Crusader–Muslim Relations: The Power of Diplomacy in a Troubling Age

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.