for example, the crucifixion of Jesus as an early Christian sacrificial atonement – better than modern secular ones, he made an important realization: Societies use violence to construct, renew and sanctify their self-image.</p>
<p>British anthropologist <a href="https://www.giffordlectures.org/lecturers/mary-douglas">Mary Douglas</a> explained sacred violence not as a tool for achieving social stability but as an outcome of the rules that separate good from bad, insiders from outsiders or pure from impure. Her formulation starts with the ancient Jewish text, the Torah, but it ends in insights about modernity.</p>
<p>Douglas uses the example of the ancient Israelites taking pork off the menu, making it a forbidden food. In prohibiting pork, they followed rules established in Leviticus, the third book of the Torah. Academics do not find convincing the <a href="https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/8846735">diverse religious, biomedical and other explanations</a> for the prohibition. Some rabbinical and Talmudic scholars who agree that the rule seems arbitrary, fall back on the most straightforward of irrational justifications: “God says so.” </p>
<p>But Douglas suggested in her 1966 book “<a href="https://www.routledge.com/Purity-and-Danger-An-Analysis-of-Concepts-of-Pollution-and-Taboo/Douglas/p/book/9780415289955">Purity and Danger</a>” that the pork prohibition was not meant to explain the world. It was meant to divide. It is a boundary marker distinguishing Jews from Romans and others who consumed pork.</p>
<p>As Douglas saw it, societies, not gods, manage and distribute power through the rules and boundaries they make. Humans set the social limits and then determine which boundary transgressions will be sanctioned or punished.</p>
<p>On the face of it, aversion to pork may appear to have little to do with violence, but all boundary markers – especially those defending a <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170711220512.htm">holier-than-thou identity</a> – imply violence against those who cross the boundaries.</p>
<h2>Sanctifying violence</h2>
<p>Following Douglas’ insights, researchers have seen violence doing the work of protecting sanctified boundaries in many places and periods. For instance, in 14th-century Catalonia, where Christians, Jews and Muslims lived in close proximity, the most dangerous boundary was sex. Miscegenation was often <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691165769/communities-of-violence">punished by death</a>. </p>
<p>In 15th-century Valencia, slavery operated along religious lines – Christians could own Muslims as slaves but not other Christians, and vice versa. Slavery got racialized a few centuries later, when white Europeans and Americans sacrificed Christian teachings about love of others on the altar of economic and cultural advantage. </p>
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<p>By the end of the U.S. Civil War, after <a href="https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=40">the 13th Amendment abolished legal slavery</a>, white Southern elites established new boundaries and <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/freedom-riders-jim-crow-laws/">new ways to discriminate</a> that had little to do with religious divides, since Christianity predominated among both white and Black Americans at that time.</p>
<p>In this way, all societies, whether ancient or modern, religious or secular, produce written and unwritten rules that wrap violence in a religious “How God wants things done” or secular “how we do things here” normalcy. </p>
<h2>Today’s violence is tomorrow’s wrong</h2>
<p>The news is not all bad. Individuals and societies can <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/12/why-human-society-isn-t-more-or-less-violent-past">learn to shake their violent dispositions</a>. </p>
<p>Violence that was once given biblical sanction – the kidnap of a woman, murder of a man or the annihilation of a community –- is now mostly condemned and punished as criminal behavior. Similarly, racism and other current forms of structural violence are under attack. Even beneficiaries of a racist past admit that it is no longer worth defending because the social costs have grown <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/09/15/racism-public-health-crisis/">too high</a>.</p>
<p>The biblical parable of <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2010%3A25-37&version=NIV">the Good Samaritan</a> is instructive here. In the story, a man is robbed and left at the side of the road, beaten and half-dead. Two members of the Jewish ruling elite deliberately ignore the man and walk past. Only the Samaritan, a member of a socially marginalized group, shows enough compassion to stop and give aid. Having felt the pain of social denigration, he sees what the others do not. </p>
<p>It is evident that societies can grow less violent, although slowness and reversals are common. But social change happens only when individuals take a few steps. The first is to refuse to ignore pain when it is in plain sight. Doing so helps to develop an awareness of the harm done by the sanctified status quo. The final step is to take a positive action, even a simple one, to make things better.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143420/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael A. Vargas has received funding from The Commission for Cultural, Educational, and Scientific Exchange Between the United States and Spain (Fulbright); the New York State/United University Professions Joint Labor-Management Committees -- Dr. Nuala McGann Drescher Leave Program; and the State University of New York at New Paltz</span></em></p>From the crusades of the medieval period to racial violence today, mankind has sought ways to ‘sanctify’ harmful actions, explains a scholar of religion.Michael A. Vargas, Professor of History, State University of New York at New PaltzLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1430842020-07-24T12:28:55Z2020-07-24T12:28:55ZWhy Hagia Sophia remains a potent symbol of spiritual and political authority<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349418/original/file-20200724-33-1y01ajj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=243%2C29%2C4647%2C3245&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The first Muslim prayers were held on Friday inside the Hagia Sophia in 86 years.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-Turkey-Hagia-Sophia/f4660c89a4ff45f0bb0c55da84da3ef2/3/0">AP Photo/Yasin Akgul</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since its origins in the sixth century A.D, the <a href="https://muze.gen.tr/muze-detay/ayasofya">Hagia Sophia</a> has served as a church, a mosque, and, since 1934, a museum. But on July 10, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/world/europe/hagia-sophia-erdogan.html">Turkish government declared</a> that from now on it would serve as a mosque and be open for all visitors when not in use for the five daily prayers. </p>
<p>The first “namaz,” or the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0Ybhk9ZcQ0">Muslim prayer</a>, to take place under the building’s <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hagia_Sophia_(228968325).jpeg">soaring dome</a> in 86 years was held on July 24. </p>
<p>The move to change the status of one of Istanbul’s most recognizable landmarks has drawn strong reactions.</p>
<p>It is worth considering why so many have, for so long, cared so much about the fate of the Hagia Sophia as responses <a href="https://english.alresalah.ps/new/post.php?id=6910&t=Hamas-lauds-Turkish-decision-to-reopen-Ayasofya-Mosque">praising</a> and <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-13/eu-urges-turkey-to-reverse-hagia-sophia-reconversion-plan">condemning</a> the decision have come in from around the world. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://religiousstudies.stanford.edu/people/anna-bigelow">scholar</a> specializing in Islam, I have studied the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jaar/article-abstract/87/3/725/5538806?redirectedFrom=fulltext">power of sacred spaces</a>, <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/istanbul/9780813589091">including the Hagia Sophia</a>, to unify and divide communities. </p>
<p>For almost a millennium and a half Hagia Sophia has embodied both possibilities. </p>
<h2>A sixth century cathedral</h2>
<p>Built in the sixth century by the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Justinian-I">Byzantine Emperor Justinian</a>, this marvel of architecture and aesthetics was never just a religious enterprise. </p>
<p>The emperor needed a spectacular means of <a href="http://www.byzconf.org/nika-revolts/">establishing his authority</a> and quelling <a href="http://www.bauhanpublishing.com/shop/saint-sophia-at-constantinople/">internal rebellions</a> that threatened his rule. </p>
<p>Justinian, called “the builder of the world” by his chronicler <a href="https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/books/id/53419/">Procopius</a>, hoped the monument – a cathedral – would help establish his political domain and unify <a href="https://ehrmanblog.org/tag/christology/">a fractious Christian church</a> divided by theology and competing regional power bases. </p>
<p>Only a great ruler could build such an edifice, and only a great empire could sustain it.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348034/original/file-20200716-37-xxffi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348034/original/file-20200716-37-xxffi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348034/original/file-20200716-37-xxffi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348034/original/file-20200716-37-xxffi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348034/original/file-20200716-37-xxffi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348034/original/file-20200716-37-xxffi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348034/original/file-20200716-37-xxffi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Byzantine mosaic of Jesus Christ in Hagia Sophia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/byzantine-mosaic-of-jesus-christ-in-hagia-sophia-royalty-free-image/691350146?adppopup=true">nikolaradic/iStock / Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The Ottoman conquest</h2>
<p>The first shift in the building’s identity occurred during the <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/%7Egrout/encyclopaedia_romana/circusmaximus/sack.html">Fourth Crusade</a>. Frankish holy warriors occupied Constantinople from 1204 to 1261, looting the Hagia Sophia of its many treasures. </p>
<p>By that time the Eastern Orthodox church based in Constantinople and the Western Catholic church based in Rome had <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-28/1054-east-west-schism.html">broken apart</a> in the great schism of 1054 A.D. After the Byzantine reconquest of Constantinople, it <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/gnecipoglu/files/hagia_sophia.pdf">took some convincing</a> for the population to return to the cathedral that had been despoiled by the crusaders.</p>
<p>The next major shift occurred almost 200 years later with the Ottoman conquest in 1453 A.D. that saw Constantinople renamed as Istanbul and Hagia Sofia converted into a mosque. Sultan <a href="http://www.theottomans.org/english/campaigns_army/Mehmed-the-Conqueror.asp">Mehmed II</a>, who lived from 1432 to 1481 A.D., established an endowment in perpetuity providing the Hagia Sophia mosque with the necessary support and staff. At the same time, he <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/gnecipoglu/files/hagia_sophia.pdf">encouraged his Muslim subjects</a> to pray there. </p>
<p>After the conversion, an alcove facing Mecca, known as the “<a href="https://www.needpix.com/photo/1089580/hagia-sofia-reading-church-mosque-library-architecture-turkey-istanbul">mihrab</a>” was added, making it possible for Muslims to know the proper orientation for the five time daily prayers. </p>
<p>A pulpit or “<a href="https://www.pxfuel.com/en/free-photo-xezll">minbar</a>” for giving the Friday sermon was also installed. Eventually <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Interior_of_Hagia_sophia.JPG">calligraphic medallions</a> of the names of God, Muhammad, and the first four caliphs of Islam, were added to this monument. </p>
<p>The many mosaics of Christian figures such as <a href="https://www.pikist.com/free-photo-iraqg">Jesus</a>, <a href="https://www.pxfuel.com/en/free-photo-oempc">Mary</a>, the apostles and saints, as well as <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Comnenus_mosaics_Hagia_Sophia.jpg">various Byzantine rulers</a> were mostly left intact and not completely plastered over until the 1840s when Sultan Abdülmecid II hired the Italian <a href="http://www.turkishculture.org/architecture/architects/the-fossati-brothers-959.htm">Fossati Brothers</a> to renovate and restore the building. </p>
<p>At that time, many cracks were repaired in the dome, a new platform for the sultan’s prayer space was built, and the mosaics were cleaned. Though <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/gnecipoglu/files/hagia_sophia.pdf">initially the sultan preferred to have them on display</a>, religious sensibilities that objected to praying in the direction of human images meant that the mosaics with such depictions were plastered over, even as they were preserved.</p>
<h2>Symbol of secularism</h2>
<p>After the demise of the Ottomans in the early 20th century, the new Republic of Turkey, founded on <a href="http://www.hri.org/docs/turkey/part_i.html#article_2">secular principles</a> and seeking legitimacy in international institutions, renovated the Hagia Sophia as a museum. </p>
<p>The founder and leader of the new Turkish Republic, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/ataturk_kemal.shtml">Mustafa Kemal Atatürk</a> promoted <a href="https://sites.psu.edu/global/2018/02/08/mustafa-kemal-ataturk-and-his-reforms/">numerous projects to minimize the public role of religion</a> in society, from changing the script of the language from Arabic to Roman to outlawing public displays of religiously marked clothing. He also banned the popular and powerful Sufi mystical orders such as the <a href="https://sufism.org/origins/mevlevi/the-mevlevi-order-2">Mevlevis</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bektashi">Bektashis</a>. </p>
<p>Turning the Hagia Sophia into a museum demonstrated that the building’s composite history could exemplify the power of secular modernity. This involved <a href="https://www.doaks.org/newsletter/hagia-sophias-hidden-history">restoration of the structure</a>, removal of the plasters over the mosaics, and, eventually, adding a gift shop and ticket booth. </p>
<p>At its peak, <a href="https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/hagia-sophia-visitors-to-reach-three-million-threshold-in-2019-147818">3 million people a year</a> passed through the complex with foreign visitors paying the equivalent of US$10 to enter; Turkish nationals could visit at reduced rates. </p>
<p>The Turkish government has said <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-hagiasophia-erdogan/hagia-sophia-mosaics-will-be-covered-with-curtains-during-prayers-turkish-presidential-spokesman-idUSKCN24K0OS">it will make few changes</a> to the building after its conversion into a mosque, though curtains will cover the mosaics depicting Christian divine and saintly figures that are visible to those offering the Muslim prayers. After the prayers are completed, the curtains can be removed so visitors can see them. </p>
<p>There will no <a href="https://www.iletisim.gov.tr/english/haberler/detay/presidential-decree-on-the-opening-of-hagia-sophia-to-worship-promulgated-on-the-official-gazette-of-the-republic-of-turkey">longer be a fee</a> for anyone to enter the Hagia Sophia.</p>
<h2>Contested territory</h2>
<p>Every time the Hagia Sophia has transformed over the last 1,500 years, the change has been incomplete and contested in some way. </p>
<p>Even before these developments, proponents of the church <a href="https://www.pallasweb.com/deesis/hagiasophia.html">set up</a> <a href="http://www.new-byzantium.org/KrkstsCnstpl.html">websites</a> with <a href="https://www.pallasweb.com/deesis/hagiasophia.html">images of the minarets erased</a> and a cross reinstalled on the crest of the dome. These advocates hoped to restore the <a href="http://www.new-byzantium.org/newbyz.html">lost Byzantine Empire</a>.</p>
<p>There are also those who desire to <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/new-perspectives-on-turkey/article/between-neoottomanism-and-ottomania-navigating-stateled-and-popular-cultural-representations-of-the-past/E4D2845778365100F7D975926673D89A/core-reader">bring back</a> a <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2020-01-02/turkey-seeking-neo-ottoman-empire">new Ottoman Empire</a>. Advocates for the mosque argue that the conversion to a museum was <a href="https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkeys-nationalist-party-seeks-prayers-in-the-hagia-sophia-57632">illegitimate</a> as the change was never published in Turkey’s <a href="https://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/">Official Gazette</a> – a requirement to register any official act.</p>
<p>For some Muslims, the Hagia Sophia was always linked to Islam. <a href="https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/the-many-legends-of-the-hagia-sophia-72796">Legend</a> has it that when the dome collapsed in the late sixth century it coincided with the birth of Islam’s prophet, Muhammad, and was only reparable with the addition of his saliva to the cement. </p>
<h2>Changes over the years</h2>
<p>The desire of some Turkish Muslims to pray in the Hagia Sophia was partially realized in the early 1990s when a <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/search-list?contributor=anna-bigelow">prayer space was opened</a> in a passageway through a minaret. </p>
<p>Over the years considerable resources were invested in improving and decorating this space, which also housed the office of the Hagia Sophia’s prayer leader, or an Imam, a position supported by Sultan Mehmet’s original endowment. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348032/original/file-20200716-33-1csdj18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348032/original/file-20200716-33-1csdj18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348032/original/file-20200716-33-1csdj18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348032/original/file-20200716-33-1csdj18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348032/original/file-20200716-33-1csdj18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348032/original/file-20200716-33-1csdj18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348032/original/file-20200716-33-1csdj18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Muslims offer their evening prayers outside the Hagia Sophia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Turkey-Hagia-Sofia/3ecc7a0f83634c11aaf9c1b0ec984dc4/18/0">AP Photo/Emrah Gurel</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/morning-prayer-held-before-hagia-sophia-to-demand-re-conversion-into-mosque--83229">Enormous crowds have gathered annually</a> on May 31, the anniversary of the Ottoman conquest, to pray in the streets and plazas outside the Hagia Sophia. <a href="https://www.christiantimes.com/article/greece-slams-turkey-for-using-christian-basilica-site-for-quran-reading-during-ramadan/56777.htm">Quran recitations</a> and <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/2015/06/12/battle-over-hagia-sophia-338091.html">calligraphy exhibitions</a> have been held in the building as well. </p>
<p>As recently as March 2019, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had <a href="https://www.trtworld.com/turkey/we-know-what-to-do-erdogan-on-demands-to-open-hagia-sophia-for-prayers-25011">expressed opposition</a> to the change, but the groundswell that came to fruition in 2020 has been long underway.</p>
<h2>A potent symbol</h2>
<p>There are many Turkish citizens, both <a href="https://sat7.org/post/turkey-a-unique-and-valuable-christian-heritage">non-Muslim</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/20/opinion/hagia-sophia-mosque.html">Muslim</a>, who are opposed to these developments. These include Turkey’s Christians who form <a href="https://theconversation.com/christians-have-lived-in-turkey-for-two-millennia-but-their-future-is-uncertain-127296">0.5% of the population</a>. However, they have little recourse.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Following the decision to reconvert the monument to a mosque, the UN’s cultural heritage organization UNESCO said in a statement that it “<a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/07/1068151">deeply regrets</a>” the move. Christian leaders too have stated that they are “<a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-07/angelus-pope-remembers-seafarers.html">are very saddened</a>” by the “<a href="https://www.goarch.org/-/fourth-ecumenical-council-homily-2020">regrettable and lamentable</a>” change. </p>
<p>Governments including <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-museum-verdict-greece/greece-condemns-turkeys-decision-to-convert-hagia-sophia-into-mosque-idUSKBN24B2UF">Greece</a> and the <a href="https://www.uscirf.gov/news-room/press-releases/turkey-statement-hagia-sophia">United States</a> have lodged their objections. </p>
<p>This disquiet over the change in its status is a reminder that as a potent symbol of authority, the Hagia Sophia has shifted identity with every change in power and will likely continue to do so.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143084/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Bigelow received funding from the Carnegie Scholars Program and the American Academy of Religion. </span></em></p>The first Muslim prayer in 86 years was held on July 24 inside Hagia Sophia, recently reconverted to a mosque. For over a millennium, this grand monument has wielded enormous power.Anna Bigelow, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Stanford UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1285822019-12-23T11:22:19Z2019-12-23T11:22:19ZKnights Templar: still loved by conspiracy theorists 900 years on<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307908/original/file-20191219-11914-oq0e7v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C0%2C2995%2C1974&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Conny Skogberg via Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Christmas Day, 1119, the king of Jerusalem, Baldwin II persuaded a group of French knights led by Hugh de Payne to save their souls by protecting pilgrims travelling the Holy Land. And so the <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/8580437/Who-were-the-Knights-Templar.html">Order of the Knights Templar was formed</a>.</p>
<p>This revolutionary order of knights lived as monks and took vows of poverty and chastity, but these were monks with a difference – they would take up arms as knights to protect the civilians using the dangerous roads of the newly conquered Kingdom of Jerusalem. From these humble beginnings, the order would grow to become one of the premier Christian military forces of the Crusades. </p>
<p>Over the next 900 years, these warrior monks would become associated with the Holy Grail, the Freemasons and the occult. But are any of these associations true, or are they just baseless myth? </p>
<p>The Crusades <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/middle-ages/crusades">ended in 1291</a> after the Christian capital of Acre <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/2018/05/the-siege-of-acre-a-monstrous-blot-on-the-third-crusade/">fell to the Mameluke forces of Egypt</a> and the Templars found themselves redundant. Despite their wealth and European holdings, their reason for existence had been to wage war in defence of the Holy Land. </p>
<p>But the French king Philip IV was in debt to the Templar order and, with the Holy land lost, he capitalised on their vulnerability and had the Templars <a href="https://history.info/on-this-day/1307-knights-templar-arrested-on-friday-13th/">arrested in France on Friday October 13, 1307</a> in a dawn raid on their Paris Temple and residences. In 1312, the order was abolished by papal decree and in 1314 the last grand-master, Jacque de Molay, was burned at the stake in Paris with three other Templars. With the order destroyed, any surviving former members joined other orders or monasteries. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307897/original/file-20191219-11900-wdehuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307897/original/file-20191219-11900-wdehuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307897/original/file-20191219-11900-wdehuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307897/original/file-20191219-11900-wdehuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307897/original/file-20191219-11900-wdehuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307897/original/file-20191219-11900-wdehuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307897/original/file-20191219-11900-wdehuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Execution of Jacques de Molay in Paris, March 1314.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Giovanni Villani, Nuova Cronica - ms. Chigiano L VIII 296 - Biblioteca Vaticana</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite the arrests and charges of heresy being laid against the order, a document known as the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7044741.stm">Chinon Parchment</a> was found in 2001 in the Vatican’s archives which documents that the Templars were, in fact, exonerated by the Catholic Church in 1312. But, despite clearing them of heresy, Pope Clement ordered that they be disbanded. </p>
<h2>Appropriation of a legend</h2>
<p>The suppression of the Templars meant that there was nobody to safeguard their legacy. Since then, the order has been appropriated by other organisations – most notably as ancestors to the Masonic order in the 18th century and, more recently, by right-wing extremist groups such as the Knights Templar-UK and mass-murdering terrorist <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2012/0418/Why-does-Norway-s-Breivik-invoke-the-Knights-Templar">Anders Behring Breivik</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/alt-right-claims-to-march-in-step-with-the-knights-templar-this-is-fake-history-88103">Alt-right claims to march in step with the Knights Templar – this is fake history</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The Knights Templar’s association with Freemasonry is not so much a myth as it was a marketing campaign by 18th-century Freemasons to appeal to the aristocracy. Historian Frank Sanello <a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-87833-302-8">explained in his 2003 book</a>, The Knights Templars: God’s Warriors, the Devil’s Bankers, that initially it was <a href="https://chevalierramsay.be/chevalier-andrew-ramsay/">Andrew Ramsey</a>, a senior French Freemason of the era, who first made the link between the Freemasons and the Crusader knights. </p>
