The irony of all such violent arguments is, of course, that the actual twelfth-century struggle between the Franks and the Turks only occasionally bore a resemblance to an interreligious conflict of the kind touted by modern-day advocates of hate. Both the Turks and the Franks had far more complex agendas than straightforward sectarian violence, and they were prepared to cooperate with one another when their interests coincided. Their worldviews were also broad enough that they could respect and even admire their opponents. Some even became friends with their foes. War in the Middle Ages could be brutal, but when the fighting was done, there remained space for the combatant factions to engage in trade, conversation, and diplomacy. As we have seen, there were occasions during the crusading period when warriors could seek out their enemies after the fighting was done and share stories about their deeds on the battlefield, confident in the knowledge that they would receive their enemy’s welcome and hospitality.
This point deserves attention. The word “medieval” in modern parlance has become a term of abuse, conveying ideas of barbarity, ignorance, superstition, and backwardness. We condemn the worst of contemporary wars by describing them as being fought in “medieval” conditions, or we might observe that violence has reached “medieval” proportions. Even so, the crusaders and their Turkish and Arab counterparts, during these so-called dark ages, could find space for respect, cooperation, and even friendship across the fault lines of war. There is little enough of that today.
NICHOLAS MORTON IS a senior lecturer at Nottingham Trent University in the UK. He has published widely on themes connected to the Crusades, the military orders, and the Seljuk Turks and is the author or editor of five books on these topics. He also coedits two book series, Rulers of the Latin East and The Military Religious Orders.
ABBREVIATIONS
The following abbreviations are used throughout the notes. Where available, references have been made to modern English translations so that the sources are as accessible as possible (although translations are not available for every source used in this work).
AA Albert of Aachen. Historia Ierosolimitana: History of the Journey to Jerusalem. Edited and translated by S. B. Edgington. Oxford Medieval Texts. Oxford, 2007.
AC Anna Comnena. The Alexiad. Translated by E. R. A. Sewter. With an introduction by P. Frankopan. London, 2009.
ASC Anonymous. “Syriac Chronicle.” Translated by A. Tritton. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 65 (1933): 69–101.
FC Fulcher of Chartres. A History of the Expedition to Jerusalem, 1095–1127. Translated by F. R. Ryan. New York, 1969.
GF Gesta Francorum: The Deeds of the Franks and the Other Pilgrims to Jerusalem. Edited and translated by R. Hill. Oxford Medieval Texts. Oxford, 1962.
GN Guibert of Nogent. The Deeds of God Through the Franks: Gesta dei per Francos. Translated by R. Levine. Woodbridge, UK, 1997.
IAA(1) Ibn al-Athir. The Annals of the Saljuq Turks: Selections from al-Kāmil fī’l-Ta’rīkh of ‘Izz al-Dīn Ibn al-Athīr. Translated by D. S. Richards. Studies in the History of Iran and Turkey, 1000–1700 AD. Abingdon, UK, 2002.
IAA(2) Ibn al-Athir. The Chronicle of Ibn al-Athir for the Crusading Period from al-Kamil fi’l-Ta’rikh. Translated by D. S. Richards. 3 vols. Crusade Texts in Translation 13, 15, and 17. Aldershot, UK, 2006–2008.
IQ Ibn al-Qalanisi. The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades. Translated by H. A. R. Gibb. New York, 2002.
KAD Kemal al-Din. “Extraits de la Chronique d’Alep.” Recueil des Historiens des Croisades: Historiens Orientaux. Vol. 3. Paris, 1884.
ME Matthew of Edessa. Armenia and the Crusades: Tenth to Twelfth Centuries. The Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa. Translated by A. E. Dostourian. New York, 1993.
OV Orderic Vitalis. The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis. Edited and translated by M. Chibnall. 6 vols. Oxford Medieval Texts. Oxford, 1969–1990.
RA Raymond d’Aguilers. Historia Francorum qui ceperunt Iherusalem. Translated by J. H. Hill and L. L. Hill. Philadelphia, 1968.
