"The Crusades"

In beginning to examine the Crusades, we must first bear in mind that the Arabs and others in the East that witnessed the Crusades were mostly Christians albeit that some of the sects were probably regarded as heretical in both Rome and Constantinople (as Rome and Constantinople also regarded each other to an extent). In the East, the Crusades were thus, in this light, regarded as a mere land-grab by the Franks (the Arab name then for all of the Western Europeans including the English) and not a religiously motivated drive. They can also be seen as a political drive that is also part of the larger expansion of the 'Christian' realm into former 'Muslim' zones such as in Iberia and Sicily.

The official first Crusade in the East began in 1096 and resulted in a major colonising period beginning from 1099. The area was finally reconquered for the Muslims with the fall of Acre (Acco in Israel today) in 1292. As the Crusades continued, so did the European reconquests of Sicily and the Iberian Peninsula as noted by Ibn al-Athir, who lived in Mosul in Iraq from 1160 to 1233. The Normans who performed the pope’s bidding in Sicily were also expanding into England (in 1066) thus indicating a desire for expansion of territory that thus may not be seen as purely religiously motivated. At the same time, the Turkic, and incidentally Muslim, Seljuks were expanding into territory thus threatening Byzantium politically. Those two groups were also far from the only peoples actively interested in geo-politics in this period. Thus, the motivation for the Crusades may have been to protect Europe from 'Muslim' political expansion and even to promote a form of political expansion of its own rather than the ostensible protection of Christians who travelled to the “Holy Land” pilgrimage sites on routes until then largely formally in 'Muslim' hands and under weak 'Muslim' control. The Emperor at Byzantium and not the Patriarch brought on the first Crusade by asking for an intervention although he did ask the Pope (who he clearly saw as the supreme political player in Western Europe at the time, however).

The Europeans thus established four major 'Crusader States' in the Eastern Mediterranean: the Kingdom of Jerusalem (which lasted from 1099 to 1187), the Principality of Antioch (from 1098 to 1189), the County of Tripoli, or Tarablus in Arabic (from 1098 to 1189) and the County of Edessa (from 1097 to 1144).

Attempts were made to also conquer the more economically rich land of Egypt. The formation into separate states rather than a unified one is itself an indication of the fulfilment of the desire for political gain of several of the Crusader parties.

In the so-called "Second Crusade", the famous Saladin was successful. Saladin (Salah ad-Din), a Kurd, first worked for and then supplanted the Shi’a Fatimid dynasty of Egypt and also ruled in Syria. His armies did most to restore the cities of the Eastern Mediterranean that had been turned into 'Crusader States' to Muslim control in the late 12^th Century.

In the Third Crusade, the major protagonist was the English king, Richard I (Coeur de Leon), after all of the original Crusader States had been lost (the Kingdom of Jerusalem was now centred upon Acre after Acre itself had been lost (and then finally regained by Richard)). The Christian Kingdom of Cyprus was set up in this effort.

In the Fourth Crusade, the Franks conquered and ignominiously sacked Christian Constantinople while attempting to regain all of the lost Crusader States. Instead, Franks briefly ruled some of the eastern lands of their co-religionists.

The official Crusader era (nine Crusades are usually recognised) ended with the fall of Acre in 1292. Unofficially, the Christian West continued to believe in reconquest of the “Holy Land” for some time and perhaps some Christians (and Western ‘adventurers’) still do. Notably, various victorious 19th and 20th Century Western military figures have been reputed to have made the comment at Saladin's tomb (presumably directed at the ghost of Saladin): "we're back".

The Christians considered alliances with the non-Christian Mongols in this Crusader period for their political advantage.

Finally, on both sides, the armies of the Crusader period were ethnically and religiously diverse and not all equally pious. The accounts of Christians of the East tend to show a preference for Muslim over Western Christian manners and science in this period and the Jews were treated better under Muslim than Christian rule of the period.

The Crusades were probably a success in one respect only, and that was politically. Eastern Mediterranean trade routes became more open to the West. This was clearly not the result of Arab fear of the Franks, however, but a gesture of generosity. Nevertheless, while the mercantile city-states of Venice and Genoa probably benefited the most, all of Western Europe now had better access to exotic spices and textiles. This in turn may have led to the idea of circumventing the Arabs gaining currency and the resulting 'discovery' of the New World. By the 17^th Century, the European addiction to coffee (and a colonial project) was well advanced.

Culturally, the effects of the Crusades were minimal, however, when compared with the major peaceful cultural exchange which occurred for centuries in al-Andalus and in Sicily. Nevertheless, some exchanges occurred. The major lasting cultural impact in the East may have been to discredit Western Christianity.