EUH-4123: HOLY WAR IN THE MIDDLE AGES

2013 archaeological summer school in Catalonia

Course description

   Crusades and crusading remain a very popular topic. The idea of holy war--either the Muslim jihad or the Christian crusade--conveys the image on epic clash between two of the world's great religions. In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, this is in fact the prevailing view among those who are eager to project onto the present their interpretations of the past. Islamists call fellow Muslims to take part in a worldwide jihad against the people of the "West," whom they label "crusaders." In reality, medieval holy wars were much more complex and contradictory, often involving such things as friendship and alliances between Muslims and Christians, triumphs of diplomacy rather than by the sword, as well as crusades launched agains Christians or jihads proclaimed against fellow Muslims. The historical understanding of what happened is therefore vital for a positive outcome of the present turmoil in that trouble part of the world, the Middle East. This course is designed as a chronological and topical introduction to the history of the Crusades, from the beginning to the present. Since this is a survey, it is impossible to cover everything. Instead, the course will offer a selection of representative topics from a much larger possible list. We will examine some of the key concepts of theology that had historical significance, the political circumstances leading to the launching of the Crusades, and the main aspects of Christian-Muslim interactions throughout the Middle Ages. Our focus will at times shift towards the organization of the crusader states, but we will also take quick glimpses at some other Christian groups in the Near East, especially at the Orthodox and the Armenians, as well as the fate of the Jews in Europe. Anyone with enough curiosity and desire to learn is welcome. There are no pre-requisites and no special recommendations for this course.

Course objectives

Upon completing this course, students will be able to explain large-scale and long-term historical developments in Western Christianity; analyze ways in which Christians have come into contact with Muslims and Jews through trade, migration, conquest, and cultural diffusion; assess the significance of key turning points in the history of the Crusades; describe the development and explain the significance of distinctive forms of political and military organization, doctrine, and forms of religious culture; identify achievements in Crusader art, architecture, and literature, and assess their impact on medieval society in Western Europe, Islam and Byzantium; explain ideals, practices, and rituals associated with holy war in Islam and Christianity.

Course requirements and grades

There is no attendance policy, but you are responsible for attending all lectures and reading the required texts. Class participation  may be taken into account to determine the overall grade. The basis for evaluation of performance will be four quizzes and two exams (Midterm and Final). The unannounced quizzes are exclusively based on primary source readings from your Allen and Amt book, as well as from the Internet Medieval Sourcebook. All quizzes will consist only of questions (no essay). A careful study of these texts is necessary for a good performance at the quiz. The Midterm and Final exams will cover everything from lectures and readings. Both will consist of a short answer portion and a longer essay. Make-up Midterm and Final exam will be given for very serious reasons. There is no make-up for quizzes. Extra-credit work will be accepted only for students with active participation in class discussions. The format of the extra-credit option shall be discussed with the instructor during regular office hours. The following point-system will be used in determining the final grade:

Grades. The following scale will be used in determining your final grade

Additional information on grades can be found at:

http://www.registrar.ufl.edu/catalog/policies/regulationgrades.html

http://www.isis.ufl.edu/minusgrades.html

Textbooks

• Jean Richard, The Crusades, c. 1071-c. 1291 (Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999) [hereafter Richard]; on two-hour reserve in Library West.
• S. J. Allen and Emilie Amt, The Crusades. A Reader. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2003 [hereafter Allen and Amt]
• (optional) Peter Lock, The Routledge Companion to the Crusades. London/New York: Routledge, 2006 [hereafter Lock];  on two-hour reserve in Library West

NOTE: It is essential that you read the assigned sections in the textbook(s) ahead, i.e., before the time they are due in class. Class meetings will be organized around a lecture/discussion format and your weekly assignments  will necessitate familiarity with the material.

