Crusade (83 page)

The fall of Acre in 1291 to the Muslim forces under Sultan al-Ashraf Khalil heralded the ending of the Crusades first preached by Pope Urban II in France two hundred years earlier. Theobald Gaudin, the Temple’s grand commander, led the knights who sailed with him out of Acre down the coast to their stronghold at Sidon, where he was elected grand master. Here, the surviving Templars remained for a month, but were forced to withdraw when the Mamluks arrived. Gaudin sailed for Cyprus with the Order’s treasury, leaving only a small group of knights based on an island two miles off the coast. The Templars would maintain a garrison here for twelve years, but the remaining Frankish settlements in the Holy Land would be captured by the Mamluks over the following months.

Acre was virtually abandoned and left in ruins for years, while many of the citizens who survived the siege disappeared into the prisons, labor camps and harems of the Mamluks. Some captives, including knights from the military orders, were ransomed, others converted to Islam. Decades later, a Western pilgrim in the Holy Land saw Templars working as wood-cutters near the Dead Sea.

Sultan Khalil did not long survive his victory over the Franks. At the end of 1293 he was assassinated by his own generals, shortly after proclaiming a jihad against the Mongols. He was succeeded by his brother, Kalawun’s young son, al-Nasir Muhammad. The Mamluk Sultanate continued to hold sway in the Middle East until it was overthrown by the Ottoman Turks in 1517.

In the West, desire to win back territory lost to the Muslim forces didn’t die immediately with the fall of Acre, but although later planned Crusades to recapture the Holy Land proved unsuccessful the echoes of this bloody period in the world’s history would resonate painfully on both sides of the sea for centuries to come. We are still feeling those echoes today.

—Robyn Young
Brighton, March 2007

Character List

(* denotes real figures from history)

*ABAGA:
Mongol ilkhan of Persia (1265-1282)

AISHA:
daughter of Kalawun, married to Baraka Khan

*AL-ASHRAF KHALIL:
son of Kalawun; sultan of Egypt and Syria (1290-1293)

ALESSANDRO:
Knight Templar, personal guard to Guillaume de Beaujeu

AMAURY:
royal guard under Hugh III

ANDREAS DI PAOLO:
Venetian silk merchant

ANGELO VITTURI:
Venetian slave trader, son of Venerio

*ARGHUN:
son of Abaga, installed as ilkhan in 1284

*ARMAND DE PÉRIGORD:
grand master of the Temple (1232-1244)

*AS-SALIH ALI:
son of Kalawun

*BALIAN OF IBELIN:
Hugh III’s bailli in Acre

*BARAKA KHAN:
son of Baybars, married to Aisha; sultan of Egypt and Syria (1277- 1279)

*BAYBARS BUNDUKDARI:
sultan of Egypt and Syria (1260-1277)

BERTRAND:
royal guard under Hugh III

CARLO:
Knight Templar, personal guard to Guillaume de Beaujeu

CATARINA:
daughter of Andreas

CECELIA DE LYONS:
mother of Garin

*CHARLES D’ANJOU:
brother of Louis IX; king of Sicily and Naples (1266-1285), king of Jerusalem (1277-1285)

CONRADT VON BREMEN:
German horse dealer

DAWUD:
Mamluk amir

*EDWARD I:
king of England (1272-1307)

ELIAS:
rabbi and bookseller

ELWEN:
Will’s lover

EVERARD DE TROYES:
Templar priest and head of the Anima Templi

FATIMA:
wife of Baybars, mother of Salamish

FRANCESCO:
Knight Templar, personal guard to Guillaume de Beaujeu

GARIN DE LYONS:
former Knight Templar in the service of Edward I

*GÉRARD DE RIDEFORT:
grand master of the Temple (1185-1189)

*GREGORY X:
Pope (1271-1276)

GUIDO SORANZO:
Genoese shipbuilder

*GUILLAUME DE BEAUJEU:
grand master of the Temple (1273-1291)

GUY:
royal advisor to Hugh III

HASAN:
former comrade of Everard de Troyes, died in Paris in 1266

*HENRY II:
son of Hugh III; king of Cyprus (1285-1324), king of Jerusalem (1286-1291)

*HUGH III:
king of Cyprus (1267-1284), king of Jerusalem (1269-1277)

