0:00:03 > 0:00:07900 years ago, the Christians of Western Europe
0:00:07 > 0:00:09launched the First Crusade.
0:00:10 > 0:00:13Vast armies marched on the Holy Land,
0:00:13 > 0:00:17bent upon the reconquest of this sacred territory
0:00:17 > 0:00:20from its Muslim overlords.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24Determined to seize back from Islam the holiest site
0:00:24 > 0:00:26in the Christian cosmos -
0:00:26 > 0:00:28the city of Jerusalem.
0:00:31 > 0:00:35These warriors believed their mission was inspired by God.
0:00:36 > 0:00:39Their Pope had proclaimed that fighting and killing Muslims
0:00:39 > 0:00:42would cleanse their Christian souls.
0:00:42 > 0:00:46This is how the Crusades began
0:00:46 > 0:00:49and how they would continue for 200 years.
0:00:51 > 0:00:56This medieval story fascinates our modern world -
0:00:56 > 0:00:59which some believe it has helped to shape.
0:00:59 > 0:01:04And over the last 60 years, the BBC has sent cameras to join historians
0:01:04 > 0:01:09and follow, like I have done, in the footsteps of the Crusaders.
0:01:10 > 0:01:12To make sense of the contradictions...
0:01:12 > 0:01:16Richard the Lionheart, one of the stars of English history.
0:01:16 > 0:01:18Actually, he was French.
0:01:18 > 0:01:19..the conflict...
0:01:19 > 0:01:24The Crusaders broke in and began their vicious slaughter of the Muslim faithful.
0:01:24 > 0:01:28..and the characters that shaped this 200-year story.
0:01:30 > 0:01:34Now, I want to use the BBC's unique archive to explore how
0:01:34 > 0:01:37our understanding of the Crusades has changed,
0:01:37 > 0:01:41to dispel the myths that shroud their history.
0:01:41 > 0:01:46And to ask whether this medieval clash between Islam and the West
0:01:46 > 0:01:49really does cast its shadow over the modern world,
0:01:49 > 0:01:51as so many have claimed.
0:01:58 > 0:02:03That was the view expressed by Timewatch in 1983.
0:02:03 > 0:02:05Just months after Christian forces in Lebanon
0:02:05 > 0:02:12massacred up to 3,000 Muslims at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.
0:02:12 > 0:02:16To understand the present, presenter John Tusa turned to the past.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20Now, the history of both sides goes back
0:02:20 > 0:02:23well beyond the foundation of modern Lebanon 40 years ago
0:02:23 > 0:02:27and beyond the involvement of the imperial European powers
0:02:27 > 0:02:28in the last century.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31Today's bitterness is inextricably bound up
0:02:31 > 0:02:35in the history of Byzantium and Islam and the wars and massacres
0:02:35 > 0:02:37at the time of the First Crusade.
0:02:39 > 0:02:43If that's true, modern conflicts in the Near East are still
0:02:43 > 0:02:49intimately connected with events that began in 1095.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52With the Christian Church divided and in crisis.
0:02:52 > 0:02:57In the west, Rome's authority was being challenged by kings and emperors.
0:02:57 > 0:03:02In the east, Muslim Turks were overrunning Christian Byzantium.
0:03:02 > 0:03:06Its great capital, Constantinople, was under threat.
0:03:06 > 0:03:10Worse, the sacred places of the Holy Land were in Muslim hands.
0:03:12 > 0:03:18The Byzantine emperor was forced to turn for help to his European rival.
0:03:18 > 0:03:24Pope Urban II used this turmoil to reassert his own papal authority,
0:03:24 > 0:03:27with a sermon that galvanised Europe's Christians
0:03:27 > 0:03:29against a common enemy.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36"A grave report has come from the lands of Jerusalem that
0:03:36 > 0:03:42"a foreign race, a race absolutely alien to God, has invaded the land
0:03:42 > 0:03:45"of those Christians and has reduced the people
0:03:45 > 0:03:48"with sword, rapine and fire."
0:03:53 > 0:03:57Pope Urban declared a holy war
0:03:57 > 0:04:02and invited Christians across Europe to enlist.
0:04:02 > 0:04:07In return for fighting in this new war in the Holy Land,
0:04:07 > 0:04:10the Crusaders were promised forgiveness of their sins
0:04:10 > 0:04:14and the prospect of a heavenly reward.
0:04:14 > 0:04:17It was an extraordinary proposition -
0:04:17 > 0:04:20one that fused violence and religion -
0:04:20 > 0:04:23and one that would shape the relationship between Christendom
0:04:23 > 0:04:26and Islam for centuries to come.
0:04:26 > 0:04:30But there was more, Pope Urban conjured up
0:04:30 > 0:04:34a compelling justification for his holy war.
0:04:37 > 0:04:42"These men have destroyed the altars polluted by their foul practices.
0:04:46 > 0:04:48"They have circumcised the Christians,
0:04:48 > 0:04:52"either spreading the blood from the circumcisions on the altars
0:04:52 > 0:04:56"or pouring it into the baptismal fonts.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00"And they cut open the navels of those whom they choose to torment
0:05:00 > 0:05:04"with loathsome death, drag them around and flog them,
0:05:04 > 0:05:07"before killing them as they lie prone on the ground
0:05:07 > 0:05:10"with all their entrails out."
0:05:12 > 0:05:17This anti-Islamic onslaught was peppered with propaganda
0:05:17 > 0:05:20and probably bore little resemblance to reality in the Near East,
0:05:20 > 0:05:24but it was the genesis of the Crusades.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27Nine centuries later, in 1995,
0:05:27 > 0:05:31medievalist and Monty Python star Terry Jones
0:05:31 > 0:05:35examined the consequences in a series which he wrote and presented.
0:05:35 > 0:05:40It offered insights from some of our foremost historians.
0:05:40 > 0:05:45What the Pope was proposing was of war as a penance.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48A penitential war.
0:05:48 > 0:05:53A war which assisted a man towards salvation.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56War as a devotion.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59And if one thinks of fasting,
0:05:59 > 0:06:02penance, prayer as devotions -
0:06:02 > 0:06:04this is war as the equivalent of prayer.
0:06:04 > 0:06:09Now, I can think of no precedent in Christian history for that.
0:06:09 > 0:06:13There were many moments of satire, as you'd expect from a Python.
0:06:13 > 0:06:18Like Jones' comic interpretation of Pope Urban's message to crusade.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23'A pilgrim adventure.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27'Your priest says, "Go!"
0:06:27 > 0:06:31'Your bishop says, "Go!"
0:06:31 > 0:06:34'Your Pope says, "Go!"
0:06:34 > 0:06:37'Take the cross to Jerusalem
0:06:37 > 0:06:40'as pilgrims in arms.
0:06:46 > 0:06:48'Ride with the heroes!
0:06:48 > 0:06:52'Get your place in heaven by sending infidels to hell!'
0:06:54 > 0:06:56Of course, the church didn't actually have movies,
0:06:56 > 0:06:59but they did have, for the first time, a means of mass communication
0:06:59 > 0:07:04and the Crusade was the first message to go on general release.
0:07:04 > 0:07:06The impact was stunning.
0:07:06 > 0:07:08Indeed, it was.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11Pope Urban's sermon gave birth to a mass movement.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17Tens of thousands of Christians from across Europe rushed to
0:07:17 > 0:07:20enlist in this new sacred war.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23Intent upon the Holy Land's reconquest.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26But were they driven by faith, or by greed?
0:07:28 > 0:07:31The conquering knight belongs to the world of chess.
0:07:31 > 0:07:33A game that is universal.
0:07:33 > 0:07:37It is the archetypal game
0:07:37 > 0:07:41of conquest and dominion,
0:07:41 > 0:07:45a metaphor of colonialism.
0:07:45 > 0:07:491977's The Age Of Uncertainty
0:07:49 > 0:07:53was presented by Washington economist JK Galbraith.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56He saw a parallel between the Crusades and the Vietnam War.
