Frankish-Muslim Relations during the Crusades Essay

Frankish-Muslim Relations during the Crusades - Essay Example Inter-Religious wars manifest in the nature of arguments between Muslims and Christians and their mode of reference to each other. For example, the Franks are enemies to the Muslims and at the same time their property owners. The essence of the crusade period is the inferior consideration that each member of the two distinct religions gave to each other. Apparently, the arguments about the episodes of the interactions between Muslims and Christians are judgmental because the two authors Ibn Jubayr and Ibn Manqidh were both Muslims. They majorly present the Christian Franks as the dominant group, inflicting suffering and misconduct against the Muslim community. It very rarely mentions the incidents where Muslims did injustice and unfairness. From the two accounts, the only exceptional case of Christian virtue demonstrated by the Frankish community was where a knight defended a Muslim Merchant from a crowd that was planning vengeance on him (Munqidh 38). This was after another knight w oman alleged that the Muslim had murdered her brother. 2. Research Questions The research is based on two major questions: 2.1. Question 1: How were the Muslims and the Frankish Community relating and how was their interaction? 2.2. Question 2: Was the Crusade Period a war or one community was dominating the other? 3. Discussion To answer the questions, the interaction between the two communities was full of interreligious isolation. The Christian Franks showed many discriminative alignments against the Muslims as is evident in the boundaries between the two religious groups. A good example is the â€Å"The Tree Measure†. Further discussion will reveal more details to validity the responses to the study questions. 3.1. Segregation or Interaction Interreligious separation as discussed by the two authors present the Franks and Muslims as two different communities, living in total separation. In fact, not even a meal can bring them together except where one party compromises his or her faith. In this regard, there were farms belonging to the Muslim Community, such as Tibnin. The rightful ownership the Farms were controlled by the Frankish community (the property owners). However, Ibn Jubayr acknowledges that in that settlement, the Muslims and Christian Franks were living peacefully. This is ironical since at the same time, he claims that Muslims had to surrender part of their harvests to the Franks as poll tax. The perpetrators of racial and religious injustices were majorly the Franks, who forced the Muslims to observe the conventional laws developed by their own government (the Franks). This robbed the Muslims of their freedom and rights. The Franks, as Ibn Jubayr claims, robbed the Muslim habitats and spared the Frankish side (Jubair 52). In Syria, there is a very clear example of religious discrimination and isolation, where the Frankish merchants grabbed mosques and turned them into Churches, much to the disappointment of the Muslims. They turned the areas previously used by Muslims for worshipping, into abomination by erecting Christian crosses, slaughtering pigs and defiling them with excrement. In all this, Ibn Jubayr claims that Muslims could only weep with their eyes full of tears of pain. 3.2. Points of Interaction The points of interaction between Muslims and Christians were the trading points such as Acre in Syria. This was the unloading point for ships. The Muslims and Christian Franks from all regions gathered in this place and interacted but of course, with