Ömer Şahin - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Ömer Şahin
Thirteenth-century Catholic Europe was a period in which the authority of the Church and the reli... more Thirteenth-century Catholic Europe was a period in which the authority of the Church and the religious fanaticism it fostered remained powerful. In this context, the Crusading project initiated by the Church evolved beyond a mere military campaign against Muslims, transforming into a broader form of religious struggle that also targeted groups such as Orthodox Christians, Jews, pagans in the Baltic region, and Cathars. While the Church sought the exclusion of these groups from the Catholic world, secular authorities often showed reluctance to comply, driven by various material interests. This tension between religious motivations and worldly expectations also led to contradictions in the approach toward Muslim communities. This study examines the forced relocation of Muslims in Sicily by Frederick II to the city of Lucera, analyzing the exile through the lens of the tension between religious discourse and secular needs. Although Lucera was founded in a region close to the heart of Catholic Europe, Frederick II granted Muslims a range of religious freedoms, including the construction of mosque, the public call to prayer, adjudication before a qadi, and the proclamation of sermons (khutbah) in the name of the caliph. The paper argues that this exceptional arrangement in Lucera was the outcome of Frederick II's pragmatic governance, shaped by his pursuit of military loyalty, financial resources, and political stability. In his power struggle with the papacy, the emperor utilized Muslims as a strategic tool, bending religious norms to serve secular interests. In this regard, the case of Lucera offers a striking example of the flexibility of religious policies implemented by Catholic rulers. The eventual demise of Lucera in the post-Frederick period-brought about by papal and certain secular interventions-demonstrates that this pragmatic order lacked a firm ideological foundation. By exploring the limits of secular pragmatism in an age marked by intense religious fanaticism, this paper positions Lucera as a rare and remarkable instance of Muslim presence in medieval Europe.
From Alarcos to Las Navas: The Church’s Policy of Christian Unity in Iberia Between Two Battles, 2024
The Christians of Iberia, in their pursuit of reclaiming the lands they regarded as the legacy of... more The Christians of Iberia, in their pursuit of reclaiming the lands they regarded as the legacy of Rome, the Visigoths, and Christianity itself, initiated a process that would later come to be known as the Reconquista. With the advent of the Crusades, the Church increasingly became a central actor in this endeavor. In the ecclesiastical view, Iberia constituted another front of the Crusading movement-one geographically closer to Catholic Europe than Jerusalem. Conscious of this proximity, the Church exerted considerable effort to preserve the integrity of the conflict within the peninsula and to mobilize Christian masses against the Muslim forces. However, the machinery that sustained this struggle often faltered due to the political rivalries among the Christian kings of Iberia. Internal conflicts emerged as principal impediments to the overarching policy of expelling the Muslims from the region. In response, the Church intensified its interventions in the peninsula's political affairs to ensure internal stability. Following the Castilian defeat at the Battle of Alarcos in 1195, the Kingdom of Castile found itself threatened not only by Muslim forces but also by its Christian neighbors, the kingdoms of León and Navarre. For the Church, which sought to subjugate Muslim power and, if possible, drive it beyond the Strait of Gibraltar, it was intolerable that a Christian monarch engaged in a sacred struggle should be attacked by a fellow Christian ruler. Moreover, these "treacherous" kings did not hesitate to forge alliances with Muslim powers.
The Crusader world, mobilised for the ‘Holy Land’ since 1096, added a new enemy to its enemies in... more The Crusader world, mobilised for the ‘Holy Land’ since 1096, added a new enemy to its enemies in the XIIIth century under the leadership of the Church. The Cathars were declared heretical by the Church because of the principles they put forward after their emergence in the Christian Catholic world. In particular, they were subjected to a vicious prosecution for their criticism of the Church and its legitimacy in Catholic society. This prosecution during the Albi Crusade led to the birth of the Inquisition. They were finally suppressed with a powerful blow by the Church and its secular partners.
