Open Veils · Answer
Why do the templars love the muslims so much?
The Templars developed a nuanced, often respectful relationship with Muslim powers that alarmed European observers and was later weaponised against them in their 1307 trial. Decades of frontier contact produced genuine cross-cultural exchange — military intelligence, science, trade, diplomacy — that looked like heresy to enemies who had never left Paris. This was not love but pragmatic coexistence forged under conditions of shared danger and mutual utility.
Evidence
- According to John J. Robinson's analysis in 'Born in Blood' and Peter Partner's 'The Murdered Magicians,' the Templars stationed in Outremer quickly discovered that survival required negotiation, not permanent war.
- Malcolm Barber's scholarly record shows Templar dress, shared meals, and borrowed Saracen customs were noted by hostile chroniclers precisely because they were visible.
- The 'heresy' of Islamic influence was thus a political charge, not an accurate theological description — but it points to a real intellectual and diplomatic intimacy that orthodox Crusade historiography has consistently minimised.
- Grand Masters like Hermann von Salza and later figures brokered truces, exchanged prisoners, and maintained safe-conducts — what Arab chronicler Abu-al-Faraj reportedly recorded as treating the Templars as 'men of pure word, incapable of breaking their oath.'