Libmonster ID: ID-1253
Author(s) of the publication: M. A. ZABOROV

Vera a Miroslav Hrochovi. Kfizaci v Levante. Praha. "Mlada Fronta". 1975. 313 s.

The Crusades to the East are the "eternal" theme of historical science. In the works of bourgeois medievalists and orientalists, it became one of the leading ones in the post-war period1 . Marxist scientists, who previously studied it relatively little, are now actively developing this problem.

The study of the history of the Crusades from the standpoint of Marxist-Leninist methodology is carried out primarily by researchers working in the USSR and other socialist countries. The book under review is written by Czechoslovak historians - professors of the Faculty of Philosophy of Charles University in Prague, spouses V. and M. Grokhov. It is the first and, as far as we know, the only generalizing work on this topic in Czech historiography.

The authors gave the book a popular science form, which does not deprive it of the character of scientific research. To a large extent, it is based on primary sources (Latin chronicles of the 12th - 13th centuries, works of Arab and Byzantine writers and historians contemporary with the Crusades, travel notes, etc.). At the same time, the authors take into account the results of the latest research (Soviet, Western European, and American) quite fully.

The generally sound "texture" on which the authors rely allowed them to reliably tell about this phenomenon of the Middle Ages, to convey the history of the Crusades as a mass military colonization movement directed to the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean. Compared to the traditional coverage of factual material, the book is interesting, in particular, because it touches on almost unknown episodes of the "holy wars". Thus, the authors focus on the participation of the Czechs in the wars of conquest of Western European chivalry in Palestine, for example, in the Second and Third Crusades (p. 118 - 120, 173, 176). "National flavor" is also present in the arguments concerning the apologetic tradition of the Crusades that has taken root in the West (the story of the visit of the Czech King Charles IV French court, when a distinguished Prague guest was shown a reenactment of the victorious battle of the Crusaders during the First Crusade-p. 285). Probably, the emphasis on this topic is prompted not so much by the actual historical significance of the participation of Czech military units in the Crusades, but by the authors ' desire to take into account the specific interests of the readership.

The main attraction of the book, however, is its original perspective, which sets out the actual history of the Crusader Wars. The authors believe that the Crusades are "interesting for us not because of their battles and conquests", but rather because it is important to understand these wars as "a meeting of three civilizations - Western European, Byzantine and Muslim" (p. 6). Of course, such an approach to the study of these problems is extremely promising, especially because it It allows us to find out the true significance of the Crusades in world history, which is greatly exaggerated by apologetic bourgeois historiography. The idea of the Crusaders as "pioneers of greatness" and the corresponding "actualization" of the Crusader wars in a number of works published in recent decades have been ideologically and politically sharpened against national liberation movements; in particular, the Arab peoples, and during the Cold War - against socialist countries. However, the book points out that the efforts of realistic-minded bourgeois researchers (A. S. Atiyah, K. Kaen, etc.), including traditionalists (S. Runciman), created a more critical interpretation of the Crusades. However , to this day, works like the book of the American A. Duggan 2, in which robbers still continue to appear.

1 In the vast literature of recent years, a monumental, planned in six volumes and already half-realized edition of American historians stands out. "A History of the Crusades". General Editor-K. M. Setton. Vol. I-III. Madison- Milwaukee -J. 1969 - 1975.

2 A. Duggan. The Story of the Crusades, 1097-1291. N.Y. 1964 (this book was reprinted in London in "1969).

page 192

even murderers are still idealized and portrayed as heroes, and readers are told that "Western knights founded kingdoms where freedom and justice flourished" (p. 287).

In the light of these considerations, the authors ' point of view on the Crusades is highly justified. Many of the book's points and conclusions deserve a generally positive assessment. This primarily applies to the characterization of the internal structure of the Crusader states in the East (Chapter 5), which highlights, in particular, the religious and political disenfranchisement of both Eastern Christians and, above all, Muslims during the rule of the Western conquerors (p. 204 et seq.). In terms of exposing the myth of the "civilizing mission" of the West, it is interesting to describe the vicissitudes of the Fourth Crusade (Chapter 6): the authors reject various, as they claim, "positivistically limited" (p. 227) versions of the "evasion of the Crusaders from the path", based on the fact that all these versions (the theory of "German intrigue") are based on the theory of the "German intrigue". and others) are based on a deliberately false idea of the disinterestedness of barons and knights. The course of events that led to the defeat of Byzantium in April 1204 is explained much more simply: the defining interests of the robber feudal lords and the opportunity to get rich at their expense coincided. As a result, Constantinople fell victim to the invaders (pp. 230-231).

