Trudy Gold
Crusades and the Jews

Trudy Gold - Crusades and the Jews

- All right, well good evening everyone. And William has already introduced you to the whole subject of the Crusades. And now I’m going to look at how it affected the Jewish community. It’s important to remember that there was a great balance in mediaeval society as to who really was the power. Was it the church or was it the state? The church had control over their own courts. They had a great deal of sway. And this is a battle that’s really going to go on through the whole of mediaeval times. And those of you who are interested in English history, it’s finally solved in the reign of Henry II, in the reign of Henry VIII when of course he proclaims himself head of the church, and breaks away from Rome. But understand that this is one of the big tensions in mediaeval society. Can we see the first slide please, if you don’t mind. Here you see Pope Urban II. He was a Frenchman. He had become Pope, he was from the French nobility. He had become Pope in 1088, and the papacy was going through a great period of change. He had to fight the antipope Clement III, who, it was Clement III who was trying everything he could to stop European monarchs controlling ecclesiastical appointments. Again, who is in control? The church or the state? You know where I live, and I’ve changed locations, I’m now in Finchley, there are areas that are called Templars Court. These were the lands of the Knights Templar. The church controlled in England, a great part of the wealth and the land, as they did in France, as they did throughout the German lands, throughout the Christian world.

And Clement III, who’s known as the antipope, had tried to stop European monarchs controlling the ecclesiastical appointments. Those of you who love literature will know of course the story of Henry II of England and his great tussle with Thomas à Becket. So anyway, he also had to deal with a great deal of infighting from the Christian monarchs. And one of the ways he could take control was to actually get everybody motivated into something that he hoped would pull Christendom together. And this was given a further boost by a plan that was put forward to him. Can we see the second slide please? This is Alexios Komnenos. He was the emperor of Byzantium. Now remember, the Christian world is split into two, the western Christian world, the eastern Christian world, and this is the world of Byzantine. And of course, if you think of mediaeval Europe, we’ve already looked with William at the rise of Islam. And of course with wonderful Norman. Islam was one of the most, it created, one of the largest empires the world has ever known. And Komnenos is attacked on his eastern flank by the Turkish empire. So he gets in touch with his western Christian ally, he hopes. Great rivalry between the two, but hoping that in fact he could unite the Christian world against the Turks. Consequently, this was an opportunity for Pope Urban to call together Christendom to take them on crusade. And can we see the next slide please? This is the Council of Clermont.

What happened was Urban called together the bishops, mainly from the French land, some from the Italian lands, some from the German lands, to also get them involved in certain church practises. It was he who actually set up the Roman Curia, but one of the greatest things was to take back the Holy Land from the Turks. Now this led to a huge zeal in Christendom. Why did Komnenos want it? He wanted it because his empire was collapsing. He was also having to fight Christians in the western Balkans. He’d as early as 1090, he had appealed to the papacy. And what happens is Urban calls for crusade. And can we have a look at some of the quotes please? This is from Fulcher of Chartres. This is a letter that Urban wrote to him. “All who die by the way, by whether by land or sea, or in battle against the pagans shall have immediate remission of sins. This I grant through the power of God with which I’m invested.” Don’t forget that the Pope is seen as really the mouthpiece to the Christian world. It is the mouthpiece of God on Earth. So he’s offering them remission. The Christian view was that when you died, you went to purgatory. Purgatory was a nether region where your sins were weighed up. And if you led a good life or if you did great things in this world, you would ascend to heaven. And if not, obviously the opposite, to hell. Judaism doesn’t have such a developed notion of the world to come. But this was very much the Christian notion, and it was the papacy, it was the church. This gave the popes and the church huge power. And I should mention that Urban was later beatified in 1881 by Pope Leo XIII. Now why would a pope beatify a mediaeval pope? Except that he was the kind of pope who was very conservative and he believed passionately in the power of the papacy. Leo XIII in 1881, he’s fighting liberalism, he’s fighting atheism, he’s fighting socialism.

So he goes back 800 years to a pope who he saw as a great conservative champion. And by beatification, that is the first step to sainthood. The Catholic church can, one of the greatest things it can bestow is sainthood. And if sainthood is bestowed, it meant that immediately you would ascend to the Almighty. So for the believer, this is very, very important. So what is being said here is if you go on a crusade against the Turks, you shall have immediate remission of sin. And that means you can immediately ascend to heaven. And of course the main purpose is to rescue the Holy Land from the Turks who are, the Muslims, of course are seen as infidels. Can we see the next slide, please? Hannah can I have the next one? Yeah? No, the next, I believe there’s one before that. Yes, this is it. Thank you. This is a letter that he wrote to one of the French bishops. “They have seized the holy city of Christ, embellished by his passion and resurrection, and they have sold her churches into abominable slavery.” There’s a lot of propaganda here as to what the evil Turks have done in Jerusalem. Don’t forget that Jerusalem, of course, it’s in the news, it’s always in the news because it is the centre of monotheistic religion. To the Jews it is the site of the temple. It was their centre. To the Christians, it is where Jesus was crucified. And to the Muslims, it is where Muhammad ascended to on his night journey. So for the Christians, and both Christianity, and Islam are proselytising religions, for the Christians, it is an insult that is now in the hands of the Turks, who of course are Muslim.

