Italy, the Crusader States, and Cyprus

2021 ◽  
pp. 216-234
Author(s):  
Maria Georgopoulou
Keyword(s):  
Holy Land ◽  
Byzantine Art ◽  
Religious Imagery ◽  
Crusader States

The Roman and Byzantine heritage provided a background for art in Italy from the time of Justinian until the Renaissance. Mosaics in Norman Palermo and medieval Venice served as hallmarks of polities striving to advertise their imperial pedigrees, while reliquaries and diplomatic gifts adorned in the Byzantine techniques of enamel and encrustation offered a link with venerated traditions. Later stylistic borrowings from Byzantium (known as maniera greca) marked Italian religious imagery. Byzantine art was also a major source in Crusader art as well as in Cyprus, which was a Byzantine province with close ties to Constantinople. In the Holy Land and medieval Greece the Byzantine past remained active in both architecture—secular and religious—as well as in painting.

Prelude

2020 ◽  
pp. 18-27
Author(s):  
Steve Tibble
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Holy Land ◽  
Human Actions ◽  
Entire Life ◽  
First Crusade ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Policy Objectives ◽  
Crusader States

This chapter describes a time before strategy, when the lands of the Middle East were intensely fractured, and trust and loyalty were scarce commodities. It looks at a time when self-interest was paramount and where chaos was so ingrained that an entire life could be lived without knowing anything else. It also talks about wars that are guided by politics, driven by policy objectives, and implemented through strategy but often lost in the rushed outpouring of human actions and emotions. The chapter discusses the liberation of Jerusalem and the end of the First Crusade, where most of the original crusaders returned home and some remained to defend the Holy Land. It also includes the four political entities that are collectively known as the “crusader states”: The Kingdom of Jerusalem, the County of Tripoli, the Principality of Antioch, and the County of Edessa.

scholarly journals False Hope and Empty Promises from a Priest-King in the East: How Environment and Communication Shape Belief

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. xvi-xvi
Author(s):  
Joaquim Baeta
Keyword(s):  
Holy Land ◽  
12Th Century ◽  
Beliefs And Values ◽  
Ultimate Failure ◽  
Crusader States ◽  
Communication Methods ◽  
The Church

As the 12th century entered its midpoint, unease permeated through Christendom. In 1144, the County of Edessa had fallen to Zengi, the atabeg of Mosul and Aleppo, signalling that all was not well in the Holy Land. News of the fall of Edessa quickly travelled westward, with the Catholic Pope, Eugenius III, issuing a papal bull calling for a Second Crusade in December of the next yea r. Nevertheless, for the Edessa’s fellow Crusader states, the restlessness of being surrounded by the Islamic had turned to alarm. Help was gravely needed. Then came word of aid from an unlikely place: the East itself. Rumours had swirled of a Christian monarch in the East, but actual proof of his existence was scant, based mainly on fantastical tales of the Orient. That changed in December of 1145, with a conversation between Bishops Otto of Freising and Hugh of Jabala. Hugh told Otto of a Nestorian Christian priest-king “beyond Persia and Armenia”, who had “warred upon the so-­called Samiards, the brother kings of the Medes and Persians.” More critically, Hugh reported that this priest-king had “moved his army to aid the church of Jerusalem” but was unable to cross the Tigris and returned home. Such was the legend of Prester John, the ruler of an eastern Christian kingdom that offered hope and little else to a Christian West that would steadily lose its grip on the Holy Land. Why did Prester John never come to the aid of the Crusader states? The story o f this priest- king, his supposed interactions with western Christendom and ultimate failure to deliver on his promises, reveals how the environmen t we inhabit and the methods we use to communicate shape our beliefs and values, and that as our environments and communication methods change, so do these beliefs and values.

