Crusader states

"Outremer" redirects here. For the modern French overseas territories, see Overseas France. For the album by Garage A Trois, see Outre Mer.

Map of the eastern Mediterranean in 1135. The Frankish crusader states are indicated with a red cross ☩. The Principality of Armenian Cilicia was under Armenian rule. The remnant of the Byzantine Empire is visible in the west; the Seljuk Empire and Fatimid Egypt are shown in green.

The Crusader states were feudal Christian states created by a series of religious wars initiated, supported and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the Middle Ages. In particular the campaigns between 1096 and 1271 in the Eastern Mediterranean aimed at recovering the Holy Land from Islamic rule. Pope Urban II proclaimed the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont in 1095. He encouraged military support for the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I against the Seljuk Turks and an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem. There was an enthusiastic response in Western Europe across all social strata. This, and later campaigns, established four Crusader states in the Near East: the County of Edessa; the Principality of Antioch; the Kingdom of Jerusalem; and the County of Tripoli. A crusader presence remained in the region in some form until Acre, the last mainland outpost, fell in 1291, after which there were no further crusades to recover the Holy Land.

The term "Crusades" has also been applied to other church-sanctioned campaigns fought to combat paganism and heresy, to resolve conflict among rival Roman Catholic groups, or to gain political or territorial advantage. Crusades differed from other religious conflicts in that participants considered them a penitential exercise that brought absolution. Historians contest the definition of the term "crusade" with some restricting it to armed pilgrimages to Jerusalem; others including all Catholic military campaigns with a promise of spiritual benefits; all Catholic holy wars; or those with characteristic religious fervour. These states in the Levant were the first examples of "Europe overseas" and became known to historians by the French version of the phrase, Outremer.

The Reconquista, the struggle between the Christians and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula, was proclaimed a crusade in 1123 and ended with the fall of Emirate of Granada in 1492. The Northern Crusades that brought the pagan tribes of north-eastern Europe under Christian control were considered crusades from 1147.

Background

Further information: Spread of Islam, Crusades, Muslim conquests, Great Seljuk Empire, Byzantine–Seljuk wars, Arab–Byzantine wars, Council of Clermont, and Reconquista

Beginning in the 7th century, following the foundation of the Islamic religion by Muhammad, and through the 8th century, Muslim Arabs under the Umayyad Caliphate captured Syria, Egypt, Iran, the Levant and North Africa from the Byzantine and Sasanian Empires, and Iberia from the Visigothic Kingdom.

In 750 a bloody coup brought an end to Umayyad rule, leading to the gradual fragmentation of the monolithic Islamic state and the relocation of the political and economic centre of the Islamic world from Palestine to Iran and Iraq. By the end of the 11th century the age of Islamic territorial expansion was long gone. However, frontier conditions between the Christian and Muslim world remained militant across the Mediterranean area. From the 8th century, in what later became known as the Reconquista, Christians were campaigning in Spain. In the 11th century Norman adventurers led by Roger de Hauteville, later King Roger I of Sicily, seized Sicily from the Muslims. The "Holy Land" had been under Arab Muslim control for more than four centuries, with fluctuating levels of tolerance, trade, and political relationships between Muslims and Christians. Catholic pilgrims had access to sacred sites and Christian residents in Muslim territories were given dhimmi status, legal rights, and legal protection. Indigenous Christians were allowed to maintain churches, and marriages between faiths were not uncommon.

The Orthodox Christian Byzantine Empire in the early 11th century stretched east to Iran and controlled Bulgaria and much of southern Italy in the west. However, from this point the arrival of new enemies on all frontiers placed intolerable strains on the resources of both the Byzantine Empire and the neighbouring Arab Muslim regimes. The situation was a serious threat to the future of the Eastern Orthodox Byzantine Empire. This made the possibility of western military aid from the Papacy for specific campaigns an attractive prospect to the Byzantines.

