History of the Crusades

This article discusses the reports on the conquest of Jerusalem in 492/1099 in Arabic chronicles. It argues that the reports on this event developed in three distinct and very diverse regional traditions in Egypt, Syria and Iraq. On the basis of the early Egyptian and Syrian evidence, it is highly unlikely that the conquest of Jerusalem was accompanied by a large-scale massacre of the entire population. This evidence shows furthermore that contemporaries did not see the fall of the town as a momentous event. The later Iraqi tradition, by contrast, introduced not only a new dimension to the massacre of the town's inhabitants, but developed two further narrative strands which were largely unknown to earlier reports: the plundering of the Dome of the Rock and the subsequent delegation to Baghdad. The development of these strands must be seen within the political and intellectual setting of Baghdad, most importantly the conflict between Sultanate and Caliphate and the profile of the Hanbalite traditionalist milieu of the city. Ibn al-Athir's famous report from the early seventh/thirteenth century almost exclusively goes back to this Iraqi strand and was an "Islamic narrative" in that it sidelined all previous regional traditions and reframed the conquest as a momentous event in terms of eschatology, martyrdom and divine intervention. This development of the Arabic reports on the fall of Jerusalem reflects the broader transformation of how relationships with crusaders and Franks were conceptualized from a pre-jihādī landscape to one where jihād propaganda moved to the centre of political discourse.

Pre-print, German version to be published in: Karfunkel – Zeitschrift für erlebbare Geschichte. Combat-Sonderheft 10 (2014) (in print; communicating science to the public).

Abstract: The Crusaders, who in the 11th Century moved in the thousands from Western and Central Europe to the Eastern Mediterranean to liberate the Holy Grave from the “infidels”, found themselves confronted not only with foreign cultures and violent armed resistance, but also with an alien natural environment and climatic conditions that could prove to be sometimes just as fatal as the arrows of the enemy. At the same time the Crusades fell into a period of quite changeable climatic conditions in Europe and the Middle East, which must be included as well in the historical analysis of the military events.

Reconquista from the early eleventh to the mid-thirteenth centuries. It explores the involvement of these groups as part of the changing ideas of Holy War and their transformation as result of the First Crusade. It shows that although the Reconquista was the result of important political and economic factors within the Iberian realms, the theological aura that the papacy started placing on this conflict was a powerful motivator increasing the interest of the Normans and later Anglo-Normans, especially when coincidental with the general call for crusade in western Europe that resulted in the large expeditions that are known to us as the crusades. To cover these areas, this work is divided in four main sections: the first, Chapter II, pursues chronologically the careers of individual members of the Norman nobility such as Roger of Tosny, Robert Crispin and Walter Giffard as they became involved. It also addresses the influence that institutions like Cluny and the papacy might have had in the creation of the idea of the Reconquista in the minds of those involved. The second section, Chapter III explores the brief decline of the Norman interest in the peninsula as a result of the Norman conquest of England and the First Crusade. It also explores the revitalization of the Norman interest in the peninsular conflict with the careers of Rotrou of Perche and Robert Burdet. Chapter IV, addresses the large contribution of the Anglo-Normans as part of the Second Crusade and their motivations and the impact of their arrival on the Iberian realms. Chapter V explores the participation of the lower aristocracy and merchants from the 6 mid-twelfth century onwards in the coastal actions on both the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of Iberia, showing the impact that these actions had in the Reconquista. Finally, Chapter VI explores how the changing political circumstances in Iberia and the Anglo-Norman domains helped to increase awareness during the rise of the Angevin empire and the newly found diplomatic relations between the two regions. However, it also shows that although by the thirteenth century the Reconquista was perceived as a legitimate area of crusading, the political and economic circumstances on the peninsula as well as of the English Crown had important repercussions for the drastic decline in the number of participants.

Se propone una profundización en las dinámicas específicas que se asocian al despliegue del señorío como modalidad de ejercicio de poder en la sociedad feudal de la Castilla bajomedieval. Para ello, nos concentramos en el estudio de las relaciones de poder señorial desplegadas por el infante Fernando de Antequera y su esposa, Leonor de Alburquerque, infantes de Castilla y reyes de Aragón, y por sus hijos, los "infantes de Aragón", entre finales del siglo XIV y los inicios del siglo XV. El análisis de una dinámica señorial poliédrica ejemplificada por los principales "parientes del rey" de su tiempo permite atender de forma más precisa a los procesos de reformulación e intensificación del poder de la aristocracia en Castilla desde finales del siglo XIII y a una reconsideración de ellos en el contexto de la “crisis bajomedieval”. Procedemos a un estudio de las relaciones de dominación señorial en términos de poder, consideradas desde una perspectiva sistémica y atento a las nociones de "casa", de "clientela" y "afinidad señorial".

El documento adjunto recoge exclusivamente la presentación, conclusiones y bibliografía de la tesis doctoral.

