Questions tagged [crusades]
Questions pertaining to a series of religiously-motivated military campaigns undertaken by European armies. Crusades include those sanctioned by the Pope in an effort to restore Christian control of the Holy Lands, but also includes campaigns to eliminate heresy in Europe (e.g. Albigensian Crusade) or the so-called Popular Crusades unsanctioned by the Church.
70 questions
0
votes
0
answers
106
views
Could a Sergeant become a Knight Templar?
I know being noble was one of the requirements (not the only) to be a Knight Templar, and the commoners would end up being Sergeants or a lower range, but, could a non-noble be promoted to Knight ...
5
votes
1
answer
760
views
What would have kept Clement V from instigating a popular revolt against Philip V?
I am reading this book, "Trial of the Templars" by Malcolm Barber.
I am not a historian, so I do not know to what extent Barber's thesis is right - that the Templars were arrested because ...
- 397
-1
votes
1
answer
413
views
Did the Crusaders try to justify the First Crusade as a defensive war?
Did any Crusaders participating in the First Crusade characterize it as a defensive, rather than aggressive, campaign? If so, what were their arguments for characterizing it this way? How do modern ...
- 207
5
votes
2
answers
982
views
How did the Crusades change medieval Islamic culture?
Background: It's well known that the crusades initiated an east-west contact that led to an exchange between Europe and the Islamic world. Foreign goods, philosophy, sciences, flowed east to west, and ...
- 3,666
8
votes
1
answer
458
views
What is the origin of the name of Kondofrej, Bulgaria?
There is a small village in Western Bulgaria, not very far from the capital Sofia called Кондофрей roughly transliterated as Kondofrey. It is an otherwise completely unremarkable village except that ...
3
votes
1
answer
860
views
Were there any rewards for going on a crusade aside from being forgiven for one's biblical sins?
I might have misunderstood this, but from what I gathered the main selling point/reward for going on the various crusades, was absolution for your sins: it didn´t matter what someone had done, if that ...
- 415
2
votes
1
answer
251
views
Did Crusaders' siege Nablus and then massacre Muslims?
I remember that I have heard in some lecture about some form of a siege over Nablus that ended up in indiscriminate killings of Muslims in the city. I vaguely remember that the events were said to ...
- 161
18
votes
2
answers
6k
views
Why was the knitting needle or the distaff a symbol to show contempt in the Middle Ages?
From Charles MacKay's Extraordinary Popular Delusions, the chapter on the Crusades has the following section:
In most cases, the laugh was turned against them, for when it became known that a man was ...
- 497
26
votes
1
answer
7k
views
Did Saladin speak any European languages?
As the leader of a large coalition force I'm aware he was multilingual, speaking at least Kurdish and Arabic (one site added Turkish) but a European language seems like a longshot. If he did speak one,...
- 3,666
6
votes
1
answer
287
views
Are there thirteenth century sources linking the Fifth Crusade to the Book Of Daniel?
Are there any thirteenth century sources (Christian, Islamic, or Jewish) linking (the timing of) the fifth crusade to a possibly self-fulfilling prophecy1 from (the eighth chapter2 of) the Book of ...
- 1,193
8
votes
2
answers
866
views
What were women doing at the Battle of Dorylaeum during the First Crusade?
I have just been watching The Crusades
Dr Thomas Asbridge BBC 2012, in which he states that "... girls, delicate and noble...", went into their tents to put on their best clothes, in the hope of ...
- 8,199
32
votes
6
answers
8k
views
Did Pope Urban II issue the papal bull "terra nullius" in 1095?
Countless sources claim that the origin of the term terra nullius is from a papal bull issued by Pope Urban II in 1095 called "Terra nullius". Here are a two:
Pramod K. Nayar, The Postcolonial ...
- 1,003
26
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Was Richard I's imprisonment by Leopold of Austria justified?
I read in Wikipedia and Britannica about Richard I of England regarding his imprisonment and I was perplexed by the fact that a sovereign monarch, and a crusader at that, could be imprisoned by a ...
- 2,267
8
votes
1
answer
5k
views
Why did the later Crusades seemingly focus more on naval traversal?
I was studying some general Crusade maps and I noticed the first crusades seemed to be more land based as compared to the latter ones and I was wondering exactly why that was (besides just changing ...
- 83
8
votes
1
answer
520
views
What are the origins of this pendant?
I'm trying to identify the origins of a metal pendant that features some engravings and red semitransparent stones or glass.
The pendant appears Christian in its symbology and came into my possession ...
- 839