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
- PART IV THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF FRANKISH SETTLEMENT
- 17 The boundaries of Frankish settlement in Western Galilee and Samaria
- 18 The spatial distribution of Frankish settlement north of Jerusalem
- 19 Spatial distribution of Christian and Muslim settlements in Samaria
- 20 Differential geographical changes and the cultural borders of Samaria and the Galilee
- 21 Summary and conclusions
- Bibliography
- Index
19 - Spatial distribution of Christian and Muslim settlements in Samaria
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
- PART IV THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF FRANKISH SETTLEMENT
- 17 The boundaries of Frankish settlement in Western Galilee and Samaria
- 18 The spatial distribution of Frankish settlement north of Jerusalem
- 19 Spatial distribution of Christian and Muslim settlements in Samaria
- 20 Differential geographical changes and the cultural borders of Samaria and the Galilee
- 21 Summary and conclusions
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In the absence of reliable statistics it is difficult to establish whether any particular region was populated by Christians or Muslims during the Middle Ages. One cannot, in general, rely on the accounts of the chronicles and on itineraries which were most probably influenced by ideological considerations and personal preferences, and no other data is available. Kedar's hypothesis that there was a large Christian community around Jerusalem during the Frankish period, and that in Samaria there was a Muslim population, is based both on the evidence of chroniclers and on other unconnected documents.
In the following pages I shall bring evidence about the religion of specific inhabitants who lived in villages north of Jerusalem during the Frankish period. This list should provide corroboration of two additional claims: (a) that the border between the medieval Muslim and Christian communities passed through the Sinjil–'Abud line and was, therefore, identical with the northern border of Frankish settlement; and (b) that in the region of Nablus, where there were Christian communities during the same period, there were also Frankish settlements.
The list includes villages whose residents were, to the best of our knowledge, either Christians or Muslims, and references to isolated individuals in some of the villages. This fragmented evidence is of limited value per se, but existence of a Muslim or Christian community in a certain village can have regional significance if it can be shown that in neighboring villages there were similar communities.
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- Information
- Frankish Rural Settlement in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem , pp. 234 - 252Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998