U.S. Department of Education Title VI Project: "The Middle East and Cross-Regional Connections"

Cross-Regional Contact in the Eastern Mediterranean, 1095-1228

Katie Oxx
koxx@ccp.edu
History and Philosophy
Community College of Philadelphia

1. Unit Title: "Cross-Regional Contact in the Eastern Mediterranean, 1095-1228."

2. Target Courses: Philosophy 251: World Religions; Humanities 101: Cultural Traditions or History 121: Medieval/Renaissance Worlds.

3. Goals of unit: The goal of this unit is to present material on the Crusades that will be beneficial to students both in understanding the history and culture of the Mediterranean region and its three primary religions by emphasizing cross-regional (and cultural) contacts. It will hopefully encourage them to look at both the "positive" and "negative" aspects of this contact, to think about models for conflict resolution and fruitful exchange instead of violence, and help them assess the roots of contemporary conflicts in the Middle East and between Jews, Christians and Muslims.

A primary goal is also to help students understand the production of narratives by looking at how the crusades are presented, remembered, etc, and how to "read" those presentations, be they textual, institutional (such as the Art Museum), historiographical, personal or social (historical memory, etc). This will also bring us to the larger question of how and why cultural artifacts are acquired, collected and preserved, etc.
I also intend this unit to continue to familiarize students with the concept of empathy as we use it in religious studies: to avoid pathologizing or marginalizing difference. To this end, we will look at the Crusades primarily through the eyes of the (non-Western/Christian) other. I will use the work of American religious historian Robert Orsi here, and distribute and discuss the following quote to set the tone:

"To stand in an attitude of open, disciplined, and engaged attentiveness to an other means to put one's own world in dialogue; to be open is to be vulnerable - to be vulnerable to the disorientation of seriously meeting a different reality, the challenge of people who love differently than ourselves, whose family lives are not familiar, who inhabit their bodies differently, who have had to contend with political realities perhaps unknown to many of us."

4. Introduction: The Crusades were the most violent confrontation of differing believers in history and they still shape our world in very real ways, from the historical memory of Muslims, Jews and Eastern and Western Christians to the contacts they engendered.
Current scholarly debate on the Crusades centers around when - and if - the crusades ended. Scholars like Jonathan Riley-Smith maintain that we cannot speak of the "end" of the crusades until the fall of Malta to Napoleon in 1798. The latest date I have seen comes from Paul Halsall, who suggests that it wasn't until Sir Edmund Allenby's troops left Jerusalem in 1918 that we can properly declare an "end" to the crusades. This debate illustrates how from certain perspectives (be they Western, scholarly, Arab, Muslim), the crusades are a continuing project. I will present these theories to students and elicit their opinions as we move to the final section of the unit.
Although it requires a wide angle of vision, we will look at the Crusades then as an idea, a movement, etc, and not as a clearly delineated series of seven or eight "Crusades." We will also see them as both an institutional and popular impulse, the latter of which affords me the opportunity to engage with objects from material culture and social history as I continue to discover them. We will follow the following outline:
1. Week I: Crusades history & historiography, motivations for crusading, individual crusaders
2. Week II: Cross-cultural contact, inter-religious conflicts & relationships, women in the crusades, ideas of the Other
3. Week III: Orders & armor, poetry, art & music
4. Week IV: The End of the Crusades (?), lessons learned, enduring legacies - Christian/Western/Jewish/Muslim/Arab

5. Materials: In addition to some secondary essays, I will use primary sources from Christian, Muslim and Jewish chronicles. We will listen to music from the period and visit the Philadelphia Museum of Art to see armor, painting, and architecture. We will use lots of maps and timelines.

We will rely on two internet websites - The Internet Medieval Sourcebook (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook) by Paul Halsall at Fordham University and the Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies (http://the-orb.net) edited by Kathryn Talarico at the College of Staten Island, CUNY. Both of them are meticulous and thorough and contain many sources whose copyrights have expired, so students and I are free to download and use them.

