Jihad and the Crusades
Every great historical moment, leader and religion is focused around a uniting influence. Saladin, a great Kurdish Muslim warrior during the time of the Crusades, and the Muslim armies employed the lesser, or violent jihad to fortify support and power in the Holy Lands. Throughout the eleventh and twelfth centuries the term “jihad” was used in several different contexts with varying meanings and intentions. Saladin used a favorable definition and interpretation of Jihad in order to unite the Muslims and create a massive army to defend Islam from the Christian Crusaders. In order to completely understand the word, its origins, and
its uses, the original passages from the Qur’an must be analyzed and interpreted. Islam, as a faith, is supposed to be peaceful and preaches inner strength. Violence of any kind is in direct contradiction to the teachings of Mohammad and the Islamic
faith. The only exception in using violence is in the case of a declared jihad, or holy war for the protection of Islam. The reasons for this exception for violence and its proper uses are controversial in that there is little reassurance that Allah would support or deny support for a war. However it is clear that the meaning and use of jihad was manipulated during the Crusades for the benefit of Islam, as it can be argued that Saladin fought not for Allah, but out of anger towards the Christians and
to protect and grow his own wealth and lands. In the present day the term jihad is used more and more in the press however the meaning of the word has gained an increasingly violent connotation over time. While jihad has been bastardized over time it’s origins appear to be pure and devout to the Islamic faith.
The history and origins of jihad are found in the Qur’an and the teachings of
the Prophet Mohammad who died in 632 AD. Throughout the Qur’an there are
several references to jihad as a personal and inner struggle to become a better
person. The Islamic faith is based upon striving for a life that is worthy in God’s eyes.
A personal jihad is basically the struggle to avoid temptations and stay on the right
path to salvation and for God, which is what the prophet Mohammed preached
throughout his life. One scholar writes, “Muslims for centuries have engaged
themselves and the world in pursuit of inner jihad. This has been their way of
...
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...an inner struggle to follow the teachings of
Islam remains a core value in Muslim faith. While Saladin’s interpretation of Jihad
changed the religion of Islam, it was not nearly as radical as the present day
alterations.
Works Cited
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Thomas F. Madden’s The New Concise History of the Crusades is an invaluable account of the crusades that bases its arguments off of factual evidence and draws from historical accounts. Although his arguments may be flawed because of preconceived biases, Madden is still able to present the history of the crusades in an interesting and professional manner. The themes he addresses accurately portray the crusades as both a religious and territorial endeavor. Overall, Madden successfully summarizes and analyzes the crusades in his historical review, infusing his own ideologies in the text while still maintaining a professional voice.
Cobb, Paul. "Introduction." Ibn Munqidh, Usama. Book of Contemplation Islam and the Crusades. New York: Penguin Books, 2008. xv-xlii.
The Pillars are a list of rules that give five key practices that the observant Muslim should follow. An individual must follow these five rules: openly declare devotion to their god, Allah, pray five times daily facing towards the holy city Mecca, fast and abstain from secular pleasures during the month of Ramadan, pay an alms tax for the welfare of the poor, and make the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once during one’s life if circumstances allow (Smart 290). These guidelines provide an obvious way to distinguish the religious insider from the outsider and work to reinforce a continual sense of community among the insiders (Smart 291). The concept of jihad works to legitimize the expansion of Islam. Jihad, or the “struggle on behalf of the faith” resulted in two different interpretations (Smart 299). Firstly, the Qur’an states that it is the duty of religious adherents to fight against polytheists, Christians, and Jews until they pay the jizya, or tax, acknowledging Muslim supremacy (Smart 299). However, a branch of Islam called Sufism softened this doctrine to imply that jihad is not a physical conflict, but is instead an internal struggle to eliminate temptations and foster obedience to God (Smart 300). This concept is shown in action when examining the chronological expansion of Islam. In the classical and medieval periods of Islam, stretching from the early seventh
Thomas Madden’s Crusades is an exposition of the crusades, which occurred during the Middle Ages. The Crusades were a series of military conflicts of a religious character. They remain a very important movement in human history, and are hard to understand, as they include several themes and they lasted for a long time (about two hundred years, and the author covers a period of about eight centuries in his chronological work). Religion is, of course, the most recurrent theme we think about the Crusades, but is it the only factor to explain them? How does Madden, considered as one of the most foremost historian of the Crusades, expose them in his book? Is his work effective to understand this period of History? Madden has the ambition to relate the Crusades from the Middle Ages to today events, such as the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. For him, it is a recall of what happened in the past, and what can still happen today: making wars for religion. Madden wants to intrigue readers with this concise book so they go further to discover more about the Crusades.
Understanding Islam gives a broad outline which could help to erase American misconceptions about this religion, and could be helpful in easing global racial tensions. The book is not top of the line scholarship about Islam; it is for the uninformed or otherwise unaware beginner. After reading this book the reader has a basic understanding of Islam, devoid of many American or western misconceptions. However, Lippman explains that the holy book is not spelled "Koran," but rather "Qur-an," though he uses the first spelling throughout the book (56). The real version is written in arabic, but I would have rather him used the more authentic spelling. In this way I see that this book was beneficial, but not the final word. It is a good book because it lays a positive foundation for Americans, and hopes to inspire them to continue their study of a fascinating religion.
