Outremer I

by D. N. Carter

  “This girl you have desires upon, is she by chance Muslim?” Rick asked knowingly.

  “Is it that obvious?”

  “Yes, by your words. You are a very bright and intelligent young man, no mistake on that front…but intelligence and education do not always go hand in hand. I fear you still need much education…and that is not an insult. A Muslim woman and a Christian man…it never ends well.”

  “I am eager to learn. You clearly know much and I would love to learn more from you…I could help in the vineyard in return for you teaching me,” Paul said eagerly but his heart feeling heavy upon hearing Rick’s last comment.

  Rick smiled but shook his head no.

  “That I am afraid will not be allowed to happen; besides you live too far to journey back and forth…plus you already have a good teacher, Niccolas, and the ever irrepressible Lucy no less,” Rick revealed as Paul sat back in surprise.

  “You seem to know an uncomfortable amount of information about me and my family…should I have cause for concern or is there something you are not telling me?” Paul asked.

  “Fear not, young Paul. Many know of your family and about you all. Your father is well respected within La Rochelle is he not? Plus it helps that I know Niccolas and Lucy,” Rick answered, Paul picking up immediately the fact he called Sister Lucy just Lucy.

  “Forgive my mistrust and deep suspicious questioning for it just unnerves me that a man I have never met before knows so much about me and my family.”

  “That is okay. You have a brilliant mind. Use it and never stop questioning. Keep doing so and you will have your answers, especially in regard to the truth about Islamic Crusades and Imperialism.”

  “I shall, but can you at least point me in the right direction for it is a subject my father will not discuss with me?” Paul asked and sipped some wine, his face pursing at its semi bittersweet taste.

  “Then start by understanding that history is indeed written by the ones left standing after conquering a people…Historical facts now being written try to claim that Islam has been and is being imperialistic, and will continue to be for its own expansionistic religious reasons. Do not misunderstand me, Paul, for there are many Muslim clerics, scholars and fanatics who would like to impose Islamic law around the world. Islam did, including Muhammad, launch their own Crusades against Christianity long before we responded,” Rick started to explain just as another large bang resounded throughout the keep accompanied by a large flash. “See, God agrees,” Rick joked. “Today, there are those Muslims who believe that Islam is the best religion in the world, and claim that we have stolen Islamic lands and that we alone are imperialistic. It saddened me many times on my long journeys to hear some Muslims say to me harshly ‘You stole our lands’ but that just shows their own lack of education, not intelligence though. I stress that point. Some will always blame us and, vice versa, some Christians will always blame them,” Rick continued. “Sadly many people from both religions do not look inwardly and check to see if it is not their own culture and religion being in part at fault, instead, it is always the other’s fault.” He paused for some time as rain began to fall harder outside. “Too many fail to look inwardly at themselves first and are only all too ready to accept the notion that it is we who alone are the aggressors. It seems that Islam is always innocent and passive and it is difficult to uncover the source of this self-loathing, one I fear will only grow and become a dogmatic quagmire that will endure for decades, if not for hundreds of years, to come. It is why I fear the Crusades will in due course generate a hatred for what we have done during this time that will haunt us despite it being a curse set in motion by both sides.”

  “But did we not start the first Crusade?” Paul interrupted.

  “Paul, I shall not try and justify nor defend the Crusades from either side, but I can offer you my views and thoughts to explain, if only in part if you wish,” Rick said as he finished the small bottle of wine in one take. “To start with, I think you would agree that the Crusades starkly contrast with the mission and ministry of Jesus and the first generations of Christians, and so the Crusades do not look so good, but as to whether the Europeans launched the first Crusade in a mindless, bloodthirsty and irrational way, it can be argued there were some pressing reasons why they did and they were not the only ones to be so militant. And remember the word ‘crusade’ derives from the Latin word for ‘cross’, but in an Islamic context, Crusade means a ‘holy war’ or ‘jihad’. Sadly many Muslims accuse Europeans of launching the Crusades in the first place and forget that they had their own, for several centuries before the Europeans launched theirs as a defence against the Islamic expansion. When Pope Urban II launched his own Crusade in 1095, Islamic Crusades had been very successful. The Byzantine and Persian Empires had worn themselves out with fighting, so a power vacuum existed and into this vacuum stormed Islam,” Rick explained then stopped to look at Paul. “Are you sure you wish me to continue, for most of what I say tends to bore most people I know to death?” Rick asked.

  “I am tired but I am also very curious, and if this is but my one chance to learn anything from you, I would pray you continue,” Paul answered.

