Daily Medieval

When the First Crusade captured Jerusalem, they took over the Dome of the Rock, a temple built on the site where tradition said God created...

The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (sometimes called the Frankish Kingdom of Jerusalem) was a Western European creation established after the Fi...

Godfrey (c.1060 - 18 July, 1100) was the second son of Eustace II, Count of Boulogne, and therefore was not in line for much inheritance. Hi...

Christianity in the Middle Ages did not approve of Islam and its swift growth. It was not many years after the death of Muhammad in 632 CE t...

Much of the medieval "medical" care happened in the home—herbal remedies and such—but hospitals did exist, run by religious groups...

The previous post post discussed a hospital site in the Christian section of Jerusalem called Muristan. I say a hospital "site" be...

The Hospitallers were nicknamed thus because they were founded by members of the First Crusade who joined together to protect a hospital bui...

 The Horns of Hattin is an extinct volcano whose twin peaks overlook Hattin in the Lower Galilee. In 1187, a battle took place between the f...

 Cardinal Pelagio Galvani (c.1165 - 30 January 1230) was the papal legate leading the Fifth Crusade. He hailed from the Kingdom of León, and...

In 1244, allies of the Egyptian Mamluks, retreating westward from the advancing Mongols, stopped at Jerusalem long enough to recapture it f...

Copy of the Pact [ source ] The Pact of Umar is a document that outlines rights and restrictions for Christians living in Muslim-held ...

Saint Albert of Jerusalem was born Albert Avogadro in 1149 in Italy. He became one of the Canons Regular (Dominicans) after studying theo...

Yes, it's the witch-weighing scene from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" There is a medieval anecdote in the so-called &q...

Speaking of the monastic life... Today (13 May) is the feast day of John the Silent (452-558), who took living a private life to an extr...

Dimashq. دمشق. Dimishe'. al-Sh ām. The City of Jasmine. "Oldest continuously inhabited city in the world." Damascus. I...

Madaba, a town east of the Dead Sea, suffered from a devastating earthquake in 746 and was left to become wilderness. Centuries later, Madab...

To be thorough: there was more to the plan. Emperor Alexios I of Byzantium had requested help from the pope against invading Turks, and the ...

[Part 1 is here .] Saladin After Richard and Saladin each slaughtered their prisoners, Richard marched to Jaffa, which he hoped to mak...

The Second Crusade (1145-49) had put a great deal of the Holy Land under European rule, but Saladin (Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, 1138-1193...