crusadesintro

 Introduction -- What are the Crusades? = =  media type="youtube" key="5Xd_zkMEgkI" height="344" width="425" (A little Middle Ages/Crusades humor for you to enjoy.) During the Middle Ages, European Christians launched a series of religious wars called **the Crusades** . Their goal was to retake Jerusalem and the area around it, know as the ** Holy Land **, a city sacred to Christians, Jews, and Muslims but at that same time ruled by Muslims. The kings of Europe wanted to drive the Muslims out and make Jerusalem a Christian city. How did the Crusades begin?

  Jerusalem is an important city to all the major religions in the world. For Muslims, it was a very sacred and holy city. For Jews, Jerusalem was important because it was the home of their Holy Temple (in the picture on the right). For Christians, it was the place where Christ was killed (crucified) and, according to many Christians in the middle ages, the place where Christ would come again ONLY IF CHRISTIANS CONTROLLED JERUSALEM. However, North African Muslims, called the Fatimids, controlled Jerusalem starting in the late 1000's. At this same time, another group of Muslims, the Turkish Muslims, began taking control of other areas, including Persia. Because the Turkish Muslims began to invade and control so much land, the emperor of the Byzantine empire desperately contacted ** [|Pope Urban II] ** **(click on his name to answer question 5)**, the Roman Catholic pope at the time. Pope Urban called a meeting of church leaders, Christian warriors, knights, and warriors, and asked them all to put aside their differences to help the Byzantine emperor defeat the Turkish Muslims. Everyone agreed, and the Crusades began.

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