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Knights Hospitaller
The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there until 1291, thereafter being based in Kolossi Castle in Cyprus (1302–1310), the island of Rhodes (1310–1522), Malta (1530–1798), and Saint Petersburg (1799–1801). The Hospitallers arose in the early 12th century at the height of the Cluniac movement, a reformist movement within the Benedictine monastic order that sought to strengthen religious devotion and charity for the poor. Earlier in the 11th century, merchants from Amalfi founded a hospital in Jerusalem dedicated to John the Baptist where Benedictine monks cared for sick, poor, or injured Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. Blessed Gerard, a lay brother of the Benedictine order, became its head when it was established. After the Christian conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coat Of Arms Of The Knights Hospitaller
The flag and coat of arms of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, or the Jerusalem flag, display a white cross on a red Field (heraldry), field (blazon ''gules a cross argent''), ultimately derived from the design worn by the Knights Hospitaller during the Crusades. The Heraldic flag, flag represents the Sovereign Military Order of Malta as a sovereign institution. The state flag bears a Latin cross that extends to the edges of the flag. The flag of the Order's works represents its humanitarian and medical activities, and bears a white Maltese cross on a red field. Both flags together represent the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Its constitution states: "The flag of the Order bears either the white Latin cross on a red field or the white eight-pointed cross (cross of Malta) on a red field." History The Coat of arms, arms of the Knights Hospitaller were Grant of arms, granted in 1130 by Pope Innocent II, for differentiation from the Templars who displayed the reversed colo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flag And Coat Of Arms Of The Sovereign Military Order Of Malta
The flag and coat of arms of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, or the Jerusalem flag, display a white cross on a red field (blazon ''gules a cross argent''), ultimately derived from the design worn by the Knights Hospitaller during the Crusades. The flag represents the Sovereign Military Order of Malta as a sovereign institution. The state flag bears a Latin cross that extends to the edges of the flag. The flag of the Order's works represents its humanitarian and medical activities, and bears a white Maltese cross on a red field. Both flags together represent the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Its constitution states: "The flag of the Order bears either the white Latin cross on a red field or the white eight-pointed cross (cross of Malta) on a red field." History The arms of the Knights Hospitaller were granted in 1130 by Pope Innocent II, for differentiation from the Templars who displayed the reversed colours. The "eight-pointed cross" is also said to originate i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maltese Cross
The Maltese cross is a cross symbol, consisting of four " V" or arrowhead shaped concave quadrilaterals converging at a central vertex at right angles, two tips pointing outward symmetrically. It is a heraldic cross variant which developed from earlier forms of eight-pointed crosses in the 16th century. Although chiefly associated with the Knights Hospitaller (Order of St. John, now the Sovereign Military Order of Malta), and by extension with the island of Malta, it has come to be used by a wide array of entities since the early modern period, notably the Order of Saint Stephen, the city of Amalfi, the Polish Order of the White Eagle (1709), the Prussian order ''Pour le Mérite'' (1740), and the Bavarian Military Merit Order (1866). Unicode defines a character named "Maltese cross" in the Dingbats range at code point U+2720 (✠); however, most computer fonts render the code point as a cross pattée. History The Knights Hospitaller during the Crusades used a p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John The Baptist
John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist Christianity, Christian traditions, and as the prophet Yahya ibn Zakariya in Islam. He is sometimes referred to as John the Baptiser. John is mentioned by the History of the Jews in the Roman Empire, Roman Jewish historian Josephus, and he is revered as a major religious figure in Christianity, Islam, the Baháʼí Faith, the Druze faith, and Mandaeism; in the last of these he is considered to be the final and most vital prophet. He is considered to be a prophet of God in Abrahamic religions, God by all of the aforementioned faiths, and is honoured as a saint in many Christian denominations. According to the New Testament, John anticipated a messianic figure greater than himself; in the Gospels, he is portrayed as the precursor or forerunn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Las Navas De Tolosa
The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, known in Islamic history as the Battle of Al-Uqab (), took place on 16 July 1212 and was an important turning point in the ''Reconquista'' and the Spain in the Middle Ages, medieval history of Spain. The Christians, Christian forces of King Alfonso VIII of Castile, were joined by the armies of his rivals, Sancho VII of Navarre and Peter II of Aragon, in battle against the Almohad Muslim rulers of the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula. The caliph Muhammad al-Nasir, al-Nasir (''Amir al-Mu'minin, Miramamolín'' in the Spanish chronicles) led the Almohad army, made up of people from all over the Almohad Caliphate. Navas de Tolosa (also called Las Navas) is a town and hamlet in southern Spain, in the municipality of La Carolina, in the Province of Jaén (Spain), province of Jaén, in the eastern part of the Sierra Morena region, from the border with the province of Ciudad Real. Background In 1195, the Almohads defeated Alfonso VIII of Castile in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Arsuf
The Battle of Arsuf took place on 7 September 1191, as part of the Third Crusade. It saw a multi-national force of Crusaders, led by Richard I of England, defeat a significantly larger army of the Ayyubid Sultanate, led by Saladin. Following the Crusaders' capture of Acre, Saladin moved to intercept Richard's advancing army just outside of the city of Arsuf ( in Latin) as it moved along the coast from Acre towards Jaffa. In an attempt to disrupt the cohesion of the Crusader army as they mobilized, the Ayyubid force launched a series of harassing attacks that were ultimately unsuccessful at breaking their formation. As the Crusaders crossed the plain to the north of Arsuf, Saladin committed the whole of his army to a pitched battle. The Crusader army maintained a defensive formation as it marched, with Richard awaiting the ideal moment to mount a counterattack. However, after the Knights Hospitaller launched a charge at the Ayyubids, Richard was forced to commit his entire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siege Of Acre (1189–1191)
