Muslim Rulers were
Benign and Tolerant
It has become commonplace to
allege that prior to the crusades, Muslims and Christians lived
together in harmony in the Holy Land. These assertions ignore the fact that in
the 7th century the Holy Land was conquered for Islam with the sword
– not gently proselytized by peaceful imams. It also ignores the fact that the
Seljuk Turks wrested the Holy Land from the (over time complacent and comparatively
benign) Fatamids also by the sword between 1071 and 1085. Finally, it ignores the fact that the Muslim
Caliph al-Hakim utterly raised the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and many other
churches. It ignores the massacre of some 3000 Christian pilgrims in the decade
between 1185 and 1195. In short, it ignores all the abuses referenced in Pope
Urban II in his call for the First Crusade.
It is no longer politically
correct to believe there was any truth in Urban II’s catalogue of crimes
committed by Muslims against Christians in the Holy Land. Undoubtedly, Pope Urban the Second and the
Byzantine Emperor Alexis I, who approached Urban with a request for Western
help against the Seljuks in the first place, were both seeking to manipulate
emotions. Urban II furthermore had a hidden agenda – namely increasing the
power of the papacy, possibly healing the schism with the Eastern Church, and
getting rid of excess numbers of violent young men, who were disruptive factors
in Western feudal society. Alexis I
wanted mercenaries to keep the aggressive Seljuks at bay.
Nevertheless, it is disingenuous to
assert that all the allegations made by Alexis and Urban respectively were pure
fantasy. The archeological record alone testifies to the destruction of
Christian monuments under Seljuk rule, belying the vaunted “tolerance” of
Muslim rulers. Furthermore, the abuse of Christians was well enough documented
to result in an almost complete halt of pilgrimage traffic and even trade with
Europe during the period following Seljuk seizure of the Holy Land; Christian
pilgrims and merchants had been made to feel unwelcome and unsafe once the Holy
Land was in Seljuk hands.
Even under the more moderate
Fatimids, Christians in the 12th century – no less than in the 21st
century – were second-class citizens, subject to extra taxes and excluded from
positions of power and authority. The
Fatimids, no less than the Seljuks, silenced the church bells, and punished
attempts by Christians to spread their religion with death.
This is not my definition of
“tolerance” – not then any more than now.
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