HIH1505 - The First Crusade
2018/9 Module description
| Staff | Dr Alun Williams - Convenor |
|---|---|
| Credit Value | 15 |
| ECTS Value | 7.5 |
| NQF Level | 4 |
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Co-requisites | None |
| Duration of Module | Term 2: 11 weeks; |
Module description
This module is based on the study of sources and texts relating to the First Crusade which took place between 1096 and 1099, prompted by the preaching of Pope Urban II at Clermont-Ferrand in November, 1095. Western pilgrims, equipped with a fiery faith and the weapons of war, travelled across Europe to the Levant to wrest Christianity’s holy sites from Muslim occupation. We will examine how historians, modern and medieval, viewed the nature, motivation and purpose of the First Crusade and how evidence has been used to construct arguments about the nature of this complex conflict of interests and ideologies. We will also consider the impact of the conflict on Christian, Muslim and Jewish and writers.
The primary aim of this module is to help you develop your critical faculties as a historian – to be sceptical of the documentary evidence on which historical arguments are based and more thorough in your appraisal of such arguments.
Even though the First Crusade took place over 900 years ago, the contemporary material available to historians is both rich and varied, though surviving texts were usually written in Latin, Old French, Arabic or Attic Greek and are often difficult to understand. We will look at examples of these texts and will be studying modern English translations that are available. Whether translations of medieval sources affect their meaning to any great extent is an issue that we may need to consider.
As we focus on the First Crusade and its aftermath, examples of the questions we will be addressing are:
- What is meant by Crusade?
- How were the events of 1096-99 perceived by Muslims and Jews?
- Why did the Crusade begin?
- Was it an unprincipled land grab or the result of a complex religious mind-set?
A challenge of medieval history is using contemporary sources to understand how and why events took place and also to understand the ideologies, motivations and values of the protagonists. Our quest will take us well beyond the historical narrative.
Module aims
This module aims to acquaint students with some of the key problems arising from the use of various sources for the history of the First Crusade and the evidence they provide about a wider range of issues. At the Council of Clermont (1095) Pope Urban II called on the people of western Europe to go to the aid of their fellow Christians in the East against the forces of Islam. Whether he had in mind a small army of mercenaries to aid the Byzatines or the huge popular movement of perhaps 100,000 people which emerged, and which led to the establishment of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, is a matter of considerable debate, as are the motives of those involved in the Crusade. Contemporary texts will allow us to study the Crusade from the point of view of the Pope, the Crusaders themselves, and those they encountered en-route: the Jews in the Rhineland, the Byzantine Christians and the Muslims. These texts will themselves be analysed with the aim of demonstrating to students problems of the reliability and bias of historical sources.
ILO: Module-specific skills
- 1. Assess the reasons for the success of the First Crusade
- 2. Assess how the idea of the crusade developed.
- 3. Work critically with a range of sources for the history of the First Crusade written from a variety of perspectives
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
- 4. Identify the problems of using historical sources, e.g. bias, reliability, etc., and to compare the validity of different types of source, e.g. chronicles, letters and charters
- 5. Answer a question briefly and concisely
- 6. Present work orally, to respond to questions orally, and to think quickly of questions to ask other students
ILO: Personal and key skills
- 7. Work independently and in group work, including the presentation of material for group discussion, developed through the mode of learning
- 8. Digest, select and organise material to produce, to a deadline, a coherent and cogent argument, developed through the mode of assessment
- 9. Work with others in a team and to interact effectively with the tutor and the wider group
- 10. Write to a very tight word-length
Syllabus plan
Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:
- Introductory lecture
- Calling the Crusade
- The Response to the Crusade
- The ‘People’s Crusade’
- Jewish reactions to the crusaders
- Byzantine perceptions of the crusaders
- Fighting the Turks
- Dissent amongst crusaders reflected in chronicles
- The crusade through Muslim eyes
- The Crusade ideal
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 22 | 128 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled learning and teaching | 2 | 2 hour lecture: Introduction to module |
| Scheduled learning and teaching | 20 | 10 x 2 hour seminars. At a meeting of the whole class generally a different group of 3-4 students will give a presentation to the whole class, followed by class discussion and working through the sources for that week carefully. Additional sources may be issued in the class and the lecturer will also use the time to set up issues for the following week. |
| Guided independent study | 128 | Students prepare for the session through reading and research; writing a weekly source essay and preparing one group presentation in the course of the term. |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Group presentation (3-4 students) | 10-15 minutes | 1-4, 6-7, 9 | Oral |
| Lowest mark from portfolio of 5 source commentaries | 500 words | 1-5, 7-8, 10 | Marks and written comments |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 0 | 0 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 highest marks from portfolio of 5 source commentaries | 60 | 2000 words (500 per commentary) (15% per commentary) | 1-5, 7-8, 10 | Mark and written comments |
| Essay on sources | 40 | 1500 words | 1-5, 7-8, 10 | Mark and written comments |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 highest marks from portfolio of 5 source commentaries | 4 highest marks from portfolio of 5 source commentaries | 1-5, 7, 8, 10 | Referral/Deferral period |
| 1500 word essay | 1500 words essay | 1-5, 7, 8, 10 | Referral/Deferral period |
Re-assessment notes
Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.
Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
- Hans Eberhard Mayer, The Crusades, 2nd edn (Oxford, 1988)
- Kenneth M. Setton and Marshall W. Baldwin, (eds), A History of the Crusades I: the First Hundred Years (Madison, Wisc.,1969)
- Steven Runciman, A history of the Crusades, vol I: The First Crusade and the Foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem,
- (Cambridge, 1951)
- Jonathan Riley-Smith, The First Crusaders, 1095-1131 (Cambridge, 1997)
- Jonathan Riley-Smith, The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading (London, 1986)
- John France, Victory in the East : a Military History of the First Crusade (Cambridge, 1994)
- Jonathan Philips (ed.), The First Crusade (Manchester, 1997)
Module has an active ELE page?
Yes
Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources
Available as distance learning?
No
Last revision date
12/12/2018
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