ABSTRACT

This chapter asks to what extent religion constrained peacemaking and treaties between Muslims and crusaders or Franks in the medieval Middle East. Through analysis of truces between Saladin and Richard the Lionheart, and between the Mamluk sultans - Baybars and Qalawun - and the kingdom of Jerusalem, it examines how Islamic legal rules on jihad determined what kinds of peace agreements were permissible. It discovers how Muslim scholars and rulers balanced the duty of jihad against the Islamic principle of promoting “public interest” in permitting temporary peace agreements. The conclusion reached is that Islamic law had surprising flexibility, which allowed virtuous Muslim rulers to make peace with non-Muslims.