Event
The Latin Christian wars of 1095–1291 to take Jerusalem and the Holy Land; Muslims remember them as a Frankish invasion.
What it means
Pope Urban II called the First Crusade in 1095, partly in answer to a request from the Byzantine emperor, and the crusaders took Jerusalem in 1099, killing many of its Muslim and Jewish people. The Muslim states were divided at first. Saladin, a Kurdish Muslim ruler, retook Jerusalem in 1187 and allowed most Christians to leave on payment of ransom or to remain as subjects. The last crusader strongholds fell in 1291.
What the sources say
Muslim writers of the time called the invaders “Franks” and saw the war as one of defence. Historians of both traditions note that Muslims, Jews and Eastern Christians suffered at crusader hands, and that peace and trade also went on between the sides.