Misplaced Pages

Baphomet

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

Baphomet is a deity that the Knights Templar were accused of worshipping that subsequently became incorporated into various occult and Western esoteric traditions. The name Baphomet appeared in trial transcripts for the Inquisition of the Knights Templar starting in 1307. It first came into popular English usage in the 19th century during debate and speculation on the reasons for the suppression of the Templar order. Baphomet is a symbol of balance in various occult and mystical traditions, the origin of which some occultists have attempted to link with the Gnostics and Templars , although occasionally purported to be a deity or a demon . Since 1856 the name Baphomet has been associated with the " Sabbatic Goat " image drawn by Éliphas Lévi , composed of binary elements representing the "symbolization of the equilibrium of opposites": both human and animal , both masculine and feminine , combined in metaphysical unity . Lévi's intention was to symbolize his concept of balance, with Baphomet representing the goal of perfect social order.

#754245

244-635: The name Baphomet appeared in July 1098 in a letter about the siege of Antioch by the French Crusader Anselm of Ribemont : Sequenti die aurora apparente, altis vocibus Baphometh invocaverunt; et nos Deum nostrum in cordibus nostris deprecantes, impetum facientes in eos, de muris civitatis omnes expulimus. As the next day dawned, they [i.e. the inhabitants of Antioch ] called loudly upon Baphometh ; and we prayed silently in our hearts to God, then we attacked and forced all of them outside

488-735: A monument of the Ten Commandments at the Oklahoma State Capitol , citing "respect for diversity and religious minorities" as reasons for the monument. (The Oklahoma Supreme Court ultimately declared religious displays illegal.) The Baphomet statue was unveiled in Detroit on 25 July 2015, as a symbol of the modern Satanist movement. The Satanic Temple transported the Baphomet statue to Little Rock, Arkansas, where another 10 Commandments monument had been recently installed;

732-444: A Templar initiation rite : The indictment ( acte d'accusation ) published by the court of Rome set forth ... "that in all the provinces they had idols, that is to say, heads, some of which had three faces, others but one; sometimes, it was a human skull ... That in their assemblies, and especially in their grand chapters, they worshipped the idol as a god, as their saviour, saying that this head could save them, that it bestowed on

976-629: A beard, but, in other respects, female figures, most of them accompanied by serpents, the sun and moon, and other strange emblems, and bearing many inscriptions, mostly in Arabic ;... The inscriptions he reduces almost all to Mete [, which] ... is, according to him, not the Μητις of the Greeks, but the Sophia , Achamot Prunikos of the Ophites, which was represented half man, half woman, as

1220-659: A borderland of the Muslim world , Syria was an important theatre of jihad , though enthusiasm for pursuing it had faded by the end of the 11th   century. In contrast, the Catholic ideology of religious war quickly developed, culminating in the idea of crusades for lands claimed for Christianity. Most crusades came from what had been the Carolingian Empire around 800. The empire had disintegrated, and two loosely unified successor states had taken its place:

1464-483: A direct assault would have failed. For instance, Raymond of Aguilers noted that the chaplain of Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse, said "[Antioch] is so well fortified that it need not fear attack by machinery nor the assault of man, even if all mankind came together against it". According to Fulcher of Chartres the leaders resolved to maintain the siege until the city was forced into submission. Though his figures may not be accurate, Raymond of Aguilers gave an account of

1708-484: A flaming torch between the horns. But the adorers of this sign do not consider, as do we, that it is a representation of the devil; on the contrary, for them it is that of the god Pan, the god of our modern schools of philosophy, the god of the Alexandrian theurgic school and of our own mystical Neoplatonists, the god of Lamartine and Victor Cousin, the god of Spinoza and Plato, the god of the primitive Gnostic schools;

1952-767: A goat . The chief deities of Mendes were the ram deity Banebdjedet (lit. Ba of the Lord of Djedet ), who was the Ba of Osiris , and his consort, the fish goddess Hatmehit , with both deities being worshipped in Lower Egypt . Khnum was the equivalent god in Upper Egypt . Khnum was typically portrayed with the horns of a ram , one of the sacred animals worshiped in Ancient Egypt , representing aspects such as fertility , rebirth, regeneration, and resurrection . He

2196-543: A group of pious knights about a monastic order for deeply religious warriors was likely first discussed at the council of Nablus. Church leaders quickly espoused the idea of armed monks, and within a decade, two military orders , the Knights Templar and Hospitaller , were formed. As the Fatimid Caliphate no longer posed a major threat to Jerusalem, but Antioch and Edessa were vulnerable to invasion,

2440-471: A large force, committing all of his kingdom's available resources. The leadership divided on tactics. Raynald urged an offensive, while Raymond proposed defensive caution, although Saladin was besieging his castle at Tiberias. Guy decided to deal with the siege. The march towards Tiberias was arduous, and Saladin's troops overwhelmed the exhausted Frankish army at the Horns of Hattin on 4   July 1187. Hattin

2684-537: A larger contingent of soldiers hiding in the nearby rocks to enter the city and overwhelm the alerted garrison. While Bohemond attempted to capture the citadel and the remaining crusader soldiers fought the remaining Turkish defenders, the poorer crusaders seized everything they could in a disorderly manner. In the ensuing chaos, the Armenians and Greeks joined the crusaders in fighting the Turks they could find although

SECTION 10

#1732801493755

2928-518: A marriage alliance with the Byzantines. Baldwin married Manuel's niece, Theodora , and received a significant dowry. With his consent, Manuel forced Raynald into accepting Byzantine overlordship. The childless Baldwin   III died in 1163. His younger brother Amalric had to repudiate his wife Agnes of Courtenay on grounds of consanguinity before his coronation, but the right of their two children, Baldwin IV and Sibylla , to inherit

3172-700: A military campaign against the Turks who had attacked Byzantine territories in Anatolia. Turkic migration permeated the Middle East from the 9th   century. Muslim border raiders captured unconverted Turkic nomads in the Central Asian borderlands and sold them to Islamic leaders who used them as slave soldiers. These were known as ghilman or mamluk and were emancipated when converted to Islam. Mamluks were valued primarily because

3416-555: A mobile shelter to protect the crusaders, but the garrison sortied and successfully drove them away. Soon after, three siege engines were built opposite the Dog Gate. In the end, the crusaders erected a blockade on the bridge to obstruct potential sorties. The port of St Symeon on the Mediterranean coast, 9 miles (14 km) west of Antioch would allow the crusaders to bring reinforcements. Raymond of Aguilers mentions that

3660-550: A month after Baldwin's arrival, a Christian mob killed Thoros and acclaimed Baldwin as doux , the Byzantine title Thoros had used. Baldwin's position was personal rather than institutional, and the Armenian governance of the city remained in place. Baldwin's nascent County of Edessa consisted of pockets separated from his other holdings of Turbessel, Rawandan and Samosata by the territory of Turkic and Armenian warlords and

3904-521: A result of sex magic . As such, Baphomet represents the Union of Opposites, especially as mystically personified in Chaos and Babalon combined and biologically manifested with the sperm and egg united in the zygote. Crowley proposed that Baphomet was derived from "Father Mithras ". In his Confessions he describes the circumstances that led to this etymology: I had taken the name Baphomet as my motto in

4148-549: A rough guide, suggesting that perhaps 43,000 people (including soldiers, armed poor, and non-combatants) were involved in the siege of Nicaea in June 1097, while as few as 15,000 may have taken part in the siege of Jerusalem in July 1099. Lying on the slopes of the Orontes Valley , in 1097 Antioch covered more than 3.5 square miles (9 km ) and was encircled by walls studded by 400 towers. The river ran along

4392-687: A split in the Ismā'īlist branch of Shia Islam. The Persian missionary Hassan-i Sabbah led a breakaway group, creating the Nizari branch of Isma'ilism. This was known as the New Preaching in Syria and the Order of Assassins in western historiography. The Order used targeted murder to compensate for their lack of military power. The Seljuk invasions, the subsequent eclipse of the Byzantines and Fatimids, and

4636-483: A truce with Saladin. Gümüshtekin released Raynald of Châtillon and Baldwin's maternal uncle, Joscelin III of Courtenay , for a large ransom. They hastened to Jerusalem, and Raynald seized Oultrejourdain by marrying Stephanie of Milly . As Baldwin, a leper, was not expected to father children, his sister's marriage was to be arranged before his inevitable premature death from the disease. His regent, Raymond, chose William of Montferrat for Sybilla's husband. William

4880-512: A wooden head, on which the figure of Baphomet was painted, and adds, "that he worshipped it by kissing its feet, and exclaiming, 'Yalla', which was", he says, "verbum Saracenorum" , a word taken from the Saracens. A templar of Florence declared that, in the secret chapters of the order, one brother said to the other, showing the idol, "Adore this head—this head is your god and your Mahomet." The name Baphomet came into popular English usage in

5124-589: Is BAPHOMET , the Androgyne who is the hieroglyph of arcane perfection ... He is therefore Life, and Love. But moreover his letter is ayin , the Eye, so that he is Light; and his Zodiacal image is Capricornus, that leaping goat whose attribute is Liberty. For Crowley, Baphomet is further a representative of the spiritual nature of the Spermatozoon , while also being symbolic of the "magical child" produced as

SECTION 20

#1732801493755

5368-588: Is a demon worshipped by Freemasons , a claim that apparently originated with the Taxil hoax . Lévi's Baphomet was depicted on the cover of Les Mystères de la franc-maçonnerie dévoilés , Léo Taxil 's lurid paperback "exposé" of Freemasonry, which, in 1897, he revealed as a hoax intended to ridicule the Catholic Church and its anti-Masonic propaganda. In 2014, The Satanic Temple commissioned an 8.5 ft (2.6 m) statue of Baphomet to stand alongside

5612-554: Is a false name invented by the Black Brothers to imply a Unity in their ignorant muddle of dispersions. A devil who had unity would be a God... "The Devil" is, historically, the God of any people that one personally dislikes ... This serpent, SATAN, is not the enemy of Man, but He who made Gods of our race, knowing Good and Evil; He bade "Know Thyself!" and taught Initiation. He is "The Devil" of The Book of Thoth , and His emblem

5856-915: Is attributed to Muslims in several chansons de geste . For example, one finds the gods Bafum e Travagan in a Provençal poem on the life of St. Honorat , completed in 1300. In the Chanson de Simon Pouille , written before 1235, a Saracen idol is called Bafumetz . While modern scholars and the Oxford English Dictionary state that the origin of the name Baphomet was a probable Old French version of "Mahomet", alternative etymologies have also been proposed. According to Pierre Klossowski in Le Baphomet (1965, Editions Mercure de France, Paris; translated into English by Sophie Hawkes and published as The Baphomet in 1988 by Eridanos Press): "The Baphomet has diverse etymologies ...