Im Preußenland, dem Gebiet zwischen Weichsel und Memel, existierte vom 13. bis zum frühen 16. Jh. der Staat der Deutschordensritter. In der
Zeit der Ordensherrschaft entstand eine reiche Architekturlandschaft,
die vor allem durch ihre Burgen, eine Synthese aus Kloster und Befestigung, berühmt geworden ist. Daneben wurden fast 100 Städte gegründet, in denen rasch Kirchen, Stadtbefestigungen und Kommunalbauten aus Backstein heranwuchsen. Auch in den etwa 1000 neugegründeten Dörfern errichtete man zahlreiche Pfarrkirchen. Die Architektur im Ordensland zeigt ausgeprägte Merkmale einer eigenständigen Bautradition, die Gegenstand des Buches ist.
Der Verfasser, Professor für Kunstgeschichte an der Universität in Danzig, hat in seiner Arbeit alle mittelalterlichen Burgen, Kirchen und Rathäuser der Region erfasst und den Architekturbestand unter verschiedenen Fragestellungen ausgewertet. Im analytischen Teil wird die preußische Architekturlandschaft auf empirischer Basis untersucht. Der Katalog enthält eine vollständige Dokumentation aller Bauten (425 Objekte) mit einem umfangreichen Abbildungsteil.

This article offers a unique comparison of the descriptions of the Latin barbarians found mainly in the Greek sources for the First and Second Crusades with those of the ancient barbarians described in the works of the Byzantines’ favourite tragedian, Euripides. The Greek narratives of Anna Komnene, John Kinnamos and Niketas Choniates, to which should now be added little-known Greek verse encomia composed by so-called ‘Manganeios Prodromos’, are crucial to our understanding of the history of the crusades. Yet, until now, the fundamental reason these key texts portray the crusaders in the manner they do has not been fully exposed.

In 1204 the Byzantines had lost their capital city. They had lost Constantinople and the attack had not come from infidels but from those who ‘bore the cross of Christ upon their shoulders’, people whom they regarded as somehow part of their world. It was the Christian Latins who had struck the blow that, up to 1204, the Byzantines had always been able to parry.
This article aims on the complex interaction between the Eastern Roman Empire, western Europe, the Papacy, the crusaders and the crusader states.

https://www.routledge.com/The-Crusade-in-the-Fifteenth-Century-Converging-and-competing-cultures/Housley/p/book/9781472464712

By highlighting Ottoman attacks on Croatia, Hungary and North Italy during the 15th century, this paper will explore the origins and development of the “antemurale” concept from a Bosnian point of view. Whereas the cases of certain frontier states which bordered with the expanding Ottoman Empire have been well researched so far, not much attention has been given to the role played by the Bosnian Kingdom in the broader Christian struggle against this aggressive adversary.
The Ottomans gained a foothold in Bosnia very early on, in the last decade of the 14th century, and I will attempt to show that they used Bosnia as a stepping-stone for further attacks on lands ruled by the Hungarian King and other Christian princes in the West. It is because of this that the Bosnian rulers and nobles were considered as being complicit in these assaults, and were effectively denied the assistance necessary to get rid of the Ottoman influence in their state. In a way, having been forced to remain on the opposite side of Christendom’s bulwark, Bosnia became an open gate through which the Ottoman akinji raiders passed at will. When it became inevitable that the Ottomans would conquer their Kingdom, the Bosnian rulers sought military help from those states which were not directly threatened. In order to draw attention to their plight, and thus initiate a crusade, they presented their state as a “gate”, “key” or “shield” of Christendom. Despite their best efforts, they received no help from the Western states and the Bosnian Kingdom was finally incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1463. The strategic importance of Bosnia was not lost on contemporaries and in the following period the Bosnian “antemurale” discourse was adopted by Venice and the Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus.

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Al-Masaq on 26 May 2015, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09503110.2015.1049418

This article contributes to the important debate over the conversion of the Turks to Islam. Previously, it was thought that the Turks abandoned their former steppe faith and customs very swiftly to become staunch Sunni Muslims, but this view has recently been challenged by a number of studies. The current consensus seems to be that the Turks’ adoption of Islam was a process of far longer duration, spanning many decades. This article broadens this discussion by demonstrating that the chronicles written by the First Crusaders contain much useful information that is pertinent to this question. It works through these texts, showing that they can shed new light on this point.

The Templars were the first religious military order dedicated to warfare, and, to them, the anticipation of a meritorious death in battle was a key characteristic that was unique to their profession. Not only the order’s Rule and early theological texts addressed to the Templar community, such as the writings of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, but also a wide range of external sources, including chronicles and trial records, suggest that the Templars were particularly associated with martyrdom as the most original form of Christian sanctity, namely in imitation of Christ’s own sacrifical death. This article aims at shedding light on this neglected aspect of Templar spirituality and discusses the implications of this concept’s manifestation throughout the order’s history.

