No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Urban Landscape Development in Twelfth-Century Acre*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 July 2008
Extract
Acre is situated on the northern Mediterranean coast of Israel, about 13 km to the north of Haifa. Its history since the twentieth century bce has been well-documented. Until the third century bce it stood on a mound called Tel al-Fukhar. From the Hellenistic period the city developed on the plain to the west of this mound. Acre experienced two important phases during its long existence. The first was during the Hellenistic era, when it occupied the mound, the plain, and the rocky peninsula to the south of the western sector of the plain. The second was during the Crusader period, when it occupied an even larger area. Between these two periods, the city declined, although it was still repeatedly referred to in historical sources.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2008
Footnotes
*
This study was generously supported by the Mira and Saul Koschitzky Fund. I would like to express my gratitude to many scholars and colleagues who kindly shared with me their knowledge and views on this essay, particularly to Professor Michel Balard of the Centre de Recherches d'Histoire et Civilisation byzantines et du Proche Orient Médiéval, Université de Paris I – Panthéon – Sorbonne; Professor Yvonne Friedman of the The Martin (Szusz) Department of the Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, Bar-Ilan University, Israel; Dr Adrian Boas of the Department of the Land of Israel Studies at Haifa University; Professor David Jacoby of the Department of History, Professor Ronnie Ellenblum of the Department of Geography, and Professor Reuven Amitai of the Institute of Asian and African Studies, all from the Hebrew University Jerusalem, and to Mr Eli'ezer Stern of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). Needless to say, all views expressed in this article reflect my opinions alone.
References
1 Dothan, M., Goldman, Z., ‘Acco’, in The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, ed. Stern, E., vol. 1 (Jerusalem, 1993), pp. 17–23Google Scholar.
2 Schur, N., A History of Acre (Tel-Aviv, 1990), pp. 34–46 (in Hebrew)Google Scholar.
3 Prawer, J., ‘Crusader Cities’, in The Medieval City: Studies in Honor of Robert S. Lopez, eds. Miskimin, H. A., Herlihy, D., Udovitch, A. L. (New Haven, 1977), p. 180Google Scholar; Jacoby, D., ‘The “fonde” of Crusader Acre and its Tariff: Some New Considerations’, in Gesta Dei per Francos: Etudes sur les croisades dédiées à Jean Richard, eds. Balard, M., Kedar, B. Z., Riley-Smith, J. (Aldershot, 2001), p. 281Google Scholar; Jacoby, D., ‘Les communes italiens et les ordres militaires à Acre: aspects juridiques, territoriaux et militaires’, in Etat et colonisation au Moyen Age, ed. Balard, M. (Lyon, 1989), p. 193Google Scholar; Jacoby, D., ‘L'évolution et la fonction mediterraéenne d'Acre à l'époque des croisades’, in Citta portuali del Mediterraneo – storia archaeologia: Atti del Convengo Interanazionale di Genova 1985, ed. Poleggi, E. (Genova, 1989), pp. 97–99Google Scholar. (The last two articles were reprinted in Jacoby, D., Trade, Commodities and Shipping in the Medieval Mediterranean (Aldershot, 1997)Google Scholar.
4 D. Jacoby, ‘Crusader Acre in the Thirteenth Century: Urban Layout and Topography’, Studi Medievali 3 ser., XX (1979), pp. 1–45; idem, ‘Everyday Life in Frankish Acre’, Crusades 4 (2005), pp. 73–105; Kedar, B. Z., ‘The Outer Walls of Frankish Acre’, ‘Atiqot 31 (1997), pp. 157–180Google Scholar; Boas, A., ‘Some Reflections on Urban Landscapes in the Kingdom of Jerusalem’, in Gesta Dei per Francos: Etudes sur les croisades dédiées à Jean Richard, eds. Balard, M., Kedar, B. Z., Riley-Smith, J. (Aldershot, 2001), pp. 241–261Google Scholar.
5 Wilibrandi de Oldenborg peregrinatio, in Peregrinatores medii aevi quatuor, ed. J. C. M. Laurent (Lipsiae, 1864), p. 163.
6 Jacoby, ‘L'évolution urbaine’, p. 100.
7 Jacoby, ‘Les Communes’, p. 193; Abulafia, D., ‘Trade and Crusade 1050–1250’, in Cross-Cultural Convergences in the Crusader Period – Essays Presented to Aryeh Grabois on his Sixty-fifth Birthday, eds. Goodich, M., Menache, S. and Schein, S. (New York, 1995), pp. 3–12Google Scholar; Jacoby, ‘Everyday Life’, p. 73.
