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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 July 2008
Acre is situated on the northern Mediterranean coast of Israel, about 13 km to the north of Haifa. Its history since the twentieth century bce has been well-documented. Until the third century bce it stood on a mound called Tel al-Fukhar. From the Hellenistic period the city developed on the plain to the west of this mound. Acre experienced two important phases during its long existence. The first was during the Hellenistic era, when it occupied the mound, the plain, and the rocky peninsula to the south of the western sector of the plain. The second was during the Crusader period, when it occupied an even larger area. Between these two periods, the city declined, although it was still repeatedly referred to in historical sources.
This study was generously supported by the Mira and Saul Koschitzky Fund. I would like to express my gratitude to many scholars and colleagues who kindly shared with me their knowledge and views on this essay, particularly to Professor Michel Balard of the Centre de Recherches d'Histoire et Civilisation byzantines et du Proche Orient Médiéval, Université de Paris I – Panthéon – Sorbonne; Professor Yvonne Friedman of the The Martin (Szusz) Department of the Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, Bar-Ilan University, Israel; Dr Adrian Boas of the Department of the Land of Israel Studies at Haifa University; Professor David Jacoby of the Department of History, Professor Ronnie Ellenblum of the Department of Geography, and Professor Reuven Amitai of the Institute of Asian and African Studies, all from the Hebrew University Jerusalem, and to Mr Eli'ezer Stern of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). Needless to say, all views expressed in this article reflect my opinions alone.
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21 Jacoby, ‘Montmusard’, pp. 206–207.
22 According to Drory, both terms describe an identical institution. Drory, ‘Ibn el-Arabi’, p. 153, n. 161.
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35 Cart. Hosp., vol. 1, no. 180, p. 140.
36 ‘Pèlerinages & pardouns de Acre’, in Itinéraires à Jérusalem, eds. H. Michelant, G. Raynaud, (Genève, 1882), p. 235.
37 Jacoby, D., ‘Pilgrimage in Crusader Acre: The Pardouns d'Acre’, in De Sion exibit lex et verbum domini de Hierusalem: Essays on Medieval Law, Liturgy, and Literature in Honour of Amnon Linder, ed. Hen, Y. (Turnhout, 2001), pp. 108–112Google Scholar.
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40 Kedar, ‘The Outer Walls’, p. 173. The text that Kedar quoted is the French translation of Schefer who wrote that the spring was to the right of the gate. This is a mistaken translation because the Persian text that Schefer himself translated clearly indicates that it was to the left of the gate. “Wa ba-darwaza-yi sharqi bar dast- chap chasma yist ki bist was hash payah firu bayad baa b rasid” (“and to the left of the East gate there is a spring that one has to descend twenty six steps to get to the water”). This passage was translated by Professor Reuven Amitai. See Schefer, p. 15 (Persian), p. 50 (French); Dabir-Siyaqi, p. 18.
41 ‘Chartes du Mont-Thabor’, apud. Cart. Hosp. vol 2, no. 20, p. 909.
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46 Likewise, a Jewish quarter is clearly attested. Tabulae, no. 41, p. 33.
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55 Müller, Rellazioni, no. XXV, pp. 30–31, no. XXXII, pp. 38–39; Jacoby, ‘Crusader Acre’, pp. 19–24; contra, Mayer, H. E., ‘Vier jerusalemitanische Königsurkunden für Pisa’, MGH Schriften XXXIII (1988), pp. 137–157Google Scholar.
56 This might have been the reason why Jacoby himself referred to topographical data included in these documents. Jacoby, ‘Everyday Life’, p. 93.
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58 Kool, ‘The Genoese Quarter’, p. 195. See also fig. 4 on p. 194.
59 Sharon, Corpus, vol. pp. 136–137; vol. 2, p. 260; Roll, I. et al. , ‘Apollonia – Arsuf during the Crusader period in light of new discoveries’, Qadmoniot XXXIII (2000), p. 19, (in Hebrew)Google Scholar; Roll, I., ‘Apollonia – Arsuf: A fortified coastal town in the Levant of the early Muslim and Crusader periods’, in Autour de la première Croisade, ed. Balard, M., (Paris, 1996), p. 599Google Scholar; Raban, A., The harbours of Caesarea Maritima, vol. 1, (Oxford, 1989), pp. 40–41Google Scholar.
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65 Jacoby, ‘Crusader Acre’, pp. 8–9; Gertwagen, ‘Crusader Port’, p. 555.
66 Galili et al., ‘Akko Harbor’ p. 14.
67 Ibid.
68 Schefer, p. 14 (Persian), pp. 48–49 (French); Dabir-Siyaqi, p. 17.
69 Gertwagen, ‘Crusader Port’, p. 557.
70 See below, ‘The Royal Court’.
71 Ibn Jubayr, p. 283.
72 Huygens, R.B.C. (ed.), Peregrinationes Tres, CCCM CXXXIX, (Turnholt, 1994), p. 186Google Scholar; Willelmi Tyrensis, XXI, 16 (17), p. 983.
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74 Jacoby, ‘Crusader Acre’, pp. 12–13; Benvenisti, The Crusaders, p. 98; Boas, Crusader Archaeology, p. 36.
75 Jacoby, ‘Crusader Acre’, pp. 12–13; Benvenisti, The Crusaders, p. 98; contra, Gertwagen, ‘Crusader Port’, p. 567.
76 Jacoby, ‘Crusader Acre’, pp. 12–13.
77 Ibid., pp. 16–17.
78 Galili et al., ‘Akko Harbor’, pp. 13–14.
79 Jacoby, ‘Crusader Acre’, p. 13.
80 Ibid., pp. 16–17; Jacoby, ‘Everyday Life’, p. 88.
81 Gertwagen, ‘Crusader Port’, p. 563.
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88 Strehlke, Tabulae, no. 128, p. 124.
89 Strehlke, Tabulae, no. 35, pp. 28–29.
90 Prawer, J., Histoire du royaume latin de Jérusalem, vol. 1 (Paris, 1969), p. 568Google Scholar; idem, The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem – Medieval Colonialism in the Middle Ages (London, 1972), p. 82.
91 Jacoby, ‘Everyday Life’, p. 79.
92 According to Prawer the city's population was about forty thousand people in the twelfth century and sixty thousand during the thirteenth century. Pringle estimated that Acre's population amounted to between twenty and thirty thousand people; Prawer, J., Histoire du royaume latin de Jérusalem, vol. 1, (Paris, 1969), p. 568Google Scholar; Prawer, J., The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem – Medieval Colonialism in the Middle Ages, (London, 1972), p. 82Google Scholar; Pringle, D., ‘Crusader Jerusalem’, Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society, X (1990–91), p. 106Google Scholar. I believe that the size of the Acre's population during the twelfth century was no more than 10,000 people. See M. Ehrlich, ‘L'organisation de l'espace et la hiérarchie des villes dans le royaume latin de Jérusalem’, Cahiers de Civilisation Médiévale (forthcoming).