Ummmbacon

I'm reading Joshua Trachtenberg's Jewish Magic and Superstition and ran across this in the chapter on Golems:

"..a fourteenth-century Christian writer cited the Arab Rasis (tenth century) on generating a human being by putting an unnamed substance in a vase filled with horse manure, for three days."

Trachtenberg mentions that this sort of thinking was common, and while he didn't give more example, he hinted there were more.

Can some speak to the more, and how widespread this was?

I'm reading Joshua Trachtenberg's Jewish Magic and Superstition and ran across this in the chapter on Golems:

"..a fourteenth-century Christian writer cited the Arab Rasis (tenth century) on generating a human being by putting an unnamed substance in a vase filled with horse manure, for three days."

Trachtenberg mentions that this sort of thinking was common, and while he didn't give more example, he hinted there were more.

Can some speak to the more, and how widespread this was?

In the period from 1096-1190 Jewish communities, primarily in the Rhineland (First, Second), England (Third), and Northern France (First)were attacked during the various Crusades on their way to "The Holy Land".

Various sources treat the perpetrators differently some argue that they are only "the People's Crusade", comprised of various townsfolk and knights locally, which was not "officially" the "Crusaders" but others say that they were.

Which was it?