content (as construed from secondary sources; primary sources and comments, including translations thereof - notably of the Arab original treaty text - being solicited by the editor for inclusion on this site):

1.    "the Holy Place of the city was divided between the two faiths: the Christians had the Holy Sepulchre, the Muslims the mosque of Omar, and both sections were kept open to pilgrims", yet "Jews were once again forbidden to live in Jerusalem".
2.    "El-Kamel, conceded the Holy Places of Jerusalem and its surrounding territory to Frederick II"; the territories thus ceded included "Jerusalem", "Nazareth, and Bethlehem", "Sidon and Toron", and "Bayt Laham, Tabneen, Honeen, Sayda and a strip of Jerusalem land that went through Al-Lad and ended at Jaffa, in addition to the cities of Nassira and the west of Al-Jaleel".  These territorial concessions explicitly included the right to fortify and militarily defend these cities and their access roads from the Mediterranean ports, according to Peter Böckli ("Friedrich II von Hohenstaufen und sein Kreuzzug auf dem Verhandlungsweg", in Diplomatische Negoziation, Festschrift für Franz A. Blankart zum 60.Geburtstag, Mario A Corti, Peter Ziegler, Herausgeber, Paul Haupt Verlag, Bern 1997, S.401).  "This meant, in particular, the protection of the road from Jaffa to Césarée. This was an everyday job involving frequent fighting."
3.    In a classic, mirror-like form (Böckli, ibid.), Friedrich II conceded to his Muslim counterpart "In principle Jerusalem was also given back but with many exceptions like the Omar and Al-Aqsa Mosques, the Templum Domini and the Templum Solomonis."  "The treaty also stated that the holy shrine of Al-Sakhra dome and its mosque should be left to the Muslims."  "Under this agreement, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth were handed over to the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, though the Muslims were permitted to retain their holy places there."
4.    Significantly, with this treaty, "trading rights were guaranteed to Christians and Moslems alike".
5.    "The treaty was to last for ten years." (were the ten years explicitly agreed then commonly or mutually recognized as intentionally limitative, or was - as before and after in comparable cases - tacit renewal possible, if not expected, in the event of continued mutual respect of the treaty's key terms?  those among the readers who have science on this matter, please advise the editor at: swissbit@solami.com)

THE THIRTEENTH-CENTURY CRUSADES (1217-52)
(excerpts from:   CRUSADES, Catholic Encyclopedia, by  LOUIS BRÉHIER,
www.ewtn.com/library/CHISTORY/CE_CRUSA.HTM)

In Europe, however, the preaching of the crusade met with great opposition. Temporal princes were strongly averse to losing jurisdiction over their subjects who took part in the crusades.  Absorbed in political schemes, they were unwilling to send so far away the military forces on which they depended. As early as December, 1216, Frederick II was granted a first delay in the fulfillment of his vow.

   The crusade as preached in the thirteenth century was no longer the great enthusiastic movement of 1095, but rather a series of irregular and desultory enterprises. Andrew II, King of Hungary, and Casimir, Duke of Pomerania, set sail from Venice and Spalato, while an army of Scandinavians made a tour of Europe. The crusaders landed at Saint-Jean d'Acre in 1217, but confined themselves to incursions on Mussulman territory, whereupon Andrew of Hungary returned to Europe. Receiving reinforcements in the spring of 1218, John of Brienne, King of Jerusalem, resolved to make an attack on the Holy Land by way of Egypt.  The crusaders accordingly landed at Damietta in May, 1218, and, after a siege marked by many deeds of heroism, took the city by storm, 5 November, 1219. Instead of profiting by this victory, they spent over a year in idle quarrels, and it was not until May 1221, that they set out for Cairo. Surrounded by the Saracens at Mansurah, 24 July, the Christian army was routed. John of Brienne was compelled to purchase a retreat by the surrender of Damietta to the Saracens. Meanwhile Emperor Frederick II, who was to be the leader of the crusade, had remained in Europe and continued to importune the pope for new postponements of his departure. On 9 November, 1225, he married Isabelle of Brienne, heiress to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the ceremony taking place at Brindisi.  Completely ignoring his father-in-law, he assumed the title of King of Jerusalem. In 1227, however, he had not yet left for Palestine. Gregory IX, elected pope 19 March, 1227, summoned Frederick to fulfill his vow.

  Finally, 8 September, the emperor embarked but soon turned back; therefore, on 29 September, the pope excommunicated him. Nevertheless, Frederick set sail again 18 June, 1228, but instead of leading a crusade he played a game of diplomacy. He won over Malek-el-Khamil, the Sultan of Egypt, who was at war with the Prince of Damascus, and concluded a treaty with him at Jaffa, February, 1229, according to the terms of which Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Nazareth were restored to the Christians. On 18 March, 1229, without any religious ceremony, Frederick assumed the royal crown of Jerusalem in the church of the Holy Sepulchre. Returning to Europe, he became reconciled to Gregory IX, August, 1230. The pontiff ratified the Treaty of Jaffa, and Frederick sent knights into Syria to take possession of the cities and compel all feudatories to do him homage. A struggle occurred between Richard Filangieri, the emperor's marshal, and the barons of Palestine, whose leader was Jean d'Ibelin, Lord of Beirut. Filangieri vainly attempted to obtain possession of the Island of Cyprus. and, when Conrad, son of Frederick II and Isabelle of Brienne, came of age in 1243, the High Court, described above, named as regent Alix of Champagne, Queen of Cyprus. In this way German power was abolished in Palestine.
 

FORERUNNER OF THE ANTICHRIST - Frederick II
(extract from:  Who and What is the Beast of Revelation?, www.mte.net.au/futurewatch/id24.htm)

From the time of Frederick I:  "The Western world was waiting, with bated breath, till an Emperor of the West should make his entry into Jerusalem. Ever new prophecies hinged on the great event: he who rides into Jerusalem as King will bring the long-awaited Reign of Peace before the Antichrist shall come" (Ernest Kantorowicz, Frederick the Second 1194-1250, page 167).

Frederick led a small force to the Holy Land. "He negotiated with the Muslims to obtain a kingdom comprising Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth and the adjoining littoral" (Heer, page 82). "It was certainly the impact of Frederick's personality on the Arab world, and not armed might, that made this treaty possible" (EBritannica, Frederick the Great). He "amazed his Arab friends by declaring Jerusalem a city of three religions, Jewish, Muslim and Christian.  Under the peace he concluded ... with the Sultan al-Malik-al-Kamil in 1229, the Holy Place of the city was divided between the two faiths: the Christians had the Holy Sepulchre, the Muslims the mosque of Omar, and both sections were kept open to pilgrims" (Friedrich Heer, The Medieval World: Europe 1100-1350, page 112). The peace treaty involved a ten year truce (cp. Daniel 9:27a). He also "crowned himself king of Jerusalem with the Davidic crown" (Heer, Holy Roman Empire, page 82).