The chapter on the immediate and distant results of the Crusades is the most informative and fully corresponds to the authors ' statement of the problem. The main conclusion of the book is that the crusaders did not achieve the goals for which they fought, and if they achieved a short-term assertion of their dominance in the East, it was at an extremely high price: the crusades not only "raised a muddy wave of mass killings of Muslim and Christian populations in the conquered eastern cities", but also aroused in the Muslim world In response, the holy war of Islam (jihad) broke out, marked for centuries by the same cruelty and fanaticism as those that accompanied the crusades (p.288).

The Crusader rule in the East proved to be short-lived. Their states there disappeared forever, and "the sand of oblivion covered the footprints of armored knights long before the memories of their cruel and heroic deeds faded in the West" (p. 289). The existence of the Crusader states did not bring any fundamental changes to Levantine trade, which is often attributed to the Crusades: if its expansion took place, it was "regardless of the fanaticism of the European Crusaders", and the main routes of commercial relations between the West and the East in the XII-XIII centuries passed not through the port cities of the Crusader states, but through Byzantium and Egypt (p. 284). As for the" contribution " of the Crusades to the cultural development of Europe, the notion that the Crusaders mediated the cultural exchange of the European and Arab worlds is groundless. The celebrated fruits of Arab civilization and culture, the book emphasizes, as, indeed, in a number of other works of Marxist historians, come in the XII-XIII centuries. to Europe mainly via Spain, Sicily and North Africa. "Even at the height of the Crusader states, Western Europe was far more likely to accept Eastern influences and ancient traditions from the dying Byzantine Empire than through the Levant" (p. 290).

The general conclusion about the results of the "meeting" of the three civilizations is formulated very clearly in the book. In contrast to the concepts of the apologists of the Crusades, the authors put forward and justify three main propositions: the thesis about the failure of the idea of unity of Western Christians, both during the Crusades and later (p. 289); the thesis about the superiority of Muslim and Byzantine civilizations over Western European, which represented a lower stage of development of feudal society in the XI-XIII centuries (p. 289). 290-291); the thesis about the overall negative historical significance of the Crusades. The result of the interaction of the three civilizations, which took place during the Crusades in the form of a long-term armed conflict, the authors point out with good reason, was not the rapprochement of these civilizations, but the aggravation of contradictions between them, their distance from each other and, ultimately, their departure into deaf isolation. "This result is certainly one of the most important and noteworthy aspects in the history of medieval feudal society" (p.292).

page 193

A number of provisions of the book seem insufficiently reasoned and controversial. Thus, when covering the actual history of events, authors often abandon traditional interpretations of individual phenomena. However, this step is not always justified, and the explanations offered by the authors are not always based on a solid foundation. For example, the view once adopted by historians of the Crusades that the "pinnacle of the chronography" of this movement is the work of Guillaume of Tyre (pp. 124-125) is long out of date. After all, he wrote many decades after the events of 1096-1099, relying on the works of direct participants, composing their news according to their own views and logic; in terms of reliability and immediacy of perception, his work is much inferior to the works of eyewitnesses who wrote in the hot pursuit of events, and does not matter the most important, as the authors believe, source of information. history of the First Crusade, that is, it does not constitute the "top" of chronography in this sense

The success of the first Crusaders is explained in the book mainly by the support provided to them by Byzantium, its land forces and navy, siege mechanisms and food (pp. 128-129). This is, of course, a significant exaggeration. It is known, for example, that, being near Antioch in 1098, the crusaders sought to get rid of a treacherous and self-serving ally: a detachment of the Byzantine commander Tatikiy hastened to retreat from the camp of the crusaders besieging Antioch, as soon as rumors spread about the approach of the army of the Mosul atabeg Kerbosh. When confronted with it, the Crusaders were left to their own fate and defeated the army of the emirs without any assistance from Byzantium.

