Posted on 11/06/2005 4:06:10 PM PST by Dr. Scarpetta
It was the collision of two great faiths…a clash between two of the world’s most enduring and powerful religions.
A thousand years ago, they battled each other for two centuries during three Crusades, each seeking control of what they claimed as the rightful holy lands of their people.
Heroes and villains emerged, and acts of barbarism cut wounds that are still felt to this day.
This November, The History Channel travels back in time for a historical, vivid and clear-eyed look at the first three Crusades, the battle between the Crescent and the Cross, which still shapes the Middle East and relations between the two great religions in our present-day world.
Was the book called "The Crusades: The World's Debate" by Hillaire Belloc. You recommend it?
Anyone else read this book? Would like impressions.
Then, as now, Christianity wasn't united. It consisted of small kingdoms in the West. Also, because of the terrain resupply routes were nearly impossible to pass over without taking massive losses.
But the great lesson of the Crusades is that the overwhelmingly outnumbered Crusaders made it all the way to Jerusalem in the First (organized) Crusade, and kicked muslim butt. According to the great historian Hillaire Belloc, about 500,000 total Crusaders left for Jerusalem and only about 15,000 remained alive by the time they got there to fight. These surviving warriors were, of course, the toughest and best trained Knights. Against all odds they attacked Jerusalem and conquered, and the muslims never saw such ferocity in their lives.
If history should repeat itself, the lesson learned is to not let up until Islam becomes a footnote in Christian history books.
You just reminded me that I have to reserve: How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill.
Sorry, it's vol. 5 that deals with the rise of Islam, not vol. 4.
You recommend it?
Western Europe was still in the 'dark ages', people had to be severe to survive. The Crusades were called to defend Western Europe from an ivasion by Islam, and the Kings that led their private armies were the final authority for the Knights and warriors. They were Christians, but from a very different world than we live in today; and they came to fight, not play PC-restricted war games with their enemy.
I've read that the Frankish Crusaders weilded the heaviest and thickest swords, often cutting their enemy in half, from shoulder to groin, with one blow.
The thing on TV will be a joke.
Yes, I think so. It was easy to read. Full of detail and pretty unbiased.
I bought "How the Irish Saved Civilization" this summer in Ireland. This is one of the sentences at the end of the book:
"Rome's demise instructs us in what inevitably happens when impoverished and rapidly expanding populations, whose ways and values are only dimly understood, press up against a rich and ordered society."
Yes, it was the best single book on the Crusades that I've ever read. Belloc (a former military man) studied the Crusaders' battle tactics, their supply routes, their individual customs and mentality, and he studied the Turks' battle strategies as well..... and he comes up with an absolutely tremendous book on the Crusades.
Best of all there's no anti-Christian spin, even when at times the Crusaders were less than gentlemen, he just tells it like it was and explains how the Crusades were absolutely necessary to the survival of the West.
Yeah, chances are. Which oh, just by the way, was a response to similar to what we are now seeing in France and Denmark.
thanks for the heads-up, but I've been waiting all week for this.
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It doesn't matter what the "History" Channel says about Christianity vs. Islam. All I care about is what each respective faith stands for. No contest. Islam is a violent, fascist "religion" straight from hell.
I'm going to get both these books that were recommended. Are they on CD, which my son-in-law would enjoy for Christmas.
No, it was the collision of one great faith, Christianity, and a murderous cult, islam.
I don't know about the book being on CD, but "The Crusades" by Hilaire Belloc can be ordered through TAN Books.
http://www.memorare.com/club/2tanmain.html
Belloc Rocks!
Full Disclosure: I prefer The Servile State which was written before the Russian Communist Revolution.
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