   "Eschatological prophecies concerning his rule were now made, and the Emperor considered himself to be a new messiah, a new David.  His entry into Jerusalem was compared with that of Christ on Palm Sunday, and indeed, in a manifesto the emperor, too, compared himself to Christ.
   "When the news of his death was published, all Europe was deeply shaken. Doubts arose that he was really dead; false Fredericks appeared everywhere;...  a legend grew... in Germany that he was encapsulated in a mountain and would return as the latter-day emperor to punish the worldly church and peacefully reestablish the Holy Roman Empire" (EBritannica, Frederick II).

Jerusalem
(extract from:  Jerusalem, www.wordtrade.com/religion/JERUSALEM.htm)

   Jerusalem in the Time of the Crusades by Adrian J. Boas (Routledge) Serving as both a scholarly account of Jerusalem's archaeology and a useful guide for the interested reader, this work illuminates the turbulent past of a city which is both medieval in appearance and a modern city at the center of international and religious interest. This expansive new work examines the history of the city and its unique society as well as presents archaeological evidence for Crusader Jerusalem.

   The period of Frankish rule in Jerusalem is not a long one when compared to some other periods in the history of the city. It embraces two distinct phases, the first and principal one extending from the conquest of the city on 15 July 1099, at the end of the First Crusade, until the Ayyubid occupation on 2 October 1187 following the Battle of Hattin and a brief siege lasting twelve days. The second, short-lived phase began with the reoccupation of Jerusalem by the Franks under the terms of the Treaty of Jaffa and Tell Ajul, ratified on 18 February 1229. When the treaty expired ten years later in 1239, Jerusalem was briefly occupied by al-Nasir al-Da'ud of Kerak. After destroying the Tower of David, he departed and the city was reoccupied by the Franks in 1241. This final phase of Crusader occupation ended with the Khwarizmian conquest of the city in 1244.

   These two periods of Frankish rule together amount to little more than a hundred years. In terms of the physical changes that took place in this short span of time, we can place Crusader Jerusalem among the important periods in the history of the city. Within the contours of Roman/Byzantine Jerusalem the Franks carried out an internal transformation that was in some measure as great as any made to Jerusalem since the time of Hadrian in the second century AD. The evolution of Jerusalem into a Crusader city was a protracted undertaking extending over several decades, the dual aim of which was the physical restoration of the spiritual capital of Christendom and the transformation of a provincial Muslim city into the capital of a Western Christian kingdom. The rebuilding of Jerusalem was also aimed at overcoming the demographic crisis which the Franks themselves had created. When they occupied Jerusalem, a slaughter of the local population was carried out between 15 and 18 July 1099. It left the new capital purged of `infidels' but also almost a ghost town, as few Crusaders remained in the city after the conquest. As a result, alongside the passionate desire to restore Christian holy places to their past glory, there was a more practical need to repopulate the now near-empty city. The lengthy process of restoration and repopulation began shortly after the occupation. However, restoration requires capital, and after the First Crusade financial support from the West was not always forthcoming. Though there were few local resources, some of the abandoned wealth of Fatimid Jerusalem could now be channelled into new projects. This must have been at least partly the means by which a fairly large number of churches was built in the first half of the twelfth century to replace those destroyed by the Egyptian Caliph al-Hakim at the beginning of the eleventh century.' These included not only the Church of the Holy Sepulchre but the churches of St Anne, St Mary on Mount Zion, the Tomb of the Virgin in Jehoshaphat, St James in the Armenian Quarter, the Church of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives and a large number of lesser churches.
 

The Peaceful Liberation of Jerusalem
(extract from:  The Peaceful Liberation of the Holy Places, http://www.christusrex.org/www2/liberation/index.html#part1)

With the signing of the Treaty of Jaffa (February 18, 1229), the Sultan of Egypt, El-Kamel, conceded the Holy Places of Jerusalem and its surrounding territory to Frederick II for a period of ten years. The Latin clergy, refugees in Acre in 1187, returned to Jerusalem to care for the Sanctuaries and to officiate in them, just as they had done in the previous century. There is no doubt that at this same time the clergy of the various Eastern Rites recovered their previous posts. This is the first return of the crusader clergy to the Holy Places, a return obtained by means of negotiations between two high authorities.

In these two years, 1229-1230, the Franciscan Friars obtained a residency in Jerusalem in the area of the Third Station of the Way of the Cross. At that time this Station was named "of the Rest" or "of the Cyrenean".(*15)
_________
*15 - S. De Sandoli, Il primo convento francescano in Gerusalemme (1230-1244), Supplemento a La Terra Santa, Giugno-Agosto, 1983.
 

1229 TREATY OF JAFFA (Eretz Israel)
(extract from:  Jewish History,  www.jewishhistory.org.il/1220.htm)

Between Emperor Frederick II and the Sultan of Egypt. Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem were returned to the crusaders. Jews were once again forbidden to live in Jerusalem.

ORDO SUPREMUS MILITARIS TEMPLI HIEROSOLYMITANI
The Magistral Grand Priory of The Holy Lands (Notre Dame, Saint Mary of Magdalene)
(extract from:  Templar Chronology, www.ordotempli.org/knights_templar_chronology.htm)

1229 (18 Feb)     Jerusalem restored to Christians by treaty
 

Military history of the Templars
(extract from:  Gilles C H Nullens' e-book on Heretics, Heresies, Early Christianity, Freemasonry, and a lexicon of old terms and people,  http://www.nullens.org/cathars/chapter_2/2_5.htm)

At the beginning their main activity was the protection of the pilgrims going to the Holy Land.  This was their initial and only objective as Gregory IX said in his bull of 1238. This meant, in particular, the protection of the road from Jaffa to Césarée. This was an everyday job involving frequent fighting.

Their first recorded battle was however in Portugal. In September 1132 they defended Grayana and the Marche and for this they received the castle of Barbara from the Count Ermengaud d'Urgell. Liberating Spain and Portugal of the Moslems was considered as important as taking back the Holy Land. The first crusade to free these countries started in Toulouse in 1064 and aimed to free Barcelona. The Templar military story at the beginning involved mainly Spain. They received their first fort, Calatrava, between 1126 and 1130.  When the King of Spain, Alphonse d'Aragon died in 1134, having no heir, he left Spain to the Templars, the Hospitallers as well as to the Chaplains of the Holy Sepulchre. The Templars refused feeling that their first vocation was in the Holy Land. However they had large estates in the peninsula. The Queen of Portugal gave them the castle of Soure. They also received the forest of Cera and there they founded the towns of Radin, Ega and Coimbra. In Spain they received many castles and forts such as Monzon and Montjoie following their participation in the war against the Moslems.

Their first known battle in the Holy Land was in 1138 and it was a defeat. Robert de Craon took Tequoa from the Turks but they came back in strength and took back the town killing most people. These Turks d'Ascalon were always attacking pilgrims on the Jaffa to Jerusalem and the Jerusalem to Hebron roads. The Templars cleared these roads and made them safe around the middle of the 12th century. They received the red cross to attach above the heart on their white cloak in 1147 from Pope Eugene III. It was supposed to act as a shield so that they would not escape in front of the Moslems. They soon had the opportunity to show their worth to the King of France. The French army went inside the Pisidie canyon on 6 January 1148 and was more or less exterminated by the Turks.