8 See, e.g., Edelstein, G., Avisar, M., ‘A Sounding in Old Acre’, ‘Atiqot 31 (1997), pp. 129–136Google Scholar; Tatcher, A., ‘Two Trial Excavations at ‘Akko’, ‘Atiqot 39 (2000), pp. 196–198 (an abstract of a full Hebrew version which appears in the same volume, pp. 27–41)Google Scholar; Avissar, M., Stern, E., ‘‘Akko, the Old City’, Excavations and Surveys in Israel [hereafter ESI] 8 (1998), pp. 13–14Google Scholar; A. Tatcher, ‘‘Akko, Zeituni Square’, ibid., p. 14.
9 Hartal, M., ‘The Architecture and Stratigraphy in Area T’, ‘Atiqot 31 (1997), pp. 3–30Google Scholar; Syon, D., Tatcher, A., ‘‘Akko – Ha-Abirim Parking Lot’, ESI 20 (2000), pp. 11*–16*Google Scholar; Stern, Edna J., Shalvi-Abbas, M., ‘‘Akko – Ha-Gedud Ha-‘Ivri Street’, ESI 19 (1999), pp. 10–12Google Scholar; D. Avshalom-Gorni, ‘‘Akko, the Courthouse Parking Lot’, ibid., pp. 12–14; Lieberman-Wender, R., Tatcher, A., Muqari, A., ‘‘Akko Shore’, ESI 18 (1998), pp. 11–12Google Scholar; A. Tatcher, ‘‘Akko’, ibid., pp. 12–13; Stern, E., ‘‘Akko, Ha'arba'a Road’, ESI 16 (1997), pp. 27–29Google Scholar; Muqari, A., ‘‘Akko’, ESI 15 (1996), pp. 27–28Google Scholar.
10 Muqaddasi, Descriptio imperii Moslemici, Bibliotheca geographorum Arabicorum, ed. M. J. de Goeje, III, (Leiden, 1906), pp. 162–163.
11 Al-Bakri, Al-Masalik wa almamalik, eds. A. P. van Leeuwen, A. Ferre, vol. 2, 1276, (Tunis, 1992), p. 761.
12 Muqaddasi, no. 10, p.163.
13 Khusraw, Nāsir-i, Safar-namah, ed. Dabir-Siyaqi, M. (Tehran, 1956)Google Scholar; Schefer, C., Sefer Name: Relation du voyage de Nassiri Khosrau (Paris, 1881)Google Scholar.
14 Schefer, pp. 14–15 (Persian), pp. 48–49 (French); Dabir-Siyaqi, pp. 17–18. Sharon opined that Nāsiri Khusraw measured the city's width in the south of Acre's peninsula, near the port where the width between the peninsula's east and west coast is slightly more than 300 meters (ca. 500 ells). This view implies that the city's length (2,000 ells) included most of the area which later, during the thirteenth century, constituted Acre's suburb Montmusard. This approach clearly contradicts all the known facts about Frankish Acre as well as its reconstructions. Hence, it would be more plausible to propose that the measurement was inaccurate, rather than altering the Frankish city's plan altogether. See Sharon, M., Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicum Palaestinae (CIAP), vol. 1 (Leiden, 1997), p. 24Google Scholar; Jacoby, D., ‘Montmusard, Suburb of Crusader Acre: The First Stage of Its Development’, in Outremer – Studies in the History of the Crusading Kingdom of Jerusalem presented to Joshua Prawer, eds. Kedar, B. Z., Mayer, H. E., Smail, R. C. (Jerusalem, 1982), pp. 206–208Google Scholar.
15 Sharon, Corpus, vol. 1, pp. 136–137; vol. 2, p. 260; I. Roll et al., ‘Apollonia – Arsuf during the Crusader Period in Light of New Discoveries’, Qadmoniot 33 (2,000), p. 19, (in Hebrew); Roll, I., ‘Apollonia – Arsuf: A Fortified Coastal Town in the Levant of the Early Muslim and Crusader Periods’, in Autour de la première Croisade, ed. Balard, M. (Paris, 1996), p. 599Google Scholar; Raban, A., The Harbours of Caesarea Maritima, vol. 1, (Oxford, 1989), pp. 40–41Google Scholar.
16 Drory, J., ‘Some Observations during a Visit to Palestine by Ibn al-‘Arabi of Seville in 1092–1095’, Crusades 3 (2004), pp. 101–124Google Scholar.
