The History Channel Presents The Crusades - Crescent & The Cross

The crusades, assuming the history channel is accurate, showed one clear fact. Neither the Christians nor the Muslim’s followed their own religions’ teachings. If they would have there would have been no crusades but would have lived together in peace. The Christians have no excuse, neither do the Muslim’s. Jesus opposition to war and conflict was taught in Matthew 26, 26:52: "Then said Jesus unto him, Put up thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish by the sword." Even beyond this we are to love our enemies. “But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you.” Islam teaches that Jesus was a prophet and, as with all other prophets, including Mohammed, every time they refer to Jesus Muslims say, in respect, "Peace be upon him." Furthermore, the Quran discusses several miracles Jesus performed, including giving sight to the blind, healing lepers, raising the dead, and breathing life into clay birds. His importance in the Muslim faith was enormous, so great that in the Qur’an, Jesus (Isa) is referred to in over ninety verses, more than almost any other prophet. The film pictures the Muslims dragging the cross through the conquered city, yet this is a gross disrespect for their (Muslim) prophet (they do not teach he was Gods son, God had no son, but Isa was a great prophet).

For thousands of years the Holy Lands of the Middle East have run with blood. Here the scars of battle fought between three of the world's great religions are etched into the earth. But, the deepest wound was made by a war between Christian and Muslim began at the close of the eleventh century and fought for 200 years.Now this Holy War has passed into legend, but there were those who saw it with their own eyes; great chroniclers from two different worlds, Christian and Muslim, who wrote of great deeds, great battles, great warriors and men who would lay down their lives for their God.This was the collision of two great faiths, the clash between the Crescent and the Cross. This was the Crusades."The Crusades: Crescent & The Cross" is a 2-DVD set. The first disc discusses the First Crusade, beginning with the call of Pope Urban II. The second half of the first disc discusses the Second and Third Crusades. As is expected with productions made by the History Channel the story is focused on providing accurate history, yet told in an entertaining manner.The first disc of the set has a running time of about 180 minutes.The second disc in "The Crusades: Crescent & The Cross" consists of "History in the Making: The Crusades" which shows how the History Channel went about making the first disc of the set. It shows how the reenactments were stages, and the locations and computer animations used in the production.Also on the second disc of the set is "The Knights Templar" providing a brief look at the origins and mysteries of the Crusade's mightiest warriors.When considering the Knights Templar it has long been established that Templars led diplomatic missions to the courts of Arab princes and learned the Arabic language. They may have also had dealings with a fanatical drug taking sect known as Hashashiyyin, whose name passed into English as assassins. The Templars certainly had extensive connections with Islamic and Judaic cultures, and may have absorbed a great deal of their cultures.It is rumored that the Templar's Muslim and Jewish friends were teaching them the ancient wisdom of the East; secret arts such as alchemy, astrology, and numerology, and some believe they delved even deeper into forbidden rites and knowledge.What this forbidden knowledge is and how it was used by the Templars is introduced in the second disc of The Crusades Crescent and The Cross.The second disc in the set runs for about 70 minutes.Entertaining, Educational, and Highly Recommended.

A lot of people watched this and hail Saladin as a holy warrior. Even one of the Muslim commentators seemed to make excuses for his vicious bahavior, saying "you had to be back then".The main point of the movie is that in the first Crusade the Christians "took back" Jerusalem from the Muslims. In the second Crusade, the muslims "took back" Jerusalem from the Christians. In the third Crusade the Christians tried unsuccessfully to retake Jerusalem back.This documetary left out one key point: Jerusalem belonged to NEITHER the Christians NOR the Muslims. The city of Jerusalem was originally inhabited by the Jews, but that fact seems to have gotten lost somewhere.Both Saladin and Richard I commited vicous crimes and they both murdered thousands of people. People seem to forget that Saladin probably murdered as many Knights Templar and Hospitalars as Richard did Muslims. They wer both cunning, vicious and excellent military Strategists. The documentary also states something that was probably true: After Years of Fighting each other they learned to respect each other as generals.This movie tried to be as objective as possible but there was a lot of Christian-bashing here, not that it wasn't deserved. Tariq whatever his name was seemed to be on a Crusade to make the Christians look as evil as possible. He defends Saladin's actions, when the fact is that both generals committed many what we call today "war crimes". After saying all this, I still say it was very educational and enjoyable.EW

A docu/drama/action production commissioned by the The History Channel, narrated by Keith David.2 dvd's presented in a box set, disc 1 is 180 minutes long split into two parts. Part 1 gives us a comprehensive history of the 1st Crusade , with Part 2 compiling the major events of the 2nd & 3rd Crusades. The 2nd disc consists of bonus features.The whole series consists of reenactments of battles and some forthright interviews with esteemed historians, and there are plenty of CGI-enhanced visuals. The location work is pretty good giving the impression that the History Channel didn't skimp with their budget for this production.Region 1 box set , NO ENGLISH SUBTITLES. I took off a star with my rating for that absence. The History Channel is American, they usually know better.

No subtitles so very disappointed

Many people just don't know much about this past and it's connection to the present: and so our future, epecially our children's. This is a first class production and should be seen by all.

The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were intended to recover Jerusalem and its surrounding area from Islamic rule.

This dvd set is well narrated. The film and image montage is well done. They even have some nice interviews and historian information to qualify what's being shared. There's a lot of information that's well organized. It's delivered smoothly with maps that have colour and arrows to help keep the direction flowing easily. It only covers the first three crusades. It's a shame they didn't mention the other two. The fourth one is mentioned briefly on the bonus disc which covers the Knights Templar, but it's very brief, so there's still a big hole and info lacking on that end. But even missing the last two crusades, I did learn a lot of things I'd had wrong all this time, which is why I watch these dvd sets.