Introduction: Defining and Exploring the Political World of Bilad al-sham

Summary

Throughout 442–522/1050–1128, bilad al-sham (Syria) was subjected to a series of military incursions from the east and west by the nomadic Seljuq Turks and European Crusaders. These invasions complicated the power dynamics in a frontier zone already beset by multiple conflicts fought along several ethno-cultural and religious contours. Most historical studies of this period place special emphasis on the unprecedented arrival of the Frankish Crusaders from 490/1097 onwards. Rather than adopting the traditional approach of western historiography, namely, of analysing this era through the lens of the Crusades, this book seeks to place the First Crusade and the formation of the Latin east within the broader framework of Syrian history.

It does so by reinterpreting the broad strategic picture in late fifth/eleventh- and early sixth/twelfth-century Syria; contending that the urban centres of Damascus and Aleppo should be seen as politically diverse, and subject to local dynastic forces that cut across wider Byzantine, Fatimid and Seljuq polities. This new model is then used to contextualise the initial reactions of Syria's ruling elite to the foundation of the Crusader states.

The Arabic term bilad al-sham is most commonly translated as ‘Syria’. Yet for most Arabic chroniclers writing between the fifth and seventh centuries (eleventh and thirteenth centuries), al-sham's geographical delineations were far more extensive. The definitions provided by the fourth/tenth-century geographers Ibn Hawqal (d. after 367/978) and al-Muqaddasi (d. 381/991) were adopted in most of the surviving chronicles. Ibn Hawqal provided the clearest textual (and cartographical, see the cover image) representation of the physical boundaries of al-sham during this period:

on the west is the bahr al-rum [Mediterranean Sea], on the east the desert from Ailah to the Euphrates, and along this river to bilad al-rum [country of the Romans, meaning Byzantium or Anatolia] the northern frontier (al-thugur) is bilad al-rum, and the southern frontier is Egypt.

This description provides the definition of bilad al-sham used in this book, with particular emphasis placed on northern al-sham and the environs of Aleppo. In addition to bilad al-sham, various other geographical labels can be found in the medieval Arabic source materials. These include appellations such as bilad al-rum (the country of the Romans or Byzantines), generally used to refer to Anatolia, bilad antakiya (the country of Antioch) and, most pertinently, bilad halab (the country of Aleppo).