Part II - Introduction

Summary

The armies of the First Crusade arrived outside Antioch on 5 Dhu ‘l-Qaʿda 490/20 October 1097. Within less than two years, ‘Crusader states’ had been established at Antioch, Jerusalem and Edessa. Tripoli fell to Frankish dominion in 502/1109, while Tyre was captured in 518/1124. The following chapters reassess the diverse reactions from the Islamic Near East to this unprecedented series of events.

Chapter 4 re-examines the responses that the Crusaders’ arrival provoked from the Great Seljuq Sultanate, the Fatimid Caliphate, and local Syrian-based elites. By carefully scrutinising the various military campaigns and alliances formed during the first three decades of Frankish settlement, it questions whether the ‘counter-Crusade’ and ‘la maqam’ paradigms can be applied to the early Crusading period.

Chapter 5 details the largely overlooked role played by the notables of Aleppo and Damascus in Syrian political phenomena between 442 and 522/1050 and 1128. Through detailed analysis of siege events and calls for assistance, it outlines how urban elites exploited periods of crisis to elevate rulers that would help to preserve their own autonomous status. It then considers the physical frontiers of bilad halab (the region of Aleppo) throughout this time frame, before revisiting Baldwin II of Jerusalem's failed attempt to capture Aleppo in the winter months of 518/1124–5.