Part 14

A particular incident in a particular village may have played some propaganda role, but that cannot be taken as the norm of Muslims' interactions with Christians and their churches in Muslim lands.50 More than one fair-minded historian has confirmed that the Christians who were subjected to Seljuk rule were much better off than their brethren who lived in the heart of the Byzantine Empire itself. There is no evidence that the Seljuks persecuted the Christians in the east.51 Nevertheless, the pope's calls reached a fever pitch of hatred, with no rational thought about negative consequences of his imprudent call. Otherwise, what did it mean when he said to his followers: Go and annoy the barbarians, rid the holy land of the infidels and take possession of it for yourself, for as the Bible says, it is flowing with milk and honey?52 The pope promised the masses who took part in the war that the sinners among them would be spared punishment and they would be exempted from taxes; he also promised that the church would look after their families in their absence.53 Perhaps another factor that may be included under the heading of religious motives is the fact that news of miracles and wonders, propagated by the church, had become widespread in the west; there was a prevalent belief that the Second Coming of Christ was imminent, and it was essential to persist in seeking forgiveness for sins and doing good deeds before he arrived; there was also a notion that the holy land should be regained before the return of Christ.54 The Pope realized that this intense religious fervour would not last for long, so he called for vows and prayers to be offered in the Church of the Resurrection and he announced that the curse (the sword of vengeance) would come upon everyone who was seized by cowardice and weakness or who turned back on his heels. The Pope threatened to excommunicate everyone who did not respond to the church's call to head towards the Muslim lands;55 he shrewdly exploited emotions and feelings to achieve his plans. The church was influential because of the power that it had over people's hearts in Western Europe at that time, which made his call to arms successful, with the result that people came out in crowds, heading in a wave of successive Crusader campaigns towards the Islamic East.56 We should not forget the hatred that the Crusaders had towards Islam and the Muslims, because Islam has taken from them lands that had been under their control and liberated slaves who had been suffering under their domination; it took away possessions that had been in their grasp, hence grudges started to smoulder in their hearts and the fires of enmity flared up, and they began to seek opportunities to regain what they had lost and avenge themselves against those who had brought them low and torn apart their kingdom.57 The famous Orientalist Prince Leone Caetani (1869 — 1926 CE), who gave most of his wealth to write the history of the Islamic conquest movement in his book Annali delV Islam, explains to us the reason for this hatred of Islam and Muslims in the introduction to his book, where he says that he only wanted to understand through his work the extent of the "Islamic catastrophe" that took away from Christianity millions of followers all over the world who still follow the religion of Muhammad SAAW) and believe in him as a Messenger.58 Allah, may He be the Exalted, says: 'Never will the Jews nor the Christians be pleased with you [O Muhammad (SAAW)] till you follow their religion. Say: Verily, the Guidance of Allah [Islamic monotheism] — that is the [only] Guidance. And if you were to follow their desires after what you have received of knowledge, then you would have against Allah neither any protector or guardian, nor any helper.)' (Quran 2: 120) And they will never cease fighting you until they turn you back from your religion [Islamic monotheism] if they can. And whosoever of you turns back from his religion and dies as a disbeliever, then his deeds will be lost in this life and in the hereafter, and they will be the dwellers of the Fire. They will abide therein forever. (Quran 2: 217) Political motives The kings and princes who participated in the Crusader movement were striving for political aims which they could not hide, either before their arrival in Syria and Palestine or after they settled in those lands. The feudal system was inherently connected to land, and the bigger the fiefdom and the larger the amount of land, the higher a prince's status in society rose. Under this system, the biggest problem faced by princes and knights was not having any fiefdom or land, for they were then regarded as unimportant and having no influence. Many knights and princes were left without land, because one of the basic principles of this system was the law of primogeniture, in which only the oldest son inherited the fiefdom. When the owner of a fiefdom died, the land passed in its entirety to his oldest son.59 This meant that the other sons were left without any land, which was a loathsome situation in a feudal society.