ABSTRACT
Although it was the Mamluks who dealt the coup de grace to the Crusaders after a struggle of forty-one years, the encounter between the Crusaders and the Muslim world of the Near East lasted for 195 years. Consequently the Muslim image of the Crusaders had been long in the making. It was reinforced by the common experience of the community regardless of the changes in regimes or dynasties that assumed power in various Muslim provinces surrounding the four principalities created by the Crusaders in Edessa, Antioch, Tripoli, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