  “Then know that in AD 630, two years before Muhammad’s death of a fever, he launched the Tabuk Crusades, in which he led thirty thousand jihadists against the Byzantine Christians. He had heard a report that a huge army had amassed to attack Arabia, but the report turned out to be a false rumour. Another very good reason never to listen to rumours… Anyway, the Byzantine army never materialised. He turned around and went home, but not before extracting ‘agreements’ from northern tribes. They could enjoy the ‘privilege’ of living under Islamic ‘protection’, which in reality meant ‘not being attacked by Islam’, if they paid a tax known as ‘jizya’. Unfortunately that tax set the stage for Muhammad’s and the later Caliphs’ policies. If the attacked city or region did not want to convert to Islam, then they paid the jizya tax. If they converted, then they paid a ‘zakat’ tax. Either way, money flowed back to the Islamic treasury in Arabia or to the local Muslim governor. Then in AD 632–634 under the Caliphate of Abu Bakr the Muslim Crusaders re-conquered and sometimes conquered for the first time the polytheists of Arabia. These Arab polytheists had to convert to Islam or die. They did not have the choice of remaining in their faith and paying a tax.”

  “Sorry to interrupt, but what does polytheist…mean?” Paul asked puzzled.

  “Oh, polytheism, or polytheist…it is the worship of, or belief in, multiple deities usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religions and rituals,” Rick explained. Paul nodded he understood. “Anyway, in AD 633 the Muslim Crusaders, led by Khalid al-Walid, a superior but bloodthirsty military commander, whom Muhammad nicknamed the Sword of Allah for his ferocity in battle, conquered the city of Ullays along the Euphrates River. Khalid captured and beheaded so many that a nearby canal, into which the blood flowed, was called the Blood Canal. Then again, in AD 634, at the Battle of Yarmuk in Syria, the Muslim Crusaders defeated the Byzantines. Today a Muslim anecdote about Khalid al-Walid remarks, ‘The Romans are so numerous and the Muslims so few’. To this Khalid retorted, ‘How few are the Romans, and how many the Muslims! Armies become numerous only with victory and few only with defeat, not by the number of men. By God, I would love it…if the enemy were twice as many’. Khalid also went on to say that his fighters love death more than we Christians and Jews love life. I have studied much and it would appear that this philosophy of death probably comes from a verse, like Sura 2:96. In it, Muhammad assesses the Jews and says ‘you are sure to find them clinging to life more eagerly than any other people, even polytheists’…here wait a moment and I will show you a timeline as there is much to see. I have it written down.” Rick stood up and immediately ascended a small spiral staircase in the far corner of the hall. Paul sat patiently waiting until after a few minutes Rick reappeared carrying a parchment roll. He gently opened it flat. “Look, this is a timeline
.”

  Paul leaned nearer and tried to view the details in the flickering dim light cast by the fire and single candle. He began reading. As he read it he was amazed at how many entries showed details outlining various Muslim Crusader activities from AD 634 right up to the present. In AD 635, Muslim Crusaders besieged and conquered Damascus, AD 634–644 in the Caliphate of Umar ibn al-Khattab, a man who was regarded as particularly brutal led a Crusade, then in, AD 636 Muslim Crusaders defeated Byzantines decisively at the Battle of Yarmuk, AD 637 Muslim Crusaders conquered Iraq at the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah (some date it as being in 635 or 636), AD 638 Muslim Crusaders conquered and annexed Jerusalem, taking it from the Byzantines, AD 638–650 Muslim Crusaders conquered Iran, except along the Caspian Sea, AD 639–642 Muslim Crusaders conquered Egypt, AD 641 Muslim Crusaders controlled Syria and Palestine, AD 643–707 Muslim Crusaders conquered North Africa. The list went on and on. Paul’s gaze fell upon one entry highlighted in red ink. AD 691 the Dome of the Rock is completed in Jerusalem, only six decades after Muhammad’s death. He scrolled down a further thirty entries and read that in AD 937 the Church of the Resurrection, known as the Church of Holy Sepulchre in Latin, was burned down by Muslims; more churches in Jerusalem were attacked. Then ten more entries on, in AD 1073 the conquest of Jerusalem by Turks (Muslim Crusaders) then a final entry highlighted in blue ink that in AD 1095 Pope Urban II preaches the first Crusade; they captured Jerusalem in AD 1099. Paul studied the details as best he could then looked at Rick intently.

  “We are not taught these details.”

  “Paul, I would urge you always, always check and double check your sources of information, do not accept blindly anything proffered as fact and truth simply because it is written in front of you. Always validate your sources. Niccolas will certainly expect that of you,” Rick stated.

  “So it is only after all of the Islamic aggressive invasions that Western Christendom launched its first Crusade, yes, is that what this says?” Paul asked and looked back at the scroll timeline.