In 1095 the Byzantine emperor, Alexios I Komnenos, requested military support from the Council of Piacenza for the fight with the Seljuk Turks. Later that year, at the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban supported this and exhorted war. This prompted a popular outbreak amongst poor Christians, led by the French priest Peter the Hermit, known as the People's Crusade. Passing through Germany they indulged in wide-ranging anti-Jewish activities and massacres. On leaving Byzantine-controlled territory in Anatolia they were annihilated in a Turkish ambush at the Battle of Civetot in October 1096. They were followed by a feudal army that may have numbered 100,000 including non-combatant that was cautiously welcomed to Byzantium by Alexios late in 1096. He made them promise to return all recovered Byzantine territory However, Bohemond I of Antioch retained Antioch when it was captured, rather than returning it as promised and fought with the Byzantines for a decade until his failure in Italy at the Siege of Dyrrhachium (1107–1108).

Organisation

13th century depiction of the reconstruction of the temple of Jerusalem from the Old French translation of Guillaume de Tyr's Histoire d'Outremer.

After the First Crusade, Godfrey of Bouillon was left with only 300 knights and 2,000 infantry to defend the territory won in the Eastern Mediterranean. Of the crusader princes only Tancred remained, with the aim of establishing his own lordship. At this point the Franks held only Jerusalem, Antioch and Edessa but not the surrounding country. Jerusalem remained economically sterile, despite the advantages of being the centre of administration for church and state and benefiting from streams of pilgrims.

Consolidation in the first half of the 12th-century established four Crusader states:

• The County of Edessa (1098–1149)
• The Principality of Antioch (1098–1268)
• The Kingdom of Jerusalem, founded in 1099, lasted until 1291, when the city of Acre fell.
• The County of Tripoli (1104–1289, although the city of Tripoli itself remained in Muslim control until 1109)

There were also many vassals of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the four major lordships (seigneuries) being:

• The Principality of Galilee
• The County of Jaffa and Ascalon
• The Lordship of Oultrejordain
• The Lordship of Sidon

These states were the first examples of "Europe overseas". They are generally known as Outremer, from the French outre-mer ("overseas" in English).

Demography

Modern research based on historical geography techniques indicate that Muslims and indigenous Christian populations were less integrated than previously thought. Palestinian Christians lived around Jerusalem and in an arc stretching from Jericho and the Jordan to Hebron in the south. Comparing archaeological research on Byzantine churches built before the Muslim conquest and Ottoman census records from the 16th century demonstrates that some Greek Orthodox communities had disappeared before the crusades but most continued for centuries after the fall of the Crusader states. Maronites were concentrated in Tripoli; Jacobites in Antioch and Edessa. Armenians were concentrated in the north but communities existed in all major towns. Palestine's central areas had a Muslim majority population. The Muslims were mainly Sunnis, but Shi'ite communities existed in Galilee. The nonconformist Muslim Druzes were recorded living in the mountains of Tripoli. The Jewish population resided in coastal towns and some Galilean villages.

With the capture of Jerusalem and victory at Ascalon the majority of the Crusaders considered their pilgrimage complete and returned to Europe. The Frankish population of the Kingdom of Jerusalem became concentrated in three major cities. By the 13th century the population of Acre probably exceeded 60,000, then came Tyre, with the capital being the smallest of the three with a population somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000. At its zenith, the Latin population of the region reached c. 250,000 with Jerusalem's population numbering c. 120,000 and the combined total in Tripoli, Antioch and Edessa being broadly comparable. The presence of Frankish peasants is evident in 235 villages, out of a total some 1,200 rural settlements.

In context, Josiah Russell estimates the population of what he calls "Islamic territory" as roughly 12.5 million in 1000—Anatolia 8 million, Syria 2 million, Egypt 1.5 million and North Africa 1 million — with the European areas that provided crusaders having a population of 23.7 million. He estimates that by 1200 that these figures had risen to 13.7 million in Islamic territory—Anatolia 7 million, Syria 2.7 million, Egypt 2.5 million and North Africa 1.5 million— while the Crusaders' home countries population was 35.6 million. Russell acknowledges that much of Anatolia was Christian or under the Byzantines and that some purportedly Islamic areas such as Mosul and Baghdad had significant Christian populations.

