How often did merchants and travelers from Europe during the middle ages visit cities in middle east independent of the crusades like Damascus, Cairo, Samarkand and Baghdad? What would their reception have been like? What would the average european in this era know of that part of the world?

by AclockworkWalrus

AclockworkWalrus

In terms of the relations between the predominantly christian european west and predominantly muslim middle east during the middle ages it seems the crusades get the most attention but what other interactions took place between these two parts of the world during this era?