0:07:56 > 0:08:01Two cynical ventures, each in the name of colonialism.
0:08:03 > 0:08:07900 years ago, when the game of chess passed into Western Europe,
0:08:07 > 0:08:11its pieces had a firm physical reality.
0:08:11 > 0:08:17Their counterpart in life was the Crusaders and the Crusades.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26The myth was of men of the highest religious purpose
0:08:26 > 0:08:29committed to the redemption of Jerusalem from the infidel
0:08:29 > 0:08:33and to saving the Eastern Christians in Constantinople from the Turks.
0:08:33 > 0:08:36The unavowed motive was land and wealth.
0:08:36 > 0:08:40Preaching the First Crusade in Clermont in 1095,
0:08:40 > 0:08:43Pope Urban II was careful to say that good property
0:08:43 > 0:08:47would be available for the Christian taking in the Holy Land.
0:08:47 > 0:08:49And so, beneath the cross,
0:08:49 > 0:08:53beat hearts responding to the age-old appeal
0:08:53 > 0:08:55of good real estate.
0:08:55 > 0:09:00To most historians today, this view now seems outdated.
0:09:00 > 0:09:02A product of its time.
0:09:03 > 0:09:07The idea of this being kind of a parallel with Vietnam -
0:09:07 > 0:09:11that's very much the outcome out of the ethos
0:09:11 > 0:09:17of 1960s and '70s historians who very much reduced the Crusaders
0:09:17 > 0:09:23to a bunch of land-grabbing, greedy proto-colonialists
0:09:23 > 0:09:27who only went to the Middle East in order to become rich.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30There was a sense of apocalypse in the late 11th century,
0:09:30 > 0:09:33that something really serious was happening that required men
0:09:33 > 0:09:36to do something about it and that sweeps through all of Western Europe.
0:09:36 > 0:09:40So, Urban is clearly galvanising a society
0:09:40 > 0:09:43that is already very anxious.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47Among the first to respond to the call to crusade
0:09:47 > 0:09:49were the Knights of Europe,
0:09:49 > 0:09:52like Raymond of Toulouse, Godfrey of Bouillon,
0:09:52 > 0:09:54Robert of Normandy -
0:09:54 > 0:09:57wealthy men with plenty to lose.
0:09:58 > 0:10:02The idea that Raymond of Toulouse and many like him
0:10:02 > 0:10:05joined the Crusades simply in search of material gain
0:10:05 > 0:10:08doesn't stand up to close scrutiny.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12Raymond actually walked away from one of the richest lordships
0:10:12 > 0:10:15in Europe to join this expedition.
0:10:16 > 0:10:18And like many of his fellow Crusaders,
0:10:18 > 0:10:21he probably expected to die in the East.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25In fact, I think it's clear on the basis of contemporary evidence,
0:10:25 > 0:10:29that Raymond and most other Crusaders really believed
0:10:29 > 0:10:33that the coming campaign would cleanse their souls of sin.
0:10:35 > 0:10:39The devotion, chivalry and heroism of these knights has become
0:10:39 > 0:10:42the dominant narrative of the Crusades.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45But on the long march to the Holy Land,
0:10:45 > 0:10:49the Crusaders engaged with an array of cultures
0:10:49 > 0:10:52and on television, as in academia,
0:10:52 > 0:10:55their perspectives have often been overlooked.
0:10:57 > 0:11:01There are multiple and many sources that don't get read by
0:11:01 > 0:11:04Western medieval historians and there are reasons for that.
0:11:04 > 0:11:07One, I suppose, is that we've prioritised Latin as the root language
0:11:07 > 0:11:10that we teach students and our children and so on
0:11:10 > 0:11:14and so engaging with Greek, Armenian, Syriac, Hebrew and Arabic
0:11:14 > 0:11:17is something that we're just not educationally set up to really do.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20So, when people think of the Crusades as being
0:11:20 > 0:11:23a kind of cosmic struggle, they're missing out the perspective
0:11:23 > 0:11:26of Eastern Christianity altogether.
0:11:26 > 0:11:30Terry Jones shone a light on one such alternative perspective
0:11:30 > 0:11:33by revealing the shocking experiences
0:11:33 > 0:11:35of the Jews of Germany's Rhineland.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38They were the first to face the righteous wrath
0:11:38 > 0:11:40of the Crusader hordes heading east.
0:11:40 > 0:11:44RABBI SINGS
0:11:44 > 0:11:49All of a sudden, like a thunderbolt in 1096 at the beginning
0:11:49 > 0:11:54of the First Crusade, a horrible pogrom -
0:11:54 > 0:11:55a horrible destruction -
0:11:55 > 0:11:58which destroyed the community.
0:11:58 > 0:12:02Bands of marauders
0:12:02 > 0:12:05attacked the Jewish quarter.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09Some tried to find refuge at the bishop's palace,
0:12:09 > 0:12:11at the bishop's residence.
0:12:11 > 0:12:16After all, they were privileged and they were protected by imperial decree -
0:12:16 > 0:12:19which it didn't help.
0:12:19 > 0:12:23The tombs of the victims can still be seen in the Jewish cemetery
0:12:23 > 0:12:25at Worms in Germany.
0:12:25 > 0:12:29It seemed nonsense to march 3,000 miles
0:12:29 > 0:12:32to kill Muslims in the Holy Land.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35People at that time about whom they knew virtually nothing,
0:12:35 > 0:12:39when the people who had - or so the Crusaders believed -
0:12:39 > 0:12:44actually killed Christ were alive and well on their very doorsteps.
0:12:44 > 0:12:49Henceforth, every time a Crusade to the Holy Land was called,
0:12:49 > 0:12:53there were pogroms against Jews back home.
0:12:53 > 0:12:58The Crusaders continued east, heading first for Constantinople,
0:12:58 > 0:13:02the city begging for Europe's help to see off the Muslim threat.
0:13:02 > 0:13:06Simon Sebag Montefiore travelled to modern-day Istanbul
0:13:06 > 0:13:10to understand the Crusades from the perspective of the Byzantines -
0:13:10 > 0:13:14and of their emperor Alexius.
0:13:14 > 0:13:19He'd hoped for a battalion or two of well-trained knights,
0:13:19 > 0:13:21what he got was the Crusades.
0:13:25 > 0:13:29It was as if the entire world of the West, from the Adriatic
0:13:29 > 0:13:34to the Straits of Gibraltar, had come here to Constantinople
0:13:34 > 0:13:37and the Crusades really were an extraordinary and enormous
0:13:37 > 0:13:43movement of people - 80,000 of them - some of them in unruly mobs
0:13:43 > 0:13:47and some in organised princely armies, but they all came here.
0:13:52 > 0:13:56The first wave that arrives here behave like football hooligans
0:13:56 > 0:13:58on tour who've had too much to drink.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01So, they steal lead off the roofs of the churches,
0:14:01 > 0:14:03they go berserk through the city.
0:14:03 > 0:14:07Riot police methods are put into place to make sure that the city stays safe.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11They behave in a way that the polite society in Constantinople
0:14:11 > 0:14:13just thinks is absolutely horrific.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16And Alexius, the emperor at that time,
0:14:16 > 0:14:18who was the architect of the Crusade,
0:14:18 > 0:14:21had real concerns that he's let a genie out of the bottle.
0:14:22 > 0:14:26The Crusaders prepared to march on into the Holy Land.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30In 1961, research students from Cambridge University
0:14:30 > 0:14:32made the same journey.
0:14:32 > 0:14:38They travelled in two minibuses, accompanied by a BBC cameraman.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41The narrator was David Attenborough.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45'The expedition's vans had to cross from Europe into Asia Minor
0:14:45 > 0:14:47'by car ferry over the Bosporus -
0:14:47 > 0:14:50'a distance of a mile and a half at this point.
0:14:50 > 0:14:55'The crusading armies numbered between 60,000 and 100,000 people,
0:14:55 > 0:14:58'all of them had to be ferried across the Bosporus,
0:14:58 > 0:15:00'together with their stores and horses.