17 Ibid., p. 123.
18 Ibid.
19 Willelmi Tyrensis archiepiscopi chronicon (CCCM LXIII), ed. R. B. C. Huygens (Turnholt, 1986), XII, 25, p. 579; Berggötz, O., Der Bericht des Marsilio Zorzi (Frankfurt am Main, 1991), p. 110Google Scholar.
20 Delaville le Roulx J. (ed.), Cartulaire général de l'ordre des hospitaliers de S. Jean de Jérusalem (1100–1310), I–IV, Paris 1894–1906 (rep. Munich, 1980), vol 2, no. 2732, p. 780. Hereafter: Cart. Hosp.
21 Jacoby, ‘Montmusard’, pp. 206–207.
22 According to Drory, both terms describe an identical institution. Drory, ‘Ibn el-Arabi’, p. 153, n. 161.
23 Jubayr, Ibn, Rikhla (Beirut, 1964) p. 276Google Scholar; Sourdel-Thomine, J., Guide des lieux des pèlerinage (Damascus, 1953), pp. 22–23Google Scholar.
24 M. Gil, Palestine during the first Muslim Period, vols. 2–3 (Tel-Aviv, 1983), nos. 141; 183; 211; 215; 221–223; 225–226; 270; 279; 317; 446; 517; 559–560; 598–599; 602 (in Hebrew and in Judeo-Arabic).
25 Galili, E. et al. , ‘Akko harbor, underwater surveys’, ESI CXIV (2002), pp. 13–14Google Scholar.
26 Rovere, A., ‘“Rex Balbuinus Ianuensibus privilegia firmavit et fecit”: Sulla presunta falsita del diploma di Baldovino I in favore dei Genovesi’, Studi Medievali 3 ser. XXXVII (1996), pp. 132–133Google Scholar.
27 Kool, R., ‘The Genoese Quarter in Thirteenth-Century Acre: A Re-interpretation of its Layout’, Atiqot 31 (1997), pp. 187–200Google Scholar.
28 Mayer, H. E., Favreau, M. L., ‘Das Diplom Balduins I. fur Genua und Genuas Goldene Inschrift in der Grabkirche’, Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken LV/LVI (1976), pp. 22–95Google Scholar (repr. in H. E. Mayer, Kreuzzuge und lateinischer Osten (London, 1983). Contra; Rovere, Rex, pp. 95–133.
29 Prawer, J., ‘The Venetians in Crusader Acre’, in Cross Cultural Convergences in the Crusader Period: Essays Presented to Aryeh Grabois on his Sixty-fifth Birthday, eds. Goodich, M., Menache, S., Schein, S., (NewYork, 1999), pp. 217–218Google Scholar.
30 Kool, ‘The Genoese Quarter’, pp. 191–195.
31 Kedar, B. Z., Stern, E., ‘A Vaulted East – West Street in Acre's Genoese Quarter?’, Atiqot 31 (1995), pp. 107–10Google Scholar. Hereafter: Kedar, Stern, Vaulted Street.
32 Tatcher, A., ‘Akko, Zeituni Square’, ESI 18 (1996), p. 14Google Scholar; Stern, E., ‘Akko, the old city’, Hadashot Arkheologiyot-ESI 109 (1999), pp. 12–13Google Scholar.
33 Cart. Hosp. vol 1, no. 112, pp. 94–95; Riley-Smith, J., ‘Guy de Lusignan, the Hospitallers and the Gates of Acre’, in Gesta Dei per Francos: Etudes sur les croisades dédiées à Jean Richard, eds. Balard, M., Kedar, B. Z., Riley-Smith, J. (Aldershot, 2001), p. 111Google Scholar; idem, ‘Further Thoughts on the Layout of the Hospital of Acre’, in Chemins d'Outremer : Études d'Histoire sur la Méditerrané offerts à Michel Balard, eds. D. Coulon, C. Otten-Froux, P. Pagés, D. Valérian, vol. 2 (Paris, 2004), p. 753; Jacoby, ‘Les communes’, p. 200.
34 Riley-Smith, ‘Further Thoughts’, p. 759.
35 Cart. Hosp., vol. 1, no. 180, p. 140.
36 ‘Pèlerinages & pardouns de Acre’, in Itinéraires à Jérusalem, eds. H. Michelant, G. Raynaud, (Genève, 1882), p. 235.
37 Jacoby, D., ‘Pilgrimage in Crusader Acre: The Pardouns d'Acre’, in De Sion exibit lex et verbum domini de Hierusalem: Essays on Medieval Law, Liturgy, and Literature in Honour of Amnon Linder, ed. Hen, Y. (Turnhout, 2001), pp. 108–112Google Scholar.