Published in: Islam and Christianity in Medieval Anatolia, ed. by A.C.S. Peacock, Bruno De Nicola and Sara Nur Yıldız, all at the University of St Andrews, UK. Ashgate 2015 (http://www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=637&calcTitle=1&isbn=9781472448637&lang=cy-gb)

The ports and coastal zones constituted the most important points of interaction between the interior of Anatolia and the Mediterranean world; only along the 600 km long coast of Lycia and Pamphylia, for instance, medieval sources list almost 100 ports and landing places.  With the (anew) advance of the Seljuks towards the coast (conquest of Attaleia/Antalya in 1207, conquest of Sinope in 1214) and the increasing presence of Italian merchants in the harbours of the Aegean, the Black Sea and the Levant, maritime Asia Minor became a zone of intensive contacts between Byzantines (after 1204 in the exile realms of Nicaea and Trebizond), Armenians (in the Kingdom of Cilicia), Turks, Persians and Arabs (in the Sultanate of Konya) and “Latins” respectively “Franks”, thus also between Orthodox, Oriental and Western Churches as well as Islam (in its various denominations). With the fragmentation of Seljuk central power after the defeat against the Mongols in 1243 into various Emirates and their expansion especially into Western Asia Minor towards the Aegean and the establishment of Italian colonies (including “Catholic” bishoprics) in coastal towns and offshore islands (e. g. the Genoese on Chios and in Phokaia/Foça) and of the Knights Hospitallers on Rhodes, the number of zones of interaction, but also conflict increased (relocation of crusading efforts towards the Aegean in the 14th century, for instance). At the same time, Venetians and Genoese integrated all these locations and regions as hubs and nodes into their commercial networks and into the late medieval “World System”.  With the Ottoman Expansion, these territories were absorbed into one imperial framework once more (as it has existed under Byzantine rule until the 11th century), which finally also included the remaining western colonies (Rhodes in 1522/1523, Chios in 1566, Cyprus in 1571). During this period, “no other region of Europe or the Mediterranean became a cynosure of so many ethnicities in such a small place”.
Some of these aspects, such as the intensive trade between Venetian Crete and the Emirates in South-western Anatolia or the Genoese and the Turks in the 14th and 15th century , the military conflict between Crusaders and Turks in the Aegean  or the establishment of Latin monastic communities and bishoprics in the region  have already been analysed in greater detail. The same is true for aspects of religious transformations (especially conversions to Islam) in the region in the early modern period  as well as in late medieval centuries, but less so for maritime aspects of the organisation, identity and dynamics of various religious groups.  A view from the sea towards the coasts of Anatolia also opens a new perspective away from a “continental” overlapping of competing territorial claims towards a sum of potential nodal points within the late medieval network of socioeconomic interactions, which often modified or even overcame lines of religious, ethnic or political differentiation.
As we demonstrate in this paper, there existed various and manifold channels of encounters across religious border in maritime Asia Minor; their systematic survey and mapping contributes to a further embedding of the processes of political, economic and religious transformation in Anatolia in these centuries within the late medieval Mediterranean and Islamic world, complementary to already existing projects just as “The Islamisation of Anatolia” (https://www.islam-anatolia.ac.uk/).

Der vorliegende Band will in die faszinierende Geschichte der Burgenarchitektur im Preußenland einführen und ist auch als Reisehandbuch bestens geeignet. Den Schwerpunkt der Darstellung bildet die Zeit des Mittelalters. Die Erläuterungen und Beschreibungen konzentrieren sich auf die wesentlichen historischen und baugeschichtlichen Informationen. Zum Autor: Prof. Dr. Christofer Herrmann studierte Kunstgeschichte, deutsche Volkskunde, Slawistik und Politikwissenschaft an der Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität in Mainz. Er promovierte 1993 mit einer Arbeit über spätmittelalterliche Wohntürme im Rhein-Mosel-Gebiet und arbeitete danach als freiberuflicher Kunsthistoriker und Bauforscher. 1995 erhielt er einen Ruf als außerordent-licher Professor an die Universität in Allenstein/Olsztyn (Polen). Er habilitierte sich 2005 in Greifswald mit einer Arbeit über die mittelalterliche Architektur in den preußischen Bistümern (Kulm, Pomesanien, Ermland, Samland). Seit 2005 ist er als außerordentlicher Professor am Institut für Kunstgeschichte der Universität Danzig/Gdańsk tätig. Zurzeit leitet er ein Forschungsprojekt zum Hochmeisterpalast auf der Marienburg an der TU Berlin, Fachgebiet Bau-und Stadtbau-geschichte. Seit vielen Jahren beschäftigt sich der Autor intensiv mit der Architektur des Mittel-alters im Ostseeraum – insbesondere im Preußenland und im Baltikum – und zählt zu den besten Kennern dieser Region.

