The Crusades: Crescent And The Cross Ep. 1 (part 1 Of 10)
This is an excellent documentary on the Crusades, the religious wars that pitted Christians and Muslims against each other for control of the Holy Land. Includes acted out sequences, battle scenes,. . .
July 08 2009 02:02 pm | Catholics
Tags: Crescent, Cross, Crusades, Part
Vexille1983 on 08 Jul 2009 at 2:10 pm #
Actually, the Crusaders became involved in an existing conflict over territory in Anatolia between the Byzantines and the Turks of Rum over, a successor-state of the Seljuk Empire. The decade before the Crusades, the mercenary armies of the Norman warlord Robert Guiscard had invaded Macedonia, one of the western provinces of the Byzantine Empire. The Crusaders would carry the war into Syria and Palestine. Like it or not, it was the Turks whom first attacked the Byzantines.
DNchap1417 on 08 Jul 2009 at 2:42 pm #
If I’m correct, the first episode was narrated by Ben Kingsley, right? That’s how I saw it on T.V.
SSaiyan6 on 08 Jul 2009 at 2:48 pm #
No the crusaders beging the war like or not
Vexille1983 on 08 Jul 2009 at 3:19 pm #
The Seljuks, like the Ghaznavids, were ethnic Turks whom were culturally Persianized, not to mention avowed Muslims. Unlike the Ghaznavids, the Seljuks were an independent tribal entity, whom invaded the Abbassid lands from the outside. However, they officially recognized the primacy of the Abbassids, whom by that point were little more thean the spiritual figureheads of Sunni Islam. The Seljuks would push into the Byzantine lands in Anatolia, and oppose the Shia Fatamid Caliphate of Cairo.
Vexille1983 on 08 Jul 2009 at 3:29 pm #
The Seljuk Turks, originally vassals of the Khazar Khanate, migrated to Khwarezm in 950 CE, and the Empire was established by Tugrul Beg in 1037. Initially friends of the Samanids, they invaded Iran after the Samanid destruction, and begun the process of conquering Iran, before subjugating the other emirates all the way to Syria. The Seljuk Empire peaked under the rule of Malik Shah, whom the Abbassid Caliph had refered to as “the Great Sultan of the East and West.
Vexille1983 on 08 Jul 2009 at 3:51 pm #
The decline of the Samanids was due to the Mamluk generals in their service. One such family would become known as the Ghaznavid Dynasty, which would persist from 975 to 1187 CE. At their height, they would rule Persia, Afghanistan, and be responsible for launching raids into India against the Hindus. Their was also the first dynasty to adopt the title of “Sultan”. By the 1000’s, they would lose most of their territory to the Seljuks before their annihilation by their enemies, the Gurids.
Vexille1983 on 08 Jul 2009 at 3:58 pm #
The Tenth and Eleventh Centuries saw the Abbassid Caliphate divided up among various dynasties of regional Emirs. They were the Arabic Hamdanids, the Persian Samanids, Saffarids, Buyids, and the Ziyarids. They would act independently of the Caliphs in Baghdad, while being their nominal subjects. The ancient Persian title of “Shahanashah” was used by the likes of the Buyids, as an example of the cultural revival among the Persians in the Muslim world.
Vexille1983 on 08 Jul 2009 at 4:57 pm #
The Hamdanid Dynasty, who ruled from 890-1004 CE, were descended from the Christian Banu Taghlib tribe from Arabia. They were made governors of northern Iraq and Syria by the Abbasids. With the increase in power of regional Emirs, the Hamdanids became the first line of defense against the Byzantines, despite their enmity against fellow Muslims, like the Buyids. They would lose the favour of the Abbasids with the loss of Aleppo. They converted to Shiism, and accepted the rule of the Fatamids.
Vexille1983 on 08 Jul 2009 at 5:29 pm #
The Samanid Empire, founded by Saman Khuda of Balkh in Afghanistan, and which lasted between 819-999 CE, started after Saman Khuda, an Islamicized Persian noble, helped suppress a rebellion against the Abbassids. His grandsons would be rewarded with governorships across Afghanistan, before they would begin to rule independently. At the height of their power, their territory encompassed eastern Iran and Central Asia. Many migrant Turkish tribes converted to Islam under their rule.
PattonZIPPO on 08 Jul 2009 at 5:36 pm #
The crusades were one of the things that are special in history: one man invents a new weapon. This weapon was fighting and dying for God, under the battlecry: Deus le Volt!!