Byzantine Empire-rusader relations in the middle East (1099-1131)

In this study, the two different poles of the Christian world, representing the Papal and Byzantine Empire, were tried to be brought to light though the nature of the Crusades, which left deep impression in the human history, has been considered to have the same belief. While evaluating the relations between the parties, different stages of development of religious, political, military and social traditions of the East and the West and their reflections during the Crusades until the year of 1131 were taken into consideration. It was observed during this period that the Crusaders did not serve common purposes contrary to the expectations of the Byzantine Empire. The problems that became visible in Anatolia between the two sides became evident with the districts established by the Crusaders in Edessa, Antioch, Jerusalem and Tripoli. Apart from these districts, the Crusaders tried to maintain their existence as small administrations in many regions where they claimed that the empire was dominant. Before the expedition in Europe, they also put as much pressure on the lands of the empire where they say they are religious brothers and promise to help as the oppression on the region of Muslims who they deemed enemies. Due to the imperialist attitudes of the Crusaders in the region and the efforts of the Papacy to realize their ideals over the empire, Byzantine Emperor Alexios and his son Ioannes Komnenos fought against the Crusaders not only in the military dimension but also in political and religious dimensions in Europe and Middle East. The Crusaders, with a few exceptions, thought that the empire did not provide them with enough assistance and that they were betrayed because it was in conflict with the ideals of the Crusaders, even they occasionally declared the Orthodox as infidels. As a result, until the first Crusaders left their place to the new generation (1099-1131), two separate groups of the Christian World acted in contrast to their discourse of the beginning of the expedition and tried to dominate each other. Keywords: The Byzantine Empire, Crusades, Middle East, West, Rome, Jerusalem