<p>But he originally claimed the Freemasons were descended from the crusading Order of the Knight Hospitaller. Of course, the Hospitallers were still operational, unlike the Knight Templar, so Ramsey quickly changed his claim to the Templars being the Freemasons’ crusading ancestry.</p>
<p>The Knights Templar had actually been mythologised in popular culture as early as the 13th century in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Parzival-epic-poem-by-Wolfram-von-Eschenbach">Grail epic Parzival</a> by German knight and poet Wolfram von Eschenbach. In this Grail epic, the Knights Templar were included in the story as the guardians of the Grail. After the order’s sudden fall, these warrior monks became associated with conspiracies and the occult. </p>
<p>For some, a mystery still surrounds the fate of the Templar fortune (which was in reality seized by Phillip IV, with the majority of their property redistributed to the Hospitallers) and the Templar confessions (extracted under torture) to worshipping an idol dubbed Baphomet. The link between the Templars and the occult would resurface again in the 16th century in Henry Agrippa’s book <a href="http://www.esotericarchives.com/agrippa/agrippa1.htm">De Occulta Philosophia</a>.</p>
<h2>Modern-day myth</h2>
<p>Modern fiction continues to draw upon the widespread mysteries and fanciful theories. These mythical associations are key themes for many popular works of fiction, such as Dan Brown’s <a href="https://danbrown.com/the-davinci-code/">The Da Vinci Code</a> in which the Templars guard the Grail. The Templar myth has also found its way into the digital gaming format in the globally successful <a href="https://www.ubisoft.com/en-gb/franchise/assassins-creed">Assassin’s Creed franchise</a>, in which the player must assassinate a villainous Templar.</p>
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<p>Nine centuries after they were formed, the Templars remain the most iconic and infamous order of knights from the Crusades. The Templar legacy has grown beyond their medieval military role and the name has become synonymous with the occult, conspiracies, the Holy Grail and the Freemasons. But these are all false narratives – fantastical, but misleading. </p>
<p>The real legacy of the Templars remains with the Portuguese Order of Knights, <em>Ordem dos Cavaleiros de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo</em>(<a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03698b.htm">Order of the Knights of Jesus Christ</a>). This order was created by King Diniz in 1319 with Papal permission due to the prominent role the Templars played in establishing the kingdom of Portugal. The new knighthood even moved into the Templars’ former headquarters at Tomar. </p>
<p>For historian Micheal Haag, this new order “was the Templars under another name” – but it pledged obedience to the king of Portugal and not the Pope like their Templar predecessors. </p>
<p>And so the essence of the Templar’s successors still exists today as a Portuguese order of merit for outstanding service – and the Templar myth continues to provide a rich source of inspiration for artistic endeavours.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128582/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick Masters does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Founded on Christmas Day 1119 and disbanded in 1307, this religious order has been misunderstood ever since.Patrick Masters, Lecturer in Film Studies, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1123912019-10-10T12:46:10Z2019-10-10T12:46:10ZWhy ending the secrecy of ‘confession’ is so controversial for the Catholic Church<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296086/original/file-20191008-128661-m7huk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In Catholic understanding, Jesus gave his disciples the power to forgive sins.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/hernanpc/7454895152/in/photolist-cmLhB3-akXCE-ac2GYN-MMKwYn-njAJ1g-koCH3t-JBSquT-2cGWwkp-8dsxFa-nMkMTp-24hi6MX-o7jBJF-UAsNW9-6HVrWA-rmXab4-5HpQFb-5HpNK9-2tYVGw-ebeKyh-23E9wBw-4qn14h-2dJzSLL-CET7TW-9e3RK-9e3S3-vb8MX-3DAosV-xYEa4x-3DAzuV-ebeNGN-eb9bkZ-4AXPd-3DEYFS-ebePM3-eb99qv-ebeMUm-amVisU-eb98GP-488xQd-3JMJUr-484wv2-bC2GCt-3DATWe-bp7MXq-cZCD93-atcga-SRCx1C-fEUCKJ-5Lz8V-3GcyG">Hernán Piñera</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Following sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church, there is a worldwide push to end the guarantee of secrecy of confession – called “<a href="https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/religion-and-philosophy/catholic-faith/the-seal-of-the-confessional.html">the seal of the confessional</a>.”</p>
<p>On Sept. 11, 2019, two Australian states, Victoria and Tasmania, passed <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/laws-forcing-priests-to-report-child-abuse-passed-in-victorian-parliament-20190911-p52q1m.html">bills</a> requiring priests to report any child abuse revealed in the confessional. </p>
<p>Australia has been at the center of the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse crisis. In December 2018, influential Australian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/17/cardinal-george-pell-to-appeal-to-high-court-over-child-sexual-abuse-conviction">Cardinal George Pell</a> was <a href="https://theconversation.com/after-cardinal-pells-conviction-can-a-tradition-bound-church-become-more-accountable-112593">convicted</a> of sexually abusing an altar boy.</p>
<p>Australian bishops have, however, made it <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/church-digs-in-as-victoria-forces-disclosure-of-abuse-revealed-in-confession-20190813-p52gqd.html">clear</a> that the seal of confession is “<a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/accountability/australian-bishops-religious-say-seal-confession-sacred">sacred</a>,” regardless of the sin confessed. With regard to Tasmania’s new law, <a href="https://hobart.catholic.org.au/archbishop/biography/julian-c-porteous-biography">Archbishop Julian Porteous</a> argued that removing confession’s protection of confidentiality would stop pedophiles from coming forward. That would prevent <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-12/catholic-church-in-tasmania-to-snub-mandatary-sex-abuse-laws/11503024">priests from encouraging them to surrender to authorities</a>. </p>
<p>In the U.S., a California bill proposing ending priestly confidentiality regarding the abuse of minors was withdrawn in July 2019 after a <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2019/07/09/dangerous-california-bill-seal-confession-withdrawn-key-hearing">campaign</a> by Catholics and other religious freedom advocates. </p>
<p>Catholic confession has been <a href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/922/priest-penitent-privilege">formally safeguarded by the U.S. Supreme Court</a> since 1818. But therapists, doctors and a few other professionals are required to break confidentiality when there is an <a href="https://www.apa.org/ethics/code/">immediate threat of harm</a>. Priests are not.</p>
<p>Why is confession so important in the Catholic Church? </p>
<h2>The act of confession</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295896/original/file-20191007-121071-li5e3v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295896/original/file-20191007-121071-li5e3v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295896/original/file-20191007-121071-li5e3v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295896/original/file-20191007-121071-li5e3v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295896/original/file-20191007-121071-li5e3v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295896/original/file-20191007-121071-li5e3v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295896/original/file-20191007-121071-li5e3v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The guarantee of confidentiality of a confession in the Catholic Church cannot be easily broken.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-confessing-her-sins-confessor-kneeling-1300887244?src=MGxlZ5h1WrCnj9Exp4YOBA-1-7">GoneWithTheWind/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Catholics believe Jesus gave his disciples the power to forgive sins. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://biblehub.com/john/20-23.htm">John 20: 23</a>, Jesus says to his apostles, “If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” </p>
<p>This belief extends to priests in “<a href="http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/catechesis/catechetical-sunday/sacramental-forgiveness/teaching-aid-hilgartner.cfm">the rite of penance and reconciliation</a>.” </p>
<p>This ritual usually occurs in a “<a href="https://www.liturgybrisbane.net.au/learn/liturgy-lines/from-confession-box-to-reconciliation-room-2/">reconciliation room</a>.” It is in this private place that the priest, in his role as “confessor,” meets face to face with the “penitents” who will confess their sins. </p>
<p>After making <a href="https://www.loyolapress.com/our-catholic-faith/prayer/traditional-catholic-prayers/prayers-every-catholic-should-know/sign-of-the-cross">the sign of the cross</a> and welcoming the penitent, the priest reads a passage from the Bible that speaks of God’s mercy. The penitent then says, “Bless me Father for I have sinned” and recounts – out loud – the specific sins committed.</p>
<p>Afterwards, the priest may ask questions to make sure that the confession is thorough. He then gives “absolution” – a “release” from the guilt of sin. </p>
<p>Absolution is not automatic. The penitent must perform “<a href="https://www.catholic.org/prayers/prayer.php?p=43">an act of contrition</a>,” in which they say that they are “contrite” or sorry for their sins. The penitent also promises to do their best not to sin again. </p>
<p>Before dismissing the penitent, the priest gives a “penance” – usually in the form of prayers – that the penitent needs to perform to “reconcile” with God. </p>
<h2>History of penance and confession</h2>
<p>The present rite of penance and reconciliation dates from <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1974/02/07/archives/vatican-revises-sacrament-of-penance-vatican-revises-sacrament-of.html">1974</a>. This was almost a decade after a worldwide gathering of bishops at the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-catholic-church-resists-change-but-vatican-ii-shows-its-possible-102543">Second Vatican Council</a> that reformed many traditional Catholic practices. </p>
<p>In the centuries before the change, penance and confession were much more demanding.</p>
<p>In early Christianity, those who committed serious sins – like murder – publicly entered the “order of penitents.” These penitents underwent years of public prayer and fasting before rejoining the community. </p>
<p>Because it was so difficult to repeat the process for serious sins if committed again, many Christians waited until old age to perform penance and be assured their place in <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-heaven-97670">heaven</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295894/original/file-20191007-121060-1isen2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295894/original/file-20191007-121060-1isen2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=864&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295894/original/file-20191007-121060-1isen2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=864&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295894/original/file-20191007-121060-1isen2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=864&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295894/original/file-20191007-121060-1isen2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1086&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295894/original/file-20191007-121060-1isen2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1086&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295894/original/file-20191007-121060-1isen2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1086&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In early Christianity those who committed serious sins entered the ‘order of penitents.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/paullew/6915989767/in/photolist-9g2T72-bx9fNT-btbGoZ-2ed3MTe-akUamc-2fDYYfg-dZKp8u-5j2e8B-83ejL7-ntkKuf-26nswW2-8sRZ6Y-8sP9SV-7HWefG-374jRx-akXCE-QByB6R-8ZzkHx-jExkgX-hgR1iz-vb59F-ehyNCK-J94b3-pCHTLq-qvV5cc-oWQF1b-PQJNfp-rmXab4-9g4m7p-74tfRV-2eDb6p1-7hob2i-89UBFL-5HwZ1W-qHJ1fF-6nZsvX-JVJefB-hgRk37-aTg9Wp-7CpQZS-obXeeV-569wMG-AwmGsB-b4wQfM-6asAw8-5WqD1G-4nB1YA-2aioVzy-27ad44R-eh6iMm/">Lawrence OP</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Later, around the seventh century A.D., <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00062278.1982.10554351">confession became private</a>. “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/penitential-book">Penitential manuals</a>” were developed that listed penalties, or “tariffs,” to match the severity of the sin. </p>
<p>Some of the penances were severe, such as making a barefoot <a href="http://www.internationalschooltoulouse.net/vs/pilgrims/motive.htm">pilgrimage</a> to a distant holy place or walking to church on one’s knees. From the 11th century onward, going on Crusade to the Middle East – the Holy Land – was also considered a <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300101287/crusades">penance</a> that could erase a person’s sins.</p>
<p>Some of the penances given in the manuals were so strict that local bishops <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00062278.1982.10554351">often lessened</a> the penalties. Sinners also had the option to <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=k85JKr1OXcQC&pg=PA1135&lpg=PA1135&dq=tariff+penance&source=bl&ots=34J5SPLap9&sig=ACfU3U2b0QCy4u1y_jIOj-12pvHqnuB39g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi9gqm69vnkAhVP0KwKHRfMDiEQ6AEwDXoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=tariff%20penance&f=false">pay someone else</a> to do their penance. </p>
<p>For these reasons, penance gradually emphasized the basic act of confession itself, and prayers took the place of harsher penalties.</p>
<h2>The importance of confession</h2>
<p>Today, confession is still associated with the older process of going to a confession box and listing one’s sins anonymously from behind a screen. </p>
<p>That was my first experience of penance in the 1970s as a seven-year-old Catholic boy. I was also taught that I could not receive the bread and wine of <a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p2s2c1a3.htm">communion</a> without confessing my sins. This teaching still remains in force.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://cara.georgetown.edu/reconciliation.pdf">recent years</a>, though, <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2015/09/02/chapter-2-participation-in-catholic-rites-and-observances/">confession has declined</a>. Fewer American Catholics are going to confess their sins. Some commentators have even argued that confession has “<a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2014/02/16/catholic-confession-steep-price/NbMVFfYljv26Gcphu17yPJ/story.html">collapsed</a>” and should be rethought. </p>
<p>But regardless of how frequently Catholics go to confession, the freedom to confess – in confidence – is central to the Catholic worldview. And all Catholics of my generation have a confession story – a story that can be either comforting or traumatic.</p>
<p>The debate over confession isn’t just an abstract issue for Catholics. It’s something very personal.</p>
<p>But for me, as well as for many Catholics, confession is not simply a way of avoiding <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-hell-94560">hell</a> in the hereafter – it’s a way experiencing <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-true-meaning-of-mercy-72461">God’s merciful love</a> in the here and now.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112391/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mathew Schmalz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Following the sexual abuse scandals, there is a push to force the Catholic Church to compromise the confidentiality of the confessional. A Catholic scholar explains why confession is so important.Mathew Schmalz, Professor of Religious Studies, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1233162019-09-26T11:22:32Z2019-09-26T11:22:32ZThe history of the cross and its many meanings over the centuries<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293888/original/file-20190924-51405-1mrrxu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"> A procession of Christian girls, venerating the Cross, in the village of Qanat Bekish, Lebanon.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Mideast-Lebanon-Cross/161bf78b0fd54388a1ebb7ce7f3a9e3d/30/0">AP Photo/Hussein Malla</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the fall, Catholics and some other Christian churches celebrate the <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/the-exaltation-of-the-holy-cross-594">Feast of the Holy Cross</a>. With the feast, Christians commemorate Jesus Christ’s life, especially his salvific death on the cross and his later Resurrection, believing this offers them the promise of forgiveness and eternal life.</p>
<p>The feast has its roots in late antiquity, a time when the cross became an important part of Christian art and worship. The cross, once a shameful form of execution for criminals, has became a predominant symbol of Christ and Christianity.</p>
<p>However, the cross at times has also taken on darker meanings as a symbol of persecution, violence and even racism.</p>
<h2>The early cross</h2>
<p>As a <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=k85JKr1OXcQC&pg=PA297&dq=Joanne+Pierce+veneration&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiR0tGe9OfkAhWToFwKHb9OCAEQ6AEwAHoECAUQAg#v=onepage&q=Joanne%20Pierce%20veneration&f=false">scholar of medieval Christian history and worship</a>, I have studied this complicated history.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294165/original/file-20190925-51452-1ikunv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294165/original/file-20190925-51452-1ikunv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=682&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294165/original/file-20190925-51452-1ikunv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=682&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294165/original/file-20190925-51452-1ikunv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=682&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294165/original/file-20190925-51452-1ikunv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294165/original/file-20190925-51452-1ikunv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294165/original/file-20190925-51452-1ikunv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Second century pagan graffito depicting a man worshipping a crucified donkey-headed figure.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A famous piece of early-third century Roman wall art, the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=GfvWWJx9su0C&pg=PA125&lpg=PA125&dq=alexamenos+fidelis&source=bl&ots=Vy4j75PPbb&sig=ACfU3U0Ong3Ag1fz7tgukE-ZONA7TUF_Fw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjhosKjpsXkAhVSnKwKHSdwCGkQ6AEwEXoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=alexamenos%20fidelis&f=false">“Alexamenos graffito,”</a> depicts two human figures, with the head of a donkey, arms stretched out in a T-shaped cross, with the caption “Alexamenos worships his god.” </p>
<p>Christianity was outlawed at the time in the Roman Empire and criticized by some as a religion for fools. The caricature of <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/%7Egrout/encyclopaedia_romana/gladiators/graffito.html">“Alexamenos,”</a> offering prayers to this crucified figure was a way of depicting Christ with a donkey’s head and ridiculing his god. </p>
<p>But for Christians, the cross had deep meaning. They understood Christ’s death on the cross to be “completed” by God’s raising him from the dead three days later. This Resurrection was a sign of Christ’s “victory” over sin and death. </p>
<p>Believers could share in this victory by being baptized, forgiven of past sin and “reborn” into a new life in the Christian community, the church. Christians, then, frequently referred to the Christ’s cross both as the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=lf9aDgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=robin+jensen&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiUo_P5ldnkAhUEqZ4KHcUxB6gQ6AEwAXoECAAQAg#v=onepage&q=wood%20life&f=false">“wood of life”</a> and as a <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=RAxmJtxspQEC&pg=PA83&dq=victorious+cross+christ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjVsvnjltnkAhWIuZ4KHfuiDKsQ6AEwCHoECAAQAg#v=onepage&q=victorious%20cross%20christ&f=false">“victorious Cross.”</a> </p>
<h2>The true cross?</h2>
<p>In the early fourth century, Emperor Constantine <a href="https://www.biography.com/political-figure/constantine-i">legalized Christianity</a>. He authorized excavation of some of the holy sites of Christ’s life in what came to be called the “Holy Land.” At the time, it was part of the Roman province of Syria Palestina, bracketed by the Jordan River to the east, the Mediterranean Sea to the west and Syria to the north.</p>
<p>By the fifth century, the legend arose that pieces of crosses were <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=lf9aDgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=robin+jensen&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiUo_P5ldnkAhUEqZ4KHcUxB6gQ6AEwAXoECAAQAg#v=snippet&q=helena&f=false">uncovered by Constantine’s mother</a>, Helena, during these excavations. Believers said a miraculous healing took place when a sick woman was touched with one piece, proof that it was a section of the actual cross of Christ.</p>
<p>Constantine built a large church, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=lf9aDgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=robin+jensen&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiUo_P5ldnkAhUEqZ4KHcUxB6gQ6AEwAXoECAAQAg#v=onepage&q=martyrium&f=false">the Martyrium</a>, over what was assumed to be the location of Jesus’ tomb. The September date of that church’s dedication came to be celebrated as the feast of the “Exaltation of the Cross.” </p>
<p>Helena’s supposed “finding” of the cross itself was given its own feast day in May: the “Invention of the Cross.” Both feasts were <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=tVESLvUcwRUC&pg=PA159&dq=two+feasts+of+the+cross&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwinqMuyn9nkAhWSHTQIHWpaCsgQ6AEwAXoECAYQAg#v=onepage&q=two%20feasts%20of%20the%20cross&f=false">celebrated</a> in Rome by the seventh century.</p>
<p>One section of what was believed to be the true cross was kept and <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/byzantine-and-modern-greek-studies/article/lignum-vitae-or-crux-gemmata-the-cross-of-golgotha-in-the-early-byzantine-period/6F9AEC41B1EF37325A9032174B0E6979#">venerated on Good Friday</a> in Jerusalem from the mid-fourth century until its conquest by a Muslim caliph in the seventh century.</p>
<h2>Later representations</h2>
<p>Numerous Christian churches were constructed in the Roman Empire during the fourth and fifth centuries. With imperial financial support, these large buildings were decorated with intricate mosaics depicting figures from the scriptures, especially of Christ and the apostles. </p>
<p>The cross that appears in mosaic is a golden cross adorned with round or square precious gems, a visual representation of the victory over sin and death achieved by Christ’s death. It was called a “crux gemmata,” or “gemmed cross.” </p>
<p>From the sixth century through the early Middle Ages, <a href="https://www.christianiconography.info/crucifixion.html">artistic representations of the Crucifixion</a> became more common. Sometimes Christ was depicted on the cross alone, perhaps <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+23%3A32-55&version=NRSV">between the other two criminals</a> crucified with him. More often, Christ on the cross is surrounded on either side <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+19:24-26&version=NRSV">by the figures of Mary and the apostle, Saint John</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293889/original/file-20190924-51410-np2f8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293889/original/file-20190924-51410-np2f8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293889/original/file-20190924-51410-np2f8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293889/original/file-20190924-51410-np2f8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293889/original/file-20190924-51410-np2f8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293889/original/file-20190924-51410-np2f8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293889/original/file-20190924-51410-np2f8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Early medieval representation of Christ on the cross.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/quinet/44529998112">Thomas Quine</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Public veneration of the cross on Good Friday became increasingly common outside of the Holy Land, and this <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=tVESLvUcwRUC&pg=PA120&dq=veneration+cross+rome&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjE1YHFwtnkAhUD-6wKHVOTBWYQ6AEwAXoECAMQAg#v=onepage&q=veneration%20cross%20rome&f=false">ritual</a> was observed in Rome in the eighth century.</p>
<p>During the medieval period, the crucified Christ was commonly portrayed as a serene figure. The representation <a href="https://mavcor.yale.edu/conversations/object-narratives/christ-crucified-gellone-sacramentary">tended to change</a> over the centuries, to Christ as a <a href="https://www.italian-renaissance-art.com/Grunewald.html">tortured, twisted victim</a>. </p>
<h2>Different meanings</h2>
<p>During the Reformation, Protestant churches rejected the use of the crucifix. In their view, it was a human “invention,” not in frequent use in the primitive church. They claimed the crucifix had become the object of idolatrous Catholic veneration, and used other versions of a plain cross instead. </p>
<p>Differing depictions of the cross expressed deeper conflicts within Western Christianity. </p>
<p>But even before that, the cross was used in a divisive way. During the High Middle Ages, the cross became connected with a <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/Crusades/">series of religious wars</a> waged from Christian Europe to liberate the Holy Land from the grasp of Muslim rulers.</p>
