Islamization policies. These countries include
saUdi arabia, iran, pakistan, and sUdan. Islamist
groups and movements usually place the enforce-
ment of Islamic laws and punishments at the top
of their agendas for radical political and social
change. At the same time, attempts at enforcing
Islamic penalties have provoked protests from
both Muslims and non-Muslims because they are
seen as being either unjustly applied or in viola-
tion of international hUman rights principles.
See also cUstomary laW; islamism; palestine;
reneWal and reForm movements; sharia.
Further reading: Muhammad Abdel Haleem, Adel
Omar Sherif, and Kate Daniels, eds., Criminal Justice in
Islam: Judicial Procedure in the Sharia (London: I.B. Tau-
rus, 2003); Rudolph Peters, “The Islamization of Crimi-
nal Law: A Comparative Analysis.” Die Welt des Islams
34 (1994): 246–253; Joseph Schacht, An Introduction to
Islamic Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1964).
Crusades (1095–1291)
The Crusades were a series of military campaigns
conducted by European Christians in the lands
of Asia Minor (Byzantium), syria, palestine, and
egypt. They were more a product of events in
Europe than of those in the Middle East. The
Catholic Church was undergoing a period of
reform in the 11th century and wanted to exert
more authority over secular government. The
church also wanted to limit the amount of fighting
within Europe. Thus, in 1095, when Pope Urban II
(r. 1088–99) called for what would be the first of
many crusades, he described the crusade as a pil-
grimage (for which the sins of the crusaders would
be forgiven) and a defensive war to take back the
Holy Land, especially JerUsalem. Considering the
fact that the Muslims had been controlling the Holy
Land for 450 years, during which time Christian
pilgrims had unhindered access to the holy sites,
it seems clear that the pope wanted to assert his
authority to forgive sins and wage war rather than
to respond defensively to any Muslim aggression
The First Crusade achieved its goal of captur-
ing Jerusalem from the Muslims in 1099. The
crusaders’ indiscriminate slaughtering of men,
Women, and children, done in the name of God,
has made the Crusades live in infamy for Muslims
and would later become an embarrassment for the
Catholic Church and Christianity in general.
The level of violence decreased after the First
Crusade. The crusaders divided up Palestine and
Syria into city-states ruled by European lords.
With the establishment of the Crusader States, the
need to govern the people peacefully and profit-
ably overshadowed the zeal for holy war. Chris-
tian and Muslim princes made various alliances
with one other, and traders traveled between both
communities.
Nevertheless, the crusaders continued to try
to take more territory, while the Muslims tried to
take back what they had lost. As the crusaders lost
territory to the Muslims, they called for new cru-
sades. During the Third Crusade, the English king
Richard the Lion-Hearted (also known as Richard
I, d. 1199) waged a long campaign against the
Muslim leader saladin (r. 1174–93). The mutual
respect that characterized their rivalry has made
them the subject of legend.
The Crusades produced numerous geopoliti-
cal consequences. In Europe, they strengthened
the church and deflected internal political rival-
ries—for a time. In the Middle East, they encour-
aged political unification and religious renewal,
which ultimately enabled the Muslims to defeat
the crusaders. The Crusades have come to sym-
bolize confrontation between East and West,
Islam and Christianity, and as such continue to
evoke strong feelings and memories, particularly
among Muslims, for whom European colonialism
and the foundation of israel have revived previ-
ously dormant memories of the medieval wars
between Christians and Muslims.
See also assassins; colonialism; christianity
and islam; istanbUl; Jihad.
Heather N. KeaneyCrusades 175 J