The area of Arabia, which bordered Syria Palestina to the south and east, had been fought over by the Persian and the Byzantine Empires. The area itself was occupied by a mixture of pagans, Christians, and a myriad other religions that were unique and who borrowed ideas from other faiths. Polytheism dominated the region and there was also a community of Jews that had moved from Palestine. Arabia was a mixture of different kingdoms and tribal areas that experienced various conflicts within and without. There was one dominant tribe, Banu Quraish of Mecca, who, from being responsible for the religious duties around the shrine there, rose to control trade and money in the region. Their dominance led to inter-tribal conflict involving one man who became prominent in the opposition to the persecutions and treatment they handed out. He was Mohammed. In 610, he declared a new religion. This was Islam, the surrender to the will of Allah, a monotheistic faith. He gathered his military forces to oppose the power at Mecca.
By 628, the politico-religious power was now under the Caliphate of Mohammed and a treaty was signed with the Banu-Quraish. This was broken and in 630, Mohammed attacked Mecca and established the Islamic rule under which all Quraish embraced the new religion. It is notable that there were Jewish and Christian settlements throughout the region which were appreciated for their superior knowledge of agriculture and irrigation. Neither Persia nor Byzantium could withstand the new military and religious power. In 636, the Islamic army besieged Jerusalem and eventually overcame the defending majority Christians in 637, signing a pact with Caliph Umar. Many Arab Moslems emigrated to Palestine under the new rulers and the Christians and Jews were able to continue their religion, paying a special tax to the Caliph. The situation for the Jews was to see their homeland dominated by the Islamic presence and various internal disputes within Islam would see different Caliphs control their destiny. Further anguish was caused when an Islamic prayer house was built on the sacred site of the Temple in Jerusalem. As the Romans had desecrated the site with their own shrines now the Jews witnessed, what was for them, further insult. In turn this would be expanded in 705 to the elaborate Al-Aqsa Mosque, marking the alleged site of Mohammed’s ascent to heaven.
Despite the Islamisation of Palestine, the Jewish people were permitted to continue their occupancy of the area and practise their religion as second class citizens, as they were respected as ‘People of the Book’. There were some conflicts in Arabia between Jewish groups and the Moslems and eventually the decree was made that all Jews had to leave that area. Many Jews would come from this and other areas where they experienced persecution, to settle in Palestine. For example, the Visigoth king Erwig in 681 enacted laws that were both harsh and punitive, with forced conversions and heavy penalties for apostasy, alongside expulsion for those who refused. The Jewish people were put under the strict control of Christian bishops and anyone being circumcised according to Jewish religious tradition would be castrated. The seizure of Jewish property was also sanctioned by law. Along with these Spanish Jews, many also left Constantinople after the Quinisext Council in 681 which also contained anti-Semitic injunctions such as:
‘Let no one in the priestly order nor any layman eat the unleavened bread of the Jews, nor have any familiar intercourse with them, nor summon them in illness, nor receive medicines from them, nor bathe with them; but if anyone shall take in hand to do so, if he is a cleric, let him be deposed, but if a layman let him be cut off.’1
Furthermore, the Visigoth king Egica continued to persecute the Jews in Spain just as his predecessors did. It is no wonder that many sought the relative safety of Moslem rule even though they had to accept the status of second class citizenship. Indeed Reuven Firestone wrote:
‘Most Jews living in the Muslim world during this early period lived in the Land of Israel/Palestine, Bavel/Mesopotamia, and Egypt, though communities were spread from Morocco to Khurasan (today’s north-eastern Iran, western Afghanistan, and southern Turkmenistan)’
Many historians, such as Mark Cohen, describe this period as a ‘Golden Age’, but it may not be the complete picture. It is true that the Jews did have a great deal of protection and were allowed to practise their religion, but they had to accept restrictions on what they could do. Under the surface there were many tensions as both Jews and Christians were often consigned to menial tasks. There was also the issue of orphaned Jewish children who would be given to Moslem families to be brought up in the Islamic faith. These tensions would erupt, not because Mohammed and his followers were specifically anti-Jewish, but due to the Jewish people not being able to accept certain religious ideas that were being promulgated. This was because the Islamic religion had taken many concepts from Jewish and Christian thought and brought a different understanding to them through Mohammed as a prophet. They therefore considered him a false prophet and could not recognise him as the new religion required. Again Firestone:
‘The Jews of Medina had no choice but to oppose Muhammad as a false prophet who, from their perspective, was distorting the truth of God’s revelation that had already been fully disclosed and codified in the Torah. But from the perspective of Muhammad and his followers, the Medinan Jews were unequivocally trying to oppose God by resisting and delegitimizing his prophecy and the authentic redemptive message that he brought. Parallel scenarios are easily found with the emergence of Christianity and its revelation in relation to Judaism, the emergence of Islam and its revelation in relation to Christianity, and the emergence of post-Qur
anic religion and its revelation such as Bahaism in relation to Islam. The aggrieved parties observe the conflict from radically different perspectives and each constructs a narrative to explain the conflict that favours its own particular point of view.’
