Re: Snippets [Quick Read!]

Greetings,

Some have asked for parallels between today's war with
Iraq and the Crusades.  This is my response:

We have to be careful to make historical parrallels
that stretch over 8 centuries.  But since you asked
let me make the following observations:

1) Crusades are usually interpreted today as largely a
religious struggle for "the Holy Land."  Some of this
is true in the same way that Born Again Christians,
religious Jewish nationalists and Islamists today
think about Palestine.  But if you look at who funded
and financed the Crusades of 1095, you may see more
startling parallels.  In an effort to "reconquer" some
of the trading routes of the Mediteranean lost to the
Islamic conquest, merchant classes of southern Europe,
especially those of the Italian city-states, wanted to
increase their access to the rich trading lands of the
east.  As such, the Genoese and the Pisans, joined
later by the Venetians, offered themslves to a land
hungry Papacy.  I'll allow you to make the connections
with the present situation.

2) In thinking about Bush's plans for regime change in
Iraq, think about the plans the Crusaders had for
Jerusalem and compare it to Bush's plans for Iraq and
the Middle East:  Upon entering Jerusalem in 1099, the
Crusaders went on a quest to transform the city by
making it conform to their "Western" Christian image
of the world.  They first killed off the political
ruling classes and then proceeded to changing the
interior character of the city, including its sacred
shrines and palaces. It was a blood bath, according to
this contemporary account:

"The streets were littered with heads, hands, feet,
and bits of bodies.  We were slipping on the gory mess
of dead humans and horses.  But these were small
matters compared to what happened at the Temple of
Solomon, a place holy to all religious people.  If I
tell the truth, it will exceed your powers of belief. 
It is enough to say this much at least - in the Temple
and the porch of Solomon, men rode in blood up to
their knees and bridle-reins."

You make the connections at a moment when the US is
showing off its MOAB bombs.

3) In thinking about why the US has been able to
penetrate the Middle East so thoroughly, think about
Arab disunity today and compare it to the times of the
Crusades:  The main reasons the Crusaders were able to
penetrate so deeply into the Islamic ruled world was
because the Islamic Ummah was split into competing
centers, with multiple amirs competing for supremacy
over the region, each creating new political orders.
In the face of this disunity, they were powerless
against the Crusaders.  You make the connection with
today's Arab world.

4) Think about the possible scenario after the war
today by looking at what happened after the Crusades:
Muslims would soon regroup and return to the Holy Land
under the Kurdish general Yusuf ibn Ayyub Salah
al-Din, known in the "West" as Saladin.  He first had
success in retaking a handful of small cities and by
1187 would return Jerusalem back into the orbit of
Islam and its Jewish inhabitants.  Muslims would
retain the city until 1917, when Great Britain would
march through the Jaffa Gate and hand it over to
European Jewish nationalists.  But where is Saladin
today? I just hope it is not Osama bin-Laden.  You
make the connections.

Khaldoun Samman



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