INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION: THE TEUTONIC KNIGHTS IN PALESTINE, ARMENIA, AND CYPRUS

Hubert Houben

The political geography of the Eastern Mediterranean changed deeply following the foundation of the Latin Crusader States in Syria and Palestine at the end of the eleventh century. This intensi ed the contacts between the Latin Roman, Greek Orthodox, and Arab Islamic civiliza- tions.1 The survival of the Latin Crusader States in the Middle East until the end of the thirteenth century was guaranteed by the military Orders of the Templars, the knights of Saint John (Hospitallers), and the Teutonic knights, founded during the twelfth century.2 The two oldest military Orders, the Templars and the knights of Saint John, were international organizations, to which men from all over Western Europe belonged. The knights of the Teutonic Order, however, were predominantly from the German-Roman Empire.3 In this respect it was practically a national Order, comparable to the Spanish and Portuguese military Orders. While the latter limited their operations to the Iberian Peninsula, the Teutonic Order had a wide range of activity, which extended from the Middle East to the Baltic (Map 1). The Statutes of the Teutonic Order do not prescribe that members had to be exclusively German, and, in fact, we do nd non-Germans

1 See, for example, A. Atiya, Crusade, Commerce and Culture (Bloomington, 1962); V. P. Goss, ed., The Meeting of Two Worlds. Cultural Exchange between East and West during the Period of the Crusades (Kalamazoo, 1986); M. Rey-Delquè, ed., Les croisades. L’Orient et l’Occident d’Urbain II à Saint-Louis 1096–1270 (Milan, 1997). 2 Cf. A. Forey, The Military Orders from the Twelfth to the Early Fourteenth Centuries (Basingstoke, 1992); M. Barber, ed., Fighting for the Faith and Caring for the Sick, The Military Orders 1 (Aldershot, 1992); H. Nicholsen, ed., Welfare and Warfare, The Military Orders 2 (Aldershot, 1998). 3 Most of the bibliography on the Teutonic Knights is in German; for the most recent summary, see K. Militzer, Die Geschichte des Deutschen Ordens (Stuttgart, 2005). In English, see I. Sterns, “The Teutonic Knights in the Crusader States,” in N. P. Zacour and H. W. Hazard, eds., A History of the Crusades V: The Impact of the Crusades on the Near East (Madison, 1985), pp. 315–378. On the Teutonic Knights in Eastern Europe, see W. Urban, The Teutonic Knights. A Military History (London, 2003). For the most recent summary in French, see K. Toomaspoeg, Histoire des chevaliers teutoniques (Paris, 2001). 140 hubert houben Palestine 1189-1291 km 100 0 Salamis Armenia Black Sea 1198-ca.1280 Cyprus 1197/98-ca.1350 Greece 1209-1500 Map 1. The Teutonic Knights in the Eastern Mediterranean Map 1. The Teutonic Mediterranean Sea Apulia 1191/97-1483 Sicily 1197-1492