<p>Those who chose to go and fight <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=t2t4_JG1xfIC&pg=PA159&dq=pope+urban+take+the+cross&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwijmIf5zdnkAhUGeKwKHd3qBPwQ6AEwAnoECAMQAg#v=onepage&q=pope%20urban%20clothing%20the%20cross&f=false">would wear a special garment</a>, marked with a cross, over their daily clothes. They had “taken the cross” and came to be called “Crusaders.” </p>
<p>Of all the Crusades, only the first one in the late 11th century really accomplished its objective. These Crusaders conquered Jerusalem in a bloody battle that <a href="https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/fulcher-cde.asp#capture">did not spare women and children</a> in the effort to rid the city of “infidels.” The Crusades also sparked waves of active hostility toward European Jews, resulting in outbreaks of violence against Jewish communities for centuries.</p>
<p>By the 19th century, the term “crusade” came to refer more generally to any kind of struggle for a “righteous” reason, whether religious or secular. In the United States at that time, the term was used to <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zz0vkgAACAAJ&dq=william+lloyd+garrison+crusader&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj-0qzwxefkAhXrmOAKHaGeDHUQ6AEwAHoECAAQAQ">describe a number of religious-social activists</a>. For example, abolitionist newspaper editor William Lloyd Garrison was called a “Crusader” in his political struggle to end the evil of slavery.</p>
<h2>Symbol of pro-white agenda</h2>
<p>Later the cross was also literally taken up by activists demonstrating against social advances. For example, the Ku Klux Klan, as part of their terror campaign, would <a href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1105/cross-burning">often burn</a> plain wooden crosses at meetings or on the lawns of African Americans, Jews or Catholics.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294213/original/file-20190925-51463-y5h1tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294213/original/file-20190925-51463-y5h1tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294213/original/file-20190925-51463-y5h1tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294213/original/file-20190925-51463-y5h1tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294213/original/file-20190925-51463-y5h1tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294213/original/file-20190925-51463-y5h1tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294213/original/file-20190925-51463-y5h1tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A monolith listing the names, dates and rationale for the lynching of African Americans stands in front of a photograph of a burning Ku Klux Klan cross on display in the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson, Miss.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Mississippi-Bicentennial/c1d0082ab4424f97a6ac51c136f0ca2a/2/0">AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A few decades later, Adolf Hitler’s quest for German expansionism and persecution of Jews, based on his belief in the superiority of the “Aryan race,” <a href="https://www.historyextra.com/period/second-world-war/how-why-sanskrit-symbol-become-nazi-swastika-svastika/">came to be crystallized</a> in the sign of the swastika. Originally a <a href="https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=37894&picture=hindu-swastika">religious symbol from India</a>, it had for centuries <a href="https://www.winchester-cathedral.org.uk/wp-content/themes/winchestercathedral/scripts/php/thumb.php?src=https://www.winchester-cathedral.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/edington_lp.jpg&w=210&h=180&zc=1">been used in Christian iconography</a> as one of many artistic expressions of the cross.</p>
<p>[<em>Explore the intersection of faith, politics, arts and culture.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/this-week-in-religion-76/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=religion-explore">Sign up for This Week in Religion.</a>]</p>
<p>Even today, the newspaper of the KKK is entitled The Crusader, and various white supremacy groups use forms of the cross as a symbol of their own pro-white agenda on flags, tattoos and clothing. </p>
<p>The Feast of the Holy Cross focuses on the meaning of the cross as a powerful sign of divine love and salvation for early Christians. It is tragic that the cross has also been twisted into a vivid sign of hatred and intolerance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123316/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanne M. Pierce does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Sept. 14 is the the Feast of the Holy Cross celebrated by many Catholics and some other Christians. A religion scholar revisits the history of the cross, how it became a symbol of divine love, but also of violence.Joanne M. Pierce, Professor of Religious Studies, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1033062018-09-21T14:56:03Z2018-09-21T14:56:03ZBodyguard: there are accounts of PTSD in warfare from Homer to the Middle Ages<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236852/original/file-20180918-158243-23r5td.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Achilles mourning the death of his nephew Patroclus.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Achilles,_frantic_for_the_loss_of_Patroclus,_rejecting_the_consolation_of_Thetis_1803_United_Kingdom_by_George_Dawe._Gift_of_the_New_Zealand_Academy_of_Fine_Arts,_1936._Te_Papa_(1936-0012-83)MA_I12.jpg">George Dawe (1803)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the BBC’s Bodyguard, Richard Madden plays a police protection officer and veteran soldier who is <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv-radio/1009114/Bodyguard-bbc-tv-series-david-budd-richard-madden-what-is-ptsd-symptoms-treatment">exhibiting signs of PTSD</a>. In episode three he tries to strangle the woman he is supposed to be safeguarding. Later, a friend suggests he seek counselling. This image of the suffering veteran dominates modern views of the soldier experience, but was this the case in ancient and medieval warfare?</p>
<p>Achilles, hero of the Trojan war, is commonly held to be an ancient sufferer of PTSD, thanks largely to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/us/13shay-interview.html">Jonathan Shay’s Achilles in Vietnam</a> about the psychological damage caused by war, while Epizelus’ spontaneous blindness at the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4436293">Battle of Marathon</a> (490BC) is <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=JneX52Op-s8C&pg=PA299&lpg=PA299&dq=Epizelus%E2%80%99+spontaneous+blindness&source=bl&ots=zMr_tQUmls&sig=wAEgs6HCFq7O35UMRSNqQe7nbcI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwivib37ocndAhXDCMAKHYxAA9MQ6AEwCnoECDAQAQ#v=onepage&q=Epizelus%E2%80%99%20spontaneous%20blindness&f=false">often cited</a> as another example. </p>
<p>So popular is the contemporary idea that <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/theatre-of-war-sophocles-message-for-american-veterans">PTSD was common in the ancient world</a> that ancient plays are now being used to help modern veterans. In May 2017, more than 100 servicemen and veterans <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/26/opinion/us-veterans-use-greek-tragedy-to-tell-us-about-war.html">watched extracts from Sophochles’ plays</a> which portray what many see as ancient examples of PTSD, as a way of getting them to talk about their own experiences. </p>
<p>More recently, researchers at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge <a href="https://www.anglia.ac.uk/news/research-detects-ptsd-3000-years-ago">claimed that</a> the earliest examples of PTSD can be found in ancient Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) 3,000 years ago. The sources they looked at described how the King of Elam’s “mind changed” after years of fighting. Soldiers there had to go on campaign every three years after which they had flashbacks and dreams about their dead comrades, symptoms now commonly ascribed to PTSD. </p>
<p>But there is another school of thought that says the experience of the ancient soldier was not universal. His experience was a product of his culture, and therefore he was more able to deal with the traumas of war because he was <a href="https://theconversation.com/combat-trauma-is-nothing-like-in-classical-antiquity-so-why-are-we-still-treating-it-as-such-30955">conditioned to fight</a>. Killing enemies was a glorious thing – and rather than going against what society expected, ancient warriors were fulfilling a clearly defined role. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-war-evolved-to-be-a-mans-game-and-why-thats-only-now-changing-101473">Why war evolved to be a man's game – and why that's only now changing</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Medieval warfare</h2>
<p>The same has been said of knights in the Middle Ages who were trained to fight from a young age, a factor which arguably made them more resilient to the psychological impact of warfare, as did the fact that medieval society was more used to death and brutality. In 15th-century France, people certainly believed that warfare caused a kind of madness, but they differentiated between the good and the bad. Soldiers traumatised by war who went “beserk” were celebrated – while noncombatants traumatised by war were pitied or ridiculed.</p>
<p>But killing was a sinful act, and in the Christian Middle Ages, writers wrestled with the issue of exactly when and how it was morally acceptable. They also thought about how homecoming fighters could make amends. A few years after the Battle of Hastings (1066) William the Conqueror faced rebellion from some of his own men, in part perhaps because they found the violence of his conquest had gone too far. Certainly, contemporary descriptions of the <a href="https://www.historytoday.com/james-aitcheson/harrying-north">Harrying of the North</a>, when William’s troops ravaged northern England, suggest that it was particularly brutal. </p>
<p>Indeed, the effort medieval churchmen put into thinking about ways to atone for killing in warfare suggests that there was a real awareness of the need to ritualise the return to normal life. Penances were imposed on the men who fought at Hastings in 1066. The philosopher <a href="http://files.libertyfund.org/pll/quotes/130.html">Thomas Aquinas warned</a> that warfare had the potential to be sinful as in battle soldiers could get carried away and engage in savage murder which needed to be forgiven. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237455/original/file-20180921-129850-e6jddr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237455/original/file-20180921-129850-e6jddr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237455/original/file-20180921-129850-e6jddr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237455/original/file-20180921-129850-e6jddr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237455/original/file-20180921-129850-e6jddr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237455/original/file-20180921-129850-e6jddr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237455/original/file-20180921-129850-e6jddr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The violence of the medieval crusades may have left some soldiers traumatised.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gustav Dore</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even during the crusades – wars believed to be sanctioned by God and fought on his behalf – some knights came home changed by their experiences. When <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Chronicle-of-the-Third-Crusade-The-Itinerarium-Peregrinorum-et-Gesta/Nicholson/p/book/9780754605812">one chronicler described</a> the crusaders coming home from the Third Crusade (1189-92), he <a href="http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_crusade3rd.html">told his readers</a> that though these men “survived unharmed … their hearts were pierced by swords of sorrows from different sorts of suffering”.</p>
<p>Some knights warned about the dangers of warfare and the toll it could take on those who fought. Geoffrey de Charny, a French knight who fought in the Hundred Years War, warned other knights in his <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/474084/summary">Book of Chivalry</a> that they would face lack of food and water, have to fight through the night and suffer many dangers. He cautioned that “when they would be secure from danger, they will be beset by great terrors”, suggesting that though they were trained for war they could be terrified by it. </p>
<p>Fighters in the past were clearly affected by their experiences, expressed feelings of fear, shame, or anger, or otherwise suffered as a result of the psychological traumas of war, whatever those traumas might be. </p>
<p>This does not mean that their experiences or responses were universal, or that we can judge the trauma of a 14th-century knight by the same standards as a 21st-century soldier. But it does show that trauma and distress have followed as long as humans have waged war on one another.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103306/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathryn Hurlock does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>PTSD is a relatively modern term, but the symptoms are as old as civilisation itself.Kathryn Hurlock, Senior Lecturer in Medieval History, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/969322018-07-09T20:51:27Z2018-07-09T20:51:27ZUnderstanding the Crusades from an Islamic perspective<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225578/original/file-20180701-117385-efuqbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C19%2C1191%2C898&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Twentieth-century depiction of a victorious Saladin with Guy de Lusignan after battle of Hattin in 1187.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.discover-syria.com/photo/11177">Said Tahsine (1904-1985 Syria) - </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What if the Crusades’ history was told from an Arab perspective? In fact, in 2016 al-Jazeera TV did just that. It released a four-episode documentary on the Crusades, and the trailer introduced the subject in the following words:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“In the history of conflict between East and West. The mightiest battle between Christianity and Islam; a holy war in the name of religion. For the first time, the story of the Crusades from an Arab perspective.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is clear that the producers of the al-Jazeera documentary wanted their viewers to understand the Crusades as one out of many episodes in the continuous clash between two civilizations: East/Islam and West/Christianity.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HProiNnmGwI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The trailer of Al-Jazeera documentary series.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The al-Jazeera documentary was inspired by two earlier widely watched documentaries: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvHMdU0HxjY"><em>The Crusades: Crescent and the Cross</em></a> (History Channel, 2005) and <a href="https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqrbag"><em>The Crusades</em></a> (BBC, 2012).</p>
<p>All three documentaries share the same plot about the clash of civilizations fuelled by the religious ideologies of holy war and jihad. The only difference is that the al-Jazeera documentary alleges to tell the story of the Crusades “for the first time” from an Arab perspective, which actually means that it is the turn of the Muslim Arabs to tell, not a different story, but rather the same story of the clash of civilisations.</p>
<h2>Crusaders as Christian barbarians</h2>
<p>Actually, this is not the first time Muslims have told their story of the Crusades, and the story has changed over time. In the Muslim public imagination of today, the crusaders are remembered as medieval Christian barbarians who assaulted the Muslim world and slaughtered tens of thousands of innocent people before the Muslims could mount an effective jihad campaign to drive them away. They are also seen as medieval ancestors of modern Western colonialists and imperialists.</p>
<p>What is left out of the modern narrative – conceptualized as such by Europeans in the 18th and 19th centuries, such as, for example, in Joseph-François Michaud’s <a href="https://biblioweb.hypotheses.org/22219"><em>Histoire des Croisades</em></a> (the first volume was published in 1812) – is that the crusaders were not as fanatic as modern scholars allege, and they had good relations with the Muslims.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226175/original/file-20180704-73332-1l5wl5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226175/original/file-20180704-73332-1l5wl5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226175/original/file-20180704-73332-1l5wl5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226175/original/file-20180704-73332-1l5wl5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226175/original/file-20180704-73332-1l5wl5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226175/original/file-20180704-73332-1l5wl5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226175/original/file-20180704-73332-1l5wl5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Idealized portrait of Ibn Yubair. Painted by Guillermo Muñoz Vera.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ibn_Yubair.jpg?uselang=fr">Aroconchichon/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, while travelling through northern Palestine in late summer of 1184, the medieval scholar <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ibn-Jubayr">Ibn Jubayr</a> (d. 1217) described countless farming villages inhabited by Muslims who seemed to him to live in complete harmony with the Crusaders.</p>
<p>What irritated him the most was not only that the Crusaders were not harming them, he actually bemoaned the fact that those Muslims did not seem to be bothered by their mingling with what he described as “Christian pigs and filth”.</p>
<h2>An ignored reality of alliances</h2>
<p>Indeed, medieval Muslim sources tell a different story about the Crusades. No doubt they speak of countless battles, but they also describe innumerable political and military alliances, systematic sharing of sacred spaces, commercial dealings, exchange of science and ideas, etc., between Muslims and crusaders. Muslim chronicler and historian <a href="https://www.muslimheritage.com/article/ibn-wasil">Ibn Wasil</a> (d. 1298) spent two years in southern Italy on a diplomatic mission in early 1260s, during which he authored a book on logic, which he dedicated to emperor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfred,_King_of_Sicily">Manfred of Hohenstaufen</a>.</p>
<p>Manfred’s father, emperor Frederick II, used to regularly write to Muslim scientists asking for <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/big-browser/article/2018/06/26/d-australie-en-sicile-le-voyage-du-cacatoes-de-l-empereur-frederic-ii_5321581_4832693.html">scientific information</a>, and when he led the Sixth Crusade in 1228-1229, he negotiate a peace with Sultan al-Kamil that allowed the Muslims and Crusaders to share Jerusalem. The Christians had full control of their religious places while the Muslims maintained control over their sacred places in the city and the surrounding villages.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226176/original/file-20180704-73335-4mw3jy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226176/original/file-20180704-73335-4mw3jy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226176/original/file-20180704-73335-4mw3jy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1235&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226176/original/file-20180704-73335-4mw3jy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1235&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226176/original/file-20180704-73335-4mw3jy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1235&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226176/original/file-20180704-73335-4mw3jy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1551&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226176/original/file-20180704-73335-4mw3jy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1551&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226176/original/file-20180704-73335-4mw3jy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1551&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (left) meets al-Kamil Muhammad al-Malik (right), from a manuscript of the Nuova Cronica, between circa 1341 and circa 1348.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Al-Kamil_Muhammad_al-Malik_and_Frederick_II_Holy_Roman_Emperor.jpg">Vatican Library/Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This complex reality is generally ignored, and if modern scholars acknowledge some of it, they do so only to emphasize its abnormality. The focus on violence has dominated modern interest in the Crusades (the area most researched by scholars is crusader military orders and Holy war/Jihad).</p>
<p>In other words, modern scholars (and the media), inadvertently for the most part, have put at the disposal of modern hate groups and terrorists a very suitable narrative that these groups have effectively employed to anchor and spread the discourse about an inevitable clash of civilizations. The result is Islamophobia and anti-immigrant sentiments in the West, as well as “Westophobia” (hate of the West) and paranoia in the Muslim world.</p>
<h2>Inspiring modern jihadists</h2>
<p>Conceiving themselves adherents and protectors of “true” Islam, modern jihadists are inspired by a selective reading of Islamic foundational texts (Qurʾan, Sunna, etc.) and history, and by modern grievances (relating to direct or indirect colonial and hegemonic subjugation of the Muslims).</p>
<p>For them, the crusader period was not different from the current clash between the Muslim world and the Christian West. This theme has been generally adopted by Muslim scholars in the last century. We can see it clearly in Saʿid ʿAshur’s influential book on the history of the Crusades, <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/title/haraka-al-salibiyya/oclc/714994573&referer=brief_results">published in 1963</a>, and in Ahmad Halwani’s 1991 popular book that examines the role of Ibn ʿAsakir of Damascus (d. 1176) <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/ibn-asakir-wa-dawruhu-fi-al-jihad-didda-al-salibiyin-fi-ahd-al-dawlatayn-al-nuriyah-wa-al-ayyubiyah/oclc/28700504">in the promotion of jihad against the Crusaders</a>.</p>
<p>Both scholars draw the parallel struggle of the Muslims during the Crusader period and today. Leaders such as Nur al-Din and Saladin, and scholars such as <a href="http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/search?s.q=Ibn+%CA%BFAsakir&s.f.s2_parent=s.f.book.encyclopaedia-of-islam-3&search-go=Search">Ibn ʿAsakir</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Taymiyyah">Ibn Taymiyya</a> are revered because <a href="http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/browse/encyclopaedia-of-islam-3">they battled and rallied</a> the Muslims to wage jihad against the crusaders and their Muslim cronies.</p>
<p>It is no surprise then that stories of such heroes and writings of activist scholars of the crusader period are very popular in the Muslim world today, especially among militants, as can be seen in the issues of <em>Dabiq</em>, the online magazine of Daesh.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225577/original/file-20180701-117430-3eewnx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225577/original/file-20180701-117430-3eewnx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225577/original/file-20180701-117430-3eewnx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225577/original/file-20180701-117430-3eewnx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225577/original/file-20180701-117430-3eewnx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225577/original/file-20180701-117430-3eewnx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225577/original/file-20180701-117430-3eewnx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Equestrian statue of Saladin in the Citadel, Damascus, Syria, 2008.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Statue_of_Saladin_Damascus.jpg">Graham van der Wielen/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Rethinking our approach as historians</h2>
<p>Had we done our job as historians properly, we would not have counted out as anomalies the enormous evidence that speaks of co-existence between crusaders and Muslims. (Had the media done its job properly, it would not have valorised violence.)</p>
<p>The narrative of the Crusades should have been presented as a complicated chapter in medieval history where people fought each other and also tolerated each other. But because scholars tend to examine the past with modern eyes (theories, assumptions, conventions, biases, etc.), they could not see this complex reality of the crusader period.</p>
<p>The Crusades is not the only chapter misrepresented in modern scholarship and imagination. The way we think of Islam is too governed by modern agendas, so much so that every narrative we offer is a mirror of our modern concerns.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/moNH4N44D28?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Ridley Scott’s <em>Kingdom of Heaven</em> (2015) questions the Crusades and western perspectives.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We often fail to realize that what is invariable presented as “Islam” is the collective opinion of an affluent class of male elites (mostly Sunnis) whose views did not agree with the way other groups saw and practiced Islam (Shiʿis, Sufis, women, uneducated masses, etc.).</p>
<h2>Deciphering complex layers</h2>
<p>We also tend to valorise certain groups, thinking that they are best suited to fit a modern garb. For instance, many today praise Sufism (mysticism) for its idea of spiritual jihad that focuses on internal struggle to become a better person. This is not what medieval Sufis, and Muslims generally, understood jihad to mean, namely the act of waging war against Islam’s enemies; some, especially the Sufis, insisted it includes a religious dimension in order for physical jihad to lead to success in this world and the next.</p>
<p>Saladin had in his army a brigade of Sufis who demanded that crusader captivates be turned over to them to slaughter. The Ottoman army employed Sufis, who still today practice their rituals with weapons. The point here is not to say that Sufism is violent, it is to draw attention to the fact that Sufism has also a very complex history and legacy. Saying this does not imply that Muslims cared much about jihad.</p>
