The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land
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* Even in the modern era many histories of the crusades written by ‘western’ scholars have been coloured (consciously or unconsciously) by a degree of bias, because most present this era from a Christian standpoint. This innate partiality might manifest itself relatively subtly–in the decision to describe the outcome of a battle as a victory or defeat, a triumph or disaster. In this account, which is divided into five parts, I have made a deliberate attempt to counteract this tendency by switching the point of view from western European Christian to Near Eastern Muslim in each major section. The book’s core, covering the Third Crusade, alternates between its two major protagonists–Saladin and Richard the Lionheart.
* France proved to be a major centre of crusade enthusiasm and recruitment when the wars for the Holy Land began in 1095. Even so, not all crusaders were French, but contemporaries who wrote about this era–especially those, like Muslims, who were looking in from outside western Europe–tended to brand all Christian participants in these holy wars as ‘Franks’ (in Arabic, Ifranj). It therefore has become common practice to describe the crusaders and those western Europeans who settled in the Near East as the Franks.
* The adherents of this Latin branch of Christianity–which today is more commonly known as Roman Catholicism–are more accurately described in a medieval setting as ‘Latins’.
* By modern standards, eleventh-century warhorses were relatively small–indeed, at an average twelve hands in height, today most would be classified as little more than ponies. Even so, they were cripplingly expensive to purchase and just as costly to maintain (requiring feed, horseshoes and the care of a dedicated squire). Most knights also needed at least one additional lighter mount upon which to travel. But small as they were, these warhorses still gave warriors huge advantages during hand-to-hand combat in terms of height, reach, speed and mobility. As equipment, fighting techniques and training improved, knights mounted on a stirruped (and therefore more stable) saddle also developed the ability to carry a heavy spear or lance couched underarm and learned to cooperate in a massed charge. The sheer brute force of this type of attack could utterly overwhelm an unprepared enemy.
* It is a popular misconception that crusading was a form of forceful evangelism. In fact, to begin with at least, religious conversion was not an essential element of crusading ideology.
* Typically, the first crusader knights wore what, by the standards of the day, was heavy armour: a conical steel helmet over a mail hood or coif, and a thigh-length mail shirt over a padded jerkin–all of which could hope to stop a glancing blow, but not a solid cut or thrust. For this reason, a large metal-bound wooden shield was also commonly deployed. The standard mêlée weapons were the lance–used couched or thrown over arm–and a one-handed, double-edged long sword, perhaps two feet in length. These heavy, finely balanced blades were more useful as bludgeoning tools than as sharp-edged cutting weapons. Knights and infantrymen also commonly made use of longbows–about six feet in length and capable of delivering arrows to a distance of 300 yards–while some also adopted rudimentary forms of crossbow.
* Both a eunuch and an able general, Taticius was said to have had his nose sliced off earlier in his military career and now wore a golden replica in its place.
* Atabegs were usually appointed as the guardians of princes, but often served as regional governors or commanders-in-chief.
* Around this time the rising Armenian Christian Roupenid dynasty began expanding out of their power base in the Taurus Mountains. They would eventually become one of the Levant’s major powers, but despite the maintenance of generally cordial relations with Edessa, the Roupenids’ desire to establish a kingdom in Cilicia brought them into conflict with Antioch.
* The Venetians received a startling variety of concessions from the kingdom of Jerusalem in return for their assistance. These included: a third of the city and lordship of Tyre, plus an annual payment of 300 gold bezants from the royal revenues of Acre; exemption from all taxation, barring that owed for carrying pilgrims to the Holy Land; the right to use Venetian measures in trade; and a parcel of property in every town of the realm (made up of a street and a square, plus a church, bakery and bathhouse) to be held in perpetuity. Baldwin II later managed to engineer some adjustments to the agreement–most notably, that land in the lordship of Tyre would be held by the Venetians as fiefs, with military service owing to the crown–but the deal, nonetheless, transformed Venice into the commercial powerhouse of the Frankish Levant.
* William of Tyre was born in the Levant in c. 1130 and went on to become chancellor of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem and archbishop of Tyre. Between around 1174 and 1184 William wrote an invaluable overarching narrative account of Outremer’s history from the time of the First Crusade.
* Sigurd of Norway, who campaigned in the Levant in 1110, was a king, but he shared the Norwegian throne with two of his brothers.
* Ismat died in January 1186 when Saladin was himself suffering from severe illness. The sultan’s closest advisers kept the news of his wife’s demise from him for two months for fear of causing him shock and distress.
* Of course, given the entrenched enmity that already existed between Saladin and Reynald of Châtillon, and in light of the sultan’s later treatment of him, it is likely that, in the lord of Kerak’s case, Saladin would have had no intention of seeking a ransom for Reynald.
* The Templars’ most important fortress, Pilgrims’ Castle (or Athlit), was begun in 1218 with the help and initiative of Latin pilgrims, and was said to be capable of holding 4,000 men. The stronghold is now in a ruined state, but serves as an Israeli military base and, therefore, cannot be visited. The order also rebuilt the major inland castle of Safad, in northern Galilee, during the early thirteenth century.