- 7 weeks ago
🌍 *The Dark History of the Crusades - A Chilling Chapter in History* 🌍
Welcome to Moments In Time! In this captivating episode, we take you on a journey back to the 11th Century, where the vibrant city of Acre, located in present-day Northern Israel, served as a bustling hub under Muslim rule. This pivotal port city was not just a centre of trade but also a melting pot of cultures, setting the stage for one of history's most significant series of conflicts: the Crusades.
⚔️ *The Crusades (1096-1291)* were marked by fierce battles and shifting allegiances as Christian and Muslim forces clashed over the sacred territory of the Holy Land. In this episode, we will explore the motivations behind these epic confrontations, the key figures involved, and the profound impact these events had on the region and the world.
📜 *What You Will Learn:*
The historical context of Acre and its importance during the Crusades.
The major battles and turning points that defined the conflict.
The cultural exchanges and interactions between Christian and Muslim societies.
The long-lasting legacy of the Crusades, including the cycles of violence and intolerance that resonate in contemporary times.
Insights from archaeological findings that illuminate this complex era and provide a deeper understanding of the events that unfolded.
🔍 *Join us* as we uncover the stories behind the bloodshed and the archaeological evidence that reveals the truth about this dark chapter in history. Whether you're a history buff or just curious about the past, this episode promises to be an eye-opening experience that sheds light on the intricate tapestry of human conflict and cooperation.
🔔 *If you enjoy exploring historical mysteries and uncovering the untold stories of the past, make sure to hit the "follow" button on our channel.
Welcome to Moments In Time! In this captivating episode, we take you on a journey back to the 11th Century, where the vibrant city of Acre, located in present-day Northern Israel, served as a bustling hub under Muslim rule. This pivotal port city was not just a centre of trade but also a melting pot of cultures, setting the stage for one of history's most significant series of conflicts: the Crusades.
⚔️ *The Crusades (1096-1291)* were marked by fierce battles and shifting allegiances as Christian and Muslim forces clashed over the sacred territory of the Holy Land. In this episode, we will explore the motivations behind these epic confrontations, the key figures involved, and the profound impact these events had on the region and the world.
📜 *What You Will Learn:*
The historical context of Acre and its importance during the Crusades.
The major battles and turning points that defined the conflict.
The cultural exchanges and interactions between Christian and Muslim societies.
The long-lasting legacy of the Crusades, including the cycles of violence and intolerance that resonate in contemporary times.
Insights from archaeological findings that illuminate this complex era and provide a deeper understanding of the events that unfolded.
🔍 *Join us* as we uncover the stories behind the bloodshed and the archaeological evidence that reveals the truth about this dark chapter in history. Whether you're a history buff or just curious about the past, this episode promises to be an eye-opening experience that sheds light on the intricate tapestry of human conflict and cooperation.
🔔 *If you enjoy exploring historical mysteries and uncovering the untold stories of the past, make sure to hit the "follow" button on our channel.
Category
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TVTranscript
00:00May 18th, 1291. The endgame of a conflict that has raged for 200 years.
00:11A massive assault trips away at the walls of a stronghold and the psyches of its defenders.
00:19At a fortress in the Middle East, desperate holdouts endure the final attack of a medieval war of the world.
00:25So the idea of the Crusades, the symbolism of the Crusades became the clash of civilizations.
00:40At a place called Acre, a dream of holy conquest is shattered forever.
00:45700 years later, archaeologists pick up the pieces of a moment in time that changed the world.
01:01Here we can really feel the last day of St. John's Church.
01:07We find some remains of the stained glass that fell down and crashed into the floor.
01:13The fall of Acre in 1291 was a key event because it marked the end, effectively the end of the story of the Crusades in the Holy Land.
01:29At last, from beneath the Holy Land, new evidence reveals how warriors on both sides of the Crusades really lived, fought and died.
01:39For over two centuries, Christian and Muslim armies are locked in a deadly embrace.
02:00From 1096 to 1291 A.D., the lands of today's Mideast change hands in a series of eight Crusades.
02:11Before the sides part, tens of thousands die in a glut of battles and massacres.
02:17In the late 11th century, Muslim sultans rule most of North Africa, Spain and the eastern shores of the Mediterranean.
02:30The Christian world is split in two.
02:32In Europe, a collection of small states and kingdoms.
02:37To the east, the Byzantine Empire is controlled from its capital in Constantinople.
02:42The Crusades give us a model, they give us a template of the clash of religions and the clash of civilizations and the clash of continents.
02:54In the Mideast, Acre is a lively Muslim city in what is today the north coast of Israel.
02:59There's no denying that it was a major port and a major commercial center.
