925th Anniversary First Crusade Siege of Jerusalem

The Siege of Jerusalem took place from June 7 to July 15, 1099, during the First Crusade. This successful siege saw the Crusaders take Jerusalem from the Fatimid Caliphate and laid the foundations for the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Where was the first Templar Church on Temple Mount?

In about 1120 King Baldwin II decided to lend his palace at what now is called the Al-Acsa Mosque, temporarily to the juvenil Templar Order. Its Primitive Rule (after 1129, TN) implies that their compound at the palace, after having come into Templar hands, would have comprised a refectory, a chapel or church, a chapter house, and an infirmary. Where was in the early days that church?

Underground cisterns at Temple Mount, Jerusalem

The immense consumption of water at the Temple sanctuary required the development of a complex water system on the elevated Temple Mount. How was this arranged?

The relationship between early Templars and the first Kings of Jerusalem

How was the relationship between the early Templars and the first kings of Jerusalem?

The Templar compound on Temple Mount Jerusalem

 "Shortly after the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099, the Al-Aqsa mosque became the residence of the Frankish kings of Jerusalem. But the kings were not able to maintain the building in the condition in which they had found it." Perhaps that is what inspired king Baldwin II to lend the site to the young Templar Order. A reconstruction.

Jerusalem - Templar purpose and alibi in Bernard's "De laude novae militiae"

De laude novae militiae, the famous eulogy written by Bernard of Clairvaux during the stay of Hugues de Payns in Europe in 1127 or 1128, contains several thoughts about the functions of the new Templar chivalry and the battles that the Templars are waging in the East. What details about the headquarters of the order exist and what conception of Jerusalem prevailed in the clerical consciousness of the first half of the 12th century? (...)

Administration in the early Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem

By the end of 1110, the administrative shape of the crusader states in Syria and Palestine can be discerned. How were secular and religous rule established?

The Templar headquarters at Jerusalem in Crusader times

"In 1118 or 1119 king Baldwin II gave the group of proto-Templars a temporary home in his residence in the al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple platform, believed by the Latins to have been the Temple of Solomon. The canons of the Temple of the Lord (the Dome of the Rock) gave them a square near the al-Aqsa to celebrate their offices." What was this location like?

Templar activities in the city of Jerusalem

The life of the Templars in Jerusalem is known thanks to the rule of the order and a panel of chronicles depicting the actions of the brothers in the 12th century. According to Michael the Syrian (1126-1199), the brothers supplied the population of Jerusalem with grain and provisions in 1120. (...) The intervention of the Templars proves that the order did not wait until the 13th century to take care of the needy. (...) 

An animated history of the conquest of Jerusalem 1099

 

source YouTube 

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Jacques de Molay: the last Templar Grand Master and Mongol warlord?

The sudden arrest of the Templars (in 1307, TN), the conflicting stories about confessions, and the dramatic deaths by burning, generated many stories and legends about both the Order and its last Grand Master. One suggested that De Molay wanted to join forces with the Mongols. True or false?

920th Anniversary First Crusade Siege of Jerusalem

The Siege of Jerusalem took place from June 7 to July 15, 1099, during the First Crusade. This successful siege saw the Crusaders take Jerusalem from the Fatimid Caliphate and laid the foundations for the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

The subsurface of Temple Mount, Jerusalem

The subterranean part of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem contains a lot of acheological information mirroring its intensive use during many centuries. Part of this archeological information is documented bij artefacts from the Stone and Bronze Age up to and including the 20th century found by the Temple Mount Sifting Project (TMSP).

The fall of Muslim Jerusalem to the Muslims 1098

In the Crusader story, a strange event just prior to the conquest of Jerusalem by the Crusader army in July 1099, seems to be scarcely mentioned. This is the taking of Jerusalem from its Muslim Seljuk Turkish ruler (since 1073) by the Muslim Fatimid ruler of Egypt.

The summer of 1098 saw the much-fought-over fortress city in Egyptian hands. The Fatimid Emir (commander) al-Afdal Shahinshah had taken Jerusalem from the Seljuk Turks after a 40-day siege, on orders of Vizier (minister of state) al-Musta’li, ruler of Egypt.

Prologue of the Crusades - Jerusalem and the Seljuks

"When the Muslim Seljuks, a Turkish steppe tribe, spectacularly defeated an army of the Byzantine Empire at the Battle of Manzikert in ancient Armenia in August 1071 CE, a series of events followed which would lead to centuries of East-West warfare couched in religious terms: the Crusades.

The Holy Sepulchre, cradle of the Knights Templar

"According to a chronicle on the Templars’ beginnings, attributed to Ernoul, (...) the first Templars were a group of knights who had dedicated themselves to the Holy Sepulchre after the First Crusade. They realized that the country needed warriors, and criticized themselves for living an idle and comfortable life when they should be working. So they decided, with the permission of the prior of the Sepulchre, to elect a Master who could lead them in battle if necessary.

Muslim-Christian alliance in early crusader times

Before and at the start of the First Crusade "An alliance existed between the Crusaders and the (muslim; TN) Fatimid rulers of Egypt (...) By the latter decades of the eleventh-century, these states (Byzantium and Fatimid Egypt; TN) had only known peace with each other in living memory, which is remarkable for the medieval world.

The site of first Templar House on Temple Mount, Jerusalem

The now Al-Aqsa mosque is the building that, with its surroundings, was in about 1120 made available by king Baldwin to the newly formed group of knights of the "Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon", later simply called Templars. In 1845 Addison described its preceding history as follows.  

Jerusalem Temple Mount: The Charles Wilson and Charles Warren map collection

This link leads to the Charles Wilson and Charles Warren map collection with notes (1864 AD) of the Jerusalem Temple Mount, with detailed descriptions and reconstructions.

Note "Salomon's Stables" in the right hand corner (the dotted pattern), which probably were used by the Knights Templars, while their House was at what now is the Al-Aqsa  Mosque, located near the southwestern tip of the Temple platform.

Source www.bible.ca

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The militarisation of the Hospitallers, mid 12th century

"Gerard, a native of Provence, was at this period (start of the 12th century; TN) at the head of the society (of the Hospital of St. John; TN), with the title of “Guardian of the Poor.” He was succeeded (A.D. 1118) by Raymond Dupuy, a knight of Dauphiné, who drew up a series of rules for the direction and government of his brethren. In these rules *) no traces are discoverable of the military spirit which afterwards animated the order of the Hospital of St. John. That changed.