Only the determination of the Templar Knights under Everard des Barres saved what was left of the army. Everard des Barres became Master after the death of Robert de Craon but he abdicated to live a contemplative life in the Abbey of Citeaux where he died in 1174. He was succeeded by Bernard de Tremelay. In 1153 Baldwin III, King of Jerusalem, decided to put the siege before Ascalon a strong place held by the Turks. The Templars and the Hospitallers were with the King's army. When a breach was made in the enemy defence Bernard de Tremelay and his soldiers blocked it and did not allow the other to enter. This allowed the Turks to counter attack and all the Templars including their Master were killed.  Finally Ascalon was taken 19 August 1153. In about 1168 Amaury now King of Jerusalem, although he had an alliance treaty with the Egyptians, decided to attack them. The Hospitallers decided to join him but the Templars, under their Master Bertrand de Blanquefort, refused on the base that this would break the agreement and induce an alliance between Egypt and Syria. The Kingdom of Jerusalem could only survive if Syria and Egypt did not collaborate. This attack prompted Egypt and Syria to negotiate a new alliance and this helped the end of Jerusalem as foreseen by the Templars. (r)

Moreover, and due to many fortunate circumstances, Saladin became the head of both Egypt and Syria in 1183. King Amaury died of typhus in 1174 and his heir, Baldwin IV was 13 years old and ill with leper. At that time they were strong disagreements between the Templars and Amaury. His death avoided their solution. Baldwin IV with the Templars' help defeated Saladin at Montgisard in 1177. However he died in 1185, 24 years old without direct heir.  Before dying he nominated regent the Count of Tripoli Raymond III who, unfortunately, was in very bad terms with the Master of the Templars, Gérard de Ridefort. The power was to be taken by his half sister Sybille whose husband Guy de Lusignan was not liked. This Master joined force with Lusignan and led the kingdom to his fall. Renaud de Chatillon who owned land in Transgiordania attacked an Egyptian caravan despite that a truce had been negotiated. As a result Saladin invaded Giordania with a big army and informed Raymond de Tripoli of his intention to attack Acre as a revenge. Raymond let Saladin's troops go through Galilee. However Gérard de Ridefort attacked Saladin at Casal Robert and most of his men were killed. He was one of the few to escape. Saladin took Nazareth and then besieged Tiberiade in 1187. Raymond de Tripoli who owned Tiberiade joined the King Lusignan' s army at Séphorie near Nazareth. Gérard de Ridefort convinced the King Lusignan to attack Saladin although they had fewer men and no water. The army left Séphorie on 3 July 1187 but did not succeed to reach the water well by the evening and had to make camp in difficult conditions on the mont of Hattin. They were soon surrounded by Saladin's army. Raymond de Tripoli succeeded to escape but the whole army was defeated on 4 July. The King of Jerusalem was taken prisoner. Renaud de Chatillon was beheaded as well as all the Templars and the Hospitallers. Gérard de Ridefort not only was not killed but he was freed by Saladin. Later on he ordered the surrender of Gaza and all the forts near by even if elsewhere such things did not occur. He urged the people of Ascalon to surrender too but they did not listen and the siege lasted 6 weeks. Soon it was the turn of Jerusalem that surrendered after a difficult battle. However the Europeans remained in the Middle East for more than one century but only in a small piece of land along the sea where they built strong forts in which the military Orders had the opportunity to show their worth. The resistance started at Tyr where some reinforcements under the Marquis Conrad of Montferrat landed on the peninsula 10 days after the defeat of Hattin. (r)

With the arrivals of new troops headed by the kings of France and England the crusaders were ready to take back Acre. The Templars 18 months after the death of Gérard de Ridefort in 1189 elected a new Master, Robert de Sablé. They acquired Cyprus that Richard the Lion Heart had taken from the Byzantines. But they were badly received by the population that besieged them in their castle in Nicosia (5 April 1192) and finally it was given to Guy de Lusignan. The new King of Jerusalem was Conrad of Montferrat but Jerusalem was never to be conquered again. The Templars fought with Richard the Lion Heart against Saladin. In 1193 Robert de Sablé died and was succeeded by Gilbert Erail who had been a candidate against Gérard de Ridefort and who was a master of Provence, Spain and Europe. Saladin died in 1193. In 1204 the King of Jerusalem, Amaury de Lusignan, recovered the territory of Sidon in the North and Lydda and Ramla in the South. However the survival of the kingdom was not certain. In 1218 the crusaders fortified Cesaree and built the Chatel-Pélerin fort at Athlit and entrusted it to the Templars. In 1219 the Templars helped the King of Jerusalem, Jean de Brienne, to attack Egypt and to take Damiette.

The Moslems offered to give back Palestine to the King of Jerusalem if he left Egypt. Due to lack of a clear decision the proposal was abandoned. The Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen negotiated a settlement with Egypt that led to the Treaty of Jaffa of 1229 that gave back Sidon and Toron to the crusaders. In principle Jerusalem was also given back but with many exceptions like the Omar and Al-Aqsa Mosques, the Templum Domini and the Templum Solomonis. The Templars opposed this treaty with all their strength. Moreover the walls could not be changed and this allowed the Saracens to plunder it at will. Only the Teutonic Knights agreed completely with the Emperor. Frederick became on his own will the new King of Jerusalem but the Pope Legate did not recognise him. He attacked the Templars at Acre but finally he was obliged by a popular insurrection to leave the Holy Land on 1 May 1229. The real effect of the actions of Frederick II was to create some friction between the military orders. The Teutonic Knights had been founded in 1198 (although the organisation existed since 1190). It was known as the "German Hospital". It was a strictly German order.  The relations between the Templars and the St John Hospital of Jerusalem deteriorated as the last one was less hostile to Frederick II. In addition the presence in the Holy Land of the German Emperor led to anarchy and civil war in Cyprus and Palestine as well. (r)

In 1238 Templars and Hospitallers were fighting for the possession of two wind mills. In 1241 the Templars attacked the Hospitaller and the Teutonic Knights. The last followers of Frederick II were finally expelled from Cyprus, Syria and Palestine in 1243. Due to their alliance with the Sultan of Damascus the Templars were able to occupy again their houses in Jerusalem and to fortify them when, at the request of Egyptian Sultans, Jerusalem was attacked and plundered by the Khwarismiens. The Holy Grounds were destroyed in 1244.  Later the Templar Master, Armand de Périgord was killed near Gaza in an open ground battle with these Turkish fighters. Jerusalem was definitively lost and the Western army nearly completely destroyed. The Templars lost 312 knights on a total of 348. The Kingdom of Jerusalem seemed near its end. The army and the three military orders had lost most of their men. What was really stopping the West to send some reinforcement was the continuous fight between Frederick II, nominal head of Jerusalem, excommunicated by the Church, in permanent fight with the Pope and mistrusted by the Christians of Syria and Palestine and the other western temporal and spiritual leaders. He had made a strong alliance with the Egyptian Sultan that had taken Damascus in 1245. In these conditions it was not possible anymore to play on the Moslem divisions. The Templars asked to buy back their brother prisoners but the Sultan Aiyub accepted only Frederick as an intermediary.  Moreover the Sultan refused the truce offered by the Pope Innocent IV. In 1244 Louis IX became a Templars. In 1247 the Sultan Aiyub took Tiberiade and Ascalon. However the Pope deposited Frederick and nominated Head of Jerusalem Henry, king of Cyprus. After some long preparation Louis IX took back Damiette in 1249. He waited in this town the end of the inundation's. This allowed the Egyptians to regroup their forces. In the following battle of al-Mansura the Templars played their part unwillingly. King Louis IX's brother, Robert d'Artois, attacked the Egyptian camp near al-Mansura and then the town itself in February 1250. It was a complete defeat, the soldiers and the Templars present were lost and Robert d'Artois was killed. Louis IX saved the main army but it was stuck in march land and they tried to retreat but were made prisoner one day before arriving at Damiette. The Templar Master, Guillaume de Sonnac was among the dead.

