ISLAM AND THE CRUSADES 41
newcomers was nothing new. The lands where the crusader kingdoms
were being built had been captured more than once before and would be—
more than once—again. What made the crusaders somewhat different is
that for the first time since the Great Arab Conquests, an idealistic element
entered the fighting. For the first time the Muslims met a militant religion
championed by people with military potential. This was something of a
shock, for although religious war was becoming an outmoded idea in most
Muslim states, it was still very much understood that jihad was something
that Muslims did to their neighbors, not the reverse. The general contempt
with which most Christian rulers treated their Muslim subjects and neigh-
bors also would eventually enrage, and help consolidate the neighboring
states.
Thus the Christian warlords failed to do more than survive. They of-
fered their Muslim subjects and neighbors little. The European lords per-
secuted their own subjects and frequently massacred those Muslims that
came under their power. At the same time the Christian Europeans rep-
resented a tiny portion of the population of the Middle East. The wiser
lords, of whom there were few, realized that their fiefs would survive only
as they used and accepted the Muslim merchants and farmers that provided
the wealth of the land. When waves of additional crusaders arrived from
Europe, usually after a Christian disaster of one sort or another in the
Middle East, they were welcomed as fighting men—the European knights
could be formidable warriors—but not as feudal competitors. Their ardor
was squandered in abortive offensives against Egypt in 1149 and 1249
and a successful one against Byzantium in 1204. Worse, the new arrivals
were totally ignorant of the Middle East. It was not unusual for them to
slaughter the peaceful inhabitants of whatever city they first entered, even
if it was already held as a crusader fief.
Islamic resistance to the Frankish newcomers remained unfocused, as
the various Arab, Persian, Egyptian, and Turkish nobles squabbled
amongst themselves, but slowly a wave of antipathy built up against the
newcomers. Eventually men of sufficient stature and vision came to the
fore to launch successful counterattacks against the invaders. These lead-
ers, of whom we will examine three, were able to acquire sufficient influ-
ence among their rivals to work against the Franks.
The Turkishatabeg(Prince Father) Imad al-Din Zangi became ruler of
Aleppo and Mosul in 1128 following the murder of his predecessor by
the Assassin sect.^1 Zangi was in all respects a remarkable leader. He was
a gifted soldier, not unusual for Turkish princes of the day, but also a
gifted politician. He kept his troops and their commanders under a severe
discipline, and in the field, lived under the same conditions. Zangi led his