http://www.web.pdx.edu/~ott/hst399/index.html

John S. Ott
Portland State University
Fall 2007

HST 399/SPST: Holy War in the Middle Ages: Christian and Muslim Perspectives
(M,W 2:00-3:50, CH 158)

Office: CH 441-M
Office hours: By appt. only
Phone: 503.725.3013 / E-mail: ottj@pdx.edu

Course overview

This course examines multiple perspectives on the phenomenon of holy war (and its primary medieval manifestations of crusade and jihad), as well as the related subject areas of pilgrimage, mission, travel, and cross-cultural interaction in Europe and the Mediterranean between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries C.E. In addition to reading numerous first-hand accounts of contemporaries’ experiences on the frontiers of Christendom, our primary objective will be to assess, from a variety of intellectual perspectives, how the dominant Christian culture of western Europe perceived and interacted with non-Christian communities along its periphery. Through a combination of lectures and a wide range of secondary critical, we will analyze, among other things: how historians have grappled with defining holy war, crusade, and jihad; the context and dynamics of crusdae and jihad; life in medieval frontier societies, the role of the witness in foreign cultures, the ritual and communal aspects of pilgrimage; and the ways in which Latin, Greek, and Muslim thinkers intellectually accommodated otherness. Our course objectives will be: (1) to gain a reasonably specific contextual knowledge of the historical phenomena treated in class; (2) to develop skills in primary and secondary source criticism and applying theory to primary sources; (3) to hone formal writing and critical thinking skills; (4) to consider the way in which cultural, religious, and political ideologies shape our understanding of historical events.

Course materials

The following materials are required:

S. J. Allen and Emilie Amt, eds., The Crusades: A Reader (Broadview Press, 2003)

T. F. Madden, ed., The Crusades: the essential readings (Blackwell, 2002)

Evaluation

Students will be evaluated according to the following criteria. Guidelines are posted below.

Regular attendance and participation in discussion – 20%. I consider active participation a critical component to every class I teach. Excellent attendance without oral participation will usually be assessed a grade of “C.” Weak attendance with little or no participation will be assessed a grade of “C-” or lower. As part of your participation grade, I reserve the right to conduct pop quizzes on the assigned readings.

Response essay – 20% | Click here for guidelines |

Comparative essay – 30% Due, in class Wednesday, November 14 | Click here for guidelines |

Final exam – 30%. In class Wednesday, 5 December, 12:30-2:20 | Click here for guidelines |

Plagiarism policy

Plagiarism, intentional or unintentional, is an intolerable infraction in any setting where ideas are exchanged and discussed. I routinely uncover plagiarized papers each year. Detecting plagiarism is extremely easy. Papers that can be shown to have been plagiarized will automatically receive an “F” grade. Students will be required to resubmit their papers, and will be deducted in their grade an amount appropriate to the late paper policy given in the assignment guidelines. Repeated or particularly egregious offenses may be the cause for additional action. Remember, ignorance is no excuse. Please note that I consider work you’ve submitted for other classes to be unacceptable and, if discovered, will be handled as plagiarized papers. If you are unsure what constitutes plagiarism, you may test yourself at this web site maintained by Indiana University: http://www.indiana.edu/~istd/plagiarism_test.html.

E-mail policy

E-mail is a superb tool by which students may communicate with the course instructor about questions concerning the course material, content, and assignments. It is especially useful for providing feedback to student ideas and for commenting on student theses or paper topics. But please bear in mind the following:

E-mail is not ideal for urgent matters. I consider 48-72 hours to be a reasonable period in which to respond to inquiries. I am usually much faster than this, but not always.

I will not, in general, respond to student e-mails received after 5:00 p.m. until the following day(s), nor will I generally respond to student e-mail sent after 5:00 on Friday until Monday morning. Please plan accordingly.

Please remember to identify yourself and state your query as clearly as possible.

I will not fill in students who miss class on the details of a particular lecture or discussion. Please seek that information from your fellow students.

Syllabus

*************
I. Christian Holy War: Preconditions, Perspectives, and Experience

Mon., September 24 – Introduction to course content and themes

Lecture: The real and enduring relevance of holy war

Wed., September 26 – Intellectual preconditions for Christian idea of Just War

Readings:

“Augustine of Hippo on the Just War” and “Early Indulgences,” both in The Crusades: A Reader, pp. 7-9, 19-20;

Alexander II, Letters, trans. J. Ott (http://www.web.pdx.edu/~ott/hst399/Alexanderletters/index.html);

Gregory VII, Letters 1.46 and 2.31 (See instructor);

“Gregory VII’s Call for Assistance to the Greeks,” in The Crusades: A Reader, pp. 34-35;

