ABSTRACT
After the breathless rush of the last three centuries, it is necessary to pause at 1098. The kaleidoscope that constantly altered the pattern of Middle East history is now beginning to settle down. The ceaseless confrontation between Muslim groups, tribes, sects and religious leaderships is forced to come to terms with a new reality. In 1098, the First Crusade assembled in Europe to march to the defence of the Holy Land against the supposed inroads of the infidels who were annihilating its Christian heritage. To a large extent the cause was a sham, based on distorted accounts of the Fatimid excesses under al-Hakim transposed to the present and conflated with the news of the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 in which the Seljuk Turks defeated the Byzantine forces, thus presaging the fall of Constantinople to a Muslim force.