03:06Both commercial and military, those are the two points. You can't just look at it in a military sense.
03:12Acre is also the gateway to the Western world's most sacred piece of real estate.
03:16It is called the Holy Land. Its holy core, Jerusalem, a city sacred to Muslims, Christians and Jews.
03:30For some, the dark history of the Crusades evokes the violence that plagues the Mideast today.
03:36Many Muslims, particularly in the Middle East, see the creation and the manner of the creation of Israel as an extension of the Crusades themselves.
03:47That is the arrival and the presence of Westerners.
03:53A thousand years ago, a war between two worlds transformed this center of faith into an unholy battlefield.
04:00Today, archaeologists probe the moment in time where a cycle of intolerance and violence began.
04:06Some explore elements crucial to moving great armies across continents.
04:11The horses are the most important logistic animal of the Middle Ages.
04:19But we don't know anything about the Crusade horse, about heights, about breeds, about species, about anything.
04:25I'd say it was about, I'd say it was about three pounds there.
04:30In England, the role of military technology is evaluated through innovative research.
04:37The idea that the Western Europeans came in with some kind of superior military technology,
04:43and that's why the First Crusade was able to win, I think is complete baloney.
04:48And how much baloney have we been fed on the leaders of the Crusades?
04:51Historians piece together the personality clash between Richard the Lionheart and the Muslim hero, Saladin.
05:01Saladin is a magnificent figure because of the generosity of his character and the generosity of his spirit.
05:09Richard arrives as a brawling, drunken football hooligan.
05:13And by the end of his tour to the Middle East, he's a changed man.
05:17What forces drove these men?
05:21What motives sparked and fueled two centuries of war?
05:25Flashback to the year 1095.
05:30The Christian world hits rough times.
05:33Islamic armies overrun the eastern end of the Byzantine Empire.
05:36Meanwhile, in Europe, power struggles between rival knights wreak havoc on the region.
05:43Filling the power vacuum is the church, now more centralized than politically influential.
05:48Its leader, Pope Urban II, seizes a moment in time that rocks the world.
05:54Here was this Pope Urban II who looked across Europe and saw all this bloodshed going on between these knights.
06:02And they had all this warrior energy and they were just fighting one another all the time.
06:06And in a kind of inspiration, he declared that he should harness all of this energy towards a noble quest.
06:13Pope Urban declares the Holy Land is occupied by worshippers of the devil.
06:30He orders his flock to liberate Jerusalem from the Muslims.
06:33August 1096. The first crusaders prepare to hit the road.
06:42The first crusade is kind of a hodgepodge.
06:45It's not a fancy military enterprise.
06:50A lot of people and a lot of common people become involved.
06:54It's a great popular movement.
06:55From across Europe, tens of thousands join the quest, including hordes of peasants, all a bit fuzzy on the mission at hand.
07:04Those who set off had a rather hazy notion, most of them, of what they were doing.
07:13The crusaders did cause havoc. How were they to live? How were they to sustain themselves?
07:18It was almost like Sherman's march through the south.
07:21I mean, they had to live off the land.
07:23So they were not welcomed as they moved along.
07:27As they head east, the peasant mob spins out of control.
07:32Along the Rhineland, thousands of Jews are massacred.
07:36And 4,000 Hungarians are murdered in one town alone.
07:40Before they leave Eastern Europe, most of the peasants die of disease or turn back.
07:50When news of the Christian hordes breaks in Jerusalem, the Muslims are underwhelmed.
07:56The great majority of people in the Islamic world, they simply regarded the Western Europeans as another ignorant thugs.
08:04Useless for anything, really.
08:06So much so that they had virtually no interest in them.
08:08Christian military forces depart Europe in 1096.
08:13After a three-year march, they push into the Holy Land.
08:19May 1099.
08:21The first elements of the Crusader armies reach the gates of Jerusalem.
08:30Inside the city walls, the Muslim defenders consider their options.
08:34The Muslims are inside preparing for war.
08:39They're looking out, they're seeing all of these foreign troops are coming in to conquer the city.
08:43So what do they do?
08:45They boil oil, they sharpen their spears, they count their weapons.
08:48But in this war of the worlds, which side has the edge?
09:01At a castle in the English countryside, historian David Nicole intends to find out.
09:06The nitty-gritty of everyday life is, to me, absolutely fascinating and I would love to have been there.
09:15I was virtually brought up surrounded by arms and armor and books about arms and armor because my father had had an interest in this since his childhood.
09:22A specialist in medieval arms and armor, Dr. Nicole has written a series of books on the hardware and training of Christian and Muslim armies.
