Crusader Landscapes in the Medieval Levant: The Archaeology and History of the Latin East

By University of Wales Press

Written to celebrate the prestigious career of Professor Denys Pringle, this collection of articles produced by many of the leading archaeologists and historians in the field of crusades studies offers a compilation of pioneering scholarship on recent studies on the Latin East. The geographical breadth of topics discussed in each chapter reflects both Pringle’s international collaborations and research interests, and the wide development of scholarly interest in the subject. With a concentration on the areas corresponding to the crusader states during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the articles also offer research into the neighbouring areas of Cyprus, Anatolia, Greece and the West, and the legacy of the crusader period there, with results from recent archaeological fieldwork in the Middle East.

• Language: English
• Publisher: University of Wales Press
• Release date: Aug 20, 2016
• ISBN: 9781783169269

Book preview

CRUSADER

LANDSCAPES

IN THE MEDIEVAL

LEVANT

CRUSADER

LANDSCAPES

IN THE MEDIEVAL

LEVANT

THE ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY OF THE LATIN EAST

Edited by Micaela Sinibaldi, Kevin J. Lewis,

Balázs Major and Jennifer A. Thompson

Editorial Consultant

Peter W. Edbury

© The Contributors, 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner. Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the University of Wales Press, 10 Columbus Walk, Brigantine Place, Cardiff CF10 4UP.

www.uwp.co.uk

British Library CIP Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-78316-924-5

eISBN 978-1-78316-926-9

The right of the Contributors to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 79 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This publication was made possible through a publication grant by the Scoulodi Foundation in association with the Institute of Historical Research, by a Barakat Trust Publication Grant, and by grants awarded by the Council for British Research in the Levant (British Academy), the Robert Kiln Charitable Trust and the Seven Pillars of Wisdom Trust.

Designed by Chris Bell, cbdesign

Cover image: Khirbat ʿIqbala, Dair al-Banat (Crusader Aqua Bella), possibly an infirmary of the Order of Saint John (c.1140–60), near Jerusalem. Photograph by Micaela Sinibaldi.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction

List of Figures

List of Tables

Note on Transcriptions

Notes on Contributors

I. LANDSCAPE AND HISTORY OF SETTLEMENT

1. BENJAMIN Z. KEDAR

Jerusalem’s Two Montes Gaudii

2. ADRIAN J. BOAS

The Streets of Frankish Acre

3. RABEI G. KHAMISY

The Mount Tabor Territory under Frankish Control

4. HERVÉ BARBÉ

Safed Castle and Its Territory: Frankish Settlement and Colonisation in Eastern Upper Galilee During the Crusader Period

5. MICAELA SINIBALDI

Settlement in the Petra Region During the Crusader Period: A Summary of the Historical and Archaeological Evidence

6. KEVIN JAMES LEWIS

Shifting Borders in the Latin East: The Case of the County of Tripoli

7. BALÁZS MAJOR

Where Was the Town of Valenia located in the Thirteenth Century?

8. ANTHONY LUTTRELL

The Developments of Rhodes Town After 1306

II. WARFARE AND FORTIFICATIONS

9. JOHN FRANCE

Egypt, the Jazira and Jerusalem: Middle-Eastern Tensions and the Latin States in the Twelfth Century

10. SUSAN B. EDGINGTON

Espionage and Counter-Espionage: An Episode in the Reign of Baldwin I of Jerusalem

11. FRANK R. TROMBLEY

Three Sieges of Nikaia in Bithynia (A.D. 727, 1097 and 1331): An Archaelogical Perspective

12. ANDREW PETERSEN

Medieval Towers in Syria and Palestine

13. JEAN MESQUI

The Use of Posterns in the Frankish Fortifications of the Middle East

14. CRISTINA TONGHINI

An Ayyubid Square-planned Tower at the Citadel of Damascus: Tower 8

15. JAMES PETRE

Commonality in Crusader Castle Construction in Armenian Cilicia and Cyprus: The case for Kantara and the Catalyst of Korykos

III. ECONOMY, ARTS AND SOCIETY

16. DAVID JACOBY

Frankish Beirut: A Minor Economic Centre

17. NICHOLAS COUREAS

Commercial Relations Between Lusignan Cyprus and the Kingdom of Naples in the Late Thirteenth and Early Fourteenth Centuries

18. VARDIT SHOTTEN-HALLEL AND ROBERT KOOL

What Does It Take and Exactly How Much? Building a Church in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem in the Twelfth Century

19. RICHARD FAWCETT

From Preceptory to Parish Church: The Church of the Knights Hospitallers at Torphichen

20. JAROSLAV FOLDA

The Berlin Virgin and Child Enthroned with Angels and the Art of Chrysography

21. JENNIFER A. THOMPSON

A Study of the Decorated Slab Tombstones of the Crusader Cemetery at ʿAtlīt, Israel

22. PIERS D. MITCHELL

Paleopathology of the Crusades

23. CHRIS SCHABEL

Ab hac hora in antea: Oaths to the Roman Church in Frankish Cyprus (and Greece)

IV. NARRATIVE AND DOCUMENTARY SOURCES

24. ELENA BELLOMO

A Neglected Source for the History of the Hospital: Master Josbert’s Letter to the Consuls and Commune of Savona (1171–7)

25. HELEN J. NICHOLSON

‘La Damoisele del chastel’: Women’s Role in the Defence and Functioning of Castles in Medieval Writing from the Twelfth to the Fourteenth Centuries

26. PETER W. EDBURY

Making Sense of the Annales de Terre Sainte: Thirteenth-century Vernacular Narratives from the Latin East

27. BERNARD HAMILTON

An Anglican Account of the Holy Land in 1697: Henry Maundrell’s Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem

Bibliography

List of Publications by Denys Pringle

Notes

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

IT WAS INEVITABLE THAT WE AS EDITORS would incur many and heavy debts of gratitude when producing a publication such as this, drawing together dozens of scholars from different disciplines, institutions and nations. We are grateful therefore that the contributors were always keen to work with us in order to ensure this volume could be offered as a small token of our shared admiration of Professor Denys Pringle and his work.

We also wish to thank the staff of the University of Wales Press and in particular Sarah Lewis and Siân Chapman for offering their assistance throughout the production process. We were especially pleased to discover that UWP were open to the incorporation of plentiful illustrations in the volume – something that is key to any publication with a strong archaeological focus and yet sadly anathema to many other academic presses, university and commercial alike. We also thank Isabelle Ruben for her professional French to English translations of some of the contributions in this volume.

Touching upon costs, we were extremely fortunate to have received generous benefactions from a range of sources. These are the Council for British Research in the Levant (British Academy), the Robert Kiln Charitable Trust, the Seven Pillars of Wisdom Trust, the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London for a Scouloudi Historical Award, and the Barakat Trust for a publication grant. Our gratitude to these bodies is great indeed, as it is highly doubtful that the present work would have been published without their support.

