Holy war is an extremist resource that the great monotheistic religions have used throughout history to protect what they consider a threat to its dogmas and its sacred places. At the origin of the first "holy wars" ever fought in history are Islam and Christianity.
The holy war is a war originated by differences between religions, and also as a strategy to spread their belief through expansionism using violence.
Holy War and Islam
The Islamic holy war had its starting point in 622, when "Mohammed", after being threatened with death, by the opponents of Islam, migrated from "Mecca" to "Medina", a city 300 km north of Mecca, together with its followers.
In Medina, Muhammad became head of a new religious community, which in 629, together with an army of ten thousand men, made a pilgrimage to Mecca, which was conquered with virtually no resistance.
Muhammad expanded Islam into various territories, based on the religious duties of Jihad, which describes the duty to carry out "holy wars". After his death, the first four caliphs, his successors, conquered Palestine, Persia, Syria, Armenia, Mesopotamia and Egypt. In less than a century the Arabs formed a gigantic empire. Arabs became soldiers of Allah. In conquered territories, conversion to Islam was slow and often did not happen.
holy war and Christianity
During the Middle Ages, the crusades were mainly military expeditions, organized by the Church, with the objective of to reconquer the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem from Muslim rule, and took the form of a true “war saint”.
The Catholic Church started to organize military expeditions, with the objective of projecting its influence in the territory. Byzantine, dominated by the Orthodox Church, which was the Byzantine Church created with the Eastern Schism in 1054, and independent of the Pope of Pomegranate.
Over the course of almost two hundred years, eight expeditions were organized and caused a lot of violence against non-Christian peoples. The most successful was the First Crusade, which surrounded and conquered Jerusalem and even organized several kingdoms in feudal molds, however, in the 12th century, the Turks reconquered the kingdoms, including Jerusalem.
The Third Crusade was organized by kings and emperors, with the aim of retaking Jerusalem from the Turks. Not having achieved its objectives, it resulted in the establishment of diplomatic agreements with the Turks that made the pilgrimages possible.
Also learn more about:
- Islam
- Jihad
- Crusades