09:31Using reconstructed arms, Nicole and his team attempt to confirm accounts of Muslim fighting styles.
09:45Weapons expert Stephen Raifs suits up in traditional garb to keep the simulations as accurate as possible.
09:51There are certain military exercises which we know of from the Islamic world.
09:57The most famous is training a man to charge with his sword, cutting at a sequence of reeds, reducing the target until he's got down almost to ground level.
10:11Now, that takes incredible skill, not only in the use of the weapon, but in riding skills.
10:21Always wanted to see that being dumped.
10:27But what if your targets are decked out in Crusader army?
10:31The researchers prove that in this case, even a complete dump has a chance.
10:37Surprisingly little impact was done. We have the sword. He had three good shots.
10:41The first one, across the shield, did absolutely nothing whatsoever.
10:44Now, the second shot, more effective, he got past the shield, you could say, hit the male.
10:51But the male, again, is padded by the gambeson underneath, and it was virtually no effect.
10:57And the third shot, again very dramatic, hit him across the face.
11:01But with this kind of helmet, it might have given the guy a bit of a headache, but again, it was not a really effective blow.
11:08But when it comes to Christians in hard hats, Muslim warriors are no dummies.
11:16Here, the perfect choice is a medieval can opener called the mace.
11:21That was very, very much more effective. We had three good blows there.
11:34The first one, as you can see, clearly smashed through this male entirely.
11:39And then we come to the blows on the helmet. Now, that is a big surprise to me.
11:43I really didn't expect it to be that effective. It looks like a bullet hole.
11:46Right the way through, quite extraordinary, one of these spikes made a absolutely direct blow, penetrated right away.
11:56The verdict, the Crusaders have their work cut out for them.
12:03The differences between the Muslim world and the European world were not really differences in basic technology.
12:10There were differences in degree of sophistication, how advanced they were.
12:15And this is a field where I feel quite sure that the Muslims were clearly in advance.
12:20In June 1099, the Crusaders surrounding Jerusalem chill out.
12:27They may be fanatics, but they're no dummies either.
12:31The Crusaders spend from June 6th to July 14th building and understanding how to attack this city.
12:40They send their architects around, trying to understand the weaknesses of the city itself.
12:45The city's perimeters are impressive.
12:49Jerusalem is surrounded by fortified walls.
12:51But the Crusader engineers find a weak spot, not in the walls, but in Jerusalem's topography.
13:01This is actually the spot where the Crusaders breached the walls of the old city.
13:06It was the spot that throughout history has been used, because this is the flattest area in Jerusalem.
13:11In the northern part of the city right here, that's where Jerusalem can only be defeated.
13:16July 7th, 1099. The battle for Jerusalem begins.
13:37Jerusalem falls to the Crusaders on the eighth day of the campaign.
13:40The Jewish and Muslim defenders of Jerusalem are overwhelmed by Christian fanatics.
13:47The Crusaders turn their siege into a massacre.
13:53One Crusader sums up the moment.
13:57If you had been there, you would have seen our feet colored to our ankles with the blood of the slain.
14:04None of them were left alive. Neither women nor children were spared.
14:07Historians estimate that between 10 to 20,000 of the city's Muslims are killed.
14:14The Crusaders also burn a synagogue, killing many of Jerusalem's Jews who fled there for sanctuary.
14:21Jerusalem is so associated with the massacre of Muslims and Jews in that military triumph that it is tainted in history.
14:30It was seen as barbaric, uncalled for, and it created a great demand for revenge and retaliatory action.
14:38In the years following Jerusalem's fall, the Christians erect 45 churches, many built on the ruins of mosques and synagogues they have desecrated.
14:48But while the Crusaders build churches to save their souls, they also build fortresses to save their necks.
14:57The Holy Land, 1160 A.D.
15:02Sixty years after the siege of Jerusalem, the Crusaders have established four states in the Holy Land, protected by 60 strongholds of stone.
15:13Now these castles are very strong, much bigger in many cases than the castles from the same period within Western Europe.
15:23A Crusader fortress like Belvoir Castle is designed as a self-contained mothership, built to survive the alien Muslim universe.
15:32Fortresses were built so that they could suspend and create for themselves total independence, even without assistance from the outside as they were being invaded.
15:46The Crusaders are low on manpower, so the forts are built with thick walls.
15:51How thick? Try 15 feet of stone blocks.
15:54This is a very typical gate from the Crusader period, a fortress that would be built with tremendously wide walls.
16:04For instance, this gate has a five yard width, which is tremendously powerful.
16:09Fitted with huge stone hinges, the castle doors close towards the outside and are locked with huge bolts to fend off enemy battering rams.
16:17Next to us are the holes in which the bolts would be placed.