Carl Erdmann, The Origin of the Idea of Crusade (Princeton, 1977), pp. 3-34 (See Instructor)

Lecture: Toward Rationalization of Just War in early Christian thought

Mon., October 1 – The social-cultural background I: Pilgrimage

Readings:

“The Pilgrimage of Etheria,” “Liturgy for Pilgrims and Crusaders,” and “The Travels of Saewulf,” all in The Crusades: A Reader, pp. 3-6, 99-102, 193-96;

Raoul of Saint-Sépulcre, The Life of Lietbertus, Bishop of Cambrai, trans. J. Ott (On-line at: http://www.web.pdx.edu/~ott/hst399/vitalietberti/index.html);

Annalist of Nieder-Altaich: “The Great German Pilgrimage of 1064-65,” (On-line at: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1064pilgrim.html);

Victor and Edith Turner, Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture, ch. 1: “Pilgrimage as a Liminoid Phenomenon” (pp. 1-39) (See instructor)

Lecture: Pilgrimage and its meanings in medieval society

Wed., October 3 – The social-cultural background II: the Peace and Truce of God

Readings:

“The Song of Roland” and “Declaration of the Truce of God” in The Crusades: A Reader, pp. 25-31;

Carl Erdmann, The Origin of the Idea of Crusade, pp. 57-94 (See instructor);

Marcus Bull, “The Roots of Lay Enthusiasm for the First Crusade,” in The Crusades, ed. T. F. Madden, pp. 173-193

Lecture: “Feudal” France and the genesis of the Christian knight

Mon., October 8 – Coalescence: Clermont and Urban II

Readings:

“Urban II’s Call for a Crusade,” in The Crusades: A Reader, pp. 39-47;

H.E.J. Cowdrey, “Pope Urban II’s Preaching of the First Crusade,” and Jonathan Riley-Smith, “Crusading as an Act of Love,” both in The Crusades, ed. T. F. Madden, pp. 15-50

Lecture: Clermont 1095 in context

Wed., October 10 - The experience of crusading: the First Crusade(s), 1095-1131

Readings:

From The Crusades: A Reader, selections #13, 16-21, pp. 47-54, 61-79;

Jonathan Riley-Smith, “Early Crusaders to the East and the Costs of Crusading,” in The Crusades, ed. T. F. Madden, pp. 156-171;

John France, “Patronage and the Appeal of the First Crusade,” in The Crusades, ed. T. F. Madden, pp. 195-207

Lecture: The First Crusade

Mon., October 15 - Crusading and hatred of Jews

Readings:

“Soloman bar Samson on the Massacres of Jews” and “Letter of Bernard of Clairvaux,” in The Crusades: A Reader, pp. 54-56, 134-38;

Robert Chazan, European Jewry and the First Crusade, ch. 7 (pp. 192-222, with glossary of terms on pp. 353-355) (See instructor)

Lecture: The crusades’ place in the growth of antijudaism and antisemitism

SHORT RESPONSE ESSAY DUE, IN CLASS

****************
II. Muslim Holy War: Preconditions, Perspectives, and Experience

Wed., October 17 – Intellectual preconditions for a Muslim conception of Holy War

Readings:

“The Quran,” in The Crusades: A Reader, pp. 10-14;

Quran, Selected verses from Suras 8 and 9 (See instructor);

Abdulaziz A. Sachedina, “The Development of Jihad in Islamic Revelation and History,” in Cross, Crescent, and Sword. The Justification and Limitation of War in Western and Islamic Tradition, ed. J. T. Johnson and John Kelsay (New York: Greenwood Press, 1990), pp. 35-50 (See instructor);

Roy Parviz Mottahedeh and Ridwan al-Sayyid, “The Idea of the Jihad in Islam before the Crusades,” in The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World, ed. A. E. Laiou and R. P. Mottahedeh (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 2001), pp. 23-29 (See instructor)

Mon., October 22 – Cultural and historical preconditions for a Muslim conception of Holy War

Readings:

“Al-Baladhuri on Early Muslim Conquests,” “The Pact of Omar,” and “Ibnu Hayyan on Warfare in Spain,” in The Crusades: A Reader, pp. 14-18, 20-24;

Fred M. Donner, “The Sources of Islamic Conceptions of War,” in Just War and Jihad. Historical and Theoretical Perspectives on War and Peace in Western and Islamic Traditions, ed. J. Kelsay and James Turner Johnson (NY: Greenwood Press, 1991), pp. 31-69 (See instructor);

Khalid Yahya Blankinship, The End of the Jihad State (NY: SUNY Press, 1994), pp. 11-35 (See instructor)