The King of France, Saint Louis, ordered the Templars to close their alliance with Damascus.  It was the beginning of the end of their independence that had given them their reputation of arrogance and insubordination. When saint Louis sailed back to France on 25 April 1254 he had rebuilt the fortifications of Césarée, Jaffa and Sidon but above he had imposed his authority on the military orders. A 10 year truce followed. (r)

The commercial rivalry between the Italian cities of Genoa, Pisa and Venice generated bloody battles in the towns occupied by the Europeans in the Holy Land. In the war of Saint-Sabas  Genoa was allied to the Hospitallers while Venice and Pisa were helped by the Templars.  Despite the intervention of the Pope Alexander IV the war went on in 1258 weakening in the process the kingdom of Jerusalem or what was left of it. The war ended only in 1270 when Pisa and Venice submitted to the injunction of Saint Louis. In this deteriorated climate Acre was taken by the Moslems. The end would have come earlier if it had not been for the fear of the Mongols by the Moslems. The Sultan Baibars, head of Egypt, had taken Alep and Damascus. He then took in succession Césarée, Saphet, Jaffa, Beaufort and Antioche (1265-1268). A second crusade by Saint Louis stopped the conquests but after, in 1271, Baibars took Chatel-Blanc from the Templars and the Crac des Chevaliers from the Hospitallers.

Another 10 year truce followed but the Europeans were not able to reorganise themselves and in 1288 the Sultan Qalaoun took Tripoli and his successor attacked Saint-Jean-d'Acre. All the military orders participated in the battle: the Templars led by their Master Guillaume de Beaujeu, the Hospitallers led by Jean de Villiers as well as the King of Cyprus, Henry II, also King of Jerusalem since 1286. However the Egyptians were too strong. The resistance lasted two months from the 5 April to the 28 May 1291. The Templars tried to go out to burn the Egyptian war machines by they failed. The final assault started on 18 May. Guillaume de Beaujeu was deadly wounded and Jean de Villers was also badly hurt. The Templar Convent was the last defence left. Their occupants saw the few boats leaving for Cyprus with the few survivors. They fought to the last men and the battle finished 28 May with the Convent collapsing on the Templars and the attacking Egyptians. Tyr, Sidon and Tortose were abandoned without fighting. The last place to fall was the island of Rouad in front of Tortose held by the Templars until 1303.
 

Crusades:   History
(extract from:  Encyclopaedia of the Orient,  lexicorient.com/cgi-bin/eo-direct-frame.pl?http://i-cias.com/e.o/crusades_05.htm)

1229 February 18:   The crusaders gets back the control over Jerusalem following the signing of a treaty by German emperor Frederick 2 and the Egyptian sultan al-Kamil.   — The pope launches a crusade against Frederick 2.
 

Three faces of Jerusalem
by  Bernard Wasserstein
(extract from:  American Committee on Jerusalem, www.acj.org/Daily%20News/December/Dec_20.htm)

Surprisingly, the conquest of Jerusalem by the crusaders was greeted at first with Muslim indifference. A change of attitude emerges only in the mid-12th century and, as so often in the history of Jerusalem, religious fervour may be explained, in large measure, by politics. In the 1140s Zangi, ruler of Mosul and Aleppo, with his son and successor Nur al-Din, called for an all-out war against the crusader state. Their propagandists placed a new emphasis on the holiness of Jerusalem in Islam. This was accentuated by the greatest of the Muslim warriors, Saladin, who used the sanctity of Jerusalem as a means of cowing rivals for leadership of the Muslim cause. In the late 12th century the idea of the holy city was invoked no less in internal Muslim quarrels than in the external conflict with Christendom. The Muslim reconquest of Jerusalem, on 2nd October 1187, was greeted with rejoicing in the Islamic world. Saladin's victory was hailed in poems and Muslims were encouraged to resettle there and to go on pilgrimage.

In 1191, Saladin wrote to Richard I, in the course of armistice negotiations, saying that even if he were personally disposed to yield the city, the crusading English king "should not imagine that its surrender would be possible; I would not dare even to utter the word in front of the Muslims," (words repeated by Yasser Arafat to Clinton in 2000). Jerusalem was, nevertheless, returned to the Christians by the Treaty of Jaffa in 1229. Under this agreement, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth were handed over to the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, though the Muslims were permitted to retain their holy places there. The treaty was to last for ten years. After that, fighting broke out again and in 1244 the city was sacked by invading Kharezmian Tartars. Only after 1260 was order restored under the Mamluk sultans of Egypt.

Under Mamluk rule, Jerusalem was not a place of political importance. The division of the city into four quarters-Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Armenian-had its origins in this period. Islamic institutions were established and the Muslim character of the city enhanced, although, unlike the Christians, Muslims tolerated the presence of other faiths. Religious groups tended to settle around their most important shrines: Muslims north and west of the Haram al-Sharif ("noble sanctuary"-the name given to the Temple Mount); Armenians in the south-west near their Cathedral of Saint James; the other Christians in the north-west near the Holy Sepulchre; and the Jews in the south near the Western Wall. At the dawn of the modern era, divided Jerusalem was a geographical as well as a spiritual fact. Under the rule of the Ottoman Turks, for four centuries after 1516, Muslim institutions were consolidated and, under the sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (reigned 1520-66), it acquired the walls that ring the "old city" today and are its greatest secular monument. Yet Muslim predominance did not preclude the growth of Christian and Jewish communities. Indeed, it was during the later Ottoman period that the Jews became, once again, the majority of the population.
 

The Great Crusades (1095-1291)
(extract from:  detailedtimeline,  www.umich.edu/~eng415/timeline/detailedtimeline.html)

1228-1229     Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, while under papal interdict, crusades in Egypt; al-Kamil gives him Jerusalem under a treaty; Jerusalem then under interdict
 

The Sixth Crusade - Frederick II
(extract from:  The Latter Rain Page,  http://latter-rain.com/ltrain/crusix.htm)

     1229. The sixth Crusade has elements of great interest because it was led by the highly intelligent western emperor, Frederick II of Germany.   The papacy excommunicated him once for failing to go on the Crusade, and again for going on it. The Emperor had promised to go on a crusade, and evaded his vow, making a false start and then returning, he may have been bored. But the vow had been part of the bargain by which he secured the support of Pope Innocent III in his election as emperor. This was a Crusade bordering on absurdity.

