The Routledge Companion to the Crusades

Peter Lock

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780415393126
• eBook ISBN: 9781135131449
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

A compilation of facts, figures, maps, family trees, summaries of the major crusades and their historiography, the Routledge Companion to the Crusades spans a broad chronological range from the eleventh to the eighteenth century, and gives a chronological framework and context for modern research on the crusading movement.

Not just a history of the Crusades, but an overview of the logistical, economic, social and biographical history, this is a core text for students of history and religious studies.

I
A CHRONOLOGICAL OUTLINE OF THE CRUSADES

Background, military expeditions, and crusader states

The letters ‘BC’ after an entry indicate an event or personage from the Baltic or Northern Crusades, whilst the letters ‘SC’ indicate the same for crusading in the Iberian Peninsula.

Not all dates are exact or agreed. Where there is dispute or uncertainty this has been indicated, and c. for ‘circa’ has been used for an approximate or insecurely known date.

160s

Melito of Sardis is the earliest known Christian pilgrim in the Holy Land, although certainly not the only one. Attempts to identify the topographical location of the scenes of Christ's life, death and Passion are made.

325

According to legend, Constantine's mother Helena makes a pilgrimage to the Holy Land at the time of the Council of Nicaea. She sponsors the building of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and is said to have found the wood of the True Cross on the construction site.

325–431

The Byzantine emperors sponsor the construction of pilgrim churches on sites that are accepted as associated with Christ's life, passion and resurrection to provide foci for pilgrims.

610

Muhammad receives his vision of the angel Gabriel as a messenger of Allah.

622

Muhammad flees from Mecca to Medina (the Hegira). There he becomes a religious leader of a new faith known as Islam, the ‘surrender’ to Allah. His followers are known as Muslimin or Muslims, the ‘surrendering ones’. The Muslim calendar dates from the year of the Hegira (ah = anno Hegirae).

630

Muhammad captures Mecca and makes the town his capital. The former pagan black stone is incorporated into the Kaaba, the religious centre of the holy city of Mecca from which all non-believers are banned.

632

Muhammad dies. Abu Bakr is elected the first caliph or ‘Representative’. The Arabs of Syria appeal to him for help against Byzantine persecution and the period of the rapid expansion of Islam begins.

633

The revelations made to Muhammad by Gabriel are collected in the Qur'ān (henceforth, ‘Koran’).

634

Nov. 26: Persians annihilate an Arab army on the Euphrates at the battle of the bridge, near al-Hirah.

For the first time Greek chroniclers refer to the Muslims as Sarakenoi or Saracens.

636

Aug. 20: Rout of the Byzantine army under Heraklios by Arabs at the Battle of the Yarmuk (Jubeya-Yarmuk), followed by the collapse of the Byzantine position first in North Syria and then in Mesopotamia.

637

May 31 or June 1: Arabs defeat Persians at the Battle of al-Qadisiyah, near al-Hirah.

Dec.: Following another victory at Jalula they occupy all of Iraq west of the Tigris. Antioch captured by the Arabs (see 944).

638

Mar.: Jerusalem is surrendered to the Arabs after a long siege (see 1071, 1076, 1098).

Edessa is captured by the Arabs (see 944).

642

Egypt is captured.

643

Arabs occupy the Mukran and reach the borders of India.

644–56

The third caliph, Uthman ibn Affan, orders the collection and writing of a definitive version of the Koran (see 1143).

647

Arabs attack Cappadocia and capture Caesarea (Kayseri).

Construction of an Arab fleet.

647–88

Arabs gain control of Cyprus.

653

Arabs complete the conquest of Persia by occupying the province of Khorasan.

The River Oxus forms their north-eastern boundary.

Rhodes is captured and the remains of the Colossus of Rhodes are recycled.

661

The Ummayad clan take over the caliphate and make Damascus their capital, employing Byzantine craftsmen to decorate its major buildings. The Muslim Shia sect is formed.

667

Saracens conquer North Africa and reach the Atlantic.

670–1

Saracens make their first unsuccessful naval assault on Constantinople.

673–8

Saracens make yearly naval attacks on Constantinople.

685–91

Caliph Abd al-Malik sponsors the building of the Qubbat as-Salkiah or the Dome of the Rock. It is also erroneously known as the Mosque of Omar. It is not a mosque but a mashhad or pilgrim shrine. It is the oldest extant Muslim monument; by the eleventh century it was considered by both Christians and Muslims to be the site of the Temple of Soloman (Templum Domini). Byzantine influence and practice is evident in its many mosaics.

698

Arabs capture Carthage.

706–14

The great mosque of Damascus is built and the mosques in Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem are enlarged.

711–20

Saracens conquer Spain.

716

The Ummayad Caliph Abd al-Malik establishes the town of Ramla on the Damascus — Cairo road. It was the administrative centre for Palestine until 1099 and the only new town in Palestine founded by the Arabs.

717–18

The Saracens mount an all-out, but ultimately unsuccessful, siege of Constantinople.

720–59

Arabs capture Septimania in south-west France and use it as a base for raids. Their expulsion by the Franks has been claimed as the first war of reconquest (see 915).

732

Charles Martel defeats and kills Abd-er-Rahman at the battle of Poitiers (or Tours). The Saracen advance in Western Europe is stopped.

750

The Abbasid clan replace the Ummayids as caliphs. The take-over is a bloody one and many refugees flee to Spain.

751

Saracens reach the confines of China.

756

Saracens in Spain declare an independent caliphate, around Abd-er-Rahman I, a survivor from the massacres in Damascus. Cordova becomes the capital.

760

The Ismaili sect is founded, accepting Ismail as the last and true imam (or reincarnation).

762

Mansur, the Abbasid caliph, moves the capital of his caliphate to Baghdad, a completely new city. The Abbasid caliphs remain there until their extinction by the Mongols in 1258.

763

Ibu Hisham writes the Life of Muhammad.

824–8

Arabs from Spain capture Crete.

826–40

Arab pirates raid Balearic Islands, Corsica and Sardinia.

830–902

Arabs from North Africa take Sicily from the Byzantines.

840–60

Arab raids along the Italian coast, including the sacking of Benevento and St Peter's, Rome (841). An Arab fleet on its way to attack Rome is sunk in a storm off Ostia in 849.

840–975

Arab pirates make sporadic raids in southern Gaul, particularly in Provence. In 842 Marseilles, Nîmes and Arles are sacked, and in 869 Roland, archbishop of Arles, is captured and held to ransom.

860

First Russian naval attack on Constantinople; Michael III abandons a projected campaign against the Arabs to meet the threat (see 911).

902

Aug. 1: Arabs capture Taormina, the last Byzantine naval base in Sicily.

904

Summer: Arab fleet proceeds to attack Constantinople and its environs. It diverts to Thessalonika.

July 31: Arabs capture Thessalonika after a three-day siege, devastating the second city of the Byzantine Empire. A Greek renegade, Leo of Tripoli, leads the Arab fleet.

905

Oct....

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Routledge Companions to History
• Full Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Part I A chronological outline of the Crusades: background, military expeditions, and crusader states
• Part II Narrative outline of the Crusades
• Part III Brief biographies of crusading figures
• Part IV Historiography, or what historians have said about the Crusades
• Part V Brief biographies of crusade historians
• Part VI Crusades, crusading and the crusader states
• Part VII Select bibliography of publications mainly in English
• Part VIII Genealogical tables
• Part IX Maps
• Index