<p>Actually, the majority of Muslims historically have refused to contribute to jihad, even when under attack. This is rather clear from the tone of many jihad advocates who blame the Muslims harshly for not fulfilling the duty, such as in <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Book-of-the-Jihad-of-Ali-ibn-Tahir-al-Sulami-d-1106-Text-Translation/Christie/p/book/9780754667728">the Book of Jihad by al-Sulami (d. 1105).</a></p>
<p>As historians, we might not be able to free ourselves completely from modern biases. At least we can try to listen more to what history tells us: it is always much more complex than any contemporary conclusions we derive from it.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194148/original/file-20171110-29364-1vw6o0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194148/original/file-20171110-29364-1vw6o0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194148/original/file-20171110-29364-1vw6o0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194148/original/file-20171110-29364-1vw6o0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194148/original/file-20171110-29364-1vw6o0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194148/original/file-20171110-29364-1vw6o0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194148/original/file-20171110-29364-1vw6o0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
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</figure>
<p><em>This article has first appeared in the <a href="http://rfiea.fr/">French Network of Institutes for Advanced Study</a> (RFIEA)‘s publication <a href="http://fellows.rfiea.fr/node/189">Fellows n°41 as “Islamic interpretation of past Holy wars”</a>. RFIEA has hosted more than 500 researchers from around the world since 2007. This article was published with the collaboration of Aurélie Louchart.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96932/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Suleiman Mourad ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>The Crusades have been stereotyped, creating a narrative that supports both Islamophobia and anti-immigrant sentiments in the West, as well as “Westophobia” and paranoia in the Muslim world.Suleiman Mourad, Historien, Smith College, Fellow 2018, IEA de Nantes, Réseau français des instituts d’études avancées (RFIEA)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/949582018-04-17T10:43:20Z2018-04-17T10:43:20ZPope Francis’ apology for abuse in Chile would once have been unthinkable<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214606/original/file-20180412-540-1p1g5r9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What does it mean for a pope to apologize?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a letter on April 11 to the bishops of Chile, Pope Francis <a href="https://cruxnow.com/global-church/2018/04/11/pope-says-he-incurred-in-serious-errors-in-situation-of-chilean-bishop-accused-of-cover-up/">asked forgiveness</a> for his “serious errors of assessment and perception.” His apologies were directed to the victims of Fr. Fernando Karadima, whose abuse of at least <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/accountability/francis-chilean-critics-welcome-apology-hope-action-abuse-cover">three men</a> when they were children was witnessed and covered up by Chilean Bishop Juan Barros. Until recently, Pope Francis had maintained that Bishop Barros was actually the victim of “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/19/pope-francis-victims-church-sexual-abuse-slander-chile">slander</a>.” In 2011, the then 80-year-old Fr. Karadina was found guilty by a Vatican tribunal, and sentenced to a life of “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/world/americas/19chile.html?mtrref=www.google.com&gwh=BCF6BA39DA302F3A7D15403C6F789C04&gwt=pay">prayer and penance</a>.”</p>
<p>In times past, a personal apology from the pope would have been close to unthinkable. </p>
<h2>Popes can make mistakes</h2>
<p>Catholics believe the pope is the successor to the Apostle Peter, one of the first followers of Jesus. But Peter was a flawed human being: When confronted by a crowd, he denied his association with Jesus three times. Afterwards, according to the <a href="http://biblehub.com/matthew/">Gospel of Matthew</a>, Peter “<a href="http://biblehub.com/matthew/26-75.htm">wept bitterly</a>.”</p>
<p>For Catholics, Peter’s experience shows that even those specially chosen by God have deep-seated weaknesses for which they must show sorrow. </p>
<p>Popes are not always right in what they do, but their errors have been admitted only years – sometimes centuries – later. In 1992, for example, John Paul II apologized for the Catholic Church’s <a href="http://www.vaticanobservatory.va/content/specolavaticana/en/research/history-of-astronomy/the-galileo-affair.html">condemnation of Galileo</a> that happened over 350 years earlier.</p>
<p>Once rare, papal apologies increased under the reign of John Paul II. While those apologies admitted that the Church made mistakes, they did not ask for forgiveness for past popes. </p>
<h2>Church history on apology</h2>
<p>In the middle ages, popes were not inclined to apologize at all, or even accept apologies. Most famously, in 1077 A.D., Pope Gregory VII initially rejected <a href="https://www.biography.com/people/henry-iv-9335166">King Henry IV’s</a> apology concerning a dispute over who had the power to appoint local bishops. The pope forced Henry, then the king of the <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/habs/hd_habs.htm">Holy Roman Empire</a>, to wait in a blizzard for three days before accepting him back into the Catholic Church.</p>
<p>This dismissive attitude gave way to soul-searching during <a href="https://www.npr.org/2012/10/10/162573716/why-is-vatican-ii-so-important">the Second Vatican Council,</a> a seminal meeting that modernized the Church, held in Rome from 1962-65. One of the most important issues Catholicism had to confront was its historical persecution of Jews. <a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-crusades">Thousands of Jews were killed</a> as Crusaders made their way to Jerusalem. Jews were expelled from <a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-spanish-expulsion-1492">Catholic Spain</a> in 1492. And most horrible was the <a href="http://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/about.html">Holocaust</a>, or “<a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/yom-ha-shoah-holocaust-memorial-day">Shoah</a>,” the organized slaughter of over 6 million Jews, which occurred in Christian-majority nations during the Second World War.</p>
<p>In one of the council’s most important documents, <a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651028_nostra-aetate_en.html">Nostra Aetate</a>, the Catholic Church rejected the idea that Jews were responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Nostra Aetate also established a foundation for a more <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/100/jews-and-vatican-ii">cooperative and respectful relationship</a> between <a href="https://crossworks.holycross.edu/rel_faculty_pub/6/">Christians and Jews</a>.</p>
<p>In 1966, the Church moved to apologize for centuries of distrust between Catholics and Protestants, when Pope Paul VI gave his <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2016/04/01/sacred-mysteries-the-ring-that-rome-gave-to-canterbury/">ring</a> to Michael Ramsey, the head of the Anglican church – the 100th <a href="https://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/">archbishop of Canterbury</a> – as an offering of reconciliation.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214607/original/file-20180412-554-rvx5zi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214607/original/file-20180412-554-rvx5zi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214607/original/file-20180412-554-rvx5zi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214607/original/file-20180412-554-rvx5zi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214607/original/file-20180412-554-rvx5zi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214607/original/file-20180412-554-rvx5zi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214607/original/file-20180412-554-rvx5zi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pope John Paul II.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Alik Keplicz-file</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Pope John Paul II gave many apologies, but usually on behalf of the Church for what was done centuries ago. Most notable was the “<a href="https://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/homilies/2000/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_20000312_pardon.html">Day for Pardon</a>” in March 2000, that asked forgiveness for a series of sins, <a href="http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/documents/ns_lit_doc_20000312_presentation-day-pardon_en.html">including</a> those “against the dignity of women and the unity of the human race” and “actions against love, peace, the rights of peoples, and respect for cultures and religions.” </p>
<p>But many remember how Pope John Paul II remained largely silent on the issue of clerical abuse because it “did not fit with his image of the Church,” according to Australian bishop <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-24/former-pope-john-paul-handled-sex-abuse-claims-poorly-inquiry/6719402">Geoffrey Robinson</a>. In a <a href="http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/speeches/2002/april/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_20020423_usa-cardinals.html">2002 address to American cardinals</a>, John Paul II did say he was “greatly grieved” that priests “had caused such suffering and scandal to the young,” but he stopped short of offering a personal plea for forgiveness.</p>
<p>Following John Paul’s example, Pope Benedict XVI stated <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/habs/hd_habs.htm">in a 2010 letter</a> that he was “sorry” that Catholics of Ireland had “suffered grievously” because of the “abuse of children and vulnerable young people.” But he did not apologize for lack of Vatican oversight over Irish bishops and priests.</p>
<p>Perhaps the closest parallel to Pope Francis’ apology was <a href="https://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en.html">Pope Benedict’s</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/world/europe/17pope.html?mtrref=www.google.com&gwh=508EBEE41B1FE656E5EDC17DA9BEF1C8&gwt=pay">expression of regret</a> over “reactions” to his <a href="https://www.benedictine.edu/press-room/work/regensburg-address">address</a> in 2006 at the <a href="https://www.uni-regensburg.de/index.html.en">University of Regensburg</a>, Germany, where he seemed to criticize Islam. </p>
<h2>What is Pope Francis doing?</h2>
<p>Fully accepting that the pope is a fallible human being can be somewhat of an emotional struggle for Catholics. While the pope – also called “The Vicar of Christ” – is considered to be <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07790a.htm#IIIB">infallible</a> when he formally makes a statement about Catholic doctrine concerning “faith and morals,” the pope certainly makes mistakes in his priestly service and personal life.</p>
<p>Francis, however, is not shy about admitting his own fallibility as a pope and as a person. In fact, he <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/%E2%80%98i-am-sinner%E2%80%99">said in a 2013 interview</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I am a sinner. This the most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>With that statement, Pope Francis was saying that he – a leader of 1 billion people – needs forgiveness and mercy too. And <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-true-meaning-of-mercy-72461">mercy and forgiveness</a> have been the central themes of his pontificate. </p>
<p>Of the many responsibilities of a pope, chief among them is being a teacher. And when Francis apologized to the people of Chile and to victims of sexual abuse, he also was teaching the rest of us how to admit our sins as a first step in making things right.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94958/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mathew Schmalz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Popes are not infallible, yet apologies are rare.Mathew Schmalz, Associate Professor of Religion, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/881032017-12-05T14:02:09Z2017-12-05T14:02:09ZAlt-right claims to march in step with the Knights Templar – this is fake history<p>When market trader Tina Gayle was banned from selling mugs featuring Knights Templar logos in a Loughborough Market, Charnwood Borough Council ruled that they were offensive to Muslims. A story in the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4973074/Market-trader-56-BANNED-town-centre.html">Daily Mail reported</a> that Gayle had “been previously been warned by the council for selling Nazi memorabilia”.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/council-apologises-for-banning-woman-for-selling-knight-templar-mugs-11079897">subsequent report</a> said that the council had not been concerned about what was depicted on the mugs, only that they were new products being sold on a vintage market. But the inclusion in the coverage of this little reference to the stallholder’s Nazi products highlights the regular association of the Knights Templar with right-wing extremism. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197799/original/file-20171205-22986-1odiqku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197799/original/file-20171205-22986-1odiqku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197799/original/file-20171205-22986-1odiqku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197799/original/file-20171205-22986-1odiqku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197799/original/file-20171205-22986-1odiqku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197799/original/file-20171205-22986-1odiqku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197799/original/file-20171205-22986-1odiqku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Drinking vessel for mugs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Amazon</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Of course, the Knights Templar symbology recalls the crusades – and is associated with medieval Christian fanaticism – but other prominent crusade iconography, such as the cross of the Knights Hospitaller, used by St John’s Ambulance is overlooked. So why does Templar imagery garner a similar reaction to Nazi symbols, while another equally significant crusader image hardly registers with the wider public – except with positive connotations?</p>
<h2>Soldiers, doctors and bankers</h2>
<p>The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, also known as The Knights Hospitaller, <a href="https://www.orderofmalta.int/history/1113-papal-recognition/">was founded</a> after the first crusade to provide hospital care for pilgrims sanctioned by Pope Paschall II in 1113. The infamous Order of The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, also known as The Templar, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/8580437/Who-were-the-Knights-Templar.html">was founded in 1119</a> by Hugh de Payens, a French nobleman, as a revolutionary monastic order, that would escort and protect pilgrims travelling to the Holy Land. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197808/original/file-20171205-23018-1b7chpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197808/original/file-20171205-23018-1b7chpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197808/original/file-20171205-23018-1b7chpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197808/original/file-20171205-23018-1b7chpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197808/original/file-20171205-23018-1b7chpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197808/original/file-20171205-23018-1b7chpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197808/original/file-20171205-23018-1b7chpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Escutcheon of the Knights Hospitaller of Rhodes (1305-1523) in Athens War Museum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dimitris Kamaras via Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These two orders grew to become the premier Christian fighting forces in the Holy Land, due to the large amount of wealth gifted them by the European nobles. The <a href="http://general-history.com/knights-hospitaller-knights-templar-the-difference/">Templars and the Hospitallers</a> were major forces right up until the Christians were expelled from the Holy Land in 1291. Despite the prominence of their military roles, the Knights Hospitaller <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hospitallers">provided medical care</a> for pilgrims, while the Knights Templar grew richer by <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38499883">acting as bankers</a> for crusading nobles. </p>
<p>While both orders played major roles within the crusades, their respective icons evoke different sentiments – these days, the Hospitaller cross represents the charitable work of St John’s Ambulance but the Templar cross is deemed offensive and worthy of a ban. </p>
<h2>Hatred on the streets</h2>
<p>The red cross upon a white background, a symbol of the Knights Templar, carries connotations of nationalism within the UK due to its resemblance to the cross of St George on the English flag. The iconic cross has been thematically appropriated by extremist right-wing group the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/english-defence-league-5674">English Defence League</a> (EDL), and the group has been known to dress in quasi-knightly garb. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197781/original/file-20171205-22989-1bji94r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197781/original/file-20171205-22989-1bji94r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197781/original/file-20171205-22989-1bji94r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197781/original/file-20171205-22989-1bji94r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197781/original/file-20171205-22989-1bji94r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197781/original/file-20171205-22989-1bji94r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197781/original/file-20171205-22989-1bji94r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The English Defence League has appropriated the Cross of St George.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gavin Lynn via Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The most infamous and horrific association with Templars in recent times would be the claims made by the right-wing extremist and mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik, who in 2011 carried out terrorist attacks in Norway. Following his attacks, a manifesto appeared in which <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/norway/9206265/Anders-Behring-Breivik-trial-a-culmination-of-years-of-preparation.html">Breivik claimed</a> to be a Justiciar Knight Commander for Knights Templar Europe. </p>
<p>Breivik is not alone in asserting a Templar identity within right wing views. The modern Templar community, <a href="http://www.knightstemplar.org.uk/">The Knights Templar-UK</a>, also forgets the monastic lifestyle of the order and uses it as a platform for the right-wing views outlined on its website. On a page called “Our Aims” it states:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>With the advent of mass immigration, this balance can be swung in many directions, including ones where extremists of particular faiths, may wish to dominate and control other’s beliefs.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The site also offers a review of the British political parties, stating which ones the Templars would identify with most closely. According to the website, these parties are the English Democrats, Ukip and the BNP – ironic, when you think that the Templars were an international organisation that spanned Europe.</p>
<h2>In the frame</h2>
<p>Popular culture often paints the Knights Templar as villains within a medieval setting, most notably in Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven, which depicted the Templar as racist murderers who hate Muslims and openly mock religion. Scott’s film depicts a Hospitaller knight as a pious man who counsels the film’s protagonist Balian and condemns the violent acts of the Templars.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-oO6pCRe3pM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Arabic chroniclers of the crusades directly contradict Scott’s villainous Templar. Syrian writer <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/aug/30/roundupreviews7">Usama ibn Munqidh</a> (1095-1188) explains that the Templars were more understanding and respectful of the Islamic faith than the average Christian crusader. This underlines the doubtfulness of the Templar warrior monk’s fanatical hatred of Islam and subverts the notion of the order as a symbol of right wing Christian extremism. </p>
<p>Ridley Scott’s fictional depiction of the villainous Templar originates with Sir Walter Scott in <a href="https://freebooksummary.com/knights-templar-and-ivanhoe-75954">his 1820 novel Ivanhoe</a>, which was, in turn, inspired by discredited 19th-century accounts of the crusades. Those themes of hatred and greed leave out the religious aspect of the crusades, which the medieval scholar <a href="https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/tmr/article/view/16836/22954">Nickolas Haydock</a>, citing historian <a href="http://undpress.nd.edu/books/P01351">Professor Jonathan Riley-Smith</a>, explains is “an invention of 19th-century medievalism, exemplified in the works of Sir Walter Scott”. </p>
<p>Scott’s fictional accounts created the notion of the evil Templar within popular culture and cast them as more like Nazis, in direct contrast to the more pacific Hospitaller order – who his film director namesake duly depicted as the opposite to the fanatical Templar.</p>
<p>So now the Templars have become associated with the worst excesses of an already dark period in medieval history. But to portray them as the ultimate evil of the crusades – or to praise them as champions of a narrow-minded nationalism – is a simplistic misrepresentation of the 200-year history of the crusades. There are no calls to ban the imagery of the Hospitallers, yet Templar iconography remains controversial due to its association with extremist views – unfairly connected to them through popular culture since the 19th century.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88103/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick Masters was awarded a bursary to attend and present at the 2018 International Medieval Conference at the University of Leeds, donated by The Templar Heritage Trust.</span></em></p>Thanks to the way they are portrayed in films and books, the Knights Templar have become identified with narrow-minded nationalism. This is unjust and inaccurate.Patrick Masters, Lecturer in Film Studies, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/867842017-11-15T11:53:30Z2017-11-15T11:53:30ZWhy the Crusades were not a ‘clash of civilisations’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194385/original/file-20171113-27576-1rt3qsv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Stained glass window in Brussels cathedral depicting First Crusade commander Godfrey of Bouillon.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/brussels-july-26-stained-glass-window-122932558">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ask pretty much anyone – whether terrorists, politicians (of all camps), dinner party guests, or religious leaders – and the one thing that they will say with confidence about the Crusades is that they were a conflict between two diametrically opposed religions: Christianity and Islam – a clash of civilisations. This is a widely-held judgement – but is it correct? </p>
<p>The First Crusade (1095-1099) – the massive expedition that marched across Europe and the Middle East to capture Jerusalem – underlines some of the difficulties surrounding this toxic assessment. These became evident during research I conducted for two books: <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/encountering-islam-on-the-first-crusade/0CCFBAE87B0E571893CF8F3276A2E7C4">Encountering Islam on the First Crusade</a> and <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/nicholas-morton/the-field-of-blood/9780465096701/">The Field of Blood</a>: The Battle for Aleppo and the Remaking of the Medieval Middle East (forthcoming).</p>
<p>Problems become clear from the campaign’s outset. The documents produced by crusaders preparing for the journey, known as charters, only occasionally mention any enemy and concentrate their attention on reaching and conquering Jerusalem. </p>
<p>Of course, they knew that achieving this objective would require warfare, but they demonstrated little interest in their enemies’ identity, often labelling them as “pagans” – essentially, “non-Christians”. Jerusalem at this time was steadily moving into the epicentre of contemporary religious culture and it was this goal that galvanised thousands to participate, not the desire to attack an enemy religion. </p>
<p>The pope’s military objectives were more mixed. In addition to Jerusalem, Pope Urban II also wanted crusading knights to defend the distant Byzantine Empire against attack – but this aspiration does not seem to have resonated with his audience in the same way as the thought of reaching the Holy Land.</p>
<h2>Uninformed and Uninterested</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194582/original/file-20171114-27632-46rvj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194582/original/file-20171114-27632-46rvj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194582/original/file-20171114-27632-46rvj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194582/original/file-20171114-27632-46rvj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194582/original/file-20171114-27632-46rvj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194582/original/file-20171114-27632-46rvj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194582/original/file-20171114-27632-46rvj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The crusaders didn’t know a great deal about their ‘enemy’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-shot-persons-torso-dressed-historically-510318868?src=6wiuS7wq8TJGAYNMHdfO_w-1-10">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By extension, throughout the crusade, the Franks (crusaders) proved both uninformed and uninterested in the Islamic faith (or the “Saracen law” as it was known). They knew “Saracens” to be non-Christians and some were vaguely aware of the division between Sunni and Shia Islam, but rarely more. A few thought erroneously that Muslims were polytheists. Even many years after the crusade, one 12th century Western writer, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_of_Malmesbury">William of Malmesbury</a>, in his <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1181542.Gesta_Regum_Anglorum_The_History_Of_The_English_Kings_Volume_1">Gesta Regum Anglorum</a>, found it necessary to explain that “Saracens” did not practice the same faith as Baltic pagans. </p>
