Why didnt the Byzantine Christians join in the Crusades?

Question

I was surprised to learn that the Byzantine Christians didnt go on the crusades, that it was the western european christians.

Why werent the Byzantine Christians participate?

Answer 1

Hey, this is a great question ... because of two things .. first they had to live with the Muslims and they knew that extermination was not an option; and also, they knew that almost half of all the people who lived in Jerusalem and the Holy Land were already Christian, but Byzantine Christians (Eastern or Greek Orthodox)! The dumb Crusaders killed as more or more Christians as they did Muslims, but they were so bigoted and narrow-minded that they never got that Arabs could be and were Christians also.

Answer 2

Realize that Europe had been "at war" with the Muslims for nearly 400 years before the Crusades began. The "Moors" had come across the northern top of Africa, invading all the nations there, and then crossed into Spain. There had been a series of battles between the two over the time, as the Europeans attempted to prevent the invasion of the rest of Europe. Just before the first Crusade, the Europeans had finally turned the tide (in part due to plagues among the Moors) and finally saw a chance to end the war between the two permanently. They also saw the freeing of the "Holy Lands" where Christ had lived from the Muslims as a worthy goal. They felt that having this land possessed by another religion was an insult to the honor of Christ. So to encourage men to "join the cause", the Pope offered anyone who did absolution (that is forgiveness of all their sins) and any loot or land that they won during the crusade. So the main motivations would have been (1) protecting Europe from further invasions, (2) freeing the Holy Land, (3) receiving absolution and (4) riches. In this way, it was not much different then any other war.

Answer 3

The crusades were inadvertantly started by the Byzantine Empire when the Emperor sent a request for help from the Pope in Rome to deal with those pesky Muslims. He didn't expect the West to send whole armies and subsequent Byzantine emperors were perplexed by the whole Crusader movement.
There is still some rancour amongst historically-aware Greeks about the Crusades since the 4th Crusade resulted in the sack of Constantinople (Byzantium) itself in the 13th century, with Catholic Christians murdering thousands of Orthodox Christians.
Although it's risky to look at medieval morals through 21st century-eyes, I still think it fair to generalise the Western Christian Crusaders as piratical racist thugs, and the Eastern Christians as pragmatists who just wanted a quiet life. The Byzantine culture, when you take Christianity out of the equation, had far more in common with its Muslim neighbours than it did with the West.

Answer 4

The reality of the situation was that there was peace between the Muslims and the Christians. The Christians were free to pray as they wanted without hindrance. Whereas the crusades were one man's inherent need for power it was also to give the western European Christians a common enemy to make sure they didn't fight against themselves which they had a tendency of doing. The pope wanted more influence in Europe so he designed the crusade in such a way whereas any nobleman would gain salvation regardless of what atrocities they had committed in their respective kingdoms. The more men a nobleman sent the more salvation he earned. This was a green light by the pope to the noblemen to commit as many injustices on the Muslims and Christians of Jerusalem as they wanted.

Answer 5

They did not join the crusades because they were not catholic, they wee greek orthodox. The pope's call for crusades was irrelevant for them.