History of the County of Tripoli

The history of the County of Tripoli, a crusader state in the Levant, spans the period between 1103 and 1289.

Background

Further information: Arab–Byzantine wars, Byzantine–Seljuk wars, and Crusading movement

The city of Tripoli was one of the last Byzantine outposts on the Syrian coast of the Mediterranean Sea during the early Muslim conquests; it surrendered in 645. Syria was a central province of the Muslim Caliphate, but the Abbasid caliphs' control of the region faded away towards the end of the 9th century. In the next century, the Fatimids (from Egypt) took control of much of Syria. Unlike the Sunnite Abbasids, they were Shiite who rejected the Abbasids' claim to rule, regarding themselves as imāms (the legitimate supreme heads of the Muslim community). Tripoli, the Fatimids' northernmost Syrian possession, was regularly approached by Byzantine troops. In response, the Fatimids heavily fortified the city and provided it with a permanent garrison c. 1050. In the mid-11th century, much of Syria was seized by the Seljuk Turks, a loose confederation of nomadic Sunnite Turkic groups, known as Turkomans. Although Tripoli remained under the Fatimids' nominal rule, it emerged as an autonomous lordship under the rule of a native family of qadis (judges), the Banu Ammar c. 1070. Syria's disintegration continued as the Banu Ammar's representative in the town of Jableh, the ra'is (headman) Ibn Sulayha got rid of their control.

A coin of Raymond of Saint-Gilles

Facing foreign invasions from all directions, the Byzantines could not resist the Turkomans who seized much of Anatolia. Although mutual excommunications had revealed a serious rift between the western and eastern branches of Christianity, the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118) sought the support of Pope Urban II (r. 1088–1099) in mustering western troops against the Turkomans. In response, Urban called for a military campaign for the liberation of fellow Christians and the Holy City of Jerusalem at the Council of Clermont in November 1095. His call, as the historian Malcolm Barber summarises, "set motion a series of events that, within the next twelve months, led to the assembly of nine major armies from a very wide geographical area"; these included 50,000–60,000 people, according to modern estimations. Raymond of Saint-Gilles, the wealthy count of Toulouse (r. 1094–1105) was the first aristocrat to join the expedition that would be known as the First Crusade. His wife, Elvira of Castile (d. 1151) accompanied him, indicating that he did not want to return to Europe.

The main crusader armies departed after 15 August 1096, and arrived at the Byzantine capital, Constantinople next spring. Here, all crusader leaders but Raymond took an oath of loyalty to Alexios and promised to return to him all former Byzantine lands that they would conquer from the Turkomans. They inflicted major defeats on the Turkomans in Anatolia before reaching Antioch, once the capital of a Byzantine doukate (province) in northern Syria. They conquered the city in June 1098, but refused to cede it to Alexios's representatives. They were still besieging Antioch when the cleric Ebrard (who was, according to the historian Kevin J. Lewis, "likely in Raymond of Saint-Gilles's entourage") went to Tripoli to meet with the qadi Jalal al-Mulk Ali ibn Muhammad (r. 1072–1099). Their meetings' results are unknown, but Jalal al-Mulk frequently sent gifts to the crusaders to secure their good will. According to Raymond's chaplain, Raymond of Aguilers, Jalal al-Mulk even erected the Toulousian banner over Tripoli's forts; Lewis does not give credit to this report. In Antioch, the Italo-Norman prince Bohemond (r. 1098–1111) assumed power and Raymond's attempts to counterbalance him by seizing lands in northern Syria failed. Their conflict led to a raprochement between Raymond and the Byzantines.

Most crusaders, including Raymond left northern Syria for Jerusalem early in 1099. Bohemond stayed behind and quickly seized Raymond's northern Syrian holdings. Raymond was planning to conquer Tripoli, but the common crusaders refused to attack the city as they wanted to reach to Jerusalem without much delay. The crusaders captured Jerusalem from the Fatimids on 15 July 1099. Raymond was one of the candidates to rule the Holy City, but another leader, Godfrey of Bouillon, Duke of Lower Lorraine was elected Jerusalem's first western (or Frankish) ruler (r. 1099–1100) . Raymond returned to northern Syria in late 1099. Bohemond had attacked the Byzantine port city of Latakia, but now was forced to lift the siege. Raymond took possession of the city on Alexios' behalf and started to rule what the historian Jean Richard labels as a "Byzanto-Provençal principality". In 1101, he went to Constantinople either to make contact with new crusader armies approaching towards Syria, or to secure Alexios' consent to an attack against Tripoli. Raymond joined the new crusaders but the Turkomans nearly annihilated them. He fled to Constantinople, and agreed to return Latakia to the Byzantines, but Alexios sanctioned his plan to establish a lordship under Byzantine suzerainty. On his return to Syria, Raymond was forced to pledge to Tancred (d. 1112)—who administered Antioch on Bohemond's behalf—that he would not pursue his ambitions in the north.

