Sunday, March 10, 2019

Islamic Conquest and the Christian Response - Timeline



AD 632 - Death of Muhammad1
AD 636 - Muslims take Syria.2
AD 637 - Sack of Jerusalem by Caliph Umar3
AD 638 - Muslims take Palestine.4
AD 641 - Egypt falls.5
AD 674-678 - Muslims attack and are defeated at Constantinople.6
AD 711 - Muslims conquest of Spain begins and Christian North Africa.7, 8
AD 717-718 - Muslims attack and are defeated at Constantinople for the second time.9
AD 732 - Muslim army is defeated by Charles Martel at the battle of Tours, in France.10
AD 1009 - Caliph Hakim destroys the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.11
AD 1014 - By this time, “some 30,000 churches had been burned or pillaged”12
AD 1071 - Seljuk Turks conquer most of Asia Minor13
AD 1084 - Nicaea falls to Turks.14
AD 1085 - Christians begin to fight back and regain Toledo in Spain15
AD 1095 - Emperor Alexius I asks for military aid; Council of Clermont - Pope Urban II calls First Crusade.16, 17

“The Crusades were military expeditions organized by the Church for the liberation of the Holy Land from Muslim control and for the defense of the Christian faith and protection of Christian pilgrims.”18  Pope Urban II “forbade any unworthy motive for going on a Crusade, such as for glory or temporal gain.”19  This, however, did not stop some atrocities from happening.

AD 1095 - Count Emicho of Leiningen led a group of Crusaders down the Rhine River robbing and murdering all the Jews they came across.  Their actions were condemned by the Church.20
AD 1096 - People’s Crusade called by Peter the Hermit in Germany.  Forty-fifty thousand men and women make it to Asia Minor; all but two-three thousand are either killed or enslaved.  The First Crusader armies arrive at Constantinople.21
AD 1097 - The remaining Crusader armies arrive at Constantinople.  The Crusaders besiege and take back Nicaea. and then head to Antioch.22, 23, 24
AD 1098 - Crusaders besiege and take back Antioch; also, they expell the Greek patriarch there breeding more bad blood between east and west.25, 26
AD 1099 - Crusaders conquered Jerusalem, but kill many inhabitants in the city.  They then march to Ascalon and defeat the Egyptian Army there.  The First Crusade was the only one which took back Jerusalem 27, 28 
AD 1144 - Turks and Kurds reconquer Edessa sparking support for another Crusade.29
AD 1146 - Second Crusade went to strengthen Antioch, which was close to Edessa.  It ended in military failure, and unbeknownst to the Crusaders, the Emperor had already signed a treaty with the Turks.30, 31, 32
AD 1187 - Jerusalem surrenders to Turks under Saladin.33
AD 1189 - Third Crusade begins - Acre and entire coast reconquered for the West by Richard the Lionheart.  However, he failed to reconquer Jerusalem, and settles for a truce with Saladin, which will ensure peace and allow unarmed pilgrims free access to Jerusalem.34, 35, 36
AD 1201 - Fourth Crusade is called by Pope Innocent III.37  
AD 1202 - The Pope excommunicates the entire Crusade and the Venetians after they convince the Crusading leaders to sack the Christian city of Zara.  He later lifted the excommunication on the Crusaders, since the majority of the knights didn’t know or understand what their leaders had planned.38
AD 1204 - Crusaders sack Constantinople, establishing a Latin government which lasted only a short time after the Emperor couldn’t pay a debt he owed them.  This was strongly condemned by the Pope.39, 40
AD 1215 - Fifth Crusade is called by Innocent III.  Crusaders capture Damietta in Egypt, but quickly lose it again to Muslim control; once again they fail to recapture Jerusalem.41, 42 
AD 1228 - Sixth Crusade was a visit by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, who managed to regain Jerusalem and other holy sites through diplomacy, but lost Jerusalem again 15 years later.43, 44

AD 1236 - Christians retake Cordova in Spain.45
AD 1248 - Christians regain Seville in Spain.46
AD 1248 - Seventh Crusade - Led by King Louis IX of France (St. Louis), who was captured and taken prisoner.47, 48
AD 1270 - Eighth Crusade is launched and also led by St. Louis, who dies that same year at Tunis due to disease.49
AD 1291 - Acre falls again to the Muslims bringing an end to the Eight official Crusades.50

__________________

1Alan Schreck, The Compact History of the Catholic Church. Rev. ed. (Cincinnati: Servant, 2009), 39.
2Saunders, J. J., A History of Medieval Islam, Vol. Taylor & Francis e-Library ed. London: Routledge, 2002, at HACS Library website, at http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=70363&site=ehost-live&scope=site. 
3“Crusades,” Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, January 2019, 1–4, at HACS Library website, at https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=134510649&authtype=cookie,cpid&custid=s9245834&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
5Timeline of Islam.
6Schreck, The Compact History, 39.
7Timeline of Islam.
8Thomas F. Madden, The Real History of the Crusades, at Catholic Culture (April 2002), at https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=4461.
9Schreck, The Compact History, 39.
10Schreck, The Compact History, 39.
11John Vidmar, O.P., The Catholic Church Through The Ages: A History. 2 ^nd^ ed. (New Jersey: Paulist, 2014), 125.
12Vidmar, The Catholic Church, 125.
13Madden, History of the Crusades, 3.
14Vidmar, The Catholic Church, 123.
15Vidmar, The Catholic Church, 126.
16Vidmar, The Catholic Church, 123, 128.
17Madden, History of the Crusades, 3.
18Schreck, The Compact History, 51.
19Schreck, The Compact History, 51.
20Madden, History of the Crusades, 5.
21Vidmar, The Catholic Church, 124, 128.
22Vidmar, The Catholic Church, 129.
23Schreck, The Compact History, 51.
24Madden, History of the Crusades, 5.
25Schreck, The Compact History, 51.
26”Crusades,” 1-4.
27Madden, History of the Crusades, 5.
28Vidmar, The Catholic Church, 131.
29Madden, History of the Crusades, 6.
30Vidmar, The Catholic Church, 132.
31Madden, History of the Crusades, 6.
32Schreck, The Compact History, 51.
33Madden, History of the Crusades, 6.
34Vidmar, The Catholic Church, 132-3.
35Madden, History of the Crusades, 6.
36Schreck, The Compact History, 51.
37Madden, History of the Crusades, 6.
38”Crusades,” 1-4.
39Madden, History of the Crusades, 6.
40Vidmar, The Catholic Church, 133.
41Madden, History of the Crusades, 4, 7.
42Schreck, The Compact History, 57.
43Schreck, The Compact History, 57.
44”Crusades,” 1-4.
45Vidmar, The Catholic Church, 126.
46Vidmar, The Catholic Church, 126.
47Vidmar, The Catholic Church, 133.
48Madden, History of the Crusades, 7.
49Vidmar, The Catholic Church, 133.
50Vidmar, The Catholic Church, 133.
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