And what we’re going to see through the next few centuries are many crusades to clean the Holy Land for Christendom from the Turks. And another important motif for you to consider is that really this war between Christianity, and Islam is going to go on for over 1,000 years. That doesn’t mean they’re fighting all the time, but these two proselytising religions, the final great battle, of course is at the gates of Vienna in 1683 when the great Turkish army, is defeated by the forces of the empire. And I love the little digressions here, because of course the court factor to the Austrian emperor was in fact a fascinating Jew, and I’ll talk about him at another time, who lifted the Siege of Vienna, and himself lifted the Siege of Budapest. Unfortunately, his name was Samuel Oppenheimer. Unfortunately, when the emperor came back, and the church was again in control, his mansion was sacked, and he was thrown out of Vienna. That didn’t stop his nephew, Wertheimer, becoming the next court factor. Oh, the story of the Jews. Can we go onto the next slide please? Now I want you to look at this map very, very carefully. What is going to happen is the wayward, the princes, and ordinary folk, and knights, what would induce them to go on those incredible journeys? And you can see in this map there are four crusades. I’m going to be dealing today with the First and the Third What on Earth would make people leave their lands, and go on crusade? Well, there are many, many reasons.

One is the religious reason. You can be remitted of all your sins. But another one was economics. A lot of the people who went on crusades were younger sons, they were knights. They didn’t have much money because the way estates were given were to the second. The first son would inherit the land. The second son generally went into the church. The third son would be landless. So you have a, also, you have a chance of pillage and plunder. And also think about what was considered to be the epitome of manhood at this period. It is the great knight, and it’s fascinating if you compare it with the image of the Jew at this period. Who is considered to be the great person in the Jewish town, or in the Jewish village? It was the learned one, the scholar. Whereas in the Christian world, it was the fighting man, the courtly knight. So important to remember that there are many, many reasons that induced people to go on crusade. And for the poor, it was also an alleviation of their horror stories to go to capture the Holy Land from the evil infidel. So can we see the next slide please? Now, the First Crusade, a very important figure in it, is a man called Peter the Hermit. Peter the Hermit was in fact a French Roman Catholic priest. He’d actually managed to visit Jerusalem, and he had seen The Church of the Holy Sepulchre. And he said that he saw many wicked and forbidden things. And when he was called to go on crusade, he did it with huge Christian zeal. And he managed to recruit peasantry, ordinary folk from England, Lorraine, France, Flanders, and they go on crusade. Now can we go back to the map, if you don’t mind.

Now have a look at the map of the First Crusade. They’re mainly going to set, though some did come from England, the majority are going to set out from France. And unfortunately they go, they are filled with zeal. They also don’t have enough supplies, they don’t have enough money. And tragically it’s going to lead to an appalling situation for the Jewish community. Peter the Hermit is violently anti-Jewish. And so are many of the people going with him, because in this whipping up of zeal, why on Earth go to the Holy Land to murder the heretics when you have the arch heretics, the killers of Christ in your midst? Now ironically, up until this period, in the main, there have been relatively calm relations between Jews and Christians. Jews fulfilled a very important niche in the mediaeval economy. They were the money lenders, they were the merchants. They weren’t allowed to get involved in many different trades, and possessions, and professions because these were always controlled by guilds. But in the main, they rubbed along together. This upswing in church power, this upswing in crusader zeal is going to really signal the beginning of a horrific time. And there are some scholars who actually see the terrible events of 1896 as the crusaders go on the march from France through the Rhineland, almost as a foretaste of what was to come in the 20th century.

