 |
 |
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture comments? a larger world really concerned about their perception of a visible spread of global jihad wants some clarity on this issue. r > Militant Islam vs. Western civilization > Top religious theme for 2005 likely to continue > > Medieval warfare not the cause, U.S. historian says > Dec. 31, 2005. 01:00 AM > RICHARD OSTLING > ASSOCIATED PRESS > http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/ > Layout/ > Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1135810214466&call_pageid=970599119419 > > The No. 1 religious theme of 2005 — and presumably for 2006 and > years beyond — is the face-off between militant Islam and Western > civilization, with its scriptural Jewish and Christian heritage. > > That confrontation overshadowed Roman Catholicism's changeover from > Pope John Paul II to Pope Benedict XVI and Protestants' severe > dispute about homosexuality and the Bible. > Stepping back from the daily headlines about terrorism, the > question arises: What underlies this lethal global tension? Ohio > University historian David Curp has an answer that turns > explanations inside out. > > "It is commonplace to claim that the Crusades scarred the > imagination of the Muslim world for centuries," he wrote recently > in Crisis, a Catholic magazine. > > Islamists and Arab nationalists regularly cite the medieval warfare > between Christians and Muslims as a source for today's anti-Western > views across the Middle East. > > "This is simply incorrect," Curp asserted, noting that Princeton > University's Bernard Lewis said Muslims actually had little > interest in Western Christendom for centuries following the > Crusades (apart from those directly involved in invading Christian > territory). > > Curp's key claim: "Radical Islam's protest against the West is not > fuelled primarily by aggrieved victimhood; it is nourished by an > even stronger memory of how Islam's final victory over Christendom > remained for so long a real possibility." > > For about 1,000 years, the Muslim world experienced mostly > expansion and military triumph. > That era ended in 1683, when Muslims held vast terrain in eastern > Europe and 140,000 Turkish troops nearly conquered Vienna, posing a > significant threat for the West. But the Muslim invaders were > defeated. > > One might develop Curp's scenario this way: After numerous > victories, Islamic lands suffered the humiliation of European > colonialism, then the cultural weakness of independent Muslim > countries extending to the present. That has created a > psychological crisis for Islam. > Curp's retelling of the history explains the context that first > created widespread Muslim-Christian combat. > > Islam originally took the Holy Land in 638 and quickly vanquished > large tracts of the former Christendom. This provoked no sweeping > outrage, nor did Western Christians manage any concerted military > counterattack until 1095, when Pope Urban II summoned the First > Crusade. > > What caused the pope's radical step? > > During that turbulent epoch, Eastern Christianity's Byzantine > Empire had finally broken with Western Catholicism and its pope. > The Byzantines faced the greater Islamic military threat, but > Western Catholics, too, were agitated about increased persecution > of Christian pilgrims seeking to visit their holy sites in > Jerusalem, which required them to travel through Muslim regions. > > Meanwhile, the 10th-century Islamic preacher Ibn Nubata al-Fariqi > developed a cycle of sermons calling for holy war — somewhat > resembling Urban's later Crusade call — that had considerable > influence on Muslim thinking in succeeding centuries. > > Christians' situation in the East began to deteriorate militarily > in 903 when Muslims sacked Thessalonica, the Byzantines' second- > ranking city, and enslaved 30,000 inhabitants. In 931 they took > Ankariya (present-day Ankara) and enslaved thousands more. > > In 1064 the Turks seized the capital of Christian Armenia, > slaughtering the populace and imprisoning 30,000 people. Then, in > the climactic Battle of Mantzikert in 1071, the Muslims virtually > crushed Byzantine military power. > > In Curp's telling, it was that disaster that provoked the Crusades > in response. > > The campaign in present-day Turkey "to expel, enslave or impoverish > the region's Christian inhabitants" lasted 300 years, during which > the population dropped by half. The once-thriving Christian area > "became a wasteland under the rule of its new religiously > intolerant and alien masters," he wrote. > > Curp summarizes that climactic era: "The wars that Islam waged > against Christendom — and Christendom's counterattacks, degenerated > into remarkably dirty wars that often empowered the worst impulses > in both faiths." ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html