GLOSSARY

Abbasids	Caliphs of orthodox Sunnis, 750–1258, based in Baghdad
al-Andalus	Muslim Spain
Almohads	Fundamentalist Muslim dynasty and movement originating in early twelfth-century Morocco; created an empire in north Africa and al-Andalus that lasted until the mid-thirteenth century
Almoravids	Fundamentalist Muslim dynasty and movement from Morocco that established an empire in north Africa and al-Andalus between the 1050s and the mid-twelfth century
askars	Groups of professional soldiers in the service of Arab and Turkish rulers
assise	Literally a sitting, its meaning transferring from a meeting of a court to legal processes and then to the actual laws themselves
atabeg	Regent or guardian of Turkish or Mamluk princes
Ayyubids	Family of the Kurdish commander Ayyub, Saladin’s father; a dynasty that ruled parts of the Near East from the 1160s
Byzantium	Modern name given to the surviving eastern Roman Empire based in Constantinople; finally extinguished by the Ottoman Turks in the mid-fifteenth century
caliph	Successor to the Prophet Muhammed (d. 632), religious and political leader of Islam, a role contested between different Islamic traditions
canon law	The rules, laws, principles and ordinances governing the Church and the conduct of the faithful, increasingly codified in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries although quiet on the legal theory of crusading
Cathars	A name given by their persecutors to twelfth- and thirteenth-century dualist believers (from the Greek katharos, clean or pure); those in Languedoc also called Albigensians
Chalcedonian Christians	Those denominations, including Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, that subscribe to the definition of the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost agreed at the Council of Chalcedon; other substantial Christian groups in the Near East, such as the Nestorian, Maronite and Jacobite communities, held different views on the nature of the Trinity and the relationship of the human and divine in Jesus
cogs	Round, clinker-built, single square-rigged sailing transport ships, central to Baltic trade and warfare, and increasingly used on crusades to the Levant from the later twelfth century
commune	Formal sworn civil association pooling command, jurisdiction and funds; crusade examples created before and during campaigns
crucesignatus/a	A man or woman who, in recognition of swearing a vow to pursue holy war, has received, been ‘signed with’, a cross; a crusader
dar al-Islam	The house of Islam; Muslim lands, as opposed to the dar al-harb, the house of war, or the dar al-ahd, the house of truce
Fatimids	Caliphs of Shia Muslims, 909–1171, based in north Africa, then Egypt
frangopouloi	Western Europeans settled in Byzantium
Franks	A generic term for western settlers in Outremer, ifranj in Arabic, sometimes derisively known in western Europe as poulains; also the name applied to the early medieval populations of modern France and western Germany
Great Schism	1378–1417 when two then, from 1409, three rival popes were recognised by different groups across western Christendom; crusades were occasionally used in the conflict
Hohenstaufen	German imperial dynasty producing four crusaders, Conrad III, Frederick I Barbarossa, Henry VI and Frederick II; also rulers of Sicily from 1194; target of papal hostility and crusades, 1239–68
Hussites	Followers of the religious ideas of Jan Hus (d. 1415) in Bohemia, a combination of ideological dissent and Czech nationalism; they survived repeated crusades to suppress them
Il-Khans of Persia	Mongol rulers of Iraq and Iran, 1261–1353; until 1323 putative but not actual allies of crusaders against Mamluk Egypt
indulgence	The remission of God’s punishment for sin, available to the sinner after confession to a priest and authorised by the pope acting as the successor to St Peter as Christ’s vicegerent with the power according to Christ’s command in Matthew 16:19 to bind and loose on earth and heaven
jihad	Literally ‘struggle’ or ‘striving’ in Arabic; in Islamic tradition denotes either inner spiritual struggle or the external struggle or holy war against infidels and heretics
Khwarazmians	Turkish nomadic freelance mercenaries displaced from the steppes by the Mongols; invaded Outremer in the pay of the sultan of Egypt in 1244, capturing Jerusalem
madrasa	Islamic religious school or college
Mamluks	Slave soldiers, usually steppe Turks; organised into regiments attached to Arab and Turkish rulers, played an increasingly prominent and independent military and hence political role until they usurped rule in Egypt, creating a Mamluk sultanate, 1250–1517