RC Ralph of Caen. The Gesta Tancredi of Ralph of Caen: A History of the Normans on the First Crusade. Translated by B. S. Bachrach and D. S. Bachrach. Crusade Texts in Translation 12. Farnham, UK, 2010.
UIM Usama ibn Munqidh. The Book of Contemplation: Islam and the Crusades. Penguin Classics. London, 2008.
WC Walter the Chancellor. The Antiochene Wars: A Translation and Commentary. Translated by T. Asbridge and S. B. Edgington. Crusade Texts in Translation 4. Aldershot, UK, 1999.
WT William of Tyre. A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea. Translated by E. A. Babcock and A. C. Krey. 2 vols. New York, 1943.
NOTES
PROLOGUE
1. For the full text in English translation, see The “Chanson des Chétifs” and “Chanson de Jérusalem”: Completing the Central Trilogy of the Old French Crusade Cycle, trans. C. Sweetenham, Crusade Texts in Translation 29 (Farnham, UK, 2016), 67–172.
2. See also T. Asbridge, “How the Crusades Could Have Been Won: King Baldwin II of Jerusalem’s Campaigns Against Aleppo (1124–5) and Damascus (1129),” Journal of Medieval Military History, ed. C. J. Rogers and K. DeVries, 11 (2013): 73–74.
3. T. Asbridge, “How the Crusades Could Have Been Won,” 73–93.
CHAPTER 1: THE RIVAL ARCHITECTS OF THE CRUSADER STATES (1100–1110)
1. AA, 533.
2. FC, 139.
3. Ibid., 134. See also AA, 237.
4. J. France, Victory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade (Cambridge, 1994), 246.
5. The Chronicle of the Third Crusade: The Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi, trans. H. Nicholson, Crusade Texts in Translation 3 (Aldershot, UK, 1997), 234.
6. AA, 533–537, 563; FC, 137–142; IQ, 51; IAA(2), 1: 47; WT, 1: 422–424.
7. For an introductory discussion on the launch of the First Crusade, see P. Frankopan, The First Crusade: The Call from the East (London, 2012), chaps. 6 and 7; T. Asbridge, The First Crusade: A New History (Oxford, 2004), chaps. 1 and 2.
8. See N. Morton, Encountering Islam on the First Crusade (Cambridge, 2016), chap. 2.
9. AC, 304–305.
10. France, Victory in the East, 209.
11. Ibid., 192–196.
12. FC, 90.
13. AA, 175; FC, 91; ME, 169. For discussion, see C. MacEvitt, The Crusades and the Christian World of the East: Rough Tolerance (Philadelphia, 2008), 65–71.
14. For detailed discussion of the siege of Antioch, see France, Victory in the East, chaps. 7 and 8.
15. This story is told by many authors, but for a sample, see AA, 277–279; GF, 44–47.
16. OV, 5: 325.
17. Several sources report their appearance. See, for example, GF, 69. For discussion, see E. Lapina, Warfare and the Miraculous in the Chronicles of the First Crusade (University Park, PA, 2015), 37–53.
18. For discussion of the role played by the Holy Lance in this battle, see T. Asbridge, “The Holy Lance of Antioch: Power, Devotion and Memory on the First Crusade,” Reading Medieval Studies 33 (2007): 3–36.
19. KAD, 582–583.
20. France, Victory in the East, 288–296.
21. M. A. Köhler, Alliances and Treaties Between Frankish and Muslim Rulers in the Middle East: Cross-Cultural Diplomacy in the Period of the Crusades, trans. P. M. Holt, ed. K. Hirschler, The Muslim World in the Age of the Crusades (Leiden, 2013), 44–57.
22. B. Z. Kedar, “The Jerusalem Massacre of July 1099 in the Western Historiography of the Crusades,” Crusades 3 (2004): 15–75.
