A Legend About the Druse-Crusaders In Europe of the 16th–17th Centuries

The author researches a problem of understanding by the European society and explaining the need for crusades by creating legends about the descendants of the crusaders survived among Muslims, whose interests should have been protected in the 16th–17th centuries. Legends about the Templars who survived in the Holy Land after 1291, the Turks as the descendants of the Trojans and accordingly relatives of the Europeans or the Druzes as the descendants of the French crusaders appear in European literature, chronicles and even official documents in the 14th–17th centuries. These legends nourished the cultural crusading environment of Europe and kept the idea to return the Holy Land even centuries after its reconquest by Muslims. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the origin of the legend about the Druzes as descendants of the crusaders who lived on the territory of the Ottoman Empire. The author refutes the point of view that the legend originated in Florence at the beginning of the 17th century. New sources allow us to insist on its earlier origin and to hypothesize about its appearance in France during the Italian wars. The author shows that the idea of the Druzes as descendants of the French crusaders could be consonant with the diplomatic and political doctrine of France, Turkey and the Druzes themselves in the 16th–17th centuries.

Crusades, crusading ideology, legends, Turks, Druze, Holy Land, Syria, France, Florence, Fakhr-ad-Din II, Cosimo II Medici