Although most Jews accepted these conditions, there was a remnant who maintained a hope of a Messiah who would deliver them to freedom in the land of Israel. If he was not appearing, then some would try to speed him along. One such sect of Judaism in Persia, the Isawites, led by Abu Isa al-Isfahani, saw him as that Messiah and revolted against Islamic rule, hoping for a victory that would sweep them on into Judea and the Messianic age. A decisive battle at Rai, during which their leader was killed, brought an end to their vain hope. Such sporadic incidents were happening across the Islamic world, but none were of any great consequence. The situation in Palestine under Islamic rule continued in relative peace until the ninth century when divisions began to creep into Islam. Rival dynasties fought over political and religious issues. The Fatimid Caliphate, a Shi’ite branch of Islam, dominated the North African region and based its headquarters in Egypt. Byzantium tried to take advantage of the divisions in Islam and once more cast its eyes on the Middle East. Palestine became a battleground for the great powers seeking domination in the area. As Mann noted:
‘Palestine was swept into the maelstrom of fiercely contending factions. It became frequently the battle-ground of the Egyptian armies coming from the south and the northern invaders.’
Initially the Fatimid rule was good for both Jews and Christians, as under it they were able to have prominent roles and Islamic laws were not so rigorously enforced. This was due to the main branch of Islam – Sunni – refusing to support the Fatimid regime and the willingness of non-Moslems to cooperate with it. However, the third caliph, al-Hākim who ruled from 996–1020 took a harsher line and returned to enforcing the laws against non-Moslems. This in turn caused many Jews to embrace Islam but a great many also chose to leave Palestine. Documents discovered in the Ezra Synagogue in Cairo Genizah (Hebrew for hiding place) show that Christians also turned against Jews out of jealousy and added to Jewish woes by having them dismissed from government posts. The arrival of al-Hākim’s successor al-Zāhir, who ruled from 1020–34, again brought a more tolerable state of affairs for the Jews, although some local Christian officials continued to harass them. Overall, there is no doubt that the Jews were able to thrive, especially in trade, under this rule, yet there remained a desire to have their own land, to control their own destiny. This was continually reinforced in places like Spain which had always been a difficult place for Jews whether it was under Moor or Christian control and it was there in 1066 in Granada, 1,500 families, about 4,000 Jews, were massacred. At a later time, Poet Yehudah HaLevi, a Spanish Jew wrote of his longing to return to his natural home:
‘My heart is in the east, and I myself am on the western edge.
How can I enjoy drink and food! Could I ever enjoy it?
Alas, how do I fulfil my promise? My sacred vow? since
Zion is still in Roman bondage, and I in Arabic bonds,
A light thing would it seem to me
All goods of Spain are chaff to my eye, but
The dust on which once stood the tabernacle is gold to my eye!’
He called on all Jews to return home and he himself went to Israel in 1141 but died in Jerusalem a few months after his arrival. However, these Jewish hopes were not recognised by the Christian world and they had other ideas as they saw Jerusalem and Palestine as their ‘holy’ property and the Jews as religious heretics. Throughout the Christian world the Christians continued their allegations of the Blood Libel and in Blois, France in 1171 thirty-one Jews were burned at the stake for it. These persecutions and continued anti-Semitism were about to be followed by events that would bring slaughter on a greater scale - the Crusades.
The Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos held great ambitions to see his Empire once again flourish. He believed that through uniting himself with the Pope he might advance his cause. Urban II responded and preached a Crusade against the Islamic world and the recapture of the Holy Land. Urban had his own ambition which was to unite the Eastern and Western branches of Christendom. Men like Peter the Hermit would respond by raising armies to carry out the Pope’s wishes. He gathered over 40,000 men and women into a paupers’ army who marched forth believing they were protected by the Holy Ghost. It is not surprising that the first target of the Crusade was the Jews in Germany, throughout which the Jewish communities were massacred and their properties destroyed or confiscated. Forced conversion and expulsion was once again rife, which had not been seen on such a scale since the seventh century. One unofficial Crusade leader, Count Emicho, decided to attack Jewish communities, in the Rhineland. The Solomon bar Samson Chronicle written c.1140 noted of the period:
‘Look now, we are going a long way to seek out the profane shrine and to avenge ourselves on the Ishmaelites, when here in our very midst, are the Jews – they whose forefathers murdered and crucified him for no reason. Let us avenge ourselves on them from among our nations so that the name of Israel will no longer be remembered’.
Whilst many claimed to be acting for Christ, a great number of Crusaders saw their debts to their Jewish lenders wiped out in the massacres. One French knight, Godefroy de Bouillon, was plain in his thoughts:
‘… to go on this journey only after avenging the blood of the crucified one by shedding Jewish blood and completely eradicating any trace of those bearing the name ‘Jew,’ thus assuaging his own burning wrath.’
It is true that some Christian bishops were appalled at the bloody slaughter and forced conversions but their attempts to stem the blood-lust were generally in vain. The Crusaders would move on from Europe, heading for Jerusalem, and cut a bloody path through the countries they passed, massacring Jews along the way. This was despite the appeals of many bishops and indeed Henry IV, the Holy Roman Emperor, specifically instructed de Bouillon not to take part in them. By 1099, the Crusaders had reached Jerusalem and after a short siege, with the Jews and Moslems fighting together against them, the city was taken and the inhabitants were massacred and the city looted. Jews who took refuge in their synagogues found themselves locked in the buildings and burned alive. Many Jews were also taken alive to Europe and sold as slaves. Palestine was once more a conquered land with both Moslems and Jews murdered, expelled or running from the marauding Christian knights. Godefroy de Bouillon was left as the ruler of what became known as the Kingdom of Jerusalem – although he refused the crown himself – and after his death, his brother Baldwin was proclaimed king. Thomas F Madden wrote of Baldwin, that he was:
‘..the true founder of the kingdom of Jerusalem,’ and ‘had transformed a tenuous arrangement into a solid feudal state. With brilliance and diligence, he established a strong monarchy, conquered the Palestinian coast, reconciled the crusader barons, and built strong frontiers against the kingdom’s Muslim neighbours.’
It was estimated that only ‘1,000 poor Jewish families’ remained in Palestine. The massacre of the Jews particularly, was seen as a pious Catholic fury and Pope Urban’s ‘schismatic’ Orthodox Christians did not escape lightly, as they too suffered at the hands of the violent knights. The situation in Palestine did not cause much consternation across the Islamic world as they did not perceive it as a religious conflagration but rather more a Byzantine attack by mercenaries and soldiers of fortune.
Within the Islamic world there were divisions and the focus was diverted from Palestine. These divisions meant that for some areas under certain Caliphates, Jews were forced to convert or die. Many, with good reason, would flee from these persecutions to Egypt and Palestine, where more tolerant Caliphates gave them relative safety. Men like Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluny, made it their business to destroy Jews wherever they were found. In 1146 he wrote:
‘But why should we pursue the enemies of the Christian faith in far and distant lands while the vile blasphemers, far worse than any Saracens, namely the Jews, who are not far away from us, but who live in our midst, blaspheme and trample on Christ and the Christian sacraments so freely, insolently and with impunity.’
