European support for the Crusader Emirates

The Crusaders of the First Crusade succeeded in establishing four Crusader strongholds in the Islamic Near East. The first two decades of the Crusader states' history in the East are considered a period of Crusader expansion that was not met with organized or effective Islamic resistance, nor one commensurate with the scale of the Crusader threat. With the emergence of Imad ad-Din Zengi and later ...