6100-589: Is from Doric Greek κᾱρύκειον karukeion , from the Greek κῆρυξ kērux meaning "herald". Lévi believed that the alleged devil worship of the medieval Witches' Sabbath was a perpetuation of ancient pagan rites. A goat with a candle between its horns appears in medieval witchcraft records, and other pieces of lore are cited in Dogme et Rituel : Below this figure we read a frank and simple inscription—THE DEVIL. Yes, we confront here that phantom of all terrors,

6344-529: Is observed throughout the whole Mendesian district; they call both Pan and the goat Mendes, and both were worshipped as gods of generation and fecundity. Diodorus compares the cult of the goat of Mendes with that of Priapus , and groups the god with the Pans and the Satyrs. The link between Baphomet and the pagan god Pan was also observed by Aleister Crowley as well as Anton LaVey : Many pleasures revered before

6588-465: Is signified by this alarming symbol. Mendes is the Greek name for the ancient Egyptian city of Djedet. Lévi equates his image with "The Goat of Mendes", possibly following the account by Herodotus that the god of Mendes was depicted with a goat's face and legs. Herodotus relates how all male goats were held in great reverence by the Mendesians, and how in his time a woman publicly copulated with

6832-525: The Histoire des Montagnards (1847) by his best friend and political comrade Alphonse Esquiros . Consequently, the Baphomet is depicted by Lévi as the symbol of a revolutionary heretical tradition that would soon lead to the "emancipation of humanity" and the establishment of a perfect social order. In Lévi's writings, the Baphomet does not only express a historical-political tradition, but also occult natural forces that are explained by his magical theory of

7076-441: The atabeg kept power after his ward reached the age of majority or died. The Seljuks adopted and strengthened the traditional iqta' system of the administration of state revenues. This system secured the payment of military commanders through granting them the right to collect the land tax in a well-defined territory, but it exposed the taxpayers to an absent lord's greed and to his officials' arbitrary actions. Although

7320-685: The dogs whom Mahomet has led astray and the impudent renegades"). Siege of Antioch Seljuk Empire Bohemond of Taranto Raymond IV of Toulouse Adhemar of Le Puy Godfrey of Bouillon Robert II of Normandy Edgar Ætheling Robert II of Flanders Crusaders : ~40,000 total at the start of the siege (includes non-combatants) ~20,000 during the second siege against Kerbogha Heavy Heavy Period post-First Crusade Second Crusade Period post-Second Crusade Third Crusade Period post-Third Crusade Fourth Crusade Fifth Crusade Sixth Crusade and aftermath Seventh Crusade End of

7564-468: The Baron du Potet and Henri Delaage, who served as main sources for Lévi. At the same time, Lévi polemicized against famed Catholic authors such as Jules-Eudes de Mirville and Roger Gougenot des Mousseaux , who regarded magnetism as the workings of demons and other infernal powers. The paragraph just before the passage cited in the previous section has to be seen against this background: Let us state now for

Baphomet - Misplaced Pages Continue

7808-615: The Battle of Antioch in which the crusaders defeated the relieving army led by Kerbogha . The crusaders then established the Principality of Antioch , ruled by Bohemond of Taranto . Antioch (modern Antakya ) lay in a strategic location on the crusaders' route to Judea through the Syrian Coastal mountain range . Supplies, reinforcements and retreat could all be controlled by the city. Anticipating that it would be attacked,

8052-525: The Byzantine Empire reconquered Antioch in 969 a programme of fortification building was undertaken in the surrounding area to secure the gains. As part of this, a citadel was built on Mount Silpius in Antioch. High enough to be separate from the city below, historian Hugh Kennedy opined that it "[relied] on inaccessibility as its main defence". At its fall to Seljuk dynasty in 1085, Antioch

8296-730: The Fatimid vizier , Al-Afdal Shahanshah at Ascalon . When Daimbert of Pisa , the papal legate, arrived in the Levant with 120 Pisan ships, Godfrey gained much-needed naval support by backing him for the Patriarchate of Jerusalem , as well as granting him parts of Jerusalem and the Pisans a section of the port of Jaffa . Daimbert revived the idea of creating an ecclesiastic principality and extracted oaths of fealty from Godfrey and Bohemond. When Godfrey died in 1100, his retainers occupied

8540-627: The Franks were Crusaders. Medieval and modern writers use the term "Outremer" as a synonym, derived from the French word for overseas . By 1098, the Crusaders' armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem was passing through the Syria region . Edessa, under the rule of Greek Orthodoxy , was subject to a coup d'état in which the leadership was taken over by Baldwin of Boulogne , and Bohemond of Taranto remained as

8784-713: The Greek patriarch of Antioch . Bohemond never returned. He died, leaving an underage son Bohemond II . Tancred continued as regent of Antioch and ignored the treaty. Richard's son, Roger of Salerno , succeeded as regent on Tancred's death in 1112. The fall of Tripoli prompted Sultan Muhammad Tapar to appoint the atabeg of Mosul, Mawdud , to wage jihad against the Franks. Between 1110 and 1113, Mawdud mounted four campaigns in Mesopotamia and Syria, but rivalry among his heterogeneous armies' commanders forced him to abandon

9028-731: The Holy Lance was inside the city. The starving crusaders were prone to visions and hallucinations, and another monk named Stephen of Valence reported visions of Christ and the Virgin Mary . On 14 June a meteor was seen landing in the enemy camp, interpreted as a good omen. Although Adhemar was suspicious, as he had seen a relic of the Holy Lance in Constantinople, Raymond believed Peter. Raymond, Raymond of Aguilers, William, Bishop of Orange , and others began to dig in

9272-497: The Holy Roman Empire , which encompassed Germany , part of northern Italy , and the neighbouring lands; and France. Germany was divided into duchies , such as Lower Lorraine and Saxony , and their dukes did not always obey the emperors. Northern Italy was even less united, divided into numerous de facto independent states, and the authority of the emperor was barely felt. Carolingian's western successor state, France,

9516-636: The Iberian Peninsula to fight the Moors of Al-Andalus ; and Italian fleets launched pillaging raids against the north African ports. This shift of power especially benefited merchants from the Italian city-states of Amalfi , Genoa , Pisa , and Venice . They replaced the Muslim and Jewish middlemen in the lucrative trans-Mediterranean commerce, and their fleets became the dominant naval forces in

9760-853: The Inquisition of the Knights Templar that same year. Over 100 different charges had been leveled against the Templars, including heresy , homosexual relations , spitting and urinating on the cross, and sodomy . Most of them were dubious, as they were the same charges that were leveled against the Cathars and many of King Philip's enemies; he had earlier kidnapped Pope Boniface VIII and charged him with nearly identical offenses. Yet Malcolm Barber observes that historians "find it difficult to accept that an affair of such enormity rests upon total fabrication". The " Chinon Parchment suggests that

10004-690: The Inquisitors as heresy. Alain Demurger , however, rejects the idea that the Templars could have adopted the doctrines of their enemies. Helen Nicholson writes that the charges were essentially "manipulative"—the Templars "were accused of becoming fairy-tale Muslims". Medieval Christians believed that Muslims were idolatrous and worshipped Muhammad as a god, with mahomet becoming mammet in English, meaning an idol or false god (see also Medieval Christian views on Muhammad ). This idol-worship

Baphomet - Misplaced Pages Continue

10248-686: The Jordan River . The northern states covered what is now part of Syria, south-eastern Turkey, and Lebanon. These areas were historically called Syria (known to the Arabs as al-Sham ) and Upper Mesopotamia . Edessa extended east beyond the Euphrates . In the Middle Ages the Crusader states were also called Syria or Syrie . From around 1115, the ruler of Jerusalem was styled 'king of

10492-581: The People of the Book , like Christians and Jews. The dhimmi were second-class citizens, obliged to pay a special poll tax , the jizya , but they could practise their religion and maintain their own law courts. Theological, liturgical, and cultural differences had given rise to the development of competing Christian denominations in the Levant before the 7th-century Muslim conquest . The Greek Orthodox natives, or Melkites , remained in full communion with

10736-677: The Principality of Antioch (1098–1268), the County of Tripoli (1102–1289), and the Kingdom of Jerusalem (1099–1291). The three northern states covered an area in what is now southeastern Turkey , northwestern Syria , and northern Lebanon ; and the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the southernmost and most prominent state, covered an area in what is now Israel , Palestine , southern Lebanon, and western Jordan . The description "Crusader states" can be misleading, as from 1130 onwards, very few people among

10980-419: The Roman Empire had previously held, would be handed to Alexios' Byzantine representatives. Only Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse refused this oath, instead promising non-aggression towards Alexios. The Byzantine Tatikios guided the crusade on the arduous three-month march to besiege Antioch , during which the Franks made alliances with local Armenians. Before reaching Antioch, Baldwin and his men left

11224-408: The Third Crusade . The study of the Crusader states in their own right, as opposed to being a sub-topic of the Crusades , began in 19th-century France as an analogy to the French colonial experience in the Levant, though this was rejected by 20th-century historians. Their consensus was that the Frankish population, as the Western Europeans were known at the time, lived as a minority society that

11468-457: The Tower of David to secure his inheritance for his brother Baldwin. Daimbert and Tancred sought Bohemond's help against the Lotharingians, but the Danishmends captured Bohemond under Gazi Gümüshtigin while securing Antioch's northern marches. Before departing for Jerusalem, Baldwin ceded Edessa to his cousin, Baldwin of Bourcq . His arrival thwarted Daimbert, who crowned Baldwin as Jerusalem's first Latin king on Christmas Day 1100. By performing

11712-434: The Zohar " (pages 164–165). In the 18th century, speculative theories arose that sought to tie the Knights Templar with the origins of Freemasonry . Bookseller, Freemason and Illuminatus Christoph Friedrich Nicolai (1733–1811), in Versuch über die Beschuldigungen welche dem Tempelherrenorden gemacht worden, und über dessen Geheimniß (1782), was the first to claim that the Templars were Gnostics , and that "Baphomet"

11956-453: The cathedral of Saint Peter on 15 June, and when they came up empty, Peter went into the pit, reached down, and produced a spear point. Raymond took this as a divine sign that they would survive and thus prepared for a final fight rather than surrender. Peter then reported another vision, in which St. Andrew instructed the crusader army to fast for five days (although they were already starving), after which they would be victorious. Bohemond

12200-434: The figura Baffometi with the Pythagorean pentacle : What properly was the sign of the Baffomet, "figura Baffometi" , which was depicted on the breast of the bust representing the Creator, cannot be exactly determined ... I believe it to have been the Pythagorean pentagon ( Fünfeck ) of health and prosperity: ... It is well known how holy this figure was considered, and that the Gnostics had much in common with

12444-417: The occult . Éliphas Lévi published Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie ( Dogma and Rituals of High Magic ) as two volumes ( Dogme 1854, Rituel 1856), in which he included an image he had drawn himself, which he described as Baphomet and "The Sabbatic Goat", showing a winged humanoid goat with a pair of breasts and a torch on its head between its horns (see the illustration). This image has become

SECTION 50

#1732801493755

12688-419: The 19th century during debate and speculation on the reasons for the suppression of the Templars. Modern scholars agree that the name of Baphomet was an Old French corruption of the name "Mohammed", with the interpretation being that some of the Templars, through their long military occupation of the Outremer , had begun incorporating Islamic ideas into their belief system, and that this was seen and documented by

12932-409: The Arab Banu Munqidh seized Shaizar , and Tutush's sons Duqaq and Ridwan succeeded in Damascus and Aleppo respectively, but their atabegs , Janah ad-Dawla and Toghtekin were in control. Ridwan's retainer Sokman ben Artuq held Jerusalem; Ridwan's father-in-law, Yağısıyan , ruled Antioch; and a warlord representing Byzantine interests, called Thoros , seized Edessa. During this period

13176-409: The Astral Light. He developed this notion in the context of what has been called "spiritualist magnetism": theories that stressed the religious implications of magnetism. Often, their representatives were socialists that believed in the social consequences of a "synthesis" of religion and science that was to be achieved by the means of magnetism. Spiritualist magnetists with a socialist background include

13420-448: The Byzantine alliance. This dispute resulted in the march stalling in north Syria. The crusaders were becoming aware of the chaotic state of Muslim politics through frequent diplomatic relations with the Muslim powers. Raymond indulged in a small expedition. He bypassed Shaizar and laid siege to Arqa to enforce the payment of a tribute. In Raymond's absence, Bohemond expelled Raymond's last troops from Antioch and consolidated his rule in

13664-423: The Byzantine imperial church, and their religious leaders often came from the Byzantine capital, Constantinople . In the 5th   century, the Nestorians , and the Monophysite Jacobites , Armenians , and Copts , broke with the Byzantine state church. The Maronites ' separate church organisation emerged under Muslim rule. During the late 10th and early 11th   centuries, the Byzantine Empire had been on

13908-408: The Byzantines and Franks jointly besieged Aleppo and Shaizar but could not take the towns. Zengi soon seized Homs from the Damascenes, but a Damascene–Jerusalemite coalition prevented his southward expansion. Joscelin made an alliance with the Artuqid Kara Arslan , who was Zengi's principal Muslim rival in Upper Mesopotamia. While Joscelin was staying west of the Euphrates at Turbessel, Zengi invaded

14152-450: The Byzantines from campaigning in the Levant. In theory, Saladin was Nur ad-Din's lieutenant, but mutual distrust hindered their cooperation against the crusader states. As Saladin remitted suspiciously small revenue payments to him, Nur ad-Din began gathering troops for an attack on Egypt, but he died in May 1174. He left an 11-year-old son, As-Salih Ismail al-Malik . Within two months, Amalric died. His son and successor, Baldwin   IV,