And ironically, a lot of work has been done by German scholars. Many of those who were involved in those towns, and villages that were involved in massacres of Jews later on in the 20th century are also going to be at the forefront of horrific stories against the Jews. Can we see the first slide, the next slide please. Go on one more. What happens in Rouen was… Rouen of course in Normandy was a terrible, terrible story. The Jews were walled up in the synagogue, and they were burnt to death. They sent messages, knowing that it was coming, they actually sent messages to the community in the Rhineland. And by the time they reached the Rhineland, not only did they massacre the Jews, and the numbers are quite problematic, because some people put it as low as 3,000, or 4,000, others as high as 10,000. But this is the, can we go onto the next slide please? These are the Jews of the Rhineland. And at the time, this is a chronicler, a Christian chronicler by the way, from Mainz who records what happens. “At the time the Jewish community heard these things, and trembling sees them. They wrote letters, and sent messages to all the communities along the Rhine, and the Danube that they should fast, and seek from him, who dwells on high that they might save them.” So it was an absolute horror story where the mob go on the rampage, it’s not just Peter the Hermit’s group. There are also knights now who are beginning. Count Emicio he led an army of 10,000. There are three groups that converge on the Rhineland and Jews live in many towns along the Rhineland, in Mainz, in Speyer. If you think of all those routes along the Rhineland as they go from town to town, they massacre, they plunder.

The Jews of the Rhineland were relatively well off because they were the money lenders. So they seized their possessions, they murder them, they set fire, and also they seized the food, particularly the group that is headed by Peter the Hermit, the more, the poorer peasants because they’ve run out of provisions. So it’s an appalling time on the road to the Holy Land. And of course when they finally reach Jerusalem, crusaders are actually that they siege the city, and they are exultant that the city is up to their blood, their knees in blood. It’s a terrible, terrible sign. And their battle cry, and the horror story. And in Jerusalem, after the siege, they made the Jews clean up the city. Many Jews were slain, so were the Muslims. It was a horror story. Others were captured, some were held ransom. Raymond of Toulouse, who was a very canny Christian might, he ransomed, he held Jews captive until they could be ransomed by other Jews. Now ironically, the Catholic church was not in the least bit happy about this. And some of the bishops on the way did try to protect the Jews. The church had a view that the Jews should live downgraded lives, but on the other hand, they should live peaceably. Really downgraded lives to show the true faith of Christendom. But what the real aim of Christianity at this stage was, in fact was to do what? Was to convert the Jews.

Now this is from Solomon. Can we go onto the next slide please? This is Solomon Barr Simpson who is writing 40 years after the event. It goes down in history, as I’ve already mentioned, as a very important milestone in the story of Jew hatred. “To go on this journey only after avenging the blood of the crucified ones by shedding Jewish blood, and completely eradicating any trace of those bearing the name Jew.” And of course, this is one of the things that we commemorate on the 9th of Av, these terrible massacres in the Rhineland of the crusading forces. So I want to now take one particular crusade, and I want to talk with you about the Third Crusade, and I’m going to deal specifically with England. So can we see the next slide please? Yeah. There is a huge statue of Richard I outside the parliament. And it’s, those of you who know history will know that in his reign there was one of the most appalling massacres in Jewish history. Now, Richard the Lionheart, let’s go back a little bit into English history. He was the son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. He inherited a vast kingdom from his father, and from his mother. But he, in English history, he’s always seen as a bit of a hero. But in fact, in terms of running the country, he was pretty terrible. What he really wanted to do was to go on crusade. He was one of the, he was a knight.

He was a real… What he believed in was the sort of the manly pursuits of being able to ride a horse, being able to be brilliant in battle, and all those legends of Robin Hood and all the rest of it when you’re actually looking at how he ran the country, because he was very seldom in England. And as a result of that, England kind of descended into anarchy. He left it in charge of his mother, Eleanor. And, but nevertheless, for a king, a mediaeval king to leave the kingdom. And also he had a very avaricious younger brother, John. John will be known to many of you because of course he is the king of Magna Carta fame. So basically, Richard, the Lionheart, had pledged to go on crusade, and he leads the crusade. And the other big branch is going to come from France led by Philip Augustus. They’re going to stop en route where Richard’s sister, who was the queen of Sicily, was being held captive by her nephew. And Richard, he wants to release her, but his main aim is to go on crusade to the Holy Land, where he will come up against the great Knight of Islam, Saladin. And to bring him into history, and I believe that William also mentioned this, Nasser of Egypt called himself the new Saladin. In Iraq if you think of the days of Saddam Hussein, he called himself the new Saladin because Saladin was the great warrior who united Islam, and this is the period. But what happens to the Jews? Now in the reign of Henry II, the Jews have been treated rather favourably. Henry was not a religious man at all. Henry was a very pragmatic ruler.

