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Near East Archive
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Countess Hodierna of Tripoli: From Crusader Politician to ‘Princesse Lointaine’
Posted on June 10, 2013 | No CommentsThis case study of Hodierna (c. 1115 to c. 1161), princess of Jerusalem and countess of Jerusalem, highlights how any given woman’s historical reputation is subject to unpredictable forces, often beyond her control and rarely reflective of her actions in life. -
The Participation of the Military Orders in Truces with Muslims in the Holy Land and Spain during the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries
Posted on June 10, 2013 | No CommentsAlthough the military orders’ primary function was to fight against the infidel, warfare in the Middle Ages was never continuous, as armies could not be kept in the field indefinitely, and when there was an imbalance of power between Christians and Muslims it was in the interests of the weaker side to seek truces, even at the expense of concessions. -
The Battle of La Forbie (1244) and its Aftermath
Posted on June 6, 2013 | No CommentsHow did the kingdom’s leaders cope with the battlefield defeat? How did the settlements survive? Above all, what was the Military Orders’ contribution to the kingdom’s stability after the chaos following the battle? -
Byzantine mosaic discovered in Israel
Posted on May 23, 2013 | No CommentsThe 1500 year-old mosaic was discovered during archaeological excavations ahead of the construction of a new highway. -
From Montpèlerin to Tarabulus al-Mustajadda: The Frankish-Mamluk Succession in Old Tripoli
Posted on April 21, 2013 | No CommentsModern Tripoli still shows the division into two different urban areas existing since the Middle Ages. Until the arrival of the Crusaders Tripoli merely consisted of the ancient town on the coast. -
Muslim Perspectives on the Military Orders during the Crusades
Posted on April 15, 2013 | No CommentsWhat caused the particular enmity between Saladin and the Templars and Hospitallers? To understand this situation one must begin with examination of Muslim perspectives on monasticism in general. -
Colonization activities in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem
Posted on March 24, 2013 | No CommentsThe following paper is an attempt to describe one important feature of the social and economic problems of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem: The colonization activities of the Crusaders in the Holy Land. -
Byzantine wine press discovered in Jaffa
Posted on February 27, 2013 | No CommentsArchaeological excavations in the Israeli city of Jaffa have uncovered what was likely a wine press that dates back to the Byzantine era. -
Monarchy and nobility in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1099-1131: establishment and origins
Posted on February 22, 2013 | No CommentsThe Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, established by the victorious crusaders in Palestine in July 1099, was one of the first colonial societies of the Middle Ages. -
Mi‘ilya: Evidence of an Early Crusader Settlement
Posted on January 29, 2013 | No CommentsFifty-six diagnostic sherds, dating to the Crusader period, were found in a pit. Most of them represent local Crusader types, with a few belonging to imported types. The chronological range of the Crusader-period pottery dates from the mid-twelfth to the early thirteenth centuries CE. -
Beneath the Battle: Engineers and miners as mercenaries in the Holy Land
Posted on November 18, 2012 | No CommentsAlthough the mercenary phenomenon was differently considered and regulated in the West, the practice of taking up arms in the service of a rival army is attested in the Latin East in the twelfth and thirteenth-century. -
The remarkable Baldwin IV: leper and king of Jerusalem
Posted on October 10, 2012 | No CommentsMedieval teen king, precocious politician, and successful battlefield commander, Baldwin IV not only surmounted disabling neurological impairment but challenged the stigma of leprosy, remarkably continuing to rule until his premature death aged twenty-three. -
Nomadic Violence in the First Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Military Orders
Posted on October 8, 2012 | No CommentsThat the threat posed by bands of marauders was taken seriously by the early crusader settlers can be seen by some of the barons’ brutal reactions to it. -
Character-Assassination: Conrad de Monferrat in English-language Fiction and Popular Histories
Posted on October 7, 2012 | No CommentsIt is a story will all the ingredients of epic tragedy: a brilliant, courageous and handsome nobleman travels to distant lands, fights battles, marries princesses, is elected King but is slain by treachery, still relatively young, just before he is crowned. -
The Bones of Saint Peter
Posted on September 10, 2012 | No CommentsSometime in AD 48, Peter had a tense meeting in Jerusalem with an enthusiastic missionary called Paul, who had been travelling among the peoples of the Near East, spreading news of Jesus' teachings. Peter and his Jewish friends in Jerusalem were anxious that male converts to the new sect should be circumcised, as a sign that their commitment was genuine. -
Empowering and Struggling in an Era of Uncertainty and Crisis – The Teutonic Military Order in the Latin East, 1250–1291
Posted on August 16, 2012 | No CommentsThe Teutonic Military Order was founded in the Holy Land in 1198, where the already well established Military Orders of the Hospitallers and Templars were long active, with an ever-increasing military power and political influence. -
Brothels, Baths and Babes: Prostitution in the Byzantine Holy Land
Posted on July 29, 2012 | No CommentsGraeco-Roman domestic sexuality rested on a triad: the wife, the concubine and the courtesan. -
Cache of Crusader gold coins discovered in Israel
Posted on July 10, 2012 | No CommentsArchaeologists working in the ruins of the Crusader town of Arsuf have uncovered a cache of more than 100 gold coins, worth more than $100 000. -
“For We Who Were Occidentals Have Become Orientals:” The Evolution of Intermediaries in the Latin East, 1095-1291
Posted on June 25, 2012 | No CommentsIntermediaries were a vital component of this new society, one often almost entirely ignored by modern scholarship, which bypasses the interpreters and diplomats who moved between Latins and Muslims. -
Raw Glass and the Production of Glass Vessels at Late Byzantine Apollonia-Arsuf, Israel
Posted on March 25, 2012 | No CommentsWe suggested that the discovery of three raw glass furnaces at the site strengthens the assumption that the city was a major center for the making of both primary and secondary glass in the sixth and seventh centuries. -
The Use of Fortification as a Political Instrument by the Ayyubids and the Mamluks in Bilad al-Sham and in Egypt (Twelfth-Thirteenth Centuries)
Posted on February 22, 2012 | No CommentsBeginning in 1170/1171, Salah al-Din built fortifications as the Fatimid vizier of Egypt. His considerations were primarily defensive in this period, following the Frankish campaign of 1168 that led to the siege of Cairo, and the Frankish-Byzantine naval expedition against Damietta in 1169. -
Sacred Kingship among the Peoples of the Steppes
Posted on February 8, 2012 | No CommentseurThe vast belt of the Steppes, located between the Hungarian plains and the Great Wall of China, runs along the southern edge of the Eurasian arboreal zone. Starting in the 1st millenium B.C. this region has been inhabited by Iranian, Hunnish, Turkish and Mongol mounted nomads who, at various times, unified a large portion of the Steppes into a single empire. -
Byzantine Stamp with the Temple Menorah discovered in Israel
Posted on January 12, 2012 | No CommentsThe tiny stamp was used to identify baked products and it probably belonged to a bakery that supplied kosher bread to the Jews of Acre in the Byzantine period. -
The Planetary Portent of 1524 in China and Europe
Posted on December 19, 2011 | No CommentsEvents of 1524 in China and Europe in response to the planetary phenomenon offer insights into the divergent Chinese and Western responses to such “millennial” events. -
Crusader inscription by Frederick II discovered in Israel
Posted on November 15, 2011 | No Comments"This is the only Crusader inscription in the Arabic language ever found in the Middle East," say researchers.