whet If the Crusades Had Never Happened?After this, virtually all Nestorians lived as dhimmis under Muslim rule.And
likethe Zoroastrians, their community dwindled down to a tiny remnant
under the relentless weight of this institutionalized injustice.
If the Christians in Europe had been subjected to the same fate, it is
disti nctly possi ble that the world might never have known the works of
Dante Alighi eri, or Michel angel o, or Leonar do da Vinci , or Mozar t, or
Bac h. it is li kel ytha t the re wou ld nev er hav e bee n an El Gre co, or a
Giotto, or an Olivier Messaien. A community that must expend all its
energy just to survive does not easily pursue art and music.
The Crusades mayhavemade the full flowering of European civilization
possible.