He was a great, great, he was a great monarch actually. His biggest weakness was he didn’t properly secure the succession, and his sons were always quarrelling amongst themselves. And not only that, although he had married the beautiful extraordinary Eleanor of Aquitaine, they had quarrelled violently, and he imprisoned her for much of his reign. So consequently, he had a terrible warring family. They make any dysfunctional family seem incredibly normal. There are some wonderful books about the particular family. And if you haven’t seen “Becket” or “Lion In Winter,” I know they’re films and they are faction. But if you want to give yourself a wonderful treat in these dark times, watch Peter O'Toole both in “Becket” and “Lion In Winter.” and in “Lion In Winter,” he stars with the wonderful Katharine Hepburn. So that will set you into the atmosphere of the time. So in Henry II’s reign, the Jews had lived pretty prosperous lives. He protected them. They were very useful to him. They were useful to trade. He was also a scholar. And we know that even Ezra came to England in his period, and probably visited the court. He was also interested in Islam. Eleanor came from Provence, and beg your pardon, she had huge lands in Aquitaine, and Aquitaine was the land of the Troubadours, so it was a very, very sophisticated court. The richest man in England in his reign was a man called Aaron of Lincoln. And when he died, they had to set up a new branch of the Exchequer to deal with the debts that were owing to him.

Although Henry confiscated some of them, nevertheless, the debts that were left behind was enough to keep the treasury going for a quarter of a year. So it was a prosperous time for the Jews. The rule in mediaeval Europe was if the king before the crusades, if, and even after the Crusades in England, provided a king was strong, Jews were protected, and Jews were very useful to the state. One of the results of the collapsing of western, and central Europe because of the crusades as far as the Jews are concerned, that many of them are going to move east into the kingdom of Poland. And this really begins around the 1250s. And that’s what’s going to lead to Poland becoming the great centre of Ashkenazi jewry. And of course, Jews are going to be expelled from England in 1290 having outlived their financial usefulness. Now what happened is, having had this very favourable treatment, Richard the Lionheart comes to the throne and he has proclaimed that he is going on crusade. And as a result of that, what happened was a lot of people were in debt to the Jews, the knights, the people who wanted to go on crusade. Plus there was a huge upswing in church fervour, and this leads to terrible, terrible rioting. And, I’m now going to read to you from William of Newburgh. William of Newburgh was a historian of the time, he was a historian. Much of our knowledge of this period comes from him. And I’m going to read it from the original source. And then I’m going to read something by Isaac D'Israeli, Benjamin Disraeli’s father. So let’s start with the massacre at Richard’s coronation.

“Richard, the only king, thus named for a century was hallowed to king at London, and solemnly crowned by Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury on September the 3rd.” This is 1189. “They have come together for the solemn anointing of the Christian prince from all quarters of England. Not alone Christian nobles but likewise the chief of the Jews. For these enemies of truth fearing the good luck they had under the former king might be less favourable to them under the new, brought first fruits, most decorous, and honourable, hope to find favour equal to the multitude of their gifts. But he either because he was less favourable to them than his father or having some premonition, a certain superstitious foreboding about the plans by an edict forbade them entry either into the church where he was being crowned or to the palace where he was banqueting after the coronation. Now it happened that while he was at the repast with all the assembly of the notables, the people watching round the place began rioting. Some Jews mixed among the crowd by this means enter the royal doors, whereas a certain Christian being it is said, struck a Jew with his palm, and so drove him away from the entrance of the door, thus recalling the king’s edict. And many being excited by this example, drove away the Jews with insults and a tumult arising, and disorderly crowd came up, and believing the king had commanded such treatment rushed together upon the crowd of Jews.

At first indeed they struck them with a fist, but afterwards being more savagely enraged, they brought sticks and stones. Then the Jews began to flee, some during their flights being beaten onto death, or some of them being crushed. Now they had come the other with the rest two noble Jews of York, Jocenus and Benedict of which the first escaped, but the other was caught as he fled tardily. In order to escape death, he was compelled to confess Christ. And being led into the church was baptised on the spot. In the meantime, a pleasing rumour spread with incredible rapidity through all London. Namely that the king had ordered the Jews to be exterminated. As soon as a huge mob of disorderly persons both from the city as well as those who the ceremony of the hallowing of the king had attracted ran up, all armed and breathing slaughter. Then the Jewish citizens, of whom a multitude is known to dwell in London…” They dwelt in the part of London, which is now known as Old Jewry. “Together with those who’d flocked together, withdrew into their houses. Their houses were surrounded by the roaring people.” This is a pogrom. “And were starkly besieged from nine till sunset as they could not be broken into owing to their strong build.” Since the interregnum, a century earlier, Jews built their houses of stone. “And because the man had not tools, fire was thrown onto the roof and a terrible fire broke out, which was fateful to the Jews, and offered the aid of light to the Christians at their night work. As the fire kindled against the Jews, it didn’t hurt them, but likewise seized hold of the neighbouring houses of Christians.

