The Worlds of Crusading

Catalog description

In the spring of 1096, more than 40,000 men and women left their homes on an armed pilgrimage from Europe toward Jerusalem. This was the first of many crusading movements, eventually leading to the establishment of crusader states along the Eastern Mediterranean. While these states only lasted two hundred years, the ideological effects of crusading still linger today. This course examines historical evidence from both Christian and Muslim sources to interrogate the cultural, geopolitical, and social forces which combined to ignite crusading fervor. It also seeks to understand how the complicated memory of crusading continues to haunt Muslim-Christian relations today.