16:24Crusader forts bristle with state of the art defensive positions. Carved into the walls are openings called loopholes.
16:32You've got arrow slits, you've got loopholes. These are areas where the archers could actually sit.
16:38You've got areas where they would be able to drop down boiling oil, feces, all kinds of things, all within these sections.
16:46You've got trap doors, secret areas, exits into cisterns. You've got all kinds of networks underneath the ground.
16:54Finally, the biggest three secrets of a Crusader fort's defense.
17:00Location, location, and location.
17:04What they did is they put them very high up in the air so that they could see in all directions.
17:07This one, Belvoir, is 600 yards above the ground. So you've got a tremendous view.
17:14You can literally see 50 miles from one side to the other, as far up as the Golan Heights.
17:20You can see all the way on the other side of us, well into Jordan.
17:24Despite their lofty vantage point, the Crusaders are blind to the threat that looms on the horizon.
17:30After Jerusalem falls to the Crusaders in 1099, a new leader unites the Muslim world 80 years later.
17:39His name, Saladin.
17:42While Crusaders barely control the Holy Land, Saladin unifies what today are the nations of Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and northern Iraq.
17:54There is no modern political leader you can compare to Saladin.
17:59A 41-year-old Sultan from what is now Iraq, Saladin is a piece of work.
18:05Here you have a man who was a convinced, pious Muslim.
18:11But he was also a realistic ruler. He was not a naive innocent. He was not a saint.
18:17By and large, there's no denying that Saladin is... he's a hero.
18:24Saladin's secretary describes his leader.
18:27Whenever the Sultan shook hands with someone, he would not let go his hand until that person had taken the initiative to do so.
18:35He was a paragon of chivalry, generous, extremely modest, and had a welcoming face.
18:40But how comfortable was Saladin on the battlefield? Was he merciful or ruthless?
18:49He was not a saint, or indeed he could show considerable ruthlessness.
18:57Crusaders are hard at work building a castle at a strategic site called Vadim Yakov.
19:04Saladin attacks before the Europeans can finish the job.
19:07I know that Saladin broke into the castle and there were about 1,500 men there.
19:16Israeli archaeologist Dr. Ronnie Ellenblum has excavated this site for the past 10 years.
19:22As they uncovered the cistern at the fort, Ellenblum and his team made a grisly find.
19:28A heap of human bones confirms that hundreds of crusaders were slaughtered.
19:36This is a bone of a knight or soldier who protected the castle of Vadim Yakov.
19:42He got three blows.
19:45This one, which did not cut all his shoulder because he was protected by a chain armor.
19:51Another blow amputated his hand and the third one cut his jaw.
19:58Each blow is enough to kill a person.
20:00People are in a blood frenzy, killing and cutting again and again.
20:06People are already finished.
20:10He killed about 700 or 800 people.
20:14From the evidence, Dr. Ellenblum has concluded that Vadim Yakov was more than a battle.
20:20I think it's the first time we succeeded to find the remains of a massacre.
20:25Not all the bones found in the mass grave are human.
20:35Some belong to horses.
20:37Experts believe Saladin slaughtered them deliberately.
20:41It is a way to disgrace the soldiers.
20:44So far we have found about ten aquits, ten horses and five complete skeletons
20:52dumped together in one big heap.
20:57The bones in the burial pit present a heap of questions as well.
21:02Maybe try to do as many measurements as possible for one piece and then we can compare it.
21:08Dr. Rivka Rabinowicz expected to find remains of mighty crusader steeds.
21:12But she got a surprise straight from the horse's mouth.
21:17We thought we'll find big horses as the historical record said.
21:23But maybe we have a very small horse or a big mule.
21:28Is it possible some of the crusaders' legendary mounts were only mules?
21:33We are not able completely to see the exact differences between the two species.
21:39So I think our next stage will be using the DNA analysis.
21:45For now, the skulls prove only one thing for sure.
21:49Saladin's victory at Vadim Yaakov cuts the Christians down to size.
21:53After the battle, a series of peace treaties between crusaders and Muslims are signed and broken.
22:04When crusaders attack Muslim pilgrims to Mecca, Saladin evokes an Islamic practice almost forgotten until then.
22:11He declares a jihad.
22:17Jihad is a declaration of holy war and it's a holy war for defensive purposes.
22:27Saladin declares a holy war and that's what unites the Muslims.
22:30What the crusades succeeded in doing was reviving this aspect of jihad.
22:3720,000 crusaders learned this the hard way in 1187.
22:42When they confront the Muslim forces at a place called Hattin, death rains from the sky.
22:49The trap which Saladin sprung on the crusaders was brilliant.
