Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- Part I National discourse and the study of the Crusades
- Part II Crusader studies between colonialist and post-colonialist discourse
- 4 Colonial and anti-colonial interpretations
- 5 Who invented the concentric castles?
- 6 ‘Crusader cities’, ‘Muslim cities’, and the post-colonial debate
- 7 Crusader castle and Crusader city: is it possible to differentiate between the two?
- Part III Geography of fear and the spatial distribution of Frankish castles
- Part IV The castle as dialogue between siege tactics and defence strategy
- Conclusion
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Author index
- Subject index
5 - Who invented the concentric castles?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- Part I National discourse and the study of the Crusades
- Part II Crusader studies between colonialist and post-colonialist discourse
- 4 Colonial and anti-colonial interpretations
- 5 Who invented the concentric castles?
- 6 ‘Crusader cities’, ‘Muslim cities’, and the post-colonial debate
- 7 Crusader castle and Crusader city: is it possible to differentiate between the two?
- Part III Geography of fear and the spatial distribution of Frankish castles
- Part IV The castle as dialogue between siege tactics and defence strategy
- Conclusion
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Author index
- Subject index
Summary
Both varieties of the colonialist approach – the one which emphasises the European nature and origin of their achievements and the other that stressed the greater influence of the local inhabitants and the Levantine character of the Crusader states – came to the fore in the controversies over the source of the structures that are known as ‘concentric castles’ and of the counterweight trebuchet.
Rey's and Oman's colonialist approach
Emmanuel Guillaume Rey, who was the first to stress the concept of the merging of local and Frankish societies to form a joint colonialist one, was also the first to claim that the development of Crusader military architecture was influenced both by traditions of the Oriental-Byzantine fortress and the European motte and bailey.
Rey, however, considered the local contribution to be the more important of the two. He claimed that the principles underlying the construction of Crusader fortresses were those already formulated in the sixth century by Procopius. Obviously, he did not contend that the Franks were familiar with the writings of Procopius but he did believe that the Crusaders, on their way to the Holy Land, had been able to comprehend and appreciate the principles of the concentric type of castles they encountered in Byzantium, and that later they were capable of implementing and even perfecting them. The improved concentric castles were later ‘exported’ to their countries of origin.
- Type
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- Information
- Crusader Castles and Modern Histories , pp. 62 - 72Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007