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Crusades, military expeditions, beginning in the late 11th century, that were organized by western European Christians in response to centuries of Muslim wars of expansion. Their objectives were to check the spread of Islam, to retake control of the Holy Land in the eastern Mediterranean, to conquer pagan areas, and to recapture formerly Christian territories; they were seen by many of their participants as a means of redemption and expiation for sins. 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, usually as military campaigns intended to halt or slow the advance of Muslim power or to conquer pagan areas. Crusading declined rapidly during the 16th century with the advent of the Protestant Reformation and the decline of papal authority.

  • Crusaders departing for the Holy Land, chromolithograph of a 15th-century illuminated manuscript.
    © Photos.com/Thinkstock

Approximately two-thirds of the ancient Christian world had been conquered by Muslims by the end of the 11th century, including the important regions of Palestine, Syria, Egypt, and Anatolia. The Crusades, attempting to check this advance, initially enjoyed success, founding a Christian state in Palestine and Syria, but the continued growth of Islamic states ultimately reversed those gains. By the 14th century the Ottoman Turks had established themselves in the Balkans and would penetrate deeper into Europe despite repeated efforts to repulse them.

The Crusades constitute a controversial chapter in the history of Christianity, and their excesses have been the subject of centuries of historiography. The Crusades also played an integral role in the expansion of medieval Europe.

The First Crusade and the establishment of the Latin states

Background and context

Although still backward when compared with the other civilizations of the Mediterranean basin, western Europe had become a significant power by the end of the 11th century. It was composed of several kingdoms loosely describable as feudal. While endemic private warfare, brigandage, and problems associated with vassalage and inheritance still existed, some monarchies were already developing better-integrated systems of government. At the same time, Europe was feeling the effects of population growth that had begun toward the end of the 10th century and would continue well into the 13th century. An economic revival was also in full swing well before the First Crusade; forestlands were being cleared, frontiers pushed forward, and markets organized. Moreover, Italian shipping was beginning to challenge the Muslim predominance in the Mediterranean. Especially significant for the Crusade was a general overhaul of the ecclesiastical structure in the 11th century, associated with the Gregorian Reform movement, which enabled the popes to assume a more active role in society. In 1095, for example, Urban II was in a position strong enough to convoke two important ecclesiastical councils, despite meeting resistance from Henry IV, the German emperor, who opposed papal reform policies.

Thus it was that in the closing years of the 11th century western Europe was abounding in energy and confidence. What is more, as is evident in achievements such as the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, Europeans possessed the capacity to launch a major military undertaking at the very time the Seljuq Turks, one of several tribes on the northeastern frontier of the Muslim world who had embraced Islam in the 11th century, were beginning to move south and west into Iran and beyond with all the enthusiasm of a new convert.

The effects of religion

The Crusades were also a development of popular religious life and feeling in Europe, particularly in western Europe. The social effect of religious belief at the time was complex: religion was moved by tales of signs and wonders, and it attributed natural disasters to supernatural intervention. At the same time, laypersons were not indifferent to reform movements, and on occasion they agitated against clergy whom they regarded as unworthy. A peace movement also developed, especially in France, under the leadership of certain bishops but with considerable popular support. Religious leaders proclaimed the Peace of God and the Truce of God, designed to halt or at least limit warfare and assaults during certain days of the week and times of the year and to protect the lives of clergy, travelers, women, and cattle and others unable to defend themselves against brigandage. It is particularly interesting to note that the Council of Clermont, at which Urban II called for the First Crusade (1095), renewed and generalized the Peace of God.

It may seem paradoxical that a council both promulgated peace and officially sanctioned war, but the peace movement was designed to protect those in distress, and a strong element of the Crusade was the idea of giving aid to fellow Christians in the East. Tied to this idea was the notion that war to defend Christendom was not only a justifiable undertaking but a holy work and therefore pleasing to God.

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Closely associated with this Western concept of holy war was another popular religious practice, pilgrimage to a holy shrine. Eleventh-century Europe abounded in local shrines housing relics of saints, but three great centres of pilgrimage stood out above the others: Rome, with the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul; Santiago de Compostela, in northwestern Spain; and Jerusalem, with the Holy Sepulchre of Jesus Christ’s entombment. Pilgrimage, which had always been considered an act of devotion, had also come to be regarded as a more formal expiation for serious sin, even occasionally prescribed as a penance for the sinner by his confessor.