A number of other individuals offered invaluable support throughout the realisation of this volume. Professor Helen Nicholson was a principal proponent of the project from the beginning, being one of the first to suggest it as a worthy undertaking, and we are thankful for her guidance. We are grateful to three further scholars who have also been supportive of the present work since its inception: Professor Hugh Kennedy of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, Professor Jonathan Phillips of Royal Holloway, University of London, and Dr Christopher Tyerman of Hertford College, University of Oxford.

It was with deep regret that we learned of the passing of our teacher, colleague and friend Professor Frank Trombley during the production of the present volume. It is a fitting memorial to his generosity as a scholar that he continued to liaise with us through difficult circumstances so that we could include his paper here as his own tribute to Denys.

Finally, we would like to express our particular gratitude to Professor Peter Edbury, whose vast reserves of wisdom and experience helped us to avoid countless pitfalls when editing this work. Without his input the volume would have been much the poorer. Of course, all errors and faults that remain are ours alone.

Micaela Sinibaldi, Kevin J. Lewis, Balázs Major and Jennifer A. Thompson

INTRODUCTION

PROFESSOR DENYS PRINGLE is one of the leading authorities in the study of the Latin East and has been so since the 1980s. His international renown for his contributions in this field stems from his impressive range of publications, which have established themselves as invaluable reference works and have set the standard for excellence in scholarship. Professor Pringle is perhaps best known for his publications that have offered comprehensive accounts, summaries and analyses of buildings of the crusader period in the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, notably his four-volume corpus of churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and his gazetteer of secular buildings. Scholars naturally turn to these when looking for reliable and exhaustive information on the historical and material evidence for sites and structures in the kingdom, and all of this is accompanied by Pringle’s incisive interpretations that are always based upon his vast knowledge of the subject. These publications have made an important additional contribution to the field as they have revealed and mapped for the first time a vast number of structures assigned to the crusader period in the Levant, thereby expanding greatly our knowledge of the material culture of the Latin East, and going beyond the tradition of monumental archaeology studied by earlier generations of scholars. Pringle’s publications have already inspired many students and researchers by giving them a sense of the great potential for future study in this field, and are set to continue to do so for decades to come.

Professor Pringle’s major contributions to the study of the material culture of the Latin East have privileged architecture and the relationship between buildings and their respective territories. He has also done much important pioneering work on many other aspects, including the study of ceramics and their significance in understanding such central themes as the chronology of sites and trade. He has also undertaken some of the first thorough archaeological analyses of sites of the crusader period, as exhibited in his publication The Red Tower, which still remains today one of the most comprehensive studies of a structure, its surrounding territory and relevant historical evidence, complemented by stratigraphic analysis of both excavated deposits and of built structures, and the exploration of a significant range of finds. The outcome showed the impressive results that could be achieved through such an integrated approach. More recently, Pringle’s important work on medieval pilgrimage – Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291 – has focused on the analysis of historical sources, which has always been a cornerstone of his research.

Pringle’s outstanding contributions to academic knowledge have unsurprisingly therefore had an influence that goes far beyond his own circle of students, and has inspired international scholarship and substantially redefined the lines of what nowadays is the study of the crusader Levant. In particular, his work has pushed boundaries beyond the traditional study of historical sources and monumental remains, often seen as two elements to be analysed separately. The breadth and depth of his research, the innovative approach to combining different sources and his impressive publication output have radically transformed the field within the space of a few years.

To go some small way towards repaying scholarship’s debt to Professor Pringle’s inestimable contributions to the field, which are still far from completion as he remains today actively involved in fieldwork in the Middle East and the publication of his findings, his students have organised this Festschrift, inviting his many former and current colleagues, pupils and friends to contribute. The enthusiastic response to this initiative has been near-overwhelming, resulting in a volume to which both well-established scholars and younger promising scholars have contributed, and that therefore offers important new insights into the field as well as very fresh research.

The international span of Pringle’s collaborations and research interests is well-reflected by the geographical width of topics discussed in the papers. While most concentrate upon the areas corresponding to the crusader states during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, several offer research into the neighbouring areas of Cyprus, Anatolia and Greece, and the legacy of the crusader period there. Others offer an insight into the presence of the military orders in the West and on the influence of the crusader period on Italian art. Archaeological fieldwork is quickly expanding our knowledge of the field beyond the modern borders of Israel and Palestine, where Pringle has mainly based his work, to areas not separated by these borders during the crusader period. Especially valuable at this moment are the archaeological contributions to this volume offering research from areas of the Middle East where still very little has been published as a result of recent fieldwork but that are, unfortunately, currently threatened by political instability.

One of the most important contributions of Denys Pringle’s scholarship has been his constant synergic work on both historical and archaeological sources, and this aspect is reflected in several contributions to this volume. Given the collaborative use of these two sources, which Pringle and many of the contributors of this volume have adopted, it seemed unduly limiting to organise this book into two separate sections: historical and archaeological sources. Instead, it seemed more appropriate to organise it to showcase the broad results and potential of scholarship on the subject, often adopting innovative, integrated methodologies, as well as the growing range of interests within the discipline of crusader studies. This field remains one of vibrant scholarship and is, in fact, more flourishing than ever, which is, in part, due to the relatively recent interest in archaeology and material culture, and its newly discovered potential.

Some of the papers presented in this volume offer research into topics largely explored by Professor Pringle during his career, such as the study of fortifications and churches. These are the papers by Mesqui, Petersen, Petre, Trombley, Fawcett, Shotten-Hallel and Kool: the last contribution offering insights into the process of construction of buildings, an aspect enlightening also on aspects of daily life. Other lines of research on material culture presented in this volume offer similarly valuable insights into this aspect: palaeopathology (Mitchell), the study of burials and the identities of the deceased (Thompson) and art history (Folda).

Following the example of Pringle’s work on the Palestinian region, territorial and topographical studies, based on the study of castles and towns in relationship with their territory, are also quickly growing in importance; this interest is reflected in the papers by Khamisy, Barbé and Major. Boas’s paper contributes to our understanding of the topography of cities, and Kedar’s and Hamilton’s papers to the subject of pilgrimage and travel to the Holy Land, and both offer additional evidence, beyond the main subject of their contributions, for the study of territory. Ceramic studies in association with a study of the stratigraphic record, as well as of building techniques, and the archaeology of standing structures, as exemplified in the papers by Sinibaldi and Tonghini, are providing archaeological tools for refining our understanding of the chronology of sites; their potential for a broader study of the territory synchronically and diachronically is also more and more evident.

While most papers have an emphasis on material culture, the analysis of historical sources is an important component of most of these contributions. These papers, beyond the research they present, all have a further potential of being used in connection with the material sources, being focused on aspects of military history, fortifications and borders (France, Edgington, Lewis, Nicholson). Others offer potential material for a better understanding of the routes, chronology and objects of trade (Jacoby, Coureas), which frequently determined the functions and locations of fortifications, while others still offer information on daily life and its sources (Edbury, Luttrell, Schabel). Bellomo’s paper on the letter of Master Josbert offers, additionally, the publication of a neglected primary source itself. The papers focused on the subjects of castles and churches in Europe (Nicholson and Fawcett) are, moreover, a homage to Professor Pringle’s contribution to historical research in this area.

