The Crusades

Description of Course Goals and Curriculum

"The Crusades" is a course focused on viewing the historical phenomenon of the Crusades with numerous lenses, each one meant to garner unique insights and understanding for students. Dr. Pippenger and his preceptors seek to demonstrate that the Crusades brought significant and lasting impacts to institutions, leadership, religious tolerance, demographics, and culture in both Europe and the Islamic Near East. Some of these sustained changes are historically obvious, but others are often overlooked. For example, it is obvious that the Crusades increased intolerance between Muslims and Christians in the Near East. It is not so obvious that the taxing of Catholic Clergy for the support of the Crusades was one of Europe’s first instances of systematic income taxation. The course also seeks to give perspective on these impacts from various eyes: there are accounts from Jewish sources, Muslim Turks, Muslim Arabs, Arab Christians, and Western Christians, to name a few, some of which have even more unique and disparate perspectives within. Ultimately, the class traces these varied perspectives and investigated historical developments to our modern world. This is reflected by some very direct themes and allusions to Crusading moments and figures that continue to perpetuate in our time. A prime example of this is how Salahadin Ayubi, a well renowned Sultan that fought the Crusader states, is still used in Arab unification propaganda in modern times. The curriculum carries the student through the Crusades chronologically, beginning in week 1 with the preaching and ideology that evolved into the 1st Crusade, and ending the semester as far as the 7th Crusade and Crusading ideology in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe. There is great emphasis placed on how the Crusades compare to one another, especially on how ideology, memory, and the legacies of earlier Crusades influence latter Crusades. In this, the student has a chance to study not only how institutions and power dynamics evolve with the Crusading movement, but also how people's views of the Crusades themselves change in both European and Arab society. The course is unusual from what it may seem on the surface because, to actually understand the material, prior knowledge of the two most pertinent religions (Sunni Islam and Catholic Christianity) is not actually central to content comprehension. The relevant details of the respective religions are contextually summarized and presented by Dr. Pippenger and preceptors when necessary, enough for students to understand their readings and the conflicts at hand, but not so much that the focus of the course is shifted.

