The failure of the siege of Damascus in 1148

Forey, A. J.

doi:10.1016/0304-4181(84)90022-8

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 5 publications

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“…If Hoch is correct, moreover, a Damascene-Aleppan alliance posed a significant menace to the security of the kingdom in 1148; hence, the move against Damascus could be seen as a judicious attempt to remove the threat with an allied force of crusaders and Latin Jerusalemites, notwithstanding the military incompetence or Frankish political intrigue that may have caused its rapid failure. 37 Few modern commentators doubt the spiritual motives of those Christian warriors who arrived in the Levant in 1148 and who went on to besiege Damascus. This may be because they are thought not to have the same types of geopolitical considerations for originally embarking on crusade as those that historians ascribe to the native Christians involved in the Iberian and Baltic campaigns.…”

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The Second Crusade, 1145–49: Damascus, Lisbon and the Wendish Campaigns

Roche

2015

History Compass

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The Second Crusade (1145–49) is thought to have encompassed near simultaneous Christian attacks on Muslim towns and cities in Syria and Iberia and pagan Wend strongholds around the southern shore of the Baltic Sea. The motivations underpinning the attacks on Damascus, Lisbon and – taken collectively – the Wendish strongholds have come in for particular attention. The doomed decision to assault Damascus in 1148 rather than recover Edessa, the capital of the first so‐called crusader state, was once thought to be ill‐conceived. Historians now believe the city was attacked because Damascus posed a significant threat to the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem when the Second Crusaders arrived in the East. The assault on Lisbon and the Wendish strongholds fell into a long‐established pattern of regional, worldly aggression and expansion; therefore, historians tend not to ascribe any spiritual impulses behind the native Christians' decisions to attack their enemies. Indeed, the siege of Lisbon by an allied force of international crusaders and those of the Portuguese ruler, Afonso Henriques, is perceived primarily as a politico‐strategic episode in the on‐going Christian–Muslim conflict in Iberia – commonly referred to as the reconquista. The native warrior and commercial elite undoubtedly had various temporal reasons for engaging in warfare in Iberia and the Baltic region between 1147 and 1149, although the article concludes with some notes of caution before clinically construing motivation from behaviour in such instances.

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The Second Crusade, 1145–49: Damascus, Lisbon and the Wendish Campaigns

Roche

2015

History Compass

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Financing the tribute to the Kingdom of Jerusalem: An urban tax in Damascus

Heidemann

2007

Bull. Sch. Orient. Afr. stud.

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The economic dynamics of the twelfth century finds its expression in an increased number of fiscal instruments and terminology. After an introduction to legal taxation and Saljūq fiscal policy, the philological problems of a specific due, al-fissa, illegitimate according to the sharī‘a, will be addressed along with its political function, history, levying and transfer. It was levied in Damascus for an annual and/or occasional tribute to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, even before the alliance of Damascus and Jerusalem in 532/1140. Before Nūr al-Dīn Mahmūd's conquest of Damascus the monies were transferred by bearers of hawālas. It can be suggested that tax farmers were liable for them. A decree, rasm, allowed for the collection of al-fissa. The due was levied perhaps on the basis of an assessment of urban real estate. An interpretation of the term al-fissa was suggested as Arabic borrowing from the middle Latin term fossa.

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Crusading Warfare

France¹

2005

Palgrave Advances in the Crusades

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The failure of the siege of Damascus in 1148

Cited by 4 publications

References 5 publications

The Second Crusade, 1145–49: Damascus, Lisbon and the Wendish Campaigns

The Second Crusade, 1145–49: Damascus, Lisbon and the Wendish Campaigns

Financing the tribute to the Kingdom of Jerusalem: An urban tax in Damascus

Crusading Warfare

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