Seigneurie de Sidon, a 13th century fief of the Kingdom of Jerusalem

[seth77]

This is an anonymous issue minted during the lordship of Balian Grenier as Lord of Sidon (1202/4-1241) Constable of Tyre (1229-1231) and Bailie of the Kingdom of Jerusalem (1229-1240/1)

13x12mm, 0.31g silver denier, minted in the City of Sidon, cca. 1230s.

+ · D · Є · N · I · Є · R · ; cross pattee
+ · D · Є · S · Є · Є · T · Є · ; the domed Cathedral of Sidon
 Malloy 4, Schlumberger V 8, Metcalf 213.

 

Balian was one of the leading local barons in the Kingdom of Jerusalem and a vassal and ally of Emperor Frederick II after he seized the throne of Jerusalem in 1225.

During his reign, the inlands of Seigneurie de Sidon were reconquered after they had been lost to Saladin in 1187/8. He took part as one of the representatives of the local barons in the Fifth and Sixth Crusade and fought alongside Thibaut "le Chansonnier" de Champagne, Henry II de Bar, Amaury VI de Montfort and Hugo of Burgundy during the Barons Crusade in 1239. He was one of the few knights to escape the Battle of Gaza during the later part of Thibaut's Crusade.

Balian received as a result of his participation in the Crusade not only the old lands of the Grenier Lordship but lands in Galilee and the Golan Heights, enlarging his domains and stature as a leading baron of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem.

The 13th century marks the extended independence of the local barons alongside the development of a local baronial coinage, similar to the European feudal/baronial coinages of the time. The silver petit deniers of Sidon minted under the rule of Balian (and/or under his bailie or under his heir Julian) are usually of good quality silver and their function might have been to replace (at least locally) the royal immobilized coinage which had been in use from around 1200 to around 1230. The similitude between the coinages -- the domed building and the rather small and light module seem to point in this direction.

The royal Jerusalem coinage of Acre and/or Tyre, revived as an immobilized type under Aimery de Lusignan around 1197/1200.

The legends are particularly interesting as the obverse legend states the denomination of the coinage, marking it as a denier rather than an obole, like its dimensions might have implied. The dating period is suggested by the presence of such coins in the al-Mina and Djebail hoards but it is likely that they circulated at least well into the early 1250s, which would make sense also on account of their fineness.

Jean de Joinville mentions "deniers (de) Madame de Saiete" (deniers of Madame Marguerite de Sidon-Beaufort) in his description of a donative that King Louis IX of France and his knights made around 1251, while in Sidon. The deniers mentioned by Joinville are very likely these coins, remembered by the chronicler for their legend: denier de Seete (denier of Sidon).

This is a rare specimen, and very important historically, especially if it was used as a replacement for the old immobilized Holy Sepulchre type of Acre or Tyre.

(Both coins come from the same British collection, dispatched by Timeline Auctions in 2019)

 

Edited October 21, 2023 by seth77

[JeandAcre]

Your typical brilliant and admirably concise explication, @seth77.  Hats off!  And yes, the way you seamlessly integrate the numismatic dimension with its historical context is always terrific.

Once I get an honest minute, I might post some coins of these participants in the Barons' Crusade, and one or two others, one by way of an anonymous, contemporary immobilizaton.  (Pierre de Dreux /'Mauclerc,' former Duke of Brittany --who actually staged a successful chevauchee /cattle raid, netting the crusading army some much needed victuals.  By this time, Pierre's son had reached his majority, and had been ruling the duchy for a couple of years.  Deniers in his name feature the arms of Dreux --a relatively early example of heraldry on coins.)

But for now, just a couple of other cool things.  For the 'Crusader States,' the first half of the 13th century has to be my favorite period.  As you note, far from involving a continuous decline following Saladin's reconquest of Jerusalem, the trajectory is far more richly textured, nuanced, and complex.  The Franks continued to make discrete, but very significant territorial gains.  Thanks again for the details on that, with the focus on this that you can get from this specific a context. 

But I have to yammer some more, on a broader level.  I can't doubt that you, @seth77, will be well acquainted with all of this.  Forging ahead: during this interval, relations between various Frankish polities and their mostly Ayyubid neighbors involved alliances as well as sustained trade.  This is a relatively late, but resonant instance of the same sort of armed but no less substantive coexistence that you can see across the European Mediterranean during the 11th and 12th centuries.  Just from Iberia to Norman Sicily and southern Italy ...thank you, to the Frankish Levant.  Each context demonstrates a medieval equivalent of something between, and even above, what we more commonly know as 'appropriation,' on one hand, and 'assimilation' on the other.  People were just engaged with their neighbors.  On a level that people who spend their spare time plugged into their electro-neural implant of choice may never fully apprehend.  Right, you can argue that, prior to the invention of racism in its modern, quasi-scientific ideological form, thanks to the European convergence of colonialism with the first, duly abused glimmers of the Scientific Revolution, these folks in the 12th and 13th centuries had access to more options than we do, rather than less.  It's easy to imagine that, while assimilation was never total, appropriation never took place without a substantial degree of cultural respect.

Without citing either, I need to mention Lower's book on the Barons' Crusade, which is on the same level as Perry's biography of Balian's slightly older contemporary, (sic:) John of Brienne.  They're both detailed, but remarkably concise academic studies, from the last couple of decades.  In, thank you, English, just in case you need that as much as I do.

...Meanwhile, though, Balian was a maternal descendant and heir of the Ibelins,who are candidates for having been the most powerful seigneurial family within the borders of Jerusalem /Acre from the mid-12th century well into the 13th.  Before siding with Frederick II, Balian had supported Jean de Brienne, who succeded to Jerusalem /Acre by marriage.  Once Frederick effectively usurped the throne, Balian readily reversed his loyalties. 

This evokes the mere pragmatism which was common among the the Franks who had actually been in the neighborhood for a long enough generational interval. ...Often enough, even from the 12th century, the more literal crusaders already struck them, as well as their Islamic neighbors, as unlettered, correspondingly volatile hillbillies.  Writing in later 12th c. CE, the Syrian prince and diplomat, Usama Ibn Munquidh, had this to say ...among other things:

"It is always those who have recently come to live in Frankish territory who show themselves more inhuman than their predecessors who have been established amongst us and become familiarized with [Musims]."  (Allen and Amt, eds.  The Crusades: A Reader.  2003.  P. 113.)  ...Please bear in mind that, even with the harshness of the rhetoric, this was being said seven centuries ago.  Back then, the rules --both of engagement, and over broader cultural levels-- really were different. 

Right, my denier of Balian.  @seth77, your observations on the significance of the denomination being explicitly given in the legend is very enlightening.  All I knew was that this was decidedly anomolous for coins of the 13th century.  Which, from here, was fun enough.  Apart from that, this remains my only segneureal (--edit: oops, that was embarrassing; please read:) seigneurial example.  It's easy to imagine that, once Frederick II had succeeded to the throne, the local baronage were effectively, if somewhat passively 'kingmakers;' necessary to sustain his rule, even after the fact.  ...Anyway, it was Serious Fun to get this, with the convergence of chronology, reign, and legends and motifs.

The other thing that I really need about the ostensible reverse motif involves Malloy's observation that it depicts a "three-storied edifice with arcade and cupola (the converted mosque made into the cathedral of Sidon)."  (As noted in the OP; p. 156, #4.)  

Malloy cites nothing for the original mosque, or for Sidon even subsequently having had a cathedral.  But the dome is that distinct from the issues of Amaury I, immobized into the earlier 13th century, as @seth77 observes.  In this context, the depictions of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre consistently lack this feature.  Since getting this