SOURCE: “The Byzantines and Saladin, 1185–1192: Opponents of the Third Crusade,” Speculum, Vol. XXXVII, No. 2, April, 1962, pp. 167–81.

In the following essay, Brand outlines the details of the alliance between the Byzantine Empire and Saladin from 1185 to 1192. Brand concludes that neither side gained much from the alliance.

On the eve of the Third Crusade the chief Christian state in the East joined with Saladin, sultan of Egypt and Syria, to further their common interests, which involved opposition to the Latins in the Holy Land. To the West this conjunction appeared to be a violation of the tie of religion and a break with tradition, because from the moment of the irruption of Mohammed's followers from the Arabian peninsula warfare between Byzantines and Muslims had been almost continuous. In the eleventh century the Muslim Seljuks deprived the Eastern Empire of much of Anatolia. After the First Crusade Byzantium co-operated with the...