Being Franciscans in Mamluk Jerusalem: Three Years in the Life of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land (1436-1438)
Fiche du document
7 avril 2025
- ISIDORE Id: 10670/1.181db5...
- isbn: 978‑1‑032‑45496‑2
- hal: hal-05051706
- doi: 10.4324/9781003377245-8
Ce document est lié à :
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.4324/9781003377245-8
Ce document est lié à :
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement//101124193 /EU/Entangled Christianities in Jerusalem and the Middle East: A cross-cultural bottom-up approach (12th-16th centuries)/ChrIs-cross
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/ , info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess
Mots-clés
Mamluk Sultanate Jerusalem Christianities Franciscan Order Christian-Muslim relations Urban HistorySujets proches
Holy LandCiter ce document
Camille Rouxpetel, « Being Franciscans in Mamluk Jerusalem: Three Years in the Life of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land (1436-1438) », HAL SHS (Sciences de l’Homme et de la Société), ID : 10.4324/9781003377245-8
Métriques
Partage / Export
Résumé
Between 1435 and 1437, while Pope Eugene IV was engaged in diplomatic negotiations with the Byzantine Empire in preparation for the Union of Ferrara-Florence (1438-1439), he dispatched the Franciscan Albert of Sarteano, a close relative of Bernardino of Siena, to Jerusalem with the objective of promoting the Observant reform, establishing contacts with Eastern Christianities, and supporting the Franciscan presence in the Holy Land through the dissemination of his letters. However, no evidence of Sarteano’s mission can be found in the archives of the Franciscan Holy Land Custody. In lieu of this there is a hujja, a legal document issued from the qāḍī’s court. The document records the Franciscan custodian’s endeavors to obtain authorization for the restoration of the Mount Sion convent, which was in danger of falling into ruin. This raises questions about the role of the Custody, notably in the internal conflict within the Franciscan order between Observants and Conventuals, as well as in the universal claims of the Papacy. Additionally, however, it illustrates that the concerns of the friars of Mount Sion were distinct from the preoccupations of Franciscans in the Latin West and instead directed towards the Bilād al-Shām (literally ‘the left-hand-region’ i.e., Greater Syria, spanning current Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and Palestine) and the Mamluk authorities who established the conditions for their presence in the Holy Places, with Jerusalem and its shrines being of paramount importance. Thus, this episode and the three years it occupies provide evidence of the reverberations of internal debates within the order on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea, as well as the day-to-day lives of the Franciscans, who were fully engaged in Middle Eastern society. Finally, Sarteano’s letters as well as the hujja demonstrate the significance of Jerusalem to Westerners, the Pope, and the Franciscan order, as well as to those who lived there on a daily basis under Mamluk sovereignty.
