Explanation of the Stance of the Fatimid Empire towards the Crusades - Essay Example

Explanation of the stance of the Fatimid Empire towards the Crusades Introduction Crusade was a term first used in 1096 in reference to the Christian holy war in an attempt to recapture the city of Jerusalem and its environs. Islam was progressively taking control of Jerusalem, which is the birthplace of Christianity. The trend worried the Christians as it presented a threat to the growth of the religion in other parts of the world. Being the birthplace of Jesus, the man accredited with the inception of the church knew that the region bore great importance. Led by Pope Urban the second, the Roman Catholic and other Christian afflictions formed armies and attacked the Islamic empire in the Middle East in the areas surrounding Jerusalem (KOHLER, 2004 p. 22). The early church used crusades to gain political and economic power; they influenced their adherents and led them to fight for the interest of a select few who formed the leadership of the church. Faith dictates the mental state of an individual a tool that the early church used to influence their adherents into war against the Islamic faith. With the aid of the western countries of the time, which included knights from several countries in the region and other ordinary citizens such as peasants, the Roman Catholic therefore invaded Seljuq Turks from Anatolia and captured the holy city of Jerusalem overthrowing the unsuspecting Muslims. The raid also freed the Eastern Christians from the oppressing control of the Muslims at the time. The success of the attack led to the formation of other subsequent crusades in attack of Muslims and other smaller religions of the time. The Christians established crusader estates in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the principality of Antioch and the country of Tripoli in North Africa. The aim of the crusader states was to quell any subsequent Muslim invasion in the regions thereby creating solid Christian territories. Religion survives on evangelism which results in the spread of the religion to different regions across the world. With the effective coordination of the military arm of the church, Christianity would spread and enjoy a peaceful existence. However, the development of the crusade and its subsequent attacks on the regions that the Christians considered volatile angered other religions key among which was Islam. The attack on regions around Jerusalem resulted in the merciless massacre of thousands of Muslims and Jews among other non-Christian groups in the region. The victory of the first crusade led to the creation of the crusade estates in strategic key locations among which was the North African state of Tripoli. The region was under a strong influence of Islam following the creation of the Fatimid dynasty (LEV, 1990 p. 42). The Fatimid Empire, first established in Tunisia, was a movement and later become both a political and religious movement that governed the entire North African region and later spread to other parts of the Middle East where it gained extensive control and influence on the people. The Dynasty had more than a political motivation. Began by a cousin and a sister to the Holy prophet Mohamed, the dynasty sought to earn authority for the religion and therefore consolidate its authority in the region and spread it to other parts of the world. Located in the North East of Africa, Tunisia was not a strategic location to headquarter an empire that had a dream of controlling the entire Arab world. It therefore led to an inversion of the expansive regions in Northern Africa pushing its headquarters to Egypt, a kingdom that bordered Tripoli. Lying close to each other, the republic of Tripoli with a crusade state and the Egypt now serving as headquarter to the greatest Islamic outfit, the two regions became hindrances to the freedom of each other. While the Christians had a vision of spreading their gospel to every country in the world including the Islamic states, the Muslims led by the Fatimid Empire had a similar vision of spreading Islam and therefore its control in every part of the world. The two religions had a stiff standoff with the Muslims forming their versions of the crusades commonly known as the jihad, a form of spiritual warfare that sought to earn Islam its glory with a universal access to masses. The Fatimid dynasty faced a number of challenges at the time of its inception thereby slowing down its influence. Coming up as a new outfit in a previously existing religion, the claims of Fatima, the daughter of the prophet Mohamed, would face several challenges from the pre-established leaders of the faith. Most of the leaders even opposed her paternity thereby resulting in several internal conflicts, which the Christian crusaders took advantage of to continue their warring activities. Crusades thus became common at a period when the history of the western world was marked by many internal conflicts on the government of the specific countries. Most countries were dynasties and the Roman Catholic, which was the leading religion of the time, had