So consequently much blood was shed in a brief space, and therefore the butchery, the greedy rage stripping the houses, et cetera. And then Christians turned upon Christians, and this led the king to being a of a great fierce spirit was indignant and grieved that such things should have occurred at his coronation. He was angry.” And what happens? This is how the, in fact, what this is how the Chronicle sums it up. So what you’ve seen was a terrible, terrible pogrom. “God doubtless arranged that these who had stood forth as the ministers of divine vengeance against blaspheming individuals should not suffer human justice on that account.” Let me repeat this, this remember is an English chronicler, “God doubtless arranged that those who had stood forth as the ministers of divine vengeance against blaspheming infidels should not suffer human justice on that account. For the reason of the heavenly example, demanded that those blasphemers, who in the time of the preceding reign had been too stiff-necked, and haughty towards Christians should be humbled at the beginning of its successor.” They’re upset that the Father had treated the Jews well. “The prince guaranteed peace to the Jews by an edict after the slaughter, but as will be narrated, they did not enjoy this long, heaven’s judgement demanding that the pride of this blaspheming people should be chastised most severely.” And that really gives you an, that gives you a kind of image of how the Jew was described in the Chronicles. What has happened, there’s a coronation, there’s an upswing in church power, huge fervour plus people are in debt, so the Jews suffer terribly, and then it doesn’t stop there. Can we see the next slide please? Now I want to go on to the next slide, and go back to Saladin in a minute. There’s the coronation riots. Then can we go on? Yes.

What happens is that it spreads to York, and in York the Jews tried to take shelter in Clifford’s Tower under the protection of the governor because it was not in the king’s interests for the Jews to be murdered. Now what happens is the Jews come together, the mob are baying at the gate. And I’m reading now from Isaac D'Israeli. He’s based it on the Chronicle of William of Newburgh, but of course it’s far more sympathetic. Isaac D'Israeli was an interesting man. His father had come to England from Italy, and of course he is the father of Benjamin Disraeli. And even though he converted his children, he never himself converted. On the contrary, he was one of the founders of the first reformed synagogue in England, and this is how he described it. So they are in Clifford’s Tower and they are surrounded. “When the Jewish council was assembled, the Haham,” remember he’s a Sephardi, “rose and addressed them in this manner. ‘Men of Israel! The God of our ancestors is omniscient, and there is no one who can say, Why does thou this? This day he commands us to die for his law, for that law which we have cherished from the first hour it was given, which we have preserved pure throughout our captivity in all nations, and for which, because of the many consolations it’s given us, and the eternal hope it communicates, can we do less than die? Death is before our eyes, and we have only to choose an honourable and easy one. If we fall into the hands of our enemies, which we know we cannot escape, our death will be ignominious and cruel. It is therefore my advice that we allude these tortures, that we arrange, that we ourselves should be our own executioners, and that we voluntarily surrender our lives to our creator.

God seems to call for us, but let us not be unworthy of that call.’ Having said this, the old man sat down and wept. The assembly was divided in its opinions. Again, the Rabbi rose and spoke these few words in a firm, and decisive tone, ‘My children, since we are not unanimous in our opinion, that those who do not approve of my advice depart from this assembly.’ Some departed, but the greater number attached themselves to their venerable priest. They now employed themselves in consuming their valuables by fire. And every man fearful of trusting to the timid irresolute hand of the women first destroyed his wife and children and then himself. Jocenus and the Rabbi alone remained. Their life was protracted to the last that they might see everything performed according to their orders. Jocenus being the chief Jew, was distinguished by the last mark of human respect in receiving his death from the consecrated hand of the aged rabbi who immediately after performed the melancholy duty on himself.” Now of course, suicide is banned in Judaism. On the other hand, there is another category, Kiddush Hashem. It happened at Masada, it happened at York, where the crowd, they made the decision rather than given to the baying mob, they would sanctify their lives to Hashem, and consequently evade the horror of the mob, and also evade what would happen to them. It would either be murder, most horrible murder, or conversion. So this becomes a kind of, almost a horrifically accepted thing that you can, although you should not take your own life, if you do it to sanctify the name, then you can. And the rabbis pronounced a…