We trust that this volume will be of interest to both advanced scholars and students of the crusader period. Further to this, we have ensured that the authors have had the opportunity to illustrate their papers without major restrictions, out of awareness that this has often been a barrier to the publication of archaeological research, in particular.

We are privileged to have had the opportunity to undertake this task, and hope with this volume to be able to express our gratitude for Denys’s dedicated, generous and invaluable guidance and support of his students’ research.

Micaela Sinibaldi, Kevin J. Lewis, Balázs Major and Jennifer A. Thompson

LIST OF FIGURES

1.Benjamin Z. Kedar – Jerusalem’s Two Montes Gaudii

Figure 1.1 The two Montes Gaudii near Jerusalem (map design by Tammy Soffer)

2.Adrian J. Boas – The Streets of Frankish Acre

Figure 2.1 Street in the Genoese Quarter (photograph by Adrian Boas)

Figure 2.2 Map 1 (drawing by Joni Boas on GIS map, courtesy of Akko Council website)

Figure 2.3 Map 2 (drawing by Joni Boas on GIS map, courtesy of Akko Council website)

Figure 2.4 Map 3 (drawing by Joni Boas on GIS map, courtesy of Akko Council website)

Figure 2.5 Map 4 (drawing by Joni Boas on GIS map, courtesy of Akko Council website)

3.Rabei G. Khamisy – Frankish Activities in Eastern Lower Galilee in the Crusader Period

Figure 3.1 Map 1 The villages mentioned in the 1101 charter

Figure 3.2 Map 2 The villages mentioned in the 1106 charter and the suggested boundaries according to all discussed documents

Figure 3.3 Map 3 The villages mentioned in the 1103 and 1146 bulls

Figure 3.4 Map 4 The villages mentioned in the 1255 charter

4.Hervé Barbé – Safed Castle and Its Territory: Frankish Settlement and Colonisation in Eastern Upper Galilee During the Crusader Period

Figure 4.1 The location of Safed (the territory of the castellany is shaded in grey) (map by Simon Dorso)

Figure 4.2 The territorial limits of the castellany of Safed during the Frankish period (map by Leticia Barda and Michal Birkenfeld, Israel Antiquities Authority)

Figure 4.3 A cross cut into a rock to the west of the Nahal ʿAmoud, possibly corresponding to a boundary of the castellany of Safed during the Frankish period (photograph by Emmanuel Damati)

Figure 4.4 Distribution of settlements occupied during the early Islamic period in the territory of the castellany of Safad (map by Leticia Barda and Michal Birkenfeld, Israel Antiquities Authority)

Figure 4.5 Distribution of settlements occupied during the Frankish-Ayyubid period in the territory of the castellany of Safed (map by Leticia Barda and Michal Birkenfeld, Israel Antiquities Authority)

Figure 4.6 Distribution of settlements occupied during the Mamluk period in the territory of the castellany of Safed (map by Leticia Barda and Michal Birkenfeld, Israel Antiquities Authority)

Figure 4.7 Sites with Jewish populations in the territory of the castellany of Safed during the crusader period (map by Leticia Barda and Michal Birkenfeld, Israel Antiquities Authority)

Figure 4.8 Byzantine churches and synagogues in Galilea (after Ellenblum 1998: Plan 2: 226) (map by Simon Dorso)

Figure 4.9 Distribution of settlements in Galilee in the Byzantine period, by size. The map is based on data collected during a survey by M. Aviam, Israel Antiquities Authority (after R. Ellenblum 1998: Map 5: 258) (map by Simon Dorso)

Figure 4.10 Map of ‘Frankish colonisation’ in the territory of the castellany of Safad during the crusader period (map by Leticia Barda and Michal Birkenfeld, Israel Antiquities Authority)

5.Micaela Sinibaldi – Settlement in the Petra Region During the Crusader Period: A Summary of the Historical and Archaeological Evidence

Figure 5.1 Al-Habīs castle: view of the upper court from the lower court (photograph by Micaela Sinibaldi)

Figure 5.2 The fortified entrance to al-Wuʿayra castle (photograph by Micaela Sinibaldi)

Figure 5.3 The location of the main sites of southern Transjordan mentioned in the text (reproduced and adapted from M. Ababsa (ed.), Atlas of Jordan: History, Territories and Society (Beirut: Institute Français du Proche-Orient, 2013)

Figure 5.4 The sites in the Petra valley during the crusader period mentioned in the text (reproduced and adapted from Fiema 2002)

Figure 5.5 Shawbak castle as approached from the main road (photograph by Micaela Sinibaldi)

Figure 5.6 Location of the mentioned sites in the Wādī Mūsā and Jabal al-Shāra areas (reproduced and adapted from B. Beckers and B. Schutt, The Chronology of Ancient Agricultural Terraces in the Environs of Petra, in M. Mouton and S. Schmid, 2013)

Figure 5.7 A view of the al-Bayḍā Islamic village area with the Jabal al-Shāra in the background (photograph by Ghassem Jibril Ammarin)

Figure 5.8 Ceramics from excavations at al-Wuʿayra castle and at the Soldier’s Tomb, in the Wādī Farāsa, Petra (illustration by Micaela Sinibaldi)

Figure 5.9 The excavated area of the Soldier’s Tomb in the Wādī Farāsa, Petra (photograph by Micaela Sinibaldi)

Figure 5.10 The remains of the fortified structure on the Jabal al-Madzbaḥ (photograph by Micaela Sinibaldi)

6.Kevin J. Lewis – Shifting Borders in the Latin East: The Case of the County of Tripoli

Figure 6.1 The county of Tripoli and environs (map by Kevin Lewis)

7.Balázs Major – Where Was the Town of Valenia in the Thirteenth Century?