Catholics’ Use of Violence and the Others in the Age of Crusaders (XI.- XIII. Centuries), 2022
Haçlı Seferleri Kilise tarafından vaaz edildiğinde kastedilen düşman yalnızca Müslümanlardı. Zama... more Haçlı Seferleri Kilise tarafından vaaz edildiğinde kastedilen düşman yalnızca Müslümanlardı. Zamanla tüm Katolik Avrupa'yı dinî fanatizme sürükleyen ve kitleleri Anadolu'yla Kudüs yoluna düşüren seferler, neticede mezkûr düşmanının yanına yenilerini ekledi. Uzun zamandır Katolik dünyada yaşayan Yahudiler bu düşmanların en eskisiydi ve ilk şiddeti gören onlar oldu. Varlıkları korunsa da oldukça tehlikeli bir dönemden geçtiler. Ortodoks Hristiyanların ilk üç seferde haçlılara karşı gösterdikleri yarı gönüllü dostlukları, IV. Haçlı seferinde başkentleri Konstantinopolis'in Latinlerce işgali sonucu açık düşmanlığa dönüştü. Müslümanların Sicilya ve İspanya'daki varlıkları Hristiyanlarca her zaman bir sorun olarak görüldü. İspanya'da bu durum asırlardır devam eden "reconquista" sürecinin Haçlı seferleriyle simbiyozu sonucu başka bir noktaya evrildi. Son olarak Katolik dünya XII. ve XIII. yüzyılda içeriden bir meydan okuma yaşadı. Kathar "sapkınlığı" Kilise'yi o denli tehdit eder hale geldi ki 1209'da üzerlerine Albi Haçlı seferini düzenlemek zorunda kaldılar. Bu çalışma bahsedilen süreçlerde Kilise ve Katolik dünyanın düşmanlarına karşı geliştirdiği ve kullandığı şiddet ideolojisini inceleme amacındadır.
When the Crusades were preached by the Church, the enemy was only Muslims. In time, the crusades, which drove the whole of Catholic Europe to religious fanaticism and drove the masses to Anatolia and Jerusalem, eventually added new enemies to the aforementioned enemy. The Jews, who had been living in the Catholic world for a long time, were the oldest of these enemies. Although their existence was preserved, they passed through a very dangerous period. The Orthodox Christians' half-hearted friendship towards the crusaders in the first three campaigns turned into open hostility as a result of the Latin occupation of their capital Constantinople in the IVth Crusade. The presence of Muslims in Sicily and Spain was always seen as a problem by Christians. In Spain, this situation evolved to another level as a result of the symbiosis of the centuries-long ‘reconquista’ process with the Crusades. Finally, the Catholic world experienced an internal challenge in the XIIth and XIIIth centuries. The Cathar ‘heresy’ became so threatening to the Church that the Albi Crusade was organised against them in 1209. This study aims to analyse the ideology of violence that the Church and the Catholic world developed and used against their enemies during these periods.
Thirteenth-century Catholic Europe was a period in which the authority of the Church and the reli... more Thirteenth-century Catholic Europe was a period in which the authority of the Church and the religious fanaticism it fostered remained powerful. In this context, the Crusading project initiated by the Church evolved beyond a mere military campaign against Muslims, transforming into a broader form of religious struggle that also targeted groups such as Orthodox Christians, Jews, pagans in the Baltic region, and Cathars. While the Church sought the exclusion of these groups from the Catholic world, secular authorities often showed reluctance to comply, driven by various material interests. This tension between religious motivations and worldly expectations also led to contradictions in the approach toward Muslim communities. This study examines the forced relocation of Muslims in Sicily by Frederick II to the city of Lucera, analyzing the exile through the lens of the tension between religious discourse and secular needs. Although Lucera was founded in a region close to the heart of Catholic Europe, Frederick II granted Muslims a range of religious freedoms, including the construction of mosque, the public call to prayer, adjudication before a qadi, and the proclamation of sermons (khutbah) in the name of the caliph. The paper argues that this exceptional arrangement in Lucera was the outcome of Frederick II's pragmatic governance, shaped by his pursuit of military loyalty, financial resources, and political stability. In his power struggle with the papacy, the emperor utilized Muslims as a strategic tool, bending religious norms to serve secular interests. In this regard, the case of Lucera offers a striking example of the flexibility of religious policies implemented by Catholic rulers. The eventual demise of Lucera in the post-Frederick period-brought about by papal and certain secular interventions-demonstrates that this pragmatic order lacked a firm ideological foundation. By exploring the limits of secular pragmatism in an age marked by intense religious fanaticism, this paper positions Lucera as a rare and remarkable instance of Muslim presence in medieval Europe.