14396-435: The Byzantines, Arabs, and Turks squeezed populations of Armenians . The Seljuks contested control of southern Palestine with Egypt, where Shia rulers ruled a majority Sunni populace through powerful viziers who were mainly Turkic or Armenian, rather than Egyptian or Arab. The Seljuks and the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt hated each other, as the Seljuk saw themselves as defenders of the Sunni Abbasid Caliphate and Fatimid Egypt

14640-462: The Byzantines, were prepared to let the crusaders keep Syria if they agreed not to attack Fatimid Palestine , a state of affairs perfectly acceptable between Egypt and Byzantium before the Turkish invasions. But the crusaders could not accept any settlement that did not give them Jerusalem . Nevertheless, the Fatimids were treated hospitably and were given many gifts, plundered from the Seljuks who had been defeated in March, and no definitive agreement

14884-450: The Christ also of the dissident priesthood ... The mysteries of the Sabbath have been variously described, but they figure always in grimoires and in magical trials; the revelations made on the subject may be classified under three heads—1. those referring to a fantastic and imaginary Sabbath; 2. those which betray the secrets of the occult assemblies of veritable adepts; 3. revelations of foolish and criminal gatherings, having for their object

SECTION 60

#1732801493755

15128-422: The Christian populace, however that changed as the crusaders approached. To prepare for their arrival he imprisoned the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch , John the Oxite , turned St Paul's Cathedral into a stable and expelled many leading Christians from the city. Yaghi-Siyan then sent out appeals for help: his request was turned down by Ridwan of Aleppo because of personal animosity, however Yaghi-Siyan

15372-566: The Cilician Armenian prince, Ruben   III . Saladin granted a truce to Bohemond and made preparations for an invasion of Jerusalem where Guy took command of the defence. When Saladin invaded Galilee, the Franks responded with what William of Tyre described in his contemporaneous chronicle as their largest army in living memory but avoided fighting a battle. After days of fierce skirmishing, Saladin withdrew towards Damascus. Baldwin dismissed Guy from his position as bailli , apparently because Guy had proved unable to overcome factionalism in

15616-498: The Cilician plain. In 1133, the Antiochene nobility asked Fulk to propose a husband for Constance, and he selected Raymond of Poitiers , a younger son of William IX of Aquitaine . Raymond finally arrived in Antioch three years later and married Constance. He reconquered parts of Cilicia from the Armenians. In 1137, Pons was killed battling the Damascenes, and Zengi invaded Tripoli. Fulk intervened, but Zengi's troops captured Pons' successor Raymond   II , and besieged Fulk in

15860-448: The Crusader states in the Levant The siege of Antioch took place during the First Crusade in 1097 and 1098, on the crusaders' way to Jerusalem through Syria . Two sieges took place in succession. The first siege, by the crusaders against the city held by the Seljuk Empire , lasted from 20 October 1097 to 3 June 1098. The second siege, of the crusader-held city by a Seljuk relieving army, lasted three weeks in June 1098, leading to

16104-447: The Crusades . The terms Crusader states and Outremer ( French : outre-mer , lit.   'overseas') describe the four feudal states established after the First Crusade in the Levant in around 1100: (from north to south) the County of Edessa , the Principality of Antioch , the County of Tripoli , and the Kingdom of Jerusalem . The term Outremer is of medieval origin, whilst modern historians use Crusader states, and

16348-520: The Devil Tarot key with Mercury ", giving "his figure Mercury's caduceus , rising like a phallus from his groin". The symbol is said to have originated when Mercury / Hermes once attempted to stop a fight between two snakes by throwing his rod at them, whereupon they twined themselves around the rod. The word Caduceus is from the Greek root meaning "herald’s wand" and was also a badge of diplomatic ambassadors and became associated with commerce, eloquence, alchemy, thievery, and lying. The etymology of Caduceus

16592-455: The Devil in the Rider–Waite design . The concept of a downward-pointing pentagram on its forehead was enlarged upon by Lévi in his discussion (without illustration) of the Goat of Mendes arranged within such a pentagram, which he contrasted with the microcosmic man arranged within a similar but upright pentagram. The actual image of a goat in a downward-pointing pentagram first appeared in the 1897 book La Clef de la Magie Noire , written by

16836-403: The Dog Gate either side of where the Orontes penetrated Antioch's defences. Godfrey of Bouillon was stationed west of the Duke's Gate in the northwest of the city walls. The bridge across the Orontes outside Antioch's west walls remained under Yaghi-Siyan's control at this point. The ensuing nine-month siege has been described as "one of the great sieges of the age". The sources emphasise that

17080-473: The Ecumenical Patriarch against the Papacy, but the East–West Schism was not yet inevitable, and the Catholic and Orthodox Churches remained in full communion . The Gregorian Reform enhanced the popes' influence on secular matters. To achieve political goals, popes excommunicated their opponents, placed entire realms under interdict and promised spiritual rewards to those who took up arms for their cause. In 1074 Pope Gregory VII even considered leading

17324-416: The English landed at the port before the crusade reached Antioch, but did not record whether a battle for control of St Symeon took place. Reinforcements in the form of thirteen Genoese ships reached St Symeon on 17 November, and though the route from Antioch to St Symeon ran close to the city walls, meaning the garrison could impede travel, joined up with the rest of the crusaders. According to

17568-460: The Euphrates. As the crusaders marched towards Antioch, Syrian Muslims asked Sultan Barkiyaruq for help, but he was engaged in a power struggle with his brother Muhammad Tapar . At Antioch, Bohemond persuaded the other leaders the city should be his if he could capture it, and Alexios did not come to claim it. Alexios withdrew, rather than join the siege, after Stephen, Count of Blois (who

17812-645: The Frankish lands east of the river in late 1144. Before the end of the year, he captured the region, including the city of Edessa. Losing Edessa strategically threatened Antioch and limited opportunities for a Jerusalemite expansion in the south. In September 1146, Zengi was assassinated, possibly on orders from Damascus. His empire was divided between his two sons, with the younger Nur ad-Din succeeding him in Aleppo. A power vacuum in Edessa allowed Joscelin to return to

18056-882: The Franks offered the regency and the Egyptian invasion's command to Baldwin's crusader cousin Philip ;I, Count of Flanders . He wanted to be free to return to Flanders and rejected both offers. The plan for the invasion was abandoned, and the Byzantine fleet sailed for Constantinople. Baldwin negotiated a marriage between Hugh III, Duke of Burgundy , and Sibylla, but the succession crisis in France prevented him from sailing. Tension between Baldwin's maternal and paternal relatives grew. When Raymond and Bohemond, both related to him on his father's side, came to Jerusalem unexpectedly before Easter in 1180, Baldwin panicked, fearing they had arrived to depose him and elevate Sibylla to

18300-479: The French nobleman Raynald of Châtillon as her second husband. From 1149, all Fatimid caliphs were children, and military commanders were competing for power. Ascalon, the Fatimids' last Palestinian bridgehead, hindered Frankish raids against Egypt, but Baldwin captured the town in 1153. The Damascenes feared further Frankish expansion, and Nur ad-Din seized the city with ease a year later. He continued to remit

18544-670: The French occultist Stanislas de Guaita . It was this image that was later adopted as the official symbol—called the Sigil of Baphomet —of the Church of Satan , and continues to be used among Satanists. Baphomet, as Lévi's illustration suggests, has occasionally been portrayed as a synonym of Satan or a demon , a member of the hierarchy of Hell. Baphomet appears in that guise as a character in James Blish 's The Day After Judgment . Christian evangelist Jack T. Chick claimed that Baphomet

18788-490: The Genoese chronicler Caffaro di Rustico da Caschifellone , the Genoese suffered heavy casualties en route from St Symeon to Antioch. Bohemond's troops built a counterfort outside Saint Paul's Gate in Antioch's northeast wall to protect themselves against missiles from Antioch's defenders. Known as Malregard, the fort was built on a hill and probably consisted of earthen ramparts. The construction has been dated to around

19032-571: The Grail romances, that the Templars were Gnostics and the "Templars' head" was a Gnostic idol called Baphomet: His chief subject is the images which are called Baphomet ... found in several museums and collections of antiquities, as in Weimar ;... and in the imperial cabinet in Vienna. These little images are of stone, partly hermaphrodites, having, generally, two heads or two faces, with

19276-592: The Holy Land, although in the decades following the destruction of the large Crusade of 1101 in Anatolia, only smaller groups of armed pilgrims departed for Outremer. The Fatimids' feud with the Seljuks hindered Muslim actions for more than a decade. Outnumbered by their enemies, the Franks remained in a vulnerable position, but they could forge temporary alliances with their Armenian, Arab, and Turkic neighbours. Each crusader state had its own strategic purpose during

19520-753: The Holy Land. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built to commemorate Christ's crucifixion and resurrection in Jerusalem. The Church of the Nativity was thought to enclose his birthplace in Bethlehem . The Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque commemorated Muhammad's night journey. Although the most sacred places of devotion were in Palestine, there were also shrines in neighbouring Syria. As

19764-617: The Inquisition of the Templars. Karen Ralls, author of the Knights Templar Encyclopedia , argues that it is significant that "no specific evidence [of Baphomet] appears in either the Templar Rule or in other medieval period Templar documents." Gauserand de Montpesant, a knight of Provence, said that their superior showed him an idol made in the form of Baffomet; another, named Raymond Rubei, described it as

20008-553: The Kingdom of Jerusalem, which had been severely weakened by the Ayyubid Sultanate after the siege of Jerusalem in 1244 . The Crusader presence in the Levant collapsed shortly thereafter, when the Mamluks captured Acre in 1291 , ending the Kingdom of Jerusalem nearly 200 years after it was founded. With all four of the states defeated and annexed, the survivors fled to the Kingdom of Cyprus , which had been established by

20252-455: The Latins in Jerusalem'. Historian Hans Eberhard Mayer believes this reflected that only Latins held complete political and legal rights in the kingdom, and that the major division in the society was not between the nobility and the common people but between the Franks and the indigenous peoples. Despite sometimes receiving homage from, and acting as regent for, the rulers of the other states;

20496-564: The Levant profoundly. Frankish rulers replaced local warlords in the cities, but large-scale colonisation did not follow, and the new conquerors did not change the traditional organisation of settlements and property in the countryside. The Muslim leaders were massacred or forced into exile, and the natives, accustomed to the rule of well-organised warbands, offered little resistance to their new lords. Western Christianity's canon law recognised that peace treaties and armistices between Christians and Muslims were valid. The Frankish knights regarded

20740-407: The Mediterranean coast to Jerusalem. On 15 July 1099, crusaders took the city after a siege lasting barely longer than a month. Thousands of Muslims and Jews were killed, and the survivors sold into slavery. Proposals to govern the city as an ecclesiastical state were rejected. Raymond refused the royal title, claiming only Christ could wear a crown in Jerusalem. This may have been to dissuade

20984-649: The Muslims were on the offensive , and commercial contacts primarily enriched the Islamic world . Europe was rural and underdeveloped, offering little more than raw materials and slaves in return for spices, cloth, and other luxuries from the Middle East . Climate change during the Medieval Warm Period affected the Middle East and western Europe differently. In the east, it caused droughts, while in

21228-607: The Mystery of Baphomet, by which the Knights Templars, like the Gnostics and Ophites , are convicted of Apostasy, of Idolatry and of moral Impurity, by their own Monuments"), which presented an elaborate pseudohistory constructed to discredit Templarist Masonry and, by extension, Freemasonry. Following Nicolai, he argued, using as archaeological evidence "Baphomets" faked by earlier scholars and literary evidence such as

21472-415: The O.T.O. For six years and more I had tried to discover the proper way to spell this name. I knew that it must have eight letters, and also that the numerical and literal correspondences must be such as to express the meaning of the name in such a way as to confirm what scholarship had found out about it, and also to clear up those problems which archaeologists had so far failed to solve ... One theory of

