Editing Knights Templar (section)

=== Decline ===
[[File:Battle of Cresson.jpg|thumb|[[Battle of Hattin]] in 1187, the turning point leading to the Third Crusade. From a copy of the {{lang|fr|[[Passages d’outremer]]}}, c. 1490]]
In the mid-12th century, the tide began to turn in the Crusades. The [[Islamic]] world had become more united under effective leaders such as [[Saladin]], and the [[Fatimid Caliphate|reborn Sunni regime in Egypt]]. Dissension arose among Christian factions in and concerning the Holy Land. The Knights Templar were occasionally at odds with the two other Christian [[Military order (society)|military order]]s, the [[Knights Hospitaller]] and the [[Teutonic Order|Teutonic Knights]], and decades of internecine feuds weakened Christian positions, both politically and militarily. After the Templars were involved in several unsuccessful campaigns, including the pivotal [[Battle of Hattin]], Jerusalem was [[Siege of Jerusalem (1187)|recaptured]] by Muslim forces under Saladin in 1187. The Holy Roman Emperor [[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick II]] reclaimed the city for Christians in the [[Sixth Crusade]] of 1229, without Templar aid, but only held it for a little more than a decade. In 1244, the [[Ayyubid dynasty]] together with [[Khwarazmian dynasty|Khwarezmi]] mercenaries recaptured Jerusalem, and the city did not return to Western control until 1917 when, during [[World War I]], the [[British Empire|British]] captured it from the [[Ottoman Empire]].{{sfn|Martin|2005|p=99}}

The Templars were forced to relocate their headquarters to other cities in the north, such as the seaport of [[Acre, Israel|Acre]], which they held for the next century. It was lost in 1291, followed by their last mainland strongholds, Tortosa ([[Tartus]] in present-day [[Syria]]) and [[Château Pèlerin|Atlit]] (in present-day [[Israel]]). Their headquarters then moved to [[Limassol]] on the island of Cyprus,{{sfn|Martin|2005|p=113}} and they also attempted to maintain a garrison on tiny [[Arwad Island]], just off the coast from Tortosa. In 1300, there was some attempt to engage in [[Franco-Mongol alliance|coordinated military efforts with the Mongols]]<ref>Demurger, p. 139. "During four years, [[Jacques de Molay]] and his order were totally committed, with other Christian forces of Cyprus and Armenia, to an enterprise of reconquest of the Holy Land, in liaison with the offensives of Ghazan, the Mongol Khan of Persia."</ref> via a new invasion force at [[Arwad]]. In 1302 or 1303, however, the Templars lost the island to the Egyptian [[Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)|Mamluk Sultanate]] in the [[Siege of Ruad|siege of Arwad]]. With the island gone, the Crusaders lost their last foothold in the Holy Land.<ref>{{harvnb|Nicholson|2001|p=201}}

{{quote|The Templars retained a base on Arwad island (also known as Ruad island, formerly Arados) off Tortosa (Tartus) until October 1302 or 1303, when the island was recaptured by the Mamluks.}}</ref>

With the order's military mission now less important, support for the organization began to dwindle. The situation was complex, however, since during the two hundred years of their existence, the Templars had become a part of daily life throughout Christendom.{{sfn|Nicholson|2001|p=5}} The organization's Templar Houses, hundreds of which were dotted throughout Europe and the [[Near East]], gave them a widespread presence at the local level.<ref name="quantity" /> The Templars still managed many businesses, and many Europeans had daily contact with the Templar network, such as by working at a Templar farm or [[vineyard]], or using the order as a bank in which to store personal valuables. The order was still not subject to local government, making it everywhere a "state within a state" – its [[standing army]], although it no longer had a well-defined mission, could pass freely through all borders. This situation heightened tensions with some European nobility, especially as the Templars were indicating an interest in founding their own monastic state, just as the [[Teutonic Order|Teutonic Knights]] had done in [[State of the Teutonic Order|Prussia and the Baltic]] and the [[Knights Hospitaller]] were doing in [[Rhodes, Greece|Rhodes]].{{sfn|Nicholson|2001|p=237}}

The Templars were accused of enabling [[corruption]] in their ranks which often allowed them to influence the legal systems of Europe to act in their favor and gain influence over local rulers' lands at the expense of the rulers.<ref name=":5" />