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The "Tripoli Citadel" in modern-day Tripoli, Lebanon. It now lies at the heart of the city centre. Photo circa. 2009

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The County of Tripoli was one of the four major Crusader states established in the 12th Century. It controlled areas of modern-day Lebanon and western parts of Syria. The rulership of Tripoli was largely French, attributed to the "Frankish" settlement during the age of the Crusades. Despite owing fealty to Jerusalem, the state had closer ties to the state of Antioch, swearing fealty to their Papal representatives instead of the Patriarch of Jerusalem.

Tripoli and its neighbours existed in a near-constant state of hostilities until it fell to the Egyptian Mamluk Caliphate in 1289. Evidence of the Crusader state largely lies in the presence of its architecture like the Citadel, constructed during the initial siege of 1102. What remains of the citadel has been reconstructed and maintained over the last few centuries, now housing the North Lebanon & Akkar Museum. It remains a popular tourist destination for those visiting the region.

Further reading:

Lewis, Kevin.J. "The Counts of Tripoli and Lebanon in the Twelfth Century: Sons of Saint-Gilles (Rulers of the Latin East)" Routledge, 2017- Introduction

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Interview topic: Shared spaces and cultural influences between the Christian West and the Islamic World during the Crusades in Jerusalem.

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A 19th century painting depicting the Knights Hospitaller defending Acre during the siege by the Mamluk Sultanate in 1291 CE.

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Matthew of Clermont defending Acre in 1291 

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Matthew of Clermont defending Acre in 1291 

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This is a description of Matthew of Clermont, a knight of the Order of Hospitaliers who was tasked with defending the Crusading capital of Acre against the Islamic forces. Acre had been the Crusader capital for 100 years after its capture in 1191 and it served as a major Mediterranean port during this time. Acre fell due to the disastrous Seventh Crusade which resulted in a huge loss of life and money on the Crusaders' side and a loss of zeal for the Crusades. As a result, Acre was weakly defended and following its takeover, the Mamluks took the rest of the Levantine coastline and it signalled the end of the Crusades in the Levant. Painted by Dominique Papety 400 years after, this painting reflects the brutal reality of the conflict between Islam and Christianity with dead bodies strewn all over the walls. Matthew of Clermont led a counterattack against the Mamluks on May 16th and led the Christian defenders to push them back out of the city. Despite this, Matthew died on May 18th and the city fell soon after.

Further reading:

Runciman, Steven. "History of the Crusades Vol III: The Kingdom of Acre and the Later Crusades", Cambridge University Press, 1951

Crowley, Roger. "Accursed Tower: The Crusaders' Last Battle for the Holy Land" Yale University Press, 2019

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Interview topic: Importance of trade in Constantinople during the Age of the Crusades.

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Damascus was a major Islamic city that saw several attempts of conquest by the Crusaders. Although never captured, it was a significant target due to its wealth and strategic position.

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The Saladin Citadel, Cairo, Egypt, c1920s, photographed by Unbekannt

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Cairo served as the political and military centre of the Fatimid Caliphate, a powerful Shia Muslim dynasty that controlled vast territories in North Africa and the Levant. It was the seat of caliphal power and the headquarters for military campaigns against Crusader forces.

Situated in the Nile Delta, Cairo stood at the nexus of major trade routes connecting Africa, Asia, and Europe. This strategic location facilitated the movement of troops, goods, and information, making Cairo a vital hub for communication and logistics during the Crusades.

Cairo was also renowned as a hub of learning, culture, and commerce. It attracted scholars, scientists, and theologians from across the Islamic world, fostering intellectual vibrancy and innovation. The city's libraries, universities, and markets were key features of its cultural and intellectual landscape.

Furthermore, as the capital of the Fatimid Caliphate, Cairo held profound symbolic value for Muslims. Its capture and control represented political and religious legitimacy, rallying support from Muslim populations, and upholding the unity and cohesion of the Islamic world in the face of Crusader incursions.