21716-500: The Oxite was reinstated as patriarch by Adhemar of Le Puy , the papal legate , who wished to keep good relations with the Byzantines, especially as Bohemond was clearly planning to claim the city for himself. However, the city was now short on food, and Kerbogha's army was still on its way. Kerbogha arrived only two days later, on 5 June. He tried, and failed, to storm the city on 7 June, and by 9 June he had established his own siege around

21960-767: The Pythagoreans. From the prayers which the soul shall recite, according to the diagram of the Ophite-worshippers , when they on their return to God are stopped by the Archons, and their purity has to be examined, it appears that these serpent-worshippers believed they must produce a token that they had been clean on earth. I believe that this token was also the holy pentagon, the sign of their initiation ( τελειας βαφης μετεος ). Émile Littré (1801–1881) in Dictionnaire de la langue francaise asserted that

22204-652: The Romans in 70AD. The New Testament presented Palestine as the venue of the acts of Jesus and his Apostles . Islamic tradition described the region's principal city, Jerusalem, as the site of the Isra' and Mi'raj , Muhammad's miraculous night travel and ascension to Heaven. Places associated with holy people developed into shrines visited by pilgrims coming from faraway lands, often as an act of penance . The surge in Christian pilgrimage also inspired many Jews to return to

22448-458: The Seljuk governor of the city, Yağısıyan , began stockpiling food and sending requests for help. The Byzantine walls surrounding the city presented a formidable obstacle to its capture, but the leaders of the crusade felt compelled to besiege Antioch anyway. The crusaders arrived outside the city on 21 October and began the siege. The garrison sortied unsuccessfully on 29 December. After stripping

22692-513: The Seljuk state worked when family ties and personal loyalty overlapped the leaders' personal ambitions, the lavish iqta' grants combined with rivalries between maliks , atabegs , and military commanders could lead to disintegration in critical moments. The region's ethnic and religious diversity led to alienation among the ruled populations. In Syria, the Seljuk Sunnis ruled indigenous Shias . In Cilicia and northern Syria,

22936-612: The Seljuk threat. What the Emperor probably had in mind was a relatively modest force, and Urban far exceeded his expectations by calling for the First Crusade at the later Council of Clermont . He developed a doctrine of bellum sacrum (Christian holy war) and, based mainly on Old Testament passages in which God leads the Hebrews to victory in war, reconciled this with Church teachings. Urban's call for an armed pilgrimage for

23180-536: The Seljuks of Rum, Saladin concluded a two-year truce with Baldwin and, after launching a short but devastating campaign along the coast of Tripoli, with Raymond. For the first time in the history of Frankish–Muslim relations, the Franks could not set conditions for the peace. Between 1180 and 1183, Saladin asserted his suzerainty over the Artuqids, concluded a peace treaty with the Rum Seljuks, seized Aleppo from

23424-401: The Seljuks was thus unavoidable. Bohemond drew up six divisions: he commanded one himself, and the other five were led by Hugh of Vermandois and Robert of Flanders, Godfrey, Robert of Normandy , Adhemar, and Tancred and Gaston IV of Béarn . Raymond, who had fallen ill, remained inside to guard the citadel with 200 men, now held by Ahmed ibn Merwan , an agent of Kerbogha. On Monday 28 June

23668-520: The Sultanate of Rum to reopen the Anatolian pilgrimage route towards the Holy Land. His defeat at Myriokephalon weakened the Byzantines' hold on Cilicia. Upholding the balance of power in Syria was apparently Raymond's main concern during his regency. When Saladin besieged Aleppo in 1174, Raymond led a relief army to the city; next year, when a united Zengid army invaded Saladin's realm, he signed

23912-572: The TV show Robin of Sherwood ), has Robin and his companions come into conflict with the titular Knights. The Knights of the Apocalypse are depicted as a cult which worships Baphomet; the Knights are also depicted as a splinter group from the Knights Templar. Ab Luy venseretz totz los cas Cuy Bafometz a escarnitz e·ls renegatz outrasalhitz ("with his [i.e. Jesus'] help you will defeat all

24156-456: The Templars did indeed spit on the cross", says Sean Martin, and that these acts were intended to simulate the kind of humiliation and torture that a Crusader might be subjected to if captured by the Saracens , where they were taught how to commit apostasy "with the mind only and not with the heart". Similarly, Michael Haag suggests that the simulated worship of Baphomet did indeed form part of

24400-560: The Turkic mounted warlords as their peers with familiar moral values, and this familiarity facilitated their negotiations with the Muslim leaders. The conquest of a city was often accompanied by a treaty with the neighbouring Muslim rulers who were customarily forced to pay a tribute for the peace. The crusader states had a special position in Western Christianity's consciousness: many Catholic aristocrats were ready to fight for

24644-518: The West for campaigning. Thierry, Baldwin, Raynald and Raymond III of Tripoli attacked Shaizar. Baldwin offered the city to Thierry, who refused Raynald's demands he become his vassal, and the siege was abandoned. After Nur ad-Din seized Shaizar in 1157, the Nizari remained the last independent Muslim power in Syria. As prospects for a new crusade from the West were poor, the Franks of Jerusalem sought

24888-554: The Zengids and re-established the Egyptian navy. Meanwhile, after the truce expired in 1182, Saladin demonstrated the strategic advantage he had by holding both Cairo and Damascus. While he faced Baldwin in Oultrejordain, his troops from Syria pillaged Galilee. The Franks adopted a defensive tactic and strengthened their fortresses. In February 1183, a Jerusalemite assembly levied an extraordinary tax for defence funding. Raynald

25132-451: The abandoned monastery to the west of the Gate of Saint George, which was still being used to deliver food to the city. Tancred garrisoned the monastery, referred to in the chronicles as Tancred's Fort, for 400 silver marks, whilst Count Raymond of Toulouse took control of La Mahomerie. Finally the crusader siege was able to have some effect on the well-defended city. Food conditions improved for

25376-434: The advent of Christianity were condemned by the new religion. It required little change-over to transform the horns and cloven hooves of Pan into a most convincing devil! Pan's attributes could neatly be changed into charged-with-punishment sins, and so the metamorphosis was complete. The Baphomet of Lévi was to become an important figure within the cosmology of Thelema , the mystical system established by Aleister Crowley in

25620-505: The ailing Baldwin   V's guardianship. As there was no consensus on what should happen if the boy king died, it would be for the pope, the Holy Roman Emperor, the kings of France and England to decide whether his mother Sibylla or her half-sister Isabella had stronger claim to the throne. Bohemond was staying at Acre around this time, allegedly because Baldwin   IV wanted to secure Bohemond's support for his decisions on

25864-485: The anonymous Gesta Francorum . Nine letters survive relating to or from the crusading army; five of them were written while the siege was underway and another in September, not long after the city had been taken. While there are many sources the number of people on crusade is unclear because they fluctuated regularly and many non-combatants on pilgrimage accompanied the soldiers. Historian Jonathan Riley-Smith offers

26108-489: The army and returned home. Tatikios explained to the Byzantine Emperor Alexios ;I Komnenos that Bohemond had informed him that there was a plan to kill him, as they believed Alexios was secretly encouraging the Seljuks. Those close to Bohemond claimed that this was treachery or cowardice, reason enough to break any obligations to return Antioch to the Byzantines. News arrived that a Seljuk army

26352-419: The army defending the city: "There were, furthermore, in the city two thousand of the best knights, and four or five thousand common knights and ten thousand more footmen". One of the problems of camping so close to the city was that it left the besiegers vulnerable to sorties from the garrison and even missiles. For the first fortnight of the siege, the crusaders were able to forage in the surrounding area as

26596-412: The army's long journey across Anatolia meant the leaders considered leaving an assault until reinforcements arrived in spring. Tatikios , the Byzantine advisor to the crusade, suggested adopting tactics similar to those used by the Byzantines themselves when they moved to capture Antioch in 968. They had installed themselves at Baghras some 12 miles (19 km) away and from there conducted a blockade of

26840-483: The army. In November 1183, Baldwin made Guy's five-year-old stepson, also called Baldwin , co-ruler, and had him crowned king while attempting to annul the marriage of Guy and Sibylla. Guy and Sibylla fled to Ascalon, and his supporters vainly intervened on their behalf at a general council. An embassy to Europe was met with offers of money but not of military support. Already dying, Baldwin   IV appointed Raymond bailli for 10   years, but charged Joscelin with

27084-411: The assertion, however it is unknown where the fleet originated and would not have been under Edgar's command. Regardless, the fleet brought raw materials for constructing siege engines , but these were almost lost on the journey from the port to Antioch when part of the garrison sallied out. Bohemond and Raymond escorted the material, and after losing some of the materials and 100 people, they fell back to

27328-472: The barons but Baldwin of Ibelin and Raymond swore fealty to the royal couple. Baldwin went into exile, and Raymond forged an alliance with Saladin. Raynald seized another caravan, which violated the truce and prompted Saladin to assemble his forces for the jihād. Raymond allowed Muslim troops to pass through Galilee to raid around Acre. His shock at the Frankish defeat in the resulting Battle of Cresson brought him to reconciliation with Guy. Guy now gathered

27572-421: The barons to Nablus to a general council. In his absence, Sybilla's supporters, led by Joscelin and Raynald, took full control of Jerusalem, Acre and Beirut. Patriarch Heraclius of Jerusalem crowned her queen and appointed Guy her co-ruler. The barons assembling at Nablus offered the crown to Isabella's husband Humphrey IV of Toron , but he submitted to Sybilla to avoid a civil war. After his desertion, all

27816-407: The best-known representation of Baphomet. Lévi considered the Baphomet to be a depiction of the absolute in symbolic form and explicated in detail his symbolism in the drawing that served as the frontispiece: The goat on the frontispiece carries the sign of the pentagram on the forehead, with one point at the top, a symbol of light, his two hands forming the sign of occultism, the one pointing up to

28060-429: The body covered with scales: the water, the semi-circle above it: the atmosphere, the feathers following above: the volatile. Humanity is represented by the two breasts and the androgyne arms of this sphinx of the occult sciences. Lévi's depiction of Baphomet is similar to that of The Devil in the early Tarot . Lévi, working with correspondences different from those later used by S. L. MacGregor Mathers , "equated

28304-466: The border castle of Montferrand . Fulk surrendered the castle and paid Zengi 50,000   dinars for his and Raymond's freedom. Emperor Alexios' son and successor, John II Komnenos , reasserted Byzantine claims to Cilicia and Antioch. His military campaign compelled Raymond of Poitiers to give homage and agree that he would surrender Antioch by way of compensation if the Byzantines ever captured Aleppo, Homs , and Shaizar for him. The following year

28548-613: The ceremony, the Patriarch abandoned his claim to rule the Holy Land. Tancred remained defiant to Baldwin until an Antiochene delegation offered him the regency in March 1101. He ceded his Principality of Galilee to the king, but reserved the right to reclaim it as a fief if he returned from Antioch within fifteen months. For the next two years, Tancred ruled Antioch. He conquered Byzantine Cilicia and parts of Syria. The Fatimid Caliphate attacked Jerusalem in 1101 , 1102 and 1105 , on

28792-468: The chronicles used Latini , or Latins . These medieval ethnonyms reflect that the settlers could be differentiated from the indigenous population by language and faith. The Franks were mainly French-speaking Roman Catholics, while the natives were mostly Arabic- or Greek-speaking Muslims, Christians of other denominations, and Jews. The Kingdom of Jerusalem extended over historical Palestine and at its greatest extent included some territory east of

29036-497: The city as his own although Adhemar and Raymond disagreed. Hugh of Vermandois and Baldwin of Hainaut were sent to Constantinople, although Baldwin disappeared after an ambush on the way. Alexios, however, was uninterested in sending an expedition to claim the city this late in the summer. Back in Antioch, Bohemond argued that Alexios had deserted the crusade and thus invalidated all of their oaths to him. Bohemond and Raymond occupied Yaghi-Siyan's palace, but Bohemond controlled most of

29280-530: The city before Kerbogha arrived if they had any chance of survival. Weeks earlier, Bohemond had secretly established contact with someone inside the city named Firouz , an Armenian guard who controlled the Tower of the Two Sisters. Firouz's motivation was unclear even to Bohemond, perhaps avarice or revenge, but he offered to let Bohemond into the city in exchange for money and a title. Bohemond then approached

