DrZoidberg
Contributor
Really? The first crusade utterly wrecked the economy of the Byzantine empire, the buffer against Islam. They never really recovered. The crusader states were inherently unstable. But what's interesting is the Muslim reaction to the crusader states, ie none. Saladin conquered the crusader states while on the way to somewhere else. The crusader states didn't even act to unite the Muslims against them. They hardly gave a shit. Saladin acted on his own.
The Ottoman Caliphate was cosmopolitan. They had no interest in converting anybody to Islam. Until quite late they even forbade conversion.
The Islamic world only started getting upset about the Crusades in the modern anti-colonial rhetoric. Then they backdated the grand narrative of the Islamic conquest and the importance of Saladin.
What protected the west from the rule under the Caliphate was Vienna in 1520'ies. It was about military technology. Not religion
I think you're repeating a modern myth that was never true.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAn_I64mloU
Regards
DL
Wow... what a loonie.
Perhaps you should google people before you post their videos?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Warner_(writer)
Sure, he's not as crazy as Spencer. It's a sliding scale. This guy is way out there.
He fails to understand the economic differences. Medieval Europe was a poor backwater. Money was equated with agrarian output. Due to Byzantine and Sassanid idiocy they pretty much gave away all the most fertile land to a bunch of Beduin camel herders. Within a century the Muslims sit on the biggest engine of war = the most money.
No, shit the crusaders attacked the Muslims less than the Muslims attacked them. How would they have afforded it? The Levant is not a particularly fertile region.
The Muslim conquest was about money and power. The crusades was primarily about religion (and getting rid of a surplus of poor knights on suicide missions). If you start wars to get money and power you will get more money and power, so you can start new wars. If you start wars for religious reasons you don't get money and power and you can't start more wars.
Bill Warner is a clown. He comes across as a Christian apologist. Christianity and Islam were born out of different situations. Christianity is a religion for slaves designed to make life under an oppressive emperor more bearable. Islam is a religion designed to knit together disparate Beduin tribes. This has had an influence on their history and sacred texts.
But in practice, they are very similar. What sets them apart is the contexts they found themselves in, rather than any deeper philosophical or theological difference. Historically Christianity has been about just as much politics as Islam.