Studies on the Crusader States and on Venetian Expansion by David Jacoby

Author:David Jacoby [Jacoby, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Business & Economics, General, History, Social Science
ISBN: 9781351789868
Google: vlM8DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-11-01T03:30:49+00:00

VI

Montmusard, Suburb of Crusader Acre: The First Stage of its Development

Crusader Acre maintained in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries many of the physical features it had inherited from the preceding Arab period,1 yet a major change occurred in its urban area and configuration with the emergence and expansion of a new suburb. This suburb, known as Montmusard, appears on the mid-thirteenth century map of Acre by Matthew Paris, as well as on the map drafted by Pietro Vesconte for Marino Sanudo and the one prepared for Paolino Veneto shortly after 1320;2 the growth of the suburb is also well documented by written sources. So far, however, it has not been the subject of any specific study. It is my purpose to make a contribution towards filling this gap as a tribute to Joshua Prawer, who was the first to draw attention to the existence of Montmusard prior to the conquest of Acre by Saladin in 1187.3

The first reference to the suburb appears in 1120, sixteen years after the conquest of Acre, when Baldwin II confirmed a grant of two carruchae of land in the suburbio Tholomaidis to the monastery of St. Mary in the Valley of Josaphat.4 It has been convincingly argued that this suburb was situated to the north of what we may call, for the sake of convenience, the Old City of Acre, in the area in which we later find Montmusard.5 The language used in the charter of Baldwin II, especially the term carrucha, clearly implies that arable land was granted to St. Mary in the suburbium of Acre, as in the vicinity of Jaffa and Beirut.6 This land extended over approximately 70 hectares,7 an area considerably larger than that later covered by Montmusard when it was enclosed by walls.8 It follows that in the charter of 1120 the term suburbium was loosely applied to a territory not clearly delineated beyond the city wall.9 The suburb had a predominantly rural character and was no doubt thinly populated. Its existence at this date does not reflect, therefore, any rapid economic development of Acre in the early years of Latin rule.10

These conclusions are strengthened by what we may assume about the first stage of the suburb’s existence. As revealed by later sources from the Third Crusade onward, the name of the suburb was Montmusard.11 This seems to be a composite name combining the French word Mont with the French version of a previous Arabic name, an assumption all the more likely if we take into consideration the location to which it was originally applied.12 A small area included in the suburb of Montmusard, as depicted by two medieval maps of Acre, retained the name of contrata de Mumusart (figs. 1 and 2).13 Mazär was the Arabic term used for a holy place, a saint’s tomb, a shrine or a place of pilgrimage, which were often flanked by a group of buildings that occasionally accommodated pilgrims or travellers.14 The location of a sacred tomb at a road junction is not uncommon in the Muslim world, and this was precisely the case with the small contrata de Mumusart.

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