What was the reaction in the Holy Land and other Muslim held lands to news of the Council of Clermont and the impending Crusade?

by ILookedDown
haimoofauxerre

Short answer: there wasn't one.

Part of the reason is that the Islamic world ca. 1095/6 was deeply fragmented, and not just between the Fatimids and Seljuks but especially even within the Seljuk world. Each city-state was more-or-less an independent entity that despised its neighbors (much like contemporary Europe, actually). As such, news wasn't always readily shared between them. This is why, even when the crusaders showed up in the East, there was no coordination among the states against one the invading force and why the crusaders seem to win more and more as time went on. Each time the crusaders fought, they adapted their tactics to the common tactics employed by the various Seljuk states -- but each Seljuk city-state was encountering the crusaders for the 1st time, so they had to learn on the fly.

Moreover, the contemporary Islamic world would've probably cared very little what those provincials over in Europe were doing. They cared much more, when they did care about Christians, about the Byzantines. Indeed, almost all contemporary Islamic sources saw the crusaders as just another Byzantine army. It's only after the crusaders stay for a while, become part of the landscape, that Muslims realize they're something "different."