Frankish Rural Settlement in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem

This book is based on an unprecedented archaeological survey of more than two hundred Frankish rural sites.

Ronnie Ellenblum (Author)

9780521554015, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 February 1998

344 pages, 14 b/w illus. 9 maps
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm, 0.68 kg

'… bold and persuasive'. Medieval Archaeology

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 of the spatial and social interrelation between the Franks and the indigenous population. It is based on an unprecedented field study of more than two hundred Frankish rural sites and on a close re-examination of the historical sources. The division of the country between Christian and Muslim populations is explained by the far-reaching social process of nomadisation and sedentarisation which began with the Muslim conquest in the seventh century and which reached its zenith before the Frankish conquest of the country. The author re-examines 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 which lived elsewhere in the country.

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.

Subject Areas: Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], European history [HBJD]