Crusades :: Crusades Research Papers

Crusades The chapter on The Crusades gives the proper dates of the Holy War, yet does not discuss in detail the testifyation it has. The text is watered down for the grade level and it is written from a Western European viewpoint. A viewpoint that never discusses the feelings and motives of those who were being attacked. The chapter emphasizes the Christians motives for starting The Crusades as a way to defend their territories and to openhanded the Holy Land from the Muslim infidels (Armento, 296). The text never discusses the on a lower floorlying reasons such as the ambition of princes to carve a principality in the furthermost East, the interest of Italian towns to acquire the products of the far East more like a shot and cheaply, and thousands of peoples hope of acquiring spiritual enlightenment (Barker, 11) by participating in The Crusades. Many of the leadership wanted to be known and many of the people were interested of the spices, silks and high life items that coul d be found exclusively in the Far East. The Holy Wars were meant to reconstruct the Roman Catholic Christianity in the Eastern Mediterranean basin, but The Crusades were in reality wars of European expansion (Bentley, 474). Not only did believers feel that the Holy Land moldiness be returned to them but in the process separate territories would be conquered in the name of the Roman Catholic Christianity.The text refers to the Crusades as eight wars Europeans fought to throw overboard the Holy Land from the Muslims(Armento, 296) and only communicates the Western European viewpoint. No other viewpoint is brought into the text to show both sides of the story. The text does not inform the reader about the Crusades as eight wars the Muslims fought to defend Jerusalem. In crossways the Centuries, Saladin is given power as ruler by the caliph. According to Elizabeth Hallam, Saladin abolished the Fatimid caliphate and brought Egypt under the rule of the powerful sultan, and when Nur ad -Din and his son died, Saladin made himself uncontested ruler of a unified Muslim Levant(156). The information of how Saladin rose to power came stupid from the lesson. There is not much said in the lesson about Saladin and none of his background is mentioned in the text. Once again the only the Western European viewpoint is portrayed to the readers. Not only is the text based only on the Western European viewpoint, but also omits information.