Toron
Encyclopedia
Tebnine
Tebnine is a Mediterranean village spread across several hills located about east of Tyre , in the heart of what is known as "Jabal Amel" or the mountain of "Amel". "Jabal Amel" designates the plateau situated between the western mountain range of Lebanon and the Galilee...
or Tebnine
Tebnine
Tebnine is a Mediterranean village spread across several hills located about east of Tyre , in the heart of what is known as "Jabal Amel" or the mountain of "Amel". "Jabal Amel" designates the plateau situated between the western mountain range of Lebanon and the Galilee...
in southern Lebanon
Southern Lebanon
Southern Lebanon is the geographical area of Lebanon comprising the South Governorate and the Nabatiye Governorate. These two entities were divided from the same province in the early 1990s...
, was a major Crusader castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
, built in the Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
mountains on the road from Tyre to Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
.
It was the centre of the Lordship of Toron, a seigneury within the Kingdom of Jerusalem
Kingdom of Jerusalem
The Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Catholic kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 after the First Crusade. The kingdom lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291 when the last remaining possession, Acre, was destroyed by the Mamluks, but its history is divided into two distinct periods....
, actually a rear-vassalage
Vavasour
A vavasour, is a term in Feudal law. A vavasour was the vassal or tenant of a baron, one who held their tenancy under a baron, and who also had tenants under him...
of the Principality of Galilee
Principality of Galilee
The Principality of Galilee was one of the four major seigneuries of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, according to 13th-century commentator John of Ibelin. The direct holdings of the principality were around Tiberias, in Galilee proper, but with all its vassals, the lordship covered all Galilee...
. The castle was built by Hugh of Falkenberg, second prince of Galilee, in 1105 to help capture Tyre. After Hugh's death it was made an independent seigneury, given to Humphrey I
Humphrey I of Toron
Humphrey I of Toron , a Norman, appears initially in 1115 as a vassal of Josselin de Courtenay, prince of Tiberias; the castle at Toron having been built in the years after 1105, he most likely was its lord from that date, having taken part in the First Crusade.He was the father of Humphrey II of...
before 1109.
After Humphrey I of Toron
Humphrey I of Toron
Humphrey I of Toron , a Norman, appears initially in 1115 as a vassal of Josselin de Courtenay, prince of Tiberias; the castle at Toron having been built in the years after 1105, he most likely was its lord from that date, having taken part in the First Crusade.He was the father of Humphrey II of...
, the castle and lordship of Toron successively passed to his descendants Humphrey II
Humphrey II of Toron
Humphrey II of Toron was lord of Toron and constable of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.Humphrey had become lord of Toron sometime before 1140, when he married the daughter of Renier Brus, lord of Banias . Through this marriage Banias was added to Toron...
and Humphrey IV
Humphrey IV of Toron
Humphrey IV of Toron was the lord of Toron, Kerak, and Oultrejordain in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.-Biography:...
. Banias, which had been given to Baldwin II
Baldwin II of Jerusalem
Baldwin II of Jerusalem , formerly Baldwin II of Edessa, also called Baldwin of Bourcq, born Baldwin of Rethel was the second count of Edessa from 1100 to 1118, and the third king of Jerusalem from 1118 until his death.-Ancestry:Baldwin was the son of Hugh, count of Rethel, and his wife Melisende,...
by the Assassins
Hashshashin
The Assassins were an order of Nizari Ismailis, particularly those of Persia that existed from around 1092 to 1265...
in 1128, was inherited by Toron around 1148 when Humphrey II
Humphrey II of Toron
Humphrey II of Toron was lord of Toron and constable of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.Humphrey had become lord of Toron sometime before 1140, when he married the daughter of Renier Brus, lord of Banias . Through this marriage Banias was added to Toron...
married the daughter of Renier Brus, lord of Banias and Assebebe. Humphrey II sold parts of Banias and Chastel Neuf to the Knights Hospitaller
Knights Hospitaller
The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta , also known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta , Order of Malta or Knights of Malta, is a Roman Catholic lay religious order, traditionally of military, chivalrous, noble nature. It is the world's...
in 1157. Banias was merged with Toron until it fell to Nur ad-Din Zangi on 18 November 1164, and when it was recovered it became part of the Seigneury of Joscelin III of Edessa (see below).
Humphrey IV was also prince of Oultrejourdain. Toron remained in Crusader possession until 1187 when it fell to the forces of Saladin
Saladin
Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb , better known in the Western world as Saladin, was an Arabized Kurdish Muslim, who became the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, and founded the Ayyubid dynasty. He led Muslim and Arab opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant...
after the Battle of Hattin
Battle of Hattin
The Battle of Hattin took place on Saturday, July 4, 1187, between the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and the forces of the Ayyubid dynasty....
when Saladin all but destroyed the Crusader states
Crusader states
The Crusader states were a number of mostly 12th- and 13th-century feudal states created by Western European crusaders in Asia Minor, Greece and the Holy Land , and during the Northern Crusades in the eastern Baltic area...
