IMC 2017: Sessions

Session 1508: Crusading, Identity, and Otherness, I: Women, Children, and the Old

Thursday 6 July 2017, 09.00-10.30

Sponsor:	Northern Network for the Study of the Crusades
Organisers:	Kathryn Hurlock, Department of History- Politics and Philosophy- Manchester Metropolitan University Sini Kangas, School of Social Sciences & Humanities, University of Tampere Jason T. Roche, Department of History, Politics & Philosophy, Manchester Metropolitan University
Moderator/Chair:	Jason T. Roche, Department of History, Politics & Philosophy, Manchester Metropolitan University
Paper 1508-a	The Young and The Old - Feeble Crusaders?: Age in the 12th- and 13th-Century Sources of the Crusades (Language: English) Sini Kangas, School of Social Sciences & Humanities, University of Tampere Index terms: Crusades, Pagan Religions
Paper 1508-b	Women and Children as Victims of the Baltic Crusades: A Case of 'Ritual Violence'? (Language: English) Torben Kjersgaard Nielsen, Institut for Kultur og Globale Studier / Cultural Encounters in Pre-Modern Societies, Aalborg Universitet Index terms: Crusades, Pagan Religions
Paper 1508-c	The Damascene Frontier, 1099-1128: Frankish / Turkish Conflict and Peacemaking during the Post-First Crusade Era (Language: English) Nicholas E. Morton, School of Arts & Humanities, Nottingham Trent University Index terms: Crusades, Military History
Abstract	In the first of a series of linked sessions on the interrelated themes of crusading, identity, and otherness, Sini Kangas explores the understanding of youth and old age in the 12th- and 13th-century chronicles and chansons of the Crusades, showing how age is employed to shed light on specific contexts, offer additional information, and emphasise small but important details. Tørben Nielsen discusses the Christian expansion in pagan Livonia and Estonia between the years 1184 and 1227 as reported in the Chronicon Livoniae, and seeks to understand why women and children appear repeatedly in the text as the numberless and nameless victims of the crusading warfare. Nic Morton considers the Damascene frontier during the first three decades of the 12th century, and explains why the city's ruler, Tughtakin, was reluctant to risk a direct confrontation with the newly established Frankish settlers.