Things you should know: The Turks and the First Crusade The
modern nation of Turkey is named for its Turkish inhabitants,
but the Turks were not originally from Turkey. The Turks were
nomadic people from Central Asia. Many Turks remain in that
area, in fact, there is a nation in Central Asia known as
Turkmenistan (“land of the Turks”). One Turkish tribe, the
Seljuks, began moving into the Anatolian peninsula, or what we
now call Turkey. These Turks were Muslims, and a Christian
emperor, Alexius I, controlled the peninsula. Alexius appealed
to the Pope to help him rid Anatolia of “the unbelievers.” Pope
Urban II received Alexius’s call for assistance, but decided to
use that call to advance a more ambitious plan. Jerusalem, on
the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the modern nation of
Israel, is considered holy land to Christians, Jews and Muslims,
but in 1095, the city was controlled by Muslims. The message
from Alexius presented Urban with an opportunity to retake the
holy lands from the Muslims. The po