A Brief History
On this date, December 12, 1098, in what is now Syria, Crusaders massacred 20,000 Muslims and ate some of them!
Digging Deeper
Digging deeper, we find European Christians launching what is now known as the First Crusade, an attempt to take back lands overrun by the sweeping Muslim hordes.
Besieging a city at Ma’arra (various spellings) the Crusaders were at the walls on December 12, 1098 when the Muslims inside finally surrendered after about a month of resistance. Promises of the safety of residents to the contrary, the Crusaders began the systematic slaughter of the population.
Frustrated by long months of fighting throughout the area, the weary and hungry Crusaders did not find the loot and food stores they had assumed were within the walls of Ma’arra. Approaching starvation, the crusading knights began to eat the corpses in abundance! According to Radulph of Caen (before 1079–after 1130), Crusaders boiled adults in pots and roasted children on spits over fires like a macabre barbecue!
Another source, Fulcher of Chartres (born around 1059), said that impatient Crusaders often did not wait for the “meat” to be done and crammed raw chunks into their mouths. Perhaps most disturbing to pet lovers, the Christians were also accused by Albert of Aix (floruit circa AD 1100) of killing and eating dogs.
Considering Muslims as “pagans,” Christians of those days did not believe that non-Christians were owed any sort of the same rights and respect that Christian people deserved. Likewise, Muslims considered non-Muslims “infidels” that likewise could be treated as less than total humans. Incredibly, the lasting stain of incidents like this massacre color our world today, and religious hatred and intolerance continues to cause wars and cost lives.
As for the Crusaders, they ultimately lost Jerusalem and then wound up fighting fellow Christians.
Question for students (and subscribers): Why did the Crusaders feel justified going on crusades? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information on this event in the broader context of the Crusades, please read…
Haag, Michael. The Tragedy of the Templars: The Rise and Fall of the Crusader States. Harper Paperbacks, 2013.
Kostick, Conor. The Siege of Jerusalem: Crusade and Conquest in 1099. Continuum, 2009.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="828 http://www.crackedhistory.com/?p=828">146 Comments
Soooo, we’re to believe that the Crusaders besieged this dump for a month and then expected it to be full of goodies to eat that the Moslems had somehow overlooked? Right.
I can’t imagine that the Crusaders truly believed that there would be many food stores in the city after it had been besieged for so long. And while they probably ate some of the dead out of necessity, like the Donner Party, I doubt that they made such a spectacle of it, as the historical sources suggest.
how awful things both Christians and Muslims did in the name of God. I can’t even imagine human beings eating children in a barbecue. what about the not to kill commandment ?
Tragic, if true. If not, I still threw up a little in my mouth.
Thats like trying to find a diamond in a rut, highly unlikely but if its what they wanna do maybe they’ll have luck
Some of the things that have been done in the name of a religion blows my mind. “Believing they were pagans did not have to offer them the same rights as Christians.” <—Ridiculous
Another horrible outcome of people using religion as an excuse to be despicable humans…
Wowww. So we have a Jeffery Dahmer back then! Or should I say a bunch of Jeffery’s! That’s just disgusting. I guess that what happens when you fight “under God’s” name.
Did they eat corpses all in the name of religion too. That’s just sick.
The idea of eating people… I’m not sure even if I was starving I could do it.
I could understand eating the animals and I would have ate all the animals before I resorted to eating humans.
Eating people…nope, not for me. I wouldn’t even if i was starving, I would just stab myself, put myself out of the misery.
Wow, I had no idea that cannibalism had gone on during the crusades!
People are cruel… need I say more? — DAVID
WARDLE
I guess that’s one thing the Pope forgot to mention. . .
I didn’t know that cannablism was going on during that time period
umm… very gross and disgusting. interesting article though…..
Religious Warfare…got to love it….totally gross though….
The Crusadeson are just a few examples of religion being twisted to justify massacres. It seems that some of the worst historical moments have been done in the name of religion.
Obviously the killing of thousands of Muslims was not enough for the Christians. What I wonder is how many Franciscans participated in this such siege and the eating of the dogs. This also shows us the length people go to when they are starving. Interesting article as it shines a new light onto my understanding of the crusades.
It is pretty unbelievable what people will do when they are starving, though I have to say that I find the eating of humans to be much more disturbing than the eating of dogs. Regardless, it’s quite ironic that these supposedly holy soldiers who, according to the pope at the time, were going straight to heaven could commit such atrocities against the fellow human beings that their own religion tells them they should treat like they would themselves.
