Frankish Rural Settlement in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem


Book Description

This book is based on an unprecedented archaeological survey of more than two hundred Frankish rural sites.




The Latin Church in the Crusader States


Book Description

This is the first major work on the history of the secular church in the Frankish states of Syria and the Holy Land - a subject which has not hitherto attracted the interest of ecclesiastical historians. The present book has been written to fill this important gap in crusader studies. It deals with the period stretching from the establishment of a Latin hierarchy after the First Crusade to the final conquest by the Mamluks in 1291. Dr Hamilton examines the development of the Church in the Patriarchates of Jerusalem and Antioch and its organisation from the parish level upwards. Two chapters are devoted to a study of its sources of income and the financial problems that arose after the Battle of Hattin through the thirteenth century. Particular attention is paid to the relations between the Latin and the Eastern Churches. The author documents the unequal treatment given to the Orthodox and to the separated Churches, and traces the course of the various attempts at church union. In his conclusion he makes an overall assessment of the spiritual achievments of the Church during this period and the extent to which it justified the first crusaders' ideals.




Crusader Castles and Modern Histories


Book Description

For the last 150 years the historiography of the Crusades has been dominated by nationalist and colonialist discourses in Europe and the Levant. These modern histories have interpreted the Crusades in terms of dichotomous camps, Frankish and Muslim. In this revisionist study, Ronnie Ellenblum presents an interpretation of Crusader historiography that instead defines military and architectural relations between the Franks, local Christians, Muslims and Turks in terms of continuous dialogue and mutual influence. Through close analysis of siege tactics, defensive strategies and the structure and distribution of Crusader castles, Ellenblum relates patterns of crusader settlement to their environment and demonstrates the influence of opposing cultures on tactics and fortifications. He argues that fortifications were often built according to economic and geographic considerations rather than for strategic reasons or to protect illusory 'frontiers', and that Crusader castles are the most evident expression of a cultural dialogue between east and west.




The Crusades and the Christian World of the East


Book Description

In the wake of Jerusalem's fall in 1099, the crusading armies of western Christians known as the Franks found themselves governing not only Muslims and Jews but also local Christians, whose culture and traditions were a world apart from their own. The crusader-occupied swaths of Syria and Palestine were home to many separate Christian communities: Greek and Syrian Orthodox, Armenians, and other sects with sharp doctrinal differences. How did these disparate groups live together under Frankish rule? In The Crusades and the Christian World of the East, Christopher MacEvitt marshals an impressive array of literary, legal, artistic, and archeological evidence to demonstrate how crusader ideology and religious difference gave rise to a mode of coexistence he calls "rough tolerance." The twelfth-century Frankish rulers of the Levant and their Christian subjects were separated by language, religious practices, and beliefs. Yet western Christians showed little interest in such differences. Franks intermarried with local Christians and shared shrines and churches, but they did not hesitate to use military force against Christian communities. Rough tolerance was unlike other medieval modes of dealing with religious difference, and MacEvitt illuminates the factors that led to this striking divergence. "It is commonplace to discuss the diversity of the Middle East in terms of Muslims, Jews, and Christians," MacEvitt writes, "yet even this simplifies its religious complexity." While most crusade history has focused on Christian-Muslim encounters, MacEvitt offers an often surprising account by examining the intersection of the Middle Eastern and Frankish Christian worlds during the century of the First Crusade.




The Crusader States


Book Description

“An enriching account of the expansion of the political and cultural frontiers of the Latin West in the central Middle Ages.”—History Today When the armies of the First Crusade wrested Jerusalem from control of the Fatimids of Egypt in 1099, they believed their victory was an evident sign of God’s favor. It was, therefore, incumbent upon them to fulfill what they understood to be God’s plan: to re-establish Christian control of Syria and Palestine. This book is devoted to the resulting settlements, the crusader states, that developed around the eastern shores of the Mediterranean and survived until Richard the Lionheart’s departure in 1192. Focusing on Jerusalem, Antioch, Tripoli, and Edessa, Malcolm Barber vividly reconstructs the crusaders’ arduous process of establishing and protecting their settlements, and the simultaneous struggle of vanquished inhabitants to adapt to life alongside their conquerors. Rich with colorful accounts of major military campaigns, the book goes much deeper, exploring in detail the culture of the crusader states—the complex indigenous inheritance, the architecture, the political, legal, and economic institutions, the ecclesiastical framework through which the crusaders perceived the world, the origins of the Knights Templar and the Hospitallers, and more. With the zest of a scholar pursuing a life-long interest, Barber presents a complete narrative and cultural history of the crusader states while setting a new standard for the term “total history.” A Choice Outstanding Academic Title in the Western Europe Category “Barber is a highly distinguished scholar, whose touch is continually deft, and he navigates the basis of the main narrative histories with care . . . a delight to read.”—Literary Review




Muslims of Medieval Latin Christendom, c.1050–1614


Book Description

An innovative study which explores how the presence of Muslim communities transformed Europe and stimulated Christian society to define itself.




The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: A Corpus: Volume 2, L-Z (excluding Tyre)


Book Description

This is the second of a series of four volumes that are intended to present a complete corpus of all the church buildings, of both the western and the oriental rites, rebuilt or simply in use in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem between the capture of Jerusalem for the First Crusade in 1099 and the loss of Acre in 1291. This volume completes the general topographical coverage begun in volume I, and will be followed by a third volume dealing specifically with the major cities of Jerusalem, Acre and Tyre (which are excluded from the preceding volumes). The project, of which this series represents the final, definitive publication, has been sponsored by the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem. On completion the corpus will contain a topographical listing of all the 400 or more church buildings of the Kingdom that are attested by documentary or surviving archaeological evidence, and individual descriptions and discussion of them in terms of their identification, building history and architecture. Some of the buildings have been published before, but many others are published here for the first time.




Frankish Jerusalem


Book Description

An in-depth analysis of the dynamic process of urbanisation in Frankish Jerusalem.







Latin and Greek Monasticism in the Crusader States


Book Description

Monasticism was the dominant form of religious life both in the medieval West and in the Byzantine world. Latin and Greek Monasticism in the Crusader States explores the parallel histories of monasticism in western and Byzantine traditions in the Near East in the period c.1050-1300. Bernard Hamilton and Andrew Jotischky follow the parallel histories of new Latin foundations alongside the survival and revival of Greek Orthodox monastic life under Crusader rule. Examining the involvement of monasteries in the newly founded Crusader States, the institutional organization of monasteries, the role of monastic life in shaping expressions of piety, and the literary and cultural products of monasteries, this meticulously researched survey will facilitate a new understanding of indigenous religious institutions and culture in the Crusader states.