Yet another element in the popular religious consciousness of the 11th century, one associated with both Crusade and pilgrimage, was the belief that the end of the world was imminent (see also eschatology and millennialism). Some scholars have discovered evidence of apocalyptic expectations around the years 1000 and 1033 (the millennium of the birth and Passion of Jesus, respectively), and others have emphasized the continuance of the idea throughout the 11th century and beyond. Moreover, in certain late 11th-century portrayals of the end of all things, the “last emperor,” now popularly identified with the “king of the Franks,” the final successor of Charlemagne, was to lead the faithful to Jerusalem to await the Second Coming of Christ. Jerusalem, as the earthly symbol of the heavenly city, figured prominently in Western Christian consciousness, and, as the number of pilgrimages to Jerusalem increased in the 11th century, it became clear that any interruption of access to the city would have serious repercussions.

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By the middle of the 11th century, the Seljuq Turks had wrested political authority from the ʿAbbāsid caliphs of Baghdad. Seljuq policy, originally directed southward against the Fāṭimids of Egypt, was increasingly diverted by the pressure of Turkmen raids into Anatolia and Byzantine Armenia. A Byzantine army was defeated and Emperor Romanus IV Diogenes was captured at Manzikert in 1071, and Christian Asia Minor was thereby opened to eventual Turkish occupation. Meanwhile, many Armenians south of the Caucasus migrated south to join others in the region of the Taurus Mountains and to form a colony in Cilicia.

Seljuq expansion southward continued, and in 1085 the capture of Antioch in Syria, one of the patriarchal sees of Christianity, was another blow to Byzantine prestige. Thus, although the Seljuq empire never successfully held together as a unit, it appropriated most of Asia Minor, including Nicaea, from the Byzantine Empire and brought a resurgent Islam perilously close to Constantinople, the Byzantine capital. It was this danger that prompted the emperor, Alexius Comnenus, to seek aid from the West, and by 1095 the West was ready to respond.

The turmoil of these years disrupted normal political life and made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem difficult and often impossible. Stories of dangers and molestation reached the West and remained in the popular mind even after conditions improved. Furthermore, informed authorities began to realize that the power of the Muslim world now seriously menaced the West as well as the East. It was this realization that led to the Crusades.

Alexius’s appeal came at a time when relations between the Eastern and Western branches of the Christian world were improving. Difficulties between the two in the middle years of the century had resulted in a de facto, though not formally proclaimed, schism in 1054, and ecclesiastical disagreements had been accentuated by Norman occupation of formerly Byzantine areas in southern Italy. A campaign led by the Norman adventurer Robert Guiscard against the Greek mainland further embittered the Byzantines, and it was only after Robert’s death in 1085 that conditions for a renewal of normal relations between East and West were reasonably favourable. Envoys of Emperor Alexius Comnenus thus arrived at the Council of Piacenza in 1095 at a propitious moment, and it seems probable that Pope Urban II viewed military aid as a means toward restoring ecclesiastical unity.

The Council of Clermont

The Council of Clermont convoked by Urban on November 18, 1095, was attended largely by bishops of southern France as well as a few representatives from northern France and elsewhere. Much important ecclesiastical business was transacted, which resulted in a series of canons, among them one that renewed the Peace of God and another that granted a plenary indulgence (the remission of all penance for sin) to those who undertook to aid Christians in the East. Then in a great outdoor assembly the pope, a Frenchman, addressed a large crowd.

His exact words will never be known, since the only surviving accounts of his speech were written years later, but he apparently stressed the plight of Eastern Christians, the molestation of pilgrims, and the desecration of the holy places. He urged those who were guilty of disturbing the peace to turn their warlike energies toward a holy cause. He emphasized the need for penance along with the acceptance of suffering and taught that no one should undertake this pilgrimage for any but the most exalted of motives.

The response was immediate and overwhelming, probably far greater than Urban had anticipated. Cries of “Deus le volt” (“God wills it”) were heard everywhere, and it was decided that those who agreed to go should wear a cross. Moreover, it was not only warrior knights who responded; a popular element, apparently unexpected and probably not desired, also came forward.

The era of Clermont witnessed the concurrence of three significant developments: first, there existed as never before a popular religious fervour that was not without marked eschatological tendencies in which the holy city of Jerusalem figured prominently; second, war against the infidel had come to be regarded as a religious undertaking, a work pleasing to God; and finally, western Europe now possessed the ecclesiastical and secular institutional and organizational capacity to plan such an enterprise and carry it through.