<p>In short, Jerusalem, not Islam, was the target and they knew little about this religion.</p>
<p>On campaign, the crusaders’ main opponents were the Seljuk Turks. The Turks were originally a largely shamanistic and nomadic people who had migrated from the Central Asian Steppe region to conquer much of the Muslim world during the century preceding the crusade. They had seized Syria and the Holy Land only 20 years previously. </p>
<p>By the 1090s, the Turks had begun to convert to Islam but many retained elements of their former beliefs. During the crusade – and in later decades – observers noted that some Turks still (among other things): buried their dead with grave goods, scalped enemies, and conducted colossal drinking parties. All these customs reflected their former traditions and many of these and other practices conflicted with Islamic teaching. So the Turks – the crusaders’ main opponents – were hardly longstanding adherents of Islam but instead were part of the way through a long-term process of religious transition.</p>
<p>Then, with the escalating conflict brought about by the crusaders’ advance into Turkish territory, several local peoples rebelled against the Turks. These included many native Muslim communities who wanted to throw off their Turkish overlords. And while some were prepared to fight against the crusaders, many remained neutral and some – especially following the crusade – sought crusader assistance (which the crusaders were prepared to offer). Some Bedouin tribes began to cooperate with the Franks soon after the First Crusade. </p>
<h2>Endgame</h2>
<p>The crusade’s final act occurred in 1099 with the conquest of Jerusalem from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatimid_Caliphate">Fatimids</a> (the Shia Muslim rulers of Egypt), following a hard-fought siege. The city’s fall concluded with a general massacre of its population (around 3,000 people were killed, both Muslims and Jews) that was explicitly described by its perpetrators as an act of religious cleansing. </p>
<p>This deed has long been taken as proof of the crusaders’ anti-Islamic hatred. Even so, there are problems with this kind of assessment. The crusaders’ actions in Jerusalem are not mirrored by their behaviour towards Muslims elsewhere. They did perpetrate several massacres throughout the crusade. In the Near East these typically occurred when a town refused to surrender to their forces and consequently was taken by storm. Having said this, they were also open on other occasions to cooperative action and treaties with the Near East’s non-Christian powers. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194387/original/file-20171113-27585-dedhiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194387/original/file-20171113-27585-dedhiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194387/original/file-20171113-27585-dedhiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194387/original/file-20171113-27585-dedhiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194387/original/file-20171113-27585-dedhiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194387/original/file-20171113-27585-dedhiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194387/original/file-20171113-27585-dedhiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The target: Jerusalem, as it is today.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/jerusalem-israel-old-city-western-wall-656752000?src=JEd96b9b3xRF8-5337vvKw-1-10">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Indeed, since 1097 both the Fatimids and the crusaders had been trying to forge a mutually beneficial alliance against the Turks. It was only when these talks collapsed that the crusaders’ initiated their siege on Jerusalem. They also admired many of the enemy leaders and warriors who they encountered, either over the negotiating table or on the field of battle, noting their strengths and virtues. One source, entitled the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2681162-gesta-francorum-et-aliorum-hierosolimitanorum">Gesta Francorum</a>, even suggested that the Turks and Franks might be related to one another.</p>
<p>It seems more likely that the massacre was connected more to the crusaders’ ideological ideas surrounding the sanctity of Jerusalem itself than to any specifically anti-Islamic sentiment. According to this script, the crusaders deemed any non-Christian presence within its walls to be spiritually unacceptable, but this did not inhibit cooperation elsewhere.</p>
<p>In this way, the crusade was an event of enormous brutality, yet it defies easy classification as a clash of civilisations. The crusaders were not generally interested in Muslims/Islam, aside from the plain fact that they were non-Christians. They were prepared to ally with Muslim communities when it served their purposes and their primary opponents were only partially Islamified. The regions’ local Muslim populace found itself trapped between two conquerors (crusaders and Turks) and forced to take sides, many opting to resist the Turks.</p>
<p>It is fashionable today in some circles to characterise the First Crusade as a “clash of civilisations”, but in the 11th century, the reality was considerably more nuanced.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86784/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Nicholas Morton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Forget the idea that it was round one in the battle between Christianity and Islam.Dr Nicholas Morton, Lecturer in History, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/733752017-04-26T06:30:40Z2017-04-26T06:30:40ZBack for our future: lessons from the Crusades about peace in Syria today<p>The latest phase of the multifaceted conflict in Syria bears every sign of escalating further. <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-38308883">The fall of Aleppo</a> was meant to signal the beginning of the end for the rebels, but new offensives in <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39401326">Raqqa</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/21/world/middleeast/syria-rebels-damascus.html?emc=edit_mbe_20170322&nl=morning-briefing-europe&nlid=64524812&src=twr&te=1&_r=0">the country’s capital Damascus</a> again changed the balance. </p>
<p>Bashar al-Assad allegedly responded with <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-idlib-idUSKBN1760IB">chemical weapons</a>, leading to a United States missile strike and to Russian President <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-idUSKBN1782S0">Vladimir Putin’s warning</a> of serious consequences in response. </p>
<p>At the same time – and in a clear show of force – the US <a href="http://www.reuters.com/video/2017/04/13/us-drops-mega-bomb-on-isis-caves-in-afgh?videoId=371488686">dropped its largest non-atomic bomb</a> in Afghanistan to target forces from the so-called Islamic State (IS), who, though pressed in Iraq, are <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-mosul-usa-idUSKBN17E26E">still fighting hard</a>, and <a href="https://isis.liveuamap.com/">spreading</a> to wider fronts.</p>
<p>Only peace in Syria will allow IS to be defeated. But when peace efforts are put into geopolitical and historical context, commentators often <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/2/4/10910360/syria-peace-talks-geneva-doomed">dismiss the possibility</a>. Instead, they tend to see the rise of the Islamic State as another example of a so-called clash of civilisations that has ostensibly been a relentless force since the bloody history of Jihadis, Crusaders and inter-sect violence that began in the Middle Ages. </p>
<p>The response to such rhetoric has often been to differentiate both mainstream modern Islam and the West from such parallels, suggesting that the Islamic State is a “medieval” throwback and the rest of us have moved on. </p>
<p>But there is a less well-rehearsed – and perhaps more historically pertinent – argument: that our medieval forebears were not just mindless fanatics. More specifically, that medieval Christians and Muslims were also merely seeking stability in a troubled world. </p>
<p>Indeed, the idea that we are doomed to be haunted by sectarian differences is remarkably similar to the wholly discredited “<a href="http://www.hoover.org/research/beyond-ancient-hatreds">ancient hatreds</a>” explanation that was used to explain the break up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. </p>
<p>A case study from the height of the Crusades in the 12th and 13th centuries illustrates that even the most brutal leaders can choose to compromise for stability. And that perhaps we should accept that such stability is worth compromising for today, as Syria’s unproductive peace talks allow the war to rage on.</p>
<h2>A 12th-century role model for IS?</h2>
<p>Meet <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Zangi-Iraqi-ruler">Imad ad-din Zengi</a>, a 12-century Jihadi <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25016279-the-isis-apocalypse">held up</a> by the architects of Islamic State as a model ruler for their Caliphate. </p>
<p>Zengi is known to have been a major influence on the late <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/jun/09/guardianobituaries.alqaida">Abu Musab al-Zarqawi</a>, one-time al-Qaeda number three and head of operations in Iraq. Zarqawi’s <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mepo.12096/abstract">actions provoked</a> the decisive split between al-Qaeda and the group we now know as Islamic State. </p>
<p>Even a cursory biography of Zengi reveals why he would become al-Zarqawi’s personal hero. </p>
<p>Zengi began as the <em>atabeg</em> (governor) of Mosul, Islamic State’s current besieged “capital”. He went on to seize Aleppo and Hama in modern Syria, contending with the rival Islamic power of Damascus, before turning on the Crusaders at Edessa, one of the four Crusader states. </p>
<p>Similarly, just as Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda had always viewed the US as the primary enemy of Islam, <a href="http://www.cfr.org/iraq/profile-abu-musab-al-zarqawi/p9866">al-Zarqawi’s organisation</a> (at that point known as al-Qaeda in Iraq) focused on the establishment of a Caliphate. This emphasis led him not only into conflict with the West, but also – and fatally in terms of the group’s relationship with al-Qaeda – with those Middle Eastern states ruled by leaders <a href="http://web.stanford.edu/group/mappingmilitants/cgi-bin/groups/view/1">he believed</a> were more interested in promoting idolatry than Islam. </p>
<p>As Zengi conquered the Middle East before turning to the Crusaders, so al-Zarqawi planned to conquer the region before turning on the infidels of the West. Indeed, <a href="http://islamiccoins.ancients.info/Zangids/ZangidState.JPG">Zengi’s territories</a> bear an eerie similarity to <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-27838034">Islamic State’s own territories last year</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166772/original/file-20170426-13391-1npkb7q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166772/original/file-20170426-13391-1npkb7q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166772/original/file-20170426-13391-1npkb7q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166772/original/file-20170426-13391-1npkb7q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166772/original/file-20170426-13391-1npkb7q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166772/original/file-20170426-13391-1npkb7q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166772/original/file-20170426-13391-1npkb7q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Zengi’s possessions, with the Byzantine Empire in purple and Crusaders states in pink.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But his career as a model for the group goes further. </p>
<p>First, his conquests compelled the emir of Damascus to ally with the Crusaders against him, neatly mirroring how Islamic State sees Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria.</p>
<p>And just like Islamic State, Zengi was renowned for his brutal rule. When he took the city of Baalbek, just north of Damascus, for instance, he swore on the Koran and all his wives that he would treat the defenders well if they surrendered. He flayed the governor and hanged the rest. </p>
<h2>Zengi vs John</h2>
<p>So far, so “medieval” – and it would seem that both the Islamic State and its analysts are correct in likening the Caliphate as a return to the barbarous horrors of the Middle Ages. Except that this story of Islamic Jihadis against Christian Crusaders was never as clear-cut as historians – Christian and Islamic, medieval and modern – recorded. </p>
<p>A major player is often left out of this story: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2166088.Byzantium">the surviving Roman Empire</a>, labeled “Byzantium” during the Enlightenment. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166773/original/file-20170426-13411-of67dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166773/original/file-20170426-13411-of67dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=843&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166773/original/file-20170426-13411-of67dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=843&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166773/original/file-20170426-13411-of67dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=843&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166773/original/file-20170426-13411-of67dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1060&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166773/original/file-20170426-13411-of67dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1060&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166773/original/file-20170426-13411-of67dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1060&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Alexios I Komnenos called on Pope Urban II for mercenaries to aid his fight against the Turks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AAlexios_I_Komnenos.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Returning the Byzantine Empire to the narrative reveals that it was in fact Emperor Alexios I Komnenos who <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12907736-the-first-crusade?ac=1&from_search=true">called on Pope Urban II for mercenaries to aid his fight against the Turks</a>, an appeal that took on a life of its own as western knights carved out their own principalities in the east rather than yield their conquests to the emperor. Thus, the founding of the Crusader states. </p>
<p>Disputes continued until Alexios’ son, John II Komnenos, launched a major eastern campaign in 1137 with the aim of forcing at least the Crusader states of Antioch and Edessa to submit to his rule. But, as both a Christian and a politician who had no desire to ruin relations with the Pope and the west by attacking the Crusaders, John II Komnenos instead made a deal. </p>
<p>He and Prince Raymond of Antioch would conquer Aleppo and other Muslim-ruled towns together. Raymond would then hand over Antioch to John II Komnenos in exchange for these new conquests. This strategy would provide a useful buffer state for the Empire, give rich lands to Raymond and halt Zengi’s rise. </p>
<p>It also set the stage for the ultimate clash of civilisations, as the Christian Roman Emperor John II Komnenos, squared off against the great Jihadi Zengi. His campaign includes sieges and battles with names strikingly familiar to anyone following today’s news broadcasts: Manbij, Al-Bab, Aleppo, Damascus. </p>
<p>As arguably the most powerful Christian statesman of the period, John’s intervention can also be seen as the regional superpower intervening, in another clear parallel for us. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166774/original/file-20170426-13425-15a1jrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166774/original/file-20170426-13425-15a1jrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1010&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166774/original/file-20170426-13425-15a1jrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1010&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166774/original/file-20170426-13425-15a1jrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1010&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166774/original/file-20170426-13425-15a1jrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1269&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166774/original/file-20170426-13425-15a1jrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1269&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166774/original/file-20170426-13425-15a1jrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1269&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">John II Komnenos squared off against the great Jihadi Zengi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AJohn_II_Komnenos.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As John marshalled his forces against Aleppo and the cities of northern Syria, Zengi was in the field, laying siege to Damascus-ruled Hama and then Baalbek, only a few days away. Though some cities were ruled by independent emirs, many, and particularly Aleppo itself, had been conquered by Zengi in the previous few years. But he did not turn his army to confront John. </p>
<p>Medieval authors, just as modern commentators, used the rhetoric of the clash of civilisations, and both Christian and Muslim accounts were always setting up champions against each other. So the question is why was there no Zengi versus John showdown outside Aleppo. And how did medieval historians and commentators, which modern day Jihadis use for inspiration, explain it?</p>
<h2>The other side of the story</h2>
<p>The two major sources on Zengi are <a href="https://global.britannica.com/biography/Ibn-al-Athir">Ibn al-Athir</a> and <a href="http://www.sunnah.org/history/Scholars/ibn_asakir.htm">Ibn Asakir</a>, both of whom were commissioned to write histories of the Zengid dynasty and, as such, were unsurprisingly quite flattering in their portrayal. </p>
<p>In their view, this was the moment when Zengi united Islam against Christianity. His first duty was to seize Hama and Baalbek, so that he could later bring forth the united armies of Islam against the Crusaders. </p>
<p>This message was preached to contemporary readers, as they argued for all Muslims to unite to finish what Zengi had started. The same argument was used by Archbishop <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1889303.William_Of_Tyre_Historian_Of_The_Latin_East?ac=1&from_search=true">William of Tyre</a>, a prominent western chronicler of the Crusades, when attempting to convince his contemporaries to launch another Crusade. </p>
<p>Only Christians united could defeat the Muslims, and vice versa. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166775/original/file-20170426-13401-p5omyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166775/original/file-20170426-13401-p5omyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166775/original/file-20170426-13401-p5omyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166775/original/file-20170426-13401-p5omyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166775/original/file-20170426-13401-p5omyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166775/original/file-20170426-13401-p5omyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166775/original/file-20170426-13401-p5omyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">William of Tyre writing his history of the Crusades.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AWilliam_of_tyre.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The argument was necessary because John’s campaign failed and he was obliged to return west. Though he returned a few years later to try and finish the task, John died in a hunting accident in 1143. </p>
<p>Zengi meanwhile seized Edessa from the Crusaders and renewed his designs on Damascus. But in 1146, he was assassinated by a Christian slave, making him a martyr for the cause. </p>
<p>He left his son Nur ad-Din to confront the armies of the Second Crusade. And from here, the cycle of Crusade and Jihad continued, such that it seems that it was always meant to be that way.</p>
<p>But this interpretation of history, related by later medieval authors and parroted by modern commentators, is not the full story. There is another explanation for Zengi’s reluctance to attack found in less well-known sources. </p>
<p>Other Muslim voices come from <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19732072-the-book-of-contemplation?from_search=true">Ibn Munquidh</a>, a poet, scholar and diplomat who served many Islamic dynasties, and famously talked of both friends and enemies among the Christians. And <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/771260.The_Damascus_Chronicle_of_the_Crusades?ac=1&from_search=true">Ibn al-Qalanisi</a>, a scholar of Damascus and thus a supporter of the major Islamic power opposed to Zengi. </p>
<p>Both these authors, and <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10453503-chronique-de-michel-le-grand?ac=1&from_search=true">lesser-known</a> eastern <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5103145-armenia-and-the-crusades?ac=1&from_search=true">Christian writers</a>, mention that John and Zengi exchanged numerous ambassadors and gifts, even including hunting birds for their shared hobby. These embassies are said to have continued even after John returned to Antioch for the winter. </p>
<h2>Seeking stability and order</h2>
<p>Thus we have the picture of the respective champions of Christianity and Islam – the progenitors of the “clash of civilisations” that still echoes today – negotiating and exchanging gifts with one another, even as their armies were barely a few days apart. </p>
<p>Exactly what they talked about is not recorded. But by examining the situation before the chaos of the First Crusade an explanation presents itself. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166776/original/file-20170426-13422-11eeokb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166776/original/file-20170426-13422-11eeokb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166776/original/file-20170426-13422-11eeokb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166776/original/file-20170426-13422-11eeokb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166776/original/file-20170426-13422-11eeokb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166776/original/file-20170426-13422-11eeokb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166776/original/file-20170426-13422-11eeokb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Byzantine Asia Minor (Anatolia) and the Byzantine-Arab frontier region in 780 AD, with provinces, roads and major settlements.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AAsia_Minor_ca_780_AD.svg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The map above shows the rough borders of the region in the late 8th and mid-11th centuries, the latter being before internal crises and Turkish incursions weakened both the Roman Empire in the north, and the Fatimid Caliphate in the south.</p>
<p>The political order of the Christian Romans in the north, and Islam in the south and east, had been relatively stable for the previous few hundred years despite occasional border wars. We have accounts of well-treated Muslim prisoners in Constantinople having a mosque built for their use, while the Caliph allowed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem to be under the protection of the Roman Emperor. What’s more, Christians often served in the Fatimid civil service. </p>
<p>Many women were captured and then married by a member of the other religion, so that Christians had Muslim mothers and vice versa. The most famous example of this is the legendary tale of <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/86749.Digenis_Akritas?ac=1&from_search=true">Digenes Akrites</a>, a Robin Hood figure of the eastern frontier. His very name symbolises his origins, with <em>Di-genes</em> referring to his dual ancestry, and <em>Akrites</em> referring to his role as a border warrior. </p>
<p>The Digenes Akrites story, and others, were however written in the 12th century. That’s after civil wars, and Turkish and Crusader invasions had swept away this political order forever – or perhaps not. In the summer of 1138, it appears that John and Zengi were negotiating a return to the Roman north and Islamic south in the Middle East, bringing stability back to the war-torn region. </p>
<p>Now, Zengi was hardly a humanitarian or a figure to be admired by modern standards. Though better by comparison – and renowned in his own day for supposedly never putting anyone to death – neither was Emperor John.</p>
<p>Ibn Munquidh uses the expression “sacking a city like the Romans” whenever a general of any religion let his soldiers loose on a civilian population. But these medieval figures used as role models by Islamic State and others were not fanatics. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166777/original/file-20170426-13383-apc8aa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166777/original/file-20170426-13383-apc8aa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166777/original/file-20170426-13383-apc8aa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166777/original/file-20170426-13383-apc8aa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166777/original/file-20170426-13383-apc8aa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166777/original/file-20170426-13383-apc8aa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166777/original/file-20170426-13383-apc8aa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Caliph allowed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem to be under the protection of the Roman Emperor.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Holy_Sepulchre#/media/File:Kuppel_der_Grabeskirche.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>They were happy to divide the Levant between them for the sake of stability and order, if for no other reason than that was best for their own personal glory and regimes. </p>
<h2>Peace in Syria</h2>