The siege of Acre was the first significant counterattack by Guy of Lusignan, Guy of Jerusalem against Saladin, leader of the Muslims in Ayyubid dynasty, Syria and Egypt. This pivotal siege formed part of what later became known as the Third Crusade. The siege lasted from August 1189 until July 1191, at which time the city's coastal position meant the attacking Latin forces were unable to fully capture the city and Saladin was unable to fully relieve it, with both sides receiving supplies and resources by sea. It concluded as a key victory for the Crusaders and a serious setback for Saladin's ambition to destroy the Crusader states. Background Egypt was ruled by the Shia Islam, Shi'ite Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid dynasty from 969, independent from the Sunni Islam, Sunni Abbasid Caliphate, Abbasid rulers in Baghdad and with a rival Shi'ite caliph—that is ''successor'' to the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Governance fell to the caliph's chief administrator called the vizier. Fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siege Of Safed (1188)
The siege of Safed (November–December 1188) was part of Saladin's invasion of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The siege of the Templar-held castle began in early November 1188. Saladin was joined by his brother, Saphadin. Saladin employed a large number of trebuchets and extensive mines. He also maintained a very tight blockade. According to Bahāʾ al-Dīn, the conditions were rainy and muddy. At one point, Saladin specified the placement of five trebuchets, mandating that they be assembled and in place by the morning. A letter written while the siege was ongoing by the Hospitaller provisor Hermengar to Duke Leopold V of Austria records the Hospitaller's "fear for the Templars' castle of Safad incewe do not know how long they can endure continual sieges and life-threatening hardships." A relief force of Hospitallers was intercepted and routed. In an incident recorded by Ibn al-Athīr, two Hospitallers were captured and sentenced to be executed by Saladin. One of them expr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siege Of Sahyun Castle
The siege of Sahyun Castle took place in July 1188 between the Ayyubid Sultanate led by Saladin and the Knights Hospitaller, who held Sahyun Castle. After a few days of siege, the castle was captured. Siege Saladin departed from Latakia after its capture, he marched towards Sahyun Castle on the 29th Jumada al-Awwal (26 July 1188), the castle was held by Knights Hospitallers, Saladin surrounded the place with his army and set up six mangonels to bombard the walls. The castle is an inaccessible fortress built on a steep slope of a mountain protected by wide ravines of fearful depth, but on one side it was only defended by a 60-inch trench. The fort had three ramparts, and on the summit of the castle, there was a long flag on a turret that fell when the Ayyubid troops were getting near, which was considered a good omen. The castle was attacked from all sides, and Az-Zahir Ghazi Al-Malik az-Zahir Ghiyath ud-din Ghazi ibn Yusuf ibn Ayyub (commonly known as az-Zahir Ghazi; 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siege Of Belvoir Castle
In late 1187, the Ayyubids, led by Saladin, besieged the Hospitallers fortress of Belvoir Castle for an entire year before the Ayyubid forces were successful. Background Weakened and demoralized by the Battle of Hattin, the Knights Hospitaller seemed not to offer any resistance to the Ayyubids; their castle at Bethigibelin surrendered on the same terms as Jerusalem; however, they managed to recover. The grand masters of Hospitallers and Templars were in Tyre with Conrad of Montferrat, who had taken command of the Crusader forces by the end of July 1187. After their defeat at Hattin, surviving hospitallers determined to resist the Ayyubids fled to Belvoir Castle. Siege The siege began in December 1187; the place was defended by well-supplied, tough survivors from earlier sieges. Saladin, who was preoccupied with the Siege of Tyre, sent his general, Saif al-Din Mahmud, to occupy a position near the castle, but the garrison intercepted two Muslim caravans, one laden with boot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siege Of Jerusalem (1187)
The siege of Jerusalem lasted from 20 September to 2 October 1187, when Balian of Ibelin surrendered the city to Saladin. Earlier that summer, Saladin had defeated the kingdom's army and conquered several cities. Balian was charged with organizing a defense. The city was full of refugees but had few soldiers. Despite this fact the defenders managed to repulse several attempts by Saladin's army to take the city by storm. Balian bargained with Saladin to buy safe passage for many, and the city was peacefully surrendered with limited bloodshed. Though Jerusalem fell, it was not the end of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, as the capital shifted first to Tyre and later to Acre after the Third Crusade. Latin Christians responded in 1189 by launching the Third Crusade led by Richard the Lionheart, Philip Augustus, and Frederick Barbarossa separately. In Jerusalem, Saladin restored Muslim holy sites and generally showed tolerance towards Christians; he allowed Orthodox and Eastern Christia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Hattin
The Battle of Hattin took place on 4 July 1187, between the Crusader states of the Levant and the forces of the Ayyubid sultan Saladin. It is also known as the Battle of the Horns of Hattin, due to the shape of the nearby extinct volcano of that name. The Muslim armies under Saladin captured or killed the vast majority of the Crusader forces, removing their capability to wage war. As a direct result of the battle, Muslims once again became the eminent military power in the Holy Land, re-capturing Jerusalem and most of the other Crusader-held cities and castles. These Christian defeats prompted the Third Crusade, which began two years after the Battle of Hattin. Location The battle took place near Tiberias in present-day Israel. The battlefield, near the village of Hittin, had as its chief geographic feature a double hill (the " Horns of Hattin") beside a pass through the northern mountains between Tiberias and the road from Acre to the east. The Roman road, known to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
