The Holy Land in the Era of the Crusades: Kingdoms at the Crossroads of Civilizations, 1100–1300

By Helena P. Schrader

“Dispels several of the misconceptions that still so often appear in the more popular accounts of the crusades and the Latin East . . . commendable.”—Adrian Boas, author of The Crusader World

The Near East in the era of the Crusades was home to diverse populations Orthodox and Latin Christians, Shia and Sunni Muslims, Jews and Samaritans. It was the meeting-point for Arab, Turkish, Byzantine and Frankish culture, the latter itself a mixture of Western traditions adapted to circumstances in the crusader states by the Europeans who had settled in the Holy Land.

While the Crusades have become a synonym for brutality and bigotry, the crusader states represented a positive example of harmonious coexistence across two centuries. Likewise, while scholars from a wide range of disciplines including archaeology, art history, and medicine have shed light on diverse aspects of the crusader states, to date there is no single introductory source that provides a comprehensive overview of these unique states as a starting point for the uninitiated. The Holy Land in the Era of the Crusades aims to fill this gap while correcting common misconceptions by bringing together recent scholarly research on a range of topics to create a comprehensive description. It covers the history, demography, state institutions, foreign policy, economy, art, architecture, and lifestyle of the people who lived in the crusader states in the period from 1100 to 1300. It is organized in two main parts: a chronological historical overview, and a topical discussion of key features of these unique kingdoms. An additional, final chapter describes the rise and fall of the House of Ibelin to give the entire history a human face.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Jun 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9781526787606

Book preview

Chronology

Introduction

The ‘crusades’ have become a synonym for brutality and bigotry, justifying atrocities on the one hand and inspiring racism on the other. Yet, recent scholarship based on archaeology, data mining and native chronicles has revolutionized our understanding of the Latin East. While historians of past centuries portrayed the Latin Christians living in these states as a tiny, urban elite afraid to venture into the countryside out of fear of their subjects, there is a growing consensus among the scholars of the twenty-first century that the majority of the population was Christian, not Muslim, and that the degree of intermingling and tolerance between Latin and Orthodox Christians was much higher than had been assumed.

The states established by the crusaders in the Middle East were home to a diverse population of Orthodox and Latin Christians, Jews, Samaritans, and Muslims living in harmony more often than in conflict. Not only were churches and monasteries built, but the Kingdom of Jerusalem was also a centre for Talmudic studies, while Muslims lived under Sharia Law. While Western immigrants intermarried with the local population, adopted many local customs and learned to speak Arabic, the native population responded to crusader rule with an astonishing degree of loyalty. There is not one recorded incident of revolt or unrest on the part of Muslims, while the native Christians served in the administration and armies of the newly established states in impressive numbers, often playing a decisive role in military engagements.

Furthermore, for most of the nearly 200 years of their existence, these states were at peace, not war, with their neighbours. Indeed, some historians have argued that they enjoyed more peace than almost any European country in this period. This is particularly true if we focus on the two crusader kingdoms, the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Cyprus, rather than the smaller and more vulnerable Principality of Antioch and the Counties of Edessa and Tripoli.

This peace was not a function of an impenetrable wall of hostility similar to the Iron Curtain of the Cold War, but a by-product of open borders, which enabled and encouraged a constant flow of merchants, tradesmen, tourists and pilgrims across the region. These transitory residents amplified the diversity of the native population. In this environment, where no group was dominant, tolerance took root and friendship across ethnic and religious borders became possible. Thus, despite the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe, the crusader states accommodated waves of Jewish immigration. Likewise, during the Mongol advance into Mesopotamia, Muslims fled to – and were given refuge in – the crusader states.

Significantly, trade flourished, reaching new heights and crossing religious borders even during periods of conflict. Nor was it merchandise alone that passed between the diverse cultures of the Near East. Ideas and technology spread, as well. Thriving economic centres at the gateway to the East encouraged the development of maritime powers that dominated the Mediterranean for centuries to come. The existence of Christian powers capable of providing infrastructure and security encouraged tens of thousands of pilgrims to travel from Europe to the Holy Land each year. Those pilgrims returned home altered by their encounters with the East, while the residents of the crusader states were astonishingly well-informed about personalities and politics in their Muslim neighbours.

In short, the crusader states represent a positive example of harmonious coexistence between peoples of highly diverse ethnic and religious affiliation. They were a ‘melting pot’ society more than half a millennium before the founding of the United States of America. To the extent that we value tolerance and cross-cultural dialogue, the study of the crusader states is a valuable and rewarding subject of investigation.

We are fortunate that records from and about these unique political entities survived in various languages, not just Latin and Arabic, but in French, German, Armenian, Greek, Turkish and Syriac, as well. Equally important to our understanding of the crusader states are the material remains – the ruins of churches and castles, shops and farmhouses, the sculptures, frescos, icons and other works of art, as well as remnants of everyday life from pottery to shoes. Over the last half-century, scholars from a wide range of disciplines, including archaeology, art history and medicine, have increasingly shed light on diverse aspects of life in the crusader states. Their findings have been published predominantly in academic journals and presses. Much of the information is highly specialised and written for fellow academics rather than to inform the general public.

This book is designed to provide hobby historians with an easy-to-read, affordable overview of the crusader states based on the academic research of recent decades. It will debunk many popular myths, such as the ‘genocidal’ nature of the crusades and the protocolonial character of the crusader states. It does not, however, purport to break new ground with original research. Instead, it seeks to collect in a coherent and accessible format existing scholarly research on a range of topics in order to create a comprehensive description. It is organised in three parts: (1) a chronological history of the crusader states that enables readers to understand their place in history; (2) a description of the crusader states organised around the topics: demography, state institutions, foreign policy, economy and lifestyle of the people who lived in the crusader states; and (3) a chapter on the rise and fall of the House of Ibelin, which gives the story of these states a human face.

Before embarking on this journey ‘beyond the sea’ – as contemporaries called the crusader states – it is useful to put them into perspective. First, while we place these states ‘in the Middle East’, contemporary Europeans did not. They might have been ‘beyond the sea’, yet they remained in the very heart of Europe because they contained, defended and represented the heart and soul of Christianity: The Holy Land. Although they had independent political institutions and most of their inhabitants had been born in these geopolitical entities, the Kingdom of Jerusalem belonged emotionally to all Christians. That was both an asset and a burden to those living in and defending the kingdom.

Geographically, at their largest, the mainland crusader states occupied roughly the same amount of territory as England. These states sat on the coast of the Levant, stretching roughly 967km (600 miles) from Syria through modern Lebanon and Israel to Gaza. Inland, they touched the western flank of the Mt Lebanon range, reached across the Jordan River and, briefly, extended to the northern tip of the Red Sea. Yet it is misleading to think of these political entities as states with fixed borders, even in times of stability. There was no GPS, no engineering surveys, no precisely-scaled maps and no border posts. Borders of this period depended less on features of the landscape than on the ability and political will of the local powers to defend a specific region. Like the borders of ancient Sparta, they stretched as far as the spears and lances of the state could reach. Yet for territory to be held, the inhabitants had to recognise and identify with the rulers. In other words, the shape and extent of the crusader states were ultimately defined as much by psychology as topography.

Last but not least, some notes on terminology in this book:

•As noted above, the contemporary collective name for the crusader states was simply ‘Beyond the Sea’ – in French, ‘Outremer’.

•The Western Europeans who had founded, settled in, fought for or simply visited the crusader states were known by