Preparations for the Crusade

Following Pope Urban’s speech, preparations began in both East and West. Emperor Alexius, who had doubtless anticipated the mustering of some sort of auxiliary force, apparently soon realized that he would have to provide for and police a much larger influx of warriors. In the West, as the leaders began to assemble their armies, those who took the cross sought to raise money, often by selling or mortgaging property, both for the immediate purchase of equipment and for the long-term needs of the journey.

  • Peter the Hermit leading the First Crusade, as depicted in Abreviamen de las
    © The British Library/Heritage-Images

As preparations were under way, several less-organized bands of knights and peasants, commonly known as the “People’s Crusade,” set out across Europe. The most famous of these, brought together by a remarkable popular preacher, Peter the Hermit, and his associate Walter Sansavoir, reached Constantinople after having caused considerable disorder in Hungary and Bulgaria. Alexius received Peter cordially and advised him to await the arrival of the main Crusade force. But the rank and file grew unruly, and on August 6, 1096, they were ferried across the Bosporus. While Peter was in Constantinople requesting additional aid, his army was ambushed at Cibotus (called Civetot by the Crusaders) and all but annihilated by the Turks.

  • Scenes from the First Crusade (People’s Crusade), illustration by Sebastian Marmoret, c. 1490.
    © Photos.com/Thinkstock

Peter the Hermit’s preaching in Germany inspired other groups of Crusaders, who also failed to reach Jerusalem. One of these groups was led by the notorious Count Emicho and was responsible for a series of pogroms, or massacres, of Jews in several Rhenish towns in 1096. Traditionally recognized as an important turning point in Jewish and Christian relations in the Middle Ages—in fact, it is often cited as a pivotal moment in the history of anti-Semitism—these attacks occurred first in Speyer and then with increasing ferocity in Worms, Mainz, and Cologne. The Jews of these towns often sought, and sometimes received, the protection of the bishop or futilely took refuge in local homes and temples. Forced by the Crusaders to convert or die, many Jews chose death. There are accounts of Jews’ committing suicide and even killing their children rather than converting or submitting to execution by the Crusaders. Though zealotry of this nature is not unique to Christianity, these massacres did not go unnoticed even by fellow Christians. Indeed, some contemporary Christian accounts attributed the defeat of the People’s Crusade to them. After the massacres, the Crusaders moved on to Hungary, where they were routed by the Hungarian king and suffered heavy losses. Emicho, who may not have participated in all the pogroms, escaped and returned home in disgrace.

The main Crusading force, which departed in August 1096 as Urban directed, consisted of four major contingents. A smaller, fifth force, led by Hugh of Vermandois, brother of King Philip I of France, left before the others but was reduced by shipwreck while crossing the Adriatic from Bari to Dyrrhachium (now Durrës, Albania). Godfrey of Bouillon, leader of the first large army to depart and duke of Lower Lorraine since 1087, was the only major prince from the German kingdom involved in the Crusade, though he and his associates largely spoke French. Joined by his brothers, Eustace and Baldwin, and a kinsman, Baldwin of Le Bourcq, Godfrey took the land route and crossed Hungary without incident. Markets and provisions were supplied in Byzantine territory, and, except for some pillaging, the army reached Constantinople without serious problems on December 23, 1096.

  • Scenes from the First Crusade, 14th-century illustration.
    © Photos.com/Thinkstock

A second force was organized by Bohemond, a Norman from southern Italy. The son of Robert Guiscard, Bohemond was on familiar ground across the Adriatic, where he had fought with his father and was understandably feared by the Byzantines. However, he was 40 years old when he arrived at Constantinople on April 9, 1097, and determined to come to profitable terms with his former enemy.

The third and largest army was assembled by Raymond of Saint-Gilles, the count of Toulouse. At age 55, he was the oldest and most prominent of the princes on the Crusade, and he aspired and perhaps expected to become the leader of the entire expedition. He was accompanied by Adhémar, bishop of Le Puy, whom the pope had named as legate for the Crusade. Raymond led his followers, including a number of noncombatant pilgrims whom he supported at his own expense, across northern Italy, around the head of the Adriatic Sea, and then southward into Byzantine territory. This large body caused considerable trouble in Dalmatia and clashed with Byzantine troops as it approached the capital, where Raymond arrived on April 21.

