Since remote antiquity Greater Syria (which extended well beyond the frontiers of the modern state of Syria) has been a conflict zone. Its geographical position – bordering Egypt, the Holy Land, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq – made that well-nigh inevitable. So these lands have endured violent military struggles from all sides for millennia: Greece and Rome against Persia, Byzantines against Sasanians and then against Arabs. However, the coming of Christian European enemies to the Holy Land and Syria under Muslim rule from the 1090s was the beginning of an almost two centuries’ struggle of a rather different kind.

Crusaders and Muslims in Syria undoubtedly waged violent war – battles, raids and sieges – against each other during the years of the Crusader presence (1099–1291) in the Holy Land, Egypt and Syria. Muslim disunity and apathy after the fall of Jerusalem in 1099 allowed the Crusaders to embed themselves in impressive and well-defended castles in remote rural areas of Syria, and they proved hard to dislodge. However, the Crusaders never succeeded in capturing the two key Syrian cities of Aleppo and Damascus. That meant that their military and political success in Syria was doomed to be partial at best. Moreover, only the First Crusade enjoyed full military success; all the other Crusades which reached the Levant failed, fizzled out or ended in truces.

Nor was warfare in Crusader Syria continuous by any means. Truces and trading agreements across the religious divide brought about lengthy periods of peaceful contact between Crusaders and Muslims. Crusaders adopted aspects of the Muslim way of life and Muslims pragmatically developed their own commercial activities with Crusaders because they needed access to the Syrian ports, held by the Crusaders, in order to export their goods. Coexistence rather than conflict between Crusaders and Muslims was therefore much more the norm for lengthy periods. Not surprisingly, then, their cultural interactions often found fascinating and unexpected expression.

This book presents little-known and fascinating topics of Crusading and Muslim history. The special focus is on Syria in the twelfth century, though the later periods of the Crusader presence are also represented. There are chapters which deal with little-known Crusader and Muslim sources – chronicles, biographies, letters and poems. Other themes discussed include internal relations between Sunni and Shi‘ite Muslims, rivalries among Crusader factions, and contacts between Crusader and Oriental Christians.