0:15:00 > 0:15:05'Every vessel, from galleys to rowing boats, must've been
0:15:05 > 0:15:06'commandeered by the Crusaders.
0:15:06 > 0:15:10'No doubt the Greek emperor, Alexius, who ruled the city,
0:15:10 > 0:15:12'gladly helped them on their way.
0:15:12 > 0:15:16'Here, there is water, but from now on the countryside becomes
0:15:16 > 0:15:20'dusty, dry and, in parts, almost desert.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23'The soldiers of the First Crusade now began the most gruelling
0:15:23 > 0:15:25'march southwards towards Anatolia.'
0:15:28 > 0:15:32These conditions proved more deadly than any enemy.
0:15:32 > 0:15:34As Terry Jones experienced,
0:15:34 > 0:15:39walking through the arid wilderness in medieval armour.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42When the Crusaders set off down this road,
0:15:42 > 0:15:45they could have had little idea what lay in store for them.
0:15:45 > 0:15:47One Crusader wrote home that they would be
0:15:47 > 0:15:51in Jerusalem in five weeks
0:15:51 > 0:15:54but this road led to two years of hell.
0:15:56 > 0:16:01The army marched into a valley called Malabrunias.
0:16:01 > 0:16:05There was a countless multitude in the overwhelming heat of August.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11Then the day came when the great shortage of water became
0:16:11 > 0:16:13acute among the people.
0:16:16 > 0:16:18Gaping with open mouths
0:16:18 > 0:16:23and throats, they tried to catch the thinnest mist to cure their thirst.
0:16:23 > 0:16:25It could not help them at all.
0:16:27 > 0:16:31And so, overwhelmed by the anguish of thirst,
0:16:31 > 0:16:35as many as 500 people gave up the ghost on that same day.
0:16:41 > 0:16:43Before the Crusaders reached northern Syria,
0:16:43 > 0:16:45thousands were dead.
0:16:45 > 0:16:49Yet, the survivors marched on
0:16:49 > 0:16:51until, in October 1097,
0:16:51 > 0:16:55they reached one of the mightiest cities of the East,
0:16:55 > 0:16:58the Muslim occupied stronghold of Antioch.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03The Crusaders chose to lay siege,
0:17:03 > 0:17:06but now, as the winter turned savage,
0:17:06 > 0:17:10cold and malnourishment threatened to wipe out the remaining pilgrims.
0:17:12 > 0:17:16In his series, The Normans, historian Robert Bartlett
0:17:16 > 0:17:20described how this Crusade now teetered on the edge of disaster.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26After a few months, the Crusaders had eaten all the supplies of food.
0:17:26 > 0:17:28Horses died by the thousand
0:17:28 > 0:17:31and the Christian army was riddled with disease.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34Earthquakes and strange lights in the sky
0:17:34 > 0:17:37were interpreted as signs of coming doom.
0:17:37 > 0:17:40Some of the Crusaders, including several of the leaders,
0:17:40 > 0:17:42simply crept away.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45The First Crusade was close to collapse.
0:17:47 > 0:17:52But a Norman knight stepped in with a plan to seize Antioch,
0:17:52 > 0:17:53save the Crusade
0:17:53 > 0:17:56and create his own Christian state in the Holy Land.
0:17:58 > 0:18:00His name was Bohemond.
0:18:01 > 0:18:05Bohemond had a secret agent inside the city,
0:18:05 > 0:18:08Firouz, one of the commanders of the city's defences.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12He was willing to betray the Muslim garrison
0:18:12 > 0:18:15by leaving a tower undefended.
0:18:15 > 0:18:17Bohemond's troops prepared to attack.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25Just before dawn, on June 3rd 1098,
0:18:25 > 0:18:27they arrived at the Tower of the Two Sisters.
0:18:32 > 0:18:34One of Bohemond's knights reports
0:18:34 > 0:18:38that they came to a ladder which was securely fastened to the city walls,
0:18:38 > 0:18:40"..and about 60 of our men went up it."
0:18:45 > 0:18:47They quickly seized the tower
0:18:47 > 0:18:51and then opened the great gates of the city to the Crusader army.
0:18:53 > 0:18:55The Crusaders flooded into the city
0:18:55 > 0:18:57and began a slaughter.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00As they murdered many of the city's inhabitants,
0:19:00 > 0:19:03they were unable or unwilling to tell the difference
0:19:03 > 0:19:06between a Muslim and an Eastern Christian.
0:19:06 > 0:19:08Antioch was the first city in the Holy Land
0:19:08 > 0:19:11to be sacked by the Crusaders
0:19:11 > 0:19:14and its streets were left running with blood.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18There can be little doubt that the Crusaders saw this brutality
0:19:18 > 0:19:21as an act of sacred penance.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24In fact, Western medieval accounts are peppered
0:19:24 > 0:19:27with descriptions of Crusader violence.
0:19:27 > 0:19:31The challenge for the historian is to assess the reliability
0:19:31 > 0:19:32of these accounts
0:19:32 > 0:19:35because getting it wrong can be incendiary.
0:19:38 > 0:19:44In 1995, a sequence in Terry Jones's series began with a sober
0:19:44 > 0:19:47assessment of how violence became a way of life to Crusaders.
0:19:50 > 0:19:54For some Crusaders, there was no need for earthly leaders.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58There was now a core of savage fanatics convinced that they
0:19:58 > 0:20:01were marching under the direct command of heaven
0:20:01 > 0:20:03with a sacred mission of butchery.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09You are dealing with very, very violent people.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13After every engagement on the First Crusade,
0:20:13 > 0:20:16the Crusaders would return to the camp
0:20:16 > 0:20:20with the heads of the Muslim slain on spears
0:20:20 > 0:20:22and even, on one occasion,
0:20:22 > 0:20:24they have Muslim prisoners of war
0:20:24 > 0:20:27carrying spears with their colleagues' heads on.
0:20:30 > 0:20:34Jones's exploration of Crusader violence continued
0:20:34 > 0:20:37when he considered an exceptionally controversial episode.
0:20:39 > 0:20:4350 miles south of Antioch, at the little town of Ma'arrat al-Numan,
0:20:43 > 0:20:46the flames spread out of control
0:20:46 > 0:20:49and produced one of the most disturbing events
0:20:49 > 0:20:51in this terrible journey to Jerusalem.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59"In Ma'arrat, our troops boiled pig and adults in cooking pots.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04"They impaled children on spits and devoured them grilled."
0:21:09 > 0:21:13"I shudder to tell you that many of our people, harassed by the madness
0:21:13 > 0:21:16"of excessive hunger, cut pieces from the buttocks of the Saracens
0:21:16 > 0:21:19"already dead there, which they cooked.
0:21:19 > 0:21:21"And when it was not yet roasted enough by the fire,
0:21:21 > 0:21:23"they devoured it with savage mouth."
0:21:26 > 0:21:29I think Jones mishandled the representation of this
0:21:29 > 0:21:31notorious atrocity,
0:21:31 > 0:21:35highlighting an extreme but ill-informed account,
0:21:35 > 0:21:39labelling another's testimony as eyewitness when it was not,
0:21:39 > 0:21:43all while ignoring the most authoritative Crusader evidence
0:21:43 > 0:21:45and the Muslim perspective.
0:21:45 > 0:21:49Arabic Muslim historiography, there's not a single mention of any
0:21:49 > 0:21:53cannibalism link to the conquest of Ma'arrat al-Numan.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56And if there had been any cannibalism,
0:21:56 > 0:21:59they certainly would have mentioned it because, from an Arab Muslim
0:21:59 > 0:22:03perspective, again, this would have been a rather unusual deed.
0:22:03 > 0:22:07Arabic chroniclers may not have known about it, but the best Crusader
0:22:07 > 0:22:11evidence suggests there was an outbreak of cannibalism at Ma'arrat,
0:22:11 > 0:22:14though, crucially, one driven by starvation
0:22:14 > 0:22:18and not reflective of routine Crusader savagery.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21To then make a great deal of the fact that there was cannibalism
0:22:21 > 0:22:26happening at Ma'arrat al-Numan is problematic.
