SHEG First Crusade Documents

Document A: Raymond d’Aguiliers (Modified)

Raymond d'Aguiliers was an eyewitness to the First Crusade. He followed the crusading armies to Jerusalem and wrote a history of his experiences. The passage below is a modified excerpt from his account of the Crusaders’ siege of Jerusalem that he wrote sometime after the First Crusade.

Finally, our men took possession of the walls and towers, and wonderful sights were to be seen. Some of our men (and this was more merciful) cut off the heads of their enemies; others shot them with arrows, so that they fell from the towers. It was necessary to pick one's way over the bodies of men and horses. In the Temple of Solomon, men rode in blood up to their knees and bridle reins. Indeed, it was a just and splendid judgment of God that this place should be filled with the blood of the unbelievers, since it had suffered so long from their blasphemies. Some of the enemy took refuge in the Tower of David, and, petitioning Count Raymond for protection, surrendered the Tower into his hands.

How the pilgrims rejoiced and exulted and sang a new song to the Lord! On this day, the children of the apostles regained the city and fatherland for God and the fathers.

Source: Raymond d'Aguiliers, “The Siege and Capture of Jerusalem,” exact date unknown.

Vocabulary Temple of Solomon: Temple of Solomon was a Jewish temple, first destroyed by the Babylonians and then by the Romans in 70 CE. In the 600s CE, Muslims built the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock on the same site. bridle reins: headgear and rope used to control a horse blasphemies: speech or behavior that is inappropriate towards God

Document B: Ibn al-Athir (Modified) Ibn al-Athir (1160-1233) was an Arab historian who wrote a history of the first three crusades, though he only witnessed the third one. The passage below is a modified excerpt from his account of the siege of Jerusalem during the First Crusade.

Jerusalem was taken from the north on the morning of July 15, 1099. The population was put to the sword by the Franks, who pillaged the area for a week. A band of Muslims barricaded themselves into the Tower of David and fought on for several days. They were granted their lives in return for surrendering. The Franks honored their word, and the group left by night for Ascalon.

In the Al-Aqsa Mosque the Franks slaughtered more than 70,000 people, among them a large number of Imams and Muslim scholars, devout men who had left their homelands to live lives of religious seclusion in the Holy Place. The Franks stripped the Dome of the Rock of more than forty silver candelabra and more than twenty gold ones, and a great deal more booty. Refugees reached Baghdad and told the Caliph’s ministers a story that wrung their hearts and brought tears to their eyes.

They begged for help, weeping so that their hearers wept with them as they described the sufferings of the Muslims in that Holy City: the men killed, the women and children taken prisoner, the homes pillaged. Source: Excerpt from Ibn al-Athir’s “The Complete History,” written in 1231.

Vocabulary Al-Aqsa Mosque: see note on Temple of Solomon above. Franks: Christians Imams: Islamic leader devout: very religious candelabra: large candlesticks Caliph: Islamic ruler pillaged: rob violently

Document C: ?

At the noon hour on Friday, with trumpets sounding, amid great commotion the Franks entered the city. . . Men joyfully rushed into the city to pursue and kill the nefarious enemies, as their comrades were already doing. Many of our enemies fled to the roof of the temple of Solomon, and were shot with arrows, so that they fell to the ground dead. In this temple almost 10,000 were killed. Indeed, if you had been there you would have seen our feet colored to our ankles with the blood of the slain. But what more shall I relate? None of them were left alive; neither women nor children were spared.

Vocabulary nefarious: wicked or criminal