Society

Outremer was frontier society with a Frankish elite ruling a native population related to the neighbouring communities, many of whom were hostile to the Franks. It was politically and legally stratified with self-governing ethnically-based communities. Relations between communities were controlled by the Franks. The basic division in society was between Frank and non-Frank, and not between Christian and Muslim. All Franks were considered free men while the native peoples lived like western serfs. Conversion to Latin Christianity was their only route to full citizenship. The Franks imposed officials in order to use the military, legal and administrative systems to control the natives. Few Franks could speak more than basic Arabic. Dragomans—interpreters—and ruʾasāʾ—village headmen—were used as mediators. Civil disputes and minor criminality were administered by the courts of the native communities, but more serious offences and cases involving Franks were dealt with by the Frankish cour des bourgeois. The lack of material evidence makes it difficult to identify the level of assimilation. The archaeology is culturally exclusive and written evidence indicates deep religious division, although Outremer's heterogeneity would have inevitably eroded formal apartheid. The key differentiator in status and economic position was between urban and rural dwellers. Indigenous Christians could gain higher status and acquire wealth through commerce and industry in towns, but few Muslims lived in urban areas except those in servitude.

Frankish courts reflected the region's diversity. Queen Melisende was part Armenian and married Fulk from Anjou. Their son Amalric, first married a local Frank, then a Byzantine Greek. William of Tyre was appalled at the use of Jewish, Syrian and Muslim physicians, who were popular among the nobility. Greek and Arabic speaking Christians made Antioch a centre of cultural interchange. The local peoples showed the Frankish nobility traditional deference. Some Franks adopted the local dress, food, housing and military techniques. This does not mean that Outremer was a cultural melting pot. Inter-communal relations were shallow, separate identities were maintained and other communities were considered alien.

Economy

In addition to being economic centres themselves, the Crusader states provided an obstacle to Muslim trade by sea with the west and to the land routes from Mesopotamia and Syria to the great urban economies of the Nile. Despite native hostility commerce continued, coastal cities remained maritime outlets for the Islamic hinterland and eastern wares were exported to Europe in unprecedented volumes. The Byzamtine-Muslim mercantile growth in the 12th and 13th  centuries may have occurred anyway as the Western European economy was booming due to population growth; this increased wealth and created a growing social class demanding city centred products and eastern imports, but it is likely that the Crusades hastened the developments. European fleets were expanded, better ships built, navigation improved and fare paying pilgrims subsidised many voyages. Agricultural production, largely the domain of the native population, flourished before the fall of the First Kingdom in 1187, but was negligible afterwards. Franks, Muslems, Jews and native Christians traded local crafts in the souks of the cities. The Italian, Provençal and Catalan merchants monopolised shipping, imports, exports, transportation and banking. The Frankish noble and ecclesiastical institutional income was based on income from estates, market tolls and taxation. The main centres of production were Antioch, Tripoli, Tyre and, less importantly, Beirut. Textiles, glass, dyestuffs, olives, wine, sesame oil and sugar were exported; silk was particularly prized. The Frankish population, estimated at roughly a quarter of a million people, provided an import market for clothing and finished goods.

Coinage

Crusader coins of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Left: Denier in European style with Holy Sepulchre (1162–75). Centre: Kufic gold bezant (1140–80). Right: gold bezant with Christian symbol (1250s). (British Museum)

The Franks adopted the more monetised native economic system, using a hybrid coinage: predominantly northern Italian and southern French silver European coins; Frankish variant copper coins minted in Arabic and Byzantine styles; and local silver and gold dirhams and dinars. After 1124, Egyptian dinars were copied, creating Jerusalem's gold bezant. Following the collapse of Outremer in 1187, trade, rather than agriculture, increasingly dominated the economy and western coins began dominating the coinage in circulation. Despite local lords in Tyre, Sidon and Beirut minting silver pennies and copper coins there is little evidence of systematic attempts to create a unified local currency.

Monarchy

During the period of near constant warfare in the early decades of the 12th century, the king of Jerusalem's foremost role was leader of the feudal host. They very rarely awarded land or lordships, and those awarded that became vacant—a frequent event due to the high mortality rate in the conflict—reverted to the crown. Instead their followers' loyalty was rewarded with city incomes. As a result, the royal domain of the first five rulers —including much of Judea, Samaria, the coast from Jaffa to Ascalon, the ports of Acre and Tyre, and other scattered castles and territories—was larger that the combined holdings of the nobility. This meant that the rulers of Jerusalem had greater internal power than comparative western monarchs, but did not have the necessary administrative systems and personnel to govern a large realm.

