From 1095 to 1291 C.E., the Crusades spread across Europe in the name of Christianity. The high tension between the Muslims and the Christians was caused by the want of the city of Jerusalem. The Jews, the Christians, and the Muslims believed Jerusalem was theirs, and went to violent efforts to achieve it. In the movie, Kingdom of Heaven by Oliver Stone, the main character, Balian is thrown into the fight between the Christians and the Muslims. Kingdom of Heaven is a portrayal of one of the Crusades, and although the movie was based from real people, the film makers decided to change aspects about the characters and situations to relate to current events and audiences. In history, Balian was a native born citizen of Jerusalem, who was born into a high esteemed family. However, in the movie, the filmmakers gave Balian a poor life living in France. Different theories of why Balian was placed as a blacksmith in France vary according to point of view. To familiarize with current audiences, film makers may have made this
While the movie was released after the event of 9/11, the film made a bold move to show equality. The movie portrayed the Christians and the Muslims being one of the same. Balian made a point to the people he was protecting during battle, that the Muslims where no better than the Christians who took Jerusalem from the Jews. The movie made the point that both the Christians and the Muslims were the same, looking for the same prize as one another. The only difference between the two was they were on different sides of the battle. The film showed how there can be differences in the multiple kinds of religions, yet on a simple, basic level, there are many familiar traits. It is important to come to the mindset of learning of the different cultures, and hold onto the humanity of treating others how one would want to be
In 1099 Jerusalem was besieged by bloodthirsty Christian knights from Western Europe, fueled by their religious desire for the holy land. This siege was the commencement of twelve holy crusades led by the Christian West in hope to recover Jerusalem as a Christian city. At that time, Jerusalem was, to the Christians, inconveniently occupied by Muslims. This being the first crusade, it was documented by several sources, notably by Fulcher of Chartres in his, Chronicle of the First Crusade, as well as a Muslim point of view by Ibn al-Athir, a medieval Arab historian.
The First Crusade was propelled in 1095 by Pope Urban II to recover control of the sacred city of Jerusalem and the Christian Holy Land from Muslims.
In Jay Rubenstein's book, "Armies of Heaven," he tells the story of the Crusades in its entirety, beginning with the events that shaped the world into the chaotic time period of the Crusades. Unlike most books on the Crusades, Rubenstein makes an interesting connection with the apocalypse and its effect on the Crusades. In "Armies of Heaven," Rubenstein proposes that the whole reasoning behind the Crusades was to prepare for the apocalypse and the second coming of Jesus Christ. The book begins by providing the background of the city of Jerusalem and its first thousand years after Christ. Rubenstein depicts all the events that shaped the holy city's state of being at the beginning of the crusade.
The Crusades were a number of military expeditions by Europeans of the Christian faith attempting to recover the Holy Land, Jerusalem, which was then controlled by the powerful Muslim Empire. In his book People of The First Crusade, Michael Foss an independent historian tells the story of the first Crusade in vivid detail illustrating the motives behind this historic event, and what had really occurred towards the end of the eleventh century. The Christian lands of Western Europe were slowly deteriorating from invasions of the North, and the passing of corrupt laws from within the clergy and the high lords. However, these were not the only challenges those of European Christian faith had to face. Islam strengthened after the conversion of the
There was a series of brutal wars undertaken by the Christians of Europe, this took place between the 11th and 14th century, that was the crusades. It happened to recover the great holy lands from the Muslims.
The selection from Usama Ibn Munqidh’s Kitab al-l’tibar otherwise know in English as the Book of Contemplation is a book in which Usama provides a series of short vignettes as a testimony to his experiences in the medieval Middle East and the Crusades. Through his writings the reader is able to get a Muslim account of the Crusades. It is largely a personal account so many details are left out and much background knowledge is assumed. It also is not the most unbiased source as supported by Usama’s frequent utterence that “Allah render them [The crusading Christians] helpless” (Ibn Munqidh 197) Usama also makes no attempt at analysis or understanding and just writes exactly what he observed without asking questions or delving deeper into the myriad differences he discribes. On a whole though it provides a great overview of the experience of many Muslims (especially the upper class, of which Usama was a part of) during this unstable period of invasion and political fragmentation in the Islamic world.