     Frederick, after much procrastination, set off for the Holy Land with a formidable army in 1228. His excommunication sentence was renewed because he ventured to sail without waiting for the papal orders. There was really no fighting involved for the Syrians would not support a ruler at odds with the Pope and Frederick was too smart to fight when he could get what he wanted by diplomacy. This noble monarch could secure more for the Christians by negotiation than any military commander since the first crusade could get by war, an act than won him only the scorn of his fellow men. By good fortune he found that the sultan Melek Kamel of Egypt was engaged in a war with his nephew, and therefore willing to make terms with the Franks. This Mussulman ruler granted them a considerable part of the Holy Land, . Frederick obtained a treaty by the Musselman ruler whereby Jaffa, Bethlehem and Nazareth were ceded to the Christians, including Jerusalem, except the site of the temple, and a 10 year truce was agreed upon. To add insult to injury, Frederick crowned himself king of Jerusalem, for no ecclesiastic would perform the ceremony. The title "King of Jerusalem" was held by all the German emperors, and afterward by the emperors of Austria until 1835.

     But the gains were mourned by the Moslems and not welcomed by the Christians, who put Jerusalem under an interdict after Frederick visited it to crown himself king. Frederick was excommunicated [the 2nd time] in 1239, by Gregory, and this sentence was renewed by Innocent IV in 1245. The champion of the cross was exposed to the bitterest hostility of the church. Everywhere he went he was victorious, but the papal legates and priests harassed him by constant opposition, and even a crusade was preached against him in Italy. Frederick returned to Europe after having affected more for the Christians in Palestine than any of their former protectors. Gregory again hurled anathemas against a prince who had made a treaty with the infidels.

     Finally there was tranquillity in the Holy Land for fifteen years, and the peace raised the Latins of Palestine to a prosperous condition. But through the quarrel between the pope and the emperor the results of the crusade were lost. Though Jerusalem was won back for a short time, the city was defenseless against the Moslems. It was just a matter of time before it would be reoccupied. A new and more formidable enemy, the Khorasmian Turks, driven from their native deserts by the Mongols, threw themselves on Palestine, stormed Jerusalem in 1244, and shortly thereafter thoroughly defeated the Latins in a great battle at Gaza. Jerusalem remained in Moslem hands until surrendered to the British in 1917.     [03, 05, 08, 14, 20, 26]
 

The Ayoubis and their struggle with the Crusaders
(extract from:  Palestine in the Islamic history, www.palestine-info.co.uk/history/palesinsileng.html)

The discord between Al-Kamel Mohammed and the great Issa led to the former going to seek help from Fredrik the Second, the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, who became regent on the throne of the kingdom of the Crusaders in Akka. Al-Kamel promised the emperor the city of Jerusalem if he helped him against his brother the great Issa. Fredrik the Second led the sixth campaign of the Crusaders and reached Akka in the year 625 H (1228 CE). Even though the great Issa died and his brothers Al-Kamel and Al-Ashraf took his State and gave his son Al-Nassir Dawoud the cities of Karak, Balqa, Agwar, Salt and Shoubak, and Al-Kamel was not in need for Fredrik the Second any more, he gave him Jerusalem just to fulfill the promise he made to him! Fredrik, at the time, did not have the power to force Muslims to surrender Jerusalem. He even begged, at certain stages of his negotiation with Al-Kamel, for it. Fredrik was quoted as saying to Al-Kamel, "I am your subordinate and faithful slave. If your Highness granted me the honour to take the country, it would be a great gift that would make me proud of myself amongst all the kings of the sea." Al-Kamel responded, and made the Jaffa treaty with Fredrik in 626 H (18 February 1229 CE). The treaty was meant to last for 10 years. It stated that the Crusaders would take the Holy City of Jerusalem, Bayt Laham, Tabneen, Honeen, Sayda and a strip of Jerusalem land that went through Al-Lad and ended at Jaffa, in addition to the cities of Nassira and the west of Al-Jaleel. The treaty also stated that the holy shrine of Al-Sakhra dome and its mosque should be left to the Muslims.

 Thereafter, Jerusalem was returned to the control of the Crusaders. "The Muslim people were very saddened by the loss of Jerusalem; they were crying and performing obsequies everywhere. The scholars and preachers repeatedly said that this incident was a shame on the Muslim kings, and the people of Damascus started to hate Al-Kamel and resent him for what he did." And Ibn Katheer is quoted as saying, "It was a great shock for Muslims, and the whole nation was weakened and self disappointed (131)."
 

FREDERICK II IN THE HOLY LAND
(extract from:  Medieval Sourcebook,  www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1228frederick2.html)

From Cyprus Frederick sailed quickly to Acre to begin his Crusade. The Crusade in Frederick's hands, however, was to be a far different kind of affair from his predecessors. Instead of using his army against the Moslems, it was Frederick's intention to negotiate with the Egyptian Sultan for a peaceful territorial settlement in the Holy Land. Frederick proposed to use his army principally against the Latins in the East, to try to force them to acknowledge his position as regent and de facto ruler of the Latin states in the East. In short, Frederick's objective was the conquest, not of the Moslem­beld territories of Palestine, but rather of the Crusading states.

In the year 1229 [actually 1228] the Emperor came to Syria with his whole navy. The King [the infant Conrad IV, titular King of Jerusalem] and all the Cypriots, together with the Lord of Beirut, [John d'Ibelin] accompanied him. The Lord of Beirut went to Beirut, Where be was joyfully received, for never was a lord more warmly loved by his men. He remained there but one day and then followed the Emperor to Tyre. The Emperor was very well received in Syria where all did homage to him as regent, because he bad a little son called King Conrad, who was the rightful heir of the Kingdom of Jerusalem through his mother who was dead.  The Emperor and his men and all the Syrians left Acre to go to Jaffa. There they held truce conferences with al­Kamil, who was then Sultan of Babylon and Damascus, [Al-Kamal was, in fact, Sultan of Egypt, and not at this time ruling in Damascus, which was under his nephew, an-Nasir Dawud] and who held Jerusalem and the whole country. As a result of their agreement Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Lydda were thereby turned over to the Emperor.

In this same year, [really the following year, 1229] amidst these events, the Emperor ordered Count Stephen of Gotron and other Longobards [i.e. his troops from Southern Italy] as well, to come to Cyprus. He had all the fortresses and the royal revenues seized for his use. He claimed that he was regent and that this was his right. The Cypriots were much perplexed and had their wives and children placed in religious houses wherever they could. Some of them ­ namely Sir John d'Ibelin,
later Count of Jaffa, who was then a child, his sister, and other gentle-folk ­ fled in the midst of the winter. It was a bad season and they barely escaped drowning, but, as it so pleased God, they finally arrived at Tortosa. The Emperor held Cyprus. The Cypriots who were in his army were very uncomfortable and, had the Lord of Beirut sanctioned it, they would have carried off and kidnapped the young King Henry and would have fled from the Emperor's camp.

