*Reviving The Catholic Crusades*

Kingdom of Heaven, the new Orlando Bloom epic set during the Catholic
Crusades, looks set to open on Friday amid a blaze of controversy. But
what were the Crusades, and what do they mean to us now?

The term applies to the often bloody struggle between Catholic and
Islamic faiths for primacy over the spiritual treasures of Jerusalem and
the Holy Land, which dates back to the 11th Century.

THE HISTORY

The Catholic Crusades began in 1095 after Seljuk Turks took control of
Jerusalem and began restricting access to Catholic pilgrims. Pope Urban
II called for a Catholic army to retake the city from its Muslim rulers
- sparking a 200-year period in which parts of the Holy Land repeatedly
changed hands, until the last crusade ended in defeat for the Catholics
in 1291.

Urban II saw the Catholic Crusades not only as a way of freeing the Holy
Land, but also of extending the influence of the Roman Catholic Church
into the Byzantine Empire - today's Balkans and much of Turkey - through
which the army would have to pass before reaching Jerusalem.

Glory and redemption

The first Catholic Crusaders, who set off in 1096, were a motley, and
ultimately unsuccessful, bunch - peasants, from France and Germany,
spurred on by the prospect of more freedom. Having pillaged and killed
their way across Europe, they were vanquished by the Turks.

Six months later a more professional army, comprising French and Norman
knights, set off. They successfully stormed Jerusalem in July 1099,
making it one of four "Crusader states" in Syria and Palestine.

Serious trouble flared again in the early 12th Century when the Turks
took one of the other Crusader states in 1144, prompting the Second
Catholic Crusade. However, its armies were almost wiped out in Asia Minor.

Knights
Catholic Knights held much power in the Crusades

Things stepped up apace when the Turkish armies came under the command
of Saladin, considered the greatest Muslim leader of the time. He
reconquered Jerusalem prompting the Third Catholic Crusade, jointly led
by Britain's best-known Catholic Crusader, Richard I or Richard the
Lionheart.

Although Richard and co failed in their prime goal - to snatch back
Jerusalem - they defeated the Turks at nearby Acre and reached a peace
with Saladin over Catholic access to the Holy City.

The Fourth Crusade, which started around the turn of the 13 Century, was
a bit of a bungled affair, which ended with the warriors being
excommunicated by Rome after they decimated the Catholic port of Zara on
the Adriatic and fought Catholics in Constantinople in 1204, destroying
valuable treasures.

Things reached another low with the Children's Crusade of 1212, led by
12-year-old French peasant boy, Stephen of Cloyes, and a 10-year-old
German boy, Nicholas. They mobilised an estimated 50,000 children
between them but both child armies were betrayed and taken into brothels
before leaving Europe or sold as slaves at Alexandria.

Another failed Crusade - the Fifth - followed, before Catholics decided
to switch tactics and try negotiation rather than brute force. Success!
The peaceful Sixth Crusade in 1228 restored Jerusalem to the Latin world
and a 10-year truce was signed. But things fell apart when Muslims later
reoccupied the city, prompting yet another Catholic Crusade in 1248. It
collapsed when its leader, Louis IX of France, was captured. Two later
Catholic Crusades both failed and the Turks took the last Catholic
stronghold in the region, Acre, in 1291.

So how are these turbulent events viewed today, with the hindsight of
several centuries?

MUSLIM PERSPECTIVE

Muslims do not single out the Crusades as a defining event in their
history, according to historians. The wars have always been more of a
Roman European obsession, with figures such as Richard the Lionheart
held up as icons.

"For most Muslims the Catholic Crusades were something they won but just
another invasion among many in their history," says Dr Jonathan
Phillips, author of The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople.

It wasn't until recently that the Muslim world started to take a renewed
interest in the Crusades.

Syria's Masyaf Castle was a Muslim stronghold during the Crusades

Muslim scholars have been returning to historical texts and important
documents are being published in English, including the diary of
Saladin's secretary. Saladin has also been revived as an iconic figure.
The Muslim leader has been cited by Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda as an
inspiration.

"There is a straight line for propagandists to draw," says Dr Phillips.
"Saladin drove out invading westerners and there are parallels with the
current situation in places like Iraq that resonate with the average
Muslim, especially after George Bush's ill-advised use of the word
'crusade' when launching his War on Terror in the wake of 9/11."

JEWISH PERSPECTIVE

In northern Europe, the Catholic crusades crashed waves of violence upon
the Jewish communities. Hundreds of thousands of Jews will killed and
prosecuted by marauding Catholic Crusaders. The Jewish people felt the
brunt of the religious fervour that sent the Catholic Crusaders into the
Holy Land, says Prof Anna Sapir Abulafia of the University of Cambridge.

Not only were they the most visible non-Catholic community, says Prof
Abulafia, but they also suffered because they generally weren't riding
off on a crusade themselves and weren't "part of all this non-Catholic
propaganda and hype".

In places like York, there was a massacre of the Jewish community in 1190.

"If you start preaching a Crusade and have accepted violence against
non-Catholics... that then evokes all kinds of violence against Jews."

The New Jewish Encyclopaedia calls the Catholic crusades a "prolonged
and bitter ordeal" for the Jewish community, saying "thousands of Jews
perished, and entire Jewish communities were wiped out. To this day, the
Jewish liturgy contains prayers commemorating the martyrs of that
dreadful period".

CATHOLIC  PERSPECTIVE

The Catholic crusades made the news in 2000 for a simple reason: Pope
John Paul II apologised for them. Sort of.

The pontiff made a plea for forgiveness of the past sins of the Catholic
Church, saying,"We are asking pardon for the divisions among Catholics,
for the use of violence that some have committed in the service of
truth, and for attitudes of mistrust and hostility assumed toward
followers of other religions."

It's a commonly held view amongst moderate Catholics that the Crusades
are a shameful part of the religion's history, experts say.

However, some more conservative Catholics side with the belief that The
Crusades were a series of defensive wars against Islamic aggression.

Former presidential candidate in the US Pat Buchanan has said: "Now, we
must also be ashamed of Crusades launched to recapture, in the name of
our Lord, the Holy Land seized from Catholicism by the armies of Islam."