Readings:
Secondary Sources:
1. Phillips, Jonathan. The Crusades: 1095-1197. Longman, 2003.
2. Sanderson, Warren. "Understanding Historic Styles in the Visual Arts."
3. Robinson, James Harvey. "Why Study History Through Primary Sources."
Primary Sources:
1. "Accounts Of The Council At Clermont," 1095, 5 Versions.
2. Solomon Bar Sansom: "Chronicle," Mainz, 1096 CE.
3. Albert of Aix and Ekkehard of Aura: "Emico and the Slaughter of the Jews"
4. Anselm of Ribemont to Manasses II, Archbishop of Reims
5. Stephen, Count of Blois and Chartres, To his Wife Adele
6. The Patriarch of Jerusalem to the Church in the West
7. Anselm of Ribemont to Manasses II, Archbishop of Reims
8. The People of Lucca on Crusade. To all Faithful Christians
9. Godfrey, Raymond and Daimbert to the Pope
10. Ibn Al-Athir. "The Franks Seize Antioch" etc from Arab Historians
11. Usmah Ibn Munqidh (1095-1188): "Autobiography: Excerpts on the Franks," c.1175 CE.
12. Usmah Ibn Munqidh (1095-1188): "On European Piracy," c.1175 CE.
13. Usmah Ibn Munqidh (1095-1188): "On Muslim and Christian Piety," c.1175 CE.
14. Usmah Ibn Munqidh (1095-1188): "An Appreciation of the Frankish Character," c.1175 CE from An Arab-Syrian Gentleman.
15. A Christian-Muslim Debate [12th Century].
16. Presentation: "Art of the Mediterranean Region in the Eleventh, Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries."
17. Selections from Music of the Crusades: "Chanterai Por Mon Corage," and "Chevalier, Mult Estes Guariz."
18. Selections from Arab Music of the Crusades: Laqad Fatanatni Farandjiyya, "Iam dazzled by a Frankish Woman" and La Cabra Li "I am Losing My Patience Before the Glow of a Fine Moon."
19. Sir Edmund Allenby (1861-1936): "The Fall of Jerusalem, 9 December 1917."
20. James Reston, Jr.: "Parallels Between the Crusades and Postwar Occupation of Iraq," March 6, 2003.
21. George W. Bush: "Today We Mourned, Tomorrow We Work," September 16, 2001.

6. In-class Assignments: Group Discussion, Primary Source Questions:
"Accounts Of The Council At Clermont," 1095, 5 Versions: Fulcher of Chartres, Robert the Monk, Gesta Version, Guibert of Nogent, and Balderic of Dol.
1. What is unique in each version?
2. What do they all have in common?
3. What is the primary motivation for the crusades according to the accounts?
4. Taken together, what we can deduce about the crusades from the accounts?
5. How does this affect our working definition of the crusades?

Albert of Aix and Ekkehard of Aura: "Emico and the Slaughter of the Jews" and Soloman bar Samson "The Crusaders in Mainz"
1. What is unique in each version of the slaughter of the Jewish people?
2. What do they both have in common?
3. Why would Christians slaughter Jews?
4. Taken together, what we can deduce about the crusades from the reports?
5. How does this affect our working definition of the crusades?

Ibn Al-Athir. "The Franks Seize Antioch" etc from Arab Historians, Usmah Ibn Munqidh (1095-1188): "Autobiography: Excerpts on the Franks," "On European Piracy," "On Muslim and Christian Piety," "An Appreciation of the Frankish Character," c.1175 CE from An Arab-Syrian Gentleman.
1. What do these sources tell you about the Arab impression of the crusaders?
2. What cross-cultural contacts and influences are described in the sources?
3. How does that change your interpretation or definition of the crusades?

Anselm of Ribemont to Manasses II, Archbishop of Reims; Stephen, Count of Blois and Chartres, To his Wife Adele; The Patriarch of Jerusalem to the Church in the West; Anselm of Ribemont to Manasses II, Archbishop of Reims; The People of Lucca on Crusade. To all Faithful Christians; Godfrey, Raymond and Daimbert to the Pope.
1. What do the crusader letters tell us about the men who wrote them?
2. About life in the middle ages?
3. About the ordeal of crusading?
4. What do they tell us about the contact between Christians and Arabs?
5. What do they tell us about motivations for the crusades in general?

"Art of the Mediterranean Region in the Eleventh, Twelfth and Thirteenth
Centuries," Selections from Music of the Crusades: "Chanterai Por Mon Corage," and "Chevalier, Mult Estes Guariz." Selections from Arab Music of the Crusades: Laqad Fatanatni Farandjiyya, "Iam dazzled by a Frankish Woman" and La Cabra Li "I am Losing My Patience Before the Glow of a Fine Moon."
1. What similarities do you notice in the art of the Eastern and Western Mediterranean? In the music?
2. What can be considered "Crusader" music? What are some of the themes we explored? What characteristics distance you from it? How can you bridge the divide?
3. Can you trace the influences each had on the other?
4. What can you deduce from this?
5. How does this affect your interpretation of the crusades?

