Abstract
The word ‘caravan’ (caravana) had originally been used in the Latin East to describe any convoy on land or at sea carrying merchandise or other goods.1 It was still being employed in this sense by the Hospitallers on Cyprus in the early fourteenth century,2 but it had other meanings, one of which appears in the twelfth-century regulations for the hospital in Jerusalem. In these the caravana, under an official called the caravanier, was a department for storing and issuing bedclothes and utensils.3 This usage was similar to that employed by the Templars, for whom the caravana was a department in their marshalsy, with a staff of grooms and artisans, where war horses were stabled and their tack and saddlery stored and repaired.4 In both orders, therefore, the word caravan must have derived its meaning from the trains of traders coming up to Jerusalem from the coast or the interior, bringing in one case bedclothes and nursing equipment, in the other war horses and military gear.
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Notes
See, for example, Tabulae ordinis Theutonici, p. 4, no. 3. For what follows, see Jonathan Riley-Smith, ‘The Association in the Minds of the Early Knights Hospitaller of Warfare with the Care of the Sick’, in Iberia, ed. Armando Luis de Carvalho Homem, José Augusto de Sotto Mayor Pizarro and Paul Maria de Carvalho Pinto Costa (Porto, 2009), pp. 257–9.
See Jürgen Sarnowsky, Macht und Herrschaft im Johanniterorden des 15. Jahrhunderts (Münster, 2001), pp. 221–2.
Alain Blondy, L’Ordre de Malte au XVIIIe siècle. Des dernières splendeurs à la ruine (Paris, 2002), p. 12.
Bronstein, The Hospitallers, pp. 100–1, 118; Zsolt Hunyadi, The Hospitallers in the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary c1150–1387 (Budapest, 2010), pp. 38–40.
Nicholas III, Les Registres, ed. Jules Gay and Suzanne Vitte (Paris, 1898–1938), p. 51, no. 167.
Anthony Luttrell, ‘Gli Ospitalieri di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme dal Continente alle Isole’, in Acri 1291. La fine della presenza degli ordini militari in Terra Santa e i nuovi orientamenti nel XIV secolo, ed. Francesco Tommasi (Perugia, 1996), p. 80.
Christopher Marshall, Warfare in the Latin East, 1192–1291 (Cambridge, 1992), pp. 222–3.
Fidenzio of Padua, ‘Liber recuperationis Terrae Sanctae’, PC, pp. 88–90; Biblioteca Bio-Bibliografica della Terra Santa e dell’Oriente Francescano, ed. Girolamo Gulobovich, 18 vols (Florence, 1906–48), 1:260–1, 264; The Templar of Tyre, p. 110.
Cart Hosp 3:115, no. 3173; Riley-Smith, notes to Ayyubids, Mamlukes and Crusaders 2:207–8. The master wrote to the pope about it, but the letter does not seem to have survived. Annales ecclesiastici, ed. Cesare Baronio et al., 37 vols (Bar-le-Duc and Paris, 1864–82), 22:159–60.
See Cart Hosp 1:378, no. 558. See Joshua Prawer, Crusader Institutions (Oxford, 1980), p. 125, n. 84.
For Hospitaller participation, see, for example, Cart Hosp 2:253–4, nos 1344, 1633; Itinerarium, ed. Mayer, pp. 310, 313; Ralph of Diceto 2:70; Oliver of Paderborn, ‘Historia’, pp. 166–8; James of Vitry, Lettres, ed. Robert B. C. Huygens (Leiden, 1960), p. 99; ‘L’Estoire de Eracles’, pp. 259–60, 325, 455, 461; John of Joinville, Vie de Saint Louis, ed. Jacques Monfrin (Paris, 1995), pp. 466, 484–6; Chronicon de Lanercost, p. 60; ‘Le manuscrit de Rothelin’, p. 631; The Templar of Tyre, p. 112, 138, 140; Ernoul, Chronique, pp. 355–6; ‘Annales de Terre Sainte’, p. 451–3; ‘A New Text of the Annales de Terre Sainte’, ed. Peter Edbury, in In Laudem Hierosolymitani, ed. Iris Shagrir, Ronnie Ellenblum and Jonathan Riley-Smith (Aldershot, 2007), p. 159.