Since the 11th century, there existed contacts between the territory of Ostarrichi and Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire at the Bosporus. These relations were intensified during the period of the Crusades, especially because of the participation of members of the house of Babenberg in these endeavours in the Eastern Mediterranean. Two Babenberg dukes, Henry II Jasomirgott (in 1148) and Leopold VI (in 1203), even married princesses from the imperial houses of Byzantium and became important intermediators between West and East. These events also left their marks in the Greek and Armenian historiography of the time, where we encounter the first references to “Austria”. Besides warfare and diplomacy, also elements of artistic style and stories found their way from the “Orient” to the Danube; yet, one still has to notice the persistent tradition of legends (such as the origin of the popular song “Eia poppeia” in Byzantium) even in scholarly literature. These well-known stories do not have any basis in our sources, which on the contrary allow us to draft a more realistic and at the same time not less fascinating pictures of the relations between Ostarrichi and the Bosporus.

This chapter traces the history of two key discourses of democracy, namely the discourse of Western democracy and the discourse of Oriental despotism. It argues that these two discourses have a parallel history and are underpinned by many false tropes and reductive stereotypes. Nonetheless, these two discourses are central to many contemporary understandings of democracy, its history and discussions concerning its ability to succeed in the Middle East.

Los restos de la arquitectura cruzada demostraron tener un fuerte vínculo con las tendencias artísticas de la Europa occidental medieval. Estuvo claro que el artista europeo influenció en gran medida a la producción local del Reino de Jerusalén, sin embargo, ciertas investigaciones, más modernas, tendieron a pensar en la existencia de influencias orientales: bizantinas, armenias e islámicas.

A Cypriot icon of a crowned Virgin of Mercy of the Carmelite Order with the
sixteen miracles-scenes of the mercy of Virgin preserves an iconography of the lost
today cycle of the miracles of the Merciful Virgin of the Carmelite Brothers. The recent
restoration of the icon has removed the later overpaintings from the faces of the Virgin
and Child and has revealed the original garments of the Carmelite Order which were
used before 1287. The certain ante quem datation of this icon makes it an important
universal artwork which reveals the contacts between East and West during the 13th
century.
This discovery sets the question whether the striped garments of the Carmelite
Monks were vertically striped as in the Cypriot icon (before 1287) or horizontally as in
the Siena Pala del Carmine (1327-1329). painted by Pietro Lorenzetti, ca. 40 years
after the new habit of the Carmelites was introduced.
The Cypriot icon has been executed by Cypriot master in Byzantine art of the
Comnenian and post-Comnenian styles in order to illustrate a Western iconographical
subject such as the Virgin of Mercy and the cycle of miracles of the Virgin towards the
Carmelite Order.

Öz

Selahaddin Eyyûbi, Batıda bilinen adıyla " Saladin " elde ettiği askeri başarılar ve sahip olduğu kişiliği ile Haçlı Seferleri tarihinin en meşhur karakteridir. O, elde ettiği askeri başarıları ile Haçlıların ilerleyişini durdurmuş, dağınık haldeki Müslümanları bir çatı altında toplayarak güçlü bir devlet kurmuştur. Sahip olduğu olağanüstü kişiliği ile de çağının hem İslam hem de Hristiyan dünyası tarafından hayranlık derecesinde saygı duyulan bir figür olmuştur. Selahaddin, ölümünden kısa süre sonra İslam dünyasında unutulmaya yüz tutsa da onun adı Batı'da yaşamaya devam etmiştir. Batıdaki Selahaddin algısı zamanla tarihsel gerçeklerden kopmuş ve yerini güçlü bir efsanevi karaktere bırakmıştır. Bu çalışmada dönemin Batılı kaynaklardaki Selahattin Eyyûbi imajı ve bu imajın dönüşümü incelenmiştir.

Abstract

Salah ad-Din al-Ayyubi, known in the West as " Saladin " , is the most famous figure of the history of the Crusades with his military successes and the personality he possesses. He stopped the advance of the Crusades with his military achievements and he built a strong state by gathering scattered Muslims under a single roof. With his extraordinary personality, Saladin has become a respected figure in admiration of his age both by the Islamic World and by the Christian World. Although Saladin has been forgotten in the Islamic World short after his death, his fame continued to live in the Christian West. Saladin's perception in the West had gradually broken away from historical facts and gave place to a strong legendary powerful character. In this study, the image of Saladin in Western sources of his age and the transformation of this image are examined.

Available free of charge at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-2281.12258

The fame of Quia maior – commonly considered one of the most important medieval papal crusade encyclicals – belies the fact that we actually know little about its composition at the curia of Pope Innocent III in 1213. This article compares a lesser-known draft of the letter, Quoniam maior, preserved in the chronicle of Burchard of Ursberg, with Quia maior in order to reconstruct the debates and concerns of its authors during the composition process. It seeks to advance our understanding of Innocent's conception of the crusade and offers new insights into how the papacy crafted crusade calls in the Middle Ages.