0:22:26 > 0:22:30I wouldn't wish people to take that away as the overriding
0:22:30 > 0:22:31image of the Crusades.
0:22:32 > 0:22:36Debate about what happened at Ma'arrat will continue,
0:22:36 > 0:22:39but as the First Crusaders marched on southwards,
0:22:39 > 0:22:42there was more bloodshed on the horizon.
0:22:43 > 0:22:47In the series Jerusalem, The Making Of A Holy City,
0:22:47 > 0:22:51Simon Sebag Montefiore recounted the expedition's last
0:22:51 > 0:22:56desperate weeks as, after travelling thousands of miles,
0:22:56 > 0:22:59the pilgrims at last laid eyes on their sacred prize.
0:23:02 > 0:23:07On Tuesday, 7th June 1099 in punishing heat,
0:23:07 > 0:23:12the Crusaders finally received the reward for all their suffering.
0:23:12 > 0:23:17They emerged from the hills around Jerusalem to see before them
0:23:17 > 0:23:19this city of the King of Kings
0:23:19 > 0:23:21and before them, too,
0:23:21 > 0:23:24the tomb of their Lord Jesus Christ.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27By nightfall they were encamped around Jerusalem.
0:23:33 > 0:23:37Far from home, the Crusaders' choice was stark...
0:23:38 > 0:23:43..death or victory on the ramparts of the holy city.
0:23:47 > 0:23:51For the Crusaders, victory meant one thing,
0:23:51 > 0:23:53the liberation of Jerusalem
0:23:53 > 0:23:59and an end to an era of supposed Muslim aggression and tyranny.
0:23:59 > 0:24:02The First Crusaders had been fed the papacy's message
0:24:02 > 0:24:08of Islam's systematic abuse of Eastern Christians and pilgrims.
0:24:08 > 0:24:10But was there any truth to these accusations
0:24:10 > 0:24:13or was it pure papal propaganda?
0:24:15 > 0:24:18Terry Jones was in no doubt.
0:24:18 > 0:24:22For him, the arrival of the First Crusade at the walls of Jerusalem
0:24:22 > 0:24:26in 1099 marked the end of an entirely unnecessary enterprise.
0:24:30 > 0:24:32The truth is, Jerusalem was and always had been
0:24:32 > 0:24:34a multicultural city,
0:24:34 > 0:24:39sacred not just to Christians but to Jews and Muslims alike.
0:24:39 > 0:24:43Judaism, Christianity and Islam all venerated the city
0:24:43 > 0:24:45and respected each other's right to do so.
0:24:48 > 0:24:51You had a mixture of Jews, Christians and Muslims.
0:24:51 > 0:24:53Jews were indispensable for finance,
0:24:53 > 0:24:56Christians for administration and it was a big city.
0:24:56 > 0:24:58About 100,000 people is the estimate
0:24:58 > 0:25:00and the Christians had their own quarter.
0:25:00 > 0:25:02That whole area, that was all the Christian quarter,
0:25:02 > 0:25:05separated from the rest by its own wall.
0:25:05 > 0:25:09Did the Christians in Jerusalem need rescuing?
0:25:09 > 0:25:11Not really.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15The idea that the Christians of the Near East needed to be saved
0:25:15 > 0:25:19is really not at all obvious. Not from any sources I have read.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22We hear the story told through the prism of conflict.
0:25:22 > 0:25:24There is also another side to that story,
0:25:24 > 0:25:27which is the story of the contacts
0:25:27 > 0:25:32and the non-conflictual encounters
0:25:32 > 0:25:36between peoples from Western Europe and peoples of the Near East.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41Terry Jones revealed one such peaceful encounter
0:25:41 > 0:25:43between Christians and Muslims,
0:25:43 > 0:25:46a centuries-old tradition still practised today.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51Christians were, in fact, being helped by the Muslims.
0:25:51 > 0:25:56This is not a daring secret escape by a Christian priest held prisoner.
0:25:56 > 0:26:00It's the daily ritual of opening the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
0:26:00 > 0:26:04The gentleman with the key, who has the privilege of locking
0:26:04 > 0:26:08and unlocking the church in this rather strange way, is a Muslim.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11His family claim they were given this responsibility
0:26:11 > 0:26:13when Muslims first conquered Jerusalem
0:26:13 > 0:26:16and guaranteed Christians the right to worship there.
0:26:16 > 0:26:18The Nusaybah family do it now
0:26:18 > 0:26:21and they were doing it when the Crusaders arrived.
0:26:24 > 0:26:27But for the Western Christians encamped around the walls
0:26:27 > 0:26:30of Jerusalem, there could be no turning back.
0:26:30 > 0:26:34Their divine goal was finally within their grasp.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38Simon Sebag Montefiore gave what, in my view,
0:26:38 > 0:26:42is a sensationalised account of what happened next.
0:26:42 > 0:26:44In almost the last moment,
0:26:44 > 0:26:48the Crusaders identified the weakest point in Jerusalem's defences
0:26:48 > 0:26:51and somewhere around here, they rolled up their siege engines
0:26:51 > 0:26:55against the wall where it was lowest and fought their way into the city.
0:27:00 > 0:27:05Simultaneously, they broke in through the southern walls, too,
0:27:05 > 0:27:09and began their vicious slaughter of the Muslim faithful,
0:27:09 > 0:27:10whether citizens or soldiers.
0:27:13 > 0:27:16The battle raged for hours.
0:27:16 > 0:27:18The Crusaders killed everyone they could find
0:27:18 > 0:27:20in the streets and alleyways.
0:27:23 > 0:27:28They didn't just chop off heads, but also feet and hands,
0:27:28 > 0:27:32delighting in the fountains of cleansing infidel blood.
0:27:32 > 0:27:34They seized babies from their mothers
0:27:34 > 0:27:36and dashed their heads against the walls.
0:27:36 > 0:27:41Ultimately, they hacked and diced so much human flesh
0:27:41 > 0:27:45that they literally rode up to their bridles in blood.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54The fleeing Jerusalemites took refuge on the roofs
0:27:54 > 0:27:58of the Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock,
0:27:58 > 0:28:00but the Crusaders smashed their way
0:28:00 > 0:28:03onto this crowded sacred esplanade.
0:28:05 > 0:28:07Some Muslims leapt to their deaths.
0:28:09 > 0:28:11Jews sought refuge in their synagogues,
0:28:11 > 0:28:14but the Crusaders set them on fire.
0:28:21 > 0:28:23After 48 hours,
0:28:23 > 0:28:25the slaughter was over.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30From a 21st century perspective,
0:28:30 > 0:28:32the close union between violence
0:28:32 > 0:28:36and Christianity can seem almost inconceivable,
0:28:36 > 0:28:37an abomination.
0:28:38 > 0:28:41But the Crusaders lived in a different age,
0:28:41 > 0:28:44the medieval age,
0:28:44 > 0:28:47and I think that there can be little doubt
0:28:47 > 0:28:49that many, if not most of them,
0:28:49 > 0:28:53really believed that they were doing the work of God,
0:28:53 > 0:28:56freeing Jerusalem and killing for Christ
0:28:56 > 0:29:00and thereby opening their own path to heaven.
0:29:02 > 0:29:06The Christians' savagery described in Western chronicles
0:29:06 > 0:29:09may even have been overstated,
0:29:09 > 0:29:12exaggerated by Latin historians
0:29:12 > 0:29:14to emphasise the Crusaders' devotion to God.
0:29:16 > 0:29:20Their gruesome descriptions are certainly in stark contrast
0:29:20 > 0:29:21to early Arabic records.
0:29:24 > 0:29:29All the massacres, atrocities and barbaric acts which we find in Latin
0:29:29 > 0:29:33and old French chronicles hardly appear in the Arabic chronicles.
0:29:33 > 0:29:36So when they write about the conquest of Jerusalem,
0:29:36 > 0:29:40the longest contemporaneous description which we have are three lines.