Once more the need for a safe independent homeland for the Jewish people was being made clear by the actions of those who would seek to destroy them.
In 1147, a second Crusade was launched against Islam and had some success but it had no real impact and after a huge defeat in Turkey a remnant fought its way through to Jerusalem. After a disastrous attack on Damascus, the Crusaders retreated to Jerusalem, divided and discouraged. From this point onwards, the tenure of the Kingdom of Jerusalem began to slip from the Crusader’s grasp. One outcome of the great tribulation caused by the mixture of Crusade massacres and Moslem reactions was the idea of an imminent coming of the Messiah. The revived belief was that the Messiah would come and establish the Jewish homeland and free them from all oppressors. Therefore, a number of men arose across the Islamic and Byzantine worlds claiming to be the new Messiah and called on their followers to prepare to march on Palestine and re-establish the glorious messianic kingdom in their homeland, Judea. One such man was David El-Roy who was a scholar of the Jewish and Islamic religions as well as a magus. Benjamin of Tudela wrote of him in his travel journal:
‘Ten years ago [1155] there rose a man of the name of David El-Roy, of the city of Amaria, who had studied under the prince of the captivity, Chisdai, and under Eli, the president of the college of Geon Jacob in the city of Baghdad, and who became an excellent scholar, being well versed in the Mosaic law, in the decisions of the rabbis, and in the Talmud; understanding also the profane sciences, the language and the writings of the Mohammedans, and the scriptures of the magicians and enchanters. He made up his mind to rise in rebellion against the King of Persia, to unite and collect the Jews who live in the mountains of Chaphton, and with them to engage in war with all Gentiles, making the conquest of Jerusalem his final object. He gave signs to the Jews by false miracles, and assured them, ‘the Lord has sent me to conquer Jerusalem, and to deliver you from the yoke of the Gentiles.’ Some of the Jews did believe in him, and called him Messiah.’
It is unclear what eventually happened to El-Roy but Benjamin recorded that he was killed by his father-in-law, it was said to protect the Jewish people, although ‘ten thousand florins’ he was alleged to have received from the king of Persia, may have also been an incentive. These and many so-called Messiahs failed to bring an independent homeland to the Jews and so their unhappy lot continued across the Christian world with men like Philip Augustus of France in 1180, imprisoning all Jews and demanding ransom for their release. The following year he would annul all loans from Jews to Christians and take a cut for himself, eventually expelling all Jews from Paris. The Crusader rule in Palestine had lasted for a century and in in 1187 the Islamic general Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub (Saladin), who came from Cairo, once more, conquered most of Palestine and took Jerusalem from the Christians. One irony of this situation was that the reports of the lot of the defeated Christians reached England and a cry for financial support went out. Henry II raised £70,000 (£1.5m, 2017) but decided this was not enough and turned to extort money from the Jews to assist the continued subjection of their own people. In Cassells’ 1865 Illustrated History of England we find this account:
‘The sum of £70,000, which was raised by this means, proving insufficient, Henry extorted large sums of money from the Jews and the people of that unhappy race were compelled, by imprisonment and other severe measures, to yield up their hoards. One-fourth of their whole property was thus extorted from the Jews, and probably, in many cases, a much larger sum.’
Saladin had removed Crusader rule from a number of towns and cities in the Palestinian area and as he moved to take Jerusalem he was met with an attempt by a small Christian remnant who tried to hold the city. His overwhelming army did not take long to bring the city under his control and he proved a merciful conqueror with an agreement to allow the Christians to leave unharmed and no mass slaughter occurred.
