Frankish Rural Settlement in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem

by Ronnie Ellenblum

Overview

This book is a study of the spatial distribution of Frankish settlement in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem at the time of the Crusades, and is based on an unprecedented field study of more than two hundred Frankish rural sites and on a close reexamination of the historical sources. The author reexamines some of the basic assumptions of standard recent scholarship, and advocates a new model of the nature of Frankish settlement, as a society of migrants who settled in the Levant, had close relations with Eastern Christians, and were almost completely shut off from the Muslim society that lived elsewhere in the country.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521554015
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/26/1998
Series:	Cambridge OCR Advanced Sciences Ser.
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.10(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments; Part I. Presentation of the Problem: 1. A segregated society or an integrated society?; 2. Criticism of the existing model; Part II. The Castrum, The Burgus and the Village: 3. Castellum regis; 4. Evidence about the existence of Frankish settlements; 5. The rights and duties of the Frankish settlers in the Frankish settlements of Casale Imbert and Nova Villa; 6. The settlers: their places of origin and their occupations; 7. The geographic layout of a Frankish village: the example of Parva Mahomeria; 8. The neighbourhood of a Frankish castrum; 9. The church as a nucleus of a Frankish castrum; 10. Mixed Frankish and local Christian settlements; 11. Frankish settlements and the collection of tithes; Part III. Isolated Dwellings: 12. The list of Jean of Ibelin; 13. Frankish settlement and the fief of the camerarius regis; 14. The isolated dwelling; 15. Administration of rural estates; 16. Settlement activities of the military orders: the castle and flour mills in Da'uk and Recordana; Part IV. The Spatial Distribution of Frankish Settlement: 17. The boundaries of Frankish settlement in western Galilee and Samaria; 18. The spatial distribution of Frankish settlement north of Jerusalem; 19. Spatial distribution of Christian and Muslim settlements in Samaria; 20. Differential geographical changes and the cultural borders of Samaria and Galilee; Summary and conclusions; Bibliography; Appendix.

Editorial Reviews

"Ellenblum has produced a truly imporant book that is bound to open a revisionist debate of great importance to the history of the crusader states." Hans Eberhard Mayer, American Historical Review

"...remarkable book...This is an important reassessment of Frankish settlement in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, one that provides a new model for understanding that settlement. The book is also a model for how historical and archaeological sources can be marshaled and argued. And there can be no doubt that the evidence Ellenblum provides is impressive in its amount and detail. The result is a book that ranks among the major works in the field of Crusader studies in recent years." Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies

"This book offers a happy marriage of field archeology and textual analysis." International Journal of Middle East Studies

"Frankish Rural Settlement raises interesting questions about Frankish society in the Latin East. Ellenblum...make[s] a strong case for the Franks' closer connections to rural affairs than his scholarly predecessors had recognized and his labor in this regard is well worth his Sisyphean effort." Journla of the American Oriental Society

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