Ближний Восток и его соседи

g 213 h The Stance of the Greek Orthodox Church Towards the Crusades... years, i. e. the period of the Latin Empire. 7 The Crusades inspired the Arabic epic novel “ Sirat Al-Antara”. Although most of the historical elements of the novel are fictitious, they betray more intensively a spirit of reconciliation be- tween Byzantines and Arabs. 8 The Crusades bring forth a manifold of differences in perception between the Byzantine and the Roman Church, as for example, concerning the legiti- macy of the “Holy War”. For instance, the Pope assumed the duty to gather the army and to direct it against “unbelievers”. In the opposite way, the Ortho- dox Church may bless the arms of an army but cannot organize and conduct a war on its own account, while at the same time it prohibited priests to carry weapons. 9 There is a debate among scholars concerning the reasons that forced Alexios Komnenos (1081–1118) to ask for military support from the West in 1095. In our opinion, although it is still not quite clear whether Alexios was taken by surprise by the arrival of the Crusaders’ army, there is no doubt he had no intention to declare any kind of the “Holy War” against the Muslims. 10 Byzantium and Islam Relations between Byzantium and Muslims start in the early years of the 7 th century. The military aspect of this relation is central, but — especially in the 11 th and 12 th centuries — another form of contacts emerged through diplo- matic, cultural and commercial paths. Both Byzantine and Arab sources, espe- cially those dating to the 12 th –13 th centuries, provide a more positive image of the non-military side of the relation than the one provided in the sources from previous times. 11 7 Ch. Nomikos. To πρώτο τζαμί της Κωνσταντινουπόλεως // Εpeteris Etairias Byzantinon Spoudon (1924). P. 199–209; D. Woods. Maslama and the Alleged Construction of the first Mosque in Constantinople ca. 718 // Barbara Crostini, S. La Porta(eds). Negotiating Co-Existence: Communities, Cultures and “Convivencia” in Byzantine Society. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2013. P. 19–30. 8 V. Christides. Periplus of the Arab-Byzantine cultural Relations // Y. Y. Al-Hijji, V. Christides (eds.). Cultural Relations between Byzantium and the Arabs. Athens: Institute for Graeco-Oriental and African studies and Dar Al-Athar Al-Islamiyyah, 2007. P. 35. 9 G. Tsoutsos. Aspects of the spread of Islam in the Balkans: Particular conditions and Ottoman structures (1354–1800) // Islam in the Balkans Unexpired Hope. Athens: Offprint, 2017. P. 14. 10 See G. Tsoutsos. The debate on Alexios Komnenos’ view-point concerning the First Cru- sade // Graeco-Arabica , XIII. 2022. P. 87–93. 11 Nike Koutrakou. The Arabs through Byzantine eyes( 11 th –12 th centuries): A change in percep- tion // Juan Pedro Monferrer-Sala, Vassilios Christides, Theodoros Papadopoulos (eds.). East and West: Essays on Byzantine and Arab Worlds in the Middle Ages. Piscataway, N. J.: Gorgias Press, 2009. P. 27, 49.