The Emperor was now disliked by all the people of Acre. He was the object of the Templars' special disfavor. There was at that time a very brave Templar, Brother Peter de Montagu, a most valiant and noble man, as was also the master of the Teutonic Knights. The people of the lowlands­39 also had little use for the Emperor.  The Emperor seemed to be delaying. [conjectural reading of "de lais"] Every day, even in winter, be kept his galleys armed, with the oars in the locks. Many people
said that he wished to seize the Lord of Beirut and his children, Sir Anceau de Bries and his other friends, the Master of the Temple and other persons and have them shipped to Apulia. Another said that he wished to have them killed at a council to which he had called and summoned them but that they had been aware of this and went to the council with such forces that he dared not do it.

He made his truce with the Saracens in all particulars as they wished it. He went to Jerusalem and then to Acre. The Lord of Beirut never left him and, though he was often advised to leave, he did not wish to do so. The Emperor assembled his people at Acre and had all the people of the city come and there were many who thought well of him....

The Emperor secretly prepared to depart. At daybreak on the first of May, he boarded a galley before the Butchers' Street, without notifying anyone. Thus it happened that the butchers and the old people who lived on the street and who were very unfriendly saw his party and pelted him most abusively with tripe and scraps of meat....

Thus the Emperor left Acre, cursed, bated, and despised.

[Adapted from Brundage] By diplomacy and without spilling a drop of blood, Frederick won the goals for which the Crusade had been launched. Jerusalem and Bethlehem were restored to Christian hands and a corridor linking the cities with the sea was also ceded to the Latins. Moreover, a ten­year truce was arranged and trading rights were guaranteed to Christians and Moslems alike. But the Emperor, who had won so much, lost what he had come to gain. The Latin Kingdom was not to be a part of Frederick's Empire. The barons and clergy unanimously rejected him as regent and Frederick was forced to return to the West almost immediately to meet an attack which had been launched against his Sicilian Kingdom during his absence by his father­in­law and the Pope.  Frederick's departure left the Latin states reconstituted but devoid of strong leadership. The barons of the Latin Kingdom cherished dearly their feudal independence, even though, in the final analysis, it might cost them the possession of the Kingdom itself. The decade of comparative peace which followed Frederick's departure saw nothing done to assure the permanence of the Latin states. At the expiration of the treaty period, small Crusading armies journeyed to the East, one in 1239, led by King Thibaud of Navarre, and another one in 1240, led by Richard of Cornwall. Neither of these expeditions accomplished anything important, and meanwhile the feudal families of the Latin Kingdom fought among themselves and with various Moslem foes. In July 1244 Jerusalem was again attacked, this time by wild Khwarismian Turks in the employ of the Egyptians. The Khwarismian attack came as a surprise to the garrison of the city and, after a short defense, the Turks broke into the town. The garrison fled to the Tower of David and held out there for nearly six weeks. Then, on August 23, they surrendered. Thus began six hundred and fifty years of uninterrupted Moslem control of the Holy City. The fall of Jerusalem presaged further disasters for the Latins in the Levant. In October 1244, a major Latin army was destroyed by the Egyptians and their allies at La Forbie, near Gaza. Egyptian attacks continued during the next three years and in 1247 the major city of Ascalon was also lost by the Latins. The need for renewed assistance from the West was obvious. The attention turned to Louis IX, King of France.

___________
Source:   Philip de Novare: Les Gestes des Ciprois, No. 135-37, ed. Gaston Reynaud, (Geneva: Jules-Guillaumefick, 1887), 48-50, translated by James Brundage, The Crusades: A Documentary History, (Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 1962), 231-32
Copyright note: Professor Brundage informed the Medieval Sourcebook that copyright was not renewed on this work. Moreover he gave permission for use of his translations.
 

Geography, history and holy places of Jerusalem
(extract from:  JERUSALEM, History And Present,  www.palestine-info.co.uk/jerusalem/jerusbook/jerusbook1.htm)

Second Islamic Era: Both Emad Eldin and Nureldin Zinky did their best to unify the Muslims and restore the city. Finally, Saladin was able to restore the city  after he had defeated the Crusaders in the battle of Hitteen in 1187, so the Crusaders were banished. The Christians were allowed to stay in the city (Mahmoud 1984). Consequently, Saladin removed the cross that was installed on the Dome of the Rock, appointed Imams, cleaned up the whole place and made the city a stronghold to protect it from other raids. Moreover, he increased the number of Muslims in the city and built several Islamic educational institutions (Mahmoud 1984). Saladin's followers such as King Issa the son of King Aladel Abu Bakr, Saladin's brother, ordered that the walls of the city had to be destroyed in case the Crusaders conquered the city again. This would make it difficult to remove them, especially when they occupied Demiat in 1229 CE. As a result, most of the people in Jerusalem were forced to leave the city to Kerak or Damascus. Moreover, King Alkamel surrendered the city to the Crusaders, except the Sanctuary, for 11 years, but King AlNaser Daoud restored it, then he handed it back to the Crusaders for four more years and finally King Al Saleh liberated it in 1244 CE (Al Asali 1981).
 

The Bloodless Crusade
(extract from:  The Compass Rose,  www.dragonlordsnet.com/crc.htm)

Between the Fifth and the Sixth Crusade a series of events took place that produced the ostensible end result for the major crusades:  Jerusalem came under Christian control from 1229-1244.14 But because no war was fought to achieve the goal and because a king rather than a pope (or other cleric) called for the Crusade, the incident has never been officially identified as a Crusade. What essentially happened was Frederick II of the Holy Roman Empire simply asked the sultan of Egypt if he could, please, have Jerusalem, and the sultan negotiated a treaty that gave Frederick exactly what he wanted.

But a dispute between the Knights Hospitalers and the Knights Templars tore the treaty apart. The Templars, who preferred to be united with the Muslim faction at Damascus as opposed to the Muslim faction in Egypt, won the argument. The treaty with Damascus (1244) gave Palestine to the Crusaders, but the Mamelukes of Egypt responded to the change of allegiance by sacking Jerusalem.

The rapidity with which the Christians lost control of the Holy City is yet another indicator that the wars were only being fought in the name of God. The nobles who led the Crusades had no real desire to control the sacred Christian sites in the Holy Land. They simply wanted to control land and trade--and they were doing a very poor job of that.

Medieval spirituality continued to shift away from the Church and the Bible Lands and toward the individual and mysticism. By the 1230s the shift had so infuriated the Church that the Inquisition was launched. By the end of the thirteenth century, this Crusade of the Church against its own members would put an end to the Crusades to retake the Holy Land.
 

