The first organized Crusade against Muslims

Compiled By: Syed Ali Shahbaz
On October 21, 1097 AD, the first organized Crusade made up of Christian knights and experienced warriors under the joint command of Godfrey of Bouillon, Bohemund of Taranto, and Raymond IV of Toulouse, began the siege of the Syrian city of Antioch, which is now in Turkey.
This military expedition led by Roman Catholic Europe was organized by Pope Urban II with the goal of responding to an appeal from Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, who requested that west European Christians come to his aid to fight the Seljuq Sultanate of Asia Minor.
The well-organized force caught the Muslims by surprise and besieged Antioch, which fell to them some 8 months later, because of the over-confidence of the Turkish defenders, who viewed this batch of experienced fighters as another of the Peasants’ Army they had defeated a year earlier in Asia Minor.
In brief, the Crusader invaders marched south along the coast, occupying several cities, and in 1099, seized the Islamic holy city of Bayt al-Moqaddas from the Ismaili Shi’ite Fatemid Dynasty of Egypt-North Africa, massacring some 70,000 Muslim men, women and children, as well as the local Christians and Jews.