Has there been a renewed interest in the crusades? First, sociologist Rodney Stark offers a new book on the subject called God’s Battalions: The Case for the Crusades, buzz for which I’ve seen cropping up in various places. He argues, according to the publisher, that “the Crusades had less to do with spreading Christianity than with responding to an ever more dangerous enemy—the emerging Islamic empire.” What I found most interesting from Stark’s interview was this comment:

Until about the start of the 20th century, the Muslims didn’t even remember there had been Crusades… By the way, I’m not making this up, either. Again, there is a consensus among historians of the Crusades that there is no record of Muslim concern with the Crusades until the 20th century.

Now Tom Asbridge, University of London medieval history scholar, spoke today at the UK’s Hay Festival of Literature and Arts in an effort to sever the artificial link between modern Christian-Muslim conflict and the Crusades.

“This [link] is a manipulation of history, not a reality. I believe there is no division linking the medieval past and the conflict of the crusades with the modern world,” he said. “[It’s a] misunderstanding which goes back to the 19th century and western triumphalism in emerging colonialism, and the tendency of western historians to start to glorify the crusades as a proto-colonial enterprise, an [obsession] with Richard the Lionheart and a burgeoning interest in [Muslim leader] Saladin as almost the noble savage.”

The Guardian’s got the rest of the story, but I’ll just give you the concluding remarks:

There has been “distortion and simplification” of the truth about the crusades, and, concluded Asbridge, “both sides [today] need to acknowledge the crusades for what they were … [they] belong in one place and one place alone – and that is the past.”

What I’m gathering is we don’t quite understand the Crusades and yet we’re happy to pontificate and apply them. Stark adds that “It struck me that the historians of the Crusades had not reached the public.” True enough. It’s not hard to have the average person on the street mention the Crusades in a discussion about religion. Unfortunately, the discussion is bound not to be an intelligent one as we basically don’t know what we’re talking about. So, let’s educate ourselves.

photo credit: Spatial Mongrel