The First Crusade

In response to the announcement by Pope Urban II of a Crusade to the Holy Land in 1095, Christian forces from western Europe converged on Constantinople, where they united with

Byzantine forces to attack Seljuk armies in Anatolia and Muslim armies in Syria and Palestine. By 1099 the Crusaders had achieved their goal—the capture of the city of Jerusalem.

However, Christian territories acquired during the First Crusade were gradually lost over the next 200 years. Jerusalem was recaptured by Muslim forces in 1187, and the last Christian

stonghold in the Holy Land fell in 1291.

Siege of Jerusalem

The western European Christian armies of the First Crusade surrounded the city of Jerusalem in June 1099. In mid-July, after a long siege, the Crusaders took the city by storm and

massacred many of its inhabitants.

The Crusader States

In the aftermath of the First Crusade (1096-1099), Europeans carved out four states in Palestine, on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Many castles and fortresses were built to

protect the states from Muslim forces. However, the Muslims gradually recaptured the territory, and European presence in Palestine ended with the fall of the city of Acre in 1291.

The Second Crusade

Pope Eugenius III called for a Second Crusade in 1147 after Muslims recaptured the city of Edessa on the Euphrates River. King Louis VII of France and King Conrad III of Germany set

out, but both armies were defeated. Here Conrad III is shown approaching the gates of Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) on his way to the Holy Land.

Saladin

Saladin was a Muslim ruler in the 12th century, during the time Europeans led Crusaders to the Middle East. Saladin fought the Crusaders several times, and recaptured Jerusalem for

Muslims in 1187. This portrait of Saladin is in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.