{"product_id":"2940015718614","title":"History of Egypt From 330 B.C. To the Present Time, Volume 12 of 12","description":"CHAPTER I--THE CRUSADERS IN EGYPT\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e_The Ideal of the Crusader: Saladin's Campaign: Richard I. in Palestine:\u003cbr\u003eSiege of Damietta: St. Louis in Egypt: The Mamluks: Beybars' Policy._\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe traditional history of the Christian Church has generally maintained\u003cbr\u003ethat the Crusades were due solely to religious influence and sprang from\u003cbr\u003eideal and moral motives: those hundreds of thousands of warriors who\u003cbr\u003ewent out to the East were religious enthusiasts, prompted by the pious\u003cbr\u003elongings of their hearts, and Peter the Hermit, it was claimed, had\u003cbr\u003ereceived a divine message to call Christendom to arms, to preach\u003cbr\u003ea Crusade against the unbelievers and take possession of the Holy\u003cbr\u003eSepulchre. That such ideal reasons should be attributed to a war like\u003cbr\u003ethe Crusades, of a wide and far-reaching influence on the political and\u003cbr\u003eintellectual development of mediæval Europe, is not at all surprising.\u003cbr\u003eIn the history of humanity there have been few wars in which the\u003cbr\u003ecombatants on both sides were not convinced that they had drawn their\u003cbr\u003eswords for some noble purpose, for the cause of right and justice. That\u003cbr\u003ethe motives prompting the vast display of arms witnessed during the\u003cbr\u003eCrusades, that the wanderings of those crowds to the East during two\u003cbr\u003ecenturies, and the cruelties committed by the saintly warriors on their\u003cbr\u003eway to the Holy Sepulchre, should be attributed exclusively to ideal\u003cbr\u003eand religious sources is therefore quite natural. It is not to be\u003cbr\u003edenied that there was a religious factor in the Crusades; but that the\u003cbr\u003ereligious motive was not the sole incentive has now been agreed upon\u003cbr\u003eby impartial historians; and in so far as the motives animating the\u003cbr\u003eCrusaders were religious motives, we are to look to powerful influences\u003cbr\u003ewhich gradually made themselves felt from without the ecclesiastical\u003cbr\u003eorganisations. It was by no means a movement which the Church alone had\u003cbr\u003ecalled into being. On the contrary, only when the movement had grown\u003cbr\u003eripe did Gregory VII. hasten to take steps to enable the Church to\u003cbr\u003econtrol it. The idea of a Crusade for the glory of religion had not\u003cbr\u003esprung from the tenets of Christianity; it was given to mediaeval Europe\u003cbr\u003eby the Muhammedans.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHistory can hardly boast of another example of so gigantic a conquest\u003cbr\u003eduring so short a period as that gained by the first adherents of Islam.\u003cbr\u003eLike the fiery wind of the desert, they had broken from their retreats,\u003cbr\u003eanimated by the promises of the Prophet, and spread the new doctrine far\u003cbr\u003eand wide. In 653 the scimitar of the Saracens enclosed an area as large\u003cbr\u003eas the Roman Empire under the Cæsars. Barely forty years elapsed after\u003cbr\u003ethe death of the Prophet when the armies of Islam reached the Atlantic.\u003cbr\u003eOkba, the wild and gallant leader, rode into the sea on the western\u003cbr\u003eshore of Africa, and, whilst the seething waves reached to the saddle\u003cbr\u003eof his camel, he exclaimed: \"Allah, I call thee as witness that I should\u003cbr\u003ehave carried the knowledge of Thy name still farther, if these waves\u003cbr\u003ethreatening to swallow me would not have prevented me from doing so.\"\u003cbr\u003eNot long after this, the flag of the crescent was waving from the\u003cbr\u003ePyrenees to the Chinese mountains. In 711 the Saracens under General\u003cbr\u003eTarik crossed the straits between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic,\u003cbr\u003eand landed on the rock which has since been called after him, \"the hill\u003cbr\u003eof Tarik,\" Jebel el-Tarik or Gibraltar. Spain was invaded and captured\u003cbr\u003eby the Moslems. For awhile it seemed as if on the other side of the\u003cbr\u003eGaronne the crescent would also supplant the cross, and only the victory\u003cbr\u003eof Charles Martel in 732 put a stop to the wave of Muhammedan conquest.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThus in a brief period Muhammedanism spread from the Nile Valley to the\u003cbr\u003eMediterranean. Muhammed's trenchant argument was the sword. He gave a\u003cbr\u003edistinct command to his followers to convince the infidels of the\u003cbr\u003ePower of truth on the battle-field. \"The sword is a surer argument than\u003cbr\u003ebooks,\" he said. Accordingly the Koran ordered war against unbelievers:\u003cbr\u003e\"The sword is the key to heaven and hell; a drop of blood shed in the\u003cbr\u003ecause of Allah, a night spent in arms, is of more avail than two months\u003cbr\u003eof fasting and prayer; whoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven,\u003cbr\u003eand at the day of judgment his limbs shall be supplied with the wings\u003cbr\u003eof angels and cherubim.\" Before the battle commenced, the commanders\u003cbr\u003ereminded the warriors of the beautiful celestial houris who awaited the\u003cbr\u003eheroes slain in battle at the gates of Paradise.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47080924348656,"sku":"2940015718614","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940015718614","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}