1st Edition
The 'Templar of Tyre' Part III of the 'Deeds of the Cypriots'
The so-called 'Templar of Tyre' is the third and longest section of an important 14th-century chronicle known as the Gestes des Chiprois. Written by a Cypriot knight who served the Templar Master William of Beaujeu as an Arabic translator and a member of his immediate retinue, the 'Templar of Tyre' provides precious contemporary insights, often drawn from the author's personal experience, into events beginning in the early 1230s and ending in 1309 in the East and 1314 in the West. Notably, it covers the last days of the mainland Crusader states and the fall of Acre in 1291 (providing our only eyewitness chronicle of this disaster), as well as providing information on the period following 1291. The author also reports various events in the West, including the wars of the Hohenstaufen in Italy, the rise and fall of Simon de Montfort in England, the trial and dissolution of the Templars in France, and the interminable wars of Genoa and Venice across the Mediterranean. This is the first complete translation of the 'Templar of Tyre' into English.
Biography
Paul Crawford is Assistant Professor of Medieval and Early Modern History at Alma College in Alma, Michigan. He received his PhD in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and specializes in the military orders in the 13th and 14th centuries. He also maintains an ongoing involvement in the Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies (found at orb.rhodes.edu) as editor of the crusades and the military orders sections.
'... exemplary annotated translation... The text is a lively and sometimes moving account of the last years of Outremer written by a man who lived through the tumultuous events and witnessed many of them at first hand. His is the only eye-witness account of the fall of Acre in 1291 and his description of this last desperate engagement is one of the most vivid portrayals of battle in medieval literature.... This work makes a worthy addition to the Ashgate series of Crusader texts in translation which is proving so useful to teachers and students alike...' English Historical Review