. Ten years later, in November, 1197, Toron was besieged by the German contingent of the Third Crusade
Third Crusade
The Third Crusade , also known as the Kings' Crusade, was an attempt by European leaders to reconquer the Holy Land from Saladin...
and would have fallen; but the Muslim garrison by the Tribesman of El-Seid and Fawza held out until relief arrived from Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
.
In 1219 Sultan al-Mu'azzam
Al-Mu'azzam
Al-Mu'azzam 'Isa Sharaf ad-Din was an Ayyubid Sultan who ruled Damascus from 1218 to 1227. The son of Sultan Al-Adil I and nephew of Saladin, founder of the dynasty, Al-Mu'azzam was installed by his father as governor of Damascus in 1201. After his father's death in 1218, Al-Mu'azzam ruled the...
secretly had the defenses of Toron as well as those of Jerusalem and the castles of Safed
Safed
Safed , is a city in the Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and of Israel. Due to its high elevation, Safed experiences warm summers and cold, often snowy, winters...
and Banyas dismantled. This was done because the Sultan foresaw the necessity of exchanging them for the more crucial defenses at Damietta
Damietta
Damietta , also known as Damiata, or Domyat, is a port and the capital of the Damietta Governorate in Egypt. It is located at the intersection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Nile, about north of Cairo.-History:...
on the Nile Delta
Nile Delta
The Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline—and is a rich...
, which had been captured by the forces of the Fifth Crusade
Fifth Crusade
The Fifth Crusade was an attempt to reacquire Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land by first conquering the powerful Ayyubid state in Egypt....
who were now threatening Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
. Additionally, al-Mu'azzam was not prepared to give strong defendable cities to the Crusaders if he could avoid it. Although the exchange proved unnecessary, the geographical position of the sites remained important for the Crusaders who were interested in recovering Jerusalem from Muslim control.
Indeed, despite their destruction, Toron, Safed and Banyas were recovered through treaty in 1229, just two years after al-Mu'azzam's death on November 11, 1227, by Frederick II
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick II , was one of the most powerful Holy Roman Emperors of the Middle Ages and head of the House of Hohenstaufen. His political and cultural ambitions, based in Sicily and stretching through Italy to Germany, and even to Jerusalem, were enormous...
from Sultan al-Kamil
Al-Kamil
Al-Kamil was a Kurdish Ayyubid sultan who ruled North Africa. During his tenure as sultan, the Ayyubids defeated two crusades. In a temporary agreement with the Crusaders, he ceded Jerusalem to the Christians.-Biography:He was the son of sultan al-Adil, a brother of Saladin...
. As Toron was sold in 1220 to the Teutonic Knights
Teutonic Knights
The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem , commonly the Teutonic Order , is a German medieval military order, in modern times a purely religious Catholic order...
together with the territories called the Seigneury de Joscelin, it came to a dispute between them and Alice of Armenia
Alice of Armenia
Alice of Armenia was the eldest daughter of Ruben III, Prince of Armenia and his wife Isabella of Toron. She was heiress of Toron as well as a claimant to the throne of Armenia...
, the niece of Humphrey IV and heiress of the lordship of Toron. Alice successfully claimed her rights before the High Court and Frederick II assigned the lordship to her. In 1239, when the treaty ended, Toron fell back to the Ayyubids. Two years later, in 1241, it was restored to the Crusaders due to a treaty between Richard of Cornwall and Sultan as-Salih from Egypt.
In 1244, the castles held out against the Khwarezmian army and accomplished their objective of disrupting the Muslim attack on Jerusalem. Nonetheless, Jerusalem eventually fell to the overwhelming number of the Khwarezmian and the primary mission of the castles became obsolete. However, Toron tenuously remained in Crusader hands and was periodically under siege by the Mamluks until the jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
of Baibars
Baibars
Baibars or Baybars , nicknamed Abu l-Futuh , was a Mamluk Sultan of Egypt. He was one of the commanders of the forces which inflicted a devastating defeat on the Seventh Crusade of King Louis IX of France and he led the vanguard of the Egyptian army at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, which marked...
further isolated it. Following a brief siege, Baibars in a rare display of mercy allowed the small crusader contingent to evacuate in exchange for surrender which they accepted.
The lords of Toron tended to be very influential in the kingdom; Humphrey II was constable of Jerusalem. Humphrey IV was married to Isabella
Isabella of Jerusalem
Isabella I was Queen regnant of Jerusalem from 1190/1192 until her death. By her four marriages, she was successively Lady of Toron, Marchioness of Montferrat, Countess of Champagne and Queen of Cyprus....
, King Amalric I
Amalric I of Jerusalem
Amalric I of Jerusalem was King of Jerusalem 1163–1174, and Count of Jaffa and Ascalon before his accession. Amalric was the second son of Melisende of Jerusalem and Fulk of Jerusalem...