*HUGUES DE PAIRAUD:
visitor of the Temple, based in Paris

IDRIS:
a Syrian Assassin

ISABEL:
Will’s mother

ISHANDIYAR:
Mamluk amir

JACQUES DE LYONS:
Knight Templar and uncle of Garin, former member of the Anima Templi, died at Honfleur in 1260

JAMES CAMPBELL:
Knight Templar and father of Will, former member of the Anima Templi, died at Safed in 1266

*JEAN DE VILLIERS:
Grand Master of the Hospital (1284-1293)

*KALAWUN AL-ALFI:
Mamluk amir, Baybars’s chief lieutenant and father-in-law to Baraka Khan; sultan of Egypt and Syria (1280-1290)

KAYSAN:
a mercenary, hired to protect pilgrims in Arabia

*KHADIR:
Baybars’s soothsayer

*LOUIS IX:
king of France (1226-1270)

LUCA:
Genoese boy, brother of Marco

*LUCIA:
countess of Tripoli

MAHMUD:
Mamluk amir

MARCO:
Genoese man, brother of Luca

*MARIA OF ANTIOCH:
cousin of Hugh III and claimant to Jerusalem

MARY:
Will’s sister, died in Scotland when they were children

MICHAEL PISANI:
Pisan arms merchant

NASIR:
Kalawun’s comrade and officer in the Mansuriyya

*NICHOLAS IV:
pope (1288-1292)

*NICHOLAS DE HANAPE:
patriarch of Jerusalem

NIZAM:
wife of Baybars, mother of Baraka Khan

OMAR:
former comrade of Baybars, died in an attack by Assassins in 1271

OWEIN AP GWYN:
uncle of Elwen and Will’s former master, died at Honfleur in 1260

*PETER DE SEVREY:
marshal of the Temple

*PHILIPPE IV:
king of France (1285-1314)

*RABBAN SAUMA:
ambassador to Ilkhan Arghun

RENAUD DE TOURS:
French armorer

ROBERT DE PARIS:
Knight Templar

*ROBERT DE SABLÉ:
grand master of the Temple (1191-1193)

*ROGER DE SAN SEVERINO:
Charles d’Anjou’s bailli in Acre

ROOK:
formerly in the service of Edward I, was killed by Garin in 1268

ROSE:
daughter of Will and Elwen

*SALAMISH:
son of Baybars

SCLAVO:
Genoese landlord

SENESCHAL, THE:
official of the Temple and member of the Anima Templi

SIMON TANNER:
Templar sergeant

*TATAWUN:
Mongol commander

*THEOBALD GAUDIN:
grand commander of the Temple

USAMAH:
Mamluk amir

VELASCO:
Templar priest and member of the Anima Templi

VENERIO VITTURI:
Venetian slave trader, father of Angelo

WILL CAMPELL:
commander in the Knights Templar and member of the Anima Templi

YSENDA:
Will’s youngest sister

YUSUF:
Mamluk amir

ZACCARIA:
Knight Templar, personal guard to Guillaume de Beaujeu

Glossary

ACRE:
a city on the coast of Palestine, conquered by the Arabs in AD 640. It was captured by the Crusaders in the early twelfth century and became the principal port of the new Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. Acre was ruled by a king, but by the mid-thirteenth century royal authority was disputed by the local Frankish nobles and from this time the city, with its twenty-seven separate quarters, was largely governed oligarchically.

AMIR:
Arabic for
commander
, also used as a title for some rulers.

ANIMA TEMPLI:
Latin for “Soul of the Temple.” A fictional group within the Knights Templar founded by Grand Master Robert de Sablé in 1191 in the aftermath of the Battle of Hattin to protect the Temple from corruption. It is formed of twelve Brethren, drawn from the order’s ranks, with a Guardian to mediate during disputes, and is dedicated to achieving reconciliation among the Christian, Muslim and Jewish faiths.

ASSASSINS:
an extremist sect founded in Persia in the eleventh century. The Assassins were adherents of the Ismaili division of the Shia Muslim faith and, over the following years, spread to several countries, including Syria. Here, under their most famous leader, Sinan, “the Old Man of the Mountain,” they formed an independent state, where they retained control until they were eventually subsumed into the Mamluk territories controlled by Baybars.

