The period from 1096 till 1291 is called the Crusades. The Crusades started with the proclamation for the first crusade by Pope Urbanus II at the councils of Clermont. Pope Urbanus II (1035-29-7-1099), known as Odo of Chatillon, was a French native. He was head of the Catholic Church from 12-3-1088 till his death on 29-7-1099. The Holy land was under Islam rule and the Byzantine Empire was in danger to be taken over by the Muslim Turks. The emperor of the Byzantine empire, Alexius I Comneus requested Pope Urbanus II to help him to defeat the Muslims. In July 1095, Pope Urbanus travelled to his homeland for a preaching tour to recruit men for the expedition to the Holy land. His goals were to collect an army to assist the Byzantine empire and to free the Holy land from Muslim Rule and to make Jerusalem a Christian city again. He promised forgiveness and pardon for all the past sins of those who would fight to reclaim the holy land from Muslims and free the eastern churches. This pardon would also apply to those that would fight the Muslims in Spain. His most impressive speech was on November 27,1095 during the Council
of Clemont. To reach as many as possible people the speech was given in the openair. This was the speech. that triggered, wat later became known as the first Crusade.
The word “Crusade” comes from the Latin word “crux” which means “cross.” A crusade is a war fought under the sign of the cross. The term “crusade” appeared around the year 1210, more than a century after the launching of the first “armed Pilgrimage” to Jerusalem. The Crusades were military campaigns organized by popes and western Christian kingdoms to safeguard the pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land and to recapture Jerusalem and the Holy Land from the Muslims.
Between 1095 CE and 1270 CE the Popes and Kingdoms organized 8 major crusades and several unofficial smaller once. After capturing a city or area from the Muslims in the Levant crusaders started to build, rebuild and to renovate fortresses, castles, towers, and fortified villages to defend them self’ and to secure
the supply of food and other equipment (The Levant in Arabic called the BeladAl-Shaam, or the Morning land is the historic, geographical name for a part of southwest -Asia-on the east side of the Mediterranean Sea. It is the today’s countries Israel, Cyprus and parts of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey. Biblical archaeologists are using the term Levantine archelogy. and food scholars are still speaking of Levantine cuisine.
When the first Crusader armies arrived in the Holy Land, they found all kinds of new types of food and ingredients. In their eyes it was alien like and tasted food. Because they did not like the food the armies became hungry and unwilling to fight. Huge industries were set up, especially in Italy to produce food they were used to eat. For more than a century hundreds of ships were transporting on weekly base food, arms and other supplies from Genoa, Pisa, and Venice to the harbours in Holy Land. Slowly the Crusaders got used to the taste of the new discovered food. They found out that many herbs such as coriander, parsley, basil, and rosemary, already well known in Europe but not used in cookery, were very tasty in meals. Merchants started to transport the in Europe unknown herbs, condiments, and fruits food back to Italy and introduced them in cookery. The Europeans fell in love with the Arabic system of cooking. Cooks learned how to use large caldrons hanging permanently over a low burning fire and to add daily to the caldron whatever they had.
This way of cooking became so popular that in every Crusader camp and castle the caldrons were used in the kitchens. Cooks prepared thick soups, stews, dumplings made of rye flour and even puddings in the pots. Crusader food was often highly spiced to hide that the meat already had gone rancid. Cooks prepared in these periods, in our eyes, strange food combinations like artichoke soup with mustard and yoghurt, Mutton with string beans and pears, stewed celery and orange trifle.
The end of the Crusades is marked with fall of Acre in 1291.
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