11th Century/1000s AD

The Seljuks Turks

Key Terms:
 Baghdad [1055 AD]
 Alp Arslan
 Manzikert [1071]
 Alexius I [1081-1118]
 Urban II [1088-1099]
 Cleremont [1095]
 The 1st Crusade [1096-1099]

I. The Century of the Turks

A. Background Information
1. Originated in the north east of China
a. Caused the Chinese various types of troubles & afterwards flee to the west and end up in the middle east
2. They were hired by the Muslims as soldiers and eventually convert over to Islam and to some extent are
civilized people and the Turks have been Islamic ever since then
a. They were still very war-like even though they were “civilized”
 They began to operate a plan to seize control and eventually seize Baghdad
 Made themselves very powerful and were no longer controlled by the Muslims
 They now control an empire that border the byzantine empire
II. Beginning of Their Era
A. The Battle of Manzikert [1071]
1. Alp Arslan & the Turks defeat the byzantine army
2. The Turks were able to take the territories later known as Turkey
a. Marked the beginning of the long and declining fall of the byzantine empire
 The territory becomes taken by the Turks in which they take all their wealth and man power
 Constantinople survives but the byzantine empire really weakens
 Beginning of the end!
B. The battles that Arslan kept going around and doing eventually led to the infamous crusades
1. Military expeditions launched by the military Christians in the middle east
a. There were dozens of official crusades and many unofficial ones, these last for about 2 centuries
 They all start as a result of Manzikert
III. The Crusades
A. Background Information
1. Alexius I
a. Ruler of the Byzantine Empire
 Wants to re-conquer the lands taken by the Turks
2. Urban II
a. Receives a letter from Alexius I for military aid and help, he sees this as an opportunity and decides to say
that he’s going to do a speech event
 People come all over the Middle East to see what this pope is going to say and he calls for a great
military crusade!
 Military crusade to help their fellow Christians in the byzantine empire and calls them out to liberate
our holy lands from the Turks
  All the soldiers there jump up and yell, “God wills it!”
3. Why did people sign up for the crusades?
a. Piety
 People believed in everything about religion at this time period.
 Believed that the pope spoke for God and by saying that he wants this crusade, it’s like saying God
wants them to go have this war. The pope provided them with motivation!
 They believe that their sins would be absolved
b. Pugnaciousness
 The love of fighting, they know that if they conquer the east, all of the lands to the east would be theirs
c. Greed
 Holy lands were fabled for their wealth and many people began to sign up
B. The First Crusade
1. About 30,000 soldiers went onto the crusade and most of the first crusade soldiers were French
a. They were supposed to help the byzantine but instead go out to the holy lands and attack the Muslims
 There was a total of four crusades established into the holy lands
2. Came to a victorious conclusion when the city of Jerusalem was captured
a. Apparently they killed so many that the blood practically were up to their knees
 After killing all of these people, they go to the church and tell the god of what they’ve done and expect
to be forgiven of their sins
C. The Third Crusade
1. All the three kings sign up – King of Franks, Germany, & England
a. However, a series of unfortunate events happen and the alliance breaks up after one of the kings died from
a drowning in a river
 Out of nowhere, kids then expect that God has called them to go, the kids then head to the
Mediterranean and were mistaken and were captured and then kidnapped and sold as slaves