0:29:40 > 0:29:44The only barbaric acts Muslim authors report about Christian
0:29:44 > 0:29:49conquerors is a massacre of Jewish population in Jerusalem.
0:29:51 > 0:29:55But the First Crusade had, without doubt, succeeded.
0:29:55 > 0:29:58Jerusalem was in the hands of Western Christianity
0:29:58 > 0:30:02and the Crusaders had to adapt to their new role,
0:30:02 > 0:30:04no longer an invading army,
0:30:04 > 0:30:06but rulers of a region in which
0:30:06 > 0:30:09Eastern Christians, Jews and Muslims
0:30:09 > 0:30:12had been living side-by-side for centuries.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16When the First Crusaders conquered cities like Antioch
0:30:16 > 0:30:20and Jerusalem, they carried out bloody massacres
0:30:20 > 0:30:24but, in time, Western European settlers in the East
0:30:24 > 0:30:27began to adopt a more pragmatic approach,
0:30:27 > 0:30:29negotiating, trading,
0:30:29 > 0:30:32sometimes even cooperating with their Muslim neighbours.
0:30:34 > 0:30:37Some Westerners even began to Orientalise.
0:30:37 > 0:30:41To adopt habits and practices from Eastern cultures.
0:30:41 > 0:30:45In 1961, David Attenborough imagined this cultural shift
0:30:45 > 0:30:49taking place within the great Crusader castles.
0:30:50 > 0:30:53From the moment the Crusaders arrived here,
0:30:53 > 0:30:56a process of Orientalisation began.
0:30:56 > 0:30:58In these fallen halls,
0:30:58 > 0:31:01the knights, and the ladies they had brought with them,
0:31:01 > 0:31:07drank the local wines from goblets made by Turkish silversmiths.
0:31:07 > 0:31:11The best chambers were floored with rich Persian carpets.
0:31:11 > 0:31:15Knights began to grow beards in Muslim fashion
0:31:15 > 0:31:17and to veil their wives.
0:31:17 > 0:31:21Many received guests seated cross-legged, in Oriental style.
0:31:21 > 0:31:24And Tancred of Antioch wore a turban
0:31:24 > 0:31:27with a cross in front, for the sake of appearances.
0:31:29 > 0:31:34But outside the Crusader states, the Islamic world was changing.
0:31:35 > 0:31:39Muslims gradually began to react to the coming of the Crusades,
0:31:39 > 0:31:42rekindling their own form of holy war.
0:31:42 > 0:31:44Jihad.
0:31:44 > 0:31:49Terry Jones introduced his audience to a man often depicted
0:31:49 > 0:31:53as the first jihadi of the crusading era.
0:31:53 > 0:31:57An ambitious Turkish warlord called Zengi.
0:31:57 > 0:31:59His stronghold was Aleppo,
0:31:59 > 0:32:02but he was intent on expanding his power.
0:32:02 > 0:32:05Zengi was a Turk of the old school, a restless,
0:32:05 > 0:32:09hard-drinking warrior, always on the lookout for new conquests.
0:32:09 > 0:32:13So, in 1144, he and his army
0:32:13 > 0:32:16and his elite corps of engineers rode out of Aleppo,
0:32:16 > 0:32:20heading for the most vulnerable outpost of the Crusader kingdom.
0:32:28 > 0:32:31His target was their very first conquest, Edessa.
0:32:31 > 0:32:34And it was here that Zengi undermined the very foundations
0:32:34 > 0:32:36of Latin rule in the East.
0:32:36 > 0:32:40The ground was quite literally dug away from under the Crusaders' feet.
0:32:42 > 0:32:45Zengi's engineers lit the blue touchpaper and retired.
0:32:54 > 0:32:56SINGING
0:33:02 > 0:33:05The Fall of Edessa was celebrated throughout the Islamic world
0:33:05 > 0:33:08as the first real blow against the Christian invaders from the West
0:33:08 > 0:33:13and Zengi was hailed as the first leader of the holy war, the jihad.
0:33:15 > 0:33:19Islam's network of tribal leaders began at last
0:33:19 > 0:33:21to unite against the Crusaders,
0:33:21 > 0:33:24behind Zengi and the jihad.
0:33:25 > 0:33:31In 2012, I met a leading scholar of Islamic history, Taef Al Azhari,
0:33:31 > 0:33:34to understand how the literature of Islam
0:33:34 > 0:33:38sheds light on jihad and the Crusades.
0:33:38 > 0:33:42The art poetry from pre-Islamic time through the Islamic history
0:33:42 > 0:33:47was one of the tools to galvanise society
0:33:47 > 0:33:51and you have thousands of lines of poetry.
0:33:51 > 0:33:54Let me read you just a few lines.
0:33:54 > 0:33:57HE READS IN ARABIC
0:34:01 > 0:34:06Here, the poet is reminding the Muslim community about how important
0:34:06 > 0:34:13Jerusalem is and he's calling for its capture and the only way
0:34:13 > 0:34:17to capture it is through blood, which would purify Jerusalem.
0:34:19 > 0:34:23In the 12th century, the torch of jihad was taken up
0:34:23 > 0:34:27by a new, powerful Turkish dynasty, the Zengids.
0:34:27 > 0:34:29In the name of Islam, they conquered great
0:34:29 > 0:34:34swathes of territory in the East and brought the promise of a new era,
0:34:34 > 0:34:37one in which the Christians might be driven from the Holy Land.
0:34:40 > 0:34:45In 1146, the Sunni warlord, Nur al-Din Zengi, came to power.
0:34:47 > 0:34:51In the course of his career, he united Aleppo and Damascus,
0:34:51 > 0:34:53consolidating the Zengid hold on Syria
0:34:53 > 0:34:56and pushed their rule further into Egypt.
0:34:58 > 0:35:04But rising up through the ranks of his armies was an ambitious Kurdish soldier.
0:35:04 > 0:35:07Born Yusuf, son of Ayyub, he is known to history
0:35:07 > 0:35:11by the honorific title, Salah al-Din, "goodness of the faith".
0:35:11 > 0:35:14In the Western tongue, Saladin.
0:35:16 > 0:35:19By the 1100s, the two branches of Islam,
0:35:19 > 0:35:23Sunni and Shia, had been feuding for centuries,
0:35:23 > 0:35:28and Saladin found himself at the heart of this conflict.
0:35:28 > 0:35:34Saladin was a Sunni Muslim, placed in control of Shia forces in Egypt.
0:35:34 > 0:35:38For anyone else it would have been an impossible position.
0:35:38 > 0:35:42But Saladin possessed the strength of leadership not only to
0:35:42 > 0:35:48suppress a Shia rebellion, but also to unite Egypt under his own rule.
0:35:48 > 0:35:52And when Nur al-Din died five years later,
0:35:52 > 0:35:54Saladin saw his opportunity.
0:35:56 > 0:36:01He married Nur al-Din's widow, seized power in Damascus
0:36:01 > 0:36:05and expanded into northern Syria and Mesopotamia.
0:36:05 > 0:36:09Vowing to wage a glorious jihad and reclaim Jerusalem,
0:36:09 > 0:36:15Saladin assumed the title of Sultan and united the Muslim Near East as never before.
0:36:18 > 0:36:24By the 1180s, his empire stretched from the Nile to the Euphrates,
0:36:24 > 0:36:28but the promise of victory in the holy war now had to be fulfilled.
0:36:29 > 0:36:33Saladin's primary objective was to orchestrate a decisive
0:36:33 > 0:36:36confrontation with the Christians,
0:36:36 > 0:36:40luring them into open battle where he hoped
0:36:40 > 0:36:43they could be destroyed with one fatal blow.
0:36:43 > 0:36:50In 1187 he assembled a huge force, some 40,000 strong,
0:36:50 > 0:36:54and masterminded a strategy in which the key weapons would be
0:36:54 > 0:36:58local knowledge, guile and water.
0:37:00 > 0:37:03First, he attacked the Christian town of Tiberius.
0:37:03 > 0:37:08He expected the Crusaders to retaliate, and had a plan.
