Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: On everyday life in the military orders of the Crusader states While everyday life in the military orders was supposed to be regulated (i.e., in compliance with rules and other normative texts), geographical location was a determining factor in how individual members experienced their environment and human interaction, and there appear to have been significant variations in this regard between East and West. Focusing on select examples pertaining to Templars, Hospitallers, and Teutonic Knights in the Crusader states of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and drawing from letters, charters, inventories, narrative sources, and archaeological evidence, this article considers three particular aspects to illustrate this observation, namely, (1) materialized culture, (2) the need for translators, and (3) bathhouses. While all three had their respective equivalents in northern and western Europe, it is noteworthy that ‒ in the Near East ‒ materialized culture (e.g., in the form of weapons and textiles) was more diverse and luxurious; the need for translation was more frequent and complex (e.g., resulting in the outsourcing of such tasks to Oriental Christians with a knowledge of Arabic); and the bathhouses were more sophisticated and numerous, which confounded western clergymen who considered military prowess rather incompatible with a visit to the Hammam (i.e., an Oriental bathhouse).
DOI: 10.12775/om.2024.001
Author: Jochen Burgtorf
Institution: California State University, Fullerton
Language: English
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4406873628