A forgotten crusade: Alfonso VII of Leon-Castile and the campaign for Jaen(1148)

Between 1147 and 1149 the rulers of the realms of Christian Iberia conducte d a series of victorious campaigns against the Muslims of the peninsula. Al though it has been widely assumed that Alfonso VII of Leo'n-Castile remaine d militarily inactive during 1148, Christian and Muslim sources, notably th e Anales Toledanos and the Ibar of Ibn-Khaldu n, indicate that the emperor led an unsuccessful expedition to capture Jae'n in that year; and that he s ought papal encouragement for his efforts. The Jae'n crusade should be view ed in the context of a general Christian offensive backed by the papacy to destroy the power of Islam.