Description
Book SynopsisThe county of Tripoli in what is now North Lebanon is arguably the most neglected of the so-called âcrusader statesâ established in the Middle East at the beginning of the twelfth century. The present work is the first monograph on the county to be published in English, and the first in any western language since 1945. What little has been written on the subject previously has focused upon the European ancestry of the counts of Tripoli: a specifically Southern French heritage inherited from the famous crusader Raymond IV of Saint-Gilles. Kevin Lewis argues that past historians have at once exaggerated the political importance of the countsâ French descent and ignored the more compelling signs of its cultural impact, highlighting poetry composed by troubadours in Occitan at Tripoliâs court. For Lewis, however, even this belies a deeper understanding of the processes that shaped the county. What emerges is an intriguing portrait of the county in which its rulers struggled to exert their power over Lebanon in the face of this regionâs insurmountable geographical forces and its sometimes bewildering, always beguiling diversity of religions, languages and cultures. The counts of Tripoli and contemporary Muslim onlookers certainly viewed the dynasty as sons of Saint-Gilles, but the countyâs administration relied upon Arabic, its stability upon the mixed loyalties of its local inhabitants, and its very existence upon the rugged mountains that cradled it. This book challenges prevailing knowledge of this little-known crusader state and by extension the medieval Middle East as a whole.
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Table of ContentsList of Figures
Preface
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Introduction Sons of Saint-Gilles
1 The Succession of Cousins: Counts Raymond I (1103–05), William Jordan (1105–09) and Bertrand (1109–12)
2 The Forging and Freedom of the County: Count Pons (1112–37)
3 Military Decline and Matrimonial Discord: Count Raymond II (1137–52)
4 Count and Captive: Count Raymond III (1152–74)
5 The Regent Thwarted: Count Raymond III (1174–87)
Conclusion Alien and Native
Appendix 1 Sources
Appendix 2 Troubadour poetry and Tripoli
Bibliography
Index