They actually pronounced a herem on York, which was not lifted until 1989 in the life, certainly in my cognizant lifetime when the chief rabbi, and the Archbishop of York had a great ceremony to commemorate the Massacre of York. And the herem was actually lifted after 1,000 years. So it’s an extraordinary, extraordinary, no sorry, my maths is bad, 800 years. So it’s an extraordinary, extraordinary story that, and it goes down again as one of the great horror stories. So having had a relatively quiet time, even though they are living quite a precarious life, you see that’s one of the stories of the Jews in the diaspora, isn’t it? How on Earth do you survive? You survive on your wits, you survive by being useful, and you hone your skills. And when times are terrible, you know where, it’s the restlessness as well. And of course this is really the beginning of the end for the Jews because Richard does come. Richard, again, there’s another story which I’ll come onto, but Richard is ransomed Richard, and he does come back to England. But then you have the reign of John. And if you look at many of the clauses in Magna Carta, they are actually about Jews, and debts to Jews. And under his son Henry III, church power is becoming more, and more extreme, and it leads to the council of Oxford actually saying Jews must wear a special badge. And this is, England was the first country to put that into practise. It’s ironic when you think of the image of England, that these kind of things, actually it’s the first, and England was the first country to have a blood libel. It was the first against the Jews, it was the first country also to institute the wearing of the Jew badge. So in this appalling melee, can we go back to Saladin please if you don’t mind?

Okay, so what happens is that the French under Philip Augustus, who was very, he was a very canny character. What he wants to do is get all those French lands that are now in English control, back. And off they go through storms, through adventures, and a large part of the unfold… What do they want? They want glory, they want treasure. And basically they land in Cyprus, and Richard took over the island, and he arrives in Acre in 1191. And it leads to the Muslims surrendering the city. And of course all the Christian monarchs were quarrelling amongst themselves. There was Richard, let me just give you a notion of how important this crusade was. So you have Richard of England going, Philip of France, Hugh of Burgundy, Frederick the VI of Swabia, the emperor of Austria, the emperor of Bohemia, the king of Thuringia, Prince Geza of Hungary, the prince of Brindisi, and Frederick Barbarossa, the great emperor of the Germans, and so Guy of Lusignan, it was Raymond III of Tripoli. So you have all these characters, all quarrelling for spoils all on the Third Crusade, and they take Acre. Now they’re fighting amongst themselves, and Richard supported… And the point was, now we are going to set up a crusade estate, and we are going to create the kingdom of Jerusalem. Philip abandons the crusade, and there’s an arrangement of exchange of prisoners. And there’s Richard… Saladin agrees to an exchange of prisoners, but Richard actually murders all the prisoners.

Now let’s talk a little bit about Saladin, because Saladin is the great opponent of the Crusaders. His dates were 1137 to 1193. He was actually a Sunni Muslim. He was a Kurd. He was the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria. He takes control of those lands, and it’s terribly important, as I said before, Nasser saw himself as the first, as the reincarnated Saladin. And don’t forget he created the United Arab Republic. Egypt and Syria became one. It’s fascinating how, just as all peoples go back to the time in history when their people were great, Saladin is the great warrior. He was the founder of a great dynasty. And under him he is empire. And it’s important to remember this when we’re talking about the modern day. It’s interesting because one of the reasons Wendy, and I decided that now was the time to look at this kind of course is many of the things that we are talking about still play into what’s happening today. And this is what he controlled. He defeats the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. So under him the empire is huge. He controls the whole of the Hijaz, which is now Saudi, Yemen, South Anatolia, Asian Turkey, Northern Iraq. He was the custodian of the two holy mosques, which had been held by the Sultan of Egypt until the Ottoman conquest of 1517. So as a result of that, his dynasty are going to control. His aim was to unite all the Arabs. And remember, he’s not an Arab, and the Muslims against the Crusaders. He is known as the Eagle of Saladin. It’s the symbol and the coat of arms of Egypt, Iraq, Palestine. And ironically since the Egyptian revolution of 1952, it’s the symbol of Arab nationalism.

So the Eagle of Saladin today is anti-Western, it’s anti-imperialist, and it’s the national symbol of war. And this is, he was not just a great conqueror. And we’re going to see that he’s finally going to defeat the crusaders. There’s a battle and they take Acre, but he’s finally going to defeat them. And this is a quote from a Muslim scholar. “It is equally true that his generosity, his piety, he is devoid of fanaticism, that flower of liberality and courtesy, which has been the model of all our chroniclers, won him no less popularity in Frankish Syria than in all the lands of his Islam.” And he had, one of his doctors was in fact Maimonides. And this, he was a courtly man. And when Richard was wounded, he actually sent his doctor, Maimonides, to treat Richard. And the story goes that Richard, this is apocryphal, the story goes that Richard actually suggested that he come back to England, but Maimonides knew what was the best thing for him. Now, in fact, it’s under Saladin that the… This is the glory of Islam. Now you have all these crusader kings trying to take control, they create the crusader kingdom, there’re constant battles. And in the end, Richard, he comes back to England.

