The Truth about the Crusades: Historian reviews of "Kingdom of Heaven"

RedState.org ^ | 5/24/2005 | Thomas Woods

[chaosagent]

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[Westbrook]

Very good! May I quote you?

By all means, please feel free to do so!

:)

[PzLdr]

They wiped out the Abassid Caliphate, as well as the Assassins, and took Antioch. They sought an alliance with the Crusader states,but were rebuffed (an act of stupidity that went a long way to facilitating their eventual destruction. The Mongols were stopped south of the Dead Sea around 1260, when Kedbuga, or Kit Boga, was defeated by the Mamelukes of Egypt. Interestingly enough, dynastic succession issues to the Kha Khanate, between Kubilai and his younger brother. Arik Boka, coupled with a war between the Golden Horde (converted to Islam under Berke Khan) and Kubilai's other brother, Hulegu (Buddhist) prevented the Mongols from renewing their attack on the Muslims.

[Publius6961]

Very creative, but having the faint whiff of equine excrement...

[dznutz]

Pope Urban sought to unite Europes rulers in the name of religion. Rulers sought their own political/economic opportunities that would come with Islams defeat.

[Bombard]

It is a little known fact that a sizable number of Mongols were Nestorian Christians. As far as the Crusader states by the time the Mongols arrived on the scene the Christian states were in severe decline. They were in no real shape to take advantage of the Mongol presence.

[expatguy]

bttt

[Cronos]

With estimates of no more than $50 million total. KoH is one of the biggest box-office bombs in Hollywood history.

That IS good news.

[Cronos]

What about revenues from markets outside the US? Also, where did you get those statistics please? I would like to see that for other movies

[Cronos]

In truth the Mongol invasions of the Moslem world was more important than the crusades

Quite correct -- Hulagu decimated Baghdad -- it was THE center of Islam under the Abbassids or Ummayyads (not sure) Caliphs. After the Mongol invasion it never truly recovered. The Mongols conquered Iran and large chunks of Turkey, Syria etc. before being defeated by the Mameluks of Egypt (the first time they were ever defeated)

[Truthsayer20]

"...and in the case of the Crusades to lend assistance to fellow Christians in the East who found themselves under a similar threat..."

It seems Mr. Woods is also quilty of historical revisionism despite getting many of the facts correct. Western Christians stabbed the Byzantium in the back during the Crusades, for example, with the ransacking of Constantinople from which the city never really recovered.

[RobFromGa]

you can try www.boxofficemojo.com for a lot of movie receipts info...

[Cronos]

That was in the 4th Crusade and it was twisted by the Doge of Venice who made the Crusaders attack Constantinople (could it be because the Doge had had his eyes gouged out by the Byzantines?)

And the Crusaders had been pretty much treated like country bumpkins by the Byzantines who played, well, Byzantine politics with them.

[Cronos]

However,

Domestic: $42,824,231 (24.9%)
+ Overseas: $129,482,270 (75.1%)

= Worldwide: $172,306,501

[PzLdr]

Hulegu's principal wife was a Nestorian Christian

[LS]

Yes, he sought that too, but his motives were certainly not entirely "holy" or wholesome, and many of them were misguided (i.e., overpopulation).

[LS]

Read any history of the period. These were the same popes who had mistresses and illegitimate kids, so their motives were not entirely pure and holy, if at all.

[LS]

I can cite for you the "Truce of God" and the "Peace of God," which are anything but "revisionist." And Lynn White is pretty respectable---hardly a cynical revisionist. The fact is, the common view was that the knights had gotten out of hand, and shipping a lot of them on a mission far away would bring peace to the land.

[PzLdr]

Baghdad was the Abbasid Caliphate. I believe the Ummayids were centered in Cairo, where they bought Kipchak slaves fro the Mongols. The slaves became the Mamelukes, who followed the Muslim practice of starting as military units, moving to being the power behind the throne (the Ummayid Caliph), to usurping the throne and the power.

[LS]

I agree. But that doesn't change the fact that IN ADDITION to "rescuing" the holy lands from the infidels, there were other, very powerful reasons for wanting large numbers of violent armed men OUT of Europe and off on a mission.