Figure 7.1 The site of Margat with the castle in the background as seen from the port (photograph by Balázs Major)

Figure 7.2 Margat and its suburbs (map by Balázs Major)

Figure 7.3 Detail of the outer suburb of Margat during the excavation with house OS-C-S Mb1 in the middle and the area of the chapel and the cemetery on the terrace above it (photograph by Balázs Major)

Figure 7.4 Remains of building OS-C-S Mb1 after the excavation. (photograph by Balázs Major)

Figure 7.5 Restored pottery from house OS-C-S Mb1 and its environs (photograph by Balázs Major)

11.Frank R. Trombley – Three Sieges of Nikaia in Bithynia (A.D. 727, 1097 and 1331): An Archaeological Perspective

Figure 11.1 The fortifications of Nikaia as drawn in A. M. Schneider and W. Karnapp, Die Stadtmauer von İznik (Nicaea), Istanbuler Forschungen 9 (Berlin, 1938)

Figure 11.2 Interior elevation of attic of Tower 71 (c.727–44): blocks are laid in generally level courses without mortar. Clamp marks are visible. Inscription stands to right side of projecting abutment and stairway descending to left. The third century curtain is below (photograph by Frank R. Trombley)

Figure 11.3 Inscription of Artavasdos. The letters are ornate and atypical of seventh- and eighth-century book hands, with angular omegas and the omicron-upsilon ligature (photograph by Frank R. Trombley)

Figure 11.4 Left to right Tower 70, Curtain 70–1 and Tower 71 from north-west. Foreground: remnant of thirteenth-century wall of Theodore I Laskaris. The terrain outside the walls leading down to the lake is level, providing clear fields of fire. The aiming point of the Arab artillery was probably the section of curtain now covered by Tower 71 (far right). This tower did not exist in 727, but Artavasdos subsequently added it (photograph by Frank R. Trombley)

Figure 11.5 Curtain 69–70, adjacent to Tower 70, one of the three to be repaired by Artavasdos inter 727–44. The stone facing was extensively repaired (thirteenth century), but the three bands of the original courses, four bricks deep, are visible at the left (photograph by Frank R. Trombley)

Figure 11.6 Interior elevation of Curtain 70–1. Here the original walls will have remained intact at least 2–3 m above ground level at the end of the siege. The eighth-century rebuilding involved laying stone ‘casing’ over the rubble interior of the wall. Only the bottom two bands of brick courses are visible. Projecting black stones mark the attic of Tower 70; next right is Curtain 69–70 (photograph by Frank R. Trombley)

Figure 11.7 Interior elevation of Curtain 71–2 where it meets Tower 71, the probable aiming point of the Arab siege artillery. The lowest band of brick courses is visible below the overhang of the rubble and limestone block repairs and above the wooden scaffolding lying on the ground. Large blocks of less regular configuration were used mainly on the interior faces of the walls (photograph by Frank R. Trombley)

Figure 11.8 Tower 71 north elevation. The ninth course from ground level incorporates thirteen columns laid sideways and laid into the rubble core of the tower (photograph by Frank R. Trombley)

Figure 11.9 Curtain 70–1 The blocks at upper left have matching clamp slots. Note the carved block spolium at centre (photograph by Frank R. Trombley)

Figure 11.10 Tower 94 (eighth century) built against Tower 93 of South Lake Gate. The attack on the south-east sector of the fortifications was directed against the curtain on the far side of this tower (photograph by Frank R. Trombley)

Figure 11.11 Eighth-century repairs to Curtain 94/95 (photograph by Frank R. Trombley)

Figure 11.12 Inscription of Michael III (858/9 A.D.), Curtain 96/97 (photograph by Frank R. Trombley)

Figure 11.13 Tower 106B, the spolia bastion constructed by Alexios I Komnenos (foreground) and Tower 106, a free-standing installation construction under the Laskarid emperors (thirteenth century) (background) (photograph by Frank R. Trombley)

12.Andrew Petersen – Crusader and Muslim Towers in Bilad al-Sham

Figure 12.1 Qaşr Shabīb Zarqā, north side with entrance (photograph by A. M. Thomson 1986)

Figure 12.2 Qaşr Shabīb, plan of tower drawing (photograph by A. M. Thomson 1986)

Figure 12.3 Burj al-Faraḥ from south-west (photograph by Andrew Petersen)

Figure 12.4 Rock cut feature to north of Burj al-Faraḥ (photograph by Andrew Petersen, September 2014)

Figure 12.5 West face of Burj al-Faraḥ with entrance (photograph by Andrew Petersen, September 2014)

Figure 12.6 Plan of Burj al-Faraḥ showing location of tower within enclosure (drawing by Ross Cook)

Figure 12.7 Elevations, plan and section of Burj al-Faraḥ (drawing by Ross Cook)

Figure 12.8 Interior of Burj al-Faraḥ (photograph by Andrew Petersen, September 2014)

Figure 12.9 Stairway inside Burj al-Faraḥ (photograph by Andrew Petersen, September 2014)

Figure 12.10 Reconstructed plan and section through tower at Burj al-Faraḥ (drawing by Ross Cook)

13.Jean Mesqui – The Use of Posterns in the Frankish Fortifications of the Middle East

Figure 13.1 Caesarea. Cross-section and elevation of the postern P5 hidden by the glacis. It was used during the short period of the construction of the enceinte.

Figure 13.2 Caesarea. Cross-section and elevation of the postern next to tower 8 (drawing by Jean Mesqui and Jean-Philippe Jouan)

Figure 13.3 Caesarea. The interior view of the postern next to tower 8 (plate by Jean Mesqui) showing the hinges of the gate leaf, and the notch of the locking bar

Figure 13.4 Chastel Pèlerin (ʿAtlīt). A collection showing the manner of entry. Top left, the south gate tower, taken from the south around 1932 (plate by G. and E. Matsin, Library of Congress, LC-M33-7049-E (P&P). Bottom left, view of the south entrance door of the moat and of the eastern access ramp, from the moat, from the west (from Johns, 1932). On the right, plans and cross-section of the south tower, by C.N. Johns in 1932

Figure 13.5 Guainville (France). Axonometric cutaway of the south-west corner tower, showing the cross-section of the corner postern (drawing by Jean Mesqui)

14.Cristina Tonghini – An Ayyubid Square-planned Tower at the Citadel of Damascus: Tower 8

Figure 14.1 Plan of Level 2 (survey by P. Giandebiaggi, A. Zerbi, R. Roncella, University of Parma)

Figure 14.2 Upper part of tower 8, from the south-west; on the west façade the part on the left corresponds to the reconstruction of Period IV (photograph by C. Tonghini)

Figure 14.3 Southern external wall, detail; from the south (photograph by C. Tonghini)

Figure 14.4 Level 2, niche 8, from the west (photograph by C. Tonghini)

Figure 14.5 Level 2, niche 8: the rubané joints (photograph by C. Tonghini)

Figure 14.6 The vaulting of the staircase (photograph by C. Tonghini)

Figure 14.7 Eastern external wall; detail of the jamb of niche 8, US 45; see Figure 15.9 (photograph by C. Tonghini)

Figure 14.8 Level 2, niche 7, from the south west (photograph by C. Tonghini)

Figure 14.9 Rectified photomosaic of Tower 8, eastern façade (survey by P. Giandebiaggi, A. Zerbi, R. Roncella, University of Parma; archaeological characterisation C. Tonghini)

15.James Petre – Commonality in Crusader Castle Construction in Armenian Cilicia and Cyprus: The Case for Kantara and the Catalyst of Korykos

Figure 15.1 Kantara Castle (in J. Petre, Crusader Castles of Cyprus. The Fortifications of Cyprus under the Lusignans: 1191–1489 (Nicosia, 2012), p. 128)