Learning From Classroom Instruction

All the various components of the course play a crucial part in fitting together the massive puzzle that is the Crusades. The two 50 minute weekly lectures are loaded with events, relevant figures, stories, backgrounds, societal changes, etc. that guide the student through the timeline of the Crusading movement. Attendance is recorded and expected and ID sheets of key vocab (names of places, people, battles, etc.) that will be covered in lecture is handed out (in chronological order of when each item will be covered). In general, students are not expected to vocally interact with one another or with the professor at this time. Lectures are topical overviews of the plethora of information relevant to each week’s subject (usually a specific Crusade), with occasional depth given to particularly important aspects of that week’s subject. Lectures are crucial to connecting the themes of the various Crusades and their impacts together, as these relations are given significant time being discussed by Dr. Pippenger. Outside of how each unit fits into the bigger story of the Crusading movement, Dr. Pippenger also uses lecture to identify personalities, battles, and characteristics within the Crusades that are most consequential and should harbor the most focus from students during that week. Dr. Pippenger also takes this time to highlight what students should be most concerned about in that week’s readings. The student can use this as an effective means of directing their attention where it would help them the most as they approach the class. However, due to how loaded the lectures often are and the large lecture size, there are few ‘breaks’ or interim questions that slow the lecture down, and the constant cause-effect relationship of events and contexts within Dr. Pippenger’s narration means it can be particularly disorienting to lose focus for too long within a lecture. Dr. Pippenger also does not read off the slides, which has a benefit in that the student’s attention is not split, but comes with the downside that the student cannot follow along with Dr. Pippenger’s words themselves on their own device, and must engage or record them down immediately. All of this makes lectures potentially more challenging. Despite this difficulty, there are several ways students can better tackle these lectures. For starters, students can preview the lectures by reading the names on the ID sheet, looking through the lecture slides (which are usually composed of images, quotes, maps, and the such), or speaking with their preceptor or Dr. Pippenger. Coming to lecture with at least a general idea of what to expect can improve the student’s mental preparedness to tackle the fast pace. During the lecture, given the importance of following the quick narrative, it is also valuable to not linger on any particular note or detail in writing. If you feel yourself losing pace with the lecture content, simply make a mark and continue forward, and revisit the missed item later, preferably with a staff member. This leads into a strategy for post-lecture interaction: the Professor and preceptors often linger around after lecture, so frequently touching base with any of them at this time with any questions of curiosity, missing pieces of the narrative, or simply for guidance on what in the notes is most important can be very beneficial and save lots of time. The last of these questions can assist you in mentally organizing the unit even if you do not seem to have any confusions or apparently gaps in that week’s material. ONLINE CONTENT: After lectures moved online, the possible challenges of lectures were mitigated, as they could be slowed down, sped up, and paused, making the pace and congested content seem less so. Professor Pippenger also broke lectures down into smaller pieces (4 per week but collectively shorter than the aforementioned two) which further increased manageability. However, since they were no longer at a set time and were viewed at the pleasure of the student, it was important to still set up a reasonable routine to view them before precept each week, otherwise a student could easily get overwhelmed having to go through them all directly before interacting with their topics in a precept setting. There is consistently around 150 pages of reading weekly in the class, with the vast majority of it being primary source material dating from the time of the Crusades. The readings provide the depth that lectures do not go into, and the choice of which part of the Crusade the reading is focused on also serves to underscore that area as most consequential in Dr. Pippenger’s perspective. Through these readings, students get a chance to see what historians themselves see when studying Crusading records: how different individuals write and think noticeably differently, even about the same issues, based on their contexts and backgrounds. In a sense, readings can also be viewed as a student being shown what is otherwise being told in lecture. For instance, Dr. Pippenger may tell the lecture hall that Saint Louis was depicted as a brave but gentle holy warrior. But through reading his biography written by his friend, the student can be shown what and how this ‘gentle holy warrior’ is crafted. It is also thoughts, questions, reflections, and observations with regards to perspectives and events from these readings that stimulate discussion within precepts. There is an expectation to read these texts, or at least the ones that Dr. Pippenger remarks as most significant, week by week, and before your respective precept time each week. A student’s approach to learning and progressing through these readings is best supplemented by Dr. Pippenger’s own weekly messages to the students. In these emails, Dr. Pippenger explicates questions students should be asking on each text, which texts can be skimmed and which should be closely read. By knowing exactly what to look out for and question on each text, the student can flip through the text with greater purpose and engagement, and write more guided notes pertinent to the questions in mind. However, due to the length of the readings and possible burnout from reading dense primary source material, it is advisable to break the reading up through a week, either by page count, by text, or relevance to each lecture. The final major component of the course is precepts. Precept participation and attendance is mandatory, and reflects on your attendance grade along with lecture attendance (30%). As mentioned earlier, precepts are where students can share and discuss reflections, questions, and observations with one another and the preceptor. In the readings, students are encouraged to mark down what they feel is important and to consider certain questions in light of those texts. In precept, students get a chance to see what others, including the preceptor, marked as important or how others answered questions differently then themselves, allowing them to reconsider or reinforce their own notes and knowledge. The Crusades revolve around religion, intolerance, historic justifications, etc. which are also sensitive topics to many individuals, so such discussions carry with them the potential to sometimes offend or rile students up. As such, precept in this class teaches students to consider their own thoughts and the thoughts of others at a high level, but simultaneously navigate those in conversation respectfully and rationally. Precept is best prepared for by completing the readings and attending lectures, and bringing the notes form those components of the class to the precept discussions. Because of the class’ lax reputation, often precept may have silence and dry moments between students, but this gives opportunity for students that have done the work beforehand to shine. However, these students should also be careful not to speak at the expense of other students or to take up too much space in conversation, as that is also detrimental to the group’s learning.