more power than several states of the time. The church had a military and a means of implementing policies. The Roman Catholic was the greatest property owner in the western region; its influence on the nations was therefore essential. Its ability to mobilize and organize successfully the first crusade earned it more power and authority thus increasing its influence on the governments of the western countries. Crusades therefore became a common phenomenon in the western countries where countries spread propaganda about each other resulting in religious expeditionary warfare. This implied that the religious groups fought one another in order to affect policies in their specific nations. However, the main crusades in the time were strategic wars planned and launched against oppositions to the Christian faith key among which was Islam and its fast growing Fatimid dynasty in the Northern Africa region. The term crusade was also used in reference to the intensive campaign against the spread of paganism in Levant about the same time. The Christians wanted religious autonomy in the region. It was both a political and economic tool, which the leaders of the Christian faith at the time, especially the Roman Catholic, wanted to use to win more control of the powers of the state thereby gain relevance to themselves. The Christian leaders therefore organized militaries, purchased weapons, and staffed their apparatus. Additionally, they brainwashed their adherents making them believe in fighting for the faith. The leaders manipulated the belief of their adherents to safeguard their specific interest and to earn victories in the battles. More often, the Christians collaborated with the Muslims against other smaller religions and formed formidable crusades, which earned them victories against the smaller religions thereby spreading their control into such regions (BRETT, 2001 p.12). The religions took over the control of such places inheriting the resources in the land which is a fact that increased the strength of the Church in the early western society. During the fifth crusade, for example, the Christians in Cecily colluded with the Sultanate of Rum a more liberal Islamic group that had often received criticism from the Middle East and fought against other Muslims thereby gaining control over the region. Such partnership often lasted their relevance and led to other intense religion oriented hatred. The western regions were therefore not peaceful during the crusade periods since the church showed defiance to both the state and other religion. The continued success of the crusades earned the church more power thereby threatening the secular governments of the time. After the victory of the first crusade, Muslims began uniting in readiness for a major battle to regain the control of Jerusalem. The city was strategically in the control of the Middle East, all other countries surrounding Jerusalem were Islamic; it thus beats logic that Jerusalem would be a Christian city. The Christian victory during the first crusade acted as a uniting factor among the Middle Eastern Muslims who decided to return to the city following the Christian complacency. Eventually, the Muslims took over the city once again. The second crusade in 1147 was therefore to regain the city of Jerusalem and once again free the few Christians in the region from the tyrannical Islamic rule. However, the second crusade was not a success since the Muslims had anticipated the attack and therefore organized themselves in readiness. They defended the city vehemently warding off any Christian infiltration into the city. The increase use of crusades in the eastern part of Europe to attack the Islamic regions of the Middle East worried the Muslim leaders since they would lose thousands of their adherents during the attacks. The increasing level of insecurity in the Middle East was an advantage to the developing Fatimid dynasty in the North African region. The leaders of the dynasty decided to use the uncertainty to introduce the political system all through the region. In Africa, they had earned the recognition of the leaders of the faith wand the region therefore had a unitary Islamic form of government with systemic Islamic laws that continued to unify the region. Using Jihads, the dynasty resisted any foreign inversion thereby safeguarding their interests. The increasing trend of crusades however worried the leadership of the region since the Christians s had set up a crusade state in Tripoli a region that was strategic in the development of the dynasty. After resisting the infiltration of the crusade effects in Africa, the Fatimid dynasty signed a peace pact with the Christians in Jerusalem compelling them to accept the Islamic leadership. This allowed either religion access of the region for worship or pilgrimage following the understanding that Jerusalem was of essence to the Christian faith. Saladin signed the contract with the Christians in order to retain his political position as the leader of the holy city of Jerusalem. The treaty allowed for common trade between the two regions. Jerusalem connected the Middle