  “Well, in truth it could be argued that sometimes the Byzantine and Western European leaders did not behave exemplarily, so a timeline on that subject should be developed…and sometimes the Muslims behaved exemplarily. Both are true. However, this timeline is to balance out the picture more clearly. Many people regard Islam as an innocent victim, and the Byzantines and Europeans as bullies. This was not always the case. Moreover, we should take a step back and look at the big picture. If Islam had stayed in Arabia and had not waged wars of conquest, then no troubles would have erupted. But the truth is this: Islam moved aggressively within the Caliphates of Abu Bakr and Umar in the seventh century, with other caliphs continuing well beyond that; only then did the Western Europeans react. But ask yourself this, young Paul, besides following Muhammad, why else did the Muslims launch their Crusades out of Arabia in the first place long before Christendom did?” Rick asked and sat back in silence as Paul pondered his question. Eventually Paul shrugged his shoulders. Rick smiled broadly and continued. “In the complicated Muslim Crusades that lasted several centuries before the European Crusades, it is nigh impossible to come up with a single theory as to what launched these Crusades. Some argue that Islam’s mission is to correct the injustices of the world believing that if Islam does not control a society, then injustice dominates it…but if Islam dominates it, then justice rules it. Islam is expansionist and must conquer the whole world to express Allah’s perfect will on this planet, so Qutb and other Muslims believe. Once Abu Bakr crushed the rebellion against Islamic rule within Arabia, he may well have decided to alleviate internal tensions by employing the unruly energies within the ummah, which is a word used to call and refer to the Muslim community, against external foes…whatever the case, in AD 633, Muslim armies began a new series of campaigns in Persia, Syria and other surrounding lands. ‘External foes’ to Islam in Arabia in AD 633 are the Persians and the Byzantines, but as I said earlier, they were too exhausted after years of fighting each other to pose a serious threat to Islam and it therefore moved into a power vacuum within religion, economy, and political control…first, the ideological message of Islam itself triggered the Muslim ruling elite simply to follow Muhammad and his conquests; Islam had a divinely ordained mission to conquer in the name of Allah. The second factor is economic. The ruling elite wanted to expand the political boundaries of the new state in order to secure even more fully than before the trans-Arab commerce they had plied for a century or more. The final factor is political control. The rulers wanted to maintain their top place in the new political hierarchy by having aggressive Arab tribes migrate into newly conquered territories. Thus, for these reasons alone, they have nothing to do with just wars of self-defence. Early Islam was merely being aggressive without sufficient provocation from the surrounding Byzantine and Persian Empires. Plus the sheer thrill of conquest and martyrdom…and so back to Khalid al-Walid, a bloodthirsty but superior commander of the Muslim armies at the time. In his terms of surrender set down to the governor of al-Hirah, a city along the Euphrates River in Iraq, he is sent to call the people to Islam or pay a ‘protection’ tax for the ‘privilege’ of living under Islamic rule though in reality that should be understood as ‘not to be attacked again’ as dhimmis or second-class citizens. Khalid basically said ‘I call you to God and to Islam. If you respond to the call, you are Muslims: You obtain the benefits they enjoy and take up the responsibilities they bear. If you refuse, then you must pay the jizya. If you refuse the jizya, I will bring against you tribes of people who are more eager for death than you are for life. We will fight you until God decides between us and you.’ Thus, according to Khalid, religion is early Islam’s primary motive, though not the only one, in conquering people…Indeed, the reward in God’s book for jihad in God’s path is something for which a Muslim should love to be singled out, by which God saved people from humiliation, and through which he has bestowed nobility in this world and the next. Thus, the caliph repeats the Qur’an’s trade of this life for the next, in an economic bargain and in the context of jihad. This offer of martyrdom, agreeing with the first factor, religious motivation, is enough to get young Muslims to sign up for and to launch their Crusades out of Arabia in the seventh century. Khalid also said that if some do not convert or pay the tax, then they must fight an army that loves death as other people love life. But improvement of life materially must be included in this not-so-holy call. When Khalid perceived that his Muslim Crusaders desired to return to Arabia, he pointed out how luscious the land of the Persians was: ‘Do you not regard your food like a dusty gulch? By God, if struggle for God’s sake and calling people to God were not required of us, and there were no consideration except our livelihood, the wise opinion would have been to strike this countryside until we possess it.’ Khalid was from Mecca. At the time of this ‘motivational’ speech, the Empire of Persia included Iraq, and this is where Khalid was warring. Besides his religious goal of Islamising its inhabitants by warfare, Khalid’s goal was to ‘possess’ the land. Like Pope Urban II in 1095 exhorting the Medieval Crusaders to war against the Muslim ‘infidels’ for the first time, in response to Muslim aggression that had been going on for centuries, Abu Bakr gives his own speech in AD 634, exhorting Muslims to war against the ‘infidels’, though he is not as long-winded as the Pope. Too many Muslims are led to believe that Islam spread militarily by a miracle from Allah. However, these earth-bound reasons explain things more clearly.”