Figure 15.2 Yilan (in R.W. Edwards, The Fortifications of Armenian Cilicia, Dumbarton Oaks Studies 23 (Washington, 1987) p. 270)

Figure 15.3 Yeni Köy (in R.W. Edwards, The Fortifications of Armenian Cilicia, Dumbarton Oaks Studies 23 (Washington, 1987) p. 268)

Figure 15.4 Tumlu (in R.W. Edwards, The Fortifications of Armenian Cilicia, Dumbarton Oaks Studies 23 (Washington, 1987) p. 256)

Figure 15.5 Kiz (in R.W. Edwards, The Fortifications of Armenian Cilicia, Dumbarton Oaks Studies 23 (Washington, 1987) p. 158)

Figure 15.6 Amuda (in R.W. Edwards, The Fortifications of Armenian Cilicia, Dumbarton Oaks Studies 23 (Washington, 1987) p. 58)

Figure 15.7 Anahşa (in R.W. Edwards, The Fortifications of Armenian Cilicia, Dumbarton Oaks Studies 23 (Washington, 1987) p. 63)

Figure 15.8 Vahga (in R.W. Edwards, The Fortifications of Armenian Cilicia, Dumbarton Oaks Studies 23 (Washington, 1987) p. 262)

Figure 15.9 Tamrut (in R.W. Edwards, The Fortifications of Armenian Cilicia, Dumbarton Oaks Studies 23 (Washington, 1987) p. 238)

Figure 15.10 Korykos (in R.W. Edwards, The Fortifications of Armenian Cilicia, Dumbarton Oaks Studies 23 (Washington, 1987) p. 164)

18.Vardit Shotten-Hallel and Robert Kool – What Does it Take and Exactly How Much? Building a Church in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem in the Twelfth Century

Figure 18.1 East façade showing the apse’s window and the core of the double face wall (photograph courtesy of Abbaye Sainte Marie de la Résurrection and Nicholas Faucherre)

Figure 18.2 North façade, entrances to the crypt and the nave. Note the difference in levels: the nave is entered from the main portal built some 2.5 m above the entrance to the crypt. The Hospitallers preserved the original topography (photograph by Vardit Shotten-Hallel)

Figure 18.3 Plan of the church of Our Lord’s Resurrection in Abu Ghosh and the Crypt, after Denys Pringle, The Churches of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, vol.1, pp. 9–10

Figure 18.4 Section through double face wall showing the construction method (drawing by Vardit Shotten-Hallel)

Figure 18.5 Architectural elements in the Church at Abu Ghosh. a. central apse; b. square column in arcade; c. West façade, exterior; d. double elbow column on west façade, interior; e. window, north façade (photos by Vardit Shotten-Hallel)

19.Richard Fawcett – From Preceptory to Parish Church: The Church of the Knights Hospitallers at Torphichen

Figure 19.1 Torphichen Preceptory Church, from the north west (photograph by Richard Fawcett)

Figure 19.2 Torphichen Preceptory Church, plan (drawing by Richard Fawcett)

Figure 19.3 Torphichen Preceptory Church, the east side of the north transept and the blocked chancel arch (photograph by Richard Fawcett)

Figure 19.4 Torphichen Preceptory Church, the transept interior, looking north (photograph by Richard Fawcett)

Figure 19.5 Torphichen Preceptory Church, the earlier work in the east face of the south transept, and the junction of the transept with the east limb (photograph by Richard Fawcett)

Figure 19.6 Torphichen Preceptory Church, from the south east (photograph by Richard Fawcett)

Figure 19.7 Torphichen Preceptory Church, longitudinal section, looking west (National Art Survey, vol. 1, 1921)

Figure 19.8 Torphichen Preceptory Church, interior of the tower, looking south east (photograph by Richard Fawcett)

Figure 19.9 Torphichen Preceptory Church, the lower courses of the blocked north nave door (photograph by Richard Fawcett)

Figure 19.10 Torphichen Preceptory Church, the west side of the south transept, showing the evidence for the lost south nave aisle (photograph by Richard Fawcett)

20.Jaroslav Folda – The Berlin Virgin and Child Enthroned with Angels and the Art of Chrysography

Figure 20.1 Berlin no. 1663 Altarpiece: Altarpiece of the Virgin and Child Hodegetria Enthroned with Angels, attributed to the ‘Magdalen Master’ (c. 1280); Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Gemäldegalerie, Kat. Nr. 1663 (photograph courtesy of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie/photograph by Jörg P. Anders)

Figure 20.2 Sinai Mosaic Icon of the Virgin and Child Hodegetria Dexiokratousa, done by a Crusader artist in Constantinople, c. 1204–10: St. Catherine’s Monastery, Mount Sinai (photograph by Elizabeth Bolman and Jaroslav Folda, by permission)

Figure 20.3 Pushkin Madonna: Icon of the Virgin and Child Hodegetria Enthroned with Angels, attributed to the Pushkin Madonna Master, c. 1260; Moscow, Pushkin Museum (photograph by Linda Docherty, by permission)

Figure 20.4 Madonna del Voto: Icon of the Virgin and Child Hodegetria, bust-length, attributed to the Madonna del Voto Master, in the Duomo of Siena, c. 1265–70 (photograph by Foto LENSINI Siena, by permission)

21.Jennifer A. Thompson – A Study of the Decorated Slab Tombstones of the Crusader Cemetery at ʿAtlīt, Israel

Figure 21.1 Map of the location of the crusader cemetery in relation to Château Pèlerin and the faubourg (map by Jennifer Thompson)

Figure 21.2 Map of the row tombstone and slab tombstone locations within the crusader cemetery (map by Jennifer Thompson)

Figure 21.3 The carved tombstones from the crusader cemetery at ʿAtlīt discussed in this paper (illustration by Jennifer Thompson based on author’s photographs and a drawing by H. E. Bird)

LIST OF TABLES

3.Rabei G. Khamisi – Frankish Activities in Eastern Lower Galilee in the Crusader Period

Table 3.1 Table of Mount Tabor Localities

11.Frank R. Trombley – Three Sieges of Nikaia in Bithynia (A.D. 727, 1097 and 1331): An Archaeological Perspective

Table 11.1 Muslim incursions towards the Marmara region

18.Vardit Shotten-Hallel and Robert Kool – What Does It Take and Exactly How Much? Building a Church in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem in the Twelfth Century

Table 18.1 Stone for construction of the church’s walls: quantities and workdays

Table 18.2 Costs/wages for construction of the church walls in deniers (d)

Table 18.3 Wages of a team consisting of twenty-four builders in deniers (d)

NOTE ON TRANSCRIPTIONS

MEDIEVAL SITES IN THE LEVANT usually have at least two names, an Arabic and a Latin one, but there are often many versions in both languages. Present day place names of the same site can also vary considerably. The situation is further complicated by the numerous transcription systems for Latin letters. Authors of his volume were free to work in their own traditions, but wherever there was a commonly known European name for a place (like Jerusalem instead of al-Quds) attention was paid to use this version.