WEEK 1 (January 7-12): Introduction

• Problematic concepts: holy war, jihad, crusade [Richard 1-4; Allen and Amt 7-17]; for the use of violence in the Old Testament, see Exodus 20:13 (one of the Ten Commandments), Exodus 21:12 and Exodus 22:22-24, Deuteronomy 20:16, Joshua 6:21 and Joshua 10:40; for the attitude towards violence in the New Testament, see Matthew 26:52; for the use of violence in the Quran, see sura 25:52; 22:39-41; 9:5; 8:61; 9:29; 2:216; see the portraits of Ahmad Urabi, Hasan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb; see the cover of Thomas Jefferson's Crusade Against Ignorance (1786);  also modern views on the different meanings of jihad and crusade (as something requiring apologies)
• West European society on the eve of the crusade [Richard 4-10; Allen and Amt 28-31]
• The Middle and Near East in the eleventh century: Byzantium and the Seljuks [Richard 11-18; Allen and Amt 31-35]; see a map of the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk territories in the 11th century; see a portrait of Alexius Comnenus; read an account of the Seljuk conquest of the Near East

WEEK 2 (January 14-19): The call to Crusade

• The Church Reform, the Truce (Peace) of God movement and the papacy [Richard 19-34; Allen and Amt 28-31 and 34-35]; see portraits of Pope Gregory VII, Emperor Henry IV, Pope Clement III, Count Roger of Sicily, emperor Conrad II, and Pope Urban II; read a biography of Carl Erdmann
• Urban II and the Council of Clermont [Allen and Amt 39-47]; see a map of  Southeastern Europe on the eve of the First Crusade
• The People's Crusade and the Byzantine problem [Richard 36-47; Allen and Amt 47-63]; see a map of the itinerary of the First Crusade

WEEK 3 (January 21-26): The First Crusade and its aftermath

• From Constantinople to Jerusalem [Richard 47-69; Allen and Amt 67-68 and 73-80]; read a basic narrative of the events and some of the letters written by participants in the Crusade; see a map of the expedition in the Near East, and maps of Nicaea (with the surviving Constantinople gate), Antioch (with an image of the Church of St. Peter), and Jerusalem (with an image of Tancred's Tower) in the late 11th and 12th centuries; see also an icon of St. George and a view of the ruins of Maarat al-Nuaman
• The Crusader states [Richard 77-94; Allen and Amt 83-91]; see a map of the crusader states to the mid-12th century and a statue of Godfrey of Bouillon in Brussels
• Muslims, Christians and Jews in the Crusader States [Richard 94-124; Allen and Amt 93-103, 108-124]; read a biography of Joshua Prawer and see pictures of René Grousset and Ronnie Ellenblum; visit the castles of Montreal and Kerak, and the mausoleum of Bohemond of Taranto in Canosa di Puglia

WEEK 4 (January 28-February 1): The Second Crusade and its aftermath

• The military orders and the rise of Zengi [Richard 124-155; Allen and Amt 127-134, 197-204]; see Paschal II's bull "Piae postulatio"; visit the site of the monastery of Santa Maria Latina in Jerusalem, the fortresses of Calatrava, Alcántara, and Evora; see a reconstruction of the Templars' habits and weapons and visit the fortress of Alamut in northwestern Iran; see a map of Zengi's expansion into Syria and Kurdistan
• Bernard of Clairvaux and the Second Crusade [Richard 155-169; Allen and Amt 134-145];see portraits of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Emperor Conrad III, Otto of Freising, and Emperor Manuel I Comnenus; visit Vézélay, see a map of the Second Crusade, and read an account of the fiasco at Damascus (1148)
• Nur al-Din and the revival of jihad [Richard 170-190]; see a map of the Seljuq domain around Outremer created by Nur al-Din and one of the coins struck in his name; visit the mosque al-Nuri in Hama and the Bimaristan hospital in Damascus (with views of the facade and of the interior), and see a picture of minbar in the al-Aqsa mosque as it looked like before its destruction in 1969

