Hospitaller castles and fortifications in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1136-1291/Castelos e fortificações do Hospitalno Reino de Jerusalém, 1136-1291

This paper presents a historical and archaeological overview of the castles and other fortifications built and occupied by the Order of the Hospital of St John in the Kingdom of Jerusalem between 1136, when the order acquired the castle of Bayt Jibrīn, and the final Mamluk siege of Acre in 1291, during which it defended a section of the city walls. Topics discussed include the order’s contribution to the defence of towns and cities in which they were not the sole or even the major property owner, as well as their own construction and possession of a range of other fortifications from major castles to lesser structures, including towers and maisons fortes. In each case, equal attention is paid to the buildings themselves and to the administrative system of bailiffs and castellans through which they were managed and operated. As the military situation became ever more precarious during the 13th century, the order also took over and briefly held three major castles, whose owners were unable to defend them: Ascalon between 1241 and 1247, Mount Tabor between 1255 and 1263, and Arsūf between 1261 and 1265. Keywords: Hospitallers; Kingdom of Jerusalem; fortifications; castles; castellans

Jerusalem 1099: from Muslim to Christian city

On 15 July 1099, after more than four and a half centuries of Muslim rule, Jerusalem fell to the army of the First Crusade and for the next 88 years it became once again a Christian city. At that time, the city’s population may have numbered hundreds rather than the thousands of earlier periods, but it seems to have grown afterwards. The size of the late 12th century population may therefore have been closer to that of the mid-11th century, perhaps around 20,000–30,000, that is to say roughly the same size as Acre, Tyre, Florence or London in the same period. Along with these demographic fluctuations and the reduction of the area defended by city-walls, this paper analyses the impact of Christian rule on the town structures. From the conversion of the former Aqṣā Mosque as a royal palace, and then as the Temple’s headquarters, to the renovation of the Citadel as a small triangular-shaped fortress, and mostly to the important changes made in the Holy Sepulchre, with the enlargement of the church and the addition of an adjoining monastic cloister

Scandinavian pilgrims and the churches of the Holy Land in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries

The accounts of Scandinavian journeys to the Holy Land in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, whether preserved in sagas, chronicles, itineraries or charters, not only constitute a valuable source of information about travel, warfare, politics and the ideology of north European pilgrims and crusaders, but also contribute more specifically to the body of western European literature from this period reflecting the state of the Holy Land and its inhabitants at the time of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. This chapter focuses on just one aspect of the latter: the information that such texts give us about the condition of the Holy Places and their sanctuaries and churches

Itineraria Terrae Sanctae Minora III: Some early twelfth-century guides to Frankish Jerusalem.

This article presents new editions of four short guides to Jerusalem and the holy places and their environs, written around the time of the First Crusade: "De Situ urbis Ierusalem", "Qualiter sita est civitas Ierusalem", "Hec sunt loca que habetur iuxta Hierusalem", and the five different versions of "Descriptio Ierusalem". The texts are discussed within the context of an evolving tradition of Holy Land geographical descriptions and guides, which had begun in the fourth century and experienced an accelerated phase of development at the time when the Holy City returned once more to Christian hands

Sites in the Crusader Lordships of Ramla, Lydda and Mirabel.

This section lists and identifies the villages appearing in charters and other historical sources in the Crusader lordships of Ramla, Lydda and Mirabel in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and attepmts to define the borders of the lordships themselves

The crusader states. By Malcolm Barber [Book Review}

The crusader states. By Malcolm Barber. Pp. xvii+476 incl. 21 maps and 2 figs+15 plates. New Haven-London: Yale University Press, 2012. £25. 978 0 300 11312