The Crusades and the Templars 71siege to Paneade. Turkish warriors, assisted by Turkish workers and
carpenters, taught the Christians how to erect siege apparatuses and to
assault the besieged site with machines called stone throwers.^21
On the Christian side the Templars were always the most active
artisans of these kinds of alliances. In 1129, the Templar grand master
urged Baldwin II to come to an understanding with the Ismaili Abu
Fewa. Under the terms of their agreement, Baldwin exchanged Tyre for
Damascus. In fact, "for some eighty years, the Templars maintained
close relations with the heads of the Ismaili sect."^22 Similarly, in 1136
the Templars of Saint John of Acre became friends with the Turkish
capitain Unur.
In 1167, a peace treaty was concluded in Cairo between the
Christians and the caliph of Egypt. The negotiators for the Crusaders
were Hugues de Cesaree and Geoffroi, a Templar knight. The event was
noted by Guillaume de Tyr, who recounts in dithyrambic style all the
marvels that struck them with admiration in the capital of Egypt.
During that same year, however, the Christians broke the peace treaty
and invaded Egypt on the instigation of the Hospitaller Order. "The
brothers of the Temple, whose grand master was then Bertrand de
Blanquefort, wished to take no part in this expedition, saying that it
was most unjust to wage war against a kingdom whose alliance was
based on our good faith, and to misinterpret the tenor of a treaty and
the sacred principles of law."^23
In 1187, in order to obtain the surrender of Ascalon and other
Christian strongholds, Saladin employed as negotiators his prisoners,
Guy de Lusignan, king of Jerusalem, and Gerard de Ridefort, grand
master of the Templars. Though these negotiations went nowhere, a
short time later the grand master succeeded in having Gaza turned over
to Saladin, who then freed his prisoners as a sign of thanks. While R.
Grousset views this as a cynical transaction, perhaps this negotiation
occurred in response to the needs of the day and from a desire to avoid
the useless spilling of blood. The Greek Orthodox community of
Jerusalem acted from a similar attitude, with a fortunate result: Saladin,
once master of the kingdom of Jerusalem, behaved toward the city's
Christian populace with feelings of loyalty, humanity, and chivalrous
grace, which struck the Latin chroniclers with admiration.^24