offered the Byzantine emperor, Alexius I, a chance to regain Asia Minor and northern Syria. For Pope Urban II, this was an opportunity to revive the spirit of Christianity. In , the Pope joined the Byzantine emperor in calling for a war in the name of God to liberate the Holy Land. Between and , western European Christians planned and fought Aleppo, a Hittite, Assyrian and Hellenistic site, which was occupied by the Arabs in .
It was fought over for the next , years; note the Crusaders seen in action. –Nasuh al-Matraki’s Itinerary , - . wars against Muslim cities on the coastal plains of the eastern Mediterranean (Levant). These wars were later designated as Crusades*.
In the first crusade ( - ), soldiers from France and Italy captured Antioch in Syria, and claimed Jerusalem. Their victory was accompanied by the slaughter of Muslims and Jews in the city, chronicled by both Christians and Muslims. Muslim writers referred to the arrival of the Christians (called ifrinji or firangi ) as a Frankish invasion. The Franks quickly established four crusader states in the region of Syria-Palestine.
Collectively, these territories were known as Outremer (the land overseas) and later crusades were directed at its defence and expansion. The Outremer survived well for some time, but when the Turks captured Edessa in , an appeal was made by the Pope for a second crusade ( - ). A combined German and French army made an attempt to capture Damascus but they were defeated and forced to return home. After this, there was a gradual erosion of the strength of Outremer.
Crusader zeal gave way to living in luxury and to battles over territory among the Christian rulers. Salah al- Din (Saladin) created an Egypto-Syrian empire and gave the call for jihad or holy war against the Christians, and defeated them in . He regained Jerusalem, nearly a century after the first crusade. Records of the time indicate that Salah al-Din’s treatment of the Christian population was humane, in marked contrast to the way in which Christians had earlier dealt with Muslims and Jews.