's daughter (Toron passed into the royal domain during their marriage but its title was returned to Humphrey IV after their divorce). It was also one of the few to have a straight hereditary succession in the male line, at least for a few generations. The lords of Toron were also connected to the Lordship of Oultrejourdain by the marriage of Humphrey III and the maternal inheritance of Humphrey IV. Toron was later merged with the royal domain of Tyre, which went to a branch of Antioch, then their heirs from Montfort.
Lords of Toron
- Hugh of Falkenberg (1105–1107)
- Humphrey I of ToronHumphrey I of ToronHumphrey I of Toron , a Norman, appears initially in 1115 as a vassal of Josselin de Courtenay, prince of Tiberias; the castle at Toron having been built in the years after 1105, he most likely was its lord from that date, having taken part in the First Crusade.He was the father of Humphrey II of...
(before 1109–after 1136) - Humphrey II of ToronHumphrey II of ToronHumphrey II of Toron was lord of Toron and constable of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.Humphrey had become lord of Toron sometime before 1140, when he married the daughter of Renier Brus, lord of Banias . Through this marriage Banias was added to Toron...
(before 1137–1179)- (Humphrey III predeceased his father)
- Humphrey IV of ToronHumphrey IV of ToronHumphrey IV of Toron was the lord of Toron, Kerak, and Oultrejordain in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.-Biography:...
(1179–1183) - Royal domain (1183–1187)
- Humphrey IV (restored) (1190 – c. 1192)
- occupied by Muslims until 1229 and the title not used
- Alice of ArmeniaAlice of ArmeniaAlice of Armenia was the eldest daughter of Ruben III, Prince of Armenia and his wife Isabella of Toron. She was heiress of Toron as well as a claimant to the throne of Armenia...
(1229– after 1236), granddaughter of Humphrey III - Maria of Antioch-ArmeniaMaria of Antioch-ArmeniaMaria of Antioch-Armenia was lady of Toron from 1229 to her death. She was the elder daughter of Raymond-Roupen, prince of Antioch, and of Helvis of Lusignan...
(after 1236–1239), granddaughter of Alice and great-granddaughter of Isabella, daughter of Humphrey III.- occupied by Muslims from 1239 until 1241
- (Philip of MontfortPhilip of Montfort, Lord of TyrePhilip of Montfort, was Lord of La Ferté-Alais and Castres-en-Albigeois 1228–1270, Lord of Tyre 1246–1270, and Lord of Toron aft. 1240–1270...
) (1241– before 1257) - John of Montfort (before 1257–1283), Lord of Tyre. It was lost again in 1266
- Humphrey of MontfortHumphrey of Montfort (died 1284)Humphrey of Montfort was a nobleman of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.Humphrey was the second son of Philip of Montfort, Lord of Tyre by his second wife Maria of Antioch-Armenia, Lady of Toron....
(1283–1284), Lord of Beirut, Lord of Tyre - Amaury of Montfort (1284–1304)
- Rupen of MontfortRupen of MontfortRupen of Montfort was a Cypriot nobleman, the second surviving son of Humphrey of Montfort and Eschive d'Ibelin.In 1299, Rupen married Marie d'Ibelin , daughter of Balian of Ibelin, Seneschal of Cyprus...
(1304–1313), Lord of Beirut - Humphrey of Montfort (d. 1326), constable of Cyprus, titular lord of Beirut
- Eschiva of Montfort (d. bef 1350), wife of Peter I of CyprusPeter I of CyprusPeter I of Cyprus or Pierre I de Lusignan was King of Cyprus, and Titular King of Jerusalem from his father's abdication on 24 November 1358 until his own death in 1369. He was also Latin King of Armenia from either 1361 or 1368...
titular lord of Beirut
Toron had two vassals of its own, the Lordship of Chastel Neuf and the Lordship of Maron. Chastel Neuf was built by Hugh of Falkenberg around 1105 but was later given to the Hospitallers, until it fell to Nur ad-Din in 1167. Maron was given in 1229 to the Teutonic Knights
Teutonic Knights
The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem , commonly the Teutonic Order , is a German medieval military order, in modern times a purely religious Catholic order...
in exchange for their claims on Toron.
The Castle
The castle of Toron occupies a steep hill, in fact a Bronze Age tellTell
A tell or tel, is a type of archaeological mound created by human occupation and abandonment of a geographical site over many centuries. A classic tell looks like a low, truncated cone with a flat top and sloping sides.-Archaeology:A tell is a hill created by different civilizations living and...
, north to the village of Tibnin, at a height of 725 m above sea level. It is oval in shape with its outline following the contours of the tell. It once had twelve rectangular towers with one of them - to the south - having been the donjon. The castle, razed in 1266 by the Mamluks was rebuilt 500 years later in the mid-18th century by a local Shiite sheik during his struggle against the Ottoman rule. He used the ruins of the medieval walls as a basis for his rebuilding campaign and thus the castle today mainly appears as an Ottoman construction.