Whilst the removal of the Crusaders meant the Jews continued as second-class citizens in their own land under Islamic rule, they were treated better by Saladin than they were by the Christians. Indeed, Saladin had Jews around him and appeared to show a great tolerance to non-Moslems. One prominent Jew, Maimonides, who lived in Cairo and acted as a doctor to Saladin, wrote:
‘My duties to the Sultan [Saladin’s son] are very heavy. I am obliged to visit him every day, early in the morning, and when he or any of his children or concubines are indisposed, I cannot leave Cairo but must stay during most of the day in the palace. It also frequently happens that one or two of the officers fall sick and I must attend to their healing. Hence, as a rule, every day, early in the morning, I go to Cairo and, even if nothing unusual happens there, I do not return to Fostat until the afternoon. Then I am famished but I find the antechambers filled with people, both Jews and Gentiles, nobles and common people, judges and policemen, friends and enemies – a mixed multitude who await the time of my return.’
Saladin demonstrated his tolerance when he called on all Jews to return to their homeland. Many responded and came to live, work and practice their religion in peace, untroubled by the anti-Semitism that still swept across Christian Europe not yet conquered by Islam. The Jewish poet Judah Ben Solomon Harizi, wrote twenty-five years later:
‘But why didn’t the Jews settle here [in Jerusalem] when the city was in the hands of the Christians? Because they [the Christians] said that we killed their God, and that we offended them; and if they would have caught us here, they would have eaten us alive. But God raised the spirit of the Ishmaelite King Saladin, in the year 4950 from the creation of the world [1190 Christian era], Imbuing him with wisdom and courage. He marched with an army from Egypt, besieged Jerusalem, and God handed over the city into his hands. Then he sent out a call through all the cities: let each one of the decedents of Ephraim return there [from Ashur and Mitzraim] Mesopotamia and Egypt – and from all the localities where they are dispersed.’
Despite the situation in Palestine there were still a few pockets in the Islamic world where Jews did not fare well, being made to wear distinctive clothing that ridiculed them and made them stand out, much like the Nazis would do centuries later.
The victory of Saladin caused deep anger and passion in Christendom because of the loss of the Holy City. Henry II of England and Philip II of France, who had been in conflict, buried their differences and called for a third Crusade to retake Jerusalem. On Henry’s death Richard I, the Lionheart, became king of England and his beginnings as king demonstrated what could be expected by Jews during his reign. William H. Rule, writing in 1854, from Latin and Syrian sources, gave an account of the king’s coronation that amply demonstrates why the Jews needed a country of their own. The king banned all Jews from entering the place of his coronation because he had religious superstitions about what harm they might do him. However, the Jews of England wanted to express their loyalty to the king and to honour him and attempted to deliver gifts at the event. A knight called Brompton attacked the Jews to be then joined by others whilst ‘there sat Richard. At the time he said not a word to still the tumult, but left the sufferers to their fate’. Later he would take action against the Pudsey and Percy families, who were involved in the anti-Jewish attacks and concerned about the finances the Jews supplied, took steps to protect them This lack of immediate action acted as a signal to the crowds who then began what was described as a massacre of the Jews throughout London. The record notes, ‘the Priests and Monks enjoyed the sport to well to interrupt it’. Jews of both sexes and of all ages were murdered and some who took refuge in home or synagogue found themselves surrounded and the building set on fire and left them to burn to death. Richard of Devizes wrote chillingly in terms that would echo under the Nazis in the Second World War with the first use of ‘holocaust’ to describe the treatment of the Jews:
‘On the very day of the coronation, about that solemn hour in which the Son of God was immolated to the Father, a sacrifice of Jews to their father the devil was commenced in the city of London; and so long was the duration of this mystery, that the holocaust could scarcely be accomplished the ensuing day. The other cities and towns of the kingdom emulated the faith of the Londoners, and with a like devotion dispatched their bloodsuckers with blood to hell’
Indeed in York in 1190 Crusaders preparing to set out for Palestine, could not wait to satisfy their bloodlust, carrying out a massacre of Jews and taking others to the continent to be sold as slaves. Local residents, owing money to their Jewish lenders, joined the horror to remove their debts. This graphic account of Ephraim of Bonn who recorded the incident demonstrates the horror and degradation of the Jewish people:
‘The number of those slain and burned was one hundred and fifty souls, men and women, all holy bodies. Their houses moreover they destroyed, and they despoiled their gold and silver and the splendid books which they had written in great number, precious as gold and as much fine gold, there being none like them for their beauty and splendour. These they brought to Cologne and to other places, where they sold them the Jews.’