<p>Considerably more controversially, the same may be said of Islamic State. They <a href="https://www.academia.edu/27199875/Islamic_Caliphate_A_Quasi-State_A_Global_Security_Threat">see themselves</a> as a <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/middle-east/isis-not-terrorist-group">quasi-state</a> looking <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/markaz/2016/08/01/the-islamic-state-threat-to-the-middle-east/">to impose</a> their <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-a-year-of-the-caliphate-what-is-it-that-the-so-called-islamic-state-really-wants-10352950.html">own version</a> of stability and order in the Middle East.</p>
<p>If we look closely at the group’s infamous propaganda machine, the most striking narratives in the West are ones of <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3539802/Grisly-ISIS-propaganda-video-shows-brutal-executions-victims-including-Iraqi-soldier-crawls-hands-knees-begs-mercy.html">brutality</a>. But the <a href="https://www.quilliamfoundation.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/publications/free/the-virtual-caliphate-understanding-islamic-states-propaganda-strategy.pdf">vast majority</a> revolve around constructing an image of a brotherhood with the aim of an inclusive and stable Caliphate at its centre. </p>
<p>The reason Western commentators so often overlook this is that the latter is aimed specifically at Muslims. Whereas those pieces of propaganda with a narrative of brutality at their heart are focused on the West. And they are used as a method to warn Western leaders against interfering with the group’s objectives.</p>
<p>The Islamic State then, may indeed be a “medieval throwback”, but not in the sense that many western commentators suggest. And the parallels between the 12th and 21st centuries are not only due to the wanton brutality of those involved. </p>
<p>Rather, it’s because they share an ambition for stability in the Middle East, starting with the unification of the region <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/03/what-isis-really-wants/384980/">under the flag of Islam</a>. Unlike many, IS do have a clear plan for an ordered region - but that plan consists of <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-a-year-of-the-caliphate-day-to-day-life-in-the-islamic-state-where-any-breach-of-restrictive-10348151.html">total authoritarian brutality in every aspect of everyday life,</a> with the slightest infractions of any of their prohibitions punished with the <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/reports-of-everyday-life-under-the-islamic-state-a-1041317.html">lash, amputation, crucifixion and worse</a>.</p>
<p>Zengi’s own inhumane methods may have added to al-Zarqawi’s glorification of him as an individual. But the root of al-Zarqawi’s and Islamic State’s adoration <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25016279-the-isis-apocalypse">come from Zengi’s geopolitical aims</a>. Indeed, the so-called Caliphate was originally <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2017/01/west-can-never-hope-understand-islamic-state">proclaimed</a> from the mosque built by Zengi in Mosul.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that those fighting in the Middle East – however brutal or seemingly blinded by religion they may appear – are in fact seeking a <a href="http://www.e-ir.info/2015/10/05/a-fight-for-statehood-isis-and-its-quest-for-political-domination/#_ftn30">return to a vision of political order</a>. Until this is found, they will continue fighting. </p>
<p>Thus, even as Zengi and John considered civil compromise, so we can hope that Russia and the United States, Iran, Saudi Arabia and all other powers involved can do the same, so that the instability that allows IS to exist can be eliminated, and with it, IS itself.</p>
<p>The alternative is to let the Islamic State and those like them impose their own vision of order, which will likely follow Tacitus in “<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/2936846.Tacitus">making a desert and calling it peace</a>”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73375/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A case study from the height of the Crusades in the 12th and 13th centuries illustrates that even the most brutal leaders can choose to compromise for stability.Maximilian Lau, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Byzantine History, Hitotsubashi UniversityEmily Jarratt, MA Student Conflict, Security and Development, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/707792017-01-17T07:48:42Z2017-01-17T07:48:42ZTrumpus Andronicus? What the Byzantine Empire can tell us about the rise of populist leaders<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152961/original/image-20170117-9038-gx1xt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Carlos Barria/Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The approaching Donald Trump presidency has taken quite a battering from <a href="http://europe.newsweek.com/just-how-similar-donald-trump-adolf-hitler-501252?rm=eu">historians</a>. Comparisons have abounded with the 20th century’s greatest villains, including <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/seven-times-the-media-compared-trump-to-hitler/article/2610443">Adolf Hitler</a> and <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/08/american-authoritarianism-under-donald-trump/495263/">Benito Mussolini</a>, even if some have <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-reynosa/why-comparing-donald-trum_b_11097020.html">questioned how useful</a> such parallels are. </p>
<p>But there is an era that lends itself rather closer to comparison than the tired fascist example. And it may have a far more useful message for us today.</p>
<h2>Rise of a demagogue</h2>
<p>Picture a superpower, once unquestioned, but now increasingly challenged by the rise of new powers. After political and financial crises, it tries to jumpstart its economy with international free trade, which, though it makes major cities and certain sectors of society very wealthy, also increases the strain on everyone outside these societal and geographical groups. </p>
<p>This leads to resentment towards both foreigners and elites, while those elites continue to focus on constraining rising powers abroad and, in particular, to extend their influence in the Middle East, the Balkans, and Crimea. This ends with the rise of a popular demagogue, who rules chaotically. But the people support him as they see his measures against foreigners and elites as justified in what they see as a broken system.</p>
<p>Sound familiar?</p>
<p>What will be less familiar is the setting: the 12th century <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2166088.Byzantium">Byzantine Empire</a> (the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5241207-the-cambridge-history-of-the-byzantine-empire-c-500-to-1492">surviving</a> eastern part of the Roman Empire) during the <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/64532.The_New_Concise_History_of_the_Crusades">Crusades</a>. The outsider politician: an ageing prince named Andronicus Komnenos (1118-1185).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152964/original/image-20170117-9058-1un4a14.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152964/original/image-20170117-9058-1un4a14.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=275&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152964/original/image-20170117-9058-1un4a14.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=275&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152964/original/image-20170117-9058-1un4a14.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=275&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152964/original/image-20170117-9058-1un4a14.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=346&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152964/original/image-20170117-9058-1un4a14.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=346&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152964/original/image-20170117-9058-1un4a14.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=346&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_Empire#/media/File:The_Byzantine_Empire,_c.1180.svg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is not a “warning from history”. The 2010s are not a <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilhowe/2014/11/25/are-we-reliving-the-1930s/#6c9bad893a6c">rerun of the 1930s</a> even if they share some similarities, and neither are we reliving the 1180s. But where events do not repeat, processes do. </p>
<p>Though these events contain horrors in the best traditions of a medieval caricature, so too one can see why people supported such a regime in spite of those horrors. And, in particular, to understand why people change course in such dramatic ways.</p>
<h2>Early career</h2>
<p>To describe the colourful man himself: <a href="http://www.roman-emperors.org/andycomn.htm">Andronicus Komnenos</a> was born around 1118, the grandson of an emperor. He was a prince, but far down the line of succession. He had two passions: his military career, and a series of high-profile seductions. </p>
<p>Andronicus’ record as a soldier bears more than a few similarities to Trump’s business career, in that he sold himself as hugely successful, but his actual record was mixed. </p>
<p>The Turks had taken the 23-year-old Andronicus captive in battle in 1141, but he was ransomed and came to the court of his cousin, the Emperor <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3189942-the-empire-of-manuel-i-komnenos-1143-1180">Manuel I Komnenos</a>.</p>
<p>At court, Andronicus took up with his own niece, Eudoxia, making her his mistress, but they escaped her angry brothers when he was given military command in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7985241-the-armenian-kingdom-in-cilicia-during-the-crusades">Cilicia</a> in 1152. There, he failed to capture the rebel stronghold of Mopsuestria, was recalled and given another provincial command. But he appears to have left this one hurriedly as well, to avoid Eudoxia’s family. </p>
<p>At court, he was implicated in a plot against Manuel and imprisoned, but after escaping in 1165, Andronicus embarked on a grand tour of foreign courts, interspersed with short reconciliations with Manuel. He swanned into positions at court in Kiev, at Crusader <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1640639.The_Creation_of_the_Principality_of_Antioch_1098_1130?from_search=true">Antioch</a> and then <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/428520.A_History_of_the_Crusades_Vol_II?from_search=true">Jerusalem</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152960/original/image-20170117-9021-1wu8xnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152960/original/image-20170117-9021-1wu8xnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152960/original/image-20170117-9021-1wu8xnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152960/original/image-20170117-9021-1wu8xnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152960/original/image-20170117-9021-1wu8xnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152960/original/image-20170117-9021-1wu8xnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152960/original/image-20170117-9021-1wu8xnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Taking of Jerusalem by the Crusaders, 15th July 1099.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Counquest_of_Jeusalem_(1099).jpg">Giraudon/The Bridgeman Art Library</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At Antioch he seduced Philippa, sister of Manuel’s own wife Maria, compelling him to flee when Antioch succumbed to diplomatic pressure from Manuel to cease hosting this renegade prince. Andronicus was then welcomed in Jerusalem by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3736055-a-history-of-deeds-done-beyond-the-sea?from_search=true">King Amalric</a>, who made him lord of Beirut, but then, at the age of 56, he seduced Amalric’s sister-in-law Theodora (who was also Manuel’s niece). </p>
<p>Andronicus then fled with Theodora to Damascus and the court of Sultan <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10578074-the-chronicle-of-ibn-al-athir-for-the-crusading-period-from-al-kamil-fi?from_search=true">Nur al-Din</a>. They moved on from there to Georgia. Though given estates and military command in Georgia too, in the late 1170s he was living on family estates by the Black Sea, where Manuel finally collared him. He was forced to submit to the emperor before being allowed to retire quietly.</p>
<p>His career may have ended here, were it not for the political situation when Emperor Manuel died in 1180, leaving ten-year-old Emperor Alexios II in charge, under a regency headed by Manuel’s widow, the western <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3316826-byzantine-empresses">Empress Maria</a>.</p>
<h2>Political and economic turmoil</h2>
<p>To understand the political climate, we need to go back to the crises of the late 11th century, which also echo modern times. The era was dominated by two previous geopolitical events: the Byzantine <a href="http://deremilitari.org/2013/09/the-battle-of-manzikert-military-disaster-or-political-failure/">civil wars that followed the 1071 battle of Manzikert</a>, which allowed Turks to occupy much of Anatolia, and the subsequent appeal of the civil war’s victor Alexios I Komnenos to the Papacy, which replied in the form of the <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12907736-the-first-crusade">First Crusade</a> in 1097. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152962/original/image-20170117-9062-9cc9dv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152962/original/image-20170117-9062-9cc9dv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=635&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152962/original/image-20170117-9062-9cc9dv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=635&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152962/original/image-20170117-9062-9cc9dv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=635&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152962/original/image-20170117-9062-9cc9dv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152962/original/image-20170117-9062-9cc9dv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152962/original/image-20170117-9062-9cc9dv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 15th-century French miniature depicts the Battle of Manzikert.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Well chronicled as these events are, there are comparatively fewer accounts of their results – politically, socially, or economically. Such a focus on the invasion itself and a comparative lack of interest in its fallout is equally something we can recognise as a typical historical error in these days of <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40720.The_End_of_Iraq">post-invasion Iraq</a> and <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/06/us-military-admits-major-mistakes-in-iraq-and-afghanistan/258339/">Afghanistan</a>. </p>
<p>Similarly, the chaos that the mass movement of peoples across continents can cause is not something of which a modern audience needs much convincing.</p>
<p>In the wake of these events, the Emperor Alexios, his son John and his grandson Manuel, found the empire’s <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2257532.The_Byzantine_Empire_1025_1204">economic and political situation</a> shot to hell. Many of its provinces were occupied by Turks and Normans, and far from the western Christians helping it reclaim lost territories, they set up <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13593952-the-crusader-states">Crusader States</a> that opposed any return to imperial hegemony. </p>
<p>At the same time, new powers were rising: Vladimir Monomakh of <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2844715-medieval-russia-980-1584">Kiev</a> ruled over an increasingly powerful “Rus” in the north; Serbs and Hungarians increasingly found their feet in the <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/465675.The_Early_Medieval_Balkans">Balkans</a>; and the arrival of the Crusaders encouraged various movements among the Islamic powers to <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/157921.The_Crusades">repel them</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152966/original/image-20170117-9058-6fd7ug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152966/original/image-20170117-9058-6fd7ug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=843&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152966/original/image-20170117-9058-6fd7ug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=843&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152966/original/image-20170117-9058-6fd7ug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=843&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152966/original/image-20170117-9058-6fd7ug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1060&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152966/original/image-20170117-9058-6fd7ug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1060&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152966/original/image-20170117-9058-6fd7ug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1060&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Alexios I Komnenos.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alexios_I_Komnenos.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Italian merchant republics – foremost among them <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13588369-venice?from_search=true">Venice</a>, <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26073493-genoa-la-superba">Genoa</a> and <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9119890-a-history-of-pisa?from_search=true">Pisa</a> – began to operate vast trading networks across the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, the western European kingdoms of England, France and others took an <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29563694-medieval-europe?from_search=true">increasing interest</a> in what was occurring in the Middle East.</p>
<p>To compete in this new world, Alexios allied himself with the rising commercial power of Venice. He granted it sizeable tax breaks from trading tariffs in exchange for a military alliance, while at the same time granting its people a district in Constantinople to call their own. </p>
<p>Tax breaks to Genoese, Pisan and other western merchants followed, and their presence appears to have enriched the imperial state treasury and cities across the empire. Cities became hubs of production and consumption, rivalling their classical Roman forebears. At the same time, the rural tax burden was increased to make up for the loss of traditional trading <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2861760-the-byzantine-economy">revenue</a>. </p>
<p>Cities prospered while rural areas stagnated. The rural merchant was at a vast disadvantage both to his city-dwelling cousin, who gained tax breaks from trading with the foreigners, and, of course, to tax-free foreign merchants.</p>
<h2>Andronicus rising</h2>
<p>With this wealth, the Byzantine government focused on retaking its lost territories; Manuel pushed the empire through the Balkans to Croatia (1167) in the west while also attempting invasions of southern Italy (1155) and Egypt (1169). At the same time, the empire took on western cultural practices, with Manuel known to have held <a href="https://www.academia.edu/2127300/A_Description_of_the_Jousts_of_Manuel_I_Komnenos">western European-style jousting</a> in the ancient Hippodrome of Constantinople. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152965/original/image-20170117-9021-coh4bu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152965/original/image-20170117-9021-coh4bu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152965/original/image-20170117-9021-coh4bu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152965/original/image-20170117-9021-coh4bu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152965/original/image-20170117-9021-coh4bu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=680&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152965/original/image-20170117-9021-coh4bu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=680&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152965/original/image-20170117-9021-coh4bu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=680&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A topographical map of Constantinople during the Byzantine period.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Constantinople became particularly cosmopolitan in this era. Italian merchants had their own quarters, as did Africans from Nubia; there were two rival Jewish communities; and the imperial bodyguard was composed of Vikings and Anglo-Saxons. Constantinople had a <a href="http://constantinople.ehw.gr/Forms/fLemmaBodyExtended.aspx?lemmaID=11800">mosque</a> for Islamic traders and prisoners of war, and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1291178?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">Romany Gypsies</a> are known to have entered the empire at this time. </p>
<p>There are many more examples, but overall the picture that emerges is familiar: cosmopolitan, affluent cities and a struggling countryside. And elites focused culturally and politically on global affairs, rather than local concerns.</p>
<p>So by 1180, we have a foreign Empress-regent in charge of an empire that has vast differences in wealth, a large foreign population in its cities, continuing challenges from abroad (especially with the rise of <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5553129-saladin">Saladin</a>), and the new economic and political power of western Europeans. </p>
<p>After years of Manuel’s pro-western policies and military adventures, this situation led to rioting and civil unrest across the empire, such that in 1182 Andronicus (now aged 64) ended his retirement and marched on Constantinople with a small army. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152958/original/image-20170117-22302-1n2nkop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152958/original/image-20170117-22302-1n2nkop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152958/original/image-20170117-22302-1n2nkop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152958/original/image-20170117-22302-1n2nkop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152958/original/image-20170117-22302-1n2nkop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=643&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152958/original/image-20170117-22302-1n2nkop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=643&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152958/original/image-20170117-22302-1n2nkop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=643&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Byzantine billon trachy (a cup-shaped coin) of Andronicus 1183-1185 AD.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>He was allowed into the city by an admiral and a general, and immediately inflamed passions against elites and westerners in the city. This led to a bloody massacre of westerners in the streets, while Andronicus himself arranged the assassination of the young emperor after he had signed over power to him. Before this, the young emperor was forced to sign death warrants for his own mother, sister and the latter’s western husband. </p>
<p>Andronicus capped this off with marrying Alexios’ fiancée, the 12-year-old Agnes of France, daughter of the crusading French <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6458909-the-journey-of-louis-vii-to-the-east">King Louis VII</a>.</p>
<h2>Bloody reign</h2>
<p>Having taken power in so bloody a fashion, Andronicus did not completely break the wheel. His marriage to Agnes was an olive branch to the west, and in 1184 he compensated the Venetians 1,500 gold pieces for the massacre of their citizens and destruction of their property. </p>
<p>Despite this, he continued to persecute foreigners and the aristocracy. The people of the empire tolerated him because they saw the previous regime as corrupt and broken, even if Andronicus himself is likely to have acted mainly to eliminate rivals. </p>
<p>These measures began a vicious circle against his critics – real and imagined – as the harsher he got, the more rebellions broke out. He descended into paranoia, at one point blinding a bishop for supposedly not being able to see any rebels in his town. </p>
<p>In the end, his reign was cut short, after only three years, in 1185. His continuing purge of the aristocracy on slim pretences led one of his henchmen to try to arrest a nobleman called <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1981829.Byzantium_Confronts_the_West_1180_1204">Isaac Angelos</a>. But Isaac escaped, and fleeing to Hagia Sophia, he appealed to the people of Constantinople. </p>
<p>After three years of Andronicus’s cruelty and increasingly personal tyranny, despite his actions against the hated foreigners and elites, enough people wanted another change that rioting again broke out. When Andronicus returned from a military campaign, he found his son John had been murdered by his own troops and Issac had been declared emperor. </p>
<p>Andronicus was thrown to the mob and tortured publicly for three days, culminating in him being ripped apart by two western soldiers stabbing him by turns in the Hippodrome.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152957/original/image-20170117-9058-124cm01.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152957/original/image-20170117-9058-124cm01.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152957/original/image-20170117-9058-124cm01.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152957/original/image-20170117-9058-124cm01.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152957/original/image-20170117-9058-124cm01.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152957/original/image-20170117-9058-124cm01.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152957/original/image-20170117-9058-124cm01.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The gory end of Andronicus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Library of France</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>In the aftermath</h2>
<p>Three years of Andronicus did immense damage to the empire: new states emerged from rebellions in Bulgaria, Serbia and Cyprus, and all control over the crusaders was <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1016/S1304-4184(99)00003-2">lost</a>. His successors were more focused on retaining their own power than holding the empire together.</p>
<p>One of them appealed to cash-strapped soldiers of the <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1043865.The_Fourth_Crusade_and_the_Sack_of_Constantinople">Fourth Crusade</a>, promising money for military support. When he couldn’t pay, the crusaders sacked Constantinople and ended the empire that had ruled there since the fourth century. For those wanting all the gory details, I recommend <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10507.Baudolino">Umberto Eco’s historical novel Baudolino</a>, which chillingly portrays these events.</p>