22:57The crusader fighters were coming from this direction, making their way down below to the fresh water badly needed in the sea of Tiberias.
23:08When they got to this point, the trap was sprung.
23:16Saladin sent out thousands of archers from this cliff face and shot arrows down at the crusader army.
23:24Historians believe the mobility and accuracy of Saladin's archers were unparalleled.
23:29Today at Headingham Castle, David Nicole investigates those claims with the help of expert archer Stephen Race.
23:40Nicole's research shows it's not the size of your bow that counts, it's how you use it.
23:47There are certain military exercises using the bow on horseback at different targets.
23:52Long range, short range, standing still, moving horse, shooting at a target which is ahead of you, a target which is behind you.
24:04The crusaders used three fingers to shoot their arrows. The Muslims launched them with one thumb only.
24:12The string is drawn back and I'll do a dry loose here.
24:15Some historians have suggested that the thumb drawer was more powerful than the finger drawer.
24:24And some of the original sources, Arabic and Turkish written sources, seem to indicate this.
24:30Of the bow. That's the working part.
24:32To confirm the thumb drawer's superiority, Nicole sets up a speed trap to find out.
24:37This machine ought to tell us how fast the arrows fly as they go between those antennae,
24:42and it registers in feet per second.
24:46First, the traditional three finger pull.
24:51Top speeds, 116 miles per hour.
24:55Next up, the thumb drawer.
24:58Definite point there, do you see?
25:01Yes, I do.
25:03And then when I lose, it's a much cleaner release than the three finger release on a string.
25:08107.
25:13110.
25:15So generally speaking, they are rather slower.
25:19Not a great deal, but which is contrary to what I expected.
25:22But I don't think you necessarily get a more powerful release.
25:25I think a lot of it's propaganda.
25:27You say you have a better weapon.
25:28Yes.
25:29You scare your enemy.
25:31But the thumb release of Saladin's forces did provide a key advantage.
25:35So this is actually, so the thumb release is actually probably more efficient.
25:39Which would mean consistent range.
25:42Yes. More accuracy.
25:45Even if Muslim archers were accurate, how could normal arrows possibly take out knights dressed in chain mode?
25:51Saladin's marksmen rode horses.
25:53At close range, the arrows of mobile archers had greater impact.
26:02Not only is this target a dummy, he's also plastered.
26:06A good idea, considering what's next.
26:08Now this is very interesting.
26:21Two clean penetrations.
26:23One rebound, and one which is not really a penetration.
26:27But there's a point here, which I think really is rather interesting.
26:31Rather horrific, actually.
26:33That the arrow that rebounded broke the links of the male.
26:38And one link has actually been driven away from the male, through the cloth, and into the plaster.
26:45And this, of course, is a plaster dummy, not a human being.
26:48If this had been a human being, that broken piece of metal, that half ring,
26:53would have been pushed right inside the unfortunate person.
26:58At the Battle of Hatim, Muslim archers give Saladin the fatal edge.
27:03The entire Crusader force is either taken prisoner, or killed.
27:07More traumatic still, is the capture of the holiest relic in Christianity by Saladin's forces.
27:13What Crusaders believe are pieces of the true cross, on which Jesus Christ died.
27:18When there would be a great military battle, the Crusaders stupidly would take out this great relic.
27:28They would have divine providence.
27:32And it was interesting the way in which it was used as a bargaining chip.
27:36Because it was of no value to the Muslim side, and of great, great religious value to the Christian side.
27:45A defeated knight sums up the Crusader's despair.
27:49Lord God, our war is over.
27:53We are nothing but dead men, and the kingdom has come to an end.
27:57Hattin is important because this is where Saladin establishes himself as a military genius.
28:06It is Hattin and the fall of Hattin that really opens up and turns around the Crusades.
28:11After Saladin's decisive victory at Hattin, he takes back the port city of Acre.
28:21Three months later, in 1188, the Muslims win the ultimate prize, Jerusalem.
28:28When the news reaches Europe that Jerusalem and the true cross are lost,
28:33it was reported the Pope was so shocked, he dropped dead.
28:36Saladin enters Jerusalem in triumph, but not in fury.
28:45He takes control of the holiest Christian shrine in Jerusalem, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
28:52Instead of destroying the church, Saladin opens its doors to Christian pilgrims,
28:58many of them members of competing religious groups.
29:01So to prevent one Christian faction from shutting out the other,
29:03Saladin places the keys of the church in the hands of two Muslim families.
29:08Incredibly, their descendants remain the gatekeepers of the church to this day.
29:13Saladin's generosity fails to impress the European powers.
29:17A new crusade is declared with a brand new leader.
