Minorities in Contact in the Medieval Mediterranean

Kotán’s examination of the surviving evidence of catapult ammunition and impact marks on several castles including Margat. This piece engages with the ongoing discussion surrounding counter-weight trebuchets – their development and power. Kotán’s work identifies the range of ammunition used by these engines (including one projectile which apparently weighed 250kg!) and reaches the conclusion that the heaviest catapults of this kind were powerful enough to bring destruction to both walls and towers. Peter Edbury builds on his existing work on the Chronique d’Ernoul, in this case by looking its presentation of the Ayyubid Sultan al-Kamil. He argues that the author’s depiction of the sultan was designed to serve as a ‘foil’ for its presentation of Emperor Frederick II of Germany, especially during the negotiations which led to the return of Jerusalem in 1229. Júlia Sárközi turns to Egypt to provide a study on the influence of Frankish architecture on buildings in Cairo, especially under the Mamluks. Denys Pringle’s article then looks at the problems surrounding the dating of two linked pilgrim itineraries, an anonymous account and one named Visio Othmari presbyteri. He ascribes the former to the period 1104-c.1120 and the latter to the 1050s-1080s. The redating of Othmar’s Visio is especially notable given that it was formerly thought to date to the 1160s. Finally, this collection concludes with a thought-provoking article by Dániel Bácsatyai concerning the presence of two smaller military orders (the order of St Sampson and the order of Santiago) in Hungary during the thirteenth century. It explores the scant evidence for their development and their ultimate fate but this piece also shows how these institutions linked the kingdom closely to the territories conquered by the Fourth Crusaders after 1204. Taken overall, this collection has many strengths, perhaps most importantly the considerable corpus of analysis it offers on northern Syria. Very little research has been conducted on topics such as Eastern Christian churches in Lebanon, the port city of Latakia and Near Eastern bridges and so many of these articles make important, even ground-breaking, contributions. The ongoing work on Margat and Krak des Chevaliers is, likewise, very impressive, drawing upon a wide range of different approaches and techniques (reminiscent in many ways of recent work on the Teutonic Order’s fortress of Montfort). Splicing together an impressive range of textual and non-textual sources, Bridge of Civilizations provides inspiring glimpses into the complex, brutal and vibrant world of the medieval Near East.