Reflections on the Fifth Anniversary of 9/11: Joseph F. O'Callaghan

Source: O'Callaghan, Joseph F. Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvannia Press, 2003.

Adapted and modified from pages: xi - xiv

"The epic battle between Islam and Christianity for dominance in the Mediterranean, extending over many centuries, occupies a principal place in the history of medieval Europe. Historians of the Middle Ages, however, have tended to take a narrow view of that conflict by focusing primarily on the crusades directed to the Holy Land in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

"This book attempts to redress the balance in part by emphasizing that the clash of arms between Christians and Muslims in the Iberian peninsula from the early eighth century onward, commonly labeled the reconquest, was transformed into a crusade by the papacy during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

"Successive popes accorded to Christian warriors willing to participate in the peninsular wars against Islam the same crusading benefits offered to those going to the Holy Land. Thus if one wishes to study the history of the crusades one has to take a broader view of the entire Mediterranean to include medieval Spain.

"Although the events described in this book occurred eight or nine hundred years ago, the tragedy of 11 September 2001 forcibly reminded the world that the rhetoric of crusade, holy war, and jihad, with all the intensity of feeling that those words conjure, is a powerful weapon and is still with us."

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