Abstract
This chapter examines some treatises and truces concluded in medieval Syria, Palestine, and Egypt between Muslim and Crusader rulers in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. By using a variety of Muslim sources from the period, it analyzes the parties involved in these treatises and truces, their term and duration, the religious and practical arguments used to justify them, and their impact on Crusader-Muslim interactions. It also connects them to contemporary legal discussions in handbooks on Islamic laws of war and peace. The chapter argues that such treatises and truces attest to the role of diplomacy in negotiating and settling differences away from the battlefield, thus placing certain legal and political restrictions on military campaigns, and opening alternative avenues for positive forms of coexistence and exchange between the Muslims and the Crusaders. In this respect, this chapter takes a new approach for studying and thinking about the period that scholars so far have not considered seriously.
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Notes
- 1.
Leading scholars of the field today realize that this time span is incorrect, since “crusading” persisted well after the thirteenth century, and crusader attacks against the coastal eastern Mediterranean remained a reality throughout the fourteenth century (on these issues, see Housley 2006; and Jotischky 2014). I use it here to mean the period that witnessed a heightened level of military confrontation between Muslims and Crusaders.
- 2.
My use of “Europe” and “European” are simply for convenience. The reader should not give them any specific meanings other than as a geographical reference.
- 3.
At that time, Syria referred to the geographical span that included what is today Syria (except the northeastern part which at the time formed part of northern Mesopotamia or al-Jazira in Arabic: today northern Iraq, northeastern Syria, and southeastern Turkey), as well as Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and most of Jordan.
- 4.
Islamic Shariʿa law was a complex legal system devised by the Muslims over the centuries, which addressed religious and secular matters. Each sect or branch developed its own understanding of what it is and on what it is based: sources, theoretical framework, and practical application (including courts, judges, notary publics, etc.). Shariʿa law today is not practiced by the overwhelming majority of Muslims except for some very private matters.
- 5.
The Shafiʿis were one of the five official branches of law in Sunnism. They are the Hanafis, Malikis, Shafiʿis, Hanbalis, and Zahiris. The other main Islamic sect, Shiʿism, divides into several subsects as well.
- 6.
The Shiʿi Fatimid dynasty ruled Egypt and parts of greater Syria and western Arabia between 969 and 1071. They promoted a subsect of Shiʿism called today Ismaʿilism. They are different from the Twelver Shiʿis of countries like Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon, or the Zaydi Shiʿis of Yemen. Their rule of Egypt ended in 1171.
- 7.
Sunni Islam generally emphasizes orthopraxy namely the need to live one’s Islam by fulfilling the correct religious practices and rituals and heeding Islamic Shariʿa law. Since the ninth century, Sunnism was shaped around five branches (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafiʿi, Hanbali, and Zahiri), with each branch having its system of jurisprudence and legal apparatus.
- 8.
Sayf al-Din son of Zangi (d. 1149) was the most powerful ruler at the time in the region. He ruled from the city of Mosul and controlled a major part of northern Mesopotamia.
- 9.
Nur al-Din son of Zangi (d. 1174) was Sayf al-Din’s younger brother, and became the undisputed Sultan of Muslim Syria and northern Mesopotamia after he captured Damascus in 1154.
- 10.
The Byzantines built a church on top of the cave, and the Muslims later turned it into a mosque. Today it is half mosque, half synagogue.
- 11.
The expression “the Friend of God” is a translation of Abraham’s Arabic nickname al-Khalil, on account of the biblical legend that Abraham was visited by God and two angels and he made a feast for them (Genesis 18:1–15); al-Khalil literally means a person’s drink/food companion. It is also the name of the city of Hebron in Arabic.
- 12.
My use of the term “West” is made not to its complex reality but rather to its political legacy as reflective of specific empowered groups in the Global North (mostly in Western Europe and North America) who are attached to a specific cultural and religious history and an explicit understanding of ancestry.
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank David Sullivan (Bangor University), Howard Williams (Cardiff University), Griselda Gaiada (former fellow at the IEA Nantes), and the anonymous readers for reading a draft of this chapter and sharing their valuable remarks.
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Mourad, S.A. (2023). Crusader–Muslim Relations: The Power of Diplomacy in a Troubling Age. In: Williams, H., Boucher, D., Sutch, P., Reidy, D., Koutsoukis, A. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of International Political Theory. International Political Theory. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36111-1_7
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