0:37:08 > 0:37:12He secured a source of water for his own army and then ordered
0:37:12 > 0:37:18his men to fill in every accessible well and spring for miles around.
0:37:18 > 0:37:22He would destroy the Christians when they came with thirst,
0:37:22 > 0:37:26and all he had to do was wait.
0:37:26 > 0:37:28To understand Saladin's genius,
0:37:28 > 0:37:31Terry Jones visited the very scene of the battle.
0:37:31 > 0:37:34The whole army of the kingdom swallowed Saladin's bait
0:37:34 > 0:37:37and marched towards Tiberius.
0:37:40 > 0:37:45They got as far as these two hills, the Horns Of Hattin.
0:37:48 > 0:37:51Well, the Franks were coming from the West,
0:37:51 > 0:37:56trying to reach the lake of Tiberius over there,
0:37:56 > 0:38:02and Saladin tried and succeeded in blocking their way to the lake.
0:38:02 > 0:38:05And, of course, it is dry here, there's no water up on the Horns.
0:38:05 > 0:38:09There is no water not only here on the Horns, but in the close vicinity,
0:38:09 > 0:38:13and that is why the Franks were so thirsty and so desperate.
0:38:14 > 0:38:18Having fallen into Saladin's trap, the Christians now found themselves
0:38:18 > 0:38:24in a hellish waterless killing zone, cut off from Tiberius and the lake.
0:38:24 > 0:38:29Driven half mad by thirst, faltering under a rain of arrows,
0:38:29 > 0:38:35the Christians gathered on the Horns Of Hattin to make a forlorn last stand,
0:38:35 > 0:38:40launching a desperate downhill charge towards Saladin's men, and destruction.
0:38:41 > 0:38:45"I saw the limbs of the fallen cast naked on the field of battle,
0:38:45 > 0:38:50"lacerated and disjointed with heads cracked open, throats slit,
0:38:50 > 0:38:53"spines broken, necks shattered,
0:38:53 > 0:38:58"members dismembered, noses mutilated, breasts flayed,
0:38:58 > 0:39:02"spirits flown, their very ghosts crushed
0:39:02 > 0:39:05"like stones among stones."
0:39:12 > 0:39:17Saladin destroyed Jerusalem's army and captured its king.
0:39:17 > 0:39:19The holy city was his for the taking.
0:39:19 > 0:39:25In September 1187, Saladin's army surrounded the city.
0:39:25 > 0:39:30Simon Sebag Montefiore brought to life the scene inside,
0:39:30 > 0:39:32where everyone expected a massacre.
0:39:35 > 0:39:36BELLS TOLL
0:39:36 > 0:39:40Women prayed for mercy at the sepulchre.
0:39:41 > 0:39:44Without a king, the Jerusalemites appointed
0:39:44 > 0:39:47a respected baron, Balian, to lead them.
0:39:48 > 0:39:50As Saladin's troops attacked the city,
0:39:50 > 0:39:53the walls were defended by mere boys.
0:39:54 > 0:39:58So Balian made an uncompromising offer.
0:39:58 > 0:40:03He told Saladin, "First we will kill all our own women and children,
0:40:03 > 0:40:07"then we will demolish your Dome of the Rock and your Al-Aqsa mosque,
0:40:07 > 0:40:09"and only then will you get the city."
0:40:11 > 0:40:13To save Islam's holy places,
0:40:13 > 0:40:16Saladin agreed to negotiate a peaceful surrender.
0:40:19 > 0:40:22But the Christians would still pay a heavy price.
0:40:24 > 0:40:28All the Jerusalemites would be ransomed or enslaved,
0:40:28 > 0:40:33but for Saladin this was the fulfilment of his entire life's work.
0:40:33 > 0:40:35Saladin got Jerusalem.
0:40:43 > 0:40:47The loss of Jerusalem shocked Western Christendom.
0:40:47 > 0:40:49On hearing news of the disaster in the East,
0:40:49 > 0:40:53the Pope promptly had a heart attack and died.
0:40:53 > 0:40:58In the months that followed a new call to arms was issued,
0:40:58 > 0:41:03demanding vengeance for Hattin and the recovery of the holy city.
0:41:05 > 0:41:10This grand expedition would be led by a legend of the crusading era,
0:41:10 > 0:41:14one of England's most controversial kings,
0:41:14 > 0:41:16Richard The Lionheart.
0:41:16 > 0:41:18We revere Richard The Lionheart.
0:41:18 > 0:41:21There's a statue of him with sword drawn outside the Houses of Parliament.
0:41:21 > 0:41:25Richard is the archetypal English hero,
0:41:25 > 0:41:29and so I think there is a disconnect between the reality
0:41:29 > 0:41:32and what he was really like, because in the 19th century, in fact,
0:41:32 > 0:41:37English historians would write about Richard that he wasn't even English,
0:41:37 > 0:41:40that he was an awful husband, awful son, awful warrior.
0:41:41 > 0:41:45Richard The Lionheart - one of the stars of English history.
0:41:45 > 0:41:48Actually he was French. Richard Coeur de Lion.
0:41:48 > 0:41:50He couldn't even speak a word of English.
0:41:50 > 0:41:55Nevertheless, for the Brits he is the greatest hero of the Crusades.
0:41:55 > 0:41:59Richard was an extremely undesirable man.
0:41:59 > 0:42:06He was a bad son, a bad husband, a very bad ruler.
0:42:06 > 0:42:08But he was a magnificent soldier
0:42:08 > 0:42:12who took a great deal of trouble over his men.
0:42:12 > 0:42:16So, in a way, it was easy to make a hero of him.
0:42:19 > 0:42:22Richard has become a legendary figure,
0:42:22 > 0:42:26but most historians now agree that he was not only a military genius
0:42:26 > 0:42:30but also an able diplomat and skilled statesman.
0:42:31 > 0:42:36Terry Jones focused on the most controversial moment of Richard's Crusade,
0:42:36 > 0:42:40which began as a joint project with King Philip of France,
0:42:40 > 0:42:45picking up the story as they arrived at the siege of Acre.
0:42:45 > 0:42:47When Richard and Philip arrived, this very citadel
0:42:47 > 0:42:49was in the hands of Saladin's troops.
0:42:49 > 0:42:53They'd been under siege by the local Franks for the last two years.
0:42:53 > 0:42:58It had dragged on that long because the defenders could always get supplies in by sea.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01However, Richard and Philip had a big enough fleet to be able
0:43:01 > 0:43:03to stop all that sort of nonsense.
0:43:03 > 0:43:10Eventually, on 12 July 1191, the Saracen garrison decided they'd had enough and capitulated.
0:43:10 > 0:43:16It was agreed that the Muslims would be set free in return for 200,000 gold dinars,
0:43:16 > 0:43:211,500 Christian prisoners and the holiest of holy relics,
0:43:21 > 0:43:25the fragment of the True Cross that Saladin had captured at Hattin.
0:43:28 > 0:43:31Unfortunately, it didn't turn out like that at all.
0:43:31 > 0:43:35You see, the garrison had come to these terms without actually referring to Saladin,
0:43:35 > 0:43:38and there was no way he could raise that sort of money in the time.
0:43:38 > 0:43:42Eventually, Richard, who was impatient to get on to Jerusalem,
0:43:42 > 0:43:46and who didn't want to be encumbered with nearly 3,000 prisoners,
0:43:46 > 0:43:48grew tired of waiting for his money.
0:43:48 > 0:43:51So he simply had the entire garrison chained up outside the city walls,
0:43:51 > 0:43:55along with their wives and family, and slaughtered.
0:43:55 > 0:43:57It took three days to kill them all.
0:44:06 > 0:44:10Jones's account was again embroidered.
0:44:10 > 0:44:13Eyewitness testimony indicates that the killing was completed
0:44:13 > 0:44:19in one day, not three, and makes no mention of women and families.
0:44:19 > 0:44:24Nonetheless, such a large-scale systematic massacre was not common,
0:44:24 > 0:44:26even in the medieval world.
