Enemies and Allies: Christian and Islamic Principalities in the Twelfth-Century Levant

Abstract

Throughout the course of the early to mid-twelfth century, both Christians and Muslims repeatedly joined with the other to fight their co-religionists, even while both maintained deep religious zeal and hatred for the religion of the other. While religious prejudice was still an important and indispensable factor in Christian and Muslim societies at the time, it was not always the most critical element in determining policy, and could willingly be set aside when material interest so dictated. These alliances, made primarily out of political necessity, disintegrated in the face of changing circumstances, a development that proved to be detrimental both to Outremer’s Christians and to smaller Islamic states trying to maintain their independence.