Inheriting the Roman Empire: The Byzantine Empire and the Islamic World

The First Crusades

Beginning in the year 1095 there were eight major Crusades coupled with various smaller fights in between the larger Crusades. The era of the Crusades began in 1095 and lasted nearly 200 years, with multiple mass movements of armies from the monarchies of Europe into the "Holy Lands" of the Middle East. The bulk of these fights, and their main objective, involved taking Jerusalem, the holy city in the Middle East which holds importance to the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic religions. The idea of a "Crusade", or a holy conquest, revolved around this idea of capturing Jerusalem, and when this was no longer the focus of the western attacks the era of the Crusades came to a close in 1291.

The Crusades was revered in Europe as a holy attempt to "liberate" Jerusalem in the Holy Land. Middle Age Romantic poetry and story-telling reflected this focus, portraying the crusaders as defenders of their faith and protectors of all Christians. This focus of "defenders" was largely seen only in history, but in the last few hundred years the Crusades were seen more as an imperialistic move by the Europeans, which allowed then-contemporary European states (such as in the 20^th century) to justify their imperial movements into Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. The expansion of nationalism in Europe was reflective of and extremely influenced by the Crusades that began in 1095, with an almost pan-European movement (though conflict in the 19^th and 20^th century in Europe continued) that transformed itself into imperialism.

Crusaders and Jihad
The idea of crusaders was not unique to the Christian believes in Europe. To the contrary, the idea of the "defenders" of a certain faith is almost transcendental of both countries and time periods and can be seen in religious warfare throughout history. The Christian nations of Europe had the idea of crusaders, and the equivalent in their enemies came in the form of the term "jihad," or an expansion of Islam both aggressively and non-aggressively against non-believers. The idea of "jihad" in Islam is not always clear-cut, and the similarities between Islam and Christianity blur the lines of "non-believers" for both Crusaders and those who carry out the Islamic jihad. The largest empire in Europe up until that point, the Roman Empire, now survived by the Byzantine Empire, had identified with a "just war," tying religious warfare to references from the Old Testament.

Western Europe, after the fall of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, and the Islamic people of the Middle East all had their roots in the Roman Empire. After Rome fell, its empire was split into two empires, creating Western Europe and the Byzantine Empire. In the Middle East, the Islamic civilization was much more successful than those of Europe, who were still recovering from the breakdown of the greatest empire Europe had seen. Despite its power, the Islamic world was in the midst of internal struggle that stemmed from who was the rightful heir to Muhammad, the prophet of Islam (a conflict that continues today in the tumultuous Middle East).

The Impact of the Roman Empire
At its height, the Roman Empire included much of the modern-day Middle East, which had many influences on it. Emperor Constantine had stated that the state religion of Rome was Christianity, which was a bold and important statement. Once Christianity became the state religion, there was no longer a difference between the secular power and the religious authority in Rome. After Rome's fall, Muslims in the Middle East continued this trend, and the teachings of Islam became ingrained in the secular authority in the Islamic world. The division of Muslims over the rightful heir to Islam was important for the Christian in the early Crusades, as the inability for the Islamic people to unite under one power prevented it front successfully repelling the Europeans.

The Western Roman Empire dissolved into a number of different entities, and this left Byzantium, or the Eastern Roman Empire, as the sole successor of the old Roman Empire. The capital of Byzantium was Constantinople, and in this one city the head of the Orthodox Christian faith as well as the emperor both lived, creating a close tie between the secular and religious leaders as in Rome. Byzantium largely recovered from the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 and was the most powerful state in Europe until it was defeated by Islamic forces in 1071. From here, Emperor Alexius I requested help from Western Europe to repel the Turkish invaders. From here the era of the Crusades began, pitting the attempt to get back Byzantium lands as well as "liberate" Jerusalem.

The Byzantine Empire and Western Europe
Western Europe was by far the weakest civilization between Byzantium and the Islamic world. Rome, the home of the Pope, continued to be the religious center of Europe, as it had been when the Roman Empire was still in existence. The biggest difference between Roman Empire-era Rome and the sovereign European-era Rome was just that: the monarchs in Europe were now sovereign, separating the secular and religious world in Europe. Despite this, the states of Europe pledged allegiance to the pope, those not forcibly compelled by Rome itself but instead by religious means. Rome, as it had during the Roman Empire, now became a unifying force for all of Europe, as it began its Crusade against the Islamic world, an era that would have long-lasting effects on all three civilizations that continue today.

Source:

"The Crusades" by H.E. Mayer