The Crusades can be framed as a response to prior Muslim invasion

Evidence

St Bernard: Ep. 458; cf. 457 and de laude 111. Vitry: one MS (Paris, B. nat., lat. 6244) presents the biography of Muhammad specifically in juxtaposition to the Islamic aggression and the Christian defence, i.e. Crusade: ‘Vita Machometi, qualiter seduxit terram sanctam, sive ecclesiam orientalem’. There was, as for all Christians always, a special mystique of Jerusalem: ‘umbilicus est terrarum, quasi alter Paradisus deliciarum’ (Robert, loc. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2106 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

With this, Pope Urban II backed the reconquista or the re-conquering of Spain (c.1000 Ce) as well as sanctioning the liberation of Italy and Sicily in 1061. Ten years later, the Byzantine empire’s Alexus I called on the Vatican and the entire roman Christendom to unite and mobilise against the advancing Abbasid armies. The Vatican agreed and called upon Christians to undertake a ‘militaristic pilgrimage’ – popularly known as the Crusades – to defeat the burgeoning Muslim armies and free the holy city of Jerusalem. — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 172 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The Crusades were framed as a militaristic pilgrimage against Islamic advance — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 172; Medieval Latin writers framed the Crusade as Christian defence against Islamic aggression — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2106

Broader Connections

• Medieval Latin writers framed the Crusade as Christian defence against Islamic aggression #corroborates (0.98) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2106
• The Crusades were framed as a militaristic pilgrimage against Islamic advance #expands (0.95) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 172