Meanwhile, the fourth army, under Robert of Flanders, had crossed the Adriatic from Brindisi. Accompanying Robert were his cousin Robert of Normandy (brother of King William II of England) and Stephen of Blois (the son-in-law of William the Conqueror). No king took part in the First Crusade, and the predominantly French-speaking participants came to be known by the Muslims as Franks.

The presence near Constantinople of massive military forces, numbering perhaps 4,000 mounted knights and 25,000 infantry, posed a serious problem for Alexius, and there was occasional disorder. Forced to consider imperial interests, which, it soon became evident, were different from the objective of the Crusaders, the emperor required each Crusade leader to promise under oath to restore to him any conquered territory that had belonged to the empire before the Turkish invasions and to swear loyalty to him while the Crusaders remained in his domain. Since there was never any plan for the Crusade to go beyond the far-flung borders of the old Roman Empire, this would effectively give all conquests to the emperor. Only Bohemond willingly took the emperor’s oath. The others did so under duress, and Raymond swore only a lukewarm oath to respect the property and person of the emperor. Despite this, Raymond and Alexius became good friends, and Raymond remained the strongest defender of the emperor’s rights throughout the Crusade.

From Constantinople to Antioch

Late in May 1097 the Crusaders and a contingent of Byzantine soldiers reached the capital of the Turkish sultanate, Nicaea (now İznik, Turkey), which surrendered to the Byzantines on June 19. The Crusade army left Nicaea for Antioch on June 26 and found crossing the arid and mountainous Anatolia difficult. At Dorylaeum on July 1, 1097, Turks attacked the advance column of the Crusader army. Despite the heat and a rain of arrows, the Crusaders held their ground, and, when the rest of the army drew up, the Turks were routed. A major victory in open warfare had been achieved by cooperation between the separate Western contingents and the Greeks.

Further advance across Anatolia was even more arduous, and it was only after suffering many casualties, especially in the region of the Taurus Mountains, that the Crusaders arrived near Antioch on October 20. Meanwhile, Godfrey’s brother Baldwin left the main army to involve himself in Armenian politics and then became ruler of Edessa. The first of the Crusader states, the county of Edessa would provide a valuable buffer against Turkish attacks on Antioch and other Christian territories.

One of the great cities of the Levant and one of the patriarchal sees of Christianity, Antioch was surrounded by an enormous circle of walls studded with more than 400 towers. Despite reinforcements and supplies from Genoese and English ships and later from the patriarch of Jerusalem, then in Cyprus, the siege proved long and difficult, and many died of starvation or disease. Spring brought the threat of counterattack by a relief force under Kerbogha of Mosul. The situation seemed so hopeless that some Crusaders deserted and attempted to return home. Among these was Peter the Hermit, who was caught and returned to the host, where he was quietly forgiven. Another deserter was the French knight Stephen of Blois, who was cut off from the main body of the army by Kerbogha’s forces and judged, not unreasonably, that the Crusaders were doomed. On his way home Stephen met Alexius, who was marching at the head of a Byzantine relief force, and convinced him that Antioch’s cause was hopeless. The emperor’s decision to turn back, however justified tactically, was a diplomatic blunder; when the Crusaders learned of the emperor’s move, they felt free from any obligation to return the city to him.

Bohemond, meanwhile, proposed that the first to enter the city should have possession of it, provided the emperor did not make an appearance. The Norman had, in fact, already made contact with a discontented commander within, who proceeded to admit him over a section of the walls on June 3, 1098. The other Crusaders followed Bohemond into the dozing city and quickly captured it. Only the citadel held out.

Thus, Antioch was restored to Christian rule. The victory, however, was incomplete. Kerbogha arrived with an enormous Turkish army and completely invested the city, which was already very low on provisions. Once again the situation seemed hopeless. Disagreements between the leaders persisted and were accentuated by arguments over the validity of what had come to be called the Holy Lance, which a Provençal priest found below the cathedral and insisted was the lance that, according to the Gospels, had pierced the side of Jesus Christ when he hung on the cross. Nonetheless, on June 28 the Crusader army moved out of the city. The Turkish forces were not of high quality and had only tenuous loyalty to Kerbogha. When they saw the size of the Crusade forces and the resolve of the men, the Turks began to flee. With the evaporation of Kerbogha’s army, the citadel finally surrendered to Bohemond, and its garrison was permitted to leave. Rejoicing was tempered by a devastating epidemic that took many lives, including that of the legate, Adhémar of Le Puy, who, as the spiritual leader of the Crusade, had been a wise counselor and a stabilizing influence whom the leaders could ill afford to lose.