Frederick has recovered Jerusalem by negotiation with the Sultan of Egypt
(extract from:  Matthew Paris, relating to the Templars, Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights,
www.cf.ac.uk/hisar/people/hn/MilitaryOrders/MATTHEW.html)

Taken from the edition ed. H. R. Luard, Rolls Series 57, 7 vols, (London, 1872-84) Trans. and copyright H. J. Nicholson. Vol.3 [Until the arrival of the emperor Frederick II in the Holy Land in 1228, Matthew` Chronicle account of the military orders follows that of his predecessor at chronicler at St. Albans, Roger of Wendover. Then Matthew begins to express his own opinions....] 1229 (Vol. 3 pp.177-9)

About the Templars' and Hospitallers' pride and jealousy

So God had arranged for matters to go in this way, but Sathanas, the ancient sower of discord, resented the Christians’ success, and prompted the inhabitants of that country, especially the Templars and Hospitallers, to become jealous of the emperor’s successes. Their jealousy was encouraged by the pope`s hatred for the emperor when they heard that the pope had already hostily invaded the empire. They receive so much income from the whole of Christendom and, only for the defence of the Holy Land, swallow down such great revenues as if they sunk them into a chasm of the Great Abyss! And now, because they themselves wished to gain the credit for all these wonderful deeds which the emperor had done, they craftily and treacherously told the Sultan of Babylon [Cairo] that the emperor proposed to go to the river where Christ was baptised by John the Baptist. There he intended to adore the footsteps of Christ and the feet of His Forerunner - John the Baptist, of whom Christ said: ‘no mother`s son ever arose greater than him’. He would go in secret and humbly, dressed in linen, with a few companions. So the sultan could capture or kill the emperor there as he liked.

When the said sultan heard this and noticed that the letter with this information was sealed with a familiar seal, he was disgusted at the cunning tricks, envy and treachery of the Christians, and especially of those who appear to wear the religious habit with the sign of the cross. Calling two most reliable and discreet counsellors to him, he poured all this information into their ears, showing them the letter - to which the seal was still fixed - and said: ‘See the loyalty of Christians!’

Having inspected the letter, after long and diligent deliberation they replied like this: ‘Lord, a peace treaty has been made which is pleasing to both sides, which it would be villainous to violate. To throw all the Christians into confusion, send this same letter to the emperor, with the seal attached. He will then be very friendly towards you, and with good reason.’ The sultan did as they advised and sent the letter to the emperor, informing him of all the aforementioned trickery.

Now, while this was going on, the emperor had been warned of the treachery by his efficient and hardworking spies, but he at first hesitated, not believing that religious men were capable of such great malice. While he was in doubt, the sultan`s messenger arrived bringing him the said letter, which made him certain about it.  Rejoicing that he had escaped the hidden snare, he pretended that he knew nothing about any of this until the time for retribution should come, and made the necessary preparations for his return to his country.

This was the cause of the hatred between the emperor and the Templars and Hospitallers; although the Hospitallers drew less shame from what had been done.  From this time on the emperor was bonded to the sultan with an indissoluble glue affection and friendship. They were allies and sent each other precious gifts, among which the sultan sent the emperor an elephant.

The Templars and Hospitallers and their accomplices, finding that the emperor had put off the pilgrimage that he had proposed to make to the River Jordan, realised through this and other signs that their trick had failed. Therefore they drew the Patriarch of Jerusalem into their conspiracy, and he is said to have written this letter to defame the emperor.

The letter of Gerald, patriarch of Jerusalem.

‘Gerald, Patriarch of Jerusalem, to all Christ's faithful in the Lord, greeting. How marvellous and how miserable the emperor's expedition to this side of the sea has been from beginning to end, in grave prejudice to Jesus Christ's business and contempt for the Christian faith, may be clearly seen from his actions here which were rotten from start to finish, since he arrived excommunicate, bringing scarcely 240 knights with him, and without money, hoping to support himself by plundering the land of Syria.

First he came to Cyprus and captured the nobleman John of Ibelin and his sons, whom he had summoned to him to deal with the business of the Holy Land - an uncourteous deed, for he seized them when he had invited them to dine with him. Afterwards he retained the king [Henry] as if he were a prisoner, after summoning him. So he completely occupied the kingdom through violence and treachery. Having done this, he crossed to Syria. And although at the start he promised to do great things and boasted about this in the presence of simple people, he at once sent messengers to the sultan of Babylon [Cairo] asking for peace. On account of this he seemed contemptible to the sultan and his pagans, especially when they saw that he had not brought a large enough armed force with him to harm them.  Meanwhile, on the excuse of fortifying Joppa [Tel Aviv/Jaffa] he headed that way with the Christian army in order to get nearer to the sultan in order to be better able to negotiate with him for peace or a truce. What more shall I say? After a long drawn-out negotiation and without taking advice from anyone in the country he suddenly announced one day that he had made peace with the sultan. No one saw the peace treaty when the emperor swore to preserve its terms. However, you can clearly see the malice and fraudulent dealing in some of the clauses of that truce from the copy of it we have sent you.....

....for he said, among other things, that the holy city was to be restored to him. When the Christian army went there on the eve of the Sunday on which ‘Oculi Mei’ is sung [17 March 1229]. On the disordered and confused day which followed, Sunday, although he was excommunicate he placed the diadem [crown] on his own head, in manifest prejudice to the imperial honour and excellence. The Saracens hold the Lord's Temple and Solomon's Temple in their hands and proclaim Mohammed's law publicly as before, not without great confusion and grief for the pilgrims. The same emperor, although he had promised many times before that he would fortify the city, the following Monday left the city at the crack of dawn without a word of farewell to anyone. The brothers of the Temple and Hospital who were present solemnly insisted that if he wished to fortify the city as he had promised they would give him counsel and aid as far as they could. But he, who had no concern to mend matters, seeing that the treaty could have no strength and the city could not be held or strengthened now that it had been restored, was content with just the promise of restitution. That same day he hurried back to Joppa with his household. When the pilgrims who had entered the city with him saw this they did not want to remain after he had left.

The next Sunday, i.e. when ‘Laetare Jerusalem’ is sung [25 March] he came to Acre. And drawing the people to him in the city he conceeded a privilege of liberty to them, as a means of begging their favour for himself. As for why he did this, God knows and his following actions showed.

As the time to cross the sea was drawing near and all the pilgrims together, great and small, had visited the Sepulchre and completed their pilgrimage, they prepared to go back home. As we did not have a truce with the sultan of Damascus, we, seeing that the country was destitute and the pilgrims had abandoned it, called a council and decided that we would hire knights out of the alms of the king of France of blessed memory [presumably the money left to the Holy Land by Philip II of France] for the common good. When the emperor heard this he informed us that he was amazed, since he had made a truce with the sultan of Egypt. We replied that the iron was still in the wound because we had no truce or peace with the sultan of Damascus, the nephew of the said sultan, who was opposed to him; adding that Damascus could do us a great deal of damage against the will of the sultan of Egypt. The emperor replied, that since he was king of Jerusalem, knights should not be hired to fight in the kingdom without his counsel and leave. We replied to this that we were very sorry to hear this because we could not wait for his counsel on this and similar things without danger to our souls, since he was excommunicate. The emperor made no reply to this.