Sounds somewhat similar to religious wars now. Scary thought. Also I guess you have to do what you have to do to survive. I’m sure if I were starving and the only available food was corpses, I’d probably eat it. I’d probably let it cook thoroughly first though…
Well this is disturbing… Humans eating humans is something that should never happen and the fact that they ate humans semi raw is just beyond disgusting. I also think it is disturbing that the Muslims and Christians did not consider each other humans but quite literally a piece of meat.
You guys can say all you want about how cannobalism is gross and wrong, as it is. But back then, and I’m sure they had no food, it was purely out of survival and I’m sure you would do the same thing if you wanted to live.
This article helps me to understand why there is still lasting hatred between Christians and Muslims today. If each religion treated the other as less than human, then of course there would be lasting impacts.
It’s mind blowing to see how far people would go because of hunger.
Today we hear much about what is Christian activity and what is not, and we can definitely say that cannibalism and lying about not slaughtering the population carelessly are not Christian. Although they justified it by claiming they did not deserve the same respect because of their religion, it is still hypocritical to kill all those people claiming it is for religion. It was especially disturbing to read that they had to cook these people up to nourish themselves.
For the Christians to persevere against the Muslims was a tremendous feat. Not only did the Christians breach their massive barricaded outer wall but they also slaughtered a vast handful of Muslims as well.
I cannot believe that it got this bad for the Crusaders. They ended up eating one another! That is just bogus to me.
and to think that long-ago events such as these still have lasting consequences to this day!
I can not believe that they ate the corpses and raw too. This completely sickens me.
The slaughtering of not only Muslims but some Christians as well was a bit brutal when hearing about it, and the fact that they would also eat the corpses of some was a little much.
The fact that Christians, who are supposed to do the right thing, ate the corpse of adults and even children is absolutely awful.
I am surprised that Europeans allowed the crusaders to come home after they ate other people.
When people are hungry they will resort to terrible things, however, cannibalism seems to go against the very nature of everything that Christians stand for. This is a grotesque act and it is hard to imagine why anyone would want to partake in it.
It’s weird how they go against what they believe in by killing people and to top it all off eat them as well….ridiuclous
It is certainly a bad day when you eat people, or worse, get eaten by people. This has never been viewed as a good idea, nor a common practice.
The fact of people eating each other is disturbing
I’m not sure what’s more disturbing, the fact that the Crusaders resorted to cannibalism of the Muslims, or the fact that both religions believed that any person not involved in their religion was “less than human”.
I am not surprised that given the level of hatred between Christians and Muslims that certain prejudices have proliferated into today’s world. Especially given the terrible things that occured during the crusades
I have always found it really odd that fundamentalist Christians and radical Islamists had such a disdain for each other until I learned about their history. Even though they stem from a lot of the same Judeo-Christian principles rooted in early western civilizations, they do have different cultural and religious beliefs. I guess the next time someone asks why radicals from each these groups hate each other, I’ll be able to tell them why.
Starvation at the extreme end can cause people to become cannibalistic and can even resort in the devouring of a family pet. Most disturbing is the fact that Christians of all people sunk to the level of eating other human beings.
At least they weren’t eating people for the hell of it.. that makes it ok right?
im not sure if starvation makes cannibalism acceptable but it is a good excuse, at least they weren’t doing it for fun
Difficult to wrap my brain around that ever being an acceptable practice
Makes more sense why they hated eachother. Still confused as why they resulted to cannibalism when they are so against killing others. Even though they were starving.
Hard to understand how that eating each other is justified..
People are cruel… it still makes it hard to believe! — DAVID WARDLE
People do wild things in times of war. I don’t know if i could eat another human though.
The crusades were pretty pointless in the long run. All that fighting for nothing! What a wild time!
i agree with A.T. Crusades were a lot of death for nothing. Truly sad and brutal
I believe the crusades where more of a time of power hungry leaders trying to prove themselves rather than an actual point or goal.
Hindsight proves the atrocity that religious persecution brings. This is a key instance where a group of people were demonized based on their beliefs or origins, and even outrageous acts like cannibalism were justified by the will to dominate.
I agree that the Crusades were pointless, especially the later ones like the Child’s Crusade.
The Crusades accomplished very little (new trade routes were probably the only good thing that came from them) and they caused a lot of death and hatred for no good reason.