Learning For and From Assignments

Disclaimer: All of these assignments were either modified or newly introduced when the course was moved online during the COVID-19 sendoff from campus during Spring 2020. Midterm: The course midterm was split into two sections and combined into a 50 minute sprint. The midterm was released in advance for students to prepare for, but was to be taken closed-book; in other words, a practiced performance exam. The first section consisted of several key figures, events, or topics studied thus far in the course. The student was asked to choose 5 of them and identify their relevance to the course and its greater themes in a paragraph, along with any relevant dates, in a straightforward recall fashion that required elaboration on their importance. The second section required an argumentative essay to be written, answering one of four prompt questions that the student could choose from. Specific details and examples from the course material were to be used for the argument, and it was expected to be at least 5 paragraphs, with a coherent thesis, intro, body, and conclusion. The Challenge:  A minimum 10 paragraph exam in 50 minutes is an intense endeavor. By releasing the exam in advance, the instructors clearly intended for students to choose and properly practice writing about the set of ID’s and prompt of their desire. But since it was closed note, students needed to really stamp down on dates, information sources, and necessary details, and replicate using them very efficiently. Strategic Approach: For this form of examination, choosing the five key items and the desired prompt should be done quickly but also wisely. To maximize efficiency, a student should choose items they are most well acquainted with in the course, and the prompt towards which they can most naturally argue with their level of topical familiarity. Then a student should collect all the relevant dates, information, and concise references for each of these to construct into paragraphs. After that, it really comes down to practicing putting all these thoughts together in a timely manner. To Learn: By really cementing these topics, the student can emerge from this exam having solidly based knowledge on at least a few important Crusading concepts that they are comfortably writing about. The key terms were varied enough and the essay prompt was general enough such that if the student does this effectively, they can develop through practice a sustainable path of knowledge across the Crusading movement. Final Presentation: The final presentation in the class asked students to present an object, piece of media, game, just about anything in the modern world of significance that demonstrates some aspect of or some recollection of the Crusading movement. In other words, it asked students to present something that illustrates the continuing impact of the Crusades and how. The presentation was set for 15-20 minutes, and needed a video, Powerpoint, or something of that nature to present the chosen object. How does that object show appropriate or inappropriate references to the Crusades (with regards to accuracy)? What is the object’s use and context? These are all questions addressed in the presentation. Challenge: Connect what has been learned in class throughout the semester to something contemporary. You have to create a 15-20 minute length presentation of substance that can meaningfully elaborate on how that object makes people perceive or think about the Crusades, a movement that we think of very separately from our times. Creating a 15-20 minute presentation where you must yourself discuss and speak about a single item in regards to the Crusades is a relatively open ended task but hefty task, the former of which makes it more flexible for students but perhaps also more difficult in terms of finding a topic. Strategy: Myself and all the students I knew that did well on this presentation spoke with the preceptors and Dr. Pippenger about their ideas or the lack thereof early, and then also spoke with them to brainstorm forms and ways to present those or other newfound ideas most effectively. One of the core arguments of the class is that the Crusades continue to impact our society to this day. As such, the staff is ready to assist with the idea hunt process in finding an example of this impact. After that, the creation of the Powerpoint should also keep the end goal of teaching this connection to the Crusades in mind. If the student can keep this purpose at the forefront of their formulation of the presentation, then they will have to spend less time organizing information after gathering all the presentation content as they will have already had a general plan to begin with. Finally, it is very important with this presentation, as with any, to practice giving it in a timed manner, whether to yourself, a friend, a pet, family, etc. Learn: Ideally, the whole purpose of learning history is to understand how we arrive at the present and make more informed decisions about our future. This presentation makes the student seriously consider the former idea in a concentrated environment around their chosen object. The act of trying to grasp at and understand the relationship of an item of the present with a phenomenon allegedly of the past is an invaluable part of being a student of history. Term Paper: The term paper for this class (due on Dean’s Date) was a primary source analysis. Students were given a list of prompts or given permission to make their own prompt (with instructor approval) to write on. This paper placed two or more primary sources in conversation with one another, with the ultimate goal of supporting the student’s argument. The Challenge: Based on the prompt’s requirement, critically read the two (or more) texts, and extract points and evidence from each of them to sustain your argument. While you are choosing specific examples, make sure that those examples are used in a way that is consistent to the entire text, such that counter arguments to your argument are minimized from those respective texts. Strategic Approach: One way of addressing this paper is beginning with the prompt that you already feel either the most strongly or most familiar with. Since the paper is only 5-6 pages, and there are multiple sources involved, it is better to choose one point to focus on that you have already considered or can discuss and draw information to effectively rather than attempting any kind of comprehensive approach to the texts. All the primary sources are ones you should have read in the semester. If you choose a prompt along texts you are very confident in your knowledge in, you should be able to formulate an argument without having to explicitly revisit the texts. Ideally, you create a general argument first and then thread it together and explicate it through a critical reading of the texts. There are two weeks between when this is due and the previous assignment (the presentation). There are three weeks between when this is due the last assigned reading. Thus, is advisable for the student to take their time sifting through the texts to support their argument most effectively. To Learn: Primary source analysis, and the usage of that analysis to surmise more about our past is an integral part of any endeavor that grapples with history. For a history student, it is an invaluable skill to read and understand different historic texts, and to be able to use their understandings of those to effectively back their own assertions and claims. While it is a shorter paper, this dean’s date assignment trains the student to do just that, and does so with texts the student should already have familiarity with.