Map of the feudatories of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1187

The situation evolved in the second quarter of the century with the establishment of baronial dynasties. Magnates—such as Raynald of Châtillon, Lord of Oultrejordain, and Raymond III, Count of Tripoli, Prince of Galilee—often acted as autonomous rulers. Royal powers were abrogated and effectively governance was undertaken within the feudatories. What central control remained was exercised at the Haute Cour—High Court, in English. Only the 13th century jurists of Jerusalem used this term, Curia Regis was more common in Europe. These were meetings between the king and his tenants in chief. Over time the duty of the vassal to give council developed into a privilege and ultimately the legitimacy of the monarch depended on the agreement of the court. The barons have been poorly regarded by both contemporary and modern commentators: James of Vitry was disgusted by their superficial rhetoric; the historian Jonathan Riley-Smith wrote of their pedantry and the use of spurious legal justification for political action.

In practice, the High Court consisted of the great barons and the king's direct vassals. In law a quorum was the king and three tenants in chief. The 1162 Assise sur la ligece theoretically expanded of membership to all 600+ fief-holders, making them all peers. All those who paid homage directly to the king were now members of the Haute Cour of Jerusalem. They were joined by the heads of the military orders before the end of the 12th century and the Italian communes in the 13th century. Before the defeat at Hattin in 1187 the laws developed by the court were documented as Assises in Letters of the Holy Sepulchre. The entire body of written law was lost in the subsequent fall of Jerusalem. From this point the legal system was largely based on the custom and memory of the lost legislation. The renowned jurist Philip of Novara lamented "We know [the laws] rather poorly, for they are known by hearsay and usage...and we think an assize is something we have seen as an assize...in the kingdom of Jerusalem [the barons] made much better use of the laws and acted on them more surely before the land was lost". Thus a myth was created of an idyllic early 12th century legal system. The barons used this to reinterpret the Assise sur la ligece, which Almalric I intended to strengthen the crown, to instead constrain the monarch, particularly with regards to the right of the monarch to remove feudal fiefs without trial. The concomitant loss of the vast majority of rural fiefs led to the barons becoming an urban mercantile class where knowledge of the law was a useful, valuable, well-regarded skill and a career path to higher status.

The leaders of the Third Crusade disregarded the monarchy of Jerusalem; disposing of conquests as if there was no local power to consider and giving the throne to Conrad of Montferrat in 1190 and then Henry II, Count of Champagne in 1192. Emperor Frederick II married Queen Isabella in 1225 and immediately claimed the throne of Jerusalem from her father, the King Regent, John of Brienne. In 1228 Isabella died after giving birth to a son, Conrad, who through his mother was now legally king of Jerusalem and Frederick's heir. From 1229 when Frederick II left the Holy Land to defend his Italian and German lands, monarchs were absent—Conrad from 1225 until 1254, his son Conradin until his execution by Charles of Anjou in 1268. Government in Jerusalem had developed in the opposite direction to monarchies in the west. St Louis, Emperor Frederick and Kind Edward I—contemporary rulers of France, Germany and England respectively— were powerful, with centralised bureaucracies. Jerusalem had a royalty without power. Magnates such as the Ibelins attempted to seize the regency, fighting for control with an Italian army led by Frederick's viceroy Richard Filangieri in the War of the Lombards. Tyre, the Hospitallers, the Teutonic Knights and Pisa supported Filangieri. In opposition were the Ibelins, Acre, the Templars and Genoa. The rebels established a surragate commune, or parliament, for twelve years in Acre. They prevailed in 1242 with the capture of Tyre and a succession of Ibelin and Cypriot regents followed. The historian Joshua Prawer considered that centralised government collapsed; noting that the nobility, military orders and Italian communes took the lead. Three Cypriot Lusignan kings succeeded without the financial or military resources to recover the lost territory. The title of king was even sold to Charles of Anjou but although he gained power for a short while, he never visited the kingdom. The king of Cyprus fought at Acre until all hope was lost and then returned to his island realm. Cyprus survived the fall of the mainland Crusader states and Peter I of Cyprus launched the last crusade against Egypt that temporarily captured Alexandria in 1365.