Establishment

Raymond I (1102–1105)

The crusaders' castle on Mount Pilgrim at the city of Tripoli, still known as Qalʻat Sān Jīl (Saint-Gilles's Castle) after Raymond of Saint-Gilles, Tripoli's first count

Raymond withdrew from northern Syria and captured the coastal town of Tortosa with the support of other survivors of the 1101 Crusade and a Genoese fleet in March 1102. He had concluded a truce with Jalal al-Mulk's successor, Fakhr al-Mulk ibn Ammar (r. 1099–1109), but he attacked Tripoli at the latest in May 1103. He built a fortress on the nearby Mount Pilgrim using material that Eumathios Philokales (d. after 1118), the Byzantine governor of the island of Cyprus provided him. Mount Pilgrim quickly transformed into a flourishing commercial center competing with Tripoli. Raymond began to issue charters, levy taxes, and style himself "count of Tripoli, by the grace of God", but the city resisted the siege with the support of a Fatimid fleet. The nearby city of Homs was ruled by the Sunnite emir Janah ad-Dawla (d. 1103). When he was murdered by members of the Nizari (radical Shi'te) Order of Assassins, Raymund attacked the city, but it was quickly relieved by Damascene troops. Next year, he conquered the coastal town of Jubail to the south of Tripoli with Genoese naval assistance. He kept its two thirds, and ceded one third to the Genoese. In February 1105, Fakhr al-Mulk made a sortie and set fire to several buildings on Mount Pilgrim. Raymond, who was c. 70 years old, fell into a burning building, and died after ten days of sufferings on 28 February 1105.

William Jordan (1105–1109)

Raymond had two sons, but one of them, Bertrand was absent, ruling Toulouse, and the other, Alfonso Jordan was an infant, born on Mount Pilgrim. Alfonso Jordan was soon taken from Syria to Europe, and Raymond's distant cousin Willam Jordan (d. 1109) assumed the command of Raymond's army at Tripoli. His exact position—regent or count—is unclear but in his charters he styled himself as Raymond's heir. He regularly raided the villages around the town of Shaizar, forcing the native Christian peasants to pay a tribute to him. In great need of reinforcements against the Franks, Fakhr al-Mulk left Tripoli to meet with the Seljuk sultan, Muhammad I Tapar (r. 1105–1118) in Baghdad, and to start negotiations with the Seljuk atabeg, Toghtekin (r. 1104–1128) in Damascus, but he could not convince them to support to him against the invaders. After his return, rioters forced him to leave Tripoli and restored the Fatimids' direct rule in the city. Meanwhile, William Jordan defeated a Damascene relief army and captured Arqa in March or April 1109.

Around the same time, Bertrand, who had ceded Toulouse to Alfonso Jordan, came to join the siege of Tripoli at the head of a 4,000-strong army. He claimed Raymond's inheritance but William Jordan resisted with Tancred's support. In response, Bertrand accepted the suzerainty of Godfrey of Bouillon's successor, Baldwin I of Jerusalem (r. 1100–1118). To deal with the situation, Baldwin held a council at Tripoli in April, where Bertrand's claim to his father's Syrian lands was confirmed, but William Jordan was allowed to keep Tortosa and Arqa. The compromise was short-lived as William Jordan was murdered under unclear circumstances. Bertrand soon seized Arqa, but Tortosa was captured by Tancred.

House of Toulouse

Bertrand (1109–1112)

Troops from all over the Latin East (the lands seized by the crusaders in the Near East) had assembled at the council of Tripoli. The presence of Genoese and Pisan fleets allowed the besiegers to blockade Tripoli also from the sea. This forced the defenders to surrender to Baldwin I c. 26 June 1109. His grant of safe conduct to the Tripolitans did not prevent the Genoese from sacking the city. Bertrand reasserted his fealty to Baldwin declaring himself Baldwin's homo ligius (liege man). Grateful for the Genoese's support during the siege, he ceded Jubail's comital two thirds to them. These districts were seized by the Genoese crusader Hugh Embriaco.