In the transcription of Arabic words to Latin letters the use of complex fonts was avoided and every Arabic letter was transcribed with the simplest combination of Latin letters. This was the system also used in many articles of this volume. For those instances which deviate from it or only the medieval Latin or present day variant of the place name is used, a list of place names was compiled at the end of the book giving the precise Arabic transcription. The concordances are summarized in the tables below:

Long vowels are indicated with dash line

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

DR HERVÉ BARBÉ

Hervé Barbé is an archaeologist in the service of Excavations, Surveys and Research for the Israel Antiquities Authority, as well as an associate researcher at the Centre de Recherche Français à Jérusalem. Since June, 2016, on returning to the French Ministry of Culture he is in office to the Regional Cultural Affairs Directorate of Centre-Val-de-Loire in Orléans (France). His research in France has related particularly to humans and water in the Middle Ages. In Israel, he has focused on medieval fortification and its functions, having contributed to several French missions in Israel. He is currently involved in a study of the underpass at Belvoir Castle (2013–17).

DR ELENA BELLOMO

Elena Bellomo is currently Honorary Research Associate in the School of History, Archaeology and Religion at Cardiff University. She holds a PhD in Medieval History from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano in Italy (2001). She is a specialist in medieval Genoa, the crusades and the medieval military–religious orders, particularly the Order of the Temple. Her publications include A servizio di Dio e del Santo Sepolcro: Caffaro e l’Oriente latino (2003) and The Templar Order in North-West Italy: 1142–c.1330 (2008).

PROFESSOR ADRIAN J. BOAS

Adrian Boas is Professor of Crusader Archaeology at the University of Haifa, Israel. He has excavated several sites of the crusader period, including the fortresses at Beit Shean, Vadum Iacob and Montfort and a Frankish village (al-Kurum) on the outskirts of Jerusalem. In 2006 he established the Montfort Castle Project. He has published books and papers on a range of topics relating to Frankish urban and rural settlement, the military orders, architecture, material culture and daily life.

DR NICHOLAS COUREAS

Nicholas Coureas works as a Senior Researcher at the Cyprus Research Centre in Nicosia on the history of Lusignan Cyprus (1191–1473). He has published various articles and books on this subject, including the monograph The Latin Church in Cyprus 1195–1312 (Ashgate 1997), its sequel The Latin Church of Cyprus 1313–1378 (Nicosia, 2010) and, with Michael Walsh and Peter Edbury, the conference proceedings Medieval and Renaissance Famagusta (Ashgate, 2012). In 2015 he published together with Professor Peter Edbury The Chronicle of Amadi Translated from the Italian as a book for the Cyprus Research Centre.

PROFESSOR PETER W. EDBURY

Peter Edbury is Professor Emeritus of Medieval History in the School of History, Archaeology and Religion at Cardiff University. He has published widely on the history of the crusades in general but, especially, the Latin kingdoms of Jerusalem and Cyprus. He is currently working on a new edition of the Old French Continuation of William of Tyre, the outcome of a major AHRC-funded project.

DR SUSAN B. EDGINGTON

Susan Edgington is a Teaching and Research Fellow at Queen Mary University of London. Her primary interest is the history of the crusades and related literature, but she has also developed a specialism in medieval and renaissance medicine. She has published a number of articles on these subjects, as well as editions and translations of important medieval texts, including the Historia of Albert of Aachen.

PROFESSOR RICHARD FAWCETT

Richard Fawcett is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Art History at the University of St Andrews, and was previously a colleague of Denys Pringle in Historic Scotland’s Ancient Monuments Inspectorate. He has published widely on many aspects of medieval architectural history, and a recent book on the architecture of the Scottish medieval Church (Yale University Press, 2011), was awarded the Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion by the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain. Richard is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the Societies of Antiquaries of London and Scotland. He was appointed OBE in 2008.

PROFESSOR JAROSLAV FOLDA

Jaroslav Folda is N. Ferebee Taylor Professor Emeritus of the History of Art at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. His area of interest for teaching and research is the art of the High Middle Ages in Europe and the Mediterranean World. His publications include The Art of the Crusaders in the Holy Land, 1098–1187 (1995) and Crusader Art in the Holy Land, 1187–1291 (2005).

PROFESSOR JOHN FRANCE

John France is Professor Emeritus in the Department of History and Classics at the University of Swansea. He works on the history of warfare and crusading. His work has been funded by the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust and the Lawrence of Arabia Trust. He has undertaken field work in Italy, France, Syria, Jordan, Israel and Lebanon. Professor France is a former Director of the Callaghan Centre for Conflict Studies. His publications include The Crusades and the Expansion of Catholic Christendom, 1000–1714 (2005) and Victory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade (1994).

PROFESSOR BERNARD HAMILTON

Bernard Hamilton is Professor Emeritus of Medieval History at the University of Nottingham. He has published widely on the history of the crusades and the Latin East and his books have become staples of undergraduate reading lists on the subject. These publications include The Latin Church in the Crusader States: The Secular Church (1980) and The Leper King and His Heirs: Baldwin IV and the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem (2005), and he is about to publish, in conjunction with Andrew Jotischky, a study of Latin and Orthodox Monasticism in the Crusader States.

PROFESSOR DAVID JACOBY

David Jacoby is Professor Emeritus of Medieval History at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. He has published extensively on intercultural exchanges and maritime trade between the West and Byzantium, the crusader states and Egypt from the eleventh to fifteenth centuries, medieval silk production and trade, and the Jews in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Middle Ages.

PROFESSOR BENJAMIN Z. KEDAR

Benjamin Z. Kedar is Professor Emeritus of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has studied the crusade idea and the crusading expeditions organised in the west, as well as the Frankish states the crusaders established in the Levant. His latest work on these subjects has appeared in Crusaders and Franks. Studies in the History of the Crusades and the Frankish Levant (Variorum, 2016). He also studies comparative and world history; most recently (2015) he co-edited volume 5 of the Cambridge World History.

DR RABEI G. KHAMISY

Rabei Khamisy is a lecturer and researcher in the Department of Archaeology and the Zinman institute of Archaeology in the University of Haifa. He was awarded the Rothschild and the VATAT post-doctoral Fellowships and spent 2 years, 2013–15, as a Visiting Research Fellow in SHARE at Cardiff University. He has been assistant director of the Montfort Castle Project since 2006. His book, Fiefs, Fortresses, Villages and Farms in Western Galilee and Southern Lebanon in the Frankish period (1104–1291): Political, Social and Economic Activities, is currently in preparation. He has published articles dealing with Archaeology and with Latin and Arabic documentation.

DR ROBERT KOOL

Robert Kool is Senior Curator at the Coin Department of the Israel Antiquities Authority, specialising in crusader and medieval Islamic coinage. He has published extensively on the subject of crusader coinage and the kingdom of Jerusalem’s monetary history, based on the hitherto unpublished findings of a large number of excavations of the crusader period in Acre, Arsur, Atlit, Jaffa, Montfort, Safed and Vadum Iacob, and dozens of smaller sites. He is currently collaborating with Julian Baker, of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and Richard Kelleher, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge on Medieval European Coinage 16: The Crusader States, to be published by Cambridge University.