29524-593: The city by cutting off its lines of communication. Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse , was alone in advocating assaulting the city. In the end, the crusaders chose to advance on Antioch and establish a siege close to Antioch. Before the siege could be properly started, the control of three key sites was essential: the town of Artah , the Iron Bridge across the Orontes, as well as the harbour of St Simeon . Artah's importance resulted from its strategic position as it

29768-451: The city leaders sought external protection. They allied with the adventurous Artuqid princes, Ilghazi and Balak , who inflicted crucial defeats on the Franks between 1119 and 1124, but could rarely prevent Frankish counter-invasions. In 1118 Baldwin of Bourcq succeeded Baldwin   I as King of Jerusalem, naming Joscelin his successor in Edessa. After Roger was killed at Ager Sanguinis ('Field of Blood'), Baldwin   II assumed

30012-608: The city walls. Raymond of Aguilers , a chronicler of the First Crusade , reports that the troubadours used the term Bafomet for Muhammad , and Bafumaria for a mosque. The name Bafometz later appeared around 1195 in the Provençal poems Senhors, per los nostres peccatz by the troubadour Gavaudan. Around 1250, a Provençal poem by Austorc d'Aorlhac bewailing the defeat of the Seventh Crusade again uses

30256-440: The city's northern wall before entering Antioch from the northwest and exiting east through the northern half of the city. Mount Silpius , crested by a citadel, was Antioch's highest point and rose some 1,000 feet (300 m) above the valley floor. There were six gates through which the city could be entered: three along the northern wall, and one on each of the south, east, and west sides. The valley slopes made approaching from

30500-446: The city, a horse lost its rider and, in the ensuing confusion in the dark, the crusaders panicked and withdrew across the bridge with the Seljuks in pursuit. The stalemate was restored, and both sides had suffered losses. While Count Raymond was repulsing a sally from Antioch's garrison, an army under the leadership of Duqaq of Damascus was en route to relieve Antioch. Bohemond and Robert of Flanders were unaware that their foraging party

30744-513: The city, but he was unable to take the citadel. When Nur ad-Din arrived, the Franks were trapped, Joscelin fled and the subsequent sack left the city deserted. The fall of Edessa shocked Western opinion, prompting the largest military response since the First Crusade. The new crusade consisted of two great armies led overland by Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany , arriving in Acre in 1148. The arduous march had greatly reduced

30988-513: The city. More crusaders had deserted before Kerbogha arrived, and they joined Stephen of Blois in Tarsus . Stephen had seen Kerbogha's army encamped near Antioch and assumed all hope was lost; the deserters confirmed his fears. On the way back to Constantinople, Stephen and the other deserters met Alexios, who was on his way to assist the crusaders, and did not know they had taken the city and were now under siege themselves. Stephen convinced him that

31232-460: The city. As Ridwan's army passed through Harim panic spread to the garrison he had installed there and they abandoned the town, which was retaken by the Christians. According to Orderic Vitalis an English fleet led by Edgar Ætheling , the exiled Saxon claimant to the throne of England, arrived at St Symeon on 4 March carrying supplies from the Byzantines. Historian Steven Runciman repeated

31476-478: The command of Duqaq's brother Ridwan , emir of Aleppo, advanced towards Antioch, arriving on 9 February. Like the army of Duqaq before, it was defeated . Antioch was captured on 3 June, although the citadel remained in the hands of the Turkish defenders. Kerbogha , atabeg of Mosul, began the second siege, against the crusaders who had occupied Antioch, which lasted from 7 to 28 June 1098. The second siege ended when

31720-457: The connection between the two processes is unclear. As feudal lordships could be established by the acquiring land, western aristocrats willingly launched offensive military campaigns, even against faraway territories. Catholic Europe's expansion in the Mediterranean began in the second half of the 11th century. Norman warlords conquered southern Italy from the Byzantines and ousted the Muslim rulers from Sicily; French aristocrats hastened to

31964-542: The conquest, but tens of thousands of Franks were enslaved. Those who could negotiate a free passage or were ransomed swarmed to Tyre, Tripoli, or Antioch. Conrad of Montferrat commanded the defences of Tyre . He was William's brother and arrived only days after Hattin. The childless Raymond died, and Bohemond's younger son, also called Bohemond , assumed power in Tripoli. After news of the Franks' devastating defeat at Hattin reached Italy, Pope Gregory VIII called for

32208-432: The crusader camp outside Antioch. Before Bohemond and Raymond, rumours that they had been killed reached Godfrey who readied his men to rescue the survivors of the escort. However, his attention was diverted when another force sallied from the city to provide cover for the men returning from the ambush. Godfrey was able to hold off the attack until Bohemond and Raymond came to his aid. The reorganised army then caught up with

32452-473: The crusaders as spring approached and the city was sealed off from raiders. In April a Fatimid embassy from Egypt arrived at the crusader camp, hoping to establish a peace with the Christians, who were, after all, the enemy of their own enemies, the Seljuks. Peter the Hermit was sent to negotiate. These negotiations came to nothing. The Fatimids, assuming the crusaders were simply mercenary representatives of

32696-414: The crusaders emerged from the city gate, with Raymond of Aguilers carrying the Holy Lance before them. Kerbogha hesitated against his generals' pleadings, hoping to attack them all at once rather than one division at a time, but he underestimated their size. He pretended to retreat to draw the crusaders to rougher terrain, while his archers continuously pelted the advancing crusaders with arrows. A detachment

32940-464: The crusaders established themselves outside the city's north wall. The crusaders divided into several groups. Bohemond camped outside Saint Paul's Gate near the northernmost corner of the city walls and immediately to the west were Hugh I, Count of Vermandois ; Robert Curthose , Duke of Normandy; Robert II, Count of Flanders; and Stephen II, Count of Blois . Adhemar of Le Puy and Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse, took up positions outside

33184-418: The crusaders exited the city to engage Kerbogha's army in battle on 28 June and succeeded in defeating them . On seeing the Turkish army routed, the defenders remaining in the citadel surrendered. There are a number of contemporaneous sources relating to the siege of Antioch and the First Crusade. There are four narrative accounts: those of Fulcher of Chartres , Peter Tudebode , and Raymond of Aguilers , and

33428-428: The crusaders suffered too many casualties to keep foraging and returned to Antioch. As a result of the fight the crusaders lost the flock they had gathered for food and returned with less food than they needed. The month ended inauspiciously for both sides: there was an earthquake on 30 December, and the following weeks saw such unseasonably bad rain and cold weather that Duqaq had to return home without further engaging

33672-452: The crusaders. The crusaders feared the rain and earthquake were signs they had lost God's favour, and to atone for their sins such as pillaging, Adhemar of Le Puy ordered that a three-day fast should be observed. In any case at this time supplies were running dangerously low, and soon after one in seven men was dying of starvation. Though local Christians brought food to the crusaders, they charged extortionate prices. The famine also affected

33916-405: The deaths also included many non-Turkish civilians, including Firouz's own brother. Yaghi-Siyan fled but was captured by Armenian and Syrian Christians some distance outside the city and his severed head was brought to Bohemond. By the end of the day on 3 June, the crusaders controlled most of the city, except for the citadel, which remained in the hands of Yaghi-Siyan's son Shams ad-Daulah. John

34160-525: The defence of the northern crusader states took much of Baldwin   II's time. His absence, its impact on government, and his placement of relatives and their vassals in positions of power created opposition in Jerusalem. Baldwin's sixteen-month captivity led to a failed deposition attempt by some of the nobility, with the Flemish count , Charles the Good , considered as a possible replacement. Charles declined

34404-565: The defenders chose not to leave the safety of the city walls. However, in November Yaghi-Siyan learned that the crusaders felt the city would not fall to an assault so was able to turn his attentions from the defensive to harrying the besiegers. He mobilised his cavalry and began harassing the besiegers. With the immediate area stripped clean, the crusaders' foraging parties had to search further afield for supplies leaving them more vulnerable and on several occasions were attacked by

34648-461: The desertion of such prominent figures, Bohemond despatched a force to bring them back. Peter was pardoned while William was berated and made to swear he would remain with the crusade. The arrival of spring in February saw the food situation improve for the crusaders. That month Tatikios repeated his earlier advice to resort to a long-distance blockade but his suggestion was ignored; he then left

34892-448: The developing Principality of Antioch. Under pressure from the poorer Franks, Godfrey and Robert II, Count of Flanders reluctantly joined the eventually unsuccessful siege of Arqa. Alexios asked the crusade to delay the march to Jerusalem, so the Byzantines could assist. Raymond's support for this strategy increased division among the crusade leaders and damaged his reputation among ordinary crusaders. The crusaders marched along

35136-545: The disintegration of the Seljuk Empire revived the old Levantine system of city-states. The region had always been highly urbanised, and the local societies were organised into networks of interdependent settlements, each centred around a city or a major town. These networks developed into autonomous lordships under the rule of a Turkic, Arab or Armenian warlord or town magistrate in the late 11th   century. The local quadis took control of Tyre and Tripoli ,

35380-833: The dragon of all theogonies, the Ahriman of the Persians, the Typhon of the Egyptians, the Python of the Greeks, the old serpent of the Hebrews, the fantastic monster, the nightmare, the Croquemitaine, the gargoyle, the great beast of the Middle Ages, and—worse than all these—the Baphomet of the Templars, the bearded idol of the alchemist, the obscene deity of Mendes, the goat of the Sabbath. The frontispiece to this 'Ritual' reproduces

35624-836: The early 20th century. Baphomet features in the Creed of the Gnostic Catholic Church recited by the congregation in The Gnostic Mass , in the sentence: "And I believe in the Serpent and the Lion, Mystery of Mysteries, in His name BAPHOMET." In Magick (Book 4) , Crowley asserted that Baphomet was a divine androgyne and "the hieroglyph of arcane perfection", seen as that which reflects: "What occurs above so reflects below, or As above so below": The Devil does not exist. It

35868-433: The edification of the vulgar, for the satisfaction of M. le Comte de Mirville, for the justification of the demonologist Bodin, for the greater glory of the Church, which persecuted Templars, burnt magicians, excommunicated Freemasons, &c. let us state boldly and precisely that all the inferior initiates of the occult sciences and profaners of the great arcanum, not only did in the past, but do now, and will ever, adore what

36112-405: The exact figure of the terrible emperor of night, with all his attributes and all his characters ... Yes, in our profound conviction, the Grand Masters of the Order of Templars worshipped the Baphomet, and caused it to be worshipped by their initiates; yes, there existed in the past, and there may be still in the present, assemblies which are presided over by this figure, seated on a throne and having

36356-426: The feudal armies commanded by western nobles. By dazzling them with wealth and charming them with flattery, Alexios extracted oaths of fealty from most of the Crusader commanders. As his vassals, Godfrey of Bouillon , nominally duke of Lower Lorraine ; the Italo-Norman Bohemond of Taranto ; Bohemond's nephew Tancred of Hauteville ; and Godfrey's brother Baldwin of Bologne all swore that any territory gained which

36600-548: The first years of its existence. Jerusalem needed undisturbed access to the Mediterranean; Antioch wanted to seize Cilicia and the territory along the upper course of the Orontes River ; and Edessa aspired to control the Upper Euphrates valley. The most powerful Syrian Muslim ruler, Toghtekin of Damascus , took a practical approach to dealing with the Franks. His treaties establishing Damascene–Jerusalemite condominiums (shared rule) in debated territories created precedents for other Muslim leaders. In August 1099, Godfrey defeated

36844-575: The fundamental assertion, that those idols and cups came from the Templars, has been considered as unfounded, especially as the images known to have existed among the Templars seem rather to be images of saints. Hammer's essay did not pass unchallenged, and F. J. M. Raynouard published an Étude sur 'Mysterium Baphometi revelatum' in Journal des savants the following year. Charles William King criticized Hammer, saying that he had been deceived by "the paraphernalia of ... Rosicrucian or alchemical quacks", and Peter Partner agreed that