23. AA, 553.
24. Geoffrey of Malaterra, The Deeds of Count Roger of Calabria and Sicily and of His Brother Duke Robert Guiscard, trans. K. Baxter Wolf (Ann Arbor, MI, 2005), 57–58.
25. Caffaro, Caffaro, Genoa and the Twelfth Century Crusades, trans. M. Hall and J. Phillips, Crusade Texts in Translation 16 (Farnham, UK, 2013).
26. For discussion of the Fatimid army, see Y. Lev, “Regime, Army and Society in Medieval Egypt, 9th–12th Centuries,”
in War and Society in the Eastern Mediterranean, 7th–15th Centuries, ed. Y. Lev (Leiden, 1997), 115–152; Y. Lev, “Army, Regime and Society in Fatimid Egypt, 358–487/968–1094,” International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 19, no. 3 (1987): 337–365.
27. RA, 115.
28. R. Burns, Damascus: A History (Abingdon, UK, 2005).
29. AA, 511.
30. Al-Muqaddasi, The Best Divisions for Knowledge of the Regions, trans. B. Collins (Reading, UK, 2001), 132.
31. For further discussion of the geopolitical importance of Damascus and Aleppo, see T. Asbridge, “How the Crusades Could Have Been Won: King Baldwin II of Jerusalem’s Campaigns Against Aleppo (1124–5) and Damascus (1129),” Journal of Medieval Military History, ed. C. J. Rogers and K. DeVries, 11 (2013): 93.
32. GN, 159. Asbridge has also considered the role played by Aleppo in the Franks’ long-standing geopolitical ambitions. In a recent article he argued that it was Baldwin II of Jerusalem who first actively sought the “actual conquest” of Aleppo, unlike his predecessors who were more interested in tribute taking. Asbridge, “How the Crusades Could Have Been Won,” 83. Nevertheless, in two earlier publications he raised the possibility that Antioch had been considering a frontal assault on the city under the earlier ruler Roger of Salerno. T. Asbridge, “The Significance and Causes of the Battle of the Field of Blood,” Journal of Medieval History 23, no. 4 (1997): 213; T. Asbridge, The Creation of the Principality of Antioch, 1098–1130 (Woodbridge, UK, 2000), 69.
33. KAD, 589.
34. For discussion of the southern Italian / Sicilian Normans, see J. J. Norwich, The Normans in Sicily (London, 1970).
35. S. Edgington, “Espionage and Military Intelligence During the First Crusade, 1095–1099,” in Crusading and Warfare in the Middle Ages, ed. S. John and N. Morton, Crusades—Subsidia 7 (Farnham, UK, 2014), 78.
36. Asbridge, The Creation of the Principality of Antioch, 47–51.
37. RC, 162–163.
38. Ibid., 164.
39. IAA(2), 1: 76.
40. Ibid., 1: 79.
41. RC, 165; FC, 177–178; AA, 693.
42. AA, 693.
43. ME, 193.
44. IAA(2), 1: 80.
45. FC, 179.
46. The Turkmen are frequently mentioned in the surviving sources, but they are difficult to define as a group. In this book the term “Turkmen” is used to denote Turkish warriors who still maintained their tribal nomadic lifestyle.
47. OV, 6: 105.
48. Ibid., 6: 109.
49. ME, 212.
50. KAD, 597.
51. Ibid., 595.
52. ME, 202.
53. Nāsir-e Khosraw’s Book of Travels (Safarnāma), trans. W. M. Thackston Jr., Persian Heritage Series 36 (Albany, NY, 1986), 12–13.
54. IAA(2), 1: 104.
55. AA, 777–779; William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum Anglorum, ed. and trans. R. A. B. Mynors, R. M. Thomson, and M. Winterbottom, vol. 1, Oxford Medieval Texts (Oxford, 1998), 701.
56. K. Lewis, The Counts of Tripoli and Lebanon in the Twelfth Century: Sons of Saint-Gilles (Abingdon, UK, 2017), 41–49.