AYYUBIDS:
dynastic rulers of Egypt and Syria during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, responsible for the creation of the Mamluk (slave) army. Saladin was of this line and during his reign the Ayyubids achieved the height of their power. The last Ayyubid was Turanshah, who was killed by Baybars under the orders of the Mamluk commander Aibek, ending the Ayyubid dynasty and beginning the reign of the Mamluks.

BAILLI:
the representative of a king or other ruler.

BERNARD DE CLAIRVAUX, ST.:
(1090-1153) abbot and founder of the Cistercian monastery at Clairvaux in France. An early supporter of the Templars, Bernard aided the order in the creation of their Rule.

BEZANT:
a gold coin of the medieval period, first minted in Byzantium.

BLACK STONE:
in Arabic “al-Hajar al-Aswad,” a sacred relic set in the eastern corner of the Ka‘ba in Mecca, held in place by a silver band and kissed or touched by Muslims during the rites of pilgrimage. In 929, the Karmatians (Ismaili Shias) took possession of the Black Stone and carried it out of Mecca, effectively holding it ransom until its restoration twenty-two years later.

CRUSADES:
a European movement of the medieval period, spurred by economic, religious and political ideals. The First Crusade was preached in 1095 by Pope Urban II at Clermont in France. The call to Crusade came initially as a response to appeals from the Greek emperor in Byzantium whose domains were being invaded by the Seljuk Turks, who had captured Jerusalem in 1071. The Roman and Greek Orthodox Churches had been divided since 1054 and Urban saw in this plea the chance to reunite the two Churches and, in so doing, gain Catholicism a firmer hold over the Eastern world. Urban’s goal was achieved only briefly and imperfectly in the wake of the Fourth Crusade of 1204. Over two centuries, more than eleven Crusades to the Holy Land were launched from Europe’s shores.

DESTRIER:
Old French for
war horse
.

ENCEINTE:
fortifications enclosing a castle.

FALCHION:
a short sword with a curved edge, primarily used by infantry.

FRANKS:
in the Middle East the term Franks (
al-Firinjah
) referred to Western Christians. In the West it was the name of the Germanic tribe that conquered Gaul in the sixth century, which thereafter became known as France.

GRAIL ROMANCE:
a popular cycle of romances prevalent during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the first of which was
Joseph d’ Arimathie
written by Robert de Borron at the end of the twelfth century. From this time, the Grail, the concept of which is thought to be derived from pre-Christian mythology, was Christianized and adopted into the Arthurian legend, made famous by the twelfth-century French poet Chrétien de Troyes, whose work influenced later writers such as Malory and Tennyson. The following century saw many more takes on the Grail theme, including Wolfram von Eschenbach’s
Parzival
, which inspired Wagner’s opera. Romances were courtly stories, usually composed in verse in the vernacular, that combined historical, mythical and religious themes.

GRAND MASTER:
head of a military order. The grand master of the Templars was elected for life by a council of Templar officials and until the end of the Crusades was based at the Order’s headquarters in Palestine.

GREAVES:
armor worn to protect the shins.

GREEK FIRE:
invented in Byzantium in the seventh century, Greek fire was a mixture of pitch, sulfur and naphtha that was used in warfare to set fire to ships and fortifications.

HAJJ:
the annual pilgrimage to Mecca that Muslims are required to make at least once in their lives, during Dhu al-Hijja, the twelfth month of the Islamic calendar (a lunar calendar, meaning months aren’t static). Another pilgrimage, known as the Umra, can be made at any time.

HAUBERK:
a shirt of mail or scale armor.

JIHAD:
meaning “to strive,”
jihad
can be interpreted in both a physical and spiritual sense. In the physical it means holy war in the defense of and for the spread of Islam; in the spiritual it is the inner struggle of individual Muslims against worldly temptations.

KA‘BA:
meaning “cube” in Arabic, a stone building situated in the center of the Great Mosque in Mecca, toward which Muslims face during prayer. It is believed to have been a pre-Islamic holy place for Arabian tribes, but later became central to Muslim worship when Muhammad set the Black Stone into the eastern corner of the shrine and rededicated it to Islam. Muslim tradition states that it was built by Adam, then rebuilt by Abraham and Ishmael. It is Islam’s holiest shrine, around which Muslims circle during pilgrimage.