The Saladin Citadel and its purpose:

The Citadel's construction was begun by the Kurdish Ayyubid ruler Salah al-Din (Saladin) between 1176 and 1183 CE to protect Cairo from potential Crusader attacks and to provide a secure centre of government for his new regime (only a few years after he had dismantled the Fatimid Caliphate). It was not finished in his lifetime and was completed during the era of Sultan Kamel but the Citadel characterises the tumultuous instability of the Crusades period.

Further reading sources:

Behrens-Abouseif, Doris. "Architecture of the Ayyubid Period." Islamic Architecture in Cairo: An Introduction, (1989): 78–93.

Raby, Julian. "The Art of Syria and the Jazira, 1100–1250." (1985).

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Sandro Botticelli, The Adoration of the Magi, c.1478/1482, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.24.html

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Sandro Botticelli's painting, titled 'The Adoration of the Magi', is a representation of the Renaissance interest in the 'other' through humanistic themes. A depiction of a Nativity scene showcases a focus on Christian iconography. Artistic expression in this period often made use of stereotypical images of Muslims to convey their foreign nature.

It is important to mention Botticelli's painting was created c.1478/82, notably after the pinnacle of the Crusades. Nonetheless, Botticelli seeks to paint imagery of cultural synergy, through the clothes worn. This not only represents Christian belief in the exotic nature of Muslims but as the clothes are worn by all this shows that trade heavily influenced social and cultural spaces.

Additionally, Botticelli further expresses the relationship of Christians and Muslims through the inclusion of the presentation of gifts. Seen from a Christian perspective as a symbol of the superiority of Christian belief in the recognition of Jesus as a figure of salvation. Thus, portraying a belief in the power dynamics between the religions.

Furthermore, Botticelli's painting represents a ruin of a temple instead of a stable, this may symbolise the destruction of previous religious conflict between Christians and Muslims at the time of the Crusades, over the control of the Holy Land.

Further reading resources:

Hans Belting, Florence and Baghdad (London, 2011), 129-46.

This source provides analysis on the Renaissance artistic perception before perspective of Muslim culture.

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Interview topic: Knowledge exchange in Baghdad during the Age of Crusades.

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Photo from inside the Nasrid palace, lying at the centre of the Alhambra Palaces.

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The Alhambra palaces are a collection of buildings constructed in the 14th century by the Nasrid-dynasty rulers of Granada, highlighting the illustriousness of Moorish architecture and the ruling dynasties. They remain an incredibly popular tourist destination where tickets sell quickly and being even a minute late for your arrival could cost you the entire trip.

Granada's old "Muslim quarter" contains many examples of buildings and art styles that pre-date the arrival of the Spanish Christians. Historians often consider the relationship between the ideas of "space" and "place", that is to say, a geographical location and the buildings, people, and perceptions built upon them. How does the Islamic Spain of the past continue to influence the Spain of the present and its development throughout history?

Further reading:

Irwin, Robert "The Alhambra", Harvard University Press, 2011

Bargebuhr, Frederick P. “The Alhambra Palace of the Eleventh Century.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, vol. 19, no. 3/4, 1956, pp. 192–258. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/750296.

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Interview topic: Cultural exchange in Italy during the Crusades.

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Gentile Bellini and Giovanni Bellini, titled 'St. Mark Preaching in Alexandria' provides a perspective that represents an image of Alexandria as diverse and multi-cultural.

The visible variety of Mamluk dresswear depicted alongside Venetians, draws upon the relations between Christians and Muslims in social spaces. Alexandria is painted as a hub for social interaction for noticeably cosmopolitan crowds.

Furthermore, St. Mark traditionally regarded as the founder of the Christian Church in Alexandria, is shown preaching a crowd including both Christians and Muslims. This reflects the acceptance of toleration and peaceful coexistence between the two faiths. Extending the ideas pushed by the Renaissance period of religious inclusivity and cooperation crossing intrinsic theological barriers.

