Abstract:
This thesis examines the interactions between Latin and Eastern Christians in the period between the calling of the First Crusade in 1095 and the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1187 through Latin chronicles and letters. The multi‐cultural environment of the Levant presented multiple challenges for the Crusaders – they were faced with a society fractured along cultural and religious lines with more nuanced conceptions of identity than were present in Western Europe. At first, Crusaders used familiar cultural and religious markers of identity to differentiate among the new groups they encountered in the Levant; but the new environment eventually forced them to change their own conceptions of identity. Latin invaders underwent a change in their understanding of components of identity due to their exposure to Levantine society, and in their interactions with the Eastern Christians they demonstrated increasing flexibility in understanding religious and cultural identity while still asserting their status through religious means.