Western Converts to Islam (Later Eleventh to Later Fifteenth Centuries)

Traditio ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 68 ◽  
pp. 153-231
Author(s):  
A. J. Forey
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Holy Land ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Mediterranean Regions ◽  
Crusader States ◽  
Made In

The early expansion of Islam led in time to widespread conversions of Christians in conquered territories. In the later eleventh century, however, western Christendom was in turn launching offensives against Islam on several fronts. Territorial gains were made in various Mediterranean regions and, although by the end of the thirteenth century the Holy Land had been lost again, Sicily remained in Christian hands, and in the second half of the thirteenth century in the Iberian peninsula only Granada remained under Muslim control: the whole peninsula was under Christian rule before the end of the fifteenth century. This expansion was accompanied, especially in the thirteenth century, by attempts to convert Muslims and other non-Christians. Yet in the period from the late eleventh until the later fifteenth century some western Christians converted to Islam. The purpose of the present paper is to consider the situations that prompted the adoption of Islam, and the reasons for such conversions, although the evidence is usually insufficient to indicate exactly why a particular Christian became a Muslim: the preconceived ideas voiced in western sources about forced conversions can be misleading and, although a crude distinction might be made between conversions from conviction and those based on worldly considerations, motives did not necessarily always fit neatly into just one of these two categories. But obviously not all converts would have had an equal understanding of the nature of Islamic beliefs and practices. The response of western ecclesiastical and secular authorities to renegades will also be considered. Further conversions of Christian peoples who had already for centuries been living under Muslim rule will not be examined, but only the adoption of Islam by those whose origins lay in western Christian countries or who were normally resident in these, and by westerners whose lands were newly conquered by Muslim powers after the eleventh century; and the focus will be mainly, though not exclusively, on the crusader states and the Iberian peninsula.

Constantine, Helena and Heraclius in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem

2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-35
Author(s):  
BARTŁOMIEJ DŹWIGAŁA
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Central Element ◽  
The Political ◽  
Important Place ◽  
First Crusade ◽  
The Past ◽  
Religious Imagery ◽  
Crusader States

Before the First Crusade, Constantine, Helena and Heraclius occupied an important place in the papal vision of the past. They had already been memorialised in the Latin liturgy, especially in the rituals of festivities surrounding the holy cross. The First Crusaders encountered Constantine, Helena and Heraclius as a part of the religious imagery at the very heart of Christian memory: at the Holy Sepulchre. This article presents research into whether and how the elite of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem developed the historical memory of Constantine, Helena and Heraclius, and argues that it was a central element in the political culture of the crusader states.

Penance and Reconciliation in the Crusader States: Matthew Paris, Jacques de Vitry and the Eastern Christians

2004 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 74-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Jotischky
Keyword(s):  
Holy Land ◽  
Dominican Order ◽  
Syrian Orthodox ◽  
Fundamental Statement ◽  
Crusader States ◽  
Jacques De Vitry

Medieval popes can scarcely have expected such spectacular results from a bull as Gregory EX achieved in 1237. His bull Cum hora undecima of 1235, a fundamental statement of the Church’s missionary function, gave specific licence to the Dominican William of Montferrat to preach, dispense the sacraments, absolve and excommunicate in the lands of schismatics and heretics of the East. Two years later, Philip, the Dominican provincial of the Holy Land, wrote to the pope announcing the conversion to Rome of the Syrian Orthodox (Jacobite) patriarch of Antioch, Ignatius II, the anticipated conversion of the Nestorian catholicos in Baghdad and possibly also the conversion of the Coptic patriarch. It was a staggering return from a mission only two years old, and represented a triumph for the Dominican Order as well as for the papacy.

The Coastal Strategy

2020 ◽  
pp. 28-65
Author(s):  
Steve Tibble
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Holy Land ◽  
First Crusade ◽  
Crusader States

This chapter mentions an English pilgrim named Saewulf, who made the trip in the summer of 1102 to the Palestinian coast, where he was caught in the midst of battle with crusaders. It talks about the Franks, European settlers in the Holy Land, who kept coming to the new crusader states even in the most dangerous of times and the most perilous of conditions. It analyzes the capture of Jerusalem and the extraordinary culmination of the First Crusade in which strategy exists only in the context of objectives and the decisions that lead up to them. The chapter explains the first phase of Frankish strategy on taking control of the entire coastline of Syria and Palestine. It also looks at the coastal strategy that followed a remarkable trajectory across the three crusader states that bordered on the eastern Mediterranean.

