Crusaders and Saracens comparison

Crusaders and Saracens Comparison. Saracen was a general term used extensively by later medieval era Christian writers for refer to Muslims. It should be emphasized that even though crusading was not exclusively responsible for the worsening of the relations between Islam and Christianity during the Middle Ages, it contributed substantially towards it (Manion 129). The Crusaders were Christian soldiers responsible for the Crusades, which were military campaigns authorized by the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages while the Saracens were Muslims.
Unlike the crusaders, the Saracens were not good at fighting full-scale battles. This was evident in the war with the first Crusaders. In April 1097, armies of the First Crusade heading for Jerusalem landed in Constantinople. However, they were ambushed by the Saracens, who employed a scorched earth policy (poisoning water wells and burning orchards), during their march (Child, Nigel, and Martyn 16).
The Crusaders fought back the ambush successfully because the Saracens engaged them in a full-scale war, which the Crusaders were extremely good at (Child, Nigel, and Martyn 16). The Saracens reacted to the Crusader’s march round Jerusalem by raising Saracen crosses on the city wall, after which they spat on the crusaders, insulted them, and subjected them to the indignation of which it is indecent to speak (Mackay and John 313). The Crusaders were unwavering in their quest for revenge.
Unlike the Saracens, the Crusaders were sometimes barbaric and unrestrained in their warfare.

On June 7, 1099, the crusaders reached Jerusalem (Child, Nigel, and Martyn 19). While the Saracens had fortified the wall, which made the task of conquering it difficult, they managed to breach the city’s defenses, killing an estimated 40,000 men, women, and children in their wake. The massacre filled the whole Muslim world with dismay and horror.

Works Cited
Child, John, Nigel Kelly, and Martyn J. Whittock. The Crusades. New York, NY: P. Bedrick, 1996. Print.
Mackay, Charles, and John Templeton. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Philadelphia, PA: Templeton Foundation Press, 2012. Print.
Manion, Lee. Narrating the Crusades: Loss and Recovery in Medieval and Early Modern English Literature. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2014. Print.