Discourse and Practice of Jihad in the Time of First to Third Crusade 1096-1192

Abstract

The Crusades were one of the most well-known warfares between Christians and Muslims in the Medieval period Its original purpose was to fight for total control of the Jerusalem Pope Urban II called the Christians to join the holy war against the Muslims in 1096 and the first Crusade ended with the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 After the fall of Jerusalem the Muslim scholar (Ulam?’) advocated for a Jihad to expel the Franks from their lands and to restore its religious piety In 1144 Zangi recovered the city of Edessa From 1148 to 1174 Zangi’s second son Nur al-Din united the Muslim forces in Greater Syria and deploy troops in Cairo After the death of Nur al-Din Salah al-Din rose from Cairo and conquered the territory of Nur al-Din The greatest achievement of Salah al-Din with the battle against the Crusades was to retake Jerusalem These three leaders were famous for leading the Jihad against the Crusaders with it they gain support from the people Yet they fought the Muslim local forces who were unwilling to subdue more than the Franks For these reasons modern scholars believe that these Muslim leaders were expanding their territory in the title of Jihad therefore it is doubtful whether they are worthy with the name of al-Mujihad (Holy warrior) This thesis aims to discuss the meaning of Jihad and to exam Jihad’s discourse and practice during the age of Crusades Taking those three Muslim leaders as examples to highlight the difference between the scholars' expectation and reality performance

Date of Award	2021
Original language	English
Supervisor	Chang-Kuan Lin (Supervisor)