mendicants	Literally beggars; applied to members of the religious Orders founded by Francis of Assisi and Dominic of Osma, the Franciscan and Dominican friars, who were prominent in promoting crusading from the 1220s
Mongols	Asiatic steppe people of Altaic stock, united under Genghis Khan (d. 1227) before forging the largest land empire in history from China to Iraq and southern Russia; renowned for ruthlessness but adept at incorporating conquered people into their armies; in the 1240s their campaigning reached eastern and central Europe but, as non-Muslims, they were sometimes seen as potential allies for crusaders in the Levant against the mutual enemy, Egypt
Moors	Non-Muslim designation of Muslim inhabitants of the western Mediterranean
Mozarabs	Christians living in al-Andalus
mudejars	Muslims living under Christian rule in Spain
Ottomans	Turkish rulers of a small thirteenth-century principality in north-west Asia Minor who from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries created an empire that stretched from the Danube to the Sahara; based from 1453 at Constantinople/Istanbul, the Ottoman Empire lasted until 1922
Outremer	The land beyond the sea, the principalities in Syria and Palestine settled by western Europeans after the First Crusade
papal bull	Public letter of the pope (a decree, order, grant of rights or privileges, etc.) authenticated by a lead seal (bulla); bula de cruzada authorising the sale of indulgences became a regular fiscal feature of Spanish rule into the twentieth century
passage	Term used to describe naval activity – civilian, commercial and military – during the twice-yearly windows when the winds and currents allowed for easier sea communication between the western Mediterranean and the Levant; also became used as synonym for sea-borne crusades, either of mass (passagium generale) or smaller, professional nature (passagium particulare)
penance	In Christian terms, a punishment performed in expiation of sin and demonstration of repentance, customarily imposed by priests after the sinner has confessed to the sin
pilgrimage	Journeys to holy sites; regarded as spiritually beneficial or imposed as a penance; also a metaphor for internal spiritual journeying
portolan	Navigational charts and maps based on compass points and observed distances between ports; in use by the late thirteenth century and probably earlier
reconquista	The name given somewhat tendentiously to the conquest of al-Andalus by Iberian Christian rulers from the late eleventh century
redemption of vows	A system developed from the late twelfth century and perfected between 1213 and 1234 that allowed the faithful to take the cross and fulfil their obligation and enjoy the privileges by redeeming their oath not by participation but through paying money or other material contributions; this developed into the direct sale of remissions and indulgences
Reisen	Raids; short winter and summer Baltic campaigns by the Teutonic Knights against the Lithuanians in the fourteenth century attracting western European recruits
Rumelia	The European territories of the Ottoman Empire, chiefly the Balkans
Seljuks	Nomadic Turks from the Eurasian steppes who invaded and conquered much of the Near East in the eleventh century
Shi’ites	Muslims who believe authority in Islam rightfully descends through the immediate family of Muhammed via his son-in-law Ali (caliph assassinated 661) and his descendants, spiritual leaders called imams, opposed to the authority of Sunni caliphs
sultan	Islamic ruler, beneath the notional authority of the caliph
Sunnis	The majority of Muslims who followed the sunna or custom, the accepted sayings and practices of Muhammed, which developed and clarified doctrine and law beyond the Koran
tithes	Taxes on laity and/or clergy for the crusade calculated on a tenth of annual surplus income; most famously used in 1188 in England and France, the so-called Saladin Tithe; from 1215 it became an irregular tax on the Church for the crusade
trebuchet	Effective large-scale throwing machine or catapult in use at sieges by 1200
ulema	Body of specialist Muslim religious and legal scholars
Umayyads	Muslim dynasty of caliphs, 661–750, who later established themselves as rulers of al-Andalus based at Cordoba, 756–1031, proclaiming themselves caliphs in 919
umma	The community of all Muslim people
Zengids	Turkish dynasty related to Imad al-Din Zengi (d. 1146), ruler of Mosul and Aleppo