Latins and Muslims

Paiens unt tort e chrestiens unt dreit- "the pagans [Muslims] are wrong and the Christians are right."  First shaped in the forge of holy war, we might expect the society of the Latin East to fully embrace this famous refrain from the Old French Song of Roland. But, as Alexa Amore explains, a diverse range of sources from the twelfth-century Levant may tell a different story. Sources as diverse as artworks and architecture, coins and seals, and the memoirs of the Syrian aristocrat Usamah ibn Munqidh. suggest a range of interactions and attitudes. But were these interactions driven by genuine cultural appreciation or cold political expediency?