4 Accounts of the Crusades

Complete a paper on the Four Accounts of the First Crusade contained in the required course
textbook:
Saint Leo University. (Geary, Patrick.) THY550: History of Christianity (Custom
Textbook). Four Accounts of the First Crusade. Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
2012. Print. ISBN 13: 978-1-4426-0708-8
This custom textbook contains four different recountings of the First Crusade: one from a
Frankish Christian, one from a Jew, one from an Arabic Muslim, and one from a Byzantine
Christian. More specifically, the paper will compare and contrast, and offer reasons for, the discrepancies between the different accounts, based on the historical contexts and situations of the different chroniclers. The paper will also include a discussion of the Saint Leo University core value of respect relevant to the paper’s subject matter.

The Four Accounts of the First Crusade Paper must:
 Compare and contrast the four accounts in general. What are the similarities and
differences in the accounts’ focuses? What does each judge to be important? What are
the tones, styles, and attitudes of each? How are the interpretations similar and
different? Also, because the discipline of history involves identifying significant as
opposed to trivial happenings, there may be something or someone important who is
mentioned only in one account. This could itself be a difference between the four
accounts (i.e., only one account discusses this important person or event). What you’ve
learned about the Crusades in general may also be helpful for identifying if an event or
happening is significant.
 Compare and contrast multiple accounts of the same person or event. If two, three,
or all four of the accounts discuss the same event or person, then how are their
descriptions similar and how are they different?
 Offer reasons for the differences and discrepancies. Of course, the nationalities,
ethnicities, and religions of the authors would certainly be reasons for the differences
and discrepancies. Stating this fact without further explanation is not enough though. We
must further ask why would an Arab give a different account of the same event or person
than a Frenchman? What were the political, social, geographical, economic, religious,
and/or ecclesiastical, etc., differences between these Jews, Frenchmen, Greeks, and
Arabs at that time that could explain why their accounts differ? We know their nationality
or religious group, but what do we know about that nationality or religious group from our
study of the Crusades that could account for the differences and discrepancies?
 Include references to both the textbook and primary readings throughout the
essay to support the points being made. Additional sources besides the course
materials are not required. Additional sources may be used but only if they are academic
sources pertinent to the topic. These would include relevant, peer-reviewed journal
articles found in the library databases (EBSCOHost, JSTOR, ProQuest), eBooks, and
reference works (e.g., the Oxford Reference Collection) located in Saint Leo’s Cannon
Memorial Library online.
 Use no websites other than those in the assigned readings or course
Webliography.