Introduction
The fact that the current generation scholars dominate the historical field compared to the actual actors is quite surprising. Prophet Muhammad and his Army who entered Mecca and Pope Urban II who convened the Council of Clermont would for instance be surprised to learn that their actions would shape the world for centuries and perhaps millennia. The crusade was a struggle for relevance and authority by the pope, pursuit for penance by the populace and an adventurous yet profitable escapade by kings and lords.
Origins of the Crusades
Both the Catholic Church and the Islam fought to take control of Jerusalem as each group believed that they owned it. Rarely did the Catholic Church have a military capacity of its own, most of its power was vested in papal divine authority. The Pope could control kings and by extension their populace and armies. Pope Urban II however, lacked a powerful king or emperor to control as the fall of the Roman Empire disintegrated the princedoms of continental Europe. When the Byzantine Emperor sought help to stem the advancement of the Umayyad the 2 nd Islam Caliphate and the Abbasid the 3 rd Islam Caliphate, the church through the command of the pope began a holy war which was later referred to as crusade. The main origin of crusades is, therefore, the need to recapture the Holy Land from the Islam. (Abels, 2009).
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Methods used by the Roman Catholic Church to promote the Crusades
Every traditional war had two main parties, the main one being the populace that fought in the ranks and mainly took the blunt of wars. The second party was the aristocracy, the generals who made all the decisions and took all the loot and glory with little personal peril. At the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II made a passionate appeal to the Catholic congregation to join the army of the church and fight against Islam. To march this all soldier who accepted were granted the coveted cloth cross to sew into their military uniforms. The main incentive used was penance for all their sins, achieved by portraying the Crusade as an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
Secondly, the Pope Urban II declared any level of violence required for the privilege and necessity, therefore, moral and not sin as it was being done for a holy cause. To the Aristocracy however, the pope gave a free hand to conquer and achieve the glory they desired. Further, the aristocracy was also allowed to plunder, pillage and loot on their war path, a fact evidenced by the plunder of Constantinople, the capital of the kingdom in which the first crusade was meant to protect.
Methods of expansion used by the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties
The Umayyad dynasty was the second caliphate after Prophet Mohammad and was founded by Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan, a Syrian governor and had its capital in Damascus, a predominantly Christian city. At the Zenith of its power, this caliphate controlled over 15 million square Kilometers and 29% of the world’s population. They had two main methods of expansion, conquest and assimilation. The Umayyad were military geniuses who conquered surrounding lands at the point of the sword. Their key expansion stratagem however, lay in their wiry management style. Instead of seeking to vanquish the Christians and Jews, they allowed them to keep their ways and only pay taxes to the Caliphate. This strategy freed the Umayyad army to fight and conquer as peace was maintained within their domain.
Abbasid dynasty was the third caliphate and comprised of relatives of Muhammad's who were descendants of Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib an uncle of Mohamed. The Abbasid did not have a military or governance strategy applicable in the creation of an empire. But like Pope Urban II, they rallied the Islamic community to themselves and alienate the Umayyad Dynasty. Instead of creating an empire, they took one over. The weakness exploited was the tendency by the Umayyad to treat all non-Arabs as second-rate citizens whether they were Islam or not. The Abbasid prevailed upon the populace to revolt against Umayyad thus inheriting the lands that the Umayyad had already conquered and pacified.
Religious policies and political administration of the Umayyad versus the Abbasid dynasties
From a religious perspective, the Umayyad believed in strict adherence to Islamic faith and tolerance to non-Muslims. Damascus and indeed Syria had a predominantly Christian population and the empire also had a large Jewish populace. However, the gains made through religious intolerance were lost due to the political ideal than upheld extreme racism. Under Umayyad Dynasty, all Arabs, whether Muslim or not were superior to any other race. Their political apparatus was therefore based on this racist tendencies and this was the primary grounds for their being overthrown.
The Abbasid on the other hand believed in the superiority of religion over and above race. Their religious policy and political administration strategy merged as they were premised on Islam. It was on these premises that they successfully fostered a rebellion against the Umayyad and took over most of the Umayyad territory. However, the Abbasid were also unprincipled and treacherous, willing to change both their religious and political policies when it was expedient. To fight the Sunni Umayyad, they initially turned to Shia but abandoned the new sect. They however, immediately retook Sunni Islam immediately after the conquest thus alienating their former allies to avoid power-sharing. Finally, the Abbasid were great political rulers under whose leadership Mesopotamia in general and Bagdad in particular flourished.
Facilitation of the Sharing of new technology through the Silk Road
The Silk Road, is the name historians have given to a network of trade routes between China, the Middle East and Europe (UNESCO, n.d). China was more technologically advanced than Europe and the Middle East in the Ancient times hence the two benefited from the technological advancement from the Chinese (UNESCO, n.d).
Even before the advent of the crusades, China had already created what was later termed as the four great inventions to wit paper making, printing, gunpowder, and compass. Whereas the Silk Road was mainly a product exports chain system, it enabled the movement of the Chinese to the Middle East and Europe and vice versa. It was through these interactions that the Europeans were able to learn how the Chinese had achieved these inventions and import the technology necessary to make them into the Middle East and Europe. The Silk Road was utilized both to trade in this inventions and also for espionage by the Europeans to ‘steal’ the secrets behind Chinese technology. (UNESCO, n.d).
References
Abels, R. (2009). Timeline for the crusades and Christian holy war. Retrieved August 9, 2016, from US Naval Academy, <https://www.usna.edu/Users/history/abels/hh315/crusades_timeline.htm/>
UNESCO. (n,d). About the Silk road . Retrieved from <http://en.unesco.org/silkroad/about-silk-road/>