0:44:34 > 0:44:41Contrast that with other massacres committed by military leaders.
0:44:41 > 0:44:44When Zengi captured Edessa,
0:44:44 > 0:44:47he did kill a number of its inhabitants,
0:44:47 > 0:44:51but that was in the hurly-burly of war,
0:44:51 > 0:44:53in the hurly-burly of a siege,
0:44:53 > 0:44:57and the success of his siege, and the aftermath of that siege,
0:44:57 > 0:45:02whereas Richard's action did not have that contextual
0:45:02 > 0:45:04"justification".
0:45:04 > 0:45:08The brutal massacre at Acre gave Richard the opportunity
0:45:08 > 0:45:12to march south to Jaffa, resting his men frequently
0:45:12 > 0:45:15and refusing to be drawn into open battle.
0:45:15 > 0:45:19This self-assured strategy began to unsettle Saladin.
0:45:19 > 0:45:23Eyewitness testimony from within Saladin's camp tells us
0:45:23 > 0:45:26that he was deeply frustrated by Richard's inexorable advance
0:45:26 > 0:45:32and wrong-footed by the Lionheart's policy of resting his troops every two to three days.
0:45:32 > 0:45:36What the Sultan needed now was to engineer a confrontation, a pitched battle.
0:45:37 > 0:45:40In the morning, Richard and his men set out for Arsuf
0:45:40 > 0:45:45and were almost immediately met with the full strength of Saladin's army.
0:45:45 > 0:45:50The Sultan had decided that this was where the Franks would be stopped.
0:45:50 > 0:45:53Richard ordered his men not to engage,
0:45:53 > 0:45:58but overcome with bloodlust, his knights charged at Saladin's forces.
0:45:58 > 0:46:01Richard could see there was now no turning back.
0:46:01 > 0:46:05He spurred his horse, led the rest of his men into the melee
0:46:05 > 0:46:07and smashed the Muslim army.
0:46:09 > 0:46:11Saladin fled back to Jerusalem,
0:46:11 > 0:46:15taking up a defensive position inside the city.
0:46:15 > 0:46:19A Christian siege now seemed inevitable
0:46:19 > 0:46:22and his generals advised Saladin to leave,
0:46:22 > 0:46:24rather than risk being trapped inside.
0:46:27 > 0:46:31Saladin wavered but he knew that if he left the city,
0:46:31 > 0:46:33his generals would surrender it to Richard.
0:46:36 > 0:46:39The thought of abandoning his prize was too much.
0:46:42 > 0:46:45Still a few days' march away,
0:46:45 > 0:46:49Richard realised that even if he captured Jerusalem,
0:46:49 > 0:46:51he would not be able to hold her
0:46:51 > 0:46:53while Saladin's vast empire was intact.
0:46:55 > 0:46:58Richard's only option was to negotiate.
0:47:00 > 0:47:03First, Richard wrote to Saladin.
0:47:03 > 0:47:06"The Muslims and the Christians are both done for.
0:47:06 > 0:47:10"The lands are ruined at the hands of both of us.
0:47:10 > 0:47:14"All we have to discuss is Jerusalem, the True Cross
0:47:14 > 0:47:15"and the territories.
0:47:18 > 0:47:21"But, Jerusalem is the centre of our worship,
0:47:21 > 0:47:24"which we will never renounce."
0:47:24 > 0:47:26Saladin replied to this.
0:47:26 > 0:47:29He said, "Jerusalem is as much ours as yours.
0:47:31 > 0:47:32"But it is greater for us
0:47:32 > 0:47:35"because it is the place that our Prophet visited
0:47:35 > 0:47:37"on his night journey."
0:47:37 > 0:47:41Either way, there was a big problem in the way of a deal,
0:47:41 > 0:47:45both men wanted to possess Jerusalem totally.
0:47:46 > 0:47:49And so, on the 2nd September 1192,
0:47:49 > 0:47:53the Sultan and King agreed the Treaty of Jaffa.
0:47:54 > 0:47:57The first partition of Palestine.
0:48:00 > 0:48:03The Christian kingdom received a new lease of life,
0:48:03 > 0:48:06with Acre as its capital.
0:48:06 > 0:48:08Saladin kept his treasured Jerusalem,
0:48:08 > 0:48:12only granting the Christians access to the Holy Sepulchre.
0:48:15 > 0:48:19Richard, it seemed, had got the raw end of the deal.
0:48:21 > 0:48:26Richard's Crusade was, at best, a limited success.
0:48:26 > 0:48:28He recovered a thin strip of coastal territory
0:48:28 > 0:48:31but never reclaimed Jerusalem.
0:48:31 > 0:48:35Yet, he has become an icon of British history.
0:48:35 > 0:48:39Britain's connection with the Crusades is fairly tenuous
0:48:39 > 0:48:40and fairly patchy.
0:48:40 > 0:48:43We don't really have much to do with the whole process,
0:48:43 > 0:48:44apart from Richard.
0:48:44 > 0:48:47So, we've taken the idea of the Crusades being good things,
0:48:47 > 0:48:49we've taken King Richard, who took part in the Crusades.
0:48:49 > 0:48:51We've put the two together and go,
0:48:51 > 0:48:53"It doesn't really matter what he's really like.
0:48:53 > 0:48:54"Maybe we didn't quite understand.
0:48:54 > 0:48:56"And Saladin seemed quite a nice guy too.
0:48:56 > 0:48:59"So, let's try to create a romantic story about Richard
0:48:59 > 0:49:01"and hang all sorts of baggage onto it."
0:49:01 > 0:49:06I suppose, in that, in itself, goes the Western view of the Crusades.
0:49:08 > 0:49:12Saladin is also often remembered as a legendary hero of the age.
0:49:13 > 0:49:16Though historians continue to debate
0:49:16 > 0:49:19whether he was driven first and foremost
0:49:19 > 0:49:22by personal ambition or authentic, pious devotion
0:49:22 > 0:49:24to the cause of Jihad
0:49:24 > 0:49:26and Jerusalem's reconquest.
0:49:28 > 0:49:32The overriding impression you get, in both Arabic
0:49:32 > 0:49:36and Latin sources of the time, are that this is a man of greatness
0:49:36 > 0:49:40and a man of unusual leadership qualities.
0:49:40 > 0:49:45And he behaves in a way that Western gentlemen think is appropriate.
0:49:45 > 0:49:48So, there's a renaissance of Saladin's reputation,
0:49:48 > 0:49:51also in the Arabic speaking world, as a result of the fact
0:49:51 > 0:49:53he becomes so highly prized and valued in the West.
0:49:58 > 0:50:00The Crusader states endured in the aftermath
0:50:00 > 0:50:04of Richard and Saladin's Treaty of Jaffa.
0:50:04 > 0:50:06Then, in 1248,
0:50:06 > 0:50:11the French King Louis launched yet another assault on Islam.
0:50:11 > 0:50:13A meticulously planned Crusade
0:50:13 > 0:50:17to reclaim the Holy Land from its Muslim overlords
0:50:17 > 0:50:21by destroying the source of their wealth and power in Egypt.
0:50:22 > 0:50:24It was a disaster.
0:50:24 > 0:50:26The French army was routed on the banks of the Nile
0:50:26 > 0:50:30and the King himself taken prisoner.
0:50:32 > 0:50:37The French Crusaders were crushed by a new kind of army.
0:50:37 > 0:50:39One more ruthless than any previously encountered
0:50:39 > 0:50:41in the Levant.
0:50:41 > 0:50:43And led by a slave soldier
0:50:43 > 0:50:48for whom the Crusader states were little more than a sideshow
0:50:48 > 0:50:51on the path to the Near East's total conquest.
0:50:52 > 0:50:56This warrior initiated the last bloody chapter
0:50:56 > 0:51:00in a 200-year war for dominion of the Holy Land.
0:51:00 > 0:51:02In places like Egypt,
0:51:02 > 0:51:06he's still revered as a great Muslim hero of the age.