According to the late 12th-century historian William of Tyre (d. 1186), the Latin East was divided into four crusader states—Jerusalem, Antioch, Edessa and Tripoli. In contrast, earlier sources (such as a decree attributed to the papal legate Adhemar of Le Puy (d. 1098), and a mid-12th-century author known as Pseuo-Fretellus) write of two states, Jerusalem and Antioch, divided by a river. Lewis tentatively associates it with the Arqa, the river marking the northern frontier of Bertrand's county after Tortosa was seized by Tancred, concluding that "the county of Tripoli at this point should not be regarded as a separate "crusader state", but rather Jerusalem's northermost fief" on account of Bertrand's oath of fealty to the Jerusalemite king.

Shortly after Tripoli's conquest, the united forces of Toghtekin and the Seljuk commander Aqsunqur al-Bursuqi (d. 1126) routed Bertrand's army, but the war between Tripoli and its Muslim neighbors soon reached a stalemate. In a truce, Toghtekin ceded al-Munaytira and Akkar—two fortresses in the Beqaa Valley—to Tripoli, and agreed to share the region's tax revenues with Bertrand. Bertrand actively supported Baldwin's military ventures, participating in the sieges of Beirut and Sidon in 1110, and fighting Damascene invaders in Galilee in 1111. His relationship with Tancred remained tense. During the visit of the Byzantine envoy Manuel Boutoumites (d. after 1112) in the Latin East in late 1111, he promised to join a Byzantine invasion of Antioch. On this occasion, according to the Byzantine princess Anna Komnene (d. 1153), Bertrand confirmed his father's oath of fealty to Emperor Alexios.

Pons (1112–1137)

The Crusader states and their neighbors c. 1135

Bertrand who died unexpectedly of an illnes was succeeded by his son Pons on 3 February 1112. Still a minor, Pons was sent to Antioch by his guardians. Lewis proposes that the Tripolitan lords wanted to get rid of the growing Jerusalemite demands for military assistance by seeking a rapprochement with Tancred. To clear the way for a full reconciliation between Antioch and Tripoli, Tancred granted Tortosa, the town of Maraclea, and the castles at Safita and Hisn al-Akrad (later known as Chastel Blanc and Crac des Chevaliers, respectively) in fief to Pons.

Although contemporary documents do not name Pons's guardians, they indicate that the constable Roger and Bishop Albert of Tripoli were among the heads of state administration. Pons was still in Tripoli, when with his consent Bishop Albert refused to return a large sum of money that Boutoumites had deposited with him. After the Byzantines threatened them with an embargo on Cypriote goods, Bishop Albert paid back the money and Pons took an oath of fealty to the Byzantine emperor. Pons was staying in Antioch when Tancred died on 12 December 1112. In accordance with Tancred's last will, Pons married his widow, Cecile of France (d. 1145). Her dowry included Arzghan and al-Ruj, two important Antiochene fortresses near the Orontes River. On the other hand, he lost the eastern Tripolitan town of Rafaniyya to Toghtekin in 1115.

Fulcher of Chartres on Baldwin II's expedition against Pons

...the king set out for Acre where he gathered his men, both footmen and horsemen. ... He intended to take revenge for the injury and contempt which the count of that region, Pons by name, had brought upon him by refusing to submit to him as Bertrand, the father of Pons, had done. But by the will of God and the conciliatory words of the nobles present on both sides the count listened to reason, and Baldwin and Pons were made friends with each other.

Fulcher of Chartres, Gesta Francorum Iherusalem peregrinantium ("A history of the expedition to Jerusalem")

Pons fulfilled his feudal obligations towards the Jerusalemite kings, Baldwin I and Baldwin II (r. 1118–1131), for instance by fighting Bursuq of Hamadan in Antioch on Baldwin I's command in 1115. A Tripolitan charter of grant was dated in 1117 by reference to the number of years of Baldwin's reign, also indicating that Baldwin was regarded the suzerain in Tripoli. According to Lewis, Pons's absence from the 1120 Council of Nablus—an assembly of the Jerusalemite lords and prelates—was the first sign of his attempt to demonstrate his independence. Early in 1122, Pons openly disobeyed Baldwin II. Baldwin assembled the Jerusalemite army for an attack against his unruly vassal, but the conflict was resolved peacefully with the mediaton of their retainers. As the contemporaneous historian Fulcher of Chartres summarises, Baldwin and Pons, "were again made friends". In comparison with his predecessors, Pons pursued a less warlike policy: whereas, in an average year, his grandfather had launched more than two attacks and his father made more than one invasions, he did not take up arms in each year.