Describing the reasons for the knights ' participation in the First Crusade, the authors reject the traditional idea that the younger sons of feudal lords, who were left without inheritance, were especially zealously included in the pursuit of lands. For the XI century, the authors believe, this idea is wrong, since at that time the seigneur's property was already divided equally among all direct descendants (p. 138). In fact, as it is proved in special studies 3, it was in the XI - XII centuries, when, for example, in some areas of France, the fund of free lands was exhausted, that there was a tendency to "close" feudal families: since it was forbidden to split up patrimonial possessions, the number of knights who did not have fiefs, did not start a family, and etc. These were primarily the younger sons of secular feudal lords.

The authors rightly point out the general impoverishment of knighthood, which prompted him to go to a foreign land, but the circumstances that gave rise to this impoverishment are not quite adequately covered: the book states that in the situation of pacification that came to Europe after the cessation of the raids of the Normans, Arabs and Hungarians, in the context of strengthening royal power, " the demand for the services of knights decreased"and so they have increased their" interest in the fate of Eastern Christians "(ibid.). In fact, the pacification of Western feudal society at the end of the eleventh century is not at all necessary - after all, one of the tasks of the Council of Clermont was to restore order in this regard. And what kind of strengthening of royal power can we talk about in this era - the time of the heyday of feudal fragmentation? The authors are forced to shift" back " historical processes that relate, in essence, to later times. And in general, it is hardly true to represent the knights of the XI century as some kind of Landsknechts, as it involuntarily turns out in the book when describing their situation. A special belligerence, in particular, of the French chivalry, which was ready to participate in any military adventure and was, according to g. Duby, the "most aggressive element" in feudal society4, was primarily rooted in the development of the feudal economy of this period.
The reasons for the departure of the great feudal lords of the West to the East are also depicted somewhat inaccurately: they were allegedly driven by ambition, "prestige considerations" (p. 138 et seq.). Meanwhile, such princes as Bohemond of Tarentum-and this is evidenced by all his behavior during the war.

3 See: G. Duby. Les "Jeunes" dans la societe aristocratique dans la France de Nord- Ouest an XII siecle. In: G. Duby. Homines ct structures du Moyen age. Recueil d'articles. P. 1973, pp. 213 - 223.

4 G. Duby. Op. cit., p. 216.

page 194

in the years between 1096 and 1097, and in the months of the struggle for Antioch in 1098, they did not go on a crusade for prestigious reasons: being the owners of magnificent titles, they did not have the necessary land possessions for their holders. The book's explanation of the reasons for peasants ' participation in the Crusader movement also raises objections (p. 140 et seq.). Here, too, the authors reject the established scientific view of the eleventh century as a time of severe feudal oppression, crop failures and famine; on the contrary, in their opinion, during this period there were supposedly tendencies to liberate the peasants from serfdom and raise their standard of living, productivity began to grow (technical progress in agriculture), etc. (page 141). Statements of this kind are not based on verified facts and, in any case, strongly contradict the evidence of chroniclers of the late XI-early XII century. As for the yield dynamics, the first data for any comparisons in this regard appear in sources only in the XIII century. For the end of the XI century, such information is completely absent. And the fact that this was a time of the most severe serfdom oppression is, perhaps, generally recognized in the literature .5 Rejecting it, the authors return the reader to the long-obsolete view in historiography of the reasons for the mass character of the First Crusade: these reasons, as stated in the book, are rooted in population growth (pp. 141-142). Thus, the movement of hundreds of thousands of people to the East is explained by purely demographic factors. Of course, population growth seems to have taken place, but it was extremely slow, uneven in some areas, and in itself does not in any way explain the massive nature of the First Crusade.

It might be possible to point out a number of minor errors in the book, but its face, of course, is not determined by these or other shortcomings. We have before us a serious and informative work on the Crusades. The latter are considered as an important link in the chain of European migration movements and a major episode in the history of military-feudal expansion. Therefore, the authors rightly compare the crusades to the East with the aggressive enterprises of German chivalry in Eastern Europe in the XII-XIII centuries (p. 291). The advantages of the book include carefully executed cartographic material, as well as a concise but useful chronological summary of the main events of the Crusades (table), placed as an appendix at the end of the work.

5 See S. Epperlein. Bauernbedruckung und Bauernwiderstand im hohen Mittelalter. B. 1960.

page 195


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M. A. ZABOROV, V. And M. GROKHI. CRUSADERS IN THE EAST // Tel Aviv: Israel (ELIB.CO.IL). Updated: 20.01.2025. URL: https://elib.co.il/m/articles/view/V-And-M-GROKHI-CRUSADERS-IN-THE-EAST (date of access: 19.02.2025).

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