The Third Crusade by Bill Federer

Palm Sunday, 937 A.D., Caliph al-Radi ordered the destruction of Jerusalem’s Church of Calvary and the Church of the Resurrection.

What was the background?

Jerusalem had been a Jewish city since King David, around 1000 BC, and it had been a Christian city since Emperor Constantine, circa 325 A.D …

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Muslim warriors under Caliph Umar took Jerusalem away from the Byzantine Patriarch Sophronius in 637 A.D.

“Caliph” is the title of Islam’s supreme religious, political and military leader.

Caliph Umar forced Christian and Jewish inhabitants to live as second-class citizens under “Jim Crow” style laws called “dhimmi.”

In the 700’s, Christians were banned from giving religious instruction to their children and displays of the cross were banned in Jerusalem. Pilgrims to the Holy Land began to be harassed, massacred and even crucified.

In response, Pope Leo IV built a 39 foot wall around the Vatican.

In 923 A.D., Caliph al-Muqtadir of the Abbasid Caliphate began enforcing sharia in Jerusalem, inciting Muslim rioters to destroy churches in Jerusalem.

In 937 A.D., on Palm Sunday, Abbasid Caliph al-Radi ordered Muslim rioters to plunder the Church of Calvary and the Church of the Resurrection.

In 1004, Caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah of the Fatimid Caliphate, known as the “Mad Caliph” or the “Nero of Egypt,” began a ten year persecution of Christians and Jews.

Thousands were forced to convert or die. 30,000 churches were destroyed.

In 1008, Mad Caliph al-Hakim forbade Christians from having their annual Palm Sunday procession from Bethany.

In 1009, al-Hakim ordered frenzied rioters to use picks, hammers and fire to destroy the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, considered the holiest site in Christendom.

In 1958, Egypt, President Gamal Nasser told a gathering:

“I met with the head of the Muslim Brotherhood and he … made his requests … to make wearing the hijab mandatory in Egypt … I told him, if I make that a law they will say that we have returned to the days of al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who forbade people from walking at day and only allowed walking at night.”

In 1075, Seljuk Turkish Muslims captured Jerusalem from Arab Muslims.

Travelers returning from pilgrimages to the Holy Land shared reports of Islamic persecution of “dhimmi” Christians.

Italian city-states of Pisa, Genoa and Catalonia fought the Muslims who were raiding Italy’s coasts, Majorca, Sardinia, and Catalonia.

By 965, Muslim forces had succeeded in their 130 year conquest of Sicily.

Nearly a century later, in 1057, the Norman adventurer Robert Guiscard fought against the Islamic warriors of Sicily and gained control of Calabria in the “toe of Italy.”

In 1071, the Seljuk Turkish Muslims inflicted a major defeat on the Byzantine Christians at the Battle of Manzikert and took control of all but the coastlands of Asia Minor.

Cries for help were carried back to Europe. Europe sent help, it was called the Crusades.

Europeans had just two centuries of crusades compared to Islam’s fourteen centuries of jihad crusades which are still continuing, killing an estimated 240 million.

The First Crusade began when, in desperation, the proud Byzantine Emperor Alexius the First Comnenus humbled himself and sent ambassadors to the Council of Piacenza in March of 1095, appealing for aid from his religious rival, the Roman Catholic Pope.

The seriousness of this call for help is underscored by the fact that it occurred just a few years after the Great East-West Schism of 1054, where the Byzantine Church and the Roman Catholic Church split.

Pope Urban II gave an impassioned plea at the Council of Clermont in 1095 for Western leaders to set aside their doctrinal differences and come to the aid of their Byzantine Christians brethren.

Pope Urban described how Christians were treated by Islamists, who “compel (them) to extend their necks and then, attacking them with naked swords, attempt to cut through the neck with a single blow,” as recorded by Robert the Monk in Medieval Sourcebook, Fordham University.

With Spain exuberant after successfully driving the Muslim occupiers from Toledo and Leon a few years earlier, the First Crusade began in 1097, led by Godfrey of Bouillon. It freed Iconium, though it was later lost.

After Muslims conquered Edessa, another crusade was called for by Bernard of Clairvaux in 1147.

It was made up of French and German armies, led by King Louis VII and Conrad II.

In 1148, Turkish ruler Nur ed-Din of the Zinged Dynasty slaughtered every Christian in Aleppo.

The Second Crusade failed to take Damascus and returned to Europe in 1150. Bernard of Clairvaux was disturbed by reports of misdirected violence toward some Jewish populations.

On July 4, 1187, the Muslim leader Saladin, founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, captured Crusaders at Hattim and ordered their mass execution.

In 1190, Pope Gregory VIII called for a Third Crusade. It was led by German King Frederick I, called Frederick Barbarossa — meaning Redbeard — who was the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

Frederick led 100,000 soldiers across Byzantium, driving out Muslims and temporarily freeing Iconium.

He most likely would have freed Jerusalem had he not fallen off his horse while crossing the Göksu River in Cilicia, Asia Minor.

Being 67 years old and weighted down with heavy armor, Frederick Barbarossa drowned in waist deep water and the Crusade went into confusion.

Richard the Lionheart was suddenly in charge leading the Third Crusade and successfully captured Acre.

Due to rivalries, Philip II, without warning, abandoned the Crusade and returned to France in 1191.

Richard’s troops came within sight of Jerusalem in 1192, but grew weary as it did not look like they were making an impact.

Then word came to Richard that Phillip II was trying to take away Normandy from England, so Richard quickly ended the Crusade to go back and defend his kingdom.

Richard later discovered Saladin was on the verge of defeat and was propping up dead soldiers along the walls.

Richard sailed away, but was shipwrecked and attempted to travel on foot across Europe in disguise.

He was recognized near Vienna and captured by Duke Leopold V of Austria. The Holy Roman Emperor, Henry VI, imprisoned Richard at Dumstein for three years.

Legend has it that Richard’s loyal minstrel, Blondel, traveled from kingdom to kingdom across Europe trying to find him by singing Richard’s favorite song.

When Richard heard the song, he sang the second verse from the prison tower, and was found. Richard’s brother, King John, had to raise taxes for the “king’s ransom.”

This was the origins of the story of Nottingham, Sherwood Forest, and Robin Hood.

The Holy Roman Emperor, Henry VI, prepared for another crusade in 1197, but died from malaria.

Once back in England, Richard ruled only a few years before being shot with an arrow during the siege of a castle in Normandy.

His brother, King John, once again ruled, where he raised taxes oppressively.

When he lost Britain’s claim to Normandy after the Battle of Bouvines in 1214, English baron’s were upset, as they also lost their titled lands there.

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