Prior to the work of Peter Jackson, a scholarly consensus had developed arguing that the Battle of Ayn Jalut represented a truly decisive event in the history of the Near East. It has been argued that the Mongol incursion into Syria was a golden opportunity for the Franks to ally themselves with a powerful entity, seemingly amiable towards those of the Christian faith, against their age old Saracen foe in the Near East. In not doing so, they brought about their own downfall just a few decades later.  In other words, this definitively marked the beginning of the end for the Franks in the Holy Land. It has also been suggested that the Mamluk victory at Ayn Jalut signalled the inevitable ascendancy of the Sultanate based in Cairo and that victory over the previously ‘invincible’ Mongol hordes confirmed the Mamluks as unquestionable rulers of the region. As such, it has also been argued that their absolute defeat at the battle brought about an end to their ambitions in the Near East and was critical in undermining the grand imperial ideology which had contributed to their self-assured conquests.  However, such arguments, which often fail to consider the battle in its wider context, have been challenged by scholars such as Jackson and Amitai-Press. In this paper, I shall demonstrate the inaccuracy of a number of these theories and consider some more recent studies on the Battle of The Spring of Goliath.

Analizar la guerra santa en la Península Ibérica implica estudiar dos cosas diversas aunque parecidas: la Reconquista y las cruzadas 1 . El vínculo entre estas dos realidades ha sido un tema muy debatido por los historiadores desde hace más de un siglo. Los problemas de las «proto-cuzadas» en la Península Ibérica -o sea de la Reconquista como modelo de las cruzadas-y de la «contaminación» de las formas de la Reconquista por el ideal y las prácticas de cruzada -o sea de las cruzadas como modelo para la Reconquista-tuvieron resonancias políticas y nacionalistas tanto como historiográficas. Más recientemente, se plantearon cuestiones más matizadas sobre las relaciones complejas entre estas formas de guerra santa: concurrencia, amplificación mutua, legitimación de la una gracias a la otra. En todos los casos, los dos fenómenos se deben estudiar de manera paralela porque estuvieron estrechamente ligados desde el inicio del fenómeno cruzado. La guerra santa en la segunda mitad de la Edad Media fue un fenómeno amplio y siempre continuó extendiéndose: uno de sus aspectos -sea en Jerusalén, en la Península Ibérica, en Occitania, en el Báltico…-no se puede entender sin hacer referencia a los otros porque la referencia, la comparación y las cuestiones sobre sus relaciones fueron permanentes en la mente de los contemporáneos. Para entender bien otros problemas que los puramente factuales, como los de la representación y legitimación que están en el centro de esta publicación, hay que adoptar un punto de vista amplio, que integre la Península Ibérica en el contexto general del Occidente católico y de su extensión tardomedieval. Con mayor motivo, el análisis de las palabras, de las fuentes escritas desde un punto de vista lingüístico, no se puede limitar a examinar los documentos de una sola zona geográfica porque el lenguaje circula, se refiere 1 En este texto, el término «Reconquista» es usado con su acepción clásica, aunque la palabra fue inventada en el siglo xix y corresponde solo parcialmente a la realidad compleja de las guerras entre reinos cristianos y musulmanas en la Península Ibérica, Ríos Saloma, 2006. En cambio, llamo «cruzadas» a las expediciones a Oriente con motivo (directo o indirecto) de la liberación o la conservación del Santo Sepulcro. Como espero demostrar en este artículo, esta limitación va al contrario del uso medieval -y también moderno-del término: tiene solamente como finalidad la clarificación y no significa que los otros frentes de cruzadas no deban ser considerados como «verdaderas» cruzadas.

Why did people go on Crusade?  Is it possible to identify one main reason?  If so what is it?

There are a number of different theories regarding the reason why people went on Crusade.  Some say the motive to go on Crusade was of genuine Christian concerns regarding the reclaiming and defending of the Holy Land and liberating the Christians who were under threat. Others say that the motivation was simply for material gain.  A popular theory is that people joined in order to receive a complete forgiveness for their sins. Some even claim people were motivated to join the Crusade merely out of a spirit of adventure .  It is clear that there would be a combination of various different reasons, even beyond those listed above, as to why people responded to the call given by Pope Urban II.  However, whether there is one main reason that can be identified is a difficult to say with any confidence.  Although there is some doubt surrounding the motives of Pope Urban II, and whether a supposed letter of Alexius was received urging troops be sent to the aid of the Holy Land,  this essay will focus only on the response of the people to whom Pope Urban II addresses, and their willingness to go.

