The First Crusade brought Europe's nobility into close and extended contact with non-Europeans, Muslim & Christian alike. What concept of "race", if any, would have been held by Western European nobility of the 11th-century?

by Tough_Guys_Wear_Pink
qed1

Edit: Definitely check out the post (that I forgot about) on exactly this subject by WelfOnTheShelf, linked in their response to this comment below!

There is definitely more that could be said on this topic in particular here, but there are a bunch of past answers that are highly relevant and worth your time.

In the first place, it is important to emphasise that although the First Crusade may have had a significant impact on the way that the Latin world conceptualised itself on the world stage, so to speak, it was not the first time that European nobility had close or extended contact with non-Europeans. There was plenty of interactions between European nobles and the wider mediterranean world before this, and it is very unlikely that this was the first time that many of the participants had had close or extended contact with non-Europeans already. In particular, pilgrimage to the holy land was already a big deal in the 11th century and, as /u/welfontheshelf has discussed here, many of the parents/grandparents of the First Crusaders had gone on pilgrimage to Jerusalem already. Likewise, both /u/idjet here and myself here discuss how porous the boundaries of Europe were to travel around the mediterranean in relation to whether we would expect to find black people in Medieval Europe. (Again, Southern France and Italy, the origin of two of the major contingents of the first crusade, were hotspots for the movement of people, be they slaves, traders, pirates and so on, across the mediterranean.)

As to the question, there are very few answers discussing medieval ideas of "race" prior to the First Crusade, which is not surprising since there is comparatively little literature on the subject, but on medieval ideas of "race" and their various complexities, see especially /u/sunagainstgold's comments here and here. But more broadly there is a fairly populous section in FAQ for ideas of "race" in antiquity, among which, the comments by /u/cleopatra_philopater here and here are especially worth reading. I've also written on this before here.