DR KEVIN JAMES LEWIS (EDITOR)

Kevin Lewis completed a doctorate in History at the University of Oxford in 2014, producing a thesis on the ‘crusader’ county of Tripoli in the twelfth century, supervised by Dr Christopher Tyerman. Previously, he completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in History at the University of Cardiff, where he was taught by Denys Pringle, Helen Nicholson and Peter Edbury. His research interests include political and administrative continuity between the Islamic, Byzantine and Crusader periods, as well as religious and linguistic interactions in the medieval Mediterranean. During the academic year 2014/15, he was Past and Present Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London.

DR ANTHONY LUTTRELL

Anthony Luttrell has published widely on the history of the Hospitallers and of the island of Malta, and his highly esteemed scholarship has greatly enhanced knowledge within these fields for over 50 years. He has produced over two hundred and fifty articles and monographs and has held a number of prestigious research fellowships and lectureships throughout his career, in the UK, USA, Italy, France, Germany and Malta. He has studied at the Scuola Normale di Pisa, taught at the University of Padua, and has been a scholar and assistant director at the British School at Rome.

DR BALÁZS MAJOR (EDITOR)

Balázs Major is an archaeologist, arabist and historian by training. He is the Head of the Department of Archaeology at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University and a lecturer in the Department of Arabic Studies. He holds a PhD from Cardiff University. His thesis, supervised by Professor Denys Pringle, is entitled Medieval Rural Settlements in the Syrian Coastal Region (12th and 13th Centuries). He has conducted and directed archaeological fieldwork at numerous sites in the Middle East and Hungary, and has published extensively on the subject of sites of the crusader and medieval periods.

DR JEAN MESQUI

Jean Mesqui was educated at the École Polytechnique in Paris. He has since built his career as an engineer and manager. In parallel, he is an active archaeologist and researcher, specialising in roads, bridges and feudal architecture. His interest in medieval archaeology has led him to research crusader castles. His many publications include a collaborative work with Mohamad al Roumi, entitled Châteaux d’Orient: Liban, Syrie (2001).

DR PIERS D. MITCHELL

Piers Mitchell teaches in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, UK. His research focuses on disease and health in the past, and he is trained in palaeopathology, palaeoparasitology, physical anthropology, medical history and clinical medicine. He is past president of the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology, and current president of the Paleopathology Association, the worldwide organisation for the study of ancient diseases. He has published four books including Medicine in the Crusades: Warfare Wounds and the Medieval Surgeon (2004), and Sanitation, Latrines and Intestinal Parasites in Past Populations (2015).

PROFESSOR HELEN J. NICHOLSON

Helen Nicholson is currently Professor of Medieval History at Cardiff University. She is primarily a historian of the military orders and the crusades. Among her many publications are: The Proceedings Against the Templars in the British Isles, 2 vols (Ashgate, 2011); The Knights Hospitaller (Boydell, 2001); The Knights Templar: A New History (Sutton, 2001); Love, War and the Grail: Templars, Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights in Medieval Epic and Romance, c.1150–1500 (Brill, 2000); and Chronicle of the Third Crusade: A Translation of the Itinerarium Peregrinorum (Ashgate, 1997).

DR ANDREW PETERSEN

Andrew Petersen is Professor of Islamic Archaeology at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. He studied medieval history and archaeology at the University of St Andrews followed by an MPhil in Islamic Architecture at the University of Oxford. His PhD at Cardiff University concentrated on the development of urban centres in medieval and Ottoman Palestine. He has worked and carried out research in a number of countries of the Middle East, including Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Qatar and Turkmenistan. Recent publications include The Medieval and Ottoman Hajj Route in Jordan; an Archaeological and Historical Study (British Academy/Oxbow, 2012).

DR JAMES PETRE

James Petre first studied history at the University College of North Wales, Bangor (now Bangor University), and then at Master’s and Doctoral levels at King’s College, University of London. His Cardiff University PhD, supervised by Denys Pringle, was awarded in 2010. Petre then developed this thesis into a book, published in 2012 by the Cyprus Research Centre, part of the Ministry of Education and Culture, Republic of Cyprus. His other, recent publications include, The Castles of Bedfordshire (ed.) (2012) and several articles on Cypriot and Scottish medieval history.

PROFESSOR CHRIS SCHABEL

Christopher Schabel received his PhD at the University of Iowa. He is currently Professor of Medieval History at the University of Cyprus and editor of Vivarium. His main research interests are Medieval Intellectual History and the History of Frankish Greece and Cyprus. His most recent books in the latter area include Greeks, Latins, and the Church in Early Frankish Cyprus (2010) and, with William Duba, Bullarium Hellenicum: Pope Honorius III’s Letters to Frankish Greece and Constantinople (2015).

VARDIT SHOTTEN-HALLEL

Vardit Shotten-Hallel is a PhD student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her dissertation focuses on medieval building technologies and architecture in churches of the Latin East, under the supervision of Professor Benjamin Z. Kedar. She formerly obtained a diploma in architecture at the University of Cambridge and an MA in archaeology at the University of Haifa, Israel. She currently works for the Israel Antiquities Authority at the site of Acre, Caesarea and ʿAtlīt.

DR MICAELA SINIBALDI (EDITOR)

Micaela Sinibaldi currently holds a post-doctoral fellowship from the Council for British Research in the Levant, British Academy. She has recently been a post-doctoral fellow at Humboldt-Universität, Berlin, Germany, where she has been researching on the material culture of Petra during the Crusader and Islamic periods, one of her main lines of research. She is also the Director of the Islamic Bayda Project, a project of excavations and surveys in Petra, and has worked as an archaeologist in Jordan since 1994. Micaela has recently defended a PhD thesis supervised by Denys Pringle at Cardiff University and entitled Settlement in Crusader Transjordan (1100–1189): A Historical and Archaeological Study, currently being published as a monograph.

DR JENNIFER A. THOMPSON (EDITOR)

Jennifer Thompson currently works for the Heritage Conservation Branch of the Ministry of Parks, Culture and Sport in Saskatchewan, Canada. She completed her undergraduate degree in Archaeology and History at the University of Saskatchewan in 2000. She subsequently undertook a doctorate at Cardiff University under the supervision of Professor Denys Pringle. Her thesis was entitled Death and Burial in the Latin East: A Study of the Crusader Cemetery at ʿAtlit, Israel, which she submitted in 2006.

DR CRISTINA TONGHINI

Cristina Tonghini teaches archaeology and art history of the Islamic world at the University of Ca’ Foscari in Venice, Italy. She has directed the Shayzar Project in Syria for the past few years and is currently engaged in a survey of the citadel of Antiochia, Turkey. She holds a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, on the subject of ceramics from Qalʾat Jaʾbar in Syria. She has participated in numerous projects in the Middle East and Italy, and also designed the display of the section of Islamic Archaeology for the National Museum of Damascus.

