page_title: Crusades
section_title: Crusader states in the Levant
hierarchical_section_title: Crusades / Crusader states in the Levant
caption_attribution_description: English: Crusader_coins_of_the_Kingdom_of_Jerusalem_Denier_in_European_style_with_Holy_Sepulchre_Gold_coins_first_copied_dinars_but_after_1250_Christian_symbols_were_added_following_Papal_complaints.jpg
context_page_description: The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The term refers especially to the Eastern Mediterranean campaigns in the period between 1096 and 1271 that had the objective of recovering the Holy Land from Islamic rule. The term has also been applied to other church-sanctioned campaigns fought to combat paganism and heresy, to resolve conflict among rival Roman Catholic groups, or to gain political and territorial advantage. The difference between these campaigns and other Christian religious conflicts was that they were considered a penitential exercise that brought forgiveness of sins declared by the church. Historians contest the definition of the term "crusade". Some restrict it to only armed pilgrimages to Jerusalem; others include all Catholic military campaigns with a promise of spiritual benefit; all Catholic holy wars; or those with a characteristic of religious fervour.
  In 1095, Pope Urban II proclaimed the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont. He encouraged military support for Byzantine Emperor Alexios I against the Seljuk Turks and an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
context_section_description: After the First Crusade most of the crusaders considered their personal pilgrimage complete and returned to Europe. Modern research indicates that Muslim and indigenous Christian populations were less integrated than previously thought. Palestinian Christians lived around Jerusalem and in an arc stretching from Jericho and the Jordan to Hebron in the south. Archaeological research on Byzantine churches and Ottoman census records from the 16th century demonstrate that Greek Orthodox communities survived centuries after the fall of the Crusader states. Maronites were concentrated in Tripoli, the Jacobites in Antioch and Edessa. Armenians also lived in the north but communities existed in all major towns. Central areas had a Muslim majority population, predominantly Sunni but with Shi'ite communities in Galilee. Druze Muslims lived in the mountains of Tripoli. The Jewish population resided in coastal towns and some Galilean villages. The Frankish population of the Kingdom of Jerusalem was concentrated in three major cities. By the 13th century the population of Acre probably exceeded 60,000, then came Tyre  and the capital itself was the smallest of the three with a population somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000. The Latin population of the region peaked at c250,000 with Jerusalem's population numbering c120,000 and the combined total in Tripoli, Antioch and Edessa being broadly comparable.  In context, Josiah Russell roughly estimates the population of what he calls "Islamic territory" as 12.5 million in 1000 with the European areas that provided crusaders having a population of 23.7 million. He estimates that by 1200 that these figures had risen to 13.7 million in Islamic territory while the Crusaders' home countries population was 35.6 million. Russell acknowledges that much of Anatolia was Christian or under the Byzantines and "Islamic" areas such as Mosul and Baghdad had significant Christian populations.
  The Outremer was a frontier society in which a Frankish elite ruled over of a native population related to the neighbouring communities, many of whom were hostile to the Franks. It was politically and legally stratified with self-governing ethnic communities. Relations between communities were controlled by the Franks. The basic division in society was between Frank and non-Frank, and not between Christian and Muslim. All Franks were considered free men while the native peoples lived like western serfs. The Franks imposed officials in the military, legal and administrative systems using the law and lordships to control the natives. Few Franks could speak more than basic Arabic. Dragomans—interpreters—and ruʾasāʾ—village headmen—were used as mediators. Civil disputes and minor criminality were administered by the native communities, but major offences and those involving Franks were dealt by the Frankish cour des bourgeois. The key differentiator in status and economic position was between urban and rural dwellers. Indigenous Christians could gain higher status and acquire wealth through commerce and industry in towns but few Muslims lived in urban areas except servants.
  The Crusader States presented an obstacle to Muslim trade with the west by sea and the land routes from Mesopotamia and Syria to the urban economies of the Nile. However, despite this commerce continued, coastal cities remained maritime outlets for the Islamic hinterland, Eastern wares were exported to Europe in unprecedented volumes. Byzantine-Muslim mercantile growth in the 12th and 13th  centuries may have occurred anyway. Western Europe’s population,  wealth and the demand for sophisticated Eastern products was booming but it is likely that the Crusades hastened the developments. European fleets expanded, better ships were built, navigation improved and fare paying pilgrims subsidised many voyages. The mainly native agricultural production flourished before the fall of the First Kingdom in 1187, but was negligible afterwards. Italian, Provençal and Catalan merchants monopolised shipping, imports, exports, transportation and banking while the income
caption: Crusader coins of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Left: Denier in European style with Holy Sepulchre (1162–75). Centre: Kufic gold bezant (1140–80). Right: gold bezant with Christian symbol (1250s). (British Museum)
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