However, historians have interrogated the true realism of this painting, questioning the nature of the interaction, as it fails to effectively portray the tensions and conflict in areas such as Alexandria during the Age of Crusades.

Further reading resources:

'Islamic Art and Culture: The Venetian Perspective', The Met website at https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/isac/hd_isac.htm accessed 28 Feb 2024

This source illustrates the Venetian perspective and representation of Islamic figures through Venetian artwork.

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Interview topic: Conflict between the Christian West and the Muslim World during the Crusades, specifically in Antioch.

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Ewer, late 12th- first half 13th Century, attributed to Syria, Raqqa, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/451429

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The ewer is crafted from brass and adorned with intricate designs, including Arabic calligraphy and geometric patterns. While the ewer itself may not bear explicit references to Christian-Muslim relations, its style and craftsmanship reflect the cultural synthesis and artistic exchange that occurred in the region during the Crusades era.

While the ewer itself is primarily a utilitarian object, used for storing or pouring liquids, its craftsmanship and decoration suggest that it was also valued for its aesthetic qualities.

This appreciation for beauty and craftsmanship was shared across religious boundaries, demonstrating a commonality of taste and appreciation for fine art among Christians and Muslims alike.

During this period, cities like Raqqa were multicultural centers where individuals from different religious and cultural backgrounds interacted and exchanged ideas.

Artifacts like the Raqqa Ewer serve as tangible evidence of this exchange, indicating that Christians, Muslims, and others coexisted and interacted in urban centers, engaging in trade, diplomacy, and cultural exchange despite religious differences.

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Pseudo Kufic script in medallion on Byzantine shroud of Saint Potentien

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Pseudo Kufic script in medallion on Byzantine shroud of Saint Potentien

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The Byzantine Empire itself had a flourishing silk industry and supported the empire up until the sack of Constantinople in 1204 whereby the technology was used by Italians in Venice. Up until then, the silk trade had been a huge part of the Byzantine economy and used as a political weapon to gain the military aid of powers such as Venice, Pisa and Genoa.

The Byzantine silk industry grew alongside the Islamic silk industry and they both used a monochrome lampas weave. This photo shows gryphons and phoenixes surrounded by a pseudo-Kufic script, commonly used by many Europeans to imitate Islamic culture and highlights the influence of Islamic art throughout the West. The inscriptions of this shroud are purple, a colour which was emblematic of the Roman-Byzantine throne due to its ties with imperial power.

This shroud may have potentially been used as a gift to an Ottoman Sultan due to the images of prey in the corners which reflected the Sultan's love for hunting. There were close diplomatic ties between the two powers and Ottoman Sultans married daughters of Byzantine emperors. Byzantium is a classic example of co-existence between cultures and holds a unique place in the West with the exchange of cultures and ideas between religions

Further reading sources:

Lopez, Robert Sabatino. “Silk Industry in the Byzantine Empire.” Speculum 20, no. 1 (1945): 1–42. https://doi.org/10.2307/2851187

Jacoby, David. "Silk Economics and Cross-Cultural Artistic Interaction: Byzantium, the Muslim World, and the Christian West." Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol. 58 (2004): 197-240.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/3591386

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Folio from a Qur'an Manuscript, circa. 9th-10th Century, The Metropolitan Museum

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Baghdad was founded in 762 and was the Capital of the Abbasid Caliphate(750-1258) until its devastation by the Mongol Empire. As the cultural and political centre of the Islamic world during this period, Baghdad was home to massive scientific and artistic innovations, during a period known as the "Islamic Golden Age".

The Islamic Golden Age was typically attributed to the reign of Caliph Harun Al-Rashid(786-809) which occurred before the Crusades, but the aftereffects of his reign reverberated throughout the centuries largely thanks to institutions such as the Baghdad House of Wisdom, trade links, and movements such as the "Baghdad School" of art in the 12th century.

