Cornell College Middle Eastern history scholar to discuss the Crusades at Coe

Cornell College Middle Eastern history scholar Aaron Hagler will discuss “Crusaded: What the Crusades Mean to Muslims” at Coe College on Wednesday, Oct. 23, beginning at 7 p.m. at Kesler Lecture Hall in Hickok Hall. The lecture is open to the public at no charge.

The Crusades, a series of European invasions of the Middle East between the 11th and 14th centuries, are often discussed from European perspectives. However, the meaning of the Crusades to the Middle East is far more profound, and lasting, than to Europe. The Crusades are widely remembered in the Middle East today as a paradigm of Western behavior and attitudes towards Islam, Muslims, and the Middle East. Hagler’s talk will explore some of the dynamics of what it means to be “Crusaded.”

Hagler is an ACM/Andrew W. Mellon Post-doctoral Teacher-Scholar Fellow in Middle Eastern History at Cornell. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research focuses on the memory of the early Islamic period and its creative use as a method of sectarian argument.