| FT-58537-11 | Research Programs: Summer Stipends | Katherine Allen Smith | Glossing the First Crusade: Biblical Exegesis and Holy War, 1099–c.1150 | 6/1/2011 - 7/31/2011 | $6,000.00 | Katherine | Allen | Smith | | | | University of Puget Sound | Tacoma | WA | 98416-5000 | USA | 2011 | European History | Summer Stipends | Research Programs | 6000 | 0 | 6000 | 0 |
This project analyses three exegetical strategies by which clerical chroniclers carved out a privileged place for the First Crusade (1095-99) within salvation history: first, crusaders were associated with the ancient Israelites, whose ancient campaigns against unbelieving tribes foreshadowed the medieval holy war; second, the crusaders’ Muslim opponents were cast as reincarnations of the Philistines and Amalekites, ancient peoples whom the ancient Israelites had defeated with divine aid; and finally, the crusade narrative was inscribed onto an explicitly biblical landscape, in which nearly every landmark was associated with a holy figure or miraculous occurrence described in the Scriptures. In a larger sense, the project aims to shed new light on the relationship between history and exegesis, and the negotiation of Christian identity vis-à-vis non-Christian ‘others’ during the Twelfth Century Renaissance. |