Frankish Jerusalem: The Transformation of a Medieval City in the Latin East (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series)

Focusing on Jerusalem under Frankish rule following the Crusader conquest of 1099, this book sheds light on the dynamic socio-economic factors that shaped Jerusalem's gradual urban transformation. In exploring the extensive corpus of medieval property records, it reveals that the growth of Jerusalem's monumental and symbolic landscape, as befitted its new status as the capital of the Latin Kingdom, was in tandem with more mundane facets of life in the city, such as growing residential settlement patterns, and the expansion of its rural hinterland. This places the history of Frankish Jerusalem in a broader theoretical framework by analyzing the socio-economic and institutional mechanisms – such as immigration and the formation of medieval trust – that shaped the cityscape during a particularly tumultuous period in its history, and places it against the backdrop of medieval urbanisation processes in other regions. Cover 1 Half-title page 3 Series page 4 Title page 5 Copyright page 6 Dedication 7 Contents 9 List of Figures, Maps and Tables 12 Note on Names, Toponyms and References to Documents 14 Acknowledgements 15 List of Abbreviations 18 Introduction: Frankish Jerusalem – Revisiting an Urban Landscape That Was Both a Symbol and an Anomaly 21 a ‘The Jerusalem the Crusaders Captured’: A Pilgrim’s Birds’ Eye View at the Beginning of the Twelfth Century 23 b Jerusalem under Muslim Rule 28 c ‘Crusader Jerusalem’ as a Historiographic Construct 33 d Outline 42 Chapter 1 The Transformation of Frankish Jerusalem: History, Historiography and New Methodologies 44 1.1 From Document to Database: Medieval Property Documents and the Dynamics of Settled Environments 48 1.2 New Toolkits Generating New Questions: Medieval Urban Development and the Spatial Turn 51 1.3 The Database of Frankish Jerusalem 54 Types of Transactions 60 Agency 65 Spatial Categorisation 68 Property Details 69 The Perils of Methodology 71 Chapter 2 The Earthly City: Patterns of Settlement and Property Distribution 75 2.1 The Urban Transformation of Jerusalem: An Overview 76 2.2 The Rise in Commercial Transactions and Increasing Specificity of Property Definitions 80 2.3 Weaving Data into Spatial and Historical Context: Property Transactions and the Reconstruction of Jerusalem’s Transforming Urban Fabric 82 2.4 Institutional Involvement in Property Transactions inside Jerusalem: A Comparative Analysis 99 2.5 Patterns of Institutional Municipal Engagement: A Reinterpretation 108 2.6 Conclusion 136 Chapter 3 Jerusalem and Its Hinterland 140 3.1 The Transformation of Jerusalem’s Hinterland in the First Half of the Twelfth Century: Background and Definitions 143 3.2 The Role of Religious Institutions in the Expansion of Jerusalem’s Rural Hinterland in the First Half of the Twelfth Century: The Documentary Evidence 150 3.3 Institutional Differences and Patterns of Development in Jerusalem’s Hinterland before the 1140s 160 3.4 Development Mechanisms in Jerusalem’s Hinterland in the 1140s–1160s 170 3.5 City and Hinterland 179 3.6 Conclusion 186 Chapter 4 From Depopulated and Dilapidated Town into a Capital: Social Structures and the Transformation of Jerusalem 188 4.1 A City That Never ‘Came of Age’? Municipal Mechanisms in Frankish Jerusalem: History, Historiography and New Approaches 193 4.2 Social Stratification and the Transformation of Jerusalem’s Cityscape 199 4.3 Conclusion 221 Chapter 5 Continuity and Change in the Social Structures of Jerusalem in the Second Half of the Twelfth Century 224 5.1 Magna Mahumeria and Burgess Communities in the Middle of the Twelfth Century 224 5.2 Social Stratification and the Increasing Independence of Urban Burgess Identity 232 5.3 European Context and Proto-communal Social Formations in Frankish Jerusalem 241 5.4 Frankish Jerusalem as an ‘Immigrant City’ 244 5.5 Conclusion 253 Conclusion 255 a A Paradigm Shift 256 b The City as a Negotiated Space and the Different Definitions of Municipal Authority 257 c Towards a New Model of Frankish Jerusalem: Between Eastern Forms and Western Processes 258 d Overview of the Present Study 260 From the ‘Rebuilding of Zion’ to a Transforming Urban Fabric 260 Jerusalemite Institutions and Their Impact on the City and Its Hinterland 260 From Crusaders to City Dwellers: The Role of Civic Identity and Social Cohesion in the Transformation of Jerusalem 262 Shifting Socio-Economic Structures after the Middle of the Twelfth Century: The Breakdown of Institutional Collaboration 263 Developing Cityscape and Contested Public Spaces 265 Appendix: Places Mentioned in the Text 268 Bibliography 270 Index 294