On the following day he had a public proclamation made that the pilgrims who were living in the city should assemble outside the city on the sand; and the prelates and religious were also summoned through special messengers. He stood among them in person and first began to complain about us, piling up false accusations.  Then he turned his speech to that venerable man the master of the Temple, and tried to cloud his public reputation considerably with various false statements. In this way he intended to twist his own fault, which was now obvious, on to others. He added that now we were going to retain mercenaries, to his prejudice and damage.  On account of this he forbad all the pilgrim knights of any nation, as they loved him, to remain any longer in the country. He ordered Count Thomas [of Acerra] whom he had assigned to remain as his representative in the country to use corporal punishment on any he found in the country, so that the punishment of one would terrify all. When everything was finished, allowing no excuse or reply to those slanders which had been so ignominiously spread about, he left. And at once he ordered his crossbowmen to stand at the city gates, ordering them not to allow the brothers of the Temple to go out or in. He ordered both the churches and other tall buildings in the city to be equipped with crossbows, and especially those places which gave access to us and the house of the Temple. You should know that he had never been so harsh or harmful towards the Saracens, or so inflamed against them.

Realizing his obvious malice, we decided to convoke the prelates and pilgrims and excommunicated all those who gave counsel or aid to the emperor against the Church, the brothers of the Temple and other religious or pilgrims of the country. The emperor swelled up with anger at this and had every entrance carefully guarded, forbidding anyone carrying food to approach us or those who were with us, placing crossbowmen and archers everywhere.They seriously attacked us and the brothers of the Temple and pilgrims. And in order to complete his malice, he had the Friars Preacher and some Minors, who assembled on Palm Sunday [8 April] in set places to preach the Lord's word, torn out of their pulpits by his men-at-arms and thrown to the ground, dragged out and beaten through the town like criminals.

Then, when he saw that he could not get what he wanted through siege, he began to treat for peace. We replied to this that we did not wish to negotiate for peace until the guards, crossbowmen and other armed men had been removed, the goods which had been taken from us restored and all was in the same state and as free as the day he entered the city. He at once ordered that what we requested be done, but it was not put into effect and so we placed the city under interdict. The emperor, seeing that his malice could not make any progress, did not wish to make a longer stay in the country. However, as if he wanted to destroy everything, he had the crossbows and weapons which had been reserved for a long time for the defence of the country placed secretly into ships at Acre; and he sent many things to the sultan of Egypt, as if to his dear friend. And sending some of his knights to Cyprus, he had no little money extorted from the inhabitants. What seemed even more amazing to us was that he had the galleys which he could not take with him destroyed. When we heard this we ordered that he be given a warning. But he, despising the warning and correction, secretly on the feast of the Apostles Philip and James [1 May] went on board a galley, using a secret road and harbour, and hurried towards Cyprus. He bade farewell to no one, leaving Joppa abandoned, and may he never return.

Already the bailiffs of the said sultan have barred the way out of the city to poor Christians and Syrians; so many have died on the pilgrim road. The emperor committed these things and many others which we leave to others to tell which the world knows, in the Holy Land and to the detriment of his soul. May the merciful Lord deign to moderate them when He pleases. Farewell.’

When this letter reached a western audience it clouded the emperor's renown considerably and reduced many people's good opinion of him.  The pope rose up with even more determination to overthrow the emperor and strove avidly to collect money.

Roger of Wendover`s account ends in 1235 and Matthew continues it.
 

Tourism In Jerusalem Governorate
(extract from:  Palestinian National Information Center,www.pnic.gov.ps/tourism/tour7.html)

At the Fatimids time, the Crusaders could occupy Jerusalem in (1099), until 1187 A.C., when the leader, Salaheddin Liberated it after “Hitteen” battle. Salaheddin removed the cross off the Dome of the Rock. He provided it with Holy Kora’ans and assigned Imams. He installed a pulpit in Al Aqsa Mosque which Nor Addin Mahmoud Ben Zaki was ordered to make it. He inaugurated many-Islamic constructions in Jerusalem; the most important were : Al Shafi’ya (Al Salahiya) school, khanka for Sufism, and a big hospital (Bimarstan). He, himself, superintended those constructions, even he shared with his hands in building Jerusalem boundary wall, and fortifying it. He held scholarly sessions in the city.
King Al Afdal, son of Salaheddin, succeeded his father in the rule of Jerusalem. He kept the southeast area of the mosque, for Al Magharbeh, to safeguard the Holy area of Pegasus (Boraq), and he founded a school. After al Afdal, king Al Moazzam, Issa Ben Tahmed Ben Ayyoub – from The Ayyoubes, who ruled Jerusalem, ran constructions in both Al Aqsa and the Rock, founded three schools for the orthodox (True)-, as he was the only orthodox, in the Ayyoubi family). But Al Moazzam redestroyed the walls of Jerusalem, lest the crusaders would take over and strike the city. So, the citizens had to immigrate in worst circumstances. Shortly after Al Moazzem, his brother, king Al Kamel, came and held an agreement with Emperor Fredrik II, king of Europe. Due to it, Al Kamel surrendered Jerusalem to him, except the Holy Mosque. The city was surrendered in a mood of sadness, resentment and condemnation in 626 Hij, 1229 A.C). It remained in their hands till 637 Hij, 1239 A.C., when king, Al Naser Dawood, nephew of Al Kamel restored it. It, eventually, returned to Moslems in 642Hij/1244 A.C. when Khawarizmiya restored it, for Najm Eddin Ayyoub, king of Egypt.
 

ST. JOHN THE ALMSGIVER AND THE JERUSALEM HOSPITAL.
(extract from:  A Short History of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem,  www2.prestel.co.uk/church/oosj/sjhist1.htm)

Even before the Crusade, help was available to pilgrims visiting the Holy Land, usually provided by the Church. In the sixth Century the Patriarch of Alexandria, John the Almsgiver had set up and endowed lying-in and other hospitals. He gave to the poor and helped all those in trouble. No one, or no matter was too insignificant to him. After Jerusalem had been sacked in 614, he assisted refugees and sent large amounts of money and food for the relief of the city. When invasion threatened Egypt John retired to the place of his birth, Cyprus where he died 11th November 619 #3. After the Muslim conquest of the Holy Land, in 1023 the Latin Christians were allowed back into Jerusalem. ...

The fifth Crusade landed in Acre in 1218. By 1221 the Crusade ground to an end with a botched attempt at conquering Egypt.  The Western Emperor, Frederick II, having failed to join in the fifth Crusade, whilst under an edict of Excommunication for that very reason #27, set out on his own Crusade, and through the Emperor's reputation and by the then weakness of Moslem Rulers, Jerusalem was surrendered to him. Frederick took residence in the old Hospital of St. John and then proceeded on Sunday 18th March 1229 to Crown himself King of Jerusalem in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. As the agreement was by way of a Truce, with conditions attached, Jerusalem was left defenceless and was subject to repeated attacks by bandits. To the annoyance of the Templars, the Temple area was to remain in Moslem hands. In 1239 Tibald of Champagne, King of Navarre led a further Crusade in response to Pope Gregory IX with a further botched attempt at the conquest of Egypt decimating the Crusading Army. In 1240 Tibald returned to Europe having achieved very little.