The first English critical edition of the "Chronica Polonorum". The Chronica Polonorum by Bishop Vincentius of Cracow (c.1150–1223) was written in last decades of the twelfth century, a period when the throne of Poland was contested by rival members of the ruling Piast dynasty in a series of bloody civil wars. Vincentius was born in Poland c.1150 and probably studied in Italy and France, where he acquired his education and perfected his literary skill. After his return to Poland between 1183 and 1189, he became a canon of the cathedral of Cracow and a courtier close to Kazimierz II. Kazimierz had ruled as the princeps since 1177. After 1194 Vincentius became a provost in Sandomierz and chaplain to Kazimierz’s widow, Helena of Znojmo. Vincentius started work on the Chronicle in the late 1180s or the early 1190s at the behest of Kazimierz II. He had completed his text before 1208 when he was elected bishop of Cracow, one of the leading ecclesiastical offices in Piast Poland. During his pontificate he took part in the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) and was active in the implementation of the Gregorian Reform in his diocese. In 1218 Vincentius resigned his episcopacy to enter the Cistercian convent in Jędrzejów where he may have edited the final manuscript of the Chronicle. He died in 1223. The Chronicle provides an outline of the history of the Poles with particular emphasis on the events of the twelfth century which justified Kazimierz’s claim to the throne of Cracow and with it suzerainty of all Poland. Created against the background of the twelfth-century renaissance, it was written by a native Pole and demonstrates the erudition of the Polish elite and the recognition and appreciation of literary skill by the ruling dynasty. Vincentius offers a commentary on patterns of human behaviour, and his own view of morality through an elaborate use of philosophical and poetic digression and didactic admonition, sourced primarily from the works of philosophers, the poets of Antiquity and the Bible. Classical authors, including Ovid, Virgil and Horace, are quoted on some 150 occasions;  biblical texts appear in approximately 140 instances, with the most numerous quotations taken from the Old Testament, particularly the Books of Kings and the Book of Psalms.  This broad base of reference suggests that Vincentius directed his work towards a sophisticated, classically-educated readership that could understand and appreciate the complex plot, refined poetic form and many literary references..

The Children’s Crusades of 1212 C.E. were an enigma in the history of both the Catholic faith and the Crusades. The title “Children’s Crusade” has been applied to two separate undertakings. Neither movement can be considered to be a true crusade as neither received the sanction of the Pope or any other papal authority. Though some say that the two crusades were either connected or one and the same, evidence is that they were to unrelated spontaneous movements.

The paper provides on overview on the negotiations about a union of churches and military cooperation against the Turks respectively the Mamluks between Byzantium, Cilician Armenia and the Papacy in the 1320s and 1330s. In the final section, a simple game theoretical model is presented in order to explain the failure of these and similar attempts. The paper was orginally presented at the International Conference "The Union of Ferrara-Florence 1439-2009" in Cluj-Napoca (Romania) in 2009. Slides are online here: http://www.academia.edu/1691205/The_Crusade_as_Hope_the_Union_as_Instrument._Negotiations_on_a_Union_of_Churches_between_Byzantium_Cilician_Armenia_and_Western_Europe_in_the_1320s_and_1330s_in_German_

Jörg Matthias Determann (Matrikelnummer: 0300071; 4. Semester Studienkennzahlen: A 312/385) Die Kreuzfahrer aus der Sicht des syrischen Ritters UsAma Ibn Munqiü Univ.-Prof. Dr. Anton Scharer: Der Krieg im Früh-und Hochmittelalter (Kurs, Lehrveranstaltungsnummer: 703432, Codierung: E2, A4) Sommersemester 2005 -2 -Anmerkung des Verfassers: Für die ‚lateinischen' Kreuzfahrer insgesamt (egal welcher Herkunft) wird häufig der Begriff ‚Franken' gebraucht, da dieser ihre kollektive Bezeichnung durch arabische Autoren ist (ifranö, faranö oder firanö) und er dementsprechend auch Eingang in die westliche Fachliteratur fand. Arabische Namen und Begriffe sind weitgehend entsprechend den Regeln der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft transkribiert (nur werden die Diphthonge ai und au hier als ay und aw geschrieben). 1 Literaturangaben erfolgten nach den Zitierregeln des Instituts für Geschichte an der Universität Wien. Alle Rechte beim Verfasser.

Study of the concessions of the crusade indulgence for the fight against Granada granted in 1455 and 1456 by Pope Callixtus III to Henry IV of Castile, from the perspective of the royal propaganda and the tax benefits achieved by the Castilian monarchy, with a particular focus on the intervention of specialized fiscal agents, the quantification of the total amount obtained, and the exploitation of expenses as a weapon of political defamation.

The Chronica Polonorum, written by Bishop Vincentius of Cracow (c.1150–1223), influenced the way Polish history was written by presenting a specific memory of the participation of the Piast dynasty in wars against the Prussians. This article presents the three major references to these wars against heathen tribes of the North in 1147, 1166 and 1192. Vincentius' account gave meaning to the Piast expeditions as holy wars and influenced court tradition by establishing the image of individual Piasts as well as their dynasty as a whole. These accounts shaped how their participants were remembered in specific historical contexts and influenced the future participation of the Poles in crusading. The article reveals the use of the term ‘Saladinistas’, not found anywhere else in the surviving twelfth-century sources. The memory created by Vincentius became inseparable from the cultural heritage of the nation for whom he was the first native historian.

Latin Crusaders captured Jerusalem on 15 July 1099, after Pope Urban’s call at the end of  1095 for the First Crusade.1 Latin domination of  Jerusalem lasted until 1187 when Sultan Saladin captured the city. Although Latin rule was reestablished for short periods between 1229 and 1239, and between 1241 and 1244, it was in the twelfth century that the Crusaders executed an extensive buildingcampaignthataimedattheredefinitionof thecity’sChristiantopography.