37088-439: The garrison before it had reached the safety of Antioch's walls. The counter-attack was a success for the crusaders and resulted in the deaths of between 1,200 and 1,500 of Antioch's defenders. The crusaders set to work building siege engines, as well as a fort, called La Mahomerie, to block the Bridge Gate and prevent Yaghi-Siyan attacking the crusader supply line from the ports of Saint Simon and Alexandretta, whilst also repairing

37332-432: The garrisons of nearby fortifications. Yaghi-Siyan's men also used the Dog Bridge, outside the Dog Gate to harass the crusaders. Adhemar of Le Puy and Raymond IV's men, who were camped closest to the bridge, attempted to destroy it using picks and hammers, but made little impact on the strong structure while under missile fire from Antioch's defenders. Another attempt was made to render the bridge unusable, this time with

37576-419: The god Pan and a goat were worshipped; Strabo, quoting (xvii. 1, 19) Pindar, says that in these places goats had intercourse with women, and Herodotus (ii. 46) instances a case which was said to have taken place in the open day. The Mendisians, according to this last writer, paid reverence to all goats, and more to the males than to the females, and particularly to one he-goat, on the death of which public mourning

37820-401: The grantor, or lord. A vassal owed fealty to the lord and was expected to provide military aid and advice to him. Violence was endemic, and a new class of mounted warriors, the knights , emerged. Many built castles, and their feuds brought much suffering to the unarmed population. The development of the knightly class coincided with the subjection of the formerly free peasantry into serfdom, but

38064-511: The history of the Knights Templar. Baphomet appears as a recurring antagonist in the long-running German novel series Geisterjäger John Sinclair , in which he is the master of Vincent van Akkeren and his cult of renegade Knights Templar. The horror novels by author Jason Dark portray Baphomet as one of the three entities that form the unholy trinity of Lucifer , with the other two being Asmodis and Beelzebub . The 2016 audio drama Robin of Sherwood: The Knights Of The Apocalypse (based on

38308-421: The horses, and soon only 700 remained. The extent to which the crusader army was affected is difficult to gauge, but according to Matthew of Edessa one in five crusaders died from starvation during the siege and the poorer members were probably worse off. The famine damaged morale and some knights and soldiers began to desert in January 1098, including Peter the Hermit and William the Carpenter . On hearing of

38552-404: The images "may have been forgeries from the occultist workshops". At the very least, there was little evidence to tie them to the Knights Templar—in the 19th century some European museums acquired such pseudo-Egyptian objects, which were cataloged as "Baphomets" and credulously thought to have been idols of the Templars. Later in the 19th century, the name of Baphomet became further associated with

38796-423: The infantry remained behind in case Antioch's defenders decided to attack. On the morning of 9 February, Ridwan moved towards the Iron Bridge. The crusaders had moved into position the previous night and charged the advancing army before it reached the bridge. The first charge caused few casualties, but Ridwan's army followed the crusaders to a narrow battlefield. With the river on one side and the Lake of Antioch on

39040-406: The king held no formalised overlord status, and those states remained legally outside the kingdom. Jews, Christians, and Muslims respected Palestine, known as the Holy Land , as an exceptionally sacred place. They all associated the region with the lives of the prophets of the Hebrew Bible . All of the holy sites in Judaism were found there, including the remains of the Second Temple, destroyed by

39284-417: The kingdom was confirmed. The Fatimid Caliphate had rival viziers, Shawar and Dirgham , both eager to seek external support. This gave Amalric and Nur ad-Din the opportunity to intervene. Amalric launched five invasions of Egypt between 1163 and 1169, on the last occasion cooperating with a Byzantine fleet, but he could not establish a bridgehead. Nur ad-Din appointed his Kurdish general Shirkuh to direct

39528-422: The kingdom. In 1134, he repressed a revolt by Hugh II of Jaffa , a relative of Melisende, but was still compelled to accept the shared inheritance. He also thwarted frequent attempts by his sister-in-law Alice to assume the regency in Antioch, including alliances with Pons of Tripoli and Joscelin   II of Edessa . Taking advantage of Antioch's weakened position, Leo , a Cilician Armenian ruler, seized

39772-400: The last occasion in alliance with Toghtekin. Baldwin   I repulsed these attacks and with Genoese, Venetian, and Norwegian fleets conquered all the towns on the Palestinian coast except Tyre and Ascalon . Raymond laid the foundations of the fourth crusader state, the County of Tripoli. He captured Tartus and Gibelet and besieged Tripoli. His cousin William II Jordan continued

40016-508: The leaders of the crusade wrote to Pope Urban II , asking him to take personal control of Antioch, but he declined. For the rest of 1098, they took control of the countryside surrounding Antioch, although there were now even fewer horses than before, and Arab peasants refused to give them food. The minor knights and soldiers became restless and starvation began to set in and they threatened to continue to Jerusalem without their squabbling leaders. In November, Raymond finally gave in to Bohemond for

40260-415: The liberation of the Eastern Christians and the recovery of the Holy Land aroused unprecedented enthusiasm in Catholic Europe. Within a year, tens of thousands of people, both commoners and aristocrats, departed for the military campaign. Individual crusaders' motivations to join the crusade varied, but some of them probably left Europe to make a new permanent home in the Levant. Alexios cautiously welcomed

40504-508: The link of their prospects to a single master generated extreme loyalty. In the context of Middle Eastern politics this made them more trustworthy than relatives. Eventually, some mamluk descendants climbed the Muslim hierarchy to become king makers or even dynastic founders. In the mid-11th   century, a minor clan of Oghuz Turks named Seljuks , after the warlord Saljūq from Transoxiana , had expanded through Khurasan , Iran , and on to Baghdad. There, Saljūq's grandson Tughril

40748-403: The main army and headed to the Euphrates river, engaging in local politics and seizing the fortifications of Turbessel and Rawandan , where the Armenian populace welcomed him. Thoros, then ruler of this territory, could barely control or defend Edessa, so he tried to hire the Franks as mercenaries. Later, he went further and adopted Baldwin as his son in a power-share arrangement. In March 1098,

40992-463: The main army of the crusaders. On 20 October 1097 the crusaders reached the Iron Bridge, a fortified crossing on the Orontes River 12 miles (19 km) outside Antioch. Robert II, Count of Flanders and Adhemar of Le Puy , the Catholic Bishop of Puy-en-Velay , led the charge across the bridge, opening the way for the advancing army. Bohemond of Taranto took a vanguard along the river's south bank and headed towards Antioch on 21 October and

41236-421: The main plot in the 1996 point-and-click adventure game Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars developed by Revolution Software . It is the first game in the Broken Sword series. The player assumes the role of George Stobbart, an American tourist in Paris, as he attempts to unravel a conspiracy, much of which is influenced by and includes factual and fictional references and narrative devices relating to

41480-489: The military operations in Egypt. Weeks before Shirkuh died in 1169, the Fatimid caliph Al-Adid made him vizier. His nephew Saladin , who ended the Shi'ite caliphate when Al-Adid died in September 1171, succeeded Shirkuh. In March 1171, Amalric undertook a visit to Manuel in Constantinople to get Byzantine military support for yet another attack on Egypt. To this end, he swore fealty to the Emperor before his return to Jerusalem, but conflicts with Venice and Sicily prevented

41724-420: The more popular Godfrey from assuming the throne, but Godfrey adopted the title Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri ('Defender of the Holy Sepulchre') when he was proclaimed the first Frankish ruler of Jerusalem. In Western Europe an advocatus was a layman responsible for the protection and administration of church estates. The foundation of these three crusader states did not change the political situation in

41968-418: The mystic title given by Christ to Peter as the cornerstone of the Church, has this same value. So far, the Wizard had shown great qualities! He had cleared up the etymological problem and shown why the Templars should have given the name Baphomet to their so-called idol. Baphomet was Father Mithras, the cubical stone which was the corner of the Temple. Lévi's Baphomet is the source of the later tarot image of

42212-482: The name Bafomet for Muhammad. De Bafomet is also the title of one of four surviving chapters of an Occitan translation of Ramon Llull 's earliest known work, the Libre de la doctrina pueril . Baphomet was allegedly worshipped as a deity by the medieval order of the Knights Templar . King Philip IV of France had many French Templars simultaneously arrested, and then tortured into confessions in October 1307. The name Baphomet appeared in trial transcripts for

42456-432: The name is that it represents the words βαφὴ μήτεος, the baptism of wisdom; another, that it is a corruption of a title meaning "Father Mithras". Needless to say, the suffix R supported the latter theory. I added up the word as spelt by the Wizard. It totalled 729. This number had never appeared in my Cabbalistic working and therefore meant nothing to me. It however justified itself as being the cube of nine. The word κηφας ,

42700-542: The next decades. Raymond of Poitiers joined forces with the Nizari and Joscelin with the Rum Seljuks against Aleppo. Nur ad-Din invaded Antioch and Raymond was defeated and killed at Inab in 1149. The next year Joscelin was captured and tortured and later died. Beatrice of Saone , his wife, sold the remains of the County of Edessa to the Byzantines with Baldwin's consent. Already 21 and eager to rule alone, Baldwin forced Melisende's retirement in 1152. In Antioch, Constance resisted pressure to remarry until 1153 when she chose

42944-404: The night of 29 December before making a sortie. He attacked Count Raymond's encampment across the river, and though caught by surprise, Count Raymond was able to recover and turn Yaghi-Siyan's men back. He almost succeeded in reversing the attack entirely, forcing a way across the bridge and establishing a foothold on the other side and holding open the city gates. As the crusaders threatened to take

43188-472: The novel The Da Vinci Code , although it was recently questioned by the French historian Thierry Murcia, who challenges the method of calculation used by Schonfield. In 1818, the name Baphomet appeared in the essay by the Viennese Orientalist Joseph Freiherr von Hammer-Purgstall , Mysterium Baphometis revelatum, seu Fratres Militiæ Templi, qua Gnostici et quidem Ophiani, Apostasiæ, Idoloduliæ et Impuritatis convicti, per ipsa eorum Monumenta ("Discovery of

43432-468: The object changed from confession to confession; some Templars denied any knowledge of it, while others, who confessed under torture , described it as being either a severed head, a cat, or a head with three faces. The Templars did possess several silver-gilt heads as reliquaries , including one marked capud lviii , another said to be St. Euphemia , and possibly the actual head of Hugues de Payens . The claims of an idol named Baphomet were unique to

43676-490: The offensive on each occasion. As Edessa was Mosul's chief rival, Mawdud directed two campaigns against the city. They caused havoc, and the county's eastern region could never recover. The Syrian Muslim rulers saw the Sultan's intervention as a threat to their autonomy and collaborated with the Franks. After an assassin, likely a Nizari, murdered Mawdud, Muhammad Tapar dispatched two armies to Syria, but both campaigns failed. As Aleppo remained vulnerable to Frankish attacks,

43920-724: The offensive, recapturing Antioch in 969, after three centuries of Arab rule, and invading Syria. Turkic brigands and their Byzantine, also often ethnically Turkic, counterparts called akritai indulged in cross-border raiding. In 1071, while securing his northern borders during a break in his campaigns against the Fatimid Caliphate, Sultan Alp Arslan defeated Byzantine Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes at Manzikert . Romanos' capture and Byzantine factionalism that followed broke Byzantine border control. This enabled large numbers of Turkic warbands and nomadic herders to enter Anatolia . Alp Arslan's cousin Suleiman ibn Qutulmish seized Cilicia and entered Antioch in 1084. Two years later, he

44164-515: The offer. Baldwin had four daughters. In 1126, Bohemond reached the age of majority and married the second-oldest, Alice , in Antioch. Aleppo had plunged into anarchy, but Bohemond II could not exploit this because of a conflict with Joscelin. The new atabeg of Mosul Imad al-Din Zengi seized Aleppo in 1128. The two major Muslim centres' union was especially dangerous for the neighbouring Edessa, but it also worried Damascus's new ruler, Taj al-Muluk Buri . Baldwin's eldest daughter Melisende

44408-424: The old Islamic conflict between Sunni and Shia made the Muslim peoples more likely to wage war on each other than on Christians. The Byzantines augmented their armies with mercenaries from the Turks and Europe. This compensated for a shortfall caused by lost territory, especially in Anatolia. In 1095 at the Council of Piacenza , Emperor Alexios I Komnenos requested support from Pope Urban II against