While there is no precise definition of the term, the meaning of Jihad is far more complex. In fact, the term Jihad generally refers to the struggle one must undertake as one “strive[s] in the path of God” (Church 110). That struggle is defined both externally and internally. As so, they are classified in terms of an external struggle with enemies or non believers, or an internal struggle with oneself to reject greed and temptation. While popular opinion has been misconstrued to see Jihad as a malevolent, violent action; a serious investigation of the term’s historical and religious background reveals a multi-defined word.
The first half of the book examines the practical features of the Crusades. In the first chapter, Finucane offers a concise overview of the numerous crusades and goes into details with the more notable crusades. This summary certainly presents the background information needed to better understand the remaining chapters, which focus on individual themes. In Chapter 2, Finucane provides excellent depictions of the ways preachers recruited the men for crusade and their motivations for doing so, as well as accounts of the methods that both royalty and the clergy used to finance the expeditions. With Chapter 3, Finucane offers enlightening accounts of the difficulties and dangers that crusaders experienced journeying to the Holy Land. He discusses the crusaders’ travels, both on sea and land, with all the problems that crusaders encountered. Chapter 4, entitled “God’s Armies” discusses the composition of both armies, yet it is very limited in its scope. In his analysis, he provides significant detail to crusaders, yet Finucane does not provide adequate information on the Muslim soldier in comparison to the Christian soldier. In the last chapter of the first section, Finucane provides elements of three types of warfare engaged during the Crusades and detailed information on various massacres and atrocities committed by both Christians and Muslims. For
According to the Quran and supporting Islamic texts, jihad means striving. However, there are several words and phrases, that when coupled with jihad, display a variety of sentiments. The phrase fi sabil Allah, "in God's path," can be interpreted as fighting for the sake of God. When paired with the word ribat, jihad is related to warfare or pious doings/activism (Bonner 2006). Jihad represents a fight that has provided Muslims with a solid base of military efficiency demonstrated historically in early Islam.
The term jihadi was not always commonly recognized in the United States. It was not until the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that the word jihad became widely known. Since the terrorist attacks, the media and the U.S. government have used the word jihad to invoke frightening images of non-Americans coming to destroy American freedoms and to define Islam. Today, scholars have begun to try to define this complex word and its multitude of meanings. When viewers tune into the news, it is sometimes difficult to unravel the layers of information that is being fed to them by the media and the U.S. government. In its most literal form, the term “jihad is an Arabic term meaning, as a noun, ‘struggle’ or, as a verb, ‘to exert effort’ toward a goal” (International Ency 1). However, in Mary Pat Fisher’s book Living Religions the chapter on Islam discusses how the definition of the term jihad is “commonly mistranslated as ‘holy war’ (Fisher 148). While the media frequently portrays jihad consistent with the idea of “struggle,” the media almost always flips the definition on its head by suggesting that this struggle is a malicious struggle between two groups of peoples, each of whom believes that righteousness, and in many cases God, is on their side and evil is on the other side. Suggesting that jihad and violence are in connection with each other has been the case since pre-modern times. In fact, Fisher suggests that the primary associations of the word jihad are religious, specifically with reference the Prophet Mohammad and to the religion of Islam, but also invoke a sense of violence or resistance against an opposing force. While violence and jihad have typically been spoken about together, as of late, the...
Here Mohammad began changing his rules of tolerance to some that were justifying attacks even in the sacred month. This is also were understanding the Qur’an begin to become very contradictory and up to interpretation of the of the asbab al-nuzul (occasion of the revelation) because the earlier verse are abrogated by the later ones.
Maalouf’s main thesis in The Crusades Through Arab Eyes is that the crusades are a major part of history and have truly influenced every one of our lives. The second pa...
Burns, Thomas J. "Islam." Religion and Society. OU Campus' Dale Hall, Norman. 14 Apr. 2014. Lecture.
...f the warring tribes was obtaining booty, or riches, not following the scriptures of the Quran or examples of Mohammed
Starting from one of the very first holy wars, the Crusades are a prime example of this disuniting force of religion. Stemming from Pope Urban II’s rallying cry for soldiers to reclaim the Holy Land, this was a series of religious wars launched by Christian states of Europe against the Muslims. Thousands of men, both young and old, were motivated by promises of wealth, religious salvation, and chivalry to fight this religious battle against the Muslims. Despite the nobility, these wars had severe consequences between Christian and Islamic believers. In the article “The Crusades” by W. Robert Godfrey, he expresses, “Hundreds of thousands died, and the terrible massacre in Jerusalem by the crusaders has seriously damaged the reputation of Christianity among Muslims ever since.” This major event in history created tension between Christians and Muslim faiths. As one of the bloodiest wars in history, this conflict between the Muslims and the Christians represents how religion ruptures peace between two segregated sides.
In this book , Esposito provides a succinct, up-to-date survey of the Islamic experience, an introduction to the faith, belief, and practice of Islam from its origins to its contemporary resurgence. He traces the emergence and development of this dynamic faith and its impact on world history and politics. He discusses the formation of Islamic belief and practice (law, theology, philosophy, and mysticism), chronicling the struggle of Muslims to define and adhere to their Islamic way of life. Equally important is the essential information Esposito provides on the contemporary world of Islam, from Muslim responses to the challenges of colonialism and modernization to the reassertion of Islam in politics and society.