<p>Though Andronicus’ reign was full of “medieval” horrors, the point here is how an outsider politician, with known serious flaws, was supported by a populace deeply disenchanted by government policies that had left a deep divide between affluent cosmopolitan elites and everyone else. </p>
<p>I am not arguing that we should watch out else there will be massacres of foreigners and the end of America; Trump is not Andronicus. But the situation that led to their rise is similar, and it is this lesson that we should learn from history. </p>
<p>In Act IV Scene I of Shakespeare’s play, Titus Andronicus, Titus’ brother says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>O, why should nature build so foul a den, Unless the gods delight in tragedies?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Neither then nor now is it “nature” that has “built so foul a den”. Historical contexts are built by people facing a certain set of circumstances. If we are to prevent future “tragedies”, and the rise of demagogues, we should look at fixing the processes that lead to them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70779/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maximilian Lau does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There is an era that lends itself rather closer than the tired Nazi comparisons of Donald Trump. And it may have a far more useful message for us today.Maximilian Lau, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Byzantine History, Hitotsubashi UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/700452017-01-15T19:01:17Z2017-01-15T19:01:17ZWhat can the medieval King Roger teach us about tolerance?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152216/original/image-20170110-17003-1b2uuym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A mosaic of King Roger II: we should celebrate his 12th-century example of inter-cultural collaboration.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matthias Süßen/Wikimedia commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For serious opera lovers, <a href="https://opera.org.au/whatson/events/king-roger-sydney">the new production of Karol Szymanowski’s 1926 opera Król Roger</a> (English: King Roger), never before performed in Australia, is quite an event. One of only three operas Szymanowski composed, it is considered his masterpiece. </p>
<p>A co-production between Opera Australia and the Royal Opera House, the opera - which opens in Sydney this week - was staged at Covent Garden in 2015 to universal acclaim. The Danish director of the production, Kasper Holten, has described the theme of the work as one of “identity”, the perennial battle between mind and body, duty and desire.</p>
<p>Szymanowski had been influenced by his travels to Sicily (in 1911 and 1914), where he came to terms with his own homosexuality. He was fascinated by the figure of Roger II, a 12th century Norman king who battled his own issues of identity. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152219/original/image-20170110-16990-a62yjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152219/original/image-20170110-16990-a62yjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152219/original/image-20170110-16990-a62yjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152219/original/image-20170110-16990-a62yjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152219/original/image-20170110-16990-a62yjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152219/original/image-20170110-16990-a62yjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152219/original/image-20170110-16990-a62yjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The cast of the Royal Opera House’s production of King Roger.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bill Cooper/Opera Australia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The opera is loosely based on historical evidence, and is more a spiritual and philosophical journey than a plot-driven drama. The main protagonists are few: there is Roger, his wife Roxana, the Muslim scholar Edrisi and the mysterious Shepherd, an exquisite youth preaching the relinquishment of worldly matters for sensuality and pleasure. Roger is at first sceptical, and with Edrisi as his advisor, resists the Shepherd’s call. As Roxana falls under the Shepherd’s spell, Roger too abandons himself to the ecstatic dance of the youth. Edrisi provides an anchor to the real world, eventually leading Roger back to his court in the third act.</p>
<h2>A Muslim-Christian collaboration</h2>
<p>The real story of Roger and Edrisi is just as compelling, although it shares little in common with Szymanowski’s opera. The establishment of the Norman kingdom in Sicily was a protracted and bloody process and Roger was hampered as a leader, straddling east and west. The Holy Roman and Byzantine Empires regarded the king as religiously suspect, and indeed rumours abounded that Roger had secretly converted to Islam.</p>
<p>In 1112, Roger’s capital was established at Palermo, a majority Arabic-speaking and Muslim city, also with a substantial Greek community. Roger cleverly co-opted Islamic and Graeco-Byzantine culture into his administration. His closest advisors were Muslims and Greeks, and he undertook a program of administrative reform and architectural commissions that brought together all that was best in Mediterranean culture. </p>
<p>This hybridity is starkly apparent in Siculo-Norman art. Roger has been depicted both as a Byzantine emperor, crowned by Christ himself, and as a Muslim caliph, with a dark complexion and kohl painted eyes. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150056/original/image-20161214-18890-hj5xoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150056/original/image-20161214-18890-hj5xoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=818&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150056/original/image-20161214-18890-hj5xoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=818&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150056/original/image-20161214-18890-hj5xoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=818&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150056/original/image-20161214-18890-hj5xoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1028&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150056/original/image-20161214-18890-hj5xoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1028&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150056/original/image-20161214-18890-hj5xoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1028&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Roger II crowned by Christ, Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio, Palermo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.wikicommons.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150057/original/image-20161214-18906-phywo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150057/original/image-20161214-18906-phywo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=709&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150057/original/image-20161214-18906-phywo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=709&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150057/original/image-20161214-18906-phywo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=709&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150057/original/image-20161214-18906-phywo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150057/original/image-20161214-18906-phywo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150057/original/image-20161214-18906-phywo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Roger in Muslim garb, Cappella Palatina, Palermo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.wikipedia.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Szymanowski’s opera, Edrisi is the close advisor of Roger, but in fact their relationship was based on intellectual collaboration rather than political counsel. Roger invited the North African, Muhammed Ibn Al-Idrīsi, to Palermo around 1139. He commissioned the scholar to compose a world geography, known appropriately as the Book of Roger. </p>
<p>In the book’s preface, Idrīsi writes that Roger wanted to know the “the true nature of his lands” and to put them into context with the rest of the world. For the next 15 years, Idrīsi and Roger interviewed travellers who visited Palermo, gleaning the most precise information about the regions of the world. </p>
<p>As such, the book is very large in scale, providing detailed descriptions of regions stretching from Ireland to Java. Below is the world map found in the book, with south placed at the top of the map. The “southern lands” – namely Australia – were described as too hot for habitation.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150060/original/image-20161214-18902-16igxk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150060/original/image-20161214-18902-16igxk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150060/original/image-20161214-18902-16igxk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150060/original/image-20161214-18902-16igxk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150060/original/image-20161214-18902-16igxk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150060/original/image-20161214-18902-16igxk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150060/original/image-20161214-18902-16igxk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">World map found in the Book of Roger, with south at the top.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.wikicommons.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Seeing diversity as an opportunity</h2>
<p>At a time when Europe was charged with the crusading spirit and fear of the “Muslim threat”, Roger displayed a curiosity and openness to the wider world that was ahead of his time. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150052/original/image-20161214-18873-1iwybel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150052/original/image-20161214-18873-1iwybel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150052/original/image-20161214-18873-1iwybel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150052/original/image-20161214-18873-1iwybel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150052/original/image-20161214-18873-1iwybel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150052/original/image-20161214-18873-1iwybel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150052/original/image-20161214-18873-1iwybel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Roger’s coronation mantle showing lions overpowering camels.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Roger_II_of_Sicily#/media/File:Weltliche_Schatzkammer_Wienc.jpg">www.wikicommons.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This vision, however, was short-lived. After Roger’s death in 1154, the situation for Sicily’s Muslim, and later Greek, communities deteriorated. Increasingly, mosques were converted into churches and large-scale Christian immigration was stepped up.</p>
<p>Following serious outbreaks of inter-confessional violence, including an anti-Muslim riot in 1161, there began a steady flow of Muslims out of Sicily, many settling in North Africa. Seeing the writing on the wall, a perspicacious though anonymous person rescued the manuscript of the Book of Roger, taking it to North Africa, where it became something of a classic.</p>
<p>Szymanowski’s opera presents Roger as a conflicted figure, uncertain of his place in the world; the composer clearly drew parallels between the issues of identity that plagued Roger and his own.</p>
<p>It can be argued that Roger displayed a remarkable assurance – he saw diversity as opportunity rather than something to be battled against or feared.</p>
<p>In a world in which Islam and the west are yet again at odds, this 12th-century example of inter-cultural collaboration is indeed one to be celebrated.</p>
<p><em>King Roger is playing at the Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House from January 20 to February 15, 2017.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70045/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katherine Jacka does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new production of the opera King Roger will open this week. At a time when Europe was charged with fear of the ‘Muslim threat’, this 12th century king collaborated with an Islamic scholar on an extraordinary project.Katherine Jacka, PhD Student, Department of Arabic Language and Cultures, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/541582016-03-11T04:40:48Z2016-03-11T04:40:48ZHow can we understand the origins of Islamic State?<p>Since announcing its arrival as a global force in June 2014 with the declaration of a caliphate on territory captured in Iraq and Syria, the jihadist group Islamic State has shocked the world with its brutality.</p>
<p>Its seemingly sudden prominence has led to much speculation about the group’s origins. How do we account for forces and events that <a href="http://bit.ly/UnderstandingIS">paved the way for Islamic State’s emergence</a>? </p>
<p>Do the answers lie in the 20th century, which saw the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the creation of new nations in its wake and their struggle for independence as well as articulation of national identities? Is it hidden in the debris of the Gulf and the Iraq Wars? Or do we have to look deeper in history – to the fundamental tenets of Islam, the Crusades, or the so-called Assassins of the 11th to 13th centuries?</p>
<p>Which of these – if any – can be said to have created the conditions necessary for the rise of Islamic State? In the article <a href="http://bit.ly/UnderstandingIS">kicking off our series on the genesis of the group</a>, professor of modern Middle Eastern history James Gelvin <a href="https://theconversation.com/understanding-islamic-state-where-does-it-come-from-and-what-does-it-want-52155">cautions against easy answers</a>. Just because one event followed another, he says, doesn’t mean it was also caused by it. </p>
<p>It is far better to look at the interplay of historical and social forces, as well as recognising that outfits such as Islamic State often cherry-pick ideas to justify their beliefs and behaviours. </p>
<p>Heeding his advice, <a href="http://bit.ly/UnderstandingIS">our series on understanding Islamic State</a> attempts, in a dispassionate way, to catalogue many of the forces and events that can arguably have played a part in creating the conditions necessary for these jihadists to emerge. We have tried to spread the net wide, but make no claim to being comprehensive or having the final word on Islamic State’s origins.</p>
<p>After <a href="https://theconversation.com/understanding-islamic-state-where-does-it-come-from-and-what-does-it-want-52155">Gelvin’s broad introduction to the group</a> and warnings about the misuse of history, we turn to Islam and its theology.</p>
<p>Historian of Islamic thought Harith Bin Ramli explains how Islamic State <a href="https://theconversation.com/islamic-state-lays-claim-to-muslim-theological-tradition-and-turns-it-on-its-head-53225">fits – or doesn’t – in Muslim theological tradition</a>, before religious studies scholar Aaron Hughes asks <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-islamic-state-is-based-on-religion-why-is-it-so-violent-52070">why, given the jihadist group is based on religion, is it so violent?</a> </p>
<p>In a further contribution, Hughes <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-islam-so-different-in-different-countries-51804">discusses the plurality at the core of Islam</a>, accounting for why the religion is so different in different countries.</p>
<p>Next, we turn to medieval history, as both the Crusades and the so-called cult of Assassins have been linked to Islamic State. </p>
<p>Farhad Daftary <a href="https://theconversation.com/islamic-state-and-the-assassins-reviving-fanciful-tales-of-the-medieval-orient-53873">discusses the Nizari Ismailis</a> – romanticised as Assassins by the Crusaders and in The Travels of Marco Polo – who killed, among others, two early caliphs. Could they really be thought of as an earlier incarnation of the most vicious terrorists in recent history?</p>
<p>Professor of religious studies Carole Cusack <a href="https://theconversation.com/did-the-crusades-lead-to-islamic-state-54478">considers the Crusades themselves</a>, and what contribution they could have had in Islamic State’s origins.</p>
<p>Leaping to the 20th century, we start looking at the more proximate causes of the group’s rise.</p>
<p>First, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-post-colonial-caliphate-islamic-state-and-the-memory-of-sykes-picot-52655">a look at the fateful Sykes-Picot agreement</a>, which craved up the Middle East into English and French spheres of influence, and was denounced by Islamic State in the first video it released. James Renton argues the group’s self-declared political aim in establishing its caliphate speaks directly to the deal, and is an attempt at post-colonial emancipation.</p>
<p>Addressing an issue raised in the comments to the articles in the series, Harith Bin Ramli <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-political-crises-of-the-modern-muslim-world-created-the-climate-for-islamic-state-54644">considers the long 20th century</a> endured by the Middle East. He explains how the crisis of political authority in the Muslim world between the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the 1991 Gulf War contributed to Islamic State’s rise.</p>
<p>The series concludes with a look at more proximate events – <a href="https://theconversation.com/out-of-the-ashes-of-afghanistan-and-iraq-the-rise-and-rise-of-islamic-state-55437">the role of the recent wars in the region and their aftermath</a>. Greg Barton points out that to understand Islamic State, we need to look not just at the Middle East itself but also at the complicated role the West has historically played in it. </p>
<p><strong><em><a href="http://bit.ly/UnderstandingIS">Download our special report</a>: Understanding Islamic State</em></strong></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54158/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Our series on understanding Islamic State attempts to catalogue many of the forces and events that can arguably have played a part in creating the conditions necessary for these jihadists to emerge.Reema Rattan, Global Commissioning EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/544782016-02-22T19:05:34Z2016-02-22T19:05:34ZDid the Crusades lead to Islamic State?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112120/original/image-20160219-12817-1dr8ep1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Crusades evoke a romantic image of medieval knights, chivalry, romance and religious high-mindedness.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/syldavia/39125832/">David Wise/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>How do we account for forces and events that paved the way for the emergence of Islamic State? <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/understanding-islamic-state">Our series on the jihadist group’s origins</a> tries to address this question by looking at the interplay of historical and social forces that led to its advent.</em></p>
<p><em>Today, professor of religious studies Carole Cusack considers the Crusades: can we really understand anything about Islamic State by looking at its rise as the latest incarnation of a centuries-old struggle between Islam and Christianity?</em></p>
<hr>
<p>In 1996, late US political scientist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_P._Huntington">Samuel P. Huntington</a> published the book <a href="http://books.simonandschuster.com/The-Clash-of-Civilizations-and-the-Remaking-of-World-Order/Samuel-P-Huntington/9781451628975">The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order</a>. Following the collapse of communism in 1989, he argued, conflicts would increasingly involve religion. </p>
<p>Islam, which Huntington claimed had been the opponent of Christianity since the seventh century, would increasingly feature in geopolitical conflict. </p>
<p>So, it wasn’t particularly shocking when, after <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks">the September 11 attacks</a> on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, the then-US president, George W. Bush, used the term “crusade” to describe the American military response. </p>
<p>Framing the subsequent “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Terror">war on terror</a>” as a crusade acted as a red flag to journalists and political commentators, who could treat the events as simply the most recent stoush in a centuries-old conflict. </p>
<p>The actual <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusades">Crusades (1096-1487)</a> themselves evoke a romantic image of medieval knights, chivalry, romance and religious high-mindedness. But representing them as wars between Christians and Muslims is a gross oversimplification and a misreading of history.</p>
<h2>Early Islamic conquests</h2>
<p>That there were wars between Muslims and Christians is certainly true. After the death of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Bakr">Abu Bakr (573-634)</a>, the Prophet Muhammad’s father-in-law and first caliph, the second <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umar">Caliph Umar (583-644)</a> sent the Islamic armies in three divisions to conquer and spread the religion of Islam. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111744/original/image-20160217-19239-1w8syvt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111744/original/image-20160217-19239-1w8syvt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111744/original/image-20160217-19239-1w8syvt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111744/original/image-20160217-19239-1w8syvt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111744/original/image-20160217-19239-1w8syvt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111744/original/image-20160217-19239-1w8syvt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111744/original/image-20160217-19239-1w8syvt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111744/original/image-20160217-19239-1w8syvt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>Whole regions that were Christian fell to Islam. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Land">The Holy Land</a>, which comprised modern-day Palestinian territories, Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, for instance, was defeated. And Egypt was conquered without even a battle in 640. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Empire">ancient and vast Persian Empire</a>, officially <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism">Zoroastrian in religion</a>, had been conquered by 642. Weakened by war with the Christian <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_Empire">Byzantine Empire</a>, Persia was no match for the Muslim forces. </p>
<p>Muslim armies marched across north Africa and crossed the Straits of Gibraltar into modern Spain, eventually securing a large territory in the Iberian Peninsula, which was known as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Andalus">Al-Andalus</a> (also known as Muslim Spain or Islamic Iberia).</p>
<p>They also marched across the Pyrenees and into France in 732, the centenary of Muhammad’s death. But they were decisively defeated at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tours">Battle of Poitiers</a> (also known as Battle of Tours and, by Arab sources, as Battle of the Palace of the Martyrs) by the Frankish general, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Martel">Charles Martel (686-741)</a>, grandfather of the great Emperor Charlemagne. </p>
<p>This was seen as a Christian victory and, after Poitiers, there were no further attacks on Western Europe. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusades">The Crusades</a> came much later.</p>
<h2>The causes of the Crusades</h2>
<p>The proximate causes of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Crusade">First Crusade (1096-1099)</a> include the defeat of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexios_I_Komnenos">Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenus (1056-1118)</a>, who was crowned in 1081 and ruled until his death. His armies met the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seljuq_dynasty">Muslim Seljuk Turks</a> at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Manzikert">Battle of Manzikert in 1071</a> and were defeated. </p>
<p>This placed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantinople">the city of Constantinople</a> at risk of conquest. So, the emperor requested that the West send knights to assist him – and he was prepared to pay. </p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Urban_II">Pope Urban II (1044-1099)</a> preached the Crusade at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Clermont">Council of Clermont</a> in 1095. <a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/pope-urban-ii-orders-first-crusade">He argued that</a> the Turks and Arabs attacked Christian territories and had “<a href="https://www.eduplace.com/ss/hmss/7/unit/act5.1blm.html">killed and captured many, and have destroyed the churches and devastated the empire</a>”. </p>
<p>He <a href="http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/source/fulcher-cde.asp">also promised his audience</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>All who die by the way, whether by land or by sea, or in battle against the pagans, shall have immediate remission of sins. This I grant them through the power of God with which I am invested.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This was recorded by a monk called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulcher_of_Chartres">Fulcher of Chartres</a>, who wrote a chronicle of the First Crusade. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112117/original/image-20160219-1274-xgonb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112117/original/image-20160219-1274-xgonb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112117/original/image-20160219-1274-xgonb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112117/original/image-20160219-1274-xgonb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112117/original/image-20160219-1274-xgonb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112117/original/image-20160219-1274-xgonb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112117/original/image-20160219-1274-xgonb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The four leaders of the First Crusade.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/CrusadeLeaders.jpg">Alphonse-Marie-Adolphe de Neuville via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Thousands answered the pope’s call and the First Crusade conquered Jerusalem in 1099. But the Crusaders’ presence in the Middle East was short-lived and the port city of Ruad, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Ruad">last Christian possession</a>, was lost in 1302/3. </p>