44652-414: The operations of black magic. Lévi's Baphomet may have been partly inspired by grotesque carvings on the Templar churches of Lanleff in Brittany and Saint-Merri in Paris, which depict squatting bearded men with bat wings, female breasts, horns and the shaggy hindquarters of a beast. Lévi's references to the School of Alexandria and the Templars can be explained against the background of debates about

44896-413: The order all its wealth, made the trees flower, and the plants of the earth to sprout forth." The name Baphomet comes up in several of these dubious confessions. Peter Partner states in his 1987 book The Knights Templar and their Myth : "In the trial of the Templars one of their main charges was their supposed worship of a heathen idol-head known as a Baphomet (Baphomet = Mahomet )." The description of

45140-516: The origins and character of true Christianity. It has been pointed out that these debates included contemporary forms of Romantic socialism , or Utopian socialism , which were seen as the heirs of the Gnostics, Templars, and other mystics. Lévi, being himself an adherent of these schools since the 1840s, regarded the socialists and Romantics (such as Alphonse de Lamartine ) as the successors of this alleged tradition of true religion. In fact, his narrative mirrors historiographies of socialism, including

45384-441: The other crusaders and offered access to the city, through Firouz, if they would agree to make Bohemond the Prince of Antioch. Raymond was furious and argued that the city should be handed over to Alexios, as they had agreed when they left Constantinople in 1097, but Godfrey, Tancred, Robert, and the other leaders, faced with a desperate situation, gave in to Bohemond's demand. Despite this, on 2 June, Stephen of Blois and some of

45628-425: The other crusaders deserted the army. Later on the same day, Firouz instructed Bohemond to feign a march south over the mountains to ostensibly confront Kerbogha, but then to double-back at night and scale the walls at the Tower of the Two Sisters where Firouz held watch. This was done. Firouz allowed a small contingent of crusaders to scale the tower (including Bohemond), who then opened a nearby postern gate allowing

45872-402: The other, Ridwan was unable to outflank the crusaders and exploit his superior numbers. A second charge had more impact and the Seljuk army withdrew in disorder. At the same time, Yaghi-Siyan had led his garrison out of Antioch and attacked the crusader infantry. His offensive was forcing the besiegers back until the knights returned. Realising Ridwan had been defeated, Yaghi-Siyan retreated inside

46116-417: The popes as no more than one of the five highest ranking church leaders, titled patriarchs , and rejected the idea of papal supremacy . This opposition, together with differences in theology and liturgy, caused acrimonious disputes which escalated when a papal legate excommunicated the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in 1054. The patriarchs of Alexandria , Antioch , and Jerusalem sided with

46360-479: The previous attempts to relieve the siege. Kerbogha had joined with Ridwan and Duqaq and his army also included troops from Persia and from the Ortuqids of Mesopotamia . The crusaders were luckily granted time to prepare for their arrival, as Kerbogha had first made a three-week-long excursion to Edessa , which he was unable to recapture from Baldwin of Boulogne , who had becomes its ruler earlier in March 1098. The crusaders concluded that they would have to take

46604-401: The principles of feudalism , the foundation for these polities was laid by the First Crusade by the European Christians, which was proclaimed by the Latin Church in 1095 in order to reclaim the Holy Land after it was lost to the 7th-century Arab Muslim conquest . Situated on the Eastern Mediterranean , the four states were, in order from north to south: the County of Edessa (1098–1144),

46848-444: The regency of Antioch for the absent Bohemond   II. Public opinion attributed a series of disasters affecting the Outremer—defeats by enemy forces and plagues of locusts—as punishments for the Franks' sins. To improve moral standards, the Jerusalemite ecclesiastic and secular leaders assembled a council at Nablus and issued decrees against adultery, sodomy, bigamy, and sexual relations between Catholics and Muslims. A proposal by

47092-536: The regency of Edessa. The Byzantines took the opportunity to reconquer Cilicia. They took the port but not the citadel of Laodikeia . Bohemond returned to Italy to recruit allies and gather supplies. Tancred assumed leadership in Antioch, and his cousin Richard of Salerno did the same in Edessa. In 1107, Bohemond crossed the Adriatic Sea and failed in besieging Dyrrachion in the Balkan Peninsula . The resulting Treaty of Devol forced Bohemond to restore Laodikeia and Cilicia to Alexios, become his vassal and reinstate

47336-427: The region. On the eve of the Crusades, after a thousand years of reputedly uninterrupted succession of popes, the Papacy was Catholic Europe's oldest institution. The popes were seen as the Apostle Saint Peter 's successors, and their prestige was high. In the west, the Gregorian Reform reduced lay influence on church life and strengthened papal authority over the clergy. Eastern Christians continued to consider

47580-504: The rest of the city and flew his standard from the citadel. It is a common assumption that the Franks of northern France, the Provencals of southern France, and the Normans of southern Italy considered themselves separate "nations" and that each wanted to increase its status. This may have had something to do with the disputes, but personal ambition is more likely the cause of the infighting. Soon an epidemic broke out, possibly of typhus , and on 1 August Adhemar of le Puy died. In September

47824-426: The rest of the crusaders were as good as dead, and Alexios heard from his reconnaissance that there was another Seljuk army nearby in Anatolia. He therefore decided to return to Constantinople rather than risking battle. Meanwhile, in Antioch, on 10 June an otherwise insignificant priest from southern France by the name of Peter Bartholomew came forward claiming to have had visions of St. Andrew , who told him that

48068-434: The richest heiress of the kingdom, and gaining Galilee. Nur ad-Din's empire quickly disintegrated. His eunuch confidant Gümüshtekin took As-Salih from Damascus to Aleppo. Gümüshtekin's rival, Ibn al-Muqaddam , seized Damascus but soon surrendered it to Saladin. By 1176, Saladin reunited much of Muslim Syria through warring against Gümüshtekin and As-Salih's relatives, the Zengids . That same year, Emperor Manuel invaded

48312-432: The roads impassable. In 1130 Bohemond II was killed raiding in Cilicia, leaving Alice with their infant daughter, Constance . Baldwin II denied Alice control, instead resuming the regency until his death in 1131. On his deathbed Baldwin named Fulk, Melisende, and their infant son Baldwin   III joint heirs. Fulk intended to revoke the arrangement, but his favouritism toward his compatriots roused strong discontent in

48556-493: The ruling prince in the captured city of Antioch . The siege of Jerusalem in 1099 resulted in a decisive Crusader victory over the Fatimid Caliphate , after which territorial consolidation followed, including the taking of Tripoli . In 1144, Edessa fell to the Zengid Turks , but the other three realms endured until the final years of the 13th   century, when they fell to the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt . The Mamluks captured Antioch in 1268 and Tripoli in 1289 , leaving only

48800-410: The sake of continuing the crusade in peace and to calm his mutinous starving troops. At the beginning of 1099 the march was renewed, leaving Bohemond behind as the first Prince of Antioch , and in the spring the siege of Jerusalem began under the leadership of Raymond. The success at Antioch was too much for Peter Bartholomew's skeptics. Peter's visions were far too convenient and too martial, and he

49044-565: The siege after Raymond's death in 1105. It was completed in 1109 when Raymond's son Bertrand arrived. Baldwin brokered a deal, sharing the territory between them, until William Jordan's death united the county. Bertrand acknowledged Baldwin's suzerainty, although William Jordan had been Tancred's vassal. When Bohemond was released for a ransom in 1103, he compensated Tancred with lands and gifts. Baldwin of Bourcq and his cousin and vassal, Joscelin of Courtenay , were captured while attacking Ridwan of Aleppo at Harran with Bohemond. Tancred assumed

49288-415: The south, east, or west difficult, so the most practical access route for a large number of people was from the north across flatter ground. The city's defences dated from the reign of the Emperor Justinian I in the 6th century. Though Antioch changed hands twice between then and the arrival of the crusaders in 1097, each time it was the result of betrayal rather than inadequacy of the defences. After

49532-481: The statue was publicly displayed during a Temple demonstration on 16 August 2018. In Sartor Resartus (1833–34) by Thomas Carlyle , protagonist Diogenes Teufelsdröckh describes his spiritual rebirth as a "Baphometic Fire-baptism". Clive Barker 's novel Cabal (1988) and its film adaption, Nightbreed (1990), Baphomet is depicted as the god worshipped by the Night Breed creatures. An interpretation of Baphomet, referred to as The Sword of Baphomet, forms part of

49776-408: The succession. Back in Antioch, Bohemond kidnapped Ruben of Cilicia and forced him into becoming his vassal. Saladin signed a four-year truce with Jerusalem and attacked Mosul. He could not capture the city but extracted an oath of fealty from Mosul's Zengid ruler, Izz al-Din Mas'ud , in March 1186. A few months later, Baldwin   V died, and a power struggle began in Jerusalem. Raymond summoned

50020-454: The surrounding area of food, the crusaders were forced to look farther afield for supplies, opening themselves to ambush. On 31 December, a force of 20,000 crusaders encountered a relief army led by Duqaq , ruler of Damascus, heading to Antioch and defeated them. As the siege went on, supplies dwindled and in early 1098 one in seven of the crusaders was dying from starvation, and people began deserting. A second relief force, this time under

50264-454: The symbol of wisdom, unnatural voluptuousness and the principle of sensuality ... He asserts that those small figures are such as the Templars, according to the statement of a witness, carried with them in their coffers. Baphomet signifies Βαφη Μητεος , baptism of Metis, baptism of fire , or the Gnostic baptism , an enlightening of the mind , which, however, was interpreted by the Ophites, in an obscene sense, as fleshly union  ...

50508-418: The sympathies and cooperation of the minor knights and soldiers. Yaghi-Siyan had reconciled with Ridwan of Aleppo and the advancing army was under his command. In early February news reached the besiegers that Ridwan had taken nearby Harim where he was preparing to advance on Antioch. At Bohemond's suggestion, the crusaders sent all their cavalry (numbering about 700 knights) to meet the advancing army while

50752-401: The term Franks for the European incomers. However, relatively few of the incoming Europeans took a crusader oath. The Latin chronicles of the First Crusade, written in the early 11th century, called the Western Christians who came from Europe Franci irrespective of their ethnicity. Byzantine Greek sources use Φράγκοι Frangi and Arabic الإفرنجي al-Ifranji . Alternatively,

50996-426: The three phonemes that constitute the denomination are also said to signify, in coded fashion, Ba sileus philoso pho rum met aloricum : the sovereign ( basileus ) of metallurgical philosophers, that is, of the alchemical laboratories that were supposedly established in various chapters of the Temple. The androgynous nature of the figure apparently goes back to the Adam Kadmon of the Chaldeans , which one finds in

51240-415: The throne under their control. To thwart their coup, he sanctioned her marriage to Guy of Lusignan , a young aristocrat from Poitou . Guy's brother Aimery held the office of constable of Jerusalem , and their family had close links to the House of Plantagenet . Baldwin's mother and her clique marginalised Raymond, Bohemond and the influential Ibelin family . To prepare for a military campaign against

51484-444: The time the Genoese arrived. The crusaders were further bolstered by the arrival of Tancred , who set up camp to the west of his uncle, Bohemond. As the crusaders' food supply reached critical levels in December, Godfrey fell ill. On 28 December, Bohemond and Robert of Flanders took about 20,000 men and went foraging for food and plunder upstream of the Orontes. Knowing the crusaders' force had been divided, Yaghi-Siyan waited until

51728-491: The tribute that Damascus' former rulers had offered to the Jerusalemite kings. Baldwin extracted tribute from the Egyptians as well. Raynald lacked financial resources. He tortured the Latin Patriarch of Antioch , Aimery of Limoges , to appropriate his wealth and attacked the Byzantine's Cilician Armenians. When Emperor Manuel I Komnenos delayed the payment he had been promised, Raynald pillaged Byzantine Cyprus . Thierry, Count of Flanders , brought military strength from

51972-412: The two rulers' forces. At a leadership conference, including the widowed Melisende and her son Baldwin   III, they agreed to attack Damascus rather than attempt to recover distant Edessa. The attack on Damascus ended in a humiliating defeat and retreat. Scapegoating followed the unexpected failure, with many westerners blaming the Franks. Fewer crusaders came from Europe to fight for the Holy Land in

