ISLAM AND THE CRUSADES 47of France. Richard actually defeated Saladin in a pitched battle, one of
the few fights that Saladin lost, at Arsuf in September 1191. The European
kings, however, could not spend their time in the East away from their
homelands. Their influence faded just as quickly, and they themselves
went home. They were gone in a year, departing in 1192. Saladin, his
great work accomplished, died in 1193.
With the departure of the European kings, and the reoccupation of most
of the lands and cities that they had taken, the real power of the Franks
was ended. They would linger on for years, but their lands were gone,
and with them their wealth and their armies. As late as 1249 a fresh wave
of Frenchmen, under King Louis IX of France would launch a futile attack
against Egypt, but he would have little assistance from the remnants of
the earlier crusader kingdoms. The crusader kingdoms were exhausted
and simply did not have the manpower necessary to mobilize meaningful
assistance to the French.
In 1292 the Egyptian Mamluk Sultan Khalil captured Acre. It was the
last Frankish outpost of the once powerful crusader kingdoms. That it
took so long to finish the Christian state would be surprising, had not in
1258 a huge army of Mongols erupted into the Muslim world and occupied
its attention as completely as had the Seljuq Turks in the eleventh century.
The Mamluk king of Egypt, Qalawun finally dealt with the Mongols in
- By then the Christians were no longer a priority, they were more of
a historical footnote.
The span of nearly 200 years, from the first crusader attacks until their
ultimate defeat, was a momentous time, and one that has done much to
shape the modern Muslim world. The perceptions of the era have become
so fixed that the reality of the events is no longer of much importance.
The perceptions, which are terribly misleading, are in some ways as cruel
as the crusaders at their worst.
One of these misconceptions is that Christianity fought Islam. In fact,
a much more accurate statement would be that medieval warlord fought
medieval warlord. Some were Christian, and some were Muslim. Religion
occasionally provided an excuse for an action, but never a reason. The
real reasons for the fighting were always the same—the greed for personal
power and wealth. If there were truly noble men like Saladin and Zangi,
even these fought for self-aggrandizement. Most of their wars were against
other Muslims. The Christians rarely if ever presented a united front
against their Muslim enemies. They too were more likely to bicker among
themselves.
Another perception that is played about today in the Middle East, is
that the West attacked the East. The Crusades are seen as a sort of early imperi-