gave custody of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to the Christians, a number of churches were turned into mosques, and Jerusalem once again became a Muslim city. The loss of the city prompted a third crusade in , but the crusaders gained little except for some coastal towns in Palestine and free access to Jerusalem for Christian pilgrims. The Mamluks, the rulers of Egypt, finally drove the crusading Christians from all of Palestine in . Europe gradually lost military interest in Islam and focused on its internal political and cultural development.
The Crusades left a lasting impact on two aspects of Christian- Muslim relations. One was the harsher attitude of the Muslim state towards its Christian subjects which resulted from the bitter memories of the conflict as well as the needs for security in areas of mixed populations. The other was the greater influence of Italian mercantile communities (from Pisa, Genoa and Venice) in the trade between the East and the West even after the restoration of Muslim power. *The Pope ordered the ceremonial granting of crosses to those who had sworn to fight.
T HE C ENTRAL I SLAMIC L ANDS T HEMES IN W ORLD H ISTORY