52216-421: The universal balance, the image of the soul elevated above matter, as the flame, whilst being tied to matter, shines above it. The beast's head expresses the horror of the sinner, whose materially acting, solely responsible part has to bear the punishment exclusively; the soul is insensitive according to its nature and can only suffer when it materializes. The rod standing instead of genitals symbolizes eternal life,

52460-414: The west, it improved conditions for agriculture. Higher agricultural yields led to population growth and the expansion of commerce, and to the development of prosperous new military and mercantile elites. In Catholic Europe, state and society were organised along feudal lines. Landed estates were customarily granted in fief —that is, in return for services that the grantee, or vassal , was to perform for

52704-403: The white moon of Chesed , the other pointing down to the black one of Geburah . This sign expresses the perfect harmony of mercy with justice. His one arm is female, the other male like the ones of the androgyne of Khunrath, the attributes of which we had to unite with those of our goat because he is one and the same symbol. The flame of intelligence shining between his horns is the magic light of

52948-457: The word "Baphomet" was created with knowledge of the Atbash substitution cipher, which substitutes the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet for the last, the second for the second last, and so on. "Baphomet" rendered in Hebrew is בפומת ‎ ( bpwmt ); interpreted using Atbash, it becomes שופיא ‎ ( šwpy‘ , "Shofya'"), which can be interpreted as the Greek word Sophia , meaning "wisdom". This theory appears as an important plot point in

53192-436: The word was cabalistically formed by writing backward tem. o. h. p. ab , an abbreviation of templi omnium hominum pacis abbas , "abbot, or father of the temple of peace of all men". His source is the "Abbé Constant", which is to say, Alphonse-Louis Constant, the real name of Eliphas Lévi. Hugh J. Schonfield (1901–1988), one of the scholars who worked on the Dead Sea Scrolls , argued in his book The Essene Odyssey that

53436-437: Was 13 and a leper . The accession of underage rulers led to disunity both in Jerusalem and in Muslim Syria. In Jerusalem, the seneschal Miles of Plancy took control, but unknown assailants murdered him on the streets of Acre. With the baronage's consent, Amalric's cousin, Raymond   III of Tripoli, assumed the regency for Baldwin   IV as bailli . He became the most powerful baron by marrying Eschiva of Bures ,

53680-451: Was a massive defeat for the Franks. Nearly all the major Frankish leaders were taken prisoner, but only Raynald and the armed monks of the military orders were executed. Raymond was among the few Frankish leaders who escaped captivity. He fell seriously ill after reaching Tripoli. Within months after Hattin, Saladin conquered almost the entire kingdom. The city of Jerusalem surrendered on 2   October 1187. There were no massacres following

53924-399: Was approaching and Bohemond used the situation to his advantage. He declared that he would leave unless he was allowed to keep Antioch for himself when it was captured. Knowing fully that Bohemond had designs on taking the city for himself, and that he had probably engineered Tatikios' departure in order to facilitate this, Godfrey and Raymond did not give in to his demands, but Bohemond gained

54168-525: Was brief and disastrous for the Seljuk empire. Duqaq deserted Kerbogha, as did Soqman and the Emir of Homs and this desertion reduced the great numerical advantage the Turkish army had over its Christian opponents. Soon the defeated Turkish troops were in panicked retreat. As Kerbogha fled, the citadel under command of Ahmed ibn Merwan finally surrendered, but only to Bohemond personally, rather than to Raymond; this seems to have been arranged beforehand without Raymond's knowledge. As expected, Bohemond claimed

54412-406: Was decentralised, polyglot, and multi-national. A junior Seljuk ruling a province as an appanage was titled malik , Arabic for king. Mamluk military commanders acting as tutors and guardians for young Seljuk princes held the position of atabeg ('father-commander'). If his ward held a province in appanage, the atabeg ruled it as regent for the underage malik . On occasion,

54656-474: Was deserting) told him defeat was imminent. In June 1098, Bohemond persuaded a renegade Armenian tower commander to let the crusaders into the city. They slaughtered the Muslim inhabitants and, by mistake, some local Christians. The crusade leaders decided to return Antioch to Alexios as they had sworn to at Constantinople, but when they learnt of Alexios' withdrawal, Bohemond claimed the city for himself. The other leaders agreed, apart from Raymond, who supported

54900-452: Was dispatched to the crusader left wing, which was not protected by the river, but Bohemond quickly formed a seventh division and beat them back. The Seljuks were inflicting many casualties, including Adhemar's standard-bearer, and Kerbogha set fire to the grass between his position and the crusaders, but this did not deter them: they had visions of three saints riding along with them: St. George , St. Mercurius , and St. Demetrius . The battle

55144-469: Was formed from the Greek words βαφη μητȢς , baphe metous , to mean Taufe der Weisheit , "Baptism of Wisdom". Nicolai "attached to it the idea of the image of the supreme God, in the state of quietude attributed to him by the Manichaean Gnostics", according to F. J. M. Raynouard, and "supposed that the Templars had a secret doctrine and initiations of several grades", which "the Saracens had communicated ... to them". He further connected

55388-422: Was granted the title sultan —'power' in Arabic —by the Abbasid Caliph . The caliphs kept their legitimacy and prestige, but the sultans held political power. Seljuk success was achieved by extreme violence. It brought disruptive nomadism to the sedentary society of the Levant, and set a pattern followed by other nomadic Turkic clans such as the Danishmendids and the Artuqids . The Great Seljuk Empire

55632-501: Was heading towards Duqaq's men. On 30 December news reached Duqaq while his army was at Shaizar that the crusaders were nearby. On the morning of 31 December Duqaq marched towards Bohemond and Robert's army and the two met at the village of Albara . Robert was the first to encounter Duqaq's men as he was marching ahead of Bohemond. Bohemond joined the battle and with Robert fought back Duqaq's army and inflicted heavy casualties. Though they fought off Duqaq's army, which retreated to Hama ,

55876-405: Was his heir. He married her to Fulk of Anjou , who had widespread western connections useful to the kingdom. After Fulk's arrival, Baldwin raised a large force for an attack on Damascus. This force included the leaders of the other crusader states, and a significant Angevin contingent provided by Fulk. The campaign was abandoned when the Franks' foraging parties were destroyed, and bad weather made

56120-450: Was killed in a conflict with the Great Seljuk Empire. Between 1092 and 1094, Nizam al-Mulk, the Sultan Malik-Shah , the Fatimid Caliph, Al-Mustansir Billah and the vizier Badr al-Jamali all died. Malik-Shah's brother Tutush and the atabegs of Aleppo and Edessa were killed in the succession conflict, and Suleiman's son Kilij Arslan I revived his father's Sultanate of Rum in Anatolia. The Egyptian succession resulted in

56364-405: Was largely urban and isolated from the indigenous Levantine peoples , having separate legal and religious systems. The ancient Jewish communities that had survived and remained in the holy cities of Jerusalem, Tiberias , Hebron , and Safed since the Jewish–Roman wars and the destruction of the Second Temple were heavily persecuted in a pattern of rampant Christian antisemitism accompanying

56608-428: Was more successful in his approaches to other nobles in the region and Duqaq of Damascus , Toghtekin , Kerbogha , the sultans of Baghdad and Persia, and the emir of Homs all agreed to send reinforcements. Meanwhile, back in Antioch Yaghi-Siyan began stockpiling supplies in anticipation of a siege. Knowing they had to capture Antioch, the crusaders considered how best to go about the task. Attrition suffered during

56852-414: Was no more said about the Holy Lance, although the Provencal contingent of Raymond maintained that Peter had passed safely through the flames but had been pushed back by the crowd welcoming him. Also, count Raymond kept the Lance with all reverence in his chapel. Outremer The Crusader states , or Outremer , were four Catholic polities that existed in the Levant from 1098 to 1291. Following

57096-426: Was not united either; the French kings only controlled a small central region directly. Counts and dukes ruled other regions, and some of them were remarkably wealthy and powerful—in particular, the dukes of Aquitaine and Normandy , and the counts of Anjou , Champagne , Flanders , and Toulouse . Western Christians and Muslims interacted mainly through warring or commerce. During the 8th and 9th centuries,

57340-475: Was openly accused of lying. Challenged, Peter offered to undergo ordeal by fire to prove that he was divinely guided. Being in Biblical lands, they chose a Biblical ordeal: Peter would pass through a fiery furnace and would be protected by an angel of God. The crusaders constructed a path between walls of flame; Peter would walk down the path between the flames. He did so, and was horribly burned. He died after suffering in agony for twelve days on 20 April 1099. There

57584-442: Was originally illustrated with horizontally spiraled horns (based on the Ancient Egyptian corkscrew-horned sheep , an extinct subspecies of the barbary sheep ), but his representation later evolved to feature the down-turned horns of Ammon in the New Kingdom (based on the extinct sheep subspecies Ovis platyra palaeoaegyptiacus ). E. A. Wallis Budge writes: At several places in the Delta, e.g. Hermopolis, Lycopolis, and Mendes,

57828-407: Was reached. Nevertheless, it taught the crusaders the value of diplomacy and they decided to send an embassy to Duqaq of Damascus asking for his neutrality, stating they had no ambitions on his territory. They were, however, rejected by Duqaq. The siege continued, and at the end of May 1098 a Turkish army from Mosul under the command of Kerbogha approached Antioch. This army was much larger than

58072-474: Was reporting what Bohemond wanted (rather than what St. Andrew wanted) as Bohemond knew, from spies in Kerbogha's camp, that the various factions frequently argued with each other. Kerbogha of Mosul was indeed suspected by most emirs to yearn for sovereignty in Syria and often considered as a bigger threat to their interests than the Christian invaders. On 27 June, Peter the Hermit was sent by Bohemond to negotiate with Kerbogha, but this proved futile and battle with

58316-409: Was sceptical of the Holy Lance as well, but there is no question that its discovery increased the morale of the crusaders. It has also been suggested that the item Peter found was indeed an object which the local population believed to be the Holy Lance as Greek Orthodox sources document the possession and veneration of a Holy Lance in Antioch as early as the tenth century. It is also possible that Peter

58560-450: Was situated on vital routes connecting the Euphrates and the Orontes valleys as well as Apamea , Aleppo and Antioch. A detachment of the crusade army led by Robert of Flanders was sent to take the city but discovered that the local Armenian population had ejected the Turkish garrison and welcomed Robert and his forces with supplies for men and horses. Yaghi-Siyan then sent a force to retake Artah but this force retreated upon arrival of

58804-429: Was the chief Shi'ite power in Islam. The root of this was beyond cultural and racial conflict but originated in the splits within Islam following Muhammad's death. Sunnis supported a caliphal succession that began with one of his associates, Abu Bakr , while Shi'ites supported an alternative succession from his cousin and son-in-law, Ali . Islamic law granted the status of dhimmi , or protected peoples, to

59048-405: Was the cousin of both Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and Louis   VII of France. In 1176, Baldwin reached the age of 15 and majority, ending Raymond's regency. He revisited plans for an invasion of Egypt and renewed his father's pact with the Byzantines. Manuel dispatched a fleet of 70 galleys plus support ships to Outremer. As William had died, and Baldwin's health was deteriorating,

59292-437: Was the last Byzantine fortification in Syria. Yaghi-Siyan was made Governor of Antioch in 1087 and held the position when the crusaders arrived in 1097. Yaghi-Siyan was aware of the approaching crusader army as it marched through Anatolia in 1097; the city stood between the crusaders and Palestine. Though under Turkish control, the majority of Antioch's inhabitants were Christians. Yaghi-Siyan had previously been tolerant of

59536-414: Was the sole Frankish ruler to pursue an offensive policy. He attacked an Egyptian caravan and built a fleet for a naval raid into the Red Sea . Byzantine influence declined after Manuel died in 1180. Bohemond repulsed his Byzantine wife Theodora and married Sybil, an Antiochene noblewoman with a bad reputation. Patriarch Aimery excommunicated him and the Antiochene nobles who opposed the marriage fled to

#754245