The Muslims still took the Crusaders as human beings as we are all decendants of Adam and Eve. They believed them to be the People of the Book (religion of Abraham). If your an “infidel” which is not an Islamic term. Islamic term would be Kafir meaning non-Muslim. You are putting your opinion on here without any clear evidence making the actual fact seem bleak. Shame on you!
I wonder; is the term Infidel a translation of the word Kafir? According to my Quran (English), As-Saff 61:09, whatever word or phrase is translated can be deemed either polytheis or Infidel.
Just curious.
It’s crazy to see how people will act once they get to fighting. Eating another human being? Sickening
The fact that during a fight over religion massacre and cannibalism broke out goes completely against the idea of religion.
I found this story to be disturbing.
I am an avid dog lover, very disturbed by these actions.
Dear Sydney, Do you have a dog? I have a miniature dachshund! 🙂 Sincerely, Dr. Zarzeczny
This story is so gruesome. I cannot even imagine roasting children over a fire and eating dogs…
I find this article very strange and slightly unbelievable. Why would they eat people?!
Worst. Barbecue. Ever.
It is interesting how religion leads to so much violence in the world
People tend to believe that religions are these innocent groups of people, but most of the beginning years of these religions were based around if others didn’t believe what you do then it’s perfectly justifiable to just brutally murder them.
Wow! I did not expect this article to be so graphic. I guess when they had their hopes up to find food within the walls then did not they had to eat something. This seems like a case of “you gotta do what you gotta do”
This is hard to fathom and at the same time it is insane that religion was ultimately the driving force behind this.
it’s crazy what people will do when they are desperate
It is hard to even picture this! Also, it is difficult to fathom what people do when they are desperate because you were not there to understand those actions!
This was really freaky to read to about. I couldn’t believe doing this myself but I wasn’t there and don’t understand there reasons or actions why they acted as such I guess being desperate does this to you as a way to survive
Well. This is one of the most disturbing things I have ever heard.
Wow..pretty weird, but definitely interesting
I didnt realize how brutal the crusaders were.
Crusaders were intense
This was very interesting, I couldn’t imagine doing any of that. Especially killing and eating a dog. That’s horrible
The Crusades were a HORRIFIC period in the history of western civilization. Not only were people using religion as an excuse to go to war, they were also using it to justify actions such as these. It is repulsive that the Crusades were as highly regarded as they were in Christendom for a very long time.
The crusades were a terrible mark on the history of Christianity but it was 1000 years ago and people acted differently in war that may be considered ethically different from back then.
Not very Christian-like. Would explain how the Muslims were able to raise such a large force to take back Jerusalem with that kind of available propaganda to spread.
Too
The Crusade period was a horrible time period that led to so many senseless killings. Sadly people are still being killed for their beliefs, the only thing that seems to have changed is that people no longer eat each other…hopefully.
If most people were to find out about some of the things that take place during war, religiously motivated or not, they would be appalled. Warriors and armies doing unspeakable things, this incident being particularly macabre, is not an uncommon theme in warfare.
Sometimes it’s hard to believe that things could be like this at any point in time. The fact that these warriors were so desperate for food that they would eat corpses is absolutely disgusting.
Holy crap 20,000 people, that’s a lot of food for them since they considered the people as food. That’s insane and sad that many innocent people would be killed for no reason.
Its sad that these warriors were starving so bad that they ate other human beings
It’s appalling to see that so many people were treated in such a horrific way, no matter their motivations. I knew that the Crusades were bad but I didn’t realize that they were THIS bad. I also think it’s very nauseating to see that they used their religions as an excuse to harm thousands of people.
This article was very disturbing to me. After i read the first sentence of 20,000 people being murdered and some eaten I was disgusted. I will never understand how one could eat another person.
It’s horrifying to learn of all the awful things people can do to eachother when they dehumanize eachother
It’s interesting to think that something that horrible happened less that 1,000 years ago
I honestly do not know what to say. People are so messed up.
I am flabbergasted that people can treat human beings, the same breed as themselves, in this heinous way. It really did not happen all that long ago either.
cannibalism is disgusting.. the thought of eating another human makes me sick! How could people do it back then?
I would like to see the bible verse or any religious teachings that could come anywhere near justifying that. The cannibalism may have been out of necessity (as disgusting and inexcusable as it is) but systematically killing 20,000 people sounds a lot more like hate than hunger.
Just reading about cannibalism makes me feel sick. I would never be able to bring myself to eat another human.