The Crusade leaders then fell into violent disagreement over the final disposition of Antioch. Bohemond, who had been responsible for the capture of the city and then had led its defense, wanted it for himself. Raymond, however, insisted that it be returned to the emperor. Unable to come to terms on Antioch, Bohemond and Raymond refused to march to Jerusalem, which effectively stalled the Crusade. The leaders agreed to depart only after the rank and file threatened to tear down the walls of Antioch. On January 13, 1099, the army then set out for Jerusalem under the leadership of Raymond of Saint-Gilles. As they moved south, Tancred and Robert of Normandy and, later, Godfrey and Robert of Flanders joined them. Bohemond, ignoring his previous oaths, remained in Antioch.

The siege of Jerusalem

Not far from Beirut, the army entered the territory of the Fāṭimid caliphs of Cairo, who, as Shīʿite Muslims, were enemies of the Sunnite Seljuqs and the caliphs of Baghdad. In August 1098 the Fāṭimids had occupied Jerusalem. The final drive of the First Crusade, therefore, was against the Fāṭimids of Egypt, not the Seljuqs.

On June 7, 1099, the Christian army—by then considerably reduced to perhaps 1,200–1,500 cavalry and 12,000 foot soldiers—encamped before Jerusalem, whose governor was well supplied and confident that he could withstand a siege until a relief force arrived from Egypt. The Crusaders, on the other hand, were short of supplies and would be until six vessels arrived at Jaffa (Yafo) and managed to unload before the port was blockaded by an Egyptian squadron. On July 8 a strict fast was ordered, and, with the Muslims scoffing from the walls, the entire army, preceded by the clergy, marched in solemn procession around the city, thence to the Mount of Olives, where Peter the Hermit preached with his former eloquence.

Siege towers were carried up to the walls on July 13–14, and on July 15 Godfrey’s men took a sector of the walls, and others followed on scaling ladders. When the nearest gate was opened, Tancred and Raymond entered, and the Muslim governor surrendered to the latter in the Tower of David. The governor, along with his bodyguard, was escorted out of the city. Tancred promised protection in the Aqṣā Mosque, but his orders were disobeyed. Hundreds of men, women, and children, both Muslim and Jewish, perished in the general slaughter that followed.

The Crusaders, therefore, attained their goal three long years after they had set out. Against the odds this struggling, fractious, and naive enterprise had made its way from western Europe to the Middle East and conquered two of the best-defended cities of the time. From a modern perspective, the improbability of the First Crusade’s success is staggering. For medieval men and women, though, the agent of victory was God himself, who worked miracle after miracle for his faithful knights. It was this firm belief that would sustain centuries of Crusading.

The Crusader states

A successful surprise attack on the Egyptian relief army ensured the Crusaders’ occupation of Palestine. Having fulfilled their vows of pilgrimage, most of the Crusaders departed for home, leaving the problem of governing the conquered territories to the few who remained. Initially, there was disagreement concerning the nature of the government to be established, and some held that the holy city should be ruled under ecclesiastical authority. As an interim measure, Godfrey was elected to govern and took the modest title of Defender of the Holy Sepulchre.

In December 1099, in the midst of this confused situation, Bohemond and Baldwin of Edessa arrived in Jerusalem to fulfill their Crusader vows. Accompanying Bohemond was Daimbert, the archbishop of Pisa, who was chosen patriarch and received the homage of both Godfrey and Baldwin. If Daimbert had ambitions to govern Jerusalem, they were thwarted when, on Godfrey’s death, his brother Baldwin was summoned back to Jerusalem, where he assumed the title of king (November 11, 1100). Thus, there had come into being not a church state but a feudal kingdom of Jerusalem.

Securing the new Christian territories was now of utmost concern. The Crusade of 1101, for example, was organized by Pope Paschal II to reinforce Christian rule in the Holy Land, but it collapsed in Asia Minor. King Baldwin, however, profited nonetheless from the chronic rivalries of his Muslim neighbours. He was also able to extend his control along the coastline with the aid of Italians and in one instance of a Norwegian squadron that arrived under King Sigurd in 1110. By 1112 Arsuf, Caesarea, Acre, Beirut, and Sidon had been taken, and the entire coast except for Ascalon and Tyre was in Latin hands.

