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The Origins of Crusades

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The Origins of Crusades
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The Crusades: An Origin The Crusades are renowned as the most massive church-sanctioned militaristic movement of the later middles ages, like no other military movement of the time. The series of events that brought about the existance of the Crusaders were so large as to eclipse the affairs of the homeland in the West in the name of religious faith and duty. Chivalric idealism, romance of battle and the notion of beautific zeal affect the way in which both the Crusaders and the Crusades are view today. The Crusades were a unique phenomena encompassing aspects of faith, war, territory, ideology, politics and chivalry in a way as yet never before seen, and shaped the peoples of many cultures, East and West, throughout the later middle ages with origins defying convention. The very idea of a crusade was not even defined by the time the first of the events that would be called the beggings of the Crusades occured in 1096 CE. Only by the 12th century did the technical word 'crucesignati', with the “t” signed with the cross, come to be used by the crusaders.1 The idea of the Crusades related to the medieval tradition of pilgrimage or holy journey designed to bring about absolution from visiting holy places. The Crusaders moved through territory controlled by what were believed to be heretics to Christianity, hence their journey was a dangerous under-taking where they prepared for war even while the connotations of the journey were peaceful and spiritual in nature. The holy sites of Jerusalem were under control of the perceived enemies to Christianity; Muslims, and the duty of Crusaders became to ensure the safety of future pilgrims by securing the path and destination from such threats in retaking the Holy Land. Despite the fevered pitch of much crusader zeal, tensions between the Muslim East and European West had not long existed. Muslims and Christians in Palestine enjoyed a peaceful co-existence during the 10th Century. In 1009 C.E.,this

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