From Alarcos to Las Navas: The Church’s Policy of Christian Unity in Iberia Between Two Battles, 2024
The Christians of Iberia, in their pursuit of reclaiming the lands they regarded as the legacy of... more The Christians of Iberia, in their pursuit of reclaiming the lands they regarded as the legacy of Rome, the Visigoths, and Christianity itself, initiated a process that would later come to be known as the Reconquista. With the advent of the Crusades, the Church increasingly became a central actor in this endeavor. In the ecclesiastical view, Iberia constituted another front of the Crusading movement-one geographically closer to Catholic Europe than Jerusalem. Conscious of this proximity, the Church exerted considerable effort to preserve the integrity of the conflict within the peninsula and to mobilize Christian masses against the Muslim forces. However, the machinery that sustained this struggle often faltered due to the political rivalries among the Christian kings of Iberia. Internal conflicts emerged as principal impediments to the overarching policy of expelling the Muslims from the region. In response, the Church intensified its interventions in the peninsula's political affairs to ensure internal stability. Following the Castilian defeat at the Battle of Alarcos in 1195, the Kingdom of Castile found itself threatened not only by Muslim forces but also by its Christian neighbors, the kingdoms of León and Navarre. For the Church, which sought to subjugate Muslim power and, if possible, drive it beyond the Strait of Gibraltar, it was intolerable that a Christian monarch engaged in a sacred struggle should be attacked by a fellow Christian ruler. Moreover, these "treacherous" kings did not hesitate to forge alliances with Muslim powers.
The Crusader world, mobilised for the ‘Holy Land’ since 1096, added a new enemy to its enemies in... more The Crusader world, mobilised for the ‘Holy Land’ since 1096, added a new enemy to its enemies in the XIIIth century under the leadership of the Church. The Cathars were declared heretical by the Church because of the principles they put forward after their emergence in the Christian Catholic world. In particular, they were subjected to a vicious prosecution for their criticism of the Church and its legitimacy in Catholic society. This prosecution during the Albi Crusade led to the birth of the Inquisition. They were finally suppressed with a powerful blow by the Church and its secular partners.
Catholics’ Use of Violence and the Others in the Age of Crusaders (XI.- XIII. Centuries), 2022
Haçlı Seferleri Kilise tarafından vaaz edildiğinde kastedilen düşman yalnızca Müslümanlardı. Zama... more Haçlı Seferleri Kilise tarafından vaaz edildiğinde kastedilen düşman yalnızca Müslümanlardı. Zamanla tüm Katolik Avrupa'yı dinî fanatizme sürükleyen ve kitleleri Anadolu'yla Kudüs yoluna düşüren seferler, neticede mezkûr düşmanının yanına yenilerini ekledi. Uzun zamandır Katolik dünyada yaşayan Yahudiler bu düşmanların en eskisiydi ve ilk şiddeti gören onlar oldu. Varlıkları korunsa da oldukça tehlikeli bir dönemden geçtiler. Ortodoks Hristiyanların ilk üç seferde haçlılara karşı gösterdikleri yarı gönüllü dostlukları, IV. Haçlı seferinde başkentleri Konstantinopolis'in Latinlerce işgali sonucu açık düşmanlığa dönüştü. Müslümanların Sicilya ve İspanya'daki varlıkları Hristiyanlarca her zaman bir sorun olarak görüldü. İspanya'da bu durum asırlardır devam eden "reconquista" sürecinin Haçlı seferleriyle simbiyozu sonucu başka bir noktaya evrildi. Son olarak Katolik dünya XII. ve XIII. yüzyılda içeriden bir meydan okuma yaşadı. Kathar "sapkınlığı" Kilise'yi o denli tehdit eder hale geldi ki 1209'da üzerlerine Albi Haçlı seferini düzenlemek zorunda kaldılar. Bu çalışma bahsedilen süreçlerde Kilise ve Katolik dünyanın düşmanlarına karşı geliştirdiği ve kullandığı şiddet ideolojisini inceleme amacındadır.
When the Crusades were preached by the Church, the enemy was only Muslims. In time, the crusades, which drove the whole of Catholic Europe to religious fanaticism and drove the masses to Anatolia and Jerusalem, eventually added new enemies to the aforementioned enemy. The Jews, who had been living in the Catholic world for a long time, were the oldest of these enemies. Although their existence was preserved, they passed through a very dangerous period. The Orthodox Christians' half-hearted friendship towards the crusaders in the first three campaigns turned into open hostility as a result of the Latin occupation of their capital Constantinople in the IVth Crusade. The presence of Muslims in Sicily and Spain was always seen as a problem by Christians. In Spain, this situation evolved to another level as a result of the symbiosis of the centuries-long ‘reconquista’ process with the Crusades. Finally, the Catholic world experienced an internal challenge in the XIIth and XIIIth centuries. The Cathar ‘heresy’ became so threatening to the Church that the Albi Crusade was organised against them in 1209. This study aims to analyse the ideology of violence that the Church and the Catholic world developed and used against their enemies during these periods.