8000 Muslims massacred by White, racist European non-Muslims. All Euro vs Euro

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

[WinterHold]

[Minimalist]

The church obviously sold "salvation contracts" to any knight contributing in the crusade.

I daresay it is even a little more complicated than that, Atlas.  Not better... probably worse... but certainly more complicated.  To oversimplify history, by the mid 11th century things had changed in Western Europe.  The Viking raids which had lasted for centuries had largely ended and the Vikings themselves were now xtians.  But 3 centuries of constant warfare had built up tremendous military establishments by the various feudal polities which were always looking to repel a Viking raid and when the Vikings stopped coming those did not instantly go away.  Instead, there was virtual constant low-grade warfare among xtian nobles trying to gain an edge over their rivals.  Everyone always concentrates on the concluding paragraphs of the Cleremont speech but it is the opening paragraphs which contains the real problem as the pope saw it.  Xtians were fighting other xtians.  So his "solution" was to redirect xtian aggression to the Islamic regions.

Yes, in the church's version of giving away ice in the wintertime he promised a free ticket to heaven to anyone who went to fight the Arabs.  Hey, costs him nothing to make absurd promises, right.  And those people were stupid enough to fall for it so why not play them for fools?

But his primary cynical goal was to stop xtians killing each other by getting them to kill muslims instead.  I guess the idea of not killing any one at all was a little too much for "god's representative on earth."

[The Grand Nudger]

Better that minor lords sought to take the lands of muslims than other christians. The crusaders themselves had entirely earthly expectations of the raidsl. Then there were the utilatarian (and highly profitable) schemes..like getting rid of all the useless street urchins in the childrens crusade...and selling them, ofc.

[WinterHold]

[Minimalist]

[WinterHold]

[Minimalist]

Whatever the reason for it the point remains that the Mongols were an existential threat to islam which xtianity never was.  Mongol invasions were stopped at the Battle of Ain Julut but it was more an accident of history than any great battle tactics.  The Great Khan had died and most of the invaders withdrew leaving only a small covering force to watch the Mamelukes in Egypt.  The force was insufficient and the Mamelukes won the battle breaking the myth of invincibility that the Mongols had up to that time.  Shortly thereafter there was civil war among the Mongols and they were never able to properly chastise the Mamelukes.  In such a way did islam survive.

But they got the message.  They turned with fury on the Nestorians and Syrian Churches in their midst.  Can't say I blame them.  Xtians in the west were perfectly willing to slaughter eastern xtians whenever they got the chance!

[WinterHold]

[Minimalist]