What happens is, on his way back, he is imprisoned in a castle by one of his nobles. One of one of the nobles from the crusades. And he is rescued again, many of the stories of English folklore, Robin Hood, et cetera, et cetera, Richard is their idol. In fact, he was a very lusty, cruel, war-loving knight. That was the story of Richard. He finally is wounded when he goes back to the Holy Land in a skirmish, and he dies of gangrene. So basically it’s known as the King’s Crusade. And what can I say? In the end, the crusader movement is going to fail. Saladin is going to win at the Battle of Hattin.But nevertheless, you’ve got this great notion that the battle between Christianity, and Islam is going to be fought over Jerusalem. And of course, if you are thinking about today, all these ideas come into play because there is a notion in Islam of Dar Al-Islam who can rule in the land that is Islam? What is Dar Al-Islam? And that depends on who you’re talking to. And one of the problems we face is that the upswing in anti-Christian, anti-Jewish fervour really does begin with the 19th century when again, you have the colonisation of this part of the world. So one of the reasons of going back into mediaeval history, there’s two reasons. One is to show you when there’s an upswing in church power what it does to the Jews, and also so that we can get some sort of continuity into this, how central this area is to the three monotheistic religions. So I think I’ll stop there, and let’s have a look at questions.

Q&A and Comments:

And there’s a lot of people wishing us chag sameach.

Q: Wasn’t it Pope Leo XIII, the pope who proclaimed the doctrine of papal infallibility?

A: Yes, he was, and he was also the pope who came up with the notion of the virgin birth because he, and the cult of Mary. He said that Mary herself was conceived without sin.

Q: Did the Jews ever resist the crusaders?

A: Not really.

Q: Yes, when did the Ottomans ascend?

A: The Ottomans take over from the Turks in the, I can’t remember the date, 1453. It’s the Ottomans who take the, they already take, they take Constantinople. I’ll check that for you for next time.

Q: Eva’s saying, “Could you please briefly go over your comments re the Jews going to Poland after they got expelled from England, 1290?”

A: Okay, it’s a very important question, Eva. Look, I’m jumping on a bit, but we won’t be doing much mediaeval history, so I may as well answer the question for you properly. After, so you have Richard, and then John. John’s son, Henry III comes to throne in infancy. He is a very religious man. He makes life almost intolerable for the Jews. And also you begin to see the rise of the Italian bunking houses. Jews are losing their financial usefulness. He was so religious, he actually set up something called the domus conversorum. If a Jew converted to Christianity, a man was given, I think it was eight pennies a week for life, and a woman, one and a half pennies. So to actually convert you could basically live, not well, but live on the state. He also under his reign, it’s the wearing of the Jew badge. There’s a huge upswing of church power at this period. He’s also, his son is Edward I. Now Edward I, known as the Hammer of the Scots, a very warlike king. He tried to make the Jews more useful, but in the end he decided there’s no point. They are the killers of Christ. So they’re thrown out of England in 1290. Now the majority of them would’ve gone to France. And it’s difficult to, you can’t trace original families. But then they’re expelled from France in various different waves to 1306, et cetera.

And gradually they move eastwards, and we know that they move into some of the German lands. But then you’ve got the Black Death in 1348, and more, and more of them move into the kingdom of Poland, where they are actually invited in by various Polish kings. You see, Poland was a vast country, and by marriage contract Poland was united with pagan Lithuania. It made it very large. And then they annexed the Ukraine. It becomes a very important country whose currency by the way was salt. It was a very fertile country. It was the bread basket of Europe, and you had a large noble class, and the peasantry. They needed someone to work the economy. So consequently, Jews are actually invited in. They have various charters, the shtetl are little villages on the estate of nobility. What happens is every Polish nobleman would have a court factor, a Jew, who would administer the estates. And basically the Poles almost did a deal, become a king. Jews lived almost as a kingdom within a kingdom in Poland provided there was no disputes with Poles. They would therefore, of course then have to go to the Polish courts. But they were allowed to run their own affairs.

They were taxed, but as a community, which helps us explain why Jews are so good at charity within their own group. The leaders of the community, the bet din would decide who would give taxes. They would look after the widows, the orphans, and they ran their own affairs. So that’s what would’ve happened. And basically as western Europe became inhospitable, as central Europe became inhospitable, the Hasidic story, “Here shall we rest.” And later on it’s going to become the great centre of religiosity of the western of the Ashkenazi world. Meanwhile, under Islam, and I believe Hilary’s already begun to talk about with that with you in Spain is the golden age. That’s the golden age of the Jews in Sephardi, Spain, which is going to come to an end as the Christians reconquer. And I’ll talk about that, and other colleagues will be talking about that. But what you are dealing with in every one of these diaspora communities is that you live there under the whim of the host society.

Q: And the question as to did the Jews defend themselves against the crusaders?

