CHAPTER XIII
CHRISTENDOM AND ISLAM
ISLAM had taken nearly two hundred years to expel the
Franks from Palestine. It is astonishing that the Latins ever
won a kingdom in the East, more astonishing still that they
were able to retain their footing for so long a period. The
almost constant quarrels among the Moslem princes saved the
Westerners from extinction on numerous occasions but, even
when Islam was united, the Franks succeeded in holding
territory in the midst of their enemy for many years. Some-
times a Crusade from the West had protected the Christians
in a crisis j sometimes natural forces, such as earthquakes, had
been their saviour; sometimes the Moslem princes had been
betrayed by their followers. Most of the credit, however,
belongs to the military Orders. They had no equal in the
East for discipline, skill and courage.
The Moslem victories were, with a few exceptions, won by
sheer force of numbers. The armies of Islam and Christen-
dom in the Holy Land were always vastly disproportionate,
and there is hardly a single great battle in which the Franks
were not outnumbered by at least three to one. Such a
disparity was bound to tell in the end, and, had it not been
for the fortresses erected by the Christians, would have told
much sooner. The castles built by the military Orders and
the Christian nobles were almost impregnable. A few
hundred defenders behind the walls of a fortress such as
Safed could resist an army, and famine was no menace in
. castles which were often provisioned to withstand a siege of as
long as three years. The great fortress of the Temple,
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