Abstract
The Crusades had a tremendous impact particularly on the Western Europe; these wars led to the development of the European civilization. The Crusades necessarily include both destructive and constructive elements. It expanded the trade, exploration, and scientific inventions much significantly for the Europe. Similarly, but not as deep and wide as on the Western Europe, the Crusades impact could be seen on some socio-religious elements of the Muslim world. Further, the bitter legacy of these wars widened the hostility, hatred, and dissent between the West and the Muslim world that still is perceived in one way or the other. The present paper attempts to revisit the impact of the Crusades into a broader social, economic, political, and religious context. It will first investigate the Crusades’ impact on the Muslim world and, then accordingly and importantly on the Western Europe vis-a-vis trade, economy, religion, knowledge, scientific inventions, literature to name a few prominent areas. The Crusade imagery, ideology and symbolism are so much powerful and immense so that it has subsided and undermined the constructive/positive impact the Western Europe achieved by confronting with the Orient/Muslim world. The paper concludes that the Crusades’ positive impact and interaction if broadly highlighted and explored, and if given considerable space in public and academic discourses then the possibilities of the East-West tension and hostility could be alleviated to a considerable extent.
Highlights
Rich in charming episodes and dramatic events, spread over two centuries and three continents, the Crusades had immense impact on Europe, and it cannot be rejected that they continue to prevail in popular conscious today even in the Muslim world
It is often been argued that the Crusades had little, if not negligible, impact on the lands and people against whom it were launched in the medieval Middle East
Crusades were the turning point for Europe (Curry, 2003: 69), as Europe was passing through its darkest periods of its history and on the other hand, Muslim were enjoying a commonwealth and cosmopolitan civilization flourishing far and wide when the West began to look into the eyes of the Islamic civilization by launching war—crusade—on the Islamic world which lasted for about two centuries
Summary
Rich in charming episodes and dramatic events, spread over two centuries and three continents, the Crusades had immense impact on Europe, and it cannot be rejected that they continue to prevail in popular conscious today even in the Muslim world. One immediate but important impact of these diplomatic relations brought people of different religions and ethnicities more closely into contact with one another as Niall Christie remarks “Muslims and Franks in the Levant attended each other’s festivals, visited each other’s homes and formed friendships” (Christie, 2014: 113). The European presence in the east brought sudden changes both in number and function in the funduqs These changes were all made with the approval of local Muslim rulers; and this helped Muslim authorities to control the foreign merchants visiting their land in a good and hospitable manner
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: QIJIS (Qudus International Journal of Islamic Studies)
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