In April 1123, Baldwin fell into Muslim captivity. In his absence, Pons was the Christian army's most prominent secular leader during the siege of Tyre, the Fatimids' northernmost port, that began in early next year with Venetian naval assistance. Tyre surrendered on 29 June 1124. Althouh Tyre was incorporated into the Jerusalemite kingdom, the Tripolitans also benefitted from the victory because the Fatimid fleet did not raid the county for nearly two decades. More than a year later, Baldwin supported Pons to attack the Muslim garrison at Rafaniyya. In the vicinity, they erected a new fortress, Montferrand to blockade the town, forcing the defenders to surrender. The constant Frankish threat reinforced the Muslims' desire for unity in the Near East. Aleppo and Mosul—two important centers of power in Syria and Iraq, respectively—were first united by the atabeg Aqsunqur al-Bursuqi (r. 1124–1126), and after his death by Imad al-Din Zengi (r. 1127–1146). In response, Baldwin II attacked Damascus after Toghtekin died in 1129. Pons joined the campaign along with other prominent Frankish leaders, such as Baldwin's sons-in-law Fulk V of Anjou (r. 1109–1129) and Bohemond II of Antioch (r. 1111–1130), but they could not conquer the city.

Bohemond II fell in a battle in February 1130, leaving an infant daughter Constance (r. 1130–1163) as his heir. Her mother Alice of Jerusalem (d. after 1151) wanted to take control of the principality with Zengi's support, but Baldwin II thwarted his daughter's plan and assumed the regency for Constance. After Baldwin died on 21 August 1131, his eldest daughter Melisende (r. 1131–1146) and her husband Fulk of Anjou (r. 1131–1143) succeeded him in Jerusalem. To prevent Fulk from also taking the place of Baldwin as regent in Antioch, Alice made an alliance with Pons, Joscelin II, Count of Edessa (r. 1131–1150), and a powerful Antiochene lord William of Zardana (d. 1132/33). Pons did not allow Fulk and his army to march across Tripoli towards Antioch. After the Jerusalemite forces reached Antioch by sea, Pons attacked them at Arzghan and al-Ruj. Under unknown circumstances, Fulk emerged victorious in the conflict and appointed the aristocrat Rainald I Mazoir (d. c. 1135) to rule Antioch on his behalf. Lewis notes that "there is no indication that [Fulk] required the defeated Pons to reaffirm the allegiance he had once owed to the king of Jerusalem for the county".

In 1133, Zengi launched a plundering raid against Tripoli and nearly annihilated Pons's army at Rafaniyya. Pons sought Fulk's assistance, and after the arrival of the Jerusalemite reinforcements the Turkoman raiders withdrew from the county. By this time, the Nizari had begun expanding in the mountainous border region between Tripoli and Antioch. Discontent among the native population was also simmering. In 1132 or 1133, an unnamed raʾīs of the city of Tripoli was executed on Pons's order. In the spring of 1137, the Damascene commander Bazawash invaded the county, reaching as far as Mount Pilgrim. After some hesitation, Pons made a sortie, but his army was decimated. William of Tyre writes that Pons was captured due to "treachery" of native Christians, and his captors murdered him on 25 March. His son Raymond II succeeded him.

Raymond II (1137–1152)

Ruins of the northern walls of the Templars' fortress in Tortosa

Raymond III assembled the remnants of the Tripolitan army and plundered the native Christian communities near Mount Lebanon in revenge for his father's death. Zengi launched a full-scale invasion of the county, forcing Raymond to plead for Fulk's assistance. They united their armies, but Zengi routed them near Montferrand on 11 July 1137. Raymond was captured, but Fulk fled to Montferrand. In late August, he came to an agreement with Zengi who granted a free passage to him and released Raymund in return for Montferrand, Rafaniyya, and 50,000 dinars. By this time, the arrival of a large Byzantine army under the command of Alexios I's son and successor, John II Komnenos (r. 1118–1143) to northern Syria had become Zengi's main concern. The Byzantine historian Niketas Choniates (d. 1217) writes that John came to support Antioch and Tripoli because he regarded their rulers as his "ligion" (liege men). The contemporary Byzantine author Theodore Prodromos (d. c. 115) explicitly states that Tripoli "was made subject" during John's reign. However, Tripolitan forces did not join the Byzantine army, likely because the county's military power had been exhausted, according to the historian Ralph-Johannes Lilie. The Byzantine campaign proved a failure at Shaizar in the spring of 1138, not independently of the Frankish rulers' unwillingness to fight in Byzantine service.