Religion

Partly a result of anti-Orthodox policy the early crusaders filled ecclesiastical positions in the Orthodox church left vacant with Franks, including the patriarchy of Jerusalem when Simeon II died. The Greek Orthodox Church was considered part of the universal Church, which enabled the replacement of Orthodox bishops by Latin clerics in coastal towns. The first Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Arnulf of Chocques, ejected the Greek Orthodox monks from the Holy Sepulchre but relented when the miracle of Easter Fire failed in their absence. The appointment of Latin bishops had little effect on the Arabic-speaking Orthodox Christians because the previous bishops were also foreign, from the Byzantine Empire. The Latin bishops used Greeks as coadjutor bishops to administer Syrians and Greeks left without higher clergy. In many villages Latin and Orthodox Christions shared a church. In exceptional political circumstances, Greeks replaced Latin patriarchs in Antioch. Orthodox monasteries were rebuilt and Orthodox monastic life revived. This toleration continued despite an increasingly interventionist papal reaction demonstrated by Jacques de Vitry, Bishop of Acre. The Armenians, Copts, Jacobites, Nestorians and Maronites had greater autonomy. As they were not in communion with Rome they could retain their own bishops without a conflict of authority. Around 1181 Aimery of Limoges, Patriarch of Antioch, managed to bring the Maronites into communion with Rome, establishing a precedent for the Uniate Churches.

That religion prevented assimilation is evidenced by the Franks' discriminatory laws against Jews and Muslims. They were banned from living in Jerusalem and sexual relations between Muslims and Christians was punished by mutilation. Some mosques were converted into Christian churches, but the Franks did not force the local Muslims to convert to Christianity. Frankish lords were particularly reluctant, because conversion would have ended the Muslim peasants' servile status. The Muslims could pray in public and their pilgrimages to Mecca continued. The Samaritans' annual Passover festival attracted visitors from beyond the kingdom's borders.

Communes

Largely based in the ports of Acre, Tyre, Tripoli and Sidon, Italian, Provençal and Catalan communes had distinct cultural characteristics and exerted significant political power. Separate from the Frankish nobles or burgesses, the communes were autonomous political entities closely linked to their towns of origin. This gave them the ability to monopolise foreign trade and almost all banking and shipping in Outremer. Their parent cities' naval support was essential for the Crusader states. Every opportunity to extend trade privileges was taken. One example saw the Venetians receiving one-third of Tyre and its territories, and exemption from all taxes, after Venice participated in the successful 1124 siege of the city. Despite all efforts, the Syrian and Palestinian ports were unable to replace Alexandria and Constantinople as the primary centres of commerce in the region. Instead, the communes competed with the monarchs and each other to maintain economic advantage. Power derived from the support of the communards' native cities rather than their number, which never reached more than hundreds. Thus, by the middle of the 13th century, the rulers of the communes were barely required to recognise the authority of the crusaders and divided Acre into several fortified miniature republics.

Military orders

Main article: Military order (religious society)

13th-century miniature of Baldwin II of Jerusalem granting the captured Al Aqsa Mosque to Hugues de Payens

The crusaders' propensity to follow the customs of their Western European homelands meant that there were very few innovations developed from the culture in the crusader states. Three notable exceptions to this are the military orders, warfare and fortifications. The Knights Hospitaller, formally the Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, were founded in Jerusalem before the First Crusade but added a martial element to their ongoing medical functions to become a much larger military order. In this way the knighthood entered the previously monastic and ecclesiastical sphere.

Military orders like the Knights Hospitaller and Knights Templar provided Latin Christendom's first professional armies in support of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the other crusader states. The Templars, formally the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, and their Temple of Solomon were founded around 1119 by a small band of knights who dedicated themselves to protecting pilgrims en route to Jerusalem. The Hospitallers and the Templars became supranational organisations as papal support led to rich donations of land and revenue across Europe. This, in turn, led to a steady flow of new recruits and the wealth to maintain multiple fortifications in the crusader states. In time, they developed into autonomous powers in the region. After the fall of Acre the Hospitallers first relocated to Cyprus, then conquered and ruled Rhodes (1309–1522) and Malta (1530–1798), and continue in existence to the present-day. King Philip IV of France probably had financial and political reasons to oppose the Knights Templar, which led to him exerting pressure on Pope Clement V. The pope responded in 1312, with a series of papal bulls including Vox in excelso and Ad providam that dissolved the order on the alleged and probably false grounds of sodomy, magic and heresy.

