During The First Crusade, Christians Were Said To Have Eaten Muslims At Ma'arra To Survive
During The First Crusade, Christians Were Said To Have Eaten Muslims At Ma'arra To Survive When crusaders arrived at Ma'arra in modern-day Syria in 1098 CE, it was after a lengthy siege of Antioch earlier that year. As winter approached and supplies dwindled, the crusaders began to siege the city in November. Inhabitants of the Ma'arra initially held off crusading forces, but the city fell in mid-December. Once crusaders slaughtered residents (despite an agreement that granted them safe passage) and pillaged Ma'arra, many troops continued on to Jerusalem. Those who stayed in Ma'arra, according to sources, were so devoid of food that they resorted to eating the bodies of dead Muslims. Radulph of Caen wrote about the alleged cannibalism in his chronicle: they were compelled by want of food, to have passed over to eat human flesh… to have immersed the adults in the cacob of the heathen [boiled them], to have pierced the children with thorns [roasted them on spits], a...