CRUSADES

Bringing alive a defining period in world history

IT is rare, if not impossible, to come across an era of human history that has not been marked by war, strife and conflict. The development of human civilisation, ironically, seems to coincide with a deluge of violence and destruction, which may constitute an aberration of human progress or perhaps even its sinister product. Nonetheless, what history proves over and over again is the impossibility of ascribing one, stable meaning to a historical event. If the past can only ever be reconstructed in the present, then the prevailing values and concerns of a particular socio-historical moment will ultimately determine the way in which we evaluate the past.

The fact that history is always constructed by and articulated in the present was exemplified just a few years ago when the Pope publicly addressed the Muslim world and apologised for the brutal crusading wars once sponsored and encouraged by his Church. His declaration certainly did not and could not have changed the global impact of the Crusades but it demonstrated a shifting remembrance of a dark and complex period of history.

With the first official crusade launched in the year 1095 AD, these religious wars involved and afflicted many countries and peoples from Western Europe, the Near East and the Middle East. They emerged as a response to an ideological conflict between two major monotheistic religions and were propelled by the desire to preserve Christian dominance and conquer the lands occupied by its detractors. Crusades were initiated by the Pope and fought by Western Christians who took an oath, bore a cross and headed Eastward to protect Christendom with the knowledge that would die as martyrs for their faith.

The art that the Crusades influenced, the practices they spawned and the destruction in the name of God that they wreaked is the subject of a historical and archaeological exhibition at the Municipal Arts Centre in Nicosia. “Crusades: Myth and Realities” uses text and artefact to cover eight centuries of European religious history beginning from the first Crusades that embarked on a mission to conquer the Holy Land and ending with Napoleon’s conquest of Malta and expulsion of the last remnants of the crusades. It assembles some 200 objects from over 20 museums and private collections that include architectural remnants, icons and wall paintings, ceramics, coins, copper engravings and suits of armour. Through its depiction and recreation of the historical, political and religious context in which the Crusades materialised, the exhibition seeks to impart a knowledge of Byzantine, Islamic and Western Christian cultures.

Upon entering the exhibition, the visitor steps into what appears to be a fortress built of wood and metal and intended to convey the ominous spirit of the Crusades. Amidst banners, heraldic symbols and mediaeval hymns, the visitor follows a labyrinthine course through the exhibition stopping to read texts and contemplate objects. Divided into thematic sections, the exhibition first inducts its visitor into the social and historical background of the Crusades while also outlining their ideological principles. It continues with a presentation of art and architecture in the East and West and provides a history of the knights of St John and the Frankish state in Greece while also emphasising the significance of the Crusades on the past and the present.

Though the exhibition tends to flip from one subject to another, it does succeed in offering an introduction to an epoch of history that has played a pivotal role in shaping relations between the Christian and non-Christian world. Not only does the exhibition have particular relevance to contemporary cultural politics but it also reminds its visitor that the past is inextricably woven into the present and that history has an uncanny propensity to repeat itself.

Crusades: Myth and Reality. Historical and archaeological exhibition. December 1-February 6. Municipal Centre of Arts, 19 Apostolos Varnavas St.,Nicosia. Open Tue.-Sat. 10am-3pm, 5pm-11pm, Sun. 10am-4pm. Tel: 22-432577.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.