EARLY BYZANTINE PHASE OF THE LATIN CATHEDRAL OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST IN SAMARIA (SEBASTE): ARCHITECTURE AND SCULPTURAL DECORATION

2020 ◽  
pp. 101-123
Author(s):  
Светлана Валерьевна Тарханова
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Holy Land ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Byzantine Art ◽  
John The Baptist ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Church ◽  
Preliminary Description ◽  
Early Byzantine

Гробница св. Иоанна Предтечи, расположенная в подземной крипте под латинским собором в Себастии, почитается с раннехристианского периода до наших дней. Архитектурная постройка, в которой размещается крипта с часовней над ней, значительно перестраивалась как минимум три раза и в настоящий момент является мечетью (ранневизантийский период, период крестоносцев, позднеисламский период). Во время недавней разведки памятника (С. Тарханова, Х. Школьник, 2019 г.) было обнаружено множество римских и ранневизантийских деталей. Отдельные из них были включены в средневековую кладку церкви или разбросаны на ее территории. Среди них были фусты колонн из проконнеского и каристейского мраморов, из ассуанского красного и троадского серого гранитов, из местного известняка, аттические и тосканские базы, коринфские капители, также из серого мрамора и известняка, элементы литургической мебели, стенки мраморных саркофагов с крестами и т. д. Помимо этого, на восток от церкви крестоносцев была обнаружена хорошо сохранившаяся апсида с арочным окном и рельефным крестом под ним, которая, по мнению автора, может быть датирована ранневизантийским периодом (V-VI вв.). Данная апсида была условно изображена на рисунках путешественников в первой половине XIX в. Латинский собор - довольно известный монумент, так как он был официально открыт в первой половине XX в. во время Объединенной экспедиции в Самарию (результаты работ именно по этому памятнику не опубликованы). Но его ранневизантийская фаза не была изучена должным образом, в то время как перестройка крестоносцев представлена в подробной публикации Прингла. Только одна ранневизантийская капитель попала в публикацию Крауфута. Все остальные детали, представленные здесь, публикуются впервые спустя практически столетие (или больше) после их не зафиксированного в научных трудах открытия. Также предлагается локализация ранневизантийской церкви частично на восток от сохранившейся постройки крестоносцев и частично под ней. Проводятся первичное описание, стилистический анализ, предлагаются классификация и датировка архитектурных остатков и разрозненного скульптурного декора. Приведены отдельные параллели в местном и имперском художественном контексте соответствующих периодов, хотя основная цель статьи заключается в том, чтобы заново открыть совершенно забытые образцы ранневизантийского искусства, которые некогда украшали одно из важнейших loca sancta Святой Земли. The tomb of St. John the Forerunner beneath the Latin Cathedral in Sebaste has been venerated since the Early Christian times until nowadays. The architectural edifice itself was vastly rebuilt at least three times (Early Byzantine (5th-6th centuries CE), Crusader (11th-13th centuries CE), Late Islamic (not clear)), being used as a mosque today. During the personal survey at the site (S. Tarkhanova, H. Shkolnik 2019) plenty of Early Byzantine and Roman architectural members, secondarily incorporated into the church, or scattered near it, were noticed. Also the well-preserved Early Byzantine apse was recovered to the east from the Crusader building (both were conventionally depicted on the drawings of the 19th century of David Roberts). Although the Latin Cathedral is generally known, as it was excavated in the 1st half of the 20th century by the Joint Samaria Expedition (unpublished), its Early Byzantine phase wasn’t studied properly. Thus, except of one capital, all the other decorative elements are firstly published, as well as the Byzantine monument itself is localized for the first time. The author offers preliminary description, stylistic analyses, classification and dating of the architectural remains and decorative elements. Some initial parallels show them in the context of local and Imperial artistic tendencies of the time, though the main aim of the article was concentrated on the recovering of completely forgotten pieces of Byzantine art, which once decorated one of the most important loca sancta of the Holy Land.

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