57. For discussion, see J. France, Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades, 1000–1300 (Ithaca, NY, 1999), 117–118.
58. The debate over what motivated the crusaders is a very old one. For a summary of this discussion, see N. Housley, Contesting the Crusades, Contesting the Past (Oxford, 2006), 75–98.
59. For discussion, see D. S. Bachrach, Religion and the Conduct of War, c. 300–c. 1215 (Woodbridge, UK, 2003).
60. RC, 22.
61. S. D. Goitein, “Geniza Sources for the Crusader Period: A Survey,” in Outremer: Studies in the History of the Crusading Kingdom of Jerusalem (Jerusalem, 1982), 312.
62. D. M. Metcalf, Coinage of the Crusades and the Latin East in the Ashmolean Museum Oxford, 2nd ed. (London, 1995), 28.
CHAPTER 2: RIDING THE STORM (1111–1118)
1. “Sultan” was his name and should not be confused with the title of “Turkish sultan.”
2. I am indebted to Kevin Lewis for his advice on this point. K. Lewis, The Counts of Tripoli and Lebanon in the Twelfth Century: Sons of Saint-Gilles (Abingdon, UK, 2017), 33.
3. IQ, 90, 92.
4. IAA(1), 226.
5. C. Hillenbrand, “Ibn al-‘Adim’s Biography of the Seljuq Sultan, Alp Arslan,” in Actas XVI Congreso UEAI (Salamanca, 1995), 239–241.
6. KAD, 577.
7. The members of Arab tribes tended to be related or otherwise connected to a great historic predecessor. “Banu Kilab,” for example, means “House of Kilab.”
8. “The History of David King of Kings,” in Rewriting Caucasian History: The Medieval Armenian Adaptation of the Georgian Chronicles, trans. R. W. Thomson (Oxford, 1996), 316.
9. GF, 81; RA, 84.
10. For discussion and differing opinions on how the Muslim world viewed western Europe prior to and during the Crusades, see B. Lewis, The Muslim Discovery of Europe (London, 1982); D. König, Arabic-Islamic Views of the Latin West: Tracing the Emergence of Medieval Europe (Oxford, 2015).
11. UIM, 145, 148.
12. Ibid., 76–77.
13. F. Daftary, The Ismā‘īlīs: Their History and Doctrines (Cambridge, 1990).
14. IQ, 72–73; UIM, 244–245.
15. AA, 739–741.
16. UIM, 77–78.
17. IQ, 114.
18. IAA(2), 1: 154.
19. IQ, 111.
20. KAD, 600.
21. IQ, 118.
22. Ibid., 118.
23. See B. S. Bachrach and D. S. Bachrach, “Ralph of Caen as a Military Historian,” in Crusading and Warfare in the Middle Ages: Realities, Representations. Essays in Honour of John France, ed. S. John and N. Morton, Crusades–Subsidia 7 (Farnham, UK, 2014), 94.
24. UIM, 80–81.
25. For a review of the possible reasons for the Turks’ migration, see A. C. S. Peacock, The Great Seljuk Empire, Edinburgh History of the Islamic Empires (Edinburgh, 2015), 25.
26. IAA(2), 1: 111–117.
27. KAD, 606–608.
28. Ibid., 608.
29. WC, 90, 92.
30. Ibid., 92–93.
31. Ibid., 95.
32. UIM, 85.
33. WC, 96–104; IAA(2), 1: 172–173; ASC, 86.
34. KAD, 606.
35. Ibid., 611.
36. OV, 6: 129–131.
37. N. Morton, Encountering Islam on the First Crusade (Cambridge, 2016), 42–55.
38. IAA(2), 1: 155.
39. AA, 339.
40. GF, 42.
41. See, for example, IQ, 149, 271; UIM, 131–132; WC, 90, 164; OV, 6: 113.
42. See N. Morton, “The Saljuq Turks’ Conversion to Islam: The Crusading Sources,” Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean 27, no. 2 (2015): 109–118.