Meanwhile, castles had been built in Galilee, the frontier pushed southward, and Crusader states formed in the north. The county of Edessa, an ill-defined domain extending into the upper Euphrates region with a population consisting mainly of Armenians and Syrians, had already been established by Godfrey’s brother Baldwin. When Baldwin left to become ruler of Jerusalem, he bestowed the county, under his suzerainty, on his cousin Baldwin of Le Bourcq.

Antioch had not been returned to the emperor, and Bohemond had consolidated his position there. The city was predominantly Greek in population, though there were also Syrians and Armenians, and the latent Greek-Latin friction was intensified when Bohemond replaced the Greek patriarch with a Latin one. When Bohemond was captured by the Muslims in 1100, his nephew Tancred became regent and expanded the frontiers of the principality to include the important port of Latakia, taken from the Byzantines in 1103. Not long after his release in 1103, Bohemond traveled to Europe, where he succeeded in winning over Pope Paschal II to the idea of a new Crusade. Whatever the original intention, there resulted not an expedition against Muslims but an attack on the Byzantine city of Dyrrhachium. Like its predecessor, the ill-fated campaign of 1082, the enterprise failed, and in 1108 Bohemond was forced to take an oath of vassalage to the emperor for Antioch and to return to Italy, where he died in 1111. Tancred, again in power, ignored his uncle’s oath, and Antioch and its patriarchate remained a source of controversy.

A fourth Crusader state was established on the coast in the vicinity of Tripoli (Arabic Tarābulus) by Raymond of Saint-Gilles, who had been outmaneuvered in Jerusalem and had returned to Constantinople hoping for aid from the Byzantine emperor, to whom he had always been loyal. In 1102 he returned to Syria, took Tortosa (Ṭarṭūs), and began the siege of Tripoli. But he died in 1105, and it remained for his descendants to finish the task in 1109.

The establishment and protection of the frontier was, for the new states, a problem conditioned by geography and the politics of Levantine Islam. From Antioch south, the Crusaders held a narrow strip of coastland bounded by mountains to the north and by the Jordan Valley in the south. To the east beyond the Syrian desert lay the Muslim cities of Aleppo, Ḥamāh, Ḥimṣ, and Damascus. Though the Franks did push southward to Aylah (or Elim, modern Al-ʿAqabah), all attempts to move eastward failed, and it was necessary to erect castles at vulnerable points along the eastern frontier as well as along the coast and inland. Among the most famous of these were Krak de Montréal, in the Transjordan, and Krak des Chevaliers, in the county of Tripoli. Meanwhile, the hostility between Shīʿite Egypt and Sunnite Baghdad continued for some time. The emirates in between the two powers remained divided in their allegiance, and those in the north feared the Seljuqs of Iconium.

After Baldwin I’s death in 1118, the throne passed to his cousin Baldwin of Le Bourcq (Baldwin II), who left Edessa to another cousin, Joscelin of Courtenay. In 1124 Tyre, the last great city north of Ascalon still in Muslim hands, was taken with the aid of the Venetians, who, as was customary, received a section of the city. Baldwin II was succeeded by Fulk of Anjou, a newcomer recommended by Louis VI of France. Fulk was married to Baldwin’s daughter Melisende. In 1131 Baldwin and Joscelin both died. They were the last of the first generation of Crusaders, and with their passing the formative period in the history of the Crusader states came to an end.

Fulk’s policies ended the pursuit of expansion and resulted in a stabilization of the frontiers of the Crusader states. This was a wise course, because his reign coincided with the rise of Zangī, atabeg (Turkish: “governor”) of Mosul, whose achievements earned him a reputation as a great champion of the jihad (holy war) against the Franks. When Zangī moved against Damascus, the Muslims of that city and the Christians of Jerusalem formed an alliance against their common enemy, a diplomatic initiative that was common among the second-generation Franks.

The northern Crusader states, however, were in great danger. The Byzantines had recovered their influence in Anatolia and were putting pressure on Armenia and Antioch. Emperor Manuel Comnenus forced Prince Raymond of Antioch to acknowledge imperial suzerainty. But the greater danger to both Antioch and Armenia was dramatically brought home by Zangī’s capture of Edessa in 1144. Attempts at recovery failed, and the northernmost Crusader state was subsequently overrun.

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