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Girard Audran, The Battle of Antioch, 1672 - 1678, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/819342 

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Antioch, today in modern-day Turkey, was significant for its strategic position on the Crusaders' route to Palestine through the Syrian Coastal Mountain range. Supplies, reinforcements, and retreats could all be controlled by the city. For this reason, Antioch was also the site of a major siege and subsequent victory by the Crusaders during the First Crusade in 1098:

It is claimed that the Crusaders survived an intense Muslim counter-attack, led by Kerbogha (the regent of Mosul), largely because of the apparent discovery of the Holy Lance. This lance is said to have pierced Christ's side at the Crucifixion and its discovery was crucial in re-energising the disheartened Crusaders sufficiently enough for them to capture the city completely.

Following this, the Principality of Antioch became one of four main Crusader states alongside the County of Edessa, The County of Tripoli, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which revealed its huge importance during the age of the Crusades.

Further reading sources:

T.S. Asbridge, 'The 'Crusader' Community at Antioch: The Impact of Interaction with Byzantium and Islam.' Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Vol. 9 (1999): 305-325.

Accessed on JSTOR on 27/02/24: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3679407

This source explores how Antioch developed during the Age of the Crusades and the extent to which the Christian West and the Muslim World had influenced this development.

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Further reading resources:

'Venice's Love Affair With Egypt', The New York Times website at https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/arts/09iht-conway09.html

This article presents the nature of the relationship between Venice and Egypt through the medium of trade and cultural exchange.

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Scholars at the Abbasid Library, Circa. 1237, by Yahya ibn Mahmud al-Wasiti

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The Baghdad House of Wisdom was a public library and research institution in Abbasid-era Baghdad. Believed to have been founded under Caliph Al-Rashid in the 8th Century, it would serve as a hub for scholars and artists of the Islamic world to conduct research and discuss new ideas. This would carry on until its destruction by the Mongols in 1258.

There is a lack of documented evidence surrounding the contents of the Baghdad House of Wisdom and its existence. However, we can identify major movements and key scholars who used the institution and their transfer. For example, in the field of mathematics, the Medieval Islamic scholar Muhammad al-Khwarizmi produced a book on Indian mathematics entitled "al-Jabr"(circa. 820). This was the first work that separated Algebra as a distinct field of the subject, and would be a key textbook in European university curriculums up until the 16th century. This osmosis of ideas occurred due to the vast exchange of knowledge between Christians and Muslims during the Crusading Age

Large parts of Islamic History, such as institutions like the Baghdad House of Wisdom, are not as well-documented as their European counterparts. Historians today work to recognise the imbalance in material evidence and find new ways to reconstruct the past, such as through oral histories, folklore, or dismantling traditional perspectives. In doing so we can better understand forgotten history, as well as unearth new truths about developed societies. A good example of this can be found in "How History Made the West"(2024) by Josephine Quinn.

Further Reading Resources:

Belting, Hans. "Florence and Baghdad: Renaissance Art and Arab Science", Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2011.

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The Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba built between the 8th & 10th centuries, it was converted from a Mosque to a Catholic Cathedral by the Spanish.

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In the 7th Century, Iberia was invaded and conquered by the Islamic Umayyad Caliphate. Up until the 15th century, there existed Muslim kingdoms on the Iberian peninsula that competed for power with the Christian kingdoms in the North. To Muslims, the Iberian Peninsula was named Al-Andalus.

This power struggle would come to be known as the "Reconquista" and was a series of military conflicts tangential to the Crusades. The Nasrid Emirate of Granada, the last of the Muslim kingdoms, fell in 1492, and evidence of Muslim Al-Andalus gradually disappeared along with the Muslim minority, known as the Moors. However, there still exists material evidence in the form of architecture, particularly in the south, that reminds us of the region's multi-religious heritage.

Historians often debate the scope of study and what periods or subjects should be considered when tackling a particular topic. Religious relations between Christians and Muslims in Spain did have a military dynamic such as those in the Middle East, with many events occurring at the same time. However, the character and interpersonal relationships between Christians and Muslims appear different from those in the Middle East, and the Reconquista occurred over a different timeframe.

