ABSTRACT

As noted earlier, the Frankish conquest of Jerusalem in 1099, with the ensuingslaughter and the banishment of the surviving population, left the city almost devoid of inhabitants. However, within a few decades the city was repopulated and for most of the twelfth century it thrived as the administrative capital and as the focus of a massive pilgrimage movement. Under the Franks Jerusalem became more cosmopolitan in character than it had been under Muslim rule. Buildings in the Romanesque style rose among the local Eastern architecture. Pilgrims from every Christian country visited the city, mixing in the streets with the Eastern Christian residents. Having recovered its position as capital after many centuries, Jerusalem also regained some of the establishments that had long been absent from the city. It was once again a royal city and had a royal palace which, after various locations, was finally constructed on the site of the Herodian palace to the south of the citadel. Jerusalem had a mint, a royal treasury and other institutions of government. This was a far cry from the position it had held under Muslim rule, when, after initial eminence under the Umayyads, the city had taken on a role subordinate to the new provincial capital of Ramleh.