External Resources

All of the assignments in this course can be effectively tackled with relatively low stress compared to large papers or projects in other history courses, as long as the student plans well and manages their progress piece by piece. Advice and frameworks on how to manage their work in a healthy fashion can be found on McGraw’s website: https://mcgraw.princeton.edu/effective-time-management Hangouts: https://mcgraw.princeton.edu/undergraduates/resources-handouts-and-advice-undergraduates Especially consider using the semester on a page handout. For large assignments, marking when it is due, when you want to start, when you’d like to check in with course staff, etc. is very useful. If you’ve commit all of your classes onto the semester on a page, it can help you instantly view times where you will have conflict between work for different classes. Knowing when this tough time will arrive means you know when to prepare for it, and when you should ideally then start your assignments and make progress on them.

What Students Should Know About This Course For Purposes Of Course Selection

Completing this class leaves a student with a strong understanding of how much of the world’s present conflicts and circumstances have at least partially come to be, considering how impactful the Crusades were. The Crusades intersect many areas of history, whether it be Mediterranean, Muslim, Near Eastern, European early or late Medieval. Taking this course can also serve as a segue into courses into any of these histories, as well as religion classes affiliated with Islam or Christianity, or religion classes that deal with religious interaction in general. Having knowledge of Biblical and Qur’anic scripture, or general knowledge of the two religions would certainly benefit a student entering this class, as almost all the sources read in this class are from individuals heavily rooted in either Christianity or Islam. However, as mentioned in the beginning of this analysis, it is not necessary, as students that had neither professed that they still found great interest and intellectual growth from this class. As a student coming into the course with decent knowledge of both, I felt my understanding of faith relations blossom tremendously, and my grasp of how the Near East became what it is today has matured significantly. Secondary sources in this class also delved into historiography, and this was likely my first exposure to the field. I enjoyed it. The reality I found is that, although the readings can be difficult to get through (as discussed earlier with so many primary sources), the class overall is quite manageable, and the assignments are graded with leniency compared to other 300 level history courses at Princeton. It was a class that Religion, History, and Policy majors enjoyed, and STEM students also found fascinating, or, at worst, slightly boring. But looking past the content, which was organized in a sensible and manageable way, the course staff consistently showed deep concern for students, their learning, and their wellbeing. They were all very accommodating before and after the move to online learning, and they put a tremendous amount of effort into creating content that adjusted with our situations. Although it is unfortunate that Dr. Pippenger’s initial plan for the course was scrapped by the global situation, the course staff did not fail in creating a pleasurable experience for their students despite the mess that everyone was in.