The Kingdom of Acre

A History of the Crusades III : The Kingdom of Acre

By Steven Runciman

ISBN: 978-0-241-29877-0

First published 1954

401 pages

Publisher : Penguin Classics

Cover illustration:  Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris

6/5 Stars

A wonderful end to the trilogy of books written about the crusades.

The attention to detail and fast pace reminded me of Stieg Larsson, in terms of writing.

It is also a final and last look back into the fascinating the world of Outremer. With final chapters on the economy, art and culture and architecture, Runciman brings his series to a philosophical and melancholy close.

The disaster that was the crusades is detailed here, in its horror and its final agonizing days.

Did you know that we can view the Byzantine Empire and the Caliphate at Baghdad as a single civilization?

The crusades destroyed Byzantium, the Mongols destroyed Baghdad.

The cultural artifacts left to posterity by the countries of Outremer were next to none. Castles were the only remaining legacy to history. Italian engineers were employed to build castles, but they would prefer to build in Wales rather than the Holy Land.

Trade was undertaken by the Italian maritime cities, Pisa, Genoa, Venice. Sicily had her fleet, Aragon  and Marseilles all make an appearance. It was these cities that provided Outremer with a lifeline, but also contributed to its demise. Outremer was perpetually bankrupt, with not enough of a local population to raise revenues, and not enough trade to raise taxes to fund a larger army.

The local Christian population preferred the stability of Muslim rulers. The local Muslim populations longed for security. Civil war within the diminishing states of Acre and Tripoli further diminished them.

Even when the West did provide help, no lessons were learned. Jerusalem was offered back 3 times, but the Sultan’s offers were rejected in favour of further warfare.

There was a group of Muslim that learned the lessons though. A group that built on the lessons and used the disunity between Catholic and Orthodox states to further their empire. The Turkish tribe led by Osman the Great, that became the Ottoman Empire.