An example is Renard of Dampierre whose freedom was negotiated by the Hospitallers after possibly 30 years of captivity. The Hospitallers contributed to his ransom or perhaps paid all of it. Riley-Smith, ‘The Hospitaller Commandery of Eterpigny’, pp. 387–8. See Cart Hosp 2:171, 272–3, 363–4, 547, nos 1434, 1682, 1861, 2179; Yvonne Friedman, Encounters between Enemies. Captivity and Ransom in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (Leiden, 2002), pp. 187–211; Alan Forey, ‘The Military Orders and the Ransoming of Captives from Islam’, Studia Monastica 33 (1991), pp. 276–9. See Matthew Paris, Chronica 4:524–6. On the other hand, a merchant from Damascus was in 1266 ransoming Muslims held by them in Crac des Chevaliers. Al-Nuwairi in note to al-Maqrizi, tr. Quatremere, I, B, p. 35: the story of the eunuch’s servant sold for 40 dinars to Crac des Chevaliers by the inhabitants of Kara.
See Early Mamluk Diplomacy (1260–1290), tr. Peter Holt (Leiden, 1995), pp. 69–91; The Templar of Tyre, p. 204. In 1213 Templars and Hospitallers were among papal messengers to al-’Adil. Innocent III, Acta, ed. Theodosius Haluščynskyj (Vatican, 1944), no. 207.
See John of Joinville, ‘Credo’, ed. Natalis de Wailly, Jean de Joinville, Histoire de Saint Louis; Credo; et Lettre à Louis X (Paris, 1874), p. 428.
Otto of St Blasien, ‘Chronica’, ed. Adolf Hofmeister, MGHS rer Germ 47 (1912), p. 68.
The Templar of Tyre, pp. 194, 202. See Riley-Smith, Templars and Hospitallers, p. 50. During the dispute between King Hugh and the Templars in 1276 men from Bethlehem who were allies of the Hospital fought in the streets of Acre with men from Mosul who were ‘homes dou Temple’. ‘L’Estoire de Eracles’, p. 474. See Marino Sanuto, ‘Liber secretorum fidelium crucis’, ed. Jacques Bongars, Gesta Dei per Francos (Hannau, 1611), p. 226. These may have been members of native Christian confraternities associated with the military orders. Jean Richard, ‘La confrérie des Mosserins d’Acre et les Marchands de Mossoul au XIIIe siècle’, L’Orient Syrien 11 (1966), pp. 451–60. When Italian crusaders began to massacre Muslim peasants in Acre in 1289, brothers of the military orders rushed to the aid of the peasants and were able to save some of them. Francis Amadi, p. 219; Florio Bustron, p. 118.
Odo of Châteauroux, ‘Letter’, ed. Luc d’Achéry and Louis-François-Joseph de La Barre, Spicilegium sive collectio veterum aliquot scriptorum, 3 vols (Paris, 1723) 3:625; Matthew Paris, Chronica 5:257.
Jonathan Riley-Smith, ‘The Military Orders and the East, 1149–1291’, in Knighthoods of Christ, ed. Norman Housley (Aldershot, 2007), pp. 137–49.
Reuven Amitai-Preiss, Mongols and Mamluks. The Mamluk-Ilkhanid War, 1260–1281 (Cambridge, 1995), pp. 94–102. See Roger of Stanegrave, pp. 297–8.
Coleccion Diplomatica, ed. Santos García Larragueta, El Gran Priorado de Navarra de la Orden de San Juan de Jerusalen, siglos XII–XIII, 2 vols (Pamplona, 1957), 2:85–90, nos 85–7; ‘Two unpublished letters’, ed. Mayer, pp. 306–8.
Coleccion Diplomatica, pp. 89–90, no. 87. For Ayyubid politics at this time, see R. Stephen Humphreys, From Saladin to the Mongols. The Ayyubids of Damascus, 1193–1260 (Albany, 1977), pp. 87–123.
Cart Hosp 2:1–2, no. 1131. See also Gunther of Pairis, Hystoria Constantinopolitana, ed. Peter Orth (Hildesheim/Zürich, 1994), p. 121.
‘Two unpublished letters’, ed. Mayer, pp. 306–8 (Coleccion Diplomatica, pp. 85–7, no. 85).
For examples other than those referred to above, see Ernoul, Chronique, p. 311; ‘L’Estoire de Eracles’, pp. 224, 309; Louis IX, ‘Letter’, ed. André Du Chesne, Historiae Francorum scriptores, 5 vols (Paris, 1636–49), 5:431; ‘Le manuscrit de Rothelin’, pp. 630, 633; The Templar of Tyre, p. 90.
James I of Aragon, Crònica o Llibre dels Feits, ed. Ferran Soldevila (Barcelona, 1982), pp. 403–6. William of Courcelles is named Joan Descarcella.