A: Think of the Saada. One of the issues I’ve discussed with you is who becomes the hero of the Jews. You can even go as far as to say that Jews, they kind of pushed down Messianism because what did Messianism lead to? It led to death and destruction. So concentrate on scholarship, love of God. Concentrate on the development of the mind. That’s one of the reasons when the Jews are finally emancipated, I believe, they absolutely exploded into Western civilization. They fell in love with it. But at this stage they would’ve been pretty sure their culture was superior. Certainly in the Christian world, and in the Muslim world. It was a fascinating symbiosis.

Yes, Audrey. Audrey mentions York is reminiscent of the Saada. Exactly, Kiddush Hashem. Yes, exactly. Had England banned Jews going to Palestine before, and during the Holocaust? Yes. We will be looking at that in an awful lot of detail I promise you. We don’t intend to be out of this particular period of, this particular looking at the Middle East, I think until probably August, September. Dar al-Harb and Dar Al-Islam refers the lands already Islamic, and lands the rest of the world, that still needs to be conquered. Yes, but that is not prevalent amongst all Muslims. And we will be bringing in Muslim scholars to discuss these ideas.

Denise wishes a chag sameach to all.

Q: And can you suggest any books for us to read that you quoted from?

A: I was actually quoting from the Chronicles. We will get, I’ve just moved house. I promise you I will sit down, and I know William’s already done it. And I will construct a reading list for you I promise, after Pesach.

Anna, oh, thank you, as a student at JW3, lovely to see you.

Jonathan says, “The Polish nobility were usually drunk, and needed the Jews to collect the taxes.” Yeah, look, the Polish nobility, they had estates, huge estates, and some of them were also quite cultured. If you think of the Bochnian synagogue, the beautiful Italian synagogue in Krakow that was created by the same architect who created wonderful buildings for the Krakow nobility.

Q: When did the Jews arrive in the British Isles?

A: The most famous date in British history, 1066. There was a community in Rouen under William of Normandy. He conquered England, and he realised how useful the Jews could be, so he invited them in. Now the First Crusade passed English Jews by, and in fact, because of the horrors on the continent, 1096, quite a few actually came over from the continent to England. Under the first three Norman monarchs, they were strong. When a monarch was strong, Jews tended to prosper because the kings took a percentage of all debts Jews collected. The first horror story in England happened when the son of Henry I had died in a boating accident, and a queen came to the throne. Can a woman rule? And there was a civil war. And that’s when you have the first blood libel in England. And that was because the local baron was up to his neck in debt to the Jews. He wanted to go on crusade. So it was Easter, the blood libel, that’s the first recorded blood libel against the Jews. Blood libel is a horrible, horrible accusation. It was used against witches, it was used against pagans. It’s always used against somebody you really hate. And it was applied to the Jews. I mean, anyone who knows anything about the Jews will know that blood, you know, is taboo. Think of how we, you know, blood is taboo, and yet it has stuck and it still exists today. Quite often it’s most popular at the moment in the Arab world. And in the old communist world, there are lots of, in Russia you can, there are lots of pamphlets you can read about the blood libel. There was even an Egyptian television programme in the ‘80s, would you believe? Ah, what can we say?

Oh, Isaac and Rebecca were actually more sympathetic than . You of course are referring to Ivanhoe. Now Ivanhoe is interesting because in the 19th century you begin to see some portrayals of Jews that are actually very benign. Sir Walter Scott’s “Ivanhoe.” “Daniel Deronda,” of course, George Eliot’s wonderful book. So I think, but that’s a completely different kind of story. There are, you see up until 1743 there isn’t a positive image of a Jew anywhere in European literature. Lessing writes the play, “The Jews,” which fails on the Berlin stage, because no one can imagine a Jew as a hero. However, what happens is in the 19th century, Jews are emancipated, and relationships are formed, and consequently there are positive, there are also negative images, but there are positive images of the Jews as well.

And Rhonda says, “Happy Passover to lockdown staff. Keep well.” That’s Rhonda from Toronto. Thank you.

I think that’s everything. So may I also take the opportunity, to wish you all chag sameach, and let’s hope that this year will be a better one, and that when we’re all with our families, we will have peace, and we can think of our brethren in Israel. And let’s just hope things settle down.

What else can we say? Look, we’ve been around for a long, long time, and we’re going to continue. We are the Eternal People. What else can I say to you? Except lots and lots of love, and I think the community that we have on lockdown is a very special thing. So I’ll see you all next week. My colleague, Raymond Levine is lecturing… Another new lecturer for you at seven o'clock. I hope you have the opportunity to listen. So take care and thank you Hannah very, very much.