  “So in essence you are saying that Islam did indeed convert people by the force of the sword,” Paul interrupted.

  Rick frowned, paused just for a brief moment and answered.

  “Did the Islamic Crusades force conversions by the sword? Well, I can say that historical facts demonstrate that most of the conquered cities and regions accepted the last of three options that were enforced by the later Muslim Crusaders, as in, one, fight and die, two, convert and pay the zakat tax, or three, keep their Biblical faith and pay the jizya tax. Most pre
ferred to remain in their own religion. However, people eventually converted. After all, Islamic lands are called such for a reason, or many reasons. Why? Islam expanded by conquest and conversion. Although it was sometimes said that the faith of Islam was spread by the sword, the two are not the same. The Qur’an states unequivocally, ‘There is no compulsion in religion’ (Sura 2:256). According to them, the Qur’an says there should be no compulsion, so the historical facts conform to a sacred text. But Sura 2:256 defines compulsion very narrowly. Jihad has been misrepresented as forcing Jews, Christians and other peoples of the Middle East and Africa to convert to Islam ‘on pain of death’. This is too narrow a definition of compulsion, as we shall see. Finally, Qutb, also citing Sura 2:256, is even more categorical: ‘Never in its history did Islam compel a single human being to change his faith’. This is absurd on its face, and it only demonstrates the tendentiousness of Islamic scholarship, which must be challenged at every turn when it claims otherwise. So the historical facts…,” Rick paused for what seemed an age and only started to talk again after Paul gave a slight cough. “Paul… history does not always follow Scripture because people do not. Did the vast majority of conquered peoples make such fine distinctions, even if a general amnesty were granted to People of the Book? Maybe a few diehards did, but the majority? Most people do not know how to read or can barely read, so when they saw a Muslim army outside their gates, why would they not convert, even if they waited? They come up with other reasons to convert besides the sword, such as people’s fatigue with church squabbles, a few doctrinal similarities, simplicity of the conversion process, a desire to enter the ranks of the new ruling elite, and so on. But using the Qur’an to interpret later facts paints the history of Islam into a corner of an unrealistically high standard. This misguided connection between Scripture and later historical facts does not hold together. Revelations or ideals should not run roughshod over later historical facts, as if all followers obey their Scriptures perfectly. To state the obvious, in the Muslim community, the holy war is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the Muslim mission and ‘the obligation to’ convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force. When the Islamic Crusaders go out to conquer, carrying an Islamic banner inscribed in Arabic of the glory and the truth of their prophet, Ibn Khaldun would not deny that the army’s mission, besides the material reasons of conquest, is to convert the inhabitants. Islam is a ‘universalising’ religion, and if its converts enter its fold either by persuasion or force, then that is the nature of Islam. Moreover, dynasties rarely establish themselves firmly in lands of many different tribes and groups. But it can be done after a long time and employing the following tactics. The first Muslim victory over them and the European Christians was of no avail. They continued to rebel and apostatised time after time. The Muslims massacred many of them. After the Muslim religion had been established among them, they went on revolting and seceding, and they adopted dissident religious opinions many times. They remained disobedient and unmanageable…therefore, it has taken the Arabs a long time to establish their dynasty. “I apologise if I am waffling long winded so I shall simply conclude by saying that though European Crusaders may have been sincere, they wandered off from the origins of Christianity when they slashed and burned and forced conversions. Jesus never used violence; neither did he call his disciples to use it. Given this historical fact, it is only natural that the New Testament would never endorse violence to spread the word of the true God. Textual reality matches historical reality in the time of Jesus. In contrast, Muslims who slashed and burned and forced conversions did not wander off from the origins of Islam, but followed it closely. It is a plain and unpleasant historical fact that in the ten years that Muhammad lived in Medina (622–632), he either sent out or went out on seventy-four raids, expeditions, or full-scale wars, which range from small assassination hit squads to the Tabuk Crusade. Sometimes the expeditions did not result in violence, but a Muslim army always lurked in the background. Muhammad could exact a terrible vengeance on an individual or tribe that double-crossed him. These ten years did not know long stretches of peace. It is only natural that the Qur’an would be filled with references to jihad and qital, the latter word meaning only fighting, killing, warring and slaughtering. Textual reality matches historical reality in the time of Muhammad and after. But this means that the Church had to fight back or be swallowed up by an aggressive religion over the centuries. Thus, the Church did not go out and conquer in a mindless, bloodthirsty and irrational way, though the Christian Crusades are far from perfect. Islam was the aggressor in its own Crusades, long before the Europeans responded with their own. Both often did not follow simple justice, but were barbaric and cruel, such as permitting sex with newly captured female prisoners of war.”[2]