George Erikson
Member
Member # 1129
Member Rated:
posted 12-25-2005 11:46 AM
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Faith: "The Crusaders have been made out repeatedly to be the villains in this war, but you can just as easily see their whole participation as a move to insure their security.
The Muslim world was advancing on the west at that time and unless they gathered together and made war, they would not have been turned back.
And almost all the Muslm states were converted at the point of a sword anyway."
My Response
Faith,
Gosh! Security? Is that what they're teaching in school these days?
The Muslims had advanced into Spain, where they built great cities, wonders of architecture, and and founded large universities that taught mathematics and astronomy... two fields that had been all but abandoned in the rest of Europe. They also preserved the writings of Aristotle in arabic... knowledge of Aristotle (and most greek Philosophy) had been lost to the western world after the Pope ordered the burning of the Library at Alexandria.
Most Europeans showed little interest in Moorish Spain. The purpose of the Crusades was to liberate the land that where Christ had been put to the cross. They eventually beseiged and then entered the city of Jerusalem. Once inside (in the words of E.H. Gombrich (A Little History of the World, Yale University Press,2005), "they behaved neither like knights or Christians. They massacred all the Muslims and committed hideous atrocities."
Something good did come out of the Crusades. While ignoring Muslim accomplishments in nearby Spain, Christians discovered Arab culture --their buildings, sense of beauty, mathematics -- in the distant orient. Eventually much of this knowledge was taken back to Europe. The books of Aristotle were translated from Arabic into Latin and Europeans rediscovered a world of knowledge that had once belonged to them, but which had been held in safekeeping by Arabs for many centuries.
Security? The Crusades had as much to do with security as the war in Iraq has to do with 9/11.
Merry Christmas!
George Erikson
www.AtlantisInAmerica.com[ 12-25-2005, 11:59 AM: Message edited by: George Erikson ]
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Posts: 572 | From: Prescott, AZ USA | Registered: Aug 2002