Art and architecture

Further information: Art of the crusades

12th-century Knights Hospitaller castle of Krak des Chevaliers in Syria, one of the first castles to use concentric fortification, i.e. concentric rings of defence that could all operate at the same time. It has two curtain walls and sits on a promontory.

According to Joshua Prawer no major European poet, theologian, scholar or historian settled in the crusader states. Some went on pilgrimage, and this is reflected in new imagery and ideas in the important area of western poetry. Although they did not migrate East themselves, their output often encouraged others to journey on pilgrimage to the east.

Historians consider military architecture—demonstrating a synthesis of the European, Byzantine and Muslim traditions—the most original and impressive artistic achievement of the crusades. Castles were a tangible symbol of the dominance of a Latin Christian minority over a largely hostile majority population. They also acted as centres of administration. Modern historiography rejects the 19th-century consensus that Westerners learnt the basis of military architecture from the Near East, as Europe had already experienced rapid growth in defensive technology before the First Crusade. Direct contact with Arab fortifications originally constructed by the Byzantines did influence developments in the east. But the lack of documentary evidence means that it remains difficult to differentiate between the importance of this design culture and the constraints of situation, which led to the inclusion of oriental design features such as large water reservoirs and the exclusion of occidental features like moats.

Typically, early church design was in the French Romanesque style. This can be seen in the 12th-century rebuilding of the Holy Sepulchre. It retained some of the Byzantine details, but new arches and chapels were built to northern French, Aquitanian and Provençal patterns. There is little trace of any surviving indigenous influence in sculpture, although in the Holy Sepulchre the column capitals of the south facade follow classical Syrian patterns.

In contrast to architecture and sculpture, it is in the area of visual culture that the assimilated nature of the society was demonstrated. Throughout the 12th and 13th centuries the influence of indigenous artists was demonstrated in the decoration of shrines, painting and the production of manuscripts. In addition, Frankish practitioners borrowed methods from the Byzantines and indigenous artists and iconographical practice. Monumental and panel painting, mosaics and illuminations in manuscripts adopted an indigenous style leading to a cultural synthesis illustrated by the Church of the Nativity. Wall mosaics were unknown in the west but in widespread use in the crusader states. Whether this was by indigenous craftsmen or learnt by Frankish ones is unknown, but a distinctive original artistic style evolved.

Manuscripts were produced and illustrated in workshops housing Italian, French, English and local craftsmen leading to a cross-fertilisation of ideas and techniques. An example of this is the Melisende Psalter, created by several hands in a workshop attached to the Holy Sepulchre. This style could have either reflected or influenced the taste of patrons of the arts. But what is seen is an increase in stylised Byzantine-influenced content. This even extended to the production of icons, unknown at the time to the Franks, sometimes in a Frankish style and even of western saints. This is seen as the origin of Italian panel painting. While it is difficult to track illumination of manuscripts and castle design back to their sources textual sources are simpler. The translations made in Antioch are notable, but they are considered of secondary importance to the works emanating from Muslim Spain and from the hybrid culture of Sicily.

Military

Records from John of Ibelin indicate that around 1170 the military force of the kingdom of Jerusalem was based on a feudal host of about 647 to 675 heavily armoured knights. Each feudatory would also provide his own armed retainers. Non-noble light cavalry and infantry were known as serjants. The prelates and the towns were to provide 5,025 serjants to the royal army, according to Ibelin's list. This force would be augmented by hired soldiery. Turcopoles were recruited from among the natives. In times of emergency, the king could also call upon a general muster of the Christian population, Franks and natives alike.

Joshua Prawer estimated that the military orders could match the king's fighting strength. This means the total military of the kingdom can be estimated at 1,200 knights and 10,000 serjants. Enough for further territorial gains, but fewer than required to maintain military domination. This was also a problem defensively. Putting a major army into the field required draining castles and cities of able-bodied fighting men. In the case of a defeat, such as the Battle of Hattin, there remained few to resist the invaders. Muslim armies were incohesive and seldom campaigned beyond the period between sowing and harvest. As a result, the crusaders adopted delaying tactics when faced with a superior invading Muslim force. They would avoid direct confrontation, instead retreating to strongholds and waiting for the Muslim army to disperse. It took generations before the Muslims recognised that they could not conquer Outremer without destroying the Franks' fortresses. This strategic change forced the crusaders away from the tactic of gaining and holding territory, including Jerusalem. Instead the aim was to attack and destroy Egypt. By removing this constant regional challenge, the Crusaders hoped to gain the necessary time to improve the kingdom's demographic weakness.