29:22This time, Saladin meets his match.
29:25June 7th, 1191.
29:36A 34-year-old English king sets foot in the Holy Land at the port city of Acre.
29:42Richard the Lionheart was a war lover.
29:45He was the greatest warrior in his time, a great athlete.
29:47Richard the Lionheart, the brave English king turned crusader, right?
29:58Not exactly.
30:00Sure, the guy's the king of England, but he's only spent six months of his entire life there.
30:04And guess what? He only speaks French, not English.
30:07But then, as now, money is the universal language.
30:13In a new twist on siege tactics, Richard promises his men gold for each stone they can remove from the walls of Acre nearby.
30:22It's worth every penny.
30:24Winning Acre will give Richard a beachhead in the Holy Land.
30:27But to retake the port, he'll have to breach defenses the Crusaders built when they rule the city.
30:33June 11th, 1191.
30:36Pulling Acre apart brick by brick could take a while.
30:40To conquer the fort, Richard's army needs a shortcut.
30:44Their solution?
30:46Portable attack platforms call siege towers.
30:49Rolled up to the enemy wall, Richard's men climb stairways to the top of Acre's walls.
30:55Saladin's secretary describes the psychological impact.
30:58It overtopped the city wall.
31:03The city garrison were greatly fearful of it and were tempted to ask for terms.
31:15July 12th, 1191.
31:17Just over a month after Richard's arrival, the city of Acre falls to the Crusaders.
31:22It was written that Saladin looked like a mother who had lost a child.
31:31Meanwhile, Richard grows impatient when Saladin is slow to negotiate the terms of surrender.
31:39The English king orders Muslim prisoners led out of the city.
31:43One by one, they are slaughtered.
31:462,700 men in all.
31:52And this is a great stain on Richard's reputation historically, and undercuts the kind of mythologizing and romanticizing of Richard in European lore.
32:06As epic as the Battle of Acre is the struggle to uncover the site today.
32:13Since the Crusades ended, two Muslim cities were built over the original 13th century site.
32:19Over the past 12 years, hundreds of tons of debris have been removed.
32:25Emerging from the rubble, the majestic halls that once sheltered European occupiers.
32:30This is the main complex of the hospital.
32:36Here in this complex is an hospice.
32:39Hospice that's going to take care of the pilgrim.
32:44Uncovering Acre has been the archaeological quest of Eliezer Stern.
32:49The excavations support written accounts that during the Crusades,
32:53Muslim practices are rubbing off on the Europeans.
32:56A case in point is the treatment of the sick.
32:58Before the Crusades, European hospitals were created exclusively to feed and house the poor.
33:07Not to heal them.
33:09Often the sick were actually turned away.
33:12That's about to change.
33:15This excavated chamber is the site of a Crusader hospital.
33:19And an order of knights called the Hospitallers.
33:21In essence, Hospitaller knights are warrior monks.
33:27But off the battlefield, their day gig is the care for ailing pilgrims and Crusaders.
33:33In Muslim hospitals, doctors enhance the recovery of their patients with diets of fruit and fresh foods.
33:39Could the Crusaders at Acre be following their lead?
33:43Scientists will find out from a source the rest of us would rather leave behind.
33:49No matter how pious, how civilized, or how cunning we are, pit stops are a timeless and universal reality.
34:00Ancient latrines from the Crusader hospital are discovered at Acre.
34:06The toilets drain into the bowels of the fort.
34:10And with luck, they may reveal what was inside the bowels of the Crusaders.
34:15Samples of Crusader knight soil are shipped to a specialist in England.
34:24At Charing Cross Hospital in London, what is crap to the Crusaders is paydirt for Dr. Piers Mitchell.
34:33So we set up a project where we could look at what people were eating,
34:37which gives us the ability to look for evidence of medical treatments.
34:41Separated by a centrifuge and heat, the raw material has a high yuck factor.
34:47But the results are no laughing matter.
34:50Forget being wounded in battle.
34:53The Crusaders' guts are under constant siege by parasites.
34:58Hailing from the Mideast is the witworm and the roundworm.
35:02But Mitchell also discovers this intestinal mascot.
35:06Now the fish tapeworm eggs that we found are particularly interesting
35:12because they haven't been found in the Middle East prior to the time of the Crusades.
35:16So this shows that they must have come across with the Crusaders using those latrines.
35:21But along with signs of disease, there is evidence of therapeutic diets.
35:25Something dramatic has happened in the way people are being treated.
35:30They were encouraged to have salad leads and a wide range of fruits,
35:35especially figs, apples, pears, pomegranates and so on.
35:39Mitchell's analysis of feces revealed the Crusaders were not eating their usual fare.