East to the West and therefore acted as a middle ground for business. The treaty gave both regions a chance to trade. While the city remained under the Muslim control, the Christian believers had the freedom to access it for their religious purposes such as pilgrimages among other holly practices. The treaty promised peace and the region for once became stable and experienced an amount of economic growth (VERMEULEN & SMET, 1995 p. 43). Despite the peace treaty that ended the third crusade, tensions increased with the two religions fighting over control of the city. The subsequent tensions spread using propaganda and hearsays led to another five subsequent crusade with each resulting in a periodical peace before the Roman Catholic calling for a new crusade. The region was not peaceful, and while the Middle East continued in the persistent conflict, the Northern part of Africa enjoyed a relative peace with steady unity of the Islamic faith under the holy Fatimid dynasty. They had used religion to gain both political and economic power. The dynasty had the allegiance of the former religious rulers. By gaining political power, the dynasty managed to fuse governance with religion thereby creating a formidable economy in the northern part of Africa. The Fatimid created a formidable defense in the region and with the determination to end the infiltration of Christian faith into the Islamic territory, they became more unorthodox in their approach. Unlike the likes of Saladin who could sign treaties with the Christians, the Fatimid preferred warfare and while the King Luis began engaging the Arabs in the night crusade, the Fatimid dynasty formed a formidable army known as the Mamluks and attacked the crusader state in Tripoli. Unfortunately, King Luis had little knowledge of Africa and he also chose one of the hottest seasons in the North African region to stage the attacks. Most of his soldiers suffered and died from the Saharan diseases and the harsh weather. While King Luis’ soldiers died of the strange diseases, the Mamluks had an easier time fighting the crusaders in Tripoli. They killed most of them and the rest flew alongside the surviving knights from the West (BRETT, 2007 p. 61). By regaining the state of Tripoli, the Fatimid became stronger and more influential among the people. Tripoli was a port city and therefore essential in the development of the regional economy. The victory therefore earned the dynasty an important region that could later provide a link between the North African locality and the Middle East through Jerusalem. The dynasty, just as the Roman Catholic and other churches in the West, had learned the influence that religion could have on people. They used religion to gain allegiance and used force to suppress internal resistance. This way, the dynasty amassed a lot of wealth and became an influential force. With wealth and power, the dynasty was therefore ready to move into the Middle East and face the resistance (HOCH & PHILLIPS, 2001 p. 21). With the spiritual motivation and the financial capabilities, the dynasty overcame every resistance winning battles and forcing submission through a number of means thereby establishing itself as the first centralized leadership of the Middle East region during the tumultuous time. In retrospect, crusades were purely political tools by the church that had more interest in the government of the region. Christianity in the west had managed to delude people thereby amass both wealth and power; the Roman Catholic was the sole property owner in the entire continent. It therefore felt entitled to the government of other parts of the world. Jerusalem, for example, was not only important to the church because of its affiliation with the history of Christianity; its strategic location in the Eastern region was an opportunity for the Church to gain access to the East and possibly take over the management of resources. The church therefore convinced leaders in different times of history to engage in its wars. However, the Islamic leadership had similar ambitions and wanted to solicit more wealth through religion. The results were therefore a series of conflicts, which the Fatimid dynasty manipulated to its advantage. It gained the control of both the Northern Africa and the Middle East. Bibliography BRETT, M. (2007). The Fatimids and the Counter-Crusade, 1099-1171, in: U. Vermeulen/K. DHusler (eds.): Egypt and Syria in the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk Eras V. Leuven, Brill. BRETT, M. (2001). The rise of the Fatimids: the world of the Mediterranean and the Middle East in the Fourth Century of the Hijra, tenth Century Ce. Leiden, Brill. HOCH, M., & PHILLIPS, J. (2001). The Second Crusade: scope and consequences. Manchester [u.a.], Manchester University Press [u.a.]. KOHLER, M. A. (2004). Alliances and treaties between Frankish and Muslim rulers in the Near East. London, I. B. Tauris. LEV, Y. (1990). State and Society in Fatimid Egypt. Leiden, Brill. VERMEULEN, U., & SMET, D. D. (1995). Egypt and Syria in the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk eras. Leuven, Peeters. Read More