This article examines the depiction of the Crusades in Arab school textbooks. In the introductory first part, perceptions of the Crusades manifest in Arab historiography are described. In addition, modern political discourses referring to the Crusades among Arab authors, politicians and representatives of political Islam are explained. In the second part, accounts of the Crusades in school textbooks from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia are analysed, focusing on the sources used by the books' authors, the terminologies, conceptions, reasoning, and narratives found in them, and the results of the Crusades as they are portrayed. The third part concludes by explaining three different approaches to how the textbooks relate the history, and shows the historical sensibilities concerning the Crusades as taught by the schoolbooks.

In 1210, thanks to increased contacts between Jewish communities in western Europe and in the eastern Mediterranean in the wake of the crusades, Jonathan ha-Kohen, head of the yeshivah of Lunel and leading Jewish Provençal sage of his time, set sail for Alexandria, from where he proceeded on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. A year later, a group of sages from northern France and England arrived in Marseille, en route to Palestine. A number of scholars have investigated the messianic aspects of this second wave of immigration, called the "'aliyah of the three hundred rabbis". This article, however, seeks to examine the messianic aspects of the earlier journey, undertaken by Jonathan ha-Kohen and his followers, within their local Provençal context.

The First Crusade is one of the most intensively researched events of the Middle Ages, yet, paradoxically, the manuscript source base for the letters from the expedition is almost entirely unexplored and represents an exciting new avenue of investigation for crusade studies. This article publishes the texts of three new manuscript witnesses of First Crusade letters and explores their regional reception and transmission as a form of “scribal crusading” — that is, monastic participation in the crusades from behind cloister walls. The findings of this article reveal an extremely significant, but previously underappreciated, collective impulse among German monastic communities in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries to participate in the crusading movement through the copying of First Crusade letters.

The humanist Biondo wrote three different narratives of the Fourth Crusade aimed at establishing the legitimacy of western claims to lands in the east.  Biondo had played an integral part in the ephemeral reunification of the Greek and Latin Churches at the Council of Florence in July 1439.  Biondo blamed the Greeks for the failure and thus did not mourn the loss of their empire to the Ottoman Turks in 1453.  However, Biondo did urge several states in the Italian Peninsula to set out en mass to fight the Turks.  He viewed the fall of Constantinople as an opportunity for the Latin West to reestablish its rightful empire in the east.  He explicated this opinion in at least two different treatises dedicated to rulers shortly after the fall of the ancient city.  To Alfonso of Aragon, Biondo argued that the King could establish a peaceful and prosperous extension of his maritime holdings to include a fallen empire with no legal ruler.  To the Venetians, he presented the Fourth Crusade as a glorious victory that established their legal claim to rule the now-lost remnants of the Byzantine Empire.  Biondo shaped his source material of the Fourth Crusade into an historical narrative that made this primary argument and urged powerful rulers in the Italian peninsula to take back what was rightfully theirs.

Kompendium zamków krzyżackich i biskupich Wydawnictwo ARTES Niniejszy tom ma na celu wprowadzenie w fascynującą historię architektury zamków w państwie zakonu krzyżackiego w Prusach, może być również przydatny jako przewodnik w podróży. Główny akcent spoczywa na czasach średniowiecza. W komentarzach i opisach przywołane zostały najistotniejsze informacje historyczne oraz dotyczące dziejów budowlanych poszcze-gólnych zamków. Autor: Studiował historię sztuki, ludoznawstwo niemieckie, slawistykę i nauki polityczne na Uniwer-sytecie Jana Gutenberga w Moguncji. W 1993 r. obronił pracę doktorską na temat późnośred-niowiecznych wież mieszkalnych w Nadrenii i nad Mozelą i pracował następnie jako wolny his-toryk sztuki i badacz architektury. W 1995 r. został powołany, jako profesor nadzwyczajny w Olsztynie. Habilitował się w 2005 r. w Greifswaldzie, na podstawie pracy o średniowiecznej ar-chitekturze w pruskich biskupstwach (chełmińskim, pomezańskim, warmińskim, sambijskim). Od 2005 r. zatrudniony, jako profesor nadzwyczajny, w Instytucie Historii Sztuki Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego. Ostatnio kieruje projektem badawczym dotyczącym Pałacu Wielkiego Mistrza na zamku malborskim, na Politechnice (TU) w Berlinie, specjalność: historia architektury i urbanistyki. Od wielu lat autor zajmuje się naukowo architekturą średniowieczną pobrzeża Bałtyku – przede wszystkim w dawnym państwie zakonnym i w krajach bałtyckich – i należy do najlepszych znawców tego regionu.