The Crusades took place in the Middle East between 1095 and 1291. They were used to gain a leg up on trading, have more land to show hegemony, and to please the gods. Based upon the documents, the Crusades between 1095 and 1291 were caused primarily by religious devotion rather than by the desire for economic and political gain.
The first crusade was held only in order to fulfill desire of the Christians of the recapturing the center of the Christian faith-Jerusalem, which has been controlled by the Muslim nation for more than 400 years. This military campaign was followed with severe cruelty and harsh actions against Muslims which cannot be justified with anything but religious and material interest.
... in the Kingdom of Heaven, Balian teaches the people how to get water from the earth by digging a hole in the ground. The traders teach each other skills to make themselves better and more profitable. Although the crusades had many beneficial outcomes, some were not as great. During the crusades hatred formed between Christians and Muslims. This hatred will last many years and still continues today in some aspect. The constant fighting between the Christian crusaders and the Muslim people transformed religion into a license to kill, which justified the slaughter of men women and children.
In 2005, the Palestinian director and writer, Hany Abu-Assad, released his award-winning motion picture, “Paradise Now.” The film follows two Palestinian friends, over a period of two days, who are chosen by an extremist terrorist group to carry out a suicide mission in Tel-Aviv during the 2004 Intifada. The mission: to detonate a bomb strapped to their stomachs in the city. Because the film industry seldom portrays terrorists as people capable of having any sort of humanity, you would think the director of “Paradise Now” would also depict the two main characters as heartless fiends. Instead, he makes an attempt to humanize the protagonists, Khaled and Said, by providing us with a glimpse into their psyches from the time they discover they’ve been recruited for a suicide bombing operation to the very last moments before Said executes the mission.
Unfortunately, the role of ignorance and jealousy combining to breed fear and hatred is a recurring theme in history ultimately exhibiting itself in the form of prejudice. As demonstrated through the altering of historical events in The Song of Roland, the conflict between the Christian and Islamic religions takes precedence over the more narrow scope of any specific battle and is shaped, at least in part by the blind perception of a prejudice born of the ignorance and envy Christian Europe had for representatives of the non-Christian world. To fully see this prejudice and its effect on the participants, it is necessary to recognize the circumstances of the "real" battle along with the altering characters and settings attributed to its later writing, understand the character and beliefs of the participants, and carefully examine the text itself to see how prejudice comes into play.
The movie Kingdom of Heaven is about the Second Crusade, where Saladin took over Jerusalem. It is where a French Blacksmith kills a guy and has to catch up to his father who he just met to go to Jerusalem. Along the way they get ambushed, and only three of the people make it out alive. One Balian’s dad and he is very injured. So when he cannot go along to Jerusalem with them he knights Balian. When they make it to Jerusalem, Balian is told that his father owns a piece of land, so he goes there. After the King dies, Balian is made the leader of the army by the queen, and the battle lasted a couple of days which ended in Balian surrendering. Through the movie there were quite a few historical inaccuracies, and this is what I am here to prove.
Movies, one can argue, are one of America’s greatest pastimes. Unfortunately, after 9/11, films have become increasingly prejudiced against American Muslims. In movies Muslims are frequently portrayed negatively. According to James Emery, a professor of Anthropology, Hollywood profits off of “casting individuals associated with specific negative stereotypes”. This is due to the fact that viewers automatically link characters with their clichéd images (Emery). For Muslims, the clichéd image is of the violent fundamentalist, who carried out the terroristic attacks on 9/11. As a result, the main stereotypes involved in movies display Muslims as extremists, villains, thieves, and desert nomads. An example of a movie that has such a negative character role for Muslims in film is Disney’s cartoon Aladdin, depict...
The Crusades were an outlet for the intense religious tension between the Muslims and the church which rose up in the late 11th century. This all started because the church and the Catholics wanted the Holy Lands back from the Muslims. Around this time the church was the biggest institute and people were god-fearing. Pope Gregory VII wanted to control more lands and wanted to get back the lands that they had lost to the Muslims (Medieval Europe). So in order to get back these lands he launched The Crusades which he insisted to the peasants was a holy war instead.
In the movie “Kingdom of Heaven”, it was about the Christians and the Muslims fighting. The Christians, at the time, had the city of Jerusalem. The Muslims were fighting to get back Jerusalem in the movie, there were many big historical inaccuracies. Most of them were done by the director of the movie. In this essay I will state the inaccuracies of some of the relationships, ice, and longbows.