WEEK 5 (February 4-9): Crusades elsewhere

• The conquest of Lisbon and the proclamation of the crusade in the Iberian Peninsula [Allen and Amt 304-308, 316-318, 326-331]; see maps of the Almoravid Empire, of Spain after the Almoravid conquest and of  Reconquista after the death of Alfonso VII, of Europe and Africa at the time of the Second Crusade, and of the Iberian Peninsula in the early 13th century; see a portrait of Ramón Berenguer IV; see the commemorative monument at Ourique (with a map location), and vist Arcos de Valedevez, San Esteban de Gormaz, Santarem, Lisbon, Almería (with a map location), Tortosa, Lleida (Lérida), Evora, Trujillo, Beja, and Silves
• The Wendish crusade [Allen and Amt 268-276]; see maps of limes saxonicus and of the Baltic tribes, ca. 1200; visit Arkona, Szczecin (Stettin), Rostock, Ikšķile (Uexküll), Riga, as well as the abbeys of Doberan, Dargun, and Kolbacz 
• Teh Teutonic Knights, Livonia and the Baltic Crusade [Allen and Amt 276-285]; see maps of medieval Hungary and of the Baltic Crusades; visit Toruń (Thorn), Kwidzyn, Radzyń, and Kaliningrad (Königsberg); see the effigy of Ottokar  Přemysl I in the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague

WEEK 6 (February 11-16): The Third Crusade

• The rise of Saladin and the Horns of Hattin [Richard 190-215; Allen and Amt 148-161]; see the statue of Saladin in Damascus and a map of Outremer before the fall of Jerusalem; see depictions of King Amalric's repudiation of his first wife, Agnes of Courtenay, and of his marriage to his second wife, Maria Comnena, as well as a modern versions of Queen Sybil (played by Eva Green) and Baldwin IV (played by Edward Norton); see a map of the battle at Hattin, and read excerpts from medieval accounts of the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin; see a map of  Outremer after Saladin's conquests
• Calling of the Third Crusade [Richard 216-224; Allen and Amt 162-169]; see the statue of Richard I  in London and a portrait of Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa; visit Harverfordwest (Wales), Acre (Akko, Israel), and the castle of Beaufort; see maps of the siege of Acre and of the itineraries of the Third Crusade; see a depiction of Conrad of Montferrat's marriage to Isabella
• A comparison: Richard the Lionheart and Saladin  [Richard 224-231; Allen and Amt 170-177]; visit Famagusta (Cyprus) and Ascalon (Ashkelon, Israel); see maps of Richard's campaigns in the Holy Land  and of the situation after the Treaty of Jaffa (1192)

WEEK 7 (February 18-23):  The diversion of the Fourth Crusade

• The crusade of Emperor Henry VI and Innocent III [Richard 231-242; Allen and Amt 221-245]; see a brief biography and a portrait of Pope Innocent III; see also a portrait of Fulk of Neuilly
• Venice, Zara, and the sack of Constantinople [Richard 242-252; Allen and Amt 225-240]; see the seals of Theobald, Count of Champagne, Louis, Count of Blois, and Simon of Montfort; see the statue of Baldwin, Count of Flanders (first emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople); see a coin struck for Conrad of Krosigk, Bishop of Halberstadt and portraits of Alexius IV Angelos and Alexius V Mourtzouphlos; visit Zara (Zadar); see maps of the political situation in Southeastern Europe on the eve of the Fourth Crusade, the itinerary of the Fourth Crusade, and of the siege of Constantinople
• The consequences of the Fourth Crusade [Richard 252-258]; see views of Galata, the Golden Horn, and the remains of the Blachernae Palace; see a map of the Latin Empire of Constantinople and its neighbors in the 13th century

WEEK 8 (February 25-March 1): More crusades in Europe

• The Albigensian Crusade and the children's crusade [Allen and Amt 241-251]; visit Albi, Béziers, and Carcassonne; see maps of Languedoc in the early 13th century and of the Albigensian Crusade; see the seals of the count of Toulouse, Raymond VI and Raymond VII, and of Duke Leopold VI of Austria; see the oldest depiction of the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin (and a modern re-enactment)
• Midterm

WEEK 9 (March 4-8): Spring break. No classes. 

