James Baquet From the earliest recorded history until today, the land of Israel has been a hotspot of war and rebellion. It was reconquered by the Jewish people under Joshua; was ransacked by one empire after another — Assyrian, Babylonian, Greek and Roman; was captured by the Muslims; became a theater of the Crusades; and on up until today. Perhaps no episode in this history is more romantic — and romanticized — than the Crusades, in which European knights tried to take the “Holy Land” back from the Muslim “Infidels.” The First Crusade was declared in 1095 after the Byzantine Emperor, Alexios I Komnenos, requested help against the Turks, and Pope Urban supported him by arranging for armed men to make a “pilgrimage” to Jerusalem. In addition to the soldiers, a mob of poor people joined in, committing acts of anti-Semitism — including massacres — along the way. This motley crew was ambushed and annihilated once they left “Christendom” in 1096. That same year, the professional soldiers began massing at Constantinople (modern Istanbul) and set out under the leadership of various European princes in 1097. Their “army” — including non-combatants — numbered as many as 100,000. After several battles, they reached Jerusalem in June 1099, and by July 15 that year had completed a successful siege. The defenders of the “Holy City,” Jews and Muslims, were massacred, and most of the Crusaders went home. But the remaining soldiers established four “Crusader states,” each named after the type of leader in charge: the County of Edessa, headed by the Count of Edessa, the first of these being Baldwin I; the Principality of Antioch, headed first by Bohemond I, Prince of Antioch; the Kingdom of Jerusalem, whose first king was the same Baldwin I; and the County of Tripoli, with the first Count being Raymond IV. These men (incidentally, all French) and their successors held onto their lands for varying lengths of time: Edessa fell in 1144, Antioch in 1268, Tripoli in 1289, and Jerusalem was the last to go, in 1291. Vocabulary: Which word above means: 1. made to seem more glamorous than it really was 2. mass killings 3. people who don’t fight, “camp followers” 4. place of action, field of operations 5. disorderly crowd of people 6. plundered, pillaged 7. people who don’t believe as you do 8. place where dangerous conditions exist 9. gathering in a large group 10. hatred and/or mistreatment of Jewish people | 