<p>Many later conflicts that were called Crusades were not actions against Muslim armies at all. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Crusade">The Fourth Crusade (1202-1204)</a>, for instance, was a Venetian Catholic army, which besieged Constantinople. Catholic Christians attacked Orthodox Christians, then looted the city, taking its treasures back to Venice. </p>
<p>Islam was not a factor in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albigensian_Crusade">Albigensian Crusade of 1209-1229</a>, either. In that instance, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Innocent_III">Pope Innocent III (1160/1-1216)</a> used the language of war against the infidel (literally “unfaithful”, meaning those without true religion) against heretics in the south of France. So, “right-thinking” Christians killed “deviant” Christians.</p>
<h2>The end of the Middle Ages</h2>
<p>It wasn’t all intermittent fighting. There were also periods of peace and productive relationships between Christian and Muslim rulers in the Middle Ages. </p>
<p>For instance, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne">Charlemagne (742-814)</a> (also know as Charles the Great or Charles I), who united most of Western Europe during the early part of the Middle Ages, sent gifts to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harun_al-Rashid">Harun al-Rashid (763-809)</a>, the Caliph of Baghdad. In return, he received diplomatic presents such as a chess set, an elaborate clepsydra (water clock) and an elephant. </p>
<p>In Spain, the culture from the early eighth century to the late 15th was known as “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Convivencia">la Convicencia</a>” (the co-existence), as Jews, Christians and Muslims lived in relative peace (though the level of harmony has been exaggerated). And there was an exchange of ideas in fields including mathematics, medicine and philosophy. </p>
<p>The Christian kingdoms of the north gradually reconquered Al-Andalus. And, in 1492, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_II_of_Aragon">King Ferdinand (1452-1516)</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_I_of_Castile">Queen Isabella (1451-1504)</a> reclaimed Granada and expelled the Jews and Muslims from Spain, or forced them to convert to Christianity. </p>
<h2>A clumsy view</h2>
<p>Clearly, to speak of an “us versus them” mentality, or to frame current geopolitical conflicts as “crusades” of Christians against Muslims, or vice versa, is to misunderstand – and misuse – history. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112108/original/image-20160219-1261-qsw0mv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112108/original/image-20160219-1261-qsw0mv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112108/original/image-20160219-1261-qsw0mv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112108/original/image-20160219-1261-qsw0mv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112108/original/image-20160219-1261-qsw0mv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112108/original/image-20160219-1261-qsw0mv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112108/original/image-20160219-1261-qsw0mv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Not all blood and guts: the Caliph of Baghdad Harun al-Rashid receives a delegation from Charlemagne.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AHarun-Charlemagne.jpg">Julius Köckert via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Modern Westerners would find medieval Crusader knights as unappealing as they do Islamic State.</p>
<p>And it’s impossible to miss the fact that the immediate entry into heaven Pope Urban promised to Christian soldiers who died in battle against the infidel Muslims is conceptually identical to the martyrdom ideology of contemporary jihadists. </p>
<p>Reality is more complex – and more interesting – than the simple continuation of a historical struggle against the same enemy. Muslims conquered Christian territories, yes, but Christians engaged in reconquest. </p>
<p>There were forced conversions to both Islam and Christianity, and – very importantly – actual governments and monarchs were involved. It’s a simplistic thing to say that “Islamic State is neither Islamic nor a state”, but there’s an element of truth in it.</p>
<p>The most important reason we should resist the lure of the crusade tag to any fight against jihadists is that groups like Islamic State <em>want</em> the West to think like that. </p>
<p>It justified the Paris bomb attacks of November 2015 as attacks against “the Crusader nation of France”. Osama bin Laden used the same reasoning after the September 11 attacks. </p>
<p>By adopting the role of Crusaders, Western nations play into Islamic State’s hands. It’s how these jihadists want the West to understand itself – as implacably opposed to Islam. But it’s not, and it never has been.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is the sixth article in our series on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/understanding-islamic-state">historical roots of Islamic State</a>. <a href="http://bit.ly/UnderstandingIS">Download our special report</a> collating the whole the series.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54478/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carole Cusack does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Representing even the Crusades as wars between Christians and Muslims is a gross oversimplification and a misreading of history.Carole Cusack, Professor of Religious Studies, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/538732016-02-21T19:03:36Z2016-02-21T19:03:36ZIslamic State and the Assassins: reviving fanciful tales of the medieval Orient<p><em>How do we account for forces and events that paved the way for the emergence of Islamic State? <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/understanding-islamic-state">Our series on the jihadist group’s origins</a> tries to address this question by looking at the interplay of historical and social forces that led to its advent.</em></p>
<p><em>Today, historian Farhad Daftary debunks the idea that Islamic State is based on the so-called Assassins or hashishin, the fighting corps of the fledgling medieval Nizari Ismaili state.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Many Western commentators have tried to trace the ideological roots of Islamic State (IS) to earlier Islamic movements. Occasionally, they’ve <a href="http://atheistpapers.com/2015/08/06/sicarii-assassins-and-the-islamic-state-a-pattern-emerges/">associated them with the medieval Ismailis</a>, a Shiʿite Muslim community made famous in Europe by returning Crusaders as the Assassins. </p>
<p>But any serious inquiry shows the teachings and practices of medieval Ismailis, who had a state of their own in parts of Iran from 1090 to 1256, had nothing in common with the senseless terrorist ideology and ruthless destruction of IS and its supporters. </p>
<p>Attacks on civilians, including women and children, and engaging in the mass destruction of property are forbidden both by Prophet Muhammad and in the tenets of Islamic law. Needless to say, the Ismailis never descended to such terrorist activities, even under highly adversarial circumstances. </p>
<p>Significant discordance exists between the medieval Ismailis and contemporary terrorists, who – quite inappropriately – identify themselves as members of an Islamic polity. </p>
<h2>Fanciful Oriental tales</h2>
<p>The Ismailis, or more specifically the Nizari Ismailis, founded a precarious state in 1090 under the leadership of Hasan-i Sabbah. As a minority Shi'ite Muslim community, they faced hostility from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbasid_Caliphate">Sunni-Abbasid establishment</a> (the third caliphate after the death of the Prophet Muhammed) and their political overlords, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seljuq_dynasty">Seljuq Turks</a>, from very early on. </p>
<p>Struggling to survive in their network of defensive mountain fortresses remained the primary objective of the Ismaili leadership, centred on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alamut_Castle">castle of Alamut</a> (in the north of modern-day Iran). Their state survived against all odds until it was destroyed by the all-conquering Mongols in 1256.</p>
<p>During the course of the 12th century, the Ismailis were incessantly attacked by the armies of the Sunni Seljuq sultans, who were intensely anti-Shiʿite. As they couldn’t match their enemies’ superior military power, the Ismailis resorted to the warfare tactic of selectively removing Seljuq military commanders and other prominent adversaries who posed serious existential threats to them in particular localities. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110922/original/image-20160210-3283-jkrcvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110922/original/image-20160210-3283-jkrcvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110922/original/image-20160210-3283-jkrcvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110922/original/image-20160210-3283-jkrcvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110922/original/image-20160210-3283-jkrcvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110922/original/image-20160210-3283-jkrcvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110922/original/image-20160210-3283-jkrcvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An agent (fida’i) of the Ismailis (left, in white turban) fatally stabs Nizam al-Mulk, a Seljuk vizier, in 1092.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AAssassination_of_Nizam_al-Mulk.jpg">Public domain via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These daring missions were carried out by the Ismaili fidaʾis, who were deeply devoted to their community. The fidaʾis comprised the fighting corps of the Ismaili state. </p>
<p>But the Ismailis didn’t invent the policy of assassinating enemies. It was a practice employed by many Muslim groups at the time, as well as by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusades">the Crusaders</a> and many others throughout history. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, almost all assassinations of any significance occurring in the central lands of Islam became automatically attributed to the Ismaili fidaʾis. And a series of fanciful tales were fabricated around their recruitment and training. </p>
<p>These tales, rooted in the “imaginative ignorance” of the Crusaders, were concocted and put into circulation by them and their occidental observers; they’re not found in contemporary Muslim sources. </p>
<p>The so-called Assassin legends, which culminated in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Polo">Marco Polo’s synthesis</a>, were meant to provide satisfactory explanations for the fearless behaviour of the fidaʾis, which seemed otherwise irrational to medieval Europeans. </p>
<p>The very term Assassin, which appears in medieval European literature in a variety of forms, such as Assassini, was based on variants of the Arabic word hashish (plural, hashishin) and applied to the Nizari Ismailis of Syria and Iran by other Muslims. </p>
<p>In all the Muslim sources where the Ismailis are referred to as hashishis, the term is used in its pejorative sense of “people of lax morality”. There’s no suggestion that they were actually using hashish. There’s no evidence that hashish, or any other drug, was administered to the fida’is, as alleged by Marco Polo. </p>
<p>The literal interpretation of the term for the Ismailis as an “order of crazed hashish-using Assassins” is rooted entirely in the fantasies of medieval Europeans. </p>
<p>Modern scholarship in Ismaili studies, based on the recovery and study of numerous Ismaili textual sources, has now begun to dispel many misconceptions regarding the Ismailis, including the myths surrounding their cadre of fidaʾis. </p>
<p>And the medieval Assassin legends, arising from the hostility of the Sunni Muslims to the Shiʿite Ismailis as well as the medieval Europeans’ fanciful impressions of the Orient, have been <a href="http://www.ibtauris.com/Books/Humanities/History/Regional%20%20national%20history/Asian%20history/Middle%20Eastern%20history/The%20Assassin%20Legends%20Myths%20of%20the%20Ismailis.aspx?menuitem=%7BC90B73C8-B253-4CB4-A19B-025245A9366A%7D">recounted and deconstructed</a>.</p>
<h2>A culture of learning and tolerance</h2>
<p>Living in adverse circumstances, the Ismailis of Iran and Syria were heirs to the Fatimid dynasty that founded the city of Cairo and established al-Azhar, perhaps the earliest university of the world. Although preoccupied with survival, the Ismailis of the Alamut period maintained a sophisticated outlook and a literary tradition, elaborating their teachings within a Shiʿite theological framework. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110928/original/image-20160210-12161-md8bzw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110928/original/image-20160210-12161-md8bzw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110928/original/image-20160210-12161-md8bzw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110928/original/image-20160210-12161-md8bzw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110928/original/image-20160210-12161-md8bzw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110928/original/image-20160210-12161-md8bzw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110928/original/image-20160210-12161-md8bzw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An entirely fictional illustration from The Travels of Marco Polo showing the Nizari imam Alâ al Dîn Muhammad (1221-1255) drugging his disciples.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AAl%C3%A2_al_D%C3%AEn_Muhammad_droguant_ses_disciples.jpeg">Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Their leader, Hasan-i Sabbah, was a learned theologian. And the <a href="http://www.ibtauris.com/Books/Humanities/History/Regional%20%20national%20history/Asian%20history/Middle%20Eastern%20history/The%20Eagles%20Nest%20Ismaili%20Castles%20in%20Iran%20and%20Syria.aspx?menuitem=%7B84F7D96C-8E66-483F-AD63-DB241E9659C6%7D">Ismaili fortresses of the period</a>, displaying magnificent military architecture and irrigation skills, were equipped with libraries holding significant collections of manuscripts, documents and scientific instruments. </p>
<p>The Ismailis also extended their patronage of learning to outside scholars, including Sunnis, and even non-Muslims. They were very tolerant towards other religious communities. </p>
<p>In the last decades of their state, in the 13th century, even waves of Sunni Muslims found refuge in the Ismaili fortress communities of eastern Iran. These refugees were running from the Mongol hordes who were then establishing their hegemony over Central Asia. </p>
<p>All this stands in sharp contrast to the destructive policies of IS, which persecutes religious and ethnic minorities and enslaves women.</p>
<p>The medieval Ismailis embodied qualities of piety, learning and community life in line with established Islamic teachings. These traditions continue in the modern-day Ismaili ethos. And the present-day global Ismaili community represents one of the most progressive and enlightened communities of the Muslim world. </p>
<p>The Ismailis have never had anything in common with the terrorists of IS, who murder innocent civilians at random and en masse, and destroy monuments of humankind’s shared cultural heritage. </p>
<p>Global terrorism in any form under the banner of Islam is a new phenomenon without historical antecedents in either classical Islamic or any other tradition. IS’s ideology reflects a crude version of the intolerant Wahhabi theology expounded by the Sunni religious establishment of Saudi Arabia, which is itself a narrow perspective that fails to recognise any pluralism or diversity of interpretations in Islam.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is the fifth article in our series on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/understanding-islamic-state">historical roots of Islamic State</a>. <a href="http://bit.ly/UnderstandingIS">Download our special report</a> collating the whole the series.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53873/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Farhad Daftary does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In seeking to link IS to earlier Islamic movements, Western commentators have associated the jihadist group with the medieval Ismailis, made famous in Europe by returning Crusaders as the Assassins.Farhad Daftary, Co-Director & Head of the Department of Academic Research and Publications, The Institute of Ismaili StudiesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/520702016-02-17T19:18:44Z2016-02-17T19:18:44ZIf Islamic State is based on religion, why is it so violent?<p><em>Islamic State’s seemingly sudden prominence has led to much speculation about the group’s origins: how do we account for forces and events that paved the way for its emergence?</em></p>
<p><em>In today’s instalment of <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/understanding-islamic-state">our series on the origins of Islamic State</a>, religious studies scholar Aaron Hughes considers whether this jihadist group’s violence is inherent to Islam.</em></p>
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<p>Despite what we’re told, religion isn’t inherently peaceful. The assumption is largely based on the Protestant idea that religion is something spiritual and internal to the individual and that it’s corrupted by politics and other mundane matters. </p>
<p>But people kill in the name of religion, just as they love in its name. To claim that one of these alternatives is more authentic than the other is not only problematic, it’s historically incorrect. </p>
<p>The Crusades, attacks at abortion clinics, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Yitzhak_Rabin">some political assassinations</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Israeli_price_tag_attacks">price-tag attacks</a> – to name only a few examples – were and are all motivated by religion. </p>
<p>This is because religion is based on the metaphysical notion that there are believers (in one’s own religion) and non-believers. This distinction is predicated on “good” versus “evil”, and can be neatly packaged into a narrative to be used and abused by various groups.</p>
<h2>An imagined past</h2>
<p>One such group is Islamic State (IS), which is inherently violent and claims it mirrors the Islam of the Prophet Muhammad. In this, it’s like other reformist movements in Islam that seek to recreate in the modern period what they imagine to have been the political framework and society that Muhammad (570-632 CE) and his immediate followers lived in and created in seventh-century Arabia. </p>
<p>The problem is that we know very little about this society, except what, often, much later sources – such as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophetic_biography">Biography (Sira) of Muhammad</a> and the work of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Tabari">historians such as al-Tabari</a> (839-923 CE) – tell us it was like. </p>
<p>A central ideal for IS is that of restoring the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliphate">caliphate</a>. A geopolitical entity, the caliphate was the Islamic empire that stretched from Morocco and Spain in the West, to India in the East. It symbolises Islam at its most powerful. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111744/original/image-20160217-19239-1w8syvt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111744/original/image-20160217-19239-1w8syvt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111744/original/image-20160217-19239-1w8syvt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111744/original/image-20160217-19239-1w8syvt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111744/original/image-20160217-19239-1w8syvt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111744/original/image-20160217-19239-1w8syvt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111744/original/image-20160217-19239-1w8syvt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111744/original/image-20160217-19239-1w8syvt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
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<p>When it was spreading across the Middle East and the Mediterranean region in the seventh century, Islam was highly apocalyptic. Many early sources, such as the second caliph <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/1508294?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">Umar’s letter to the Byzantine Emperor Leo III</a>, as well as contemporaneous non-Muslim sources, such as the mid-eighth-century Jewish apocalypse <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secrets_of_Rabbi_Simon_ben_Yohai">The Secrets of Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai</a> and the seventh-century polemic <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teaching_of_Jacob_">Doctrina Jacobi</a>, speak about the coming destruction of the world as we know it.</p>
<p>The destruction is to begin with a battle between the forces of good (Muslim) versus those of evil. And IS has adopted this <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/08/world/middleeast/us-strategy-seeks-to-avoid-isis-prophecy.html">apocalyptic vision</a>.</p>
<p>Again, though, it’s worth noting two things. The first is that the <a href="https://theconversation.com/cultural-muslims-like-cultural-christians-are-a-silent-majority-32097">majority of Muslims today</a> don’t buy into this apocalyptic vision; it’s mainly something recycled by groups such as Islamic State. </p>
<p>Second, such an “end of days” vision is by no means unique to Islam; we also see it in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Mount_and_Eretz_Yisrael_Faithful_Movement">Judaism</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_right">Christianity</a>. In these other two traditions, as in Islam, such groups certainly do not represent orthodox belief.</p>
<h2>Medieval tolerance</h2>
<p>But apocalypse aside, was Islam particularly violent in the seventh century? One could certainly point to three of the first four of Muhammad’s successors (caliphs) having been assassinated. </p>
<p>One could also point to the tremendous theological debates over who was or was not a Muslim. And such debates included the status of the soul of grave sinners. Was such a sinner a Muslim or did his sin put him outside the community of believers? </p>
<p>What would become mainstream Muslim opinion is that it was up to God to decide and not humans. But groups such as Islamic State want to make this distinction for God. In this, they certainly stray from orthodox Muslim belief. </p>
<p>While this doesn’t make them “un-Islamic”, to say groups such as IS represent medieval interpretations of Islam is not fair to medieval Islam. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110739/original/image-20160209-12814-rxd6ox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110739/original/image-20160209-12814-rxd6ox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110739/original/image-20160209-12814-rxd6ox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110739/original/image-20160209-12814-rxd6ox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110739/original/image-20160209-12814-rxd6ox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110739/original/image-20160209-12814-rxd6ox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110739/original/image-20160209-12814-rxd6ox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Manuscript with depiction by Yahya ibn Vaseti found in the Maqama of Hariri depicts the image of a library with pupils in it, Baghdad 1237.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Maqamat_hariri.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>The eighth century, for example, witnessed the establishment, in Baghdad, of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Wisdom">Bayt al-Hikma (The House of Wisdom)</a>, which symbolised the so-called golden age of Islamic civilisation. This period witnessed, among other things, Muslim, Jewish and Christian scholars studying the philosophical and scientific texts of Greek antiquity. </p>
<p>These scholars also made many advances in disciplines, such as mathematics, astronomy, medicine, alchemy and chemistry, to name only a few. Within a century of its founding, Islam <a href="https://theconversation.com/islam-the-open-civilisation-confounds-closed-minds-44416">represented a cosmopolitan empire</a> that was nothing like the rigid and dogmatic interpretation of the religion seen in the likes of IS.</p>
<h2>A powerful tool</h2>
<p>Observers in the West who want to claim that Islam is to blame for IS and use it as further proof that the religion is inherently violent, ignore other root causes of the moment. </p>
<p>These include the history of European colonialism in the area; US and European support for a number of ruthless Middle Eastern dictators; and the instability created by the American invasion of Iraq after the events of September 11, 2001. </p>
<p>It’s juxtaposed against these recent events that groups such as IS dream of reconstituting what they romantically imagine as the powerful Islamic caliphate.</p>
<p>The fact is that religion’s ability to neatly differentiate between “believer” and unbeliever", and between “right” and “wrong”, makes it a powerful ideology. In the hands of demagogues, religious discourses – used selectively and manipulated to achieve a set of desired ends – are very powerful. </p>
<p>While it would be incorrect to say that the discourses used by IS are un-Islamic, it’s important to note it represents one particular Islamic discourse and that it’s not the mainstream one.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article is the third in <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/understanding-islamic-state">our series on understanding Islamic State</a>. <a href="http://bit.ly/UnderstandingIS">Download our special report</a> collating the whole the series.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52070/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aaron W. Hughes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Despite what we’re told, religion isn’t inherently peaceful. People kill in the name of their religion, just as they love in its name.Aaron W. Hughes, Philip S. Bernstein Professor of Jewish Studies, University of RochesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.