WEEK 10 (March 11-15): Crusades as an institution

• Theory and recruitment [Richard 259-270; Allen and Amt 181-192]
• Finances and logistics [Richard 271-282; Allen and Amt 204-211]; see examples of coins struck in Lucca and Valence; visit the Acciaiuoli Palace in Florence 
• Army  morale, women, and crusading literature [Richard 287; Allen and Amt 211-217]; see portraits of Georges Duby, Jonathan Riley-Smith, and Denys Pringle; see the relief of the returning crusader from the Belval Priory in Lorraine and the effigies of Otto of Botenlauben and his wife Beatrix of Courtenay in the church of Frauenroth; see a medieval Western depiction of mamluks and a modern version of the capture of Baybars, the slave who later became a sultan; see a medieval depiction of the qabaq and a page from the manuscript of al-Aqsara'i's treaty of furusiyya (1366); see also a modern reconstructions of a composite bow, a mangonel, a ballista, a wheel crossbow, a siege tower, and a battering ram; see the plan of  an ideal concentric castle; visit the castles of Toron, Casal Imbert, Chastel Blanc, Kerak of Moab, Saone, Belvoir (with plan), the citadel in Aleppo, and the Muslim castles at Misyaf (better known as Masyaf from its version for the "Assassins' Creed" game), Ajlun, and Qalat Subayba (with its inscriptions comemmorating Baybars' rebuilding); listen to troubadour songs by William IX of Aquitaine, Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, Conon of Bethune, and to Walter von der Vogelweide's Palästinalied; listen to one of the most famous crusading songs, "Chevalier, mult es guariz"

WEEK 11 (March 18-22): Egypt and the crusades

• The Fifth Crusade [Richard 294-307; Allen and Amt 256-261]; see a map of the Ayyubid "Empire" in the 13th century and a portrait of King Andrew II of Hungary; visit the castle of Athlit and the main mosque of Damietta; read the basic narrative of the events and see a map of the Egyptian campaign; see the encounter between sultan al-Kamil and Francis of Assisi, as imagined by Giotto
• The crusade of Frederick II [Richard 307-331; Allen and Amt 285-295]; see portraits of Gregory IX (as imagined by Raffael Sanzio) and Frederick II; visit Brindisi, the Montfort Castle, and Frederick II's tomb in Palermo; see the seals of Theobald IV of Champagne and Richard of Cornwall 
• The crusades of St. Louis [Richard 332-356; Allen and Amt 343-347]; see a map of the Khwarazmian Empire before the Mongol conquest and a medieval illustration of the battle of La Forbie (1244); visit Bahr al-Nil, Aigues Mortes, and the Sainte Chapelle in Paris (with a view of the interior); see a map of Louis IX's expedition in Egypt and a medieval representation of his siege of Mansurah; see a coin struck for the "queen of the Muslims," Shajar al-Durr and a map of William of Rubruck's travel to the court of the Great Khan in Karakorum

WEEK 12 (March 25-29):  The crusading territories during the Late Middle Ages

• Crusade and mission [Richard 361-368; Allen and Amt 370-375]
• Frankish lordship, trade, and Italians [Richard 369-393]; see maps of Acre, of the trade routes in the 13th century;, and of the travels of the Polo brothers to China; read a brief account of the war of St. Sabas
• Crusader society and art [Richard 393-407]; see a portrait of Louis Madelin and pictures of the cathedrals in Jubayl and Tortosa; see the frescoes of the Virgin with Child Glykophilousa in Bethlehem, of the damned in the chapel of the Hospitaller castle of Margat, and of St. Francis in Kalendarhane Camii (Istanbul); see an historiated capital from the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth; see the Psalter of Melisende, an illuminated page of the Arsenal Bible, another from the Riccardiana Psalter, and an unfinished illumination by the "Hospitaller Master" in the manuscript of William of Tyre's History of Outremer; see icons of the Mother of God (Kahn Madonna and Mellon Madonna) and of St. Marina

WEEK 13 (April 1-5): The Mamluks, the Mongols, and the end of the crusader states

