Templar locations in France pinpointed

TemplarsNow runs a project which pinpoints the geographical location of Templar sites in France. TemplarsNow has earlier done a similar job for The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg. 

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.

Reliable books on the Crusades

TemplarsNow is always looking to identify, promote and (re)distribute sources of reliable information on the Knights Templar and their time. Therefore this blog quotes the valuable list of "the 15 most important Books on the Crusades" prepared in 2017 by Andrew Holt PhD.

Dr Holt reported on his project to identify the "most important" books on the Crusades. He asked 34 leading medieval historians to provide their own preferential list. Their replies resulted in a list of some 150 titles. Analyzing this as to the number of times each title had been mentioned by the scolars, Dr Holt identified "the 15 most important Books on the Crusades". The titles are shown below, including the number of times each title was mentioned.

Carol Hillenbrand, The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives (Islamic Surveys) (1999). (13 mentions) Jonathan Riley-Smith, The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading (1986). (13 mentions) Carl Erdmann, The Origin of the Idea of Crusade (1977) (11 mentions) Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades. 3 vols. (1951-1954). (11 mentions) Jonathan Riley-Smith, The First Crusaders, 1095-1131 (1997). (7 mentions) R.C. Smail, Crusading Warfare 1097-1193 (1956, 2nd edition 1995). (7 mentions) Kenneth M. Setton, ed., A History of the Crusades, 2nd ed., 6 vols. (1969-89). (7 mentions) John France, Victory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade (1994) (7 mentions) Norman Housley, The Later Crusades, 1274-1580: From Lyons to Alcazar (1992). (6 mentions) Christopher Tyerman, God’s War: A New History of the Crusades (2006). (6 mentions) Paul Alphandéry & Alphonse Dupront, La Chrétienté et l’idée de croisade (1954, 1959). (5 mentions) Benjamin Z. Kedar, Crusade and Mission: European Approaches towards the Muslims (1984). (5 mentions) Denys Pringle, The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: A Corpus (1993- 2009). (5 mentions) Joshua Prawer, Histoire du Royaume Latin de Jérusalem (1969-71). (5 mentions) Paul Cobb, The Race for Paradise: an Islamic History of the Crusades (2014). (4 mentions) Susan B. Edgington and Sarah Lambert, eds. Gendering the Crusades (2002). (4 mentions) Norman Housley, Contesting the Crusades (2006). (4 mentions) Christopher MacEvitt, The Crusades and the Christian World of the East: Rough Tolerance (2007). (4 mentions) Hans Eberhard Mayer ed. In collaboration with Jean Richard, Die Urkunden der lateinischen Könige von Jerusalem (2010). (4 mentions) Joseph Michaud, Histoire des croisades, 4 vol. (1862). (4 mentions) James M. Powell, Anatomy of a Crusade, 1213-1221 (1986). (4 mentions) Queller, Donald E., and Thomas F. Madden. The Fourth Crusade: The Conquest of Constantinople. 2d ed. (1997). (4 mentions)  Support TemplarsNow™ by becoming a Patron, tipping us or buying one of our Reliable Books

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.

Making the Crusades possible - craft, trade and organisation

The agricultural revolution described in an earlier blog resulted in a change in the land use that allowed the subsistence farmer to go with his surplus crop to the market, originally at the local church, to buy and sell.

Genetic Admixture from the Crusaders in the Near East

"During the medieval period, hundreds of thousands of Europeans migrated to the Near East to take part in the Crusades, and many of them settled in the newly established Christian states along the Eastern Mediterranean coast. This changed the genetic codes of the region."

Templar churches and chapels

According to some authors the religious Templar churches and chapels were built in a way specific to the Order and arranged for the exercise of secret and mysterious rites. Hence the existence of a Templar architectural symbolism, the famous "Templar architecture", whose models would be octagonal buildings or rotunda, like the rotunda of the Temple of Paris.

Making the Crusades possible - the agricultural revolution

A series of revolutions in economic and political life transformed Northern Europe. Technology (tools) drove the process, and it was the entrepreneurial spirit of inventive farmers, craftsmen, and what we call today business that triggered change