35:43A diet rich in beans.
35:47Instead, the Crusaders consume wholesome bread and fresh fruits.
35:51The same types of foods that Muslim doctors gave their patients.
35:55The Crusades were one of the pivotal reasons as to why we started treating patients in European hospitals with medical treatment.
36:02After a century of bloodshed, Richard takes a crack at shuttle diplomacy.
36:13At a military stalemate with Saladin, he sends an offer to his enemy.
36:18Come here, and listen well to my words.
36:24The country is utterly ruined, and goods and lives have been sacrificed on both sides.
36:31The time has come to stop this.
36:39Richard Express mails a wish list to Saladin.
36:43At the top is Jerusalem and the True Cross.
36:46Saladin's reply is swift and sharp.
36:53The city is as holy to us as it is to you.
36:57It is therefore out of the question for us to abandon it.
37:02As for the cross, it is a great trump in our hands,
37:07and we will surrender it only in return for some important concession.
37:12According to legend, the only concession Richard has to offer is his own flesh and blood.
37:19I propose that my sister, Queen Joanna, marry Melek El Adel, Saladin's brother.
37:27Once married, the couple would become the joint rulers of the new kingdom of Jerusalem, with their royal seat in Jerusalem.
37:33Richard may be king, but his sister is nobody's pawn.
37:39The deal is off.
37:41But here's the good news.
37:46Both sides are talking instead of killing.
37:48There's an interesting relationship that develops between Richard and Saladin over the years that Richard is in the Middle East.
37:59Correspondence, exchanges of gifts, exchange of fruit, even exchanges of doctors when Richard falls ill.
38:05And this shows the kind of respect that both develop for each other.
38:10When Richard falls sick with fever, Saladin's personal physician makes a house call with a rare desert cocktail.
38:18Fruit juice cooled with snow from a distant mountain.
38:23From history's two most unlikely pen pals, springs the hope for peace.
38:36When we arrive at an understanding, we will meet and friendship will prevail between us.
38:42Richard and Saladin never do meet in person.
38:46Yet on September 2nd, 1192, these two great warriors make peace.
38:58The bottom line? Acre stays a Christian stronghold.
39:03Jerusalem remains in Muslim hands.
39:06But Saladin guarantees safe passage for pilgrims of all faiths to the Holy City.
39:13And what about the true cross that Saladin refused to give up?
39:17Along with the Holy Grail and the lost Ark, it too is lost in the folds of time.
39:26After spending only a year and a half in the Holy Land, Richard departs for Europe empty-handed.
39:32Richard the Lionheart spent five years, mobilized all of Europe, bankrupted England to come to capture Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulcher.
39:42Got to the gates of Jerusalem and decided to give it all up.
39:46But I don't think he thought of himself as a failure.
39:51Religious access to Jerusalem, forged by Richard and Saladin, outlives them both.
39:56But the winds of war will stir again, a hundred years after their deaths.
40:03Once again, the curse of the Crusades falls on the Port of Acre.
40:11Summer 1290. A century after Saladin and Richard make peace, the Port of Acre remains the last major Christian foothold in the Holy Land.
40:21Here, Europeans trade goods and ideas freely with the Muslims.
40:26And I really think that this was part of the interaction that was taking place.
40:30So with the clash of civilizations, there was also an interaction, a dialogue of civilizations that was taking place, which is very interesting.
40:37But the dialogue soon breaks down as Muslim and Christian leaders renew their power struggle.
40:47The kings of Europe scraped together a motley force to support the Crusaders at Acre.
40:52Twelve thousand so-called Crusaders, mostly Italians, arrive in the summer of 1290.
41:01They're supposed to help preserve the peace. Instead, they end it.
41:06A German pilgrim remembers the troops' brutal entrance.
41:11They did no good, but abode by day and by night in taverns, and did much evil.
41:16At the end of August, the peace of Acre is shattered.
41:21The Crusader rabble go on a rampage.
41:24Anyone wearing a beard is considered a Muslim and killed on sight.
41:28News of the massacre soon reaches the new rulers of the Holy Land, Muslim warriors known as Mamluks.
41:34The Mamluk is a man who is of slave origin, purchased as a child or as an adolescent, and then is trained to a very, very high degree as a professional soldier.
41:48But he's also made literate. He's educated. He's not just a thug soldier.
41:54And when he's fully trained, he is released.
41:56A Mamluk army masses outside Acre's walls.
42:02Ultimately, some 200,000 warriors seal off the city.
42:06The Mamluk strategy is described in this account.
42:27He pitched his test, set up 60 machines, and without any respite, assailed the city with fire, stones, and arrows.