Legacy

The Kingdom of Jerusalem was the first experiment in European colonialism, setting up the Outremer as a "Europe Overseas". The raising, transportation, and supply of large armies led to flourishing trade between Europe and the Outremer. The Italian city-states of Genoa and Venice flourished, planting profitable trading colonies in the eastern Mediterranean. The crusades consolidated the papal leadership of the Latin Church, reinforcing the link between Western Christendom, feudalism, and militarism and increased the tolerance of the clergy for violence. Muslim libraries contained classical Greek and Roman texts that allowed Europe to rediscover pre-Christian philosophy, science and medicine. The growth of the system of indulgences became a catalyst for the Reformation in the early 16th century. The crusades also had a role in the formation and institutionalisation of the military and the Dominican orders as well as of the Medieval Inquisition.

The behaviour of the crusaders in the eastern Mediterranean area appalled the Greeks and Muslims, creating a lasting barrier between the Latin world and the Islamic and Orthodox religions. This became an obstacle to the reunification of the Christian church and fostered a perception of Westerners as defeated aggressors. Many historians argue that the interaction between the western Christian and Islamic cultures played a significant, ultimately positive, part in the development of European civilisation and the Renaissance. Relations between Europeans and the Islamic world, stretched across the entire length of the Mediterranean Sea, led to an improved perception of Islamic culture in the West. But this broad area of interaction also makes it difficult for historians to identify the specific sources of cultural cross-fertilisation.

Historical parallelism and the tradition of drawing inspiration from the Middle Ages have become keystones of political Islam encouraging ideas of a modern jihad and long struggle while secular Arab nationalism highlights the role of western imperialism. Muslim thinkers, politicians and historians have drawn parallels between the crusades and modern political developments such as the mandates given for the governance of Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Israel by the United Nations. Right-wing circles in the Western world have drawn opposing parallels, considering Christianity to be under an Islamic religious and demographic threat that is analogous to the situation at the time of the crusades. Crusader symbols and anti-Islamic rhetoric are presented as an appropriate response, even if only for propaganda purposes. These symbols and rhetoric are used to provide a religious justification and inspiration for a struggle against a religious enemy. Some historians, such as Thomas F. Madden, argue that modern tensions are the result of a constructed view of the crusades created by colonial powers in the 19th century and transmitted into Arab nationalism. For him the crusades are a medieval phenomenon in which the crusaders were engaged in a defensive war on behalf of their co-religionists.

Language

The Franks ruled as an elite and unnumbered class. As such linguistic differences remained a key differentiator. They typically spoke Old French and wrote in Latin and while some learnt Arabic, Greek, Armenian, Syriac and Hebrew this was unusual.

See also

• List of Crusader castles
• Map of the Crusader states from Muir's Historical Atlas (1911)
• Crusader art

Bibliography

• Asbridge, Thomas (2012). The Crusades: The War for the Holy Land. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-84983-688-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Barber, Malcolm (2012). The Crusader States. Yale University Press. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Findley, Carter Vaughan (2005). The Turks in World History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-516770-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Mayer, Hans Eberhard (1988). The Crusades (  Second ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-873097-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Jotischky, Andrew (2004). Crusading and the Crusader States. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-582-41851-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Prawer, Joshua (1972). The Crusaders' Kingdom. Phoenix Press. ISBN 978-1-84212-224-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Riley-Smith, Jonathan (2005). The Crusades: A Short History (Second ed.). Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-10128-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Russell, Josiah C. (1985). "The Population of the Crusader States". In Zacour, Norman P.; Hazard, Harry W. (eds.). A History of the Crusades. Vol. 5 The Impact of the Crusades on the Near East. The University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 295–314. ISBN 0-299-09140-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Tyerman, Christopher (2006). God's War: A New History of the Crusades. Belknap Press. ISBN 978-0-674-02387-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Tyerman, Christopher (2019). The World of the Crusades. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-21739-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

• "The French of Outremer", Medieval Studies, Fordham University