The Crusades: Then and Now

Catalog description

This course concerns the Crusades and the broader crusading movement, as well as the impact of that movement on the peoples of both Europe and the Middle East. Most people think of “the Crusades” as the effort of European Christians to reclaim the “Holy Land” from the Muslims, an effort that stretched from Pope Urban II’s famous sermon at the Council of Clermont in 1095 to the fall of Acre, the last Crusader outpost in Palestine, in 1291. In fact, however, the Crusading phenomenon had roots in an older history of competition between Christianity and Islam, and in Christian and Muslim thinking about what constituted a “just war.” Moreover, the Crusading spirit, the religious competition behind it, and the memories of the Crusades did not disappear at the end of the thirteenth century, but continued to shape the experiences of the inhabitants of Europe and the Middle East down to the present day. Satisfies an elective requirement in the History major and minor. Satisfies an Historical Thought requirement. Prerequisites & Notes