I can’t imagine eating another human being. At the same time, however, does anyone truly know what they would do if they were at that point of starvation? I would like to think I would still have my morals, but I hope I never have to find out.
Cannibalism is a nasty act but sometimes people did what they had to do. Its just like Survivorman on steroids.
What a tragedy of war – humans eating other humans – and dogs!
Cannibalism is one of the most disturbing practices ever. There is almost no time where cannibalism can be considered ok under any circumstance.
first off, cannibalism is disgusting in every way. cannibalism is wrong to do in every country, id rather starve to death.
I find it disgusting that they used cannibalism and ate dogs. I would starve before I would eat another human being or dog.
I think this is awful however this is how they thought back then and seemed normal
Cannibalism truly disgusts me.
Well hey dog is a common dish in china… But that doesn’t make it any better eating dogs, adults, and children is awful
I don’t care how hungry I would never eat another human being I would die than eat a human especially a child too. I would die with dignity knowing I didn’t eat a person than eat them and live.
Everybody’s gotta eat one way or the other…
Why do people eat other people???
Because they’re hungry, Silly!
Of course it is sickening to know that people have ate dogs in the past but some people may not realize that in China they still have festivals in which they kill and consume mass amounts of dogs.
I don’t have much to say bout this but it is just down right disgusting, eating people , animals we call pets !!!! Well fun fact we are the only species that drink other species milk! on earth.
Eating another human being should never happen in any circumstance ever.
I don’t care what it comes down to I would never and could never bring myself to eat another human being. How can some human eat another human and disgust it and be perfectly okay?
I’ve seen movies and read articles with people resorting to cannibalism. I know that we all could say confidently “oh I would never resort to cannibalism” but the fact is at that point of contemplating eating someone, the person has been broken down both mentally and physically. Their natural instincts kick in and they will do whatever it takes to survive.
Cannibalism under no way should ever be alout
It’s bad enough to kill so many people but eating them as well? Reading this article made me sick to my stomach.
How do people eat raw chunks of another person? The knights began to eat the corpses in abundance!!!!
I think I would just die of starvation before I even thought about eating another human. Especially a raw human.
The saddest part of this reading was regarding how they even ate dogs. Being the owner of a black pug, i could never do such a thing to “mans best friend”.
why do people feel the need to eat human beings?
Maybe if they hadn’t murdered everyone they could have been home in time for dinner.
I could never imagine eating another human being!
That is just disgusting that they ate humans especially children and even dogs that just made my stomach turn.
I bet they would be amazed how long this hatred has lasted between these groups, I wonder if it will ever end.
I would never eat a human, i just couldn’t.
I dont think I could ever eat another person
It makes my stomach turn just reading about it.
cannibalism is just straight NASTY
I would have to just die of starvation. I would and never eat another human being no matter the circumstances.
wow they should have never done that! humans still need the respect of burial even if they are a different religion especially the children. They shouldn’t be eaten either.
Pretty gross. Couldn’t stomach a human
eating humans is just messed up, and so is eating dogs ):
I found it interesting that the starving crusaders resorted to cannibalism. J.K.
Eating another human being is just gross.
People eating other people is absolutely horrid.
1098 you say? Minus the cannibalism, I guess some things really don’t change. But the good fight continues for equality! Here’s to another millennia!
I can’t imagine being so hungry that you could actually eat another person or dog.
The language they used is interesting to me. Calling them “pagans” just shows how language has changed but our opinions have not.
There is numerous situations where people have said to have eaten a deceased person.Yes i do agree that it is wrong but if you were trapped on a island and that is all you had who knows what the human mind starts doing. When people are backed into a corner they are bound to do something desperate. But eating people is bad.
It’s quite interesting that we are never really taught some of these history events in school unless its from World History: Modern at Kent State. I never once heard about 20,000 Muslims being killed and then some apparently ate as well.
Although the disagreements on religion will continue forever I’m relieved groups boiling and eating other religious groups doesn’t occur anymore… hopefully this was a one time event?
But this was all okay right? You know, for god? psshh…kinda pathetic both sides committed atrocities for their gods, because their god was right.
Religious wars always seem hypocritical and sad to us.
It is hard to believe that people would just become cannibals just like that I mean, I can understand eating dogs and pets much more than resorting to eating people. Sorry but it is just terrible.
I don’t know about you, but these guys went a little too far when it came to food.
They said it tastes like Soylent Green.
its sad that religion is supposed to be a loving group of people but yet its just full of selfish rude assholes. so did eating undercooked meat kill off the impatient christians?