'Review of: Micaela Sinibaldi, Kevin J. Lewis, Balazs Major and Jennifer A. Thompson (eds), Crusader Landscapes in the Medieval Levant: The Archaeology and History of the Latin East (University of Wales Press, 2016)', Al-Masaq (2017). (original) (raw)

Review of Helena Schrader, The Holy Land in the Era of the Crusades: Kingdoms at the Crossroads of Civilizations, 1100–1300 (Pen and Sword, 2022), in De Rei Militari, ed. by Dr. Craig Nakashian (February 3 2023)

De Rei Militari, 2022

The crusades are a source of nearly constant and perennial fascination for scholars and a wide section of the public. The complex mixture of medieval politics, warfare, and religious idealism, coupled with debates over the relevance of medieval holy wars to modern conflicts, has effectively enshrined the crusades as an important fixture of medieval scholarship. Indeed, every year sees the publication of new books on the crusades, ranging from narrative histories aimed at popular audiences to specialist monographs for other scholars. By contrast, books specifically focused on the history of the Crusader States of Outremerthe Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Principality of Antioch, the Counties of Edessa and Tripolitend to generate far less buzz and interest, particularly outside of academia, leaving the study of Frankish Outremer as the purview of specialized historians and archeologists. Helena P. Schrader's newly published The Holy Land in the Era of the Crusades: Kingdoms at the Crossroads of Civilizations, 1100-1300 aims to rectify this dearth of popular literature by writing an accessible book aimed at amateur hobbyists and college undergraduatesan admirable goal, considering the difficulty in accessing specialized academic studies on the history of Frankish Outremer. However, while the resulting work is not without merit, it unfortunately has significant flaws that prevent it from being easily recommended without substantial caveats and corrections. Schrader is not a crusades historian by profession; she earned her PhD in history at the University of Hamburg, where her research primarily focused on the life and career of Gen. Felix Olbricht (a participant within the July 20 th 1944 plot against Adolf Hitler). She has since written extensively about the crusades (among other historical topics) in the context of historical fiction, and this marks her first foray into writing a non-fiction book on either the Crusaders or the Crusader States. Her experience in writing historical fiction is evident in her prose, which is concise, elegant, and generally straightforwardall virtues when writing for a popular audience, although this can come at the cost of specificity and nuance. In terms of internal structure, the book is divided into ten chapters, not including the introduction, a small concluding chapter, end notes, and a bibliography of recommended readings; these are supported by some (truly excellent) maps, examples of period art, dynastic family trees, and artistic reconstructions of archeological findings, all of which contribute to the attractiveness of the work and provide useful assistance to an amateur or undergraduate reader.

«Ex Mari Lux: The development of naval siege warfare in the crusading Levant», Settlement and Crusade in the Thirteenth Century: Multidisciplinary Studies of the Latin East, ed. Gil Fishof, Judith Bronstein and Vardit R. Shotten-Hallel, Abingdon & New York, 2021, chapter 4 pp. 60-68.

Cypriot support. 1 These facts intrigued me to engage with the enhanced naval siege warfare that occurred under Frankish rule, despite the mainly terrestrial dimension of the First Crusade. The logical effects of such warfare cannot be ignored, to the extent that the resistance of Jaffa in 1102 was strengthened by the appearance of the royal banner of Jerusalem on a ship. 2 I refer here to these testimonies as a background to my examination of the strategies adopted to conquer the Levantine harbours at the beginning of the twelfth century. Certain archaeological evidence too offers a fresh perspective on the counter-strategies that the Latins conceived in order to protect the cities of Ṭarṭūs, Acre, and Tyre during the Third Crusade and the War of Saint Sabas. Finally, I shall analyse the maritime rescue operations supervised by the crusaders between the Fatimid siege of Jaffa in 1102 and the fall of Ruad in 1302. The assistance of privateers and Italian fleets explains the promptness of these rescue responses, as well as the success of several operations that benefited from the good weather conditions.

Christa Clamer, Kay Prag, Jean-Baptiste Humbert, Colegio del Pilar. Excavations in Jerusalem, Christian Quarter, Leuven, Peeters, “Cahiers de la revue biblique”, 2017, in Speculum, p. 1149-1151.

Speculum, 2020

off each other-or, in another commonplace, that Alfonse (with "une soumission silencieuse," p. 47) was constantly absorbing Louis's. These commonplaces arose in large part from the fact that Alfonse governed "from Paris." I still vividly remember Joseph Strayer using this proximity-both brothers issuing administrative orders to far-flung territories from the capital-as evidence both of harmony of spirit and identical policies and practices on the ground. Yet Chenard shows that what evidence survives-perhaps only suggestive rather than conclusive, but challenging the commonplaces all the same-makes it seem as if Alfonse was not in Louis IX's presence as much as scholars have assumed. Paris and its environs constituted a pretty large area. Most often, insofar as one can tell, where Louis was, Alfonse was not, a pattern that became more pronounced as time passed. Does enduring and perhaps worsening physical semi-paralysis explain this or is it evidence of a little fraternal testiness between the count and the saint? And how important was the phenomenon, assuming it is not a misapprehension based on the fragmentary record? After all, Count Alfonse did set out on King Louis's last crusade. The king died in the crusader camp outside Tunis. The count and his countess perished on their way back home.

William of Tyre and the cities of the Levant

Cities as Palimpsests?: Responses to Antiquity in Eastern Mediterranean Urbanism , 2022

When writing the history of his native Kingdom of Jerusalem, Archbishop William of Tyre (c.1130-1186) frequently included extended descriptions of the cities encountered by Crusaders in the Eastern Mediterranean. This paper will investigate the way in which William’s self-identification as a Latin and his extensive education in the universities of Western Europe at the height of the ‘twelfth-century renaissance’ shaped his treatment of the cities of the land in which he was born and raised. William frequently chose to focus on the ancient past of these cities, privileging a reading of the urban landscape that was biblical and classical, to which the crusaders were the natural heirs. Nonetheless, a close reading of the work reveals William’s inability to completely efface the Byzantine and Islamic histories of the cities, disrupting and confusing his orderly account of the urban past. William’s history therefore provides a sense of the complex ways in which the Franks of the Latin East positioned themselves within the long histories of the cities in which they lived.