"A Christian/Moslem Debate of the 12th Century."
1. What can you deduce about the two faiths from this debate?
2. What must you be careful about?
3. Who do you think presented stronger arguments? Why?
4. Why do you think they debated salvation?

Sir Edmund Allenby (1861-1936): "The Fall of Jerusalem, 9 December 1917," James Reston, Jr.: "Parallels Between the Crusades and Postwar Occupation of Iraq," March 6, 2003, George W. Bush: "Today We Mourned, Tomorrow We Work," September 16, 2001.
1. What do these sources suggest about the end of the crusades?
2. How have the crusades affected the contemporary world?
3. How have they affected the historical memory of the people who live in the region where the crusades took place?
4. How do these sources affect your interpretation/analysis of the crusades?

6. Essay (800-1000 words) Questions:
1. What does "Holy War" mean? "Crusade"? "Jihad"? "Pilgrimage"? How do their meanings differ?
2. What is the difference between "history" and "historiography"? How is history presented? Whose history is it? How does this impact an historical examination of the Crusades?
3. Why were the crusades so violent? Were they justified?
4. Do you think the Crusades were a medieval movement? A modern one?
5. Are the Crusades a viable way of understanding conflict? Cross-regional cooperation?
6. Should the West apologize for the Crusades?

7. Co-Curricular Activity: Students will go the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

8. Student Resources: Students can refer to the Armstrong and Riley -Smith texts below, as well as the websites listed both at the beginning and end of this module.

9. Instructor's Bibliography:
Armstrong, Karen. Holy War: The Crusades and Their Impact on Today's World. 1st ed. New York: Doubleday, 1991.
Chazan, Robert. European Jewry and the First Crusade. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987.
---. God, Humanity, and History: The Hebrew First Crusade Narratives. Berkeley, Calif. ; London: University of California Press, 2000.
Daniel, Norman. The Arabs and Medieval Europe, 1979
Dunn, Ross E. The Adventures of Ibn Battuta : A Muslim Traveler of the 14th Century. London Croom Helm,, 1986.
Gabrieli, Francesco. Arab Historians of the Crusades. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1957.
Gyug, Richard. Medieval Cultures in Contact, Fordham Series in Medieval Studies, No. 1. New York: Fordham University Press, 2003.
Hillenbrand, Carole. The Crusades : Islamic Perspectives. New York: Routledge, 2000.
Ibn-Munqidh, Usamah. An Arab-Syrian Gentleman and Warrior in the Period of the Crusades. Translated by Philip K. Hitti. New York: Columbia University Press, 1929.
Johnson, James Turner. The Holy War Idea in Western and Islamic Traditions. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997.
Johnson, James Turner, and John Kelsay. Cross, Crescent, and Sword : The Justification and Limitation of War in Western and Islamic Tradition, Contributions to the Study of Religion, No. 27. New York: Greenwood Press, 1990.
Laiou, Angeliki E., and Roy P. Mottahedeh. The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2001.
Maalouf, Amin. The Crusades through Arab Eyes. New York: Schocken Books, 1985.
Mayer, H. E. The Crusades. 2nd ed. Oxford and New York: Clarendon Press and Oxford University Press, 1988.
Riley-Smith, Jonathan. Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Schein, Sylvia. Fideles Crucis: The Papacy, the West, and the Recovery of the Holy Land, 1274-1314. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.
Tyerman, Christopher. The Invention of the Crusades. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998.
Verdon, Jean. Night in the Middle Ages. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2002.
---. Travel in the Middle Ages. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2003.

10. Related Websites: The following websites are appropriate and informative.
1. A site developed by National Public Radio, which is particularly helpful in making contemporary links - www.npr.org/news/specials/mideast/the_west/?sourceCode=gaw
2. A site with straightforward information and excellent images:
www.medievalcrusades.com
3. A site developed by the History department at Boise State College with information on the Crusades broken down into individual lecture:
crusades.boisestate.edu

11. Syllabus: For a Humanities 101 course, this module will take up the entirety of the Medieval section, which in one-third of the total of the class or 4/5 weeks. For a World Religions course, this module would be appropriate at the end of the semester, following the introduction of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and it will help to lead in to the conclusion of the course. It should take up the equivalent of one and a half to two weeks. For a Medieval/Renaissance History course, this module should take up 4 weeks and serve as the bridge between the Medieval and Renaissance periods.