Invasion or counter-war?
At the end of the eleventh century Frankish armies reached the Levant under the banner of recovering the holy places, while its people saw a brutal assault on their homes. The decision in naming and framing: a pure invasion, or a religious war each side read from its own seat?
The positions
Ibn al-Athir and the Levantine chroniclers
an invasion that came unbidden and reaped homes and people
The evidence
he wrote of Edessa, Antioch and Jerusalem falling as successive calamities
Sources: exhibit/pathway-g11-chw3m-crusades-muslim-sideplace/jerusalem
the Frankish chroniclers
a holy journey to return the Sepulchre to the faithful
The evidence
they described the march as answering the Pope's call and aiding the East
You decide
Under which name would you have written this event as a neutral historian? Write your reason.
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