Further reading resources:

MARIN-GUZMÁN, ROBERTO. “CRUSADE IN AL-ANDALUS: THE ELEVENTH CENTURY FORMATION OF THE RECONQUISTA AS AN IDEOLOGY.” Islamic Studies, vol. 31, no. 3, 1992, pp. 287–318. JSTOR, - For an insight into the ideologies of the Reconquista and a broader juxtaposition between crusade and jihad

http://www.jstor.org/stable/20840082. Accessed 4 Mar. 2024.

https://www.history.co.uk/shows/lost-relics-of-the-knights-templar/articles/the-templars-in-iberia-the-reconquista-and-the

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Pilaster on the right side of the main entrance, showing the the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Templum Domini (Dome of the Rock), and the Tower of David. Madrasa and Friday Mosque of Sultan Hasan, 1356–1363/758–764 AH, Cairo, Egypt (photo: Katherine Werwie, CC BY 2.0).

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Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Hasan, Cairo, Egypt

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Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Hasan, Cairo, Egypt

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One pilaster of the mosque displays floral decoration, while the other showcases depictions of three iconic Jerusalem landmarks—the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Templum Domini, and the Tower of David.

Although Jerusalem had been under Muslim control for an extended period, the repurposed pilaster served as a reference to the past Christian European rule in the Holy Land, while also signifying the present sovereignty of the Mamluks over the region.

Placed at the entrance to the complex and visible to all who entered, it likely aimed to assert Sultan Hasan's authority by visually reminding observers of the vast extent of his reign, which extended all the way to Jerusalem.

Further reading sources:

Sárközi, Júlia. "The Impact of the Crusades on the Architecture of Cairo." Bridge of Civilizations: The Near East and Europe c. 1100–1300, (2019): 165-174.

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A coin minted by the Crusaders, yet featuring Arabic text.

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Jerusalem was often at the centre of conflict during the Crusades. The city was of great religious importance to both Muslims and Christians. it was the focus of the First Crusade where it was captured by the Christians in 1099, and was later seized back by Saladin in 1187. Later Christian attempts to re-capture Jerusalem saw success with the Sixth Crusade in 1229 (although the Third and Fifth Crusades failed).

Despite the image this might suggest of a city in constant religious conflict, in reality things were not so binary. For example in the Sixth Crusade the surrender of Jerusalem to the Crusaders was conditional upon the tolerance of Muslim religious worship within the city. Clearly there were both Muslims and Christians living within the walls of Jerusalem at the same time.

We can see also from material evidence of the time that there was a level of economic exchange between the Christians and Muslims in Jerusalem. For example, coins used within Jerusalem, minted by the Crusaders, sometimes featured Arabic inscriptions. This suggests that there was a significant degree of trade between Christians and Muslims within Jerusalem. Certainly, the existence of these coins would argue against a dramatic divide between the two communities.

There is also material evidence of cultural exchange, which can be seen in the bathhouses of Jerusalem. Bathhouses were quite common in Muslim cities, and Jerusalem was no exception. However, when the city was captured by the Christians, although bathhouses were not particularly common in Western Europe the Crusaders began to use them. Indeed, certain practices relating to massages and scented oils in bathhouses also became popular among Christians in Jerusalem. The adoption of this aspect of Muslim culture highlights that there were some exchanges of cultural practices within Jerusalem between the two religious cultures, rather than adherence to total orthodox religious or cultural practices being demanded or enforced.

Further reading:

https://www.amuseum.org/book/page23.html

http://defendingcrusaderkingdoms.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-culture-of-bathing-in-outremer.html

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Islamic style gold coins 1000-1100s, British Museum

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Further reading:

Handy, Michael. F. "Studies in the Byzantine Monetary Economy c.300–1450", Cambridge University press, 1985

Thread on 12th Century Byzantine coinage by user "BenSi"

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/disecting-a-denomiation-the-12th-century-byzantine-tetarteron.360937/