PROFESSOR FRANK R. TROMBLEY

Frank Trombley was Professor of Byzantine History in the School of History, Archaeology and Religion at Cardiff University. His research focused on the history and archaeology of warfare, state, society and religion in the Near East in the Late Roman, Byzantine and early Islamic epochs. He was particularly interested in the expansion of Christianity and Islam in the Mediterranean.

I

LANDSCAPE AND HISTORY OF SETTLEMENT

1

JERUSALEM’S TWO MONTES GAUDII

BENJAMIN Z. KEDAR

AMONG THE COUNTLESS contributions Professor Denys Pringle has made to the study of the Frankish Kingdom of Jerusalem is the observation that in addition to the Mons Gaudii at al-Nabī Samwīl, about 8 km north-west of Jerusalem, there existed an ‘alternative’ Mons Gaudii closer to the city.¹ It is the purpose of the present paper, first, to elucidate the medieval term Mons Gaudii; second, to examine in detail the documentation pertaining to Jerusalem’s two Montes Gaudii; and, third, to offer a hypothesis on the relationship between them.²

A medieval pilgrim often saw the goal of his voyage for the first time from a point that came to be known as Mons Gaudii, the Mount of Joy. Rome’s Mons Gaudii – commonly identified with Monte Mario, north of Saint Peter’s – is first mentioned in accounts of events said to have taken place in the mid-tenth century. In about 1080 the anonymous chronicler who described the foundation of the abbey of Brauweiler wrote that from the top of that Mons Gaudii one could see Rome in its entirety. Suger of Saint-Denis, in his description of Emperor Henry V’s entry into Rome in 1111, mentions ‘the place called Mons Gaudii, from which those who come [to Rome] see for the first time the thresholds of the blessed Apostles’. The linkage between the name of the place, Mount of Joy, and the emotion experienced by the pilgrims as they were drawing close to their destination, was made explicit by William of Malmesbury. Sometime after 1129 he wrote that the name Mons Gaudii was given to it by pilgrims who, glimpsing from that spot the walls of Rome toward the end of their long voyage, ‘imagine beforehand the joys of felicitous hope’.³

The Mons Gaudii, about 5 km east of Santiago de Compostela, known in Spanish as Monte del Gozo, is mentioned in about 1104 as the site at which Archbishop Gelmírez ordered the erection of the Church of the Holy Cross.⁴ It is from the top of Monte del Gozo that pilgrims coming from the east get their first view of Santiago. Nowadays it is apparently a rather disappointing view: as David Lodge puts it in one of his novels, ‘from this distance Santiago looks like any other modern city, ringed by motorways, industrial estates and tower blocks. If you look very hard, or have very good eyes, you can just make out the spires of the Cathedral’.⁵

Montes Gaudii also existed close to cultic centres less prominent than Rome or Santiago. Thus for instance, in about 1000, Syrus, the earliest biographer of Abbot Maieul of Cluny, mentions a place that is called Mons Gaudii because it is from there that one sees an important church.⁶ In about 1200 the anonymous author of the Life of Robert of Molesme mentions a place in which there was a heap of stones ‘that is called Mons Gaudii Dei’. The place was about 2 miles distant from the church in which Robert of Molesme was buried – and one may surmise that it was from this spot that one saw that church for the first time.⁷ There was also a Mons Gaudii near Limoges, another near Oviedo, and still another that was to have been established 5 leagues from Saint-Trophime of Arles.⁸ In short, the Mons Gaudii was quite a widespread phenomenon; and at least one contemporary commented on it in general terms. This was the Dominican theologian and biblical scholar Hugh of Saint-Cher (c. 1200–63), who in his commentary on Proverbs 26:8 wrote that Christian pilgrims use to pile a heap of stones at the spot from which they see for the first time the monastery to which they are going, ‘and this [heap] is called Mons Gaudii’.⁹

Figure 1.1 The two Montes Gaudii near Jerusalem (map design by Tammy Soffer)

Now, what about Jerusalem? According to the customary view, which one encounters time and again in modern historical writings, Jerusalem’s Mons Gaudii is situated on the most prominent peak in the city’s vicinity, 885 m high, at which Jewish, Christian and Muslim tradition locates the burial place of the Prophet Samuel (Shmu’el ha-Navī in Hebrew, al-Nabī Samwīl in Arabic). The site was called Mons Gaudii because it was from there that the warriors of the First Crusade saw Jerusalem for the first time on 7 June 1099; their joy at seeing at long last the goal of their 3-year-long expedition gave the place its name.¹⁰ King Baldwin II of Jerusalem (1118–31) donated the place to the Cistercians, together with a gift of 1,000 gold coins; but Bernard of Clairvaux declined to send his brothers there, as his biographer Gaufridus puts it, ‘on account of pagan [that is, Muslim] incursions and the inclemency of the weather’. Instead, he gave the place and the money to the Premonstratensians, who agreed to go there.¹¹ In 1156, abbot R. of Saint Samuel helped to settle a dispute between the canons of the Holy Sepulchre and the canons of the Mount of Olives.¹² The possessions of the Premonstratensian church of Saint Samuel are listed in a charter that King Baldwin V issued in 1185; discovered and edited by Hans Eberhard Mayer in 1964 and republished by him in 2010, it records the grants the kings of Jerusalem, from Baldwin II on, made to the church.¹³ The seal of the Premonstratensian abbey was published in 1980 by Michele Piccirillo: on the obverse side the Prophet Samuel is anointing a king of Israel, and the legend reads SI[gill]UM SANCTI SAMUELIS; the reverse side depicts God’s call to young Samuel at Shilo, with the legend SAMUEL SAMUEL reproducing God’s words to him according to 1 Samuel 3:10.¹⁴ The Premonstratensians remained in their abbey until 1187, when Saladin conquered most of the Frankish Kingdom of Jerusalem. In the fifteenth century Samuel’s purported burial place belonged to Jerusalem’s Jewish community.¹⁵ Still later, the remains of the Premonstratensian church were turned into a mosque, which was heavily damaged during the fighting between the British and the Turks in December 1917; it was reconstructed under the British Mandate. Since the Six-Day War of 1967 the nave of the medieval church has served as a mosque, while the northern aisle and the crypt have become a Jewish place of prayer. Recent excavations have shown that in the twelfth century the Premonstratensian church was surrounded by other buildings and that the entire complex was defended by a deep moat cut in the rock. The moat’s completion appears to have been prevented by the arrival of Saladin’s men in 1187.¹⁶

Yet both assumptions – that Jerusalem’s Mons Gaudii received its name because of the joy of the warriors of the First Crusade upon their first glimpse of the Holy City, and that during the First Frankish Kingdom Jerusalem’s Mons Gaudii