The image of European Christendom and its self-perception is a complex and multifaceted matter which can be traced to a variety of source. Among them, early interactions–both violent and peaceful–between the faiths of Christianity and Islam may have helped to shape this self-perception in multiple ways. Specifically, the Crusades and the preceding violence were among the most pivotal events in the inter-faith relations of Christianity and Islam and were a crucial turning point for European Christendom’s image of Islam and thus of itself as well.

During the time of the Crusades and especially during the time immediately prior to it, Christian Europe was extremely fractured. It was a region of near-constant conflict, warfare, and turmoil. It is hard to say that, at this time, there was a clearly defined self-perception among the Christian people of Europe. However, in the decades preceding the First Crusade, the Christians did find themselves confronting an increasing powerful, unified–and alien–force of Muslims who were making large and momentous growth in their territorial expansion through both simple trade and social contact, as well as large-scale military expansion. This new threat to Christendom brought into question the very faith that the people of Europe and their clergy held so dear. How could  an army of “godless” (i.e. non-Christian) Muslims be experiencing such success in the face of resistance from God-fearing Christians? There appeared only to be a two possible answers to religious observers: the Muslims were indeed the force now favored by God or the Christians were being punished for their sins had to double down on their faith in order reclaim the support of God.

When, in 1095, Pope Urban II recieved an urgent plea for help from Alexios I Komnenos, the then Byzantine emperor to help fend off the invading Seljuks (in modern-day Turkey), he saw an opportunity. Urban II used this war as a unifying factor to reclaim a sense of purpose, duty, and identity for Western European Christendom in that he gave thousands of men and women a cause around which they could rally–one that also conveniently placed him in a position of increased power and prestige. This is how the First Crusade was eventually born, but it is also one of the early moments of the emerging self-perception of Christian Europe. This is because the Christians of Europe a=now had a unifying cause that reinforced their identity as Christians–charged with the duty of ridding the Holy Land of the invading Muslims. Through this mechanism a sort of process was created whereby the Christian identity was strengthened through violent contact with Muslims, as each such encounter strengthened the idea of “us” as God-fearing, civilized Christians and “them” as godless, barbaric Muslims. It is through this mechanism of contrasting the other with the self that the European Christian identity begins to consolidate and emerge in its own right.

As is stated in Neighboring Faiths, by David Nirenberg the patriarch of Jerusalem exhorted his flock to “correct ourselves..If we constrain ourselves, we shall see [the Muslims’] final destruction.” In this case, the Patriarch said this, because he viewed the invading Muslims as a scourge from God as a punishment for “countless sins and very serious faults.” This view was not isolated to the Eastern Christians, as European Christians also viewed the conflict with the Muslims as a test of their faith and loyalty to God–one that would unite them in faith and identity as well as in cause.