Introduction What is crusades ? How many crusades were there? a). The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were intended to recover Jerusalem and its surrounding area from Islamic rule. There were atleast 8 crusades Between 1095, when the First Crusade was launched, and 1291, when the Latin Christians were finally expelled from their kingdom in Syria, there were numerous expeditions to the Holy Land, to Spain, and even to the Baltic; the Crusades continued for several centuries after 1291. Crusading declined rapidly during the 16th century with theadvent of the Protestant Reformation and the decline of papal authority. What is jerusalem? b)jerusalem is one of the oldest cities in the world, and is considered holy for the three major Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. both Israelis and Palestinians claim Jerusalem as their capital, as Israel controls the entire city and maintains its primary governmental institutions.