Lecture: Preconditions and early development of the Muslim idea of holy war

Wed., October 24 – Reactions to the First Crusade: the Byzantine World

Readings:

Francesco Gabrieli, trans., Arab Historians of the Crusades, pp. 3-23 (See instructor);

“Anna Comnena’s Alexiad,” in The Crusades: A Reader, pp. 57-61;

Sir Steven Runciman, “Byzantium and the Crusades,” in The Crusades, ed. T. F. Madden, pp. 211-220;

George T. Dennis, “Defenders of the Christian People: Holy War in Byzantium,” in The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World, ed. A. E. Laiou and R. P. Mottahedeh (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 2001), pp. 31-39 (See instructor)

Mon., October 29 – Reactions to the First Crusade: the Muslim World

Readings:

“Ibn al-Qalanisi on Zengi and Nur ad-Din,” and “Ibn al-Athir on the Fall of Edessa,” in The Crusades: A Reader, pp. 127-134;

Nikita Elisséef, “The Reaction of the Syrian Muslims after the Foundation of the First Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem,” in The Crusades, ed. T. F. Madden, pp. 223-232;

Carole Hillenbrand, The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives (Chicago, 1999), ch. 3 (pp. 89-170 – many pages are images and pictures) (See instructor)

Lecture: Aftermath of the first crusade: the meaning of Edessa (1144) for Muslims and Christians

Wed., October 31 – Life in the Crusader States: Experience and Polemic

Readings:

Selections #23-26, 29-32 from The Crusades: A Reader, pp. 83-99, 108-124;

Benjamin Z. Kedar, “The Subjected Muslims of the Frankish Levant,” in The Crusades, ed. T. F. Madden, pp. 235-264;

Wadi Z. Haddad, “The Crusaders through Muslim Eyes,” The Muslim World 58:3-4 (July-October 1983), 234-52 (E-Reserve)

Lecture: The possibilities and limits for cultural exchange in the crusaders states

Mon., November 5 – The Tide Turns: Hattin and the Third Crusade

Readings:

Selections #41-45, 54-56 from The Crusades: A Reader, pp. 159-177, 181-183, 211-217, 221-225;

Francesco Gabrieli, trans., Arab Historians of the Crusades, pp. 87-113 (on Saladin), 146-75 (on the Muslim reconquest of Jerusalem) (See instructor)

Lecture: Richard and Saladin

Wed., November 7 - The Crusades on Film

Movie: Kingdom of Heaven (Ridley Scott, 2005)

Mon., November 12 - NO CLASS - VETERANS' DAY OBSERVED

Wed., November 14 – The devolution of holy war and the decline of crusading

Readings:

Selections #57-58, 61, 85 from The Crusades: A Reader, pp. 225-240; 249-51; 348-352;

Norman Housley, “Crusades Against Christians: Their Origins and Early Development, c. 1000-1216,” in The Crusades, ed. T. F. Madden, pp. 69-97

Lecture: The proliferation of crusades

COMPARATIVE ESSAY DUE, IN CLASS

************
III. Holy War Considered: Approaches to Understanding the Medieval Crusade

Mon., November 19 – New approaches, added perspectives:

Readings:

Christopher J. Tyerman, "Were there any Crusades in the Twelfth Century?" in The Crusades, ed. T. F. Madden, pp. 99-125;

Matthew Bennett, “Virile Latins, Effeminate Greeks and Strong Women: Gender Definitions on Crusade?” in Gendering the Crusades, ed. Susan B. Edgington and Sarah Lambert (Columbia University Press, 2002), 16-30 (See instructor)

Wed., November 21 - Linkage: Crusade and Conversion

Readings:

Selections #89-91 from The Crusades: A Reader, pp. 366-375;

Benjamin Z. Kedar, Crusade and Mission. European Approaches toward the Muslims, chaps. 3, 5 (pp. 97-135, 159-203) (See instructor)

Mon., November 26 - The beginnings of European colonization and the creation of Europe

Readings:

“Narratives of Exploration,” in The Crusades: A Reader, pp. 418-422;

Robert Bartlett, The Making of Medieval Europe, pp. 221-242 (See instructor);

Wed., November 28 - The impact of the crusades on Europe and the Muslim World

Readings:

Carole Hillenbrand, The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives, pp. 589-616 (CP/OR);

William Urban, “Rethinking the Crusades,” AHA Perspectives (October 1998) (On-line at: http://www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/1998/9810/9810TEC.CFM);

Jonathan Riley-Smith, "Islam and the Crusades in History and Imagination, 8 November 1898 - 11 September 2001," Crusades 2 (2003) (E-Reserve)

***FINAL EXAM WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 12:30-2:20***