The Christian states of Outremer enjoyed neariy haif a century of security after the First Crusade thanks to the divisions among their Musiim neighbours, the Fatimids in Egypt and the numerous Turkish-controiied stateiets in Syria and iraq, who often fought against one another. Occasionaiiy there were ciashes between the Franks and Musiims but these were minor affairs and did not threaten the existence of Outremer; indeed Musiim princes made aiiiances with the Christians against their common enemies.
The most important of these enemies was Zengi, a Seljuk Turk, who began his career in 1127 when on behalf of the moribund Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad he made himself atabeg, or governor, of Mosul in northern Iraq. By means of war and intimidation, Zengi soon extended his authority over much of Muslim Syria, and he would have taken Damascus too but for an alliance between its Turkish ruler and King Fulk of Jerusalem.
In the event Zengi’s greatest victory was his conquest of the County of Edessa in 1144. The first state founded by the Crusaders, Edessa was the first to fall, and Arab chroniclers later looked back on this triumph as the start of the jihad that would drive the Franks from the East. In the West the loss of Edessa touched off the Second Crusade, a huge campaign by sea and land, this time led by two European kings. But the crusade may never have reached the Holy Land at all had it not been for the Templars, and when unexpectedly it failed they became convenient scapegoats. fet against the gathering forces of the Muslim jihad Outremer could not have survived as it did for another one hundred and fifty years without the religious conviction and military prowess of the brotherhoods of Christian warriors.
World History