In the same year at Norwich, the Jews were also targeted in another Blood Libel charge when all Jews who had not taken shelter in the castle were slaughtered and after the event only eight Jewish tax-payers were found registered.
Richard left behind this bloody business and led the Crusade against both Moslem and Jew and had much success in Palestine but could not take the city of Jerusalem. Finally, after battles at Jaffa, Saladin realised that compromise had to be made and negotiations were entered into with the English king - there was no point in further warfare. Moslem control of the city was agreed and Christians could visit as long as they remained unarmed. At least for those Jews left in Jerusalem this was good news. With this Richard returned home in 1192 and following his departure the Kingdom of Jerusalem was no more than a remnant of knights who withdrew to centre themselves in Acre where the Crusaders intended to have a foothold in Palestine and future hope of once more conquering Jerusalem.
The Christian world was frustrated with the continued occupation of Palestine by the Moslems, particularly Jerusalem, which in their minds was their ‘Holy City’. However, they had much more on their plate than they could handle with heresies breaking out all over territory where the Pope’s authority ran. In 1184 in France as a response to the Catharist heresy the Medieval Inquisition was the first of these to take place in Europe. There was also the continued resentment against the Jews who refused to acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah and who were still held accountable for deicide by the popes. The Jews too would be brought into the witch-hunts of the Inquisition, with torture, forced conversion or expulsion. In 1202, under the inspiration of Pope Innocent III, a fourth Crusade was launched through Venice. The plan was to attack the heart of the Moslem Empire through Egypt as it was thought that this tactic would lead to the eventual taking of Jerusalem from the Islamic grip. First though with Byzantine collusion their sights were sat on Constantinople. From here the Crusade would march on to reclaim the Holy Land and once more the Christian world would establish its authority over ‘the sacred ground where Christ walked’. However, the sacking of Constantinople would go down in history as one of the most shameful acts of rape, plunder and pillage by the Christian Crusaders. Indeed it was noted that they were ‘madmen raging against the sacred’ who refused to ‘spare pious maidens’. In a moving address in 2001, Pope John Paul II rightly expressed sorrow for what the Crusaders had done and stated:
‘It is tragic that the assailants, who set out to secure free access for Christians to the Holy Land, turned against their brothers in the faith. That they were Latin Christians fills Catholics with deep regret.’
By the end of this bloody period, the fourth Crusade would come to an end, finally splitting Eastern and Western Christianity without achieving its initial goal set by Innocent – the retaking of Palestine and Jerusalem.
Pope Innocent III and his successor Honorius III would spend eight more years (1213-1221) in a fifth Crusade to occupy Palestine and reclaim Jerusalem. Even though the Crusade was to attack the Islamic occupiers of Jerusalem, Honorius in his pronouncements would bring into the matter the papal views against the Jews, using a passage of Scripture (Matt 23:37) that was often the basis of charges against them:
‘Repetition of Jerusalem is like a complaint or objurgations [in the mouth of the Apostle]. It is as if he said: ‘O Jerusalem, I have promoted you to the rank of master of the nations and first of the provinces, but because you kill the prophets and the Lord of the prophets, I condemn you to hell. Jerusalem, I honoured you by granting you a temple, a clergy and the royal dignity, but because you stone those who are sent to you, I will not leave any stone standing within your walls, as you did not recognise the time of my visit.’
Once more a huge army was raised initially from Hungary and Austria. The Hungarian army under King Andrew II was the largest ever Crusader army to attempt to retake Jerusalem, but they failed.