Türk Tarihi ile yakından alakalı olan Haçlı Seferleri'ni daha iyi anlayabilmek için konuyla ilgili olan kaynaklara hâkim olmak gerekmektedir. Haçlı Seferleri kaynakları genel olarak Doğulu ve Batılı olmak üzere iki ana başlık altında incelenmektedir. Bunlardan Batılı kaynaklar son derece önemli olup özellikle Latince, Eski Fransızca ve Erken Yeni Yüksek Almanca ile yazılanları bulunmaktadır. Bununla birlikte, Birinci Haçlı Seferi'nin Batılı kaynakları ve yazarları hakkında Türk Tarih literatüründe bir bütün olarak derli-toplu bilgi ne yazık ki mevcut değildir. Dolayısıyla bunları görgü şahidi olanlar, sefere katılanlar ya da sonradan duydukları-edindikleri bilgiler ile eserlerini oluşturanlar olmak üzere, kronolojik verileri de göz önünde bulundurarak kendi içinde bir ayrıma tabi tutarak inceledik. Tüm bu kaynaklar Birinci Haçlı Seferi ile alakalı bilgiler sunmalarının yanı sıra Türkler, Türk hükümdar ve emirleri ile özellikle Türk-Haçlı ilişkileri hakkında önemli bilgiler vermektedir. Bu anlamda, Birinci Haçlı Seferi'nin başlıca resmî Batılı kaynakları olarak adlandırılan bu eserleri, yukarıda belirttiğimiz çerçeve doğrultusunda tanıtmayı amaçladık. Bu incelemeyi yaparken özellikle adı çok bilinmeyen ve ülkemizde pek kullanılmayan kaynaklar hakkında bilgi vermek ve bu kaynakların Türk-Haçlı-Müslüman ilişkileri bakımından önemini vurgulamak amacıyla çeşitli Orta Çağ kaynaklarından, araştırma eser, makale ve maddelerden yararlanarak makaleyi oluşturduk.

It is crucial to have a good command of the sources for the topic to better understand the Crusades relevant to the Turkish history. The narrative sources for the Crusades are generally studied under two main categories: Eastern and Western. The Western sources are highly important, and they include sources especially in Latin, Old French, and Early New High German. However, there are not any systematically organized information in the aggregate the Western sources and writers of the First Crusade in the Turkish History literature. Therefore, we studied these by dividing them into groups of those who witnessed the events and joined the Crusade, or of those who created their work with the information they heard/obtained and by taking into account the chronological data. In addition to giving information relevant to the First Crusade, all these sources also give information about the Turks, Turkish rulers, especially the Turk-Crusader relationships. So, we aimed to introduce these works called main official Western sources of the First Crusade within the scope we mentioned above. While working on this study, we created our article by using various medieval sources, books, articles, and materials in order to give information about the sources that are not known very well and are not commonly used in our country and to emphasize the importance of these sources in terms of the Turkish-Crusader-Muslim relations.

Il viaggio di Boemondo d'Altavilla in Francia (1106): un riesame Revertenti omnes (scil. nuncii) pariter affuerunt; imperatorum sacras et ducum cartas offerunt verboque et litteris quicquid poposcerat pollicentur. Habeat rex (scil. Luigi VII) optionem cui fidem habeat, in quo compendium credat. Sed illi mos erat ut socii essent consilii qui forent et laboris. Omnes igitur ad circumdederunt me 1 Stampas vocat, ut pariter eligerent quod pariter tolerarent. Qui, sicut fuerunt in veniendo alacres, sic utinam essent in electione prudentes. (...) Interfuere congregatis qui Graecos dicerent sicut lectione et experientia noverant fraudulentos. Rex autem et sui, qui merito nullarum gentium vires timebant, fraudes utinam timuissent. 2 A parlare è Odone di Deuil, protetto di Sugero nonché suo successore nella carica abbaziale di Saint-Denis, che partecipò alla Diamo qui di seguito le abbreviazioni a cui faremo frequente ricorso nel testo. BHL = Bibliotheca hagiographica latina antiquae et mediae aetatis; CHF = Les Classiques de l'histoire de France au Moyen Age; ED = EUDES DE DEUIL, La croisade de Louis VII roi de France, ed. H. Waquet, Documents relatifs a l'histoire des croisades III, Paris, Librairie orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1949; MGH, SS = Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores; OMT = Oxford Medieval Texts; PL = Patrologiae cursus completus, Series Latina, ed. J. P. Migne; RHC, Occ = Recueil des historiens des croisades, Historiens occidentaux; RHGF = Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France, nouv. éd. L. Delisle. Cogliamo l'occasione per ringraziare il dott. Antonio Olivieri, dell'Università di Torino, e il dott. Vito Lorè, dell'Università di Padova, per averci permesso di consultare alcuni testi di non facile reperimento. Il prof. Glauco M. Cantarella e il dott. Andrea Tilatti dell'Università di Bologna hanno letto con grande attenzione una prima versione di questo saggio, fornendo preziosi suggerimenti e stimolanti indicazioni. 1 Vale a dire il 16 febbraio 1147: circumdederunt me è infatti l'introito -tratto da Salmi 18,5 -recitato nella messa della terza domenica prima della Quaresima che quell'anno cadeva proprio il 16 febbraio. 2 Cfr. ED, I, p. 23. Il primo corsivo è nel testo, il secondo è nostro.