Syria in Crusader Times - Conflict and Co-Existence

Explores the juxtaposition of conflict and co-existence in twelfth-century Syria

Presenting numerous interconnected insights into life in Greater Syria in the twelfth century, this book covers a wide range of themes relating to Crusader-Muslim relations. Some chapters deal with various literary sources, including little-known Crusader chronicles, a jihad treatise, a lost Muslim history of the Franks, biographies, letters and poems. Other chapters look at material culture, from coins to urban development, internal relations between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims and between Crusader and Oriental Christians, and the role of the Turkmen. New insights into the career of Saladin are revealed, for example through the work of a little-known propagandist at his court, and Saladin's use of gift-giving for political purposes, as well as neglected aspects of the rule of his family dynasty, the Ayyubids, which succeeded him. Special attention is paid to the Christians residing in the Middle East, from Italians to Melkites and Armenians.

Key Features
Analyses valuable little-known primary sources in Arabic, Armenian, Syriac, Latin and Old French about a key period in Middle Eastern history
Highlights the role of Oriental Christian communities in Syria
Sheds new light on Saladin's career
Contributes significantly to the ever-expanding field of Crusader studies

Carole Hillenbrand is Professor Emerita of Islamic History at the University of Edinburgh and Professor of Islamic History at the University of St Andrews. She is the author of Islam: A New Historical Introduction (2015), Turkish Myth and Muslim Symbol: The Battle of Manzikert (2007), The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives (1999), A Muslim Principality in Crusader Times (1990) and The Waning of the Umayyad Caliphate (1989).

List of contents

Preface

Acknowledgments


Part 1: Sources

1. Hamdan al-Atharibi's History of the Franks revisited, again, Paul M. Cobb

2. Legitimate authority in the Kitab al-jihad of ¿Ali b. Tahir al-Sulami, Kenneth Goudie

3. Politics, religion and the occult in the works of Kamal al-Din Ibn Talha, a vizier, 'alim and author in thirteenth-century Syria, A.C. Peacock

Part 2: Christians

4. Adapting to Muslim rule: the Syrian Orthodox community in twelfth-century north Syria and the Jazira, R. Stephen Humphreys

5. The afterlife of Edessa: remembering Frankish rule, 1144 and after, Christopher MacEvitt

Part 3: Convivencia

6. Diplomatic relations and coinage among the Turcomans, the Ayyubids and the Crusaders: Pragmatism and change of identity, Taef Elazhari

7. Symbolic conflict and cooperation in the neglected chronicle of a Syrian Prince, Luke Yarbrough

8. A critique of the scholarly outlook of the Crusades: The case for tolerance and co-existence, Suleiman A. Mourad


Part 4: War and Peace

9. The portrayal of violence in Walter the Chancellor's Bella Antiochena, Thomas Asbridge

10. Infernalising the enemy: images of hell in Muslim descriptions of the Franks during the Crusading period*, Alex Mallett


Part 5: Cities

11. Sunnites et Chiites à Alep sous le règne d'al-Salih Isma'il (569-577/1174-1181): entre conflits et réconciliations, Anne-Marie Eddé

12. The War of Towers: Venice and Genoa at war in Crusader Syria, 1256-58, Thomas F. Madden

13. Gaza in the Frankish and Ayyubid periods: the run-up to 1260 CE, Reuven Amitai

Part 6: Saladin's men

14. Picture-poems for Saladin: 'Abd al-Mun'im al-Jilyani's mudabbajat, Julia Bray

15. Ayyubid Realpolitik and political-military vicissitudes versus counter-crusading ideology in the memoirist-chronicler al-Katib al-Isfahani, Lutz Richter-Bernburg

16. Assessing the evidence for a turning point in Ayyubid-Frankish Relations in a letter by al-Qa¿i al-Fadil, Bogdan C. Smarandache


Part 7: Key personalities

17. Saladin, Generosity and Gift-Giving, Jonathan Phillips

18. Hülegü: the new Constantine? Angus Stewart



Bibliography

Index

About the author

Carole Hillenbrand is Honorary Professorial Fellow, Professor Emerita at the University of Edinburgh and Professor of Islamic History at the University of St Andrews since 2013. In 2005 she became the first non-Muslim scholar to be awarded the prestigious King Faisal International Prize for Islamic Studies, reflecting her 'revolutionary approach to the largely one-sided subject of the Crusades'. She is author of The Crusades (EUP, 1999), The Waning of the Umayyad Caliphate (Albany, 1989), A Muslim Principality in Crusader Times (Brill, 1990), and co-editor (with C. E. Bosworth) of Qajar Iran, (Edinburgh, 1984) and editor of The Sultan's Turret (Brill, 1999).

Summary

Presenting numerous interconnected insights into life in Greater Syria in the twelfth century, this book covers a wide range of themes relating to Crusader-Muslim relations.

Product details

• Authors: Carole Hillenbrand, Hillenbrand Carole
• Assisted by: Carole Hillenbrand (Editor)
• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.09.2018
• EAN: 9781474429702
• ISBN: 978-1-4744-2970-2
• No. of pages: 288
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Religion/theology > Other religions; Islam, Europa, Syrien, Geschichte des Nahen und Mittleren Ostens, 1000 bis 1500 nach Christus, Geschichte allgemein und Weltgeschichte, Asiatische Geschichte