• The rise of the Mamluks and the Mongols [Richard 408-420; Allen and Amt 352-355]; see portraits of Ögödai, Möngke, and Hülegu;  see maps of the Mongol great campaign planned at the quriltai of 1229 and of the Mongol successor states in the mid-13th century; see a medieval representation of the sack of Baghdad in 1258 and a map of the campaign leading to the battle at Ayn Jalut (1260); see the inscription placed by Baybars in 1266 on the mausoleum in Hims; see the cover of one of the most influential works of ibn Taymiyya

• The Eighth Crusade and other subsequent expeditions [Richard 424-441]; see a map of the itinerary of the Eighth Crusade and a medieval representation of Louis IX's death in Carthage; see a portrait of Edward I

• Baybars and the end of the crusader states [Richard 442-466; Allen and Amt 355-366]; see a portrait of Michael VIII Palaeologus and map of Cilician Armenia and of Asia under the Mongols; see a medieval representatioin of the siege of Acre (1291)

WEEK 14 (April 8-12): Crusades after crusades

• The transformation of the military orders [Allen and Amt 378-384]; see portraits of Philip IV of France, Clement V, Jogaila, Albrecht of Brandenburg-Ansbach, Jean de la Valette, and Manuel Pinto de Fonseca; see a medieval representation of the burning of the stake of Jacques de Molay and his fellow Templars; see a map of the territorial expansion of the Teutonic Ordenstaat in the Late Middle Ages; visit the Teutonic castle in Marienburg (now Malbork, Poland), the recent excavations in the crypt of the Cathedral in Kwidzyn (Poland), the headquarters of the Teutonic Order in Mergentheim, the priory of the Order of Christ in Tomar, the Hospital in Rhodes, Valletta and the fort of Sant'Angelo (Malta); see a nineteenth-century representation of the battle at Grünwald (Tannenberg) and a modern reconstruction of an early eighteenth-century ship-of-the-line; read an English translation of Martin Luther's exhortation to the Teutonic Knights 
• The kingdom of Cyprus and the rise of the Ottomans [Richard 466-473; Allen and Amt 405-407]; see maps of the Late Byzantine Empire showing Rhodes and the Kingdom of Cyprus, of the early Ottoman conquests under Orkhan, and of the early Ottoman Empire; visit the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Famagusta; see portrait of King Peter I, sultan Mehmet II, and Skanderbeg; see a plan of the Venetian walls of Nicosia (with a view of some of the remains)
• Nicopolis, Varna, Constantinople, and Granada [Allen and Amt 397-405]; see portraits of King Sigismund of Hungary, Philip the Bold, John of Nevers, John Hunyadi, and John Capistrano; see a map of the itinerary of the Nicopolis crusade, a map and a medieval representation of the battle at Nicopolis; see the insignia associated with the Order of the Golden Fleece; see a map and a medieval representation of the battle at Varna; see a map of the emirate of Granada, a view of the Alpujarras Mountains, and a nineteenth-century representation of the surrender of the city in 1492; see an image of a nineteenth-century edition of Torquato Tasso's Gerusalemme liberata, and a picture of the battle at Lepanto

WEEK 15 (April 15-19): Crusades in the modern era

• Crusades in literature (from Walter Scott to Steven Runciman); see the portraits of Etienne Pasquier, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Thomas Fuller, Voltaire, and William Robertson
• Crusades and nationalism, West and East; see the portraits of Joseph François Michaud, Walter Scott (with an illustration of the 1887 edition of his Tales of the Crusaders), Heinrich von Sybel, Friedrich Wilken, and Claude Reignier Conder; visit the Salle des croisades at Versailles (and see Delacroix's Entry of the crusaders into Constantinople, 1204); listen to Ismael's aria in Rossini's Ivanhoé, and watch the scene of the duel between Ivanhoe and Brian of Bois-Gilbert in  the 1982 television movie Ivanhoe
• The legacy in the Middle East; visit Saladin's tomb in Damascus and a kibbutz in Israel; see portraits of the Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II and of Kaiser Wilhelm II and of his entry into Jerusalem in 1898 (compare it with General Allenby's entry into the city in 1917); see portraits of Claude Cahen and Steven Runciman

• visit the site of the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East

Final exam: Thursday, May 2, 7:30-9:30