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Muslim
rule in the land had its first major test at the
hand of the Crusaders, described as "one of the
most romantic, chaotic, cruel, passionate, bizarre
and dramatic episodes in history." This was the
11th Century AD and various ill-advised armies of
"Christians" from Europe were led by soldiers and
priests to the Holy Land, under the Pope's instruction.
They came to reclaim "Christian land" from the "infidel
Muslims", even though, as Scripture states most
clearly, it is God's land, with Jews as the rightful
tenants according to the Covenant with Abraham and
that, in His eyes, both Christians and Muslims have
absolutely no right to it. This mob of "pilgrims",
inflamed by disease, hunger and religious fanaticism,
killed all in their path, including other Christians
in the lands to the east, whom they mistook for
infidels.
The First Crusade (1096-1099 AD) was the most successful
and this is how it happened. About 50 years earlier
Turks had invaded the region, converted to Islam
and subdued the reigning Arab power. These new invaders
were even more aggressive to the Christians than
their predecessors, meaning that pilgrimage routes,
long protected by the Byzantines and friendly Arab
rulers, were closed down and Christians could no
longer walk where Jesus had walked. The Byzantine
emperor appealed to the West for help and, in 1095,
Pope Urban II responded, in a speech delivered at
Clermont, in central France. He called for a crusade
to save the Christian East from Islam. The Turks,
Urban reportedly said, "were disemboweling Christians
and dumping the bloody viscera on church altars
and baptismal fonts. Those who joined this Crusade
would have their sins absolved, for God himself
desired that Christianity recover Jerusalem". On
July 15, 1099 AD, after a two-week siege of Jerusalem,
the Crusaders broke thro ugh. The city's Muslim
rulers surrendered without a fight and, in the three
days of celebrations, the conquerors slaughtered
nearly every Muslim in the city and burned down
a synagogue in which Jews had sought refuge. Contemporary
accounts spoke of the blood that flooded the city
to the height of the horses' knees. Having conquered
the land, the Crusader leaders started casting greedy
eyes on possessing the land. Over the next few years
they had secured the coastal cities of Caesarea,
Haifa and Acre. Baldwin was proclaimed the first
king of the "Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem" and his
successors built a series of fortresses from the
Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba and also captured
Ashkelon from the Egyptian Fatimids, who were using
the city's port to conduct raids against the Crusader
kingdom. By the mid-12th century, the Latin Kingdom
of Jerusalem controlled the territories of present-day
Israel, western Jordan and southern Lebanon. In
Jerusalem itself the Dome of the Rock was converted
into a Church, the Templum Domini, making architectural
changes inside and outside. The other Mosque by
the Temple mount, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, was used as
a residence, first for the Crusader kings then the
Templar Knights, a holy order later to become an
elite fighting force. But this rule wasn't to last
long. The sultan Saladin, who unified Egypt and
Syria, attacked the Crusader kingdom from the north
in 1187 AD and defeated the army of the Latin Kingdom
of Jerusalem at the Horns of Hattin, west of the
Sea of Galilee, and took control of Jerusalem and
the whole country. Crusader rule in Jerusalem had
lasted a mere 90 years. This pleased the Crusaders
not at all and they made a comeback in 1189 AD in
the Third Crusade under Richard Lion-Heart but never
managed to extend further than the coastal regions,
a thin strip along the Mediterranean. He signed
a treaty with Saladin which at least granted rights
for pilgrims to visit Jerusalem, which was finally
retaken forty years later through the Sixth Crusade,
resulting in a 15 year rule. This was ended by a
Mongol invasion from Central Asia, who wreaked havoc
in the city, destroying many of the Crusader buildings.
In the late 13th century, a new force arose in Egypt,
the Mamluks, fierce slave warriors who invaded the
Holy Land, evicting the Mongols and regaining Crusader
possessions. The last Crusader outpost, the city
of Acre, fell in 1291, putting an end to the European
presence in the Land. The Mamluks began destroying
every Crusader site that fell into their hands and
managed to sustain a state that lasted for over
300 years, until 1560 AD. They destroyed all of
the fortifications along the coast and much of the
population moved to the mountain regions. The coastal
plain remained desolate for centuries afterwards,
with vegetation growing wild and swampland a dominant
feature. Jerusalem was generally ignored and used
as a place of exile for out of favour officials.
These people started a building programme and the
city began to take on a Muslim appearance though,
at this time, the city was unwalled and vulnerable
to attack. It was just as well that this was one
of the more peaceful periods o f its history. Yet
during these uncertain times, the Jews still maintained
a foothold in the Land, particularly in the Galilee.
The town of Safed became, by the 15th Century the
largest Jewish settlement in the whole country.
In 1517 AD yet another Gentile power came visiting,
this time it was the turn of the Ottoman Turks.
Although the heads of the Jewish community in Safed
were massacred, this didn't lead to a widespread
bloodbath and the occupation was generally a peaceful
one. The first couple of centuries were reasonably
benevolent but, by the 17th Century, corruption
had set in, with rulers often living vast distances
from their regions of control. Local rulers rose
up against the central government and created independent
states for themselves, only to be ousted by the
government. There were many such conflicts, too
many to outline here. The effects of all of this
misrule was that the land fell into ruin, with the
neglect of agriculture. Yet during this time Safed's
reputation grew, with Jews flocking there from Spain
and Portugal. The town in time became a centre for
mysticism, specifically Kabbalism. As for their
predecessors, Jerusalem was of little importance
to the Turks, though the walls were rebuilt and
the Dome of the Rock renovated. |
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The
Ottoman Empire began to crumble in the 19th Century,
with a rise in the influence of European powers.
In the 1840s there was an immigration of the Druzes
from Lebanon in the north, as a result of French
meddling. There was also an immigration of Muslims
from Bulgaria and Sudan into the Golan, to the north.
There was a lot of European influence in the affairs
of Jerusalem, responsible for new religious and
government buildings. Protestant Christians also
began arriving in increasing numbers. The Ottomans
welcomed them all, it was all extra taxes from them,
money was, after all, their chief interest. Also
many other Arab workers were to migrate to the Holy
Land later in the 19th Century. There is a common
thread that ties together all of these influxes
to the land because another group of people were
beginning to return to the land of their forefathers
and, more importantly, the Land of their Covenant
with God. These were the Jews. Although they had
always had a presence in the Lan d over the previous
17 centuries, their main concentration had been
outside the Land, in exile, or diaspora. But there
were now stirrings in the air and it seemed that
the days were now numbered for the Times of the
Gentiles. |
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fully understand what happened next we have to dip
into the Bible, specifically the Old Testament prophets.
In Isaiah 11:11-12 we read "In that day the Lord
will extend his hand yet a second time to recover
the remnant which is left of his people, from Assyria,
from Egypt, from Pathros, from Ethiopia, from Elam,
from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands
of the sea. He will raise an ensign for the nations,
and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather
the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of
the earth." The first regathering had been from
the Babylonian Empire around 2,500 years earlier.
This was the second regathering and God's prophetic
timetable had kicked in after centuries of silence.
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