Historiography as a Means of Creating Enemy: The Perception of the Holy City and Jerusalem in Crusader Sources
Ayşe ÇekiçThe most important reason dominating the Crusades is the desire to save the city of “Holy Jerusalem” from the hands of the Muslims, who are considered pagan. This desire laid the groundwork for the perception of “Jerusalem is ours, we must save it”, as well as the idea of taking the Crusaders to Jerusalem on behalf of pilgrimage. When the historiography, which was created due to the intentional attempt to create an enemy of this approach, was processed through Jerusalem, it served both to save Jerusalem and to internalize the perception of Jerusalem in the imagination of the Crusaders.The article focuses on how and in what way the idea of the sanctity of Jerusalem was handled in the Crusader chronicles. While the purpose of this idea in creating the “other”, that is, the enemy Muslim, is put forward from the sources of the Crusaders, the benefits of using it as a historical material are mentioned. In the sanctification of Jerusalem, the instrumentality of historiography during the Crusades was evaluated in this way. In the article, causality and instrumentality methods are used together. In this context, it has been tried to make it clear why the perception of Jerusalem was processed in the Crusader sources and how it served as an instrumental to historiography.
Düşman Yaratma Aracı Olarak Tarih Yazımı: Haçlı Kaynaklarında Kutsal Şehir Algısı ve Kudüs
Ayşe ÇekiçHaçlı Seferlerini domine eden en önemli sebep “Kutsal Kudüs” şehrinin putperest addedilen Müslümanların elinden kurtarılma arzusudur. Bu arzu Haçlıları Kudüs’e hac vazifesi adına götürme düşüncesinin yanında “Kudüs bizimdir kurtarmalıyız” algısının oluşmasına da zemin hazırlamıştır. Bu yaklaşımın kasıtlı bir düşman yaratma girişimi olmasından kaynaklı oluşturulan tarih yazımı, Kudüs üzerinden işlendiğinde ise hem Kudüs’ü kurtarmaya hem de Kudüs algısının Haçlı muhayyilesinde içselleştirilmesine hizmet etmiştir. Makalede, Haçlı kroniklerinde Kudüs’ün kutsallığı düşüncesinin nasıl ve ne şekilde işlendiği üzerinde durulmuştur. Bu düşüncenin “öteki” yani düşman Müslüman yaratmadaki gayesi Haçlı kaynaklarından hareketle ortaya konulmakla birlikte, bunun tarihi bir malzeme olarak kullanımının faydalarına değinilmiştir. Kudüs’ün kutsallaştırılmasında Haçlı Seferleri esnasında tarih yazımının araçsallığı da bu minvalde değerlendirilmiştir. Makalede nedensellik ve araçsallık yöntemleri birlikte kullanılmıştır. Bu çerçevede neden Haçlı kaynaklarında Kudüs algısının işlendiği ve tarih yazımına araçsal bir vaziyette nasıl hizmet ettiği aşikâr kılınmaya çalışılmıştır.
Besides being a de facto expedition, the Crusades also involved an intellectual process. The expeditions had started with the call of Pope Urban II in 1096 and continued until the end of the 13th century. Although the Crusades are known to have been an extension of the problems experienced in Europe, these expeditions should be emphasized to have also had an intellectual infrastructure. After the Great Schism in 1054, the Catholic Christian world strengthened its hand against the Eastern Orthodox world with the Crusades. Although the Crusades started with the reasoning that Catholics were helping their Christian co-religionists in the East, it also covered a process that dominated the Orthodox world. The reasons for the catalytic driving force of the Crusades were religious. The city of Jerusalem, where Jesus had been born and preached Christianity, was depicted as the city of God that had to be saved during the Crusades. Jerusalem is identified with Jesus, and the fact that Jerusalem was in the hands of Muslims had been explained through the fact that Jesus lived a life of captivity and was subjected to persecution. Here, underlining Muslims as pagan, heretical, and godless oppressors provided a justification for the liberation of Jerusalem. According to the Crusader point of view, once Jerusalem was liberated from the hands of the sinful and cruel Muslims, the will of Jesus and God would be fulfilled. In this way, taking Jerusalem away from the Muslims would please God in a way. The portrayal of Muslims as enemies with regard to being the ones from whom Jerusalem was to be taken constituted a justification for the taking of Jerusalem. Thus, the identity of the enemy was formed through Jerusalem. In the Cronicles of the Crusades, it is also emphasized that Jerusalem was exposed to the mockery of the Muslims and defiled. This is the point on which Crusader historiography is particularly focused. From this point of view, after Jerusalem was taken from the Muslims who’d been described as enemies, this hostility was continued through historiography and transformed into a mentality that would serve to create enemies in the long run. In a way, the Chronicles of the Crusades instrumentalized historiography by writing down the enemies of Jerusalem. On this occasion, the Muslims were also portrayed as their intense enemy during the Crusade. This paper focuses on the place of Jerusalem in Crusader thought and from whom Jerusalem should be saved. In the historiography of the Crusades, the depiction of Muslims in the form of aggressors who’d polluted Jerusalem and hurt the holy ones manifested itself to the instrumental benefit of the Crusader historiography as needed.
