The Crusades Controversy: Setting the Record Straight

This is a very brief book that is all the more effective for its brevity.

Professor Madden addresses the current myth that we are now paying the consequences for the Crusades because of the long Muslim memory of the 12th century.

Professor Madden explains why this is nonsense. The Crusades were not as important to the Muslim world as they were to the Christian world. The Crusader states were eventually conquered by Muslims and forgotten. They were “remembered” in the 20th century as Muslims in the Middle East were exposed to French and British curriculum that taught them, perhaps for the first time, about the Crusades. Since then, Muslim extremists have waved the bloody shirt of the Crusades to guilt the West and rally Muslims.

Professor Madden also offers the useful reminder of the actual historical context of the Crusades in a format the is punchy and useful:

“For a thousand years after the death of the prophet Mohammed, Muslim armies had managed to conquer fully three quarters of the old Christian world, despite the efforts of generations of crusaders to halt or turn back the advance. An impartial observer at the time might well have concluded that Christendom was a doomed remnant of the ancient Roman Empire, destined to be supplanted by the more youthful and energetic religion and culture of Islam. Yet that observer would have been wrong. Within Europe new ideas were brewing that would have dramatic and unprecedented repercussions, not just in the Mediterranean, but across the entire world. Born out of a unique blend of faith, reason, individualism, and entrepreneurialism, those ideas produced a rapid increase in scientific experimentation with immediately practical applications. By the seventeenth century European wealth and power was growing exponentially. Europeans were entering a new and unprecedented age.”

This is a very short survey of the subject. It is useful as a quick resource for internet debates. It would also be useful as something to give someone who wants a quick, accurate survey of the issue.