ABSTRACT
The term ‘crusade’ is a modern not a medieval term. Its application as a title for the crusade movement seems to be no earlier than 1638 in Western Europe. Muslim sources did not distinguish between western pilgrims, crusaders, or settlers, labelling them all as Franks (al-Franj). It is only in the twentieth century that the literal term for crusade, al-salibiyyun, enters Arabic historical ‘riting. Interestingly, ‘rabic, Romance and Germanic words for ‘crusade’ derive etymologically from their word for ‘cross’, and thus emphasise the symbol of the cross in crusading activity 1
