Encounters: The Crusades in 50 Objects by A. Fleck, Cathleen; Lapina, Elizabeth; A. Leson, Richard;

Short description:

From the late eleventh to the early fourteenth century, western Europeans established the crusader states of the Levant and had unprecedented commercial, cultural, and military exchanges with the Middle East.

Long description:

From the late eleventh to the late thirteenth century, during the existence of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and other crusader states, Latin Christians did not only frequently encounter Muslims on the battlefield, but also engaged in unprecedented commercial and cultural exchanges with the Muslim, Eastern Christian, and Jewish inhabitants of the Middle East. Through a focused analysis of fifty objects, this volume examines what material culture can tell us about interpersonal, interfaith, cross-cultural, and trans-regional encounters during this period.

This richly illustrated volume explores a variety of Latin Christian, Eastern Christian, Muslim, and Jewish objects, including sculpture, glassware, metalware, manuscripts, textiles, painting, coins, and seals. Addressing the themes of Belief, Conflict, Exchange, Power, and Memory, the essays examine the conception of these objects and the uses to which they were put throughout their history. As a result, there emerges a picture of the Middle East as a place of profound cultural diversity and of multiplicity of encounters between different communities.

The book stands as a valuable resource for students and scholars of the medieval crusades, the medieval Middle East and Europe, as well as all those interested in archaeology, art history, global history, and religious studies more broadly.

“Through a rich, varied and stimulating collection of carefully chosen objects, this book offers a state-of-the-art and fascinating new way with which to engage with the crusading movement as an idea and with the polities established in the East following the Crusades. Ranging from objects attesting to daily life, commerce and cultural encounters, to objects attesting to aspects of warfare and conflict, the book presents a balanced, nuanced and vivid picture of life in the 'crusader states.' Eloquently written and beautifully illustrated, this captivating book will be of interest to both scholars and the general public alike.”

-          Gil Fishhof, University of Haifa

“This is a marvelous volume that conveys the complexity of life in the eastern Mediterranean and the Kingdom of Jerusalem during the period of the crusades, ca. 1099–1291. The authors have chosen fifty objects spanning from buttons to drinking glasses, altars to swords, reliquaries to game boards that demonstrate the histories of conflict, but also shared practices of exchange, religiosity, power, and remembrance. Often beautifully written and enhanced by high-quality images the book offers a material history of encounters in the crusading world. Taken together it is an argument for the power of assembled fragments over a unified narrative. A model of collaborative scholarship the volume will be useful to anyone working on the crusader world and to all who teach this and related subjects.”

-          Anne E. Lester, Johns Hopkins University

“An understanding of the past needs more than written sources. Readers of this volume see how archaeologists and art historians use objects, art and material culture to reveal the details of past societies, from the everyday to the elite. Each of the fifty objects described in this book becomes the focus of a deep dive into the Middle East of the crusader period, showing how Christians, Jews, and Muslims lived alongside each other in peace and war, sharing some aspects of their culture and also repurposing each other’s art and manufacture for new functions. Detailed explanations of each item provide both an accessible introduction for students and a scholarly resource for the more knowledgeable reader.”

-          Helen Nicholson, Cardiff University

Table of Contents:

List of Illustrations

Introduction

I.Belief

1. Cross


2. Yeshiva capital


3. Icon of St. Sergius and female donor


4. Qur’an of Nur al-Din


5. Painted fragment of an angel from Gethsemane


6. Reliquary of St. Marina


7. Altar from ‘Atlit Castle


8. Candlesticks from Church of the Nativity


9. Icon of the Nativity and Adoration of the Magi


10. Syriac lectionary

II. Conflict

1. Aleppo Codex


2. Slab with Coats of arms over a Fatimid inscription


3. Cairo Genizah fragment


4. Jerusalem pilaster


5. Sword


6. D’Arenberg Basin


7. Game board


8. Gospels of T’oros Roslin


9. Templar seal


10. Bell from Acre

III. Exchange

1. Imitation dinar


2. Sugar mold


3. Panel of a Holy Sepulcher reliquary


4. Buttons


5. Dagger with scabbard


6. Drinking cup


7. Albarello


8. Arsenal Old Testament


9. Windowpane fragment


10. Freer Canteen

IV. Power

1. Front cover of Psalter of Queen Melisende


2. Map of Jerusalem


3. Seal cast of Hospitaller master


4. Carved head of a knight


5. Denier from Amalric I


6. Miter of James of Vitry


7. Stone matrix


8. Jamb capital


9. Legal document


10. Heraldic shield relief

V. Memory

1. Cadouin shroud


2. Pilgrim’s flask


3. Minbar of Nur al-Din/Saladin


4. Tomb of Baldwin V fragment


5. Seal matrix of Nachmanides


6. Pair of glass beakers


7. Histoire d’Outremer (History of Deeds done Beyond the Sea)


8. Epitaph stone of Isabel de Hana


9. Grandson Antependium


10. View of Acre from the Cocharelli Codex

Index