November 27: Today is the anniversary of the declaration of the First Crusade by Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont in 1095.

Map of the First Crusade 1095-1099

In 1095, the Normans, French, Provencal and Germans responded to the call of Pope Urban II to recover the Holy Land in the hands of Muslims. The campaign ended in 1099 with the conquest of Jerusalem.

The Crusades, Christendom's attempts to win back the Holy Land and Jerusalem, began in 1095 with the First Crusade. The Muslims had taken Jerusalem in 1076.

The Crusade began the following year as a Christian pilgrimage mainly of French and members of Germanic tribes but ended up as an European military expedition in order to regain the holy lands held by Muslims.

The First Crusade had a very difficult journey getting to the Middle East.

The Byzantine emperor Alexios Komnenos, came the Pontiff Urbano to request military help from Christian volunteers in order to repel the Seleucid invasion from Anatolia (now Turkey).

Islamophobia, the First Crusade and the Expansion of Christendom to Islamic World.

The Seleucid empire was the state that prevailed in the Middle East after the death of Alexander the Great, its center was modern Turkey.

Pope Urban II

The First Crusade began on November 27, 1095 and ended with the recapture of the holy city of Jerusalem in 1099. Of the eight crusades against Islam, the first was the only one that succeeded.