Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of tables
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Map 1 Frankish rural sites in Palestine
- PART I PRESENTATION OF THE PROBLEM
- PART II THE “CASTRUM,” THE BURGUS, AND THE VILLAGE
- PART III THE ISOLATED DWELLINGS
- 12 The list of Jean of Ibelin
- 13 Frankish settlement in the fief of the Camerarius Regis
- 14 Farm houses and manor houses
- 15 Administration of rural estates
- 16 Settlement activities of the military orders: the castle and flour mills in Da'uq (Casale Doc) and Recordana
- PART IV THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF FRANKISH SETTLEMENT
- Bibliography
- Index
16 - Settlement activities of the military orders: the castle and flour mills in Da'uq (Casale Doc) and Recordana
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of tables
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Map 1 Frankish rural sites in Palestine
- PART I PRESENTATION OF THE PROBLEM
- PART II THE “CASTRUM,” THE BURGUS, AND THE VILLAGE
- PART III THE ISOLATED DWELLINGS
- 12 The list of Jean of Ibelin
- 13 Frankish settlement in the fief of the Camerarius Regis
- 14 Farm houses and manor houses
- 15 Administration of rural estates
- 16 Settlement activities of the military orders: the castle and flour mills in Da'uq (Casale Doc) and Recordana
- PART IV THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF FRANKISH SETTLEMENT
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The Franks built flour mills near the springs of Recordana (ʿEnot Afeq, grid reference 160/250) already in the middle of the twelfth century. The casale and flour mills are mentioned for the first time in 1154, in a confirmation of Baldwin III.
The place was also used, particularly in the thirteenth century, as a meeting place for the Frankish armies before they set out to battle. Such meeting places were usually established near to abundant springs and grazing meadows in the immediate vicinity of Frankish settlements or fortresses. Such were the meeting places in Qalansue, Safforie, and Tubania in the Jezreel Valley. At these meetings thousands of men and mounts would gather. The soldiers would be briefed on organizational arrangements in the camps, on the state of the grazing meadows and springs and on security measures to be taken by the first arrivals. Proximity to a Frankish settlement or fortress facilitated and expedited the efficient organization of these meetings which were perforce, because of their very nature, arranged at short notice.
Downstream, in Casale Doc (Daʿuq), about three kilometers northwest of Recordana, the Templar knights established another castle. From a survey of the impressive remains (see fig. 18 and plate 11) it would appear that the castle was large and fortified. The fact that the castle at Daʿuq is neither mentioned in Latin sources from the twelfth century nor in Arabic sources which describe the Muslim conquest of Salah al-Din indicates that it did not exist during the time of the First Kingdom and was built only after the battle of Hattin.
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- Frankish Rural Settlement in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem , pp. 205 - 210Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998