There was a sixth Crusade in 1299 led by Frederick II of Germany, who did not join in the previous Crusade. For what looked like political reasons he married Isabella (Yolanda), who was the daughter of John of Brienne, king of Jerusalem. On marriage he claimed the title for himself. As an Arabic speaker, Frederick decided on a more peaceful approach to Al-Kamil and he entered negotiations with him which resulted in the gaining of Jerusalem, Nazareth and Bethlehem, along with a route giving access to the sea. He entered Jerusalem on 18 February 1229, where he was crowned King of Jerusalem and considered himself to be a messiah, a second David. With his diplomatic skills he achieved more than all the bloody Crusades attempted previously. His attitude to the Jewish people was favourable as in 1236 he issued a refutation of the allegations of the Blood Libel. In this document he made clear that Jews were entitled to be treated fairly:
‘Providing then for the security and peaceful status of the Jews of Germany, we cause this special grace to be extended to all Jews who belong directly to our court. That is to say, copying and adhering to the edicts of our aforesaid grandfather, we confirm for the Jews by our natural mercy the above privilege and those stipulations contained in it, in the same manner as our divine and august grandfather granted to the Jews of Worms and their associates.’
As to the specific charge of the Blood Libel he had made investigations and stated:
‘When their findings were published on this matter, then it was clear that it was not indicated in the Old Testament or in the New that Jews lust for the drinking of human blood. Rather, precisely the opposite, they guard against the intake of all blood, as we find expressly in the biblical book which is called in Hebrew, ‘Bereshit’ [Genesis], in the laws given by Moses and in the Jewish decrees which are called in Hebrew, ‘Talmud.’ We can surely assume that for those to whom even the blood of permitted animals is forbidden, the desire for human blood cannot exist, as a result of the horror of the matter, the prohibition of nature, and the common bond of the human species in which they also join Christians. Moreover, they would not expose to danger their substance and persons for that which they might have freely when taken from animals. By this sentence of the princes, we pronounce the Jews of the aforesaid place and the rest of the Jews of Germany completely absolved of this imputed crime. Therefore, we decree by the authority of the present privilege that no one, whether cleric or layman, proud or humble, whether under the pretext of preaching or otherwise, judges, lawyers, citizens, or others, shall attack the aforesaid Jews individually or as a group as a result of the aforesaid charge. Nor shall anyone cause them notoriety or harm in this regard. Let all know that, since a lord is honoured through his servants, whoever shows himself favourable and helpful to our serfs the Jews will surely please us. However, whoever presumes to contravene the edict of this present confirmation and of our absolution bears the offense of our majesty.’
With this attitude from Frederick, the Jews in Jerusalem were able to co-exist with Christians and Moslems in peace. It is to be noted that Frederick was a highly intellectual man and held views that were agnostic about Moses, Jesus and Mohammed and it was these views that continued to cause conflict with papal authorities. Crusaders acting on behalf of these papal authorities continued their slaughter across Europe and in France in 1236 the Crusaders attacked the Jews at Anjou, Poitou, Bordeaux and Angouleme, and gave them the choice of Christian baptism or death. Five hundred Jews feigned baptism to avoid death but more than three thousand would not yield and were slaughtered with men, women, many pregnant, and children included, some being trampled under the horses of their killers.
Jerusalem and its environs remained peaceful until a Crusader baron, Peter of Brittany, attacked a caravan belonging to An-Nasir Dawud, a Kurdish sultan, in 1239. He in turned attacked Jerusalem which was weakly defended and destroyed all the fortifications of the city. He had no intention to continue occupation of Jerusalem and so it was returned after a few months to Christian control. However, there were conflicts within the Moslem/Kurdish groupings and alliances were formed with Crusaders which caused various movements of power in the region. The ripples of the papal Crusade against Jews continued to reverberate and in 1240, Duke Jean le Roux expelled the Jews from Brittany, in order to wipe out the debts owed to Jews, debts that were taken on to help fund the Crusade. Eventually in 1244 Jerusalem itself came under siege by the Khwarezmians, a Moslem group originating in Turkey but also consisting of many mercenaries. On taking the city, they completely destroyed it and all Christians were expelled. This signalled the beginning of the end of all Crusader influences in the region with the triumphant Ayyubids, a Kurdish Sunni Moslem grouping, gaining the upper hand and once more brought Palestine and the Transjordan under Islamic control. However, there would be more Crusades that would make final attempts to bring Christian rule back to the Holy Land but as we will see they were in the main pathetic and unsuccessful.