38 Regesta Regni Hierosolymitani, ed. R. Röhricht (Innsbruck, 1893), no. 576, p. 153.
39 Dichter, B., The Maps of Acre – An Historical Cartography, (Acre, 1973), pp. 16–30Google Scholar.
40 Kedar, ‘The Outer Walls’, p. 173. The text that Kedar quoted is the French translation of Schefer who wrote that the spring was to the right of the gate. This is a mistaken translation because the Persian text that Schefer himself translated clearly indicates that it was to the left of the gate. “Wa ba-darwaza-yi sharqi bar dast- chap chasma yist ki bist was hash payah firu bayad baa b rasid” (“and to the left of the East gate there is a spring that one has to descend twenty six steps to get to the water”). This passage was translated by Professor Reuven Amitai. See Schefer, p. 15 (Persian), p. 50 (French); Dabir-Siyaqi, p. 18.
41 ‘Chartes du Mont-Thabor’, apud. Cart. Hosp. vol 2, no. 20, p. 909.
42 Ibn Jubayr, pp. 276–277.
43 Kesten, A., Old Acre (Acre, 1993), p. 27Google Scholar; Jacoby, ‘Crusader Acre’, p. 27.
44 Tabulae ordinis Theutonici, ed. E. Strehlke (Berlin, 1869), no. 35, pp. 28–29
45 Jacoby, ‘Everyday Life’, pp. 76–78.
46 Likewise, a Jewish quarter is clearly attested. Tabulae, no. 41, p. 33.
47 Cart. Hosp. vol. 1, no. 348, p. 242.
48 Ehrlich, M., ‘The Hospitaller and Templar Take-over of the Lordships of Caesarea and Arsur in the Crusader Period’, in New Studies on the Coastal Plain, ed. Regev, E. (Ramat-Gan, 1997), pp. 91–96 (in Hebrew)Google Scholar; Cart. Hosp, vol. 1, 398, pp. 271–272; Rheinheimer, M., Das Kreutzfahrerfürstentum Galiläa (Frankfurt am Main, 1990), pp. 75–78Google Scholar; Tibble, S., Monarchy and Lordships in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (Oxford, 1989), pp. 143–150Google Scholar; 107–112; 125; 129; 159–160; Tabulae, nos. 52–53, pp. 42–44.
49 Chalandon, F., ‘Un diplôme inédit d'Amaury I roi de Jérusalem en faveur de l'abbaye du Temple Notre Seigneur’, ROL 8 (1900–1), pp. 314–135Google Scholar.
50 Dichter, B., The Orders and the Churches of Crusader Acre (Acre, 1979), pp. 38–40Google Scholar.
51 Röhricht, R., Regesta Regni Hierosolymitani – Additamentum (Innsbruck, 1904), no. 422a, p. 26Google Scholar.
52 Müller, Rellazioni delle cita Toscane coll'oriente Cristiano e col Turch, (Firenze, 1879), no. XI, p. 14.
53 Müller, Rellazioni, no. XIX, p. 23.
54 Müller, Rellazioni, no. XXXII, p. 38.
55 Müller, Rellazioni, no. XXV, pp. 30–31, no. XXXII, pp. 38–39; Jacoby, ‘Crusader Acre’, pp. 19–24; contra, Mayer, H. E., ‘Vier jerusalemitanische Königsurkunden für Pisa’, MGH Schriften XXXIII (1988), pp. 137–157Google Scholar.
56 This might have been the reason why Jacoby himself referred to topographical data included in these documents. Jacoby, ‘Everyday Life’, p. 93.
57 Jacoby, ‘Crusader Acre’, pp. 20–21.
58 Kool, ‘The Genoese Quarter’, p. 195. See also fig. 4 on p. 194.
59 Sharon, Corpus, vol. pp. 136–137; vol. 2, p. 260; Roll, I. et al. , ‘Apollonia – Arsuf during the Crusader period in light of new discoveries’, Qadmoniot XXXIII (2000), p. 19, (in Hebrew)Google Scholar; Roll, I., ‘Apollonia – Arsuf: A fortified coastal town in the Levant of the early Muslim and Crusader periods’, in Autour de la première Croisade, ed. Balard, M., (Paris, 1996), p. 599Google Scholar; Raban, A., The harbours of Caesarea Maritima, vol. 1, (Oxford, 1989), pp. 40–41Google Scholar.