42:40Today, Acre's streets hold evidence of that final and deadly assault.
43:05These ballista are ancient cannonballs.
43:09The Mamluk's catapulted these things into the fortress itself, and they're found all over the place here.
43:16Muslim catapults chip away at the fortress walls and make a major dent in the Crusader's psyches.
43:23It's mostly the psychological impact of these things crashing in on a regular basis.
43:28It's a form of artillery bombardment.
43:30Where do you hide? There's nowhere to go. This thing could drop on your head any minute.
43:33Some Hospitaller Knights take refuge in a chapel of Acre's St. John's Church.
43:42But the only answer to their prayers is a hardball message from the enemy.
43:46Archaeologists believe they have now found the floor of the chapel of St. John's Church.
43:59Eliezer Stern assumes the archaeological position.
44:05He'd like to know how the chapel was destroyed, and what his Hospitallers saw in their last hours.
44:12It's layer after layer of this broken glass.
44:17This is another color, maybe brown or red glass.
44:24Along with bits of glass is a clue to how the church was finally destroyed.
44:28Oh, this is amazing.
44:31Look, this is part of charcoal.
44:36Now I understand why the environment of the glass is much darker than the floor.
44:43This is maybe the wooden frame of the windows, and it's burned completely.
44:49And now we have the evidence that the church was destroyed by fire.
44:56There is a saying in the Mideast.
44:58Do not consider any act of kindness insignificant.
45:03But kindness in the final days of Acre takes a backseat to rank.
45:08Although the ford is surrounded by hostile forces, ancient accounts report some groups of Christians make a getaway.
45:16But how?
45:18Archaeologists discover the answer seven centuries later.
45:22A subterranean escape route for members only.
45:29Crusader Knights take the tomb out of Acre.
45:33This extraordinary tunnel was discovered after months of exhausting excavations.
45:38It runs for over a thousand feet from the fort to the edge of the Mediterranean.
45:44The tunnel connected the Templar castle in the west to the harbor in the east.
45:51The tunnel was built by an elite group called the Knights Templar.
45:56They're sworn to protect pilgrims.
45:58But apparently there's nothing in their contract about sharing their exit strategy.
46:05This is a private tunnel.
46:08No one knew except the Templars that there is such a tunnel.
46:12In the last day of Acre, the Templar Knights managed to escape through this tunnel to the harbor and then run away to Europe.
46:22Experts believe the flight of the Templars is a clue to why the Christians lost the last great battle of the Crusades.
46:31According to one account.
46:33They would not have lost the city had they but helped one another faithfully.
46:36But when they were fighting without the city, one party would run away and leave the other to be slain.
46:45Female pilgrims, many from wealthy families in Europe, grow desperate.
46:49Five hundred most noble ladies came down to the seashore, carrying with them all their jewels and ornaments of gold and precious stones, and cried aloud whether there were any soldiers who would take all their jewels.
47:04If only he would take them, even naked, to some safe land.
47:08A Mamluk warrior savors the Crusaders defeat.
47:15The lands of the coast were fully returned to the Muslims, a result undreamed of.
47:22Thus were the foreigners expelled from all of Syria and the coastal zones.
47:26God grant that they never set foot there again.
47:29Never again are the holy lands occupied by the Crusaders.
47:34The fallen acre in 1291 was a key event.
47:39It was the end of the story.
47:44It was the last major enclave to fall.
47:50In the end, Muslim culture is unaffected by the ways of the Europeans.
47:56The impact on the Muslim world was minimum, because here was a civilization already at a peak.
48:01And what they brought, the Europeans and the Crusaders brought to the Middle East, was simply ideas of war, warriors and sometimes brutal savagery.
48:12Their dream in ruins, the Crusaders leave the Holy Land.
48:19But long before the Crusades, Mideastern ideas take root on the European continent.
48:24What was positive for Europe was the idea of civilization, which means chivalry, which means learning, which means books, which means a way of life, which means cleanliness and personal hygiene and personal diet.
48:42Scholars are stimulated by exposure to more advanced mathematics and astronomy.
48:49Italian trade ports make a killing ferrying pilgrims to the Holy Land.
48:54The new wealth stimulates the Renaissance.
48:56Over 700 years ago, Saladin and Richard began a dialogue that led to a time of tolerance in the Holy Land.
49:06Today, in the Middle East, there remain many on both sides who see that distant truce as a pilgrimage worth taking again.
49:14In the same streets where Muslim and Jew were cut down by Crusaders, they now hope for peace and an end at last to an unholy war.
49:27This is a lovely war.
49:28красив deeply
49:42entspire
49:47a
49:49Greek
49:55歓
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