Military history of the Crusader states
The Seljuk–Crusader War began when the First Crusade wrested territory from the Seljuk Turks during the Siege of Nicaea in 1097 and lasted until 1128 when Zengi became atabeg of Aleppo. At the latter date, the chief threat to the Crusaders from the east and north became the Zengids. The conflict was generally fought between European Crusaders and the Seljuk Turks and their vassals. The Muslim Syrian emirates occasionally allied themselves with the Christians against rival states.
Crusades
The Arabic loanword "Muslim" is first attested in English in the 17th century. Before this the common term for Muslim was "Saracen", in origin referring to the pre-Islamic, non-Arab inhabitants of the desert areas around the Roman province of Arabia. The term evolved to include Arab tribes, and by the 12th century it was an ethnic and religious marker in Medieval Latin literature corresponding to modern "Muslim".