The contentions between the Abbasid and Fatimite caliphs continued till 1072, when Palestine suffered its next invasion. This was that of the Seljuk Turkomans from Khorasan. On behalf of their king, the Khwarizmian general Atsiz invaded Palestine and captured Jerusalem and Damascus, and then marched on Egypt to carry out his original purpose of destroying the Fatimites. The Egyptians, however, repulsed the invaders and drove them back, retaking the captured Syrian cities.
So was founded the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, whose his tory is one of the most painful ever penned (see CRUSADES). It is a record of almost unredeemed "envy, hatred and malice," and of vice with its consequent diseases, all rendered the more repulsive in that its transactions were carried on in the name of religion. For 88 turbulent years this feudal kingdom was imposed on the country, and then it disappeared as suddenly as it came, leaving no trace but ruins, a few place-names, and an undying hereditary hatred of Christianity among the native population.
The abortive second crusade (1147), led by the kings of France and Germany, came to aid the rapidly weakening Latin kingdom after their failure to hold Edessa against Nureddin, the ruler of northern Syria.
In 1173 Nureddin died, and his kingdom was seized by Saladin (Salah ed-Din), a man of Kurdish origin, who had previously distinguished himself by capturing Egypt in company with Shirkuh, the general of Nureddin. Saladin almost immediately set himself to drive the Franks from the country. The Frankish king was the boy Baldwin IV., who had paid for the errors of his fathers by being afflicted with leprosy. After being defeated by Saladin at Banias, the Franks were compelled to make a treaty with the Muslim leader. The treaty was broken, and Sala din proceeded to take action. The wretched leper king meanwhile died, his successor, Baldwin V., also a young boy, was poisoned and the kingdom passed to the worthless Guy de Lusignan, who in the following year (1187) was crushed by Saladin at the battle of Hattin, which restored Palestine to the Muslims.
The third crusade (1189) to recover Jerusalem was led by Frederick I. of Germany. Acre was captured, but quarrels among the chiefs of the expedition made the enterprise ineffective. It was in this crusade that Richard Coeur-de-lion was especially distinguished among the Frankish warriors.
Saladin died in 1193. In 1198 and 1204 took place the fourth and fifth crusades—mere expeditions, as abortive as the third. And as though it were foreordained that no element of horror should be wanting from the history of the crusades, in r 2 I 2 there took place one of the most ghastly tragedies that has ever hap pened in the world—the crusade of the children. Fifty thousand boys and girls were persuaded by some pestilent dreamers that their childish innocence would effect what their immoral fathers had failed to accomplish, and so left their homes on an expedition to capture the Holy Land. The vast majority never returned; the happiest of them were drowned in the Mediterranean.
The other four crusades which took place from time to time down to 1272 are of no special importance, though there is a certain amount of interest in the fact that after the sixth crusade, in 1229, Emperor Frederick II. was permitted to occupy Jeru salem for ten years. But a new element, the Mongolians of Central Asia, now bursts in on the scene. The tribes from east of the Caspian had conquered Persia in 1218. They were driven westward by pressure of the Tatars, and in 1228 had been called by the ruler of Damascus to his aid. In i24o, however, they trans ferred their alliance to the sultan of Egypt, and pillaged northern Syria. Driven downward through Galilee they seized Jerusalem, massacred its inhabitants and plundered its churches. They then marched on to Gaza, where the Egyptians joined them, and to gether inflicted a crushing defeat on the Christians and Muslims of Syria, for once compelled to unite by the common danger. The Khwarizmians and Egyptians afterwards quarrelled, and the former were compelled to retire, leaving Palestine under the rule of the Mameluke sultans of Egypt. Shortly afterwards however, another Central Asiatic invasion—that of the Tatar tribes, took place. Under their leader Hulagu these tribes came by way of Baghdad, which they captured in 1258, and in 1260 they attacked and captured Damascus and ravaged Syria. Bibars (Beibars, Baibars), general of the Egyptian sultan Kotuz, met and drove them back; and having murdered his master, became sultan in his stead. He then proceeded to attack and destroy the relics of Christian possession in Palestine. One after another—Caesarea, Safed, Jaffa, Antioch—they fell, leaving at last Acre (Akka) only. Bibars died in 1277, and in 1291 Acre itself was captured by Khatel, son of Kalatun, who put an end to Frankish rule.
During the 14th century there is little of interest in the history of Palestine. The Christians made efforts to creep back to their former possessions and churches were rebuilt in Jerusalem, Beth lehem and Nazareth; but another devastation was the result of the ferocious inroads of the Mongolian Timur (Tamerlane) in 1400. (F. M. S.)