43. IAA(1), 294.
44. RA, 89.
45. For further discussion on the political context, see M. Köhler, Alliances and Treaties Between Frankish and Muslim Rulers in the Middle East: Cross-Cultural Diplomacy in the Period of the Crusades, trans. P. Holt, ed. K. Hirschler, The Muslim World in the Age of the Crusades (Leiden, 2013), 1–174.
46. The Sea of Precious Virtues (Bahr al-Favā’id): A Medieval Mirror for Princes, trans. J. S. Meisami (Salt Lake City, UT, 1991), 56.
47. König, Arabic-Islamic Views of the Latin West, 11.
48. Constitutiones canonicorum regularium ordinis Arroasiensis, ed. L. Milis and J. Becquet, Corpus Christianorum: Continuatio Mediaeualis 20 (Turnhout, Belgium, 1970), 213.
49. “Notitiae duae Lemovicenses de Praedicatione crucis in Aquitania,” in Recueil des historiens des croisades: Historiens occidentaux, vol. 5 (Paris, 1895), 351.
50. S. R. Candby et al., Court and Cosmos: The Great Age of the Seljuqs (New York, 2016), 146.
51. A. J. Boas, Domestic Settings: Sources on Domestic Architecture and Day-to-Day Activities in the Crusader States, Medieval Mediterranean 84 (Leiden, 2010), 20–31.
&n
bsp; 52. N. Kenaan-Kedar, “Decorative Architectural Sculpture in Crusader Jerusalem: The Eastern, Western, and Armenian Sources of a Local Visual Culture,” in The Crusader World, ed. A. Boas (Routledge, 2016), 609–623.
53. N. Hodgson, “Conflict and Cohabitation: Marriage and Diplomacy Between Latins and Cilician Armenians, c. 1097–1253,” in The Crusades and the Near East: Cultural Histories, ed. C. Kostick (Abingdon, UK, 2011), 83–106.
54. UIM, 153–154.
55. R. Ellenblum, Frankish Rural Settlement in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (Cambridge, 1998), 84.
56. P. Mitchell, “Intestinal Parasites in the Crusades: Evidence for Disease, Diet and Migration,” in Boas, The Crusader World, 593–606.
57. Morton, Encountering Islam, 98–102.
58. Badr al-Din Mahmud (al-Ayni), “Genealogy and Tribal Division,” in The Turkic Peoples in Medieval Arabic Writings, trans. Y. Frenkel, Routledge Studies in the History of Iran and Turkey (Abingdon, UK, 2015), 67.
59. The Sea of Precious Virtues, 57, 215.
60. Ibid., 57.
CHAPTER 3: THE BATTLE (1119)
1. H. E. Mayer, “The Succession to Baldwin II of Jerusalem: English Impact on the East,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 39 (1985): 139–147; A. Murray, “Baldwin II and His Nobles: Baronial Factionalism and Dissent in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1118–1134,” Nottingham Medieval Studies 38 (1994): 60–85.
2. IAA(2), 1: 196.
3. KAD, 614.
4. See also T. Asbridge, The Creation of the Principality of Antioch, 1098–1130 (Woodbridge, UK, 2000), 74.
5. KAD, 614–615.
6. For a good introduction to Tughtakin, see T. El-Azhari, “Tughtigin (d. 1128),” in The Crusades: An Encyclopaedia, ed. A. Murray (Santa Barbara, 2006), 4: 1204–1205.
7. It is possible that the literacy rate in the region was in the double digits—very rare for the world at this time and far higher than in medieval Europe. K. Hirschler, Medieval Damascus: Plurality and Diversity in an Arabic Library. The Ashrafīya Library Catalogue, Edinburgh Studies in Classical Islamic History and Culture (Edinburgh, 2016), 2.
The Field of Blood: The Battle for Aleppo and the Remaking of the Medieval Middle East Page 22
