Download PDF | The Horns of Hattin: Proceedings of the Second Conference of the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East, Jerusalem and Haifa, 2-6 July, 1987.
388 Pages
Preface
On 2-6 July 1987, marking the eighth centennial of the Battle of Hattin, the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East (SSCLE) held its second conference in Jerusalem, at the Horns of Hattin, and in Haifa. In Jerusalem, sessions were held at the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum — where an exhibition of crusader sculpture was opened by Mayor Teddy Kollek— as well as at the Van Leer Institute, the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the Mount Scopus campus of the Hebrew University, and the British School of Archaeology. Participants were received by Chaim Herzog, President of the State of Israel, and went on guided excursions to Frankish sites in the Old City and to recent excavations west of Jerusalem.
On 5 July a session was held at the Horns of Hattin, where remains of Saladin’s Victory Dome, cleared a few days earlier by a small party of SSCLE and other volunteers, were examined. On the following day, deliberations resumed at Haifa University, with a brief tour of Frankish Acre preceding the concluding session. On behalf of the organizing committee of the second SSCLE conference, I would like to thank once more the many individuals and institutions who were most generous with their help.
Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi of Jerusalem consented to publish a selection of papers read at the conference. The outcome is the present volunie. To the twenty one articles based on papers presented in 1987 I have added two short papers that relate to the Battle of Hattin. The first, by C.P. Melville and M.C. Lyons, presents an unknown account of the battle; the second, by Zvi Gal, describes the remains of Saladin’s Victory Dome. John Pryor’s report on the relationship between the Eracles and the chronicle of William of Tyre is based on the work of a group that met at the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University shortly before the SSCLE conference; R.B.C. Huygens presented at the conference a preliminary report on the group’s deliberations.
The volume concludes with the edited transcript of a 1984 symposium that dealt with Joshua Prawer’s thesis on the colonial nature of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. A few months before his death, Prawer completed the edited version of his reply to the I would like to thank the Hebrew University’s Authority for Research and Development for a substantial grant that made publication possible; Mr. Zvi Zameret, Mrs. Channah Biderman and Professor Yehoshua Ben-Arieh for their energetic support; and Mr. Yossi Gevir, Mr. Yohai Goell and Mr. Hananel Goldberg, all of Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi, for their devoted care in producing the book. Though we basically followed the Speculum style-sheet, exceptions were made to comply with the wishes of some authors.
B.Z.K
Address by the President of Israel, Mr. Chaim Herzog
Professor Prawer, Distinguished Guests,
Here in Jerusalem, once capital of the Crusader Kingdom, this learned conference cannot be seen merely as an academic exercise. Commemorating so precisely the fateful battle that put an end to one of the most extraordinary chapters in the chronicles of humanity, you evoke sharp historic memories and reflections on the unique nature of this land.
The crusades, paradoxically enough, are a living presence in modern Israel. It is with awe and admiration that the vestiges of crusader buildings, churches, fortifications, are viewed and studied. You need only watch their effect on children during their school excursions and, indeed, on all who love and tour the country—and that is a very large proportion of our population.
The scope and splendor of the crusader installations in Acre and Caesarea, the impressive fortresses of Montfort and Belvoir, the vestiges at Aqua Bella and Abü-Ghüsh and Ma‘aleh Adumim, and of course the great sites in Jerusalem itself, still being excavated and reconstituted — these are all elements of primary importance in the landscape and nature of the land today. They are studied, preserved, cherished. For true lovers of this land cherish the evidence of all the stages through which it has passed, even when the ideology or conduct associated with any stage is vastly different from, or even hostile to, the concepts of most of us living here today.
Obviously, as far as Jewish history is concerned the crusaders are remembered with horror and anguish. The murder and devastation they wrought in European, particularly German, Jewish communities have never been forgotten; it was a dreadful chapter, not without ghastly implications in the development of European anti-Semitism. It was paralleled by the savage treatment of Jews and Muslims in the Holy Land itself. Yet the passing of time, though it does not bind up such wounds, lends perspective.
We can now see how important a part the crusades played in shaping Western civilization. And we here in the modern, revived State of Israel can sense in the crusades something of genuine relevance to contemporary problems. The crusaders saw Jerusalem and this land as inspiration and concern to those whose faith was rooted in Scripture — Scripture which emanated from this land and is forever intertwined with it. For the crusaders this country was no ordinary Levantine province. It was set apart by its place in men’s spiritual imagination, and far transcended its narrow borders. Morally it had a role of utmost importance to play.
For all the differences, this is still the basic truth underlying Israel’s exceptional position.
For us the crusaders are part of an interesting period of history, and a part of the historic mosaic which constitutes the last 2,000 years of striving to reestablish the Jewish commonwealth in the Holy Land. Their period is a fascinating part of the mosaic.
I wish you every success in this most interesting conference which I am sure will be a fascinating one.
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