211-216 are advanced seminars, mainly for juniors and seniors in the Benjamin Franklin Scholars Program. All other students need permission from the instructor to enroll in these courses.
HIST 211 Crusades and the Meaning of Crusading
Taught as schedule allows (consult the Course Directory)
PRE-1800 | R | SEM | Permit May Be Required: See above
"Crusade" is a word with a variety of powerful meanings in the contemporary world, suggesting to some the noxious roots of European imperialism, to others an unparalleled example of religious commitment. In this seminar, we study the phenomenon known as the crusades from the perspectives of both Christian Europe and the Islamic Mediterranean to see how these events were understood by different cultures both at the time and in later generations. We examine the development of the idea of crusading in Europe, follow the successful progress of the first crusade, and look at the building and dissolution of crusader states in Palestine. We look at how eastern and western Christians, Jews and Muslims lived and failed to live together, and the extent to which their contact led to both cultural synthesis and a new cultural antagonism.
Crusaders wrote accounts of their deeds, and the societies and groups they touched did the same. Our readings will center on medieval chronicles of the crusades and crusader states in English translation from Latin, Old French, Hebrew and Arabic. To these we will add a variety of documentary sources, including church records, letters from those caught by events, and treaties between Crusaders and Muslims. For the long cultural afterlife of the crusades, we turn in the last part of the course to historical novels, essays, and films. By the end of the course, each of you will have researched one aspect of the crusades—either an event as narrated by several sources, or many events told by a single chronicler—in an effort to understand how the Crusades were perceived by medieval people.
Course Syllabus (PDF)
