Knowledge of Arabic in the Crusader States in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries

The Latins settled in the East in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries had no alternative but to open channels of communication with the Muslims, whatever might have been their original motivation for crusading. The need to negotiate treaties, to conduct mercantile transactions, and to administer territories containing a largely Arabic-speaking population demanded that at least some of them learned Arabic. This article argues that knowledge of Arabic among the Franks was more extensive than some historians have thought, even though the evidence that this knowledge was used for deeper cultural interchange remains slight. ©1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.