Zengi seized Homs from Damascus in October 1138, which led to what Lewis calls a "medieval outsourcing" in Tripoli—Raymond granted four fortresses (among them Hisn al-Akrad) along with some villages and a claim to Rafaniyya and Montferrand to the wealthy Knights Hospitaller in 1142. Originally a charitable confraternity, the Hospitallers had assumed military functions in the Latin East. Raymond's charter of grant exempted them from feudal duties, establishing their domains autonomy in the county. Three years later, the grant was confirmed by Queen Melisende and her son Baldwin III of Jerusalem (r. 1143–1163), and by Princess Constance and her husband Raymond of Poitiers (r. 1136–1149), showing that the Jerusalemite kings' and Antiochene princes' authority over parts of the county was still remembered. The 1142 charter lists the Tripolitan chancellor, marshal and constable, which is "a clear indication" of "an established administrative structure" for the historian Malcolm Barber.

Zengi conquered the city of Edessa in late December 1144, which provoked a new crusade. Alfonso Jordan (who had consolidated his rule in Toulouse) was one of the western leaders to join the campaign but he died unexpectedly after landing at Palestine in 1148. According to William of Tyre, the Frankish leaders suspected poisoning. Tyre does not name the suspect, but Alfonso Jordan, as Barber notes, "might have been seen as a rival of" Raymond II. After the crusade turned into a fiasco during the siege of Damascus, most westerners returned to Europe. Alfonso Jordan's bastard son Bertrand (d. after 1159) was one of the few to stay behind. He seized al-'Arimah, a fort to the north of Tortosa, but the united forces of Zengi's successor, Nur al-Din (r. 1146–1174), and the Damascene atabeg Unur (r. 1140–1149) captured him in September 1148. A Muslim historian, Ibn al-Athir (d. 1233) claims that Raymond had urged the Muslim rulers to attack his kinsman. Barber and Lewis tend to give credit to this report, for Bertrand's possession of the fortress posed a direct threat to Raymond's authority. Raymond granted al-'Ariman to the Knights Templar, establishing the presence of the Hospitallers' powerful rivals in the county.

In the summer of 1151, a Fatimid fleet pillaged the coastal towns, reaching as far as Tripoli. Next summer, Nur al-Din sacked Tortosa and his troops destroyed the city's fortifications. As Raynard of Maraqiyya, lord of Tortosa, could not finance their restoration, Raymond granted the city first to the local bishop, then to the Templars. Meanwhile, Raymond and his wife Hodierna of Jerusalem (d. c. 1162) had become estranged due to what William of Tyre describes as "marital jealousy". During an assembly of the Frankish leaders at Tripoli, Queen Melisende tried to reconciliate them, but Hodierna decided to leave Tripoli for Jerusalem. Shortly after her departure, two Assassins murdered Raymond at the gates of Tripoli for unknown reason. His assassination led to a progrom against the city's native population which was halted by Baldwin III who had not left the city after the general assembly.

Raymond III (1152–1187)

Raymond was succeeded by his twelve-year-old son Raymond III. Baldwin III summoned the widowed Hodierna back to Tripoli, and ordered the Tripolitan lords to swear fealty to her, Raymond and Raymond's younger sister Melisende (d. after 1160). Raymond reached the age of majority in 1155. Meanwhile, Nur al-Din had seized Damascus, thus uniting much of the Syrian Muslim states. In spring 1157, he also coerced the independent-minded governor of the town of Baalbek into ceding it to him, which increased the pressure on Tripoli.

Syria was hit by a devastating earthquake in August 1157. In the county, Arqa, Crac des Chevaliers, and the capital city were heavily damaged. The Jewish traveller Benjamin of Tudela who visited Tripoli some years later noted that many townspeople had perished during the catastrophe, "for houses and walls fell upon them". In October, Thierry, Count of Flanders (r. 1128–1168) led a crusade to the Latin East. Raymond persuaded him to jointly attack Chastel Rouge (an unidentified fortress defended by a Muslim garrison), but they could not take it. In the same year, French monks from Morimond Abbey established Belmont Abbey, the first Cistercian monastery in the Latin East, near the small port town of Nephin.

The Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos (r. 1143–1180) decided to forge a marriage alliance with the crusader states. He requested Baldwin III to offer him a Frankish bride and Baldwin chose Raymond's sister, Melisende. In preparation for the prestigious marriage, huge amounts of money were spent for jewelry and a fleet to escort her to Constantinople. In 1161, after more than a year of hesitation, Manuel decided not to marry Melisende, but her Antiochian relative, Maria. The reasons of his refusal are unclear. His biographer John Kinnamos (d. after 1185) writes that Melisende was in a poor health and rumours about her illegitimacy were also spreading. Outraged by the humilation of his family, Raymond manned his new fleet with criminals who launched plundering raids against the Byzantine coasts and islands. In summer 1164, Nur al-Din attacked the important Antiochene fortress of Harim. This prompted a wide coalition of Frankish, Byzantine and Cilician Armenian rulers, including Raymond, but Nur al-Din inflicted a major defeat upon them on 10 August 1164. Raymond was captured and imprisoned.

Raymond spent ten years in captivity in Aleppo. In his absence, Baldwin III's brother and successor Amalric of Jerusalem (r. 1163–1174) assumed the regency, styling himself as "administrator of the county of Tripoli". Raymond named Amalric his heir if he died in captivity. Lilie says that a Tripolitan aristocrat, Raynald of Nephin served "as a kind of liaison man between the people of Tripoli and Amalric" during Raymond's captivity. Raynald was the only lord from the county to accompany Amalric during his state visit in Constantinople in 1171.

Amalric went to the Byzantine capital to secure Manuel's support for a joint Byzantine–Frankish invasion of Egypt. He had already twice invaded Egypt, for he wanted to prevent Nur al-Din from seizing it taking advantage of the Fatimids' decline. To thwart Amalric's Egyptisn ambitions, Nur al-Din launched two major invasions of Tripoli in this period: he captured al-Munaytira in 1165 or 1166, and heavily damaged the Templars' three fortresses—Castrum Alba, Urayma, and Chastel Blanc—in the north in 1167. In June 1170, a new devastating earthquake caused much damage in northern Syria, also hitting the city of Tripoli, and the fortresses of Arqa, Chastel Blanc, Crac des Chevaliers, and Urayama. Unable to raise enough fund for their refortification, Amalric ceded Arqa and an other fortress Gibelacar to the Hospitallers.

Sources

Primary sources

• Benjamin of Tudela (2005). The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela: Travels in the Middle Ages. Translated by Michael A. Signer; Marcus Nathan Adler; Adolph Asher. Nightingale Resources. ISBN 978-0-9113-8909-8.
• Fulcher of Chartres (1969). Harold S. Fink (ed.). A History of the Expedition to Jerusalem, 1095–1127. Translated by Frances Rita Ryen, SSJ. The University of Tennessee Press. SBN 87049-097-4.

Secondary sources

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• Jotischky, Andrew (2017) [2004]. Crusading and the Crusader States (Second ed.). Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-80806-5.
• Köhler, Michael A. (2013). Konrad Hirschler (ed.). Alliances and Treaties between Frankish and Muslim Rulers in the Middle East: Cross-Cultural Diplomacy in the Period of the Crusades. The Muslim World in the Age of the Crusades: Studies and Texts. Translated by Peter M. Holt. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-24857-1.
• Lewis, Kevin James (2017). The Counts of Tripoli and Lebanon in the Twelfth Century: Sons of Sant-Gilles. Rulers of the Latin East. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-4724-5890-2.
• Lilie, Ralph-Johannes (2004). Byzantium and the Crusader States, 1096–1204. Translated by J. C. Morris; Jean E. Ridings. Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-820407-7.
• Lock, Peter (2006). The Routledge Companion to the Crusades. Routledge Companion to History. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-39312-6.
• Morton, Nicholas (2020). The Crusader States and their Neighbours: A Military History, 1099–1187. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-882454-1.
• Rudt de Collenberg, W. H. (1964). "Les «Raynouard», seigneurs de Nephin et de Maraclé en Terre sainte, et leur parenté en Languedoc" [The "Raynouards", Lords of Nephin and Maraclé in the Holy Land, and their Relatives in Languedoc]. Cahiers de civilisation médiévale (in French). 7 (27): 289–311. ISSN 0007-9731.