0:51:06 > 0:51:10But, in the West, his name is barely known.
0:51:16 > 0:51:19Terry Jones was one of the first
0:51:19 > 0:51:24to bring this man's story to a Western TV screen, in 1995.
0:51:33 > 0:51:35Baybars was leader of the Mamluks.
0:51:35 > 0:51:38Now, the Mamluks were the slave soldiers of Egypt.
0:51:38 > 0:51:40Generally, they were captured as small children
0:51:40 > 0:51:44and brought back to Egypt to be trained exclusively as warriors.
0:51:44 > 0:51:47They knew of no other life except warfare and, what's more,
0:51:47 > 0:51:51they'd been hardened in over 100 years of battles with the Crusaders.
0:51:51 > 0:51:53Under the leadership of Baybars,
0:51:53 > 0:51:55the Mamluks swept everything before them.
0:51:58 > 0:52:02They created a state whose whole purpose was war.
0:52:02 > 0:52:04One of the first targets was Antioch.
0:52:06 > 0:52:08Once it was captured, the gates were sealed
0:52:08 > 0:52:13and every Christian man, woman and child was butchered.
0:52:17 > 0:52:19The Mamluk war machine moved from town to town,
0:52:19 > 0:52:23from castle to castle, tearing stone from stone
0:52:23 > 0:52:24and killing the inhabitants,
0:52:24 > 0:52:28destroying the last remnants of the Crusader kingdom.
0:52:33 > 0:52:37In May 1291, the Mamluk army laid siege to Acre.
0:52:39 > 0:52:43Inside, its Christian rulers were isolated and outnumbered,
0:52:43 > 0:52:45their fate inevitable.
0:52:51 > 0:52:56This was to be the bloody conclusion to 200 years of crusading.
0:52:56 > 0:52:58Which, in 1977,
0:52:58 > 0:53:03JK Galbraith likened to America's chaotic flight from Saigon.
0:53:04 > 0:53:06The attackers at Acre promised a bloodbath
0:53:06 > 0:53:11for any surviving Christians and such promises, in those days,
0:53:11 > 0:53:13had to be taken very seriously.
0:53:19 > 0:53:22As later in Saigon, to have planned for an evacuation
0:53:22 > 0:53:25would have been to concede defeat in advance.
0:53:25 > 0:53:28So, instead, at the last moment,
0:53:28 > 0:53:31there came the wholly anarchic rush to escape.
0:53:31 > 0:53:35In Vietnam, only the words were different.
0:53:35 > 0:53:38Is there any other way we can get the hell out of here?
0:53:38 > 0:53:40Maybe travel with you guys, or something?
0:53:40 > 0:53:42As at Acre, we came with the cash,
0:53:42 > 0:53:45this time it was for space on the planes and helicopters.
0:53:45 > 0:53:49These were faster than the galleys and the trip was over more quickly.
0:53:50 > 0:53:53By this much, had colonial enterprise, effort to govern,
0:53:53 > 0:53:58shape development from afar changed in 700 years.
0:54:00 > 0:54:02For Galbraith in 1977,
0:54:02 > 0:54:07the Crusades were overwhelmingly a simple act of colonialism,
0:54:07 > 0:54:09one that continued to shape the 20th century.
0:54:10 > 0:54:14The long shadow of colonialism has been mentioned
0:54:14 > 0:54:18and none is so long as that of the Crusades.
0:54:18 > 0:54:23It remained in the memory of Islam that man had come from afar
0:54:23 > 0:54:27with religious purpose and sanction to occupy Jerusalem
0:54:27 > 0:54:29and to take up the land.
0:54:29 > 0:54:34And it continued to be feared that one day they would come back.
0:54:34 > 0:54:36It was inevitable that any who did return
0:54:36 > 0:54:39would be viewed with the utmost hostility
0:54:39 > 0:54:43and especially so if they claimed religious sanction.
0:54:43 > 0:54:46It didn't matter too much whether those returning
0:54:46 > 0:54:49were Christians or Jews,
0:54:49 > 0:54:53the shadow of the Crusades is still over Israel.
0:54:57 > 0:55:00That was 1977
0:55:00 > 0:55:06but, in 1995, Terry Jones concluded his series with the same thought.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09Probably, most Crusaders set out with the intention of doing good.
0:55:09 > 0:55:11And yet, they ended up perpetrating
0:55:11 > 0:55:14one of the great crimes against humanity.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17What's more, the entire enterprise was a total failure.
0:55:17 > 0:55:20The net result of all their efforts was the exact opposite
0:55:20 > 0:55:22of what they'd set out to achieve.
0:55:25 > 0:55:30Islam, far from being destroyed, learned to imitate Europe's rage.
0:55:30 > 0:55:34Constantinople, far from being saved, never recovered.
0:55:35 > 0:55:39Today, of course, it is a Turkish city, Istanbul.
0:55:39 > 0:55:42And 900 years after it all began,
0:55:42 > 0:55:47the world still lives in the long shadow of the Crusades.
0:55:48 > 0:55:53But are we right to draw a line between the medieval Crusades
0:55:53 > 0:55:54and the modern world?
0:55:54 > 0:56:00To imagine that we still live in the shadow of these distant holy wars?
0:56:02 > 0:56:04For some historians,
0:56:04 > 0:56:08this idea represents a Eurocentric perspective.
0:56:08 > 0:56:11One that greatly overstates and distorts the role
0:56:11 > 0:56:15played by the West in shaping the history of the East.
0:56:18 > 0:56:21For Europe, the Crusades were a historic moment.
0:56:21 > 0:56:24You cannot understand European medieval history without the Crusades.
0:56:24 > 0:56:27If you want to understand Middle Eastern society,
0:56:27 > 0:56:30forget about the Crusades.
0:56:30 > 0:56:34They are so marginal, they only give a skewed view of what was going on.
0:56:34 > 0:56:38The Crusades rank very low in the most important events.
0:56:38 > 0:56:41That's reflected in the chronicles of the period.
0:56:43 > 0:56:48Yet in the 21st century, leaders from both East and West
0:56:48 > 0:56:49have used the Crusades
0:56:49 > 0:56:52as justification for contemporary conflicts.
0:56:55 > 0:56:56This crusade...
0:56:58 > 0:57:00..this war on terrorism...
0:57:02 > 0:57:04..it is going to take a while.
0:57:04 > 0:57:07When George W Bush spoke these words
0:57:07 > 0:57:10five days after the terrorist attack of 9/11,
0:57:10 > 0:57:13many commentators were horrified.
0:57:14 > 0:57:18That George Bush referred to the Crusades in the aftermath of 9/11,
0:57:18 > 0:57:23is expression of the limited intellectual calibre
0:57:23 > 0:57:26which was assembled among his advisers
0:57:26 > 0:57:29because it was mere stupidity.
0:57:29 > 0:57:32I think it abnegates responsibility for creating just solutions
0:57:32 > 0:57:35for some of the political problems of the Middle East.
0:57:35 > 0:57:37You know, the more we talk about the Crusades,
0:57:37 > 0:57:39the more we talk about jihad and this is a continuity,
0:57:39 > 0:57:42the more we validate acts of violence
0:57:42 > 0:57:44because we live in a totally different world
0:57:44 > 0:57:46than 1,000 years ago.
0:57:46 > 0:57:49I think it's dangerous to talk about how similar,
0:57:49 > 0:57:51how history is repeating itself,
0:57:51 > 0:57:55and so on, without really pulling that through.
0:57:55 > 0:58:00In my opinion, no direct line connects the medieval Crusades
0:58:00 > 0:58:05and the modern conflicts that still rage in the Near and Middle East.
0:58:05 > 0:58:07The long shadow of these holy wars
0:58:07 > 0:58:10is largely the product of an illusion.
0:58:10 > 0:58:13Born of the simplification
0:58:13 > 0:58:16and manipulation of our collective history.
0:58:16 > 0:58:21An illusion that can only be countered if we continue to explore,
0:58:21 > 0:58:26to study and to seek to understand the actual history of the Crusades.