Page 72 - A Walk to Caesarea / Joseph Patrich

58 Historical Review

minor and there was no special interest in maintaining it, not even for Genoa, for
example.

The population gradually grew and came to some 5,000 individuals – a relatively
large Crusader city; most Crusader settlements numbered between 200 and 1,000
inhabitants. Native-born Christians also came to live in the city as did 200
Samaritans and about 10 Jews (The Travels of Benjamin of Tudela; one version puts
the number of Jews at 200, as well). Some Muslims also lived there.

Information about the city until its fall into the hands of Saladin is rather scant.
It was captured not long after the Battle of H. ittin, in mid-July 1187, by two emirs
of Saladin. The city was plundered, the cathedral destroyed, and most of the Franks
living there were killed or taken captive; the city remained empty and abandoned.
In 1190, Saladin ordered its walls destroyed in order to prevent the Crusaders who
had set out on the Third Crusade to re-take its fortifications. Indeed, in 1191, the
Crusaders, led by Richard the Lionheart, who was supplied from the sea by raft,
recaptured it. He succeeded in placing a strong garrison force there. In August
1192, a treaty was signed between Saladin and Richard the Lionheart, in which the
Franks received Caesarea and its lands as well, but it seems that the city remained
desolate for about 25 years, until the Fifth Crusade.

In 1217, Guy de Brienne along with the Austrian Duke Leopold and the Knights
Hospitaller began to fortify Caesarea again, while waiting for the arrival of the
principal body of the Fifth Crusade. Emphasis was put on the harbor fortress –
restoration of the main tower, the gate towers, and deepening the moat. St. Peter’s
Cathedral was also refurbished, and in early February 1218, the first prayer service
was held there under the archbishop, with the participation of other Crusader
bishops. Yet, a short time later, at the end of November 1220, when most of the
Crusader force was besieging Damietta, Egypt, only a small garrison remained in
Caesarea, which was replaced afterward by Geonese (who were striving in this
manner to attain ownership of the city). This force could not withstand the
Ayyubid leader of Syria, al-Mucaz.z.am cIsa, the brother of the Egyptian sultan al-
Kamil, against whom the Crusaders set out to Damietta. After four days of fierce
battle, the Geonese deserted the city by sea to Acre. The Ayyubid al-Mucaz.z.am cIsa
conquered the city, destroyed the restored walls once again, and abandoned it.

The city remained under Muslim rule until a month after Easter 1228, when a
group of German Crusaders, under the command of Duke Henry of Limburg set out
from Acre, captured Caesarea, and began to fortify it anew. The work took about
five months, and apparently this time, too, they sufficed with reinforcing only the
harbor fortress and not renewing all the walls.

Now, after a break of 41 years (1187–1228), a second period of prosperity and
calm began for Caesarea, which lasted less than 40 years – about half the time in
comparison to the previous period of flourishing (1101–1187). Now the Hospitaller
Knights were the dominant factor in the city and its environs. The final Crusader
restoration of Caesarea’s wall and the harbor fortress began on 29 March 1251
under the leadership of King Louis IX of France (known as “Saint Louis”). The king
himself took part in the construction work, seeking thereby pardon for his sins.