See James of Vitry, Lettres, pp. 124–5, 150; Oliver of Paderborn, ‘Letters’, ed. Reinhold Röhricht, Westdeutsche Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Kunst 10 (1891), pp. 191–2, and ‘Historia’, pp. 222–4; ‘L’Estoire de Eracles’, pp. 339, 342, 357; Ernoul, Chronique, p. 442; James Powell, Anatomy of a Crusade 1213–1221 (Philadelphia, 1986), pp. 160–1, 186–7. According to Ibn al-Athir (Chronicle 3:180) the sultan did not offer in his final approach to repair the walls of Jerusalem.
Le Livre au Roi, ed. Myriam Greilsammer (Paris, 1995), pp. 137, 261, 271.
Deschamps, Les châteaux, p. 1, passim. Biller, Der Crac des Chevaliers, passim; Werner Meyer, John Zimmer and Maria-Letizia Boscardin, ‘Krak des Chevaliers’, Burgen und Schlösser 4 (2009), pp. 242–5. In the county of Tripoli the Hospitallers also held Qalaat Yahmur (Pringle, The Red Tower, pp. 16–18) and perhaps ‘Qoulei’ (Coliath: Boas, Archaeology, p. 238).
Cart Hosp 2:115–16, 118–19, nos 1344, 1349, 1350–1. See Cahen, La Syrie du Nord, pp. 614–15; Jean-Jacques Langendorf and G. Zimmermann, ‘Trois monuments inconnus des croisés’, Genava ns 12 (1964), pp. 155–65; Hellenkemper, Burgen der Kreuzritterzeit, pp. 249–54. Robert Edwards (The Fortifications of Armenian Cilicia [Washington DC, 1987], pp. 221–9) and Marie-Anna Chevalier (Les ordres, pp. 269–70) conclude that Silifke is of Hospitaller construction throughout.
Ernoul, Chronique, p. 15. Crac des Chevaliers was besieged in 1164, 1188, 1207, 1218, perhaps 1265 and 1269, before being finally captured in 1271. Abu Shamah 4:125–6, 349–50; 5:166; Ibn al-Athir, Chronicle 2:344–5; Ibn Shaddad (Baha’ ad-Din), p. 81; Abul-Fida’, ‘Annals’, p. 83; al-Maqrizi, tr. Quatremere, I, B, pp. 27, 78–79; Kamal ad-Din 5:55. In 1265 a body of Christians going from Safita to Crac was surprised and cut to pieces by the Muslims. Shafi ibn Ali, p. 674. In the thirteenth century the garrison took part in the campaigns of 1203, 1207, 1209 and 1230. Before its capture in 1285 Margat and its territory were attacked in 1188, 1206, 1231, 1269, 1281 and 1282. Ernoul, Chronique, pp. 254–5; ‘L’Estoire de Eracles’, p. 122; ‘Historia de expeditione Friderici’, p. 4; Ibn al-Athir, Chronicle 2:345; Abu Shamah 4: 356–7; Ibn Wasil, tr. Blochet in notes to al-Maqrizi, 9:136, n. 1; Kamal ad-Din 5:79; al-Maqrizi, tr. Quatremere, I, B, p. 78; II, A, p. 27; The Templar of Tyre, p. 154; Abu-l-Fida’, ‘Annals’, p. 158; Bar Hebraeus, p. 463; ‘Annales de Terre Sainte’, p.457. Another attack was made from Hamah in the winter of 1282, but failed to get through because of snowstorms. Ibn ’Abd-ar-Rahim, ‘Life of Qala’un’, ext. tr. Joseph-François Michaud, Bibliothèque des croisades, 2 vols (vols 6–7, Histoire de croisades) (Paris, 1822), 2:693. Hospitallers from Margat took part in the campaigns of 1203, 1243, 1278, 1280 and 1281.
‘Annales prioratus de Dunstaplia’, ed. Henry R. Luard, Annales monastici 3 (London, 1866), p. 128; Cahen, La Syrie du Nord, p. 641.
Marie-Luise Favreau-Lilie, ‘The Military Orders and the Escape of the Christian Population from the Holy Land in 1291’, Journal of Medieval History 19 (1993), p. 207.
See Norman Housley, The Avignon Papacy and the Crusades, 1305–1378 (Oxford, 1986), pp. 201–13; Edbury, The Kingdom of Cyprus, pp. 103–4.
Charles II of Naples, ‘Conseil’, ed. George Bratianu ‘Le Conseil du Roi Charles’, Revue Historique du Sud-Est Européen 19 (1942), p. 355.
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© 2012 Jonathan Riley-Smith
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Riley-Smith, J. (2012). Defending Christians. In: The Knights Hospitaller in the Levant, c.1070–1309. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137264756_7
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