Lebanon, powerhouse of the medieval crusades

Lebanon was critically important in the crusades and yet this is often overlooked. It’s time to put this country back at the centre of the biggest war of the Middle Ages. Because whoever held on to Lebanon ruled the Middle East.

When Pope Urban II called for a new kind of holy war in the year 1095, his speech was greeted with cries of ‘Deus Vult’ (God wills it). Those who took the cross and headed east to retake Jerusalem for Christ would be forgiven their sins and fast tracked into heaven. Thousands from peasants to barons heeded the call and embarked on a journey to strange lands they had only read about in the bible.

It was heady stuff. Four years later, during the First Crusade, the first warriors from Christian Europe set foot in modern Lebanon. They took Tripoli in 1109, Byblos in 1103, Beirut and Sidon in 1110, and Tyre in 1124, after a very long siege. Bertrand of Toulouse was proclaimed the first Count of Tripoli, creating a new kingdom that would endure to the end of the 13th century.

Ruling Tripoli was made a lot easier by its religious make up, because to the relief of the crusaders, they found themselves among fellow Roman Catholics. The Maronites prayed differently, chanting their hymns in Syriac. But the counts of Tripoli rejoiced in encountering these natural allies.

Maronites welcome the crusaders

Maronite Christians trace their branch of Christianity back to the late Roman Empire and have believed in the gospels for longer than many western European Christians. Yet many crusaders, arriving from kingdoms like England and France, might have been surprised to meet so many co-religionists when they arrived in what is now Lebanon.

They faced obvious hostility from Muslims in the region and suspicion from Jews, who were often persecuted in Europe, and Byzantine Christians who viewed the western Catholic church as illegitimate, preferring to obey the patriarchs in the east.

So, it must have been a relief to crusader leaders when they met Maronite Christians who were loyal to the Pope in Rome and welcomed the newcomers with open arms. Maronites and crusaders had a shared faith and common enemies. The Maronite liturgy must have seemed strange to the crusaders, but this was overlooked in the interests of forging an alliance and working together.

As the crusaders created new kingdoms along the eastern Mediterranean, they needed local people who would fight alongside them, provide guides, and supply provisions. Maronites in the hills of Lebanon were more wary of these uncouth westerners but coastal communities, who had been trading with Europe for centuries, were happy to find common interest.

The County of Tripoli

The County of Tripoli was located between the Kingdom of Jerusalem to the south and the Principality of Antioch to the north. This was no mere buffer state. Covering most of modern Lebanon, and part of Syria, it was of huge strategic importance. If Tripoli fell, then it broke the link in the chain of crusader states.

Look at the topography of the region and the need to hold Tripoli becomes very clear. Control of the Lebanon and Ansariyah mountain passes was essential as these were crucial routes from the coast into the Syrian interior. Not only armies needed to march along these roads, but tradable goods that paid for war. In addition, Tripoli was very fertile, generating an agricultural surplus that meant this crusader state was economically self-sufficient.

Templars and Hospitallers needed Lebanon

For the military orders – the Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller – Tripoli was a top priority. In the 12th and 13th centuries, they developed strong military and financial interests with the Hospitallers building the vast Krak des Chevaliers and the Templars throwing up a major coastal fortress at Tortosa, both now in modern Syria.

Dr Steve Tibble, a Templar expert, believes that the Templars and Hospitallers could have carved out their own states within Tripoli. “Imagine how that could have changed the history of Lebanon,” he notes.

During the Crusades, an incredibly dangerous group operated within the County of Tripoli: the Assassins. This death cult, led by the so-called Old Man of the Mountain, trained young men to become suicide killers. Their tactic was to silently approach their targets and stab them to death. Most of their targets were Sunni Muslim political leaders though they later murdered Christian princes as well. They were Nizari Ismailis who were feared throughout the region.

And yet the Templars managed to get the upper hand over them, even extorting regular tribute payments in return for not attacking their bases. The reason the Templars were able to achieve this astonishing feat was their internal organisational strength and discipline. However, until the arrival of the Mongol armies, the Assassins remained a presence within Tripoli with castles at Masyaf, Kahf, and Qadmus.

Miracle of the Eucharist in 1215

In 1215, relations between the Maronites in the County of Tripoli and the Roman Catholic church became so warm that the Maronite patriarch, Jeremias II Al-Amshitti (reigned from 1199 to 1230), attended the Fourth Lateran Council in Rome, convened by Pope Innocent III. He was the first leader of the Maronites to meet the pope.

While he was celebrating mass in the presence of the pope, Jeremias held the eucharist host up and miraculously, it remained suspended in the air as he removed his hands. This event was portrayed in a painting, now lost, on the walls of the old St Peter's basilica, demolished during the Renaissance.

The pope gave Jeremias the 'pallium', a narrow white band adorned with six crosses and worn over the shoulders that gave him full papal recognition. In fact, Pope Innocent was so overwhelmed by this miracle that he made sure it was mentioned in the minutes of the Lateran Council and commissioned an artist to paint a depiction of Jeremias and the levitating host on the wall of St Peter’s Basilica. Sadly, this was lost when that basilica was demolished to make way for the Renaissance masterpiece we see today.

Fall of the County of Tripoli

The County of Tripoli was ruled from 1102 to 1289 by a succession of crusader nobles from the House of Toulouse and then the princes of Antioch. The last ruler was a woman, Lucia of Tripoli. She was the daughter of Bohemond VI, Prince of Antioch, and Sibylla of Armenia.

She arrived in Tripoli, from Apulia in Italy, in 1288 after the death of her brother and the appointment of a very unpopular regent. The situation was dire. The Muslim enemy was now dominated by the Mamluks, previously slave soldiers who had overthrown their masters and now held Egypt and Syria. They were determined to snuff out crusader rule in Tripoli.

Lucia’s mother opposed her, having appointed the hated regent. To build support, she sided with Genoese merchants, which alienated Venetians who were also a major trading community in Tripoli. They were so upset that they reached out to the Mamluks, urging the enemy to overthrow Lucia.

The Mamluk sultan, Qalawun, did not need a second invitation. He assembled a vast army and marched on Tripoli in the year 1289. Lucia was so desperate that she appealed to the Mongols to intervene on her behalf. But they had no interest in propping up her dynasty. On 26th April, the city fell and its inhabitants fled to the beaches hoping to find boats to escape. The Mamluk slaughter was on a horrific scale, after which the city was razed to the ground. Lucia hastily packed her bags and fled to Cyprus.

The end of crusader rule in Lebanon heralded the failure of the crusades throughout the region. Two years later, the last stronghold – Acre (modern Akko) – fell to the Muslims. The papal dream of control over the holy places was over.