60 Müller, Rellazioni, no. LII, p. 82.
61 Jacoby, ‘Crusader Acre’, p. 31.
62 Jacoby, ‘Crusader Acre’, p. 8; Gertwagen's innovative article about Acre's port deals exclusively with its architecture and navigation problems while ignoring its urban aspects, and hence it is mostly irrelevant to the present study. Gertwagen, R., ‘The Crusader Port of Acre: Layout and Problems of Maintenance’, in Autour de la première croisade – Actes du Colloque de la Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East, Clermont-Ferrand 22–25 Juin 1995, ed. Balard, M. (Paris, 1996), pp. 553–581Google Scholar.
63 Jacoby, ‘Crusader Acre’, pp. 13–15; Gertwagen, ‘Crusader Port’, p. 561; Benvenisti, M., The Crusaders in the Holy Land, (Jerusalem, 1970), p. 98Google Scholar; Boas, A.J., Crusader Archaeology (London, 1999), pp. 35–36Google Scholar.
64 Jacoby, ‘L'évolution urbaine’, pp. 97–99. Yaron, D., ‘References to Acco in a Greek Work of the Seventh Century’, in idem, Studies in the History of Palestine in the Roman-Byzantine Period, ed. Schwartz, D. (Jerusalem, 2006), pp. 132–136 (in Hebrew)Google Scholar.
65 Jacoby, ‘Crusader Acre’, pp. 8–9; Gertwagen, ‘Crusader Port’, p. 555.
66 Galili et al., ‘Akko Harbor’ p. 14.
67 Ibid.
68 Schefer, p. 14 (Persian), pp. 48–49 (French); Dabir-Siyaqi, p. 17.
69 Gertwagen, ‘Crusader Port’, p. 557.
70 See below, ‘The Royal Court’.
71 Ibn Jubayr, p. 283.
72 Huygens, R.B.C. (ed.), Peregrinationes Tres, CCCM CXXXIX, (Turnholt, 1994), p. 186Google Scholar; Willelmi Tyrensis, XXI, 16 (17), p. 983.
73 Jacoby, ‘Fonde’, pp. 282–283.
74 Jacoby, ‘Crusader Acre’, pp. 12–13; Benvenisti, The Crusaders, p. 98; Boas, Crusader Archaeology, p. 36.
75 Jacoby, ‘Crusader Acre’, pp. 12–13; Benvenisti, The Crusaders, p. 98; contra, Gertwagen, ‘Crusader Port’, p. 567.
76 Jacoby, ‘Crusader Acre’, pp. 12–13.
77 Ibid., pp. 16–17.
78 Galili et al., ‘Akko Harbor’, pp. 13–14.
79 Jacoby, ‘Crusader Acre’, p. 13.
80 Ibid., pp. 16–17; Jacoby, ‘Everyday Life’, p. 88.
81 Gertwagen, ‘Crusader Port’, p. 563.
82 Galili, E., Zviely, D., Rosen, B., ‘Akko Port and Surroundings in Coins and Historical Depictions’, Horizons in Geography 62 (2004), p. 119 (in Hebrew)Google Scholar.
83 Jacoby, ‘Crusader Acre’, p. 6.
84 Makhouly, N. and Johns, C. N., Guide to Acre (Jerusalem, 1946), p. 87Google Scholar.
85 Boas, Crusader Archaeology, p. 35.
86 Jacoby, ‘Crusader Acre’, pp. 15–19.
87 Müller, Rellazioni, no.XXVII, p. 33; Jacoby, ‘Fonde’, pp. 280–281.
88 Strehlke, Tabulae, no. 128, p. 124.
89 Strehlke, Tabulae, no. 35, pp. 28–29.
90 Prawer, J., Histoire du royaume latin de Jérusalem, vol. 1 (Paris, 1969), p. 568Google Scholar; idem, The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem – Medieval Colonialism in the Middle Ages (London, 1972), p. 82.
91 Jacoby, ‘Everyday Life’, p. 79.
92 According to Prawer the city's population was about forty thousand people in the twelfth century and sixty thousand during the thirteenth century. Pringle estimated that Acre's population amounted to between twenty and thirty thousand people; Prawer, J., Histoire du royaume latin de Jérusalem, vol. 1, (Paris, 1969), p. 568Google Scholar; Prawer, J., The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem – Medieval Colonialism in the Middle Ages, (London, 1972), p. 82Google Scholar; Pringle, D., ‘Crusader Jerusalem’, Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society, X (1990–91), p. 106Google Scholar. I believe that the size of the Acre's population during the twelfth century was no more than 10,000 people. See M. Ehrlich, ‘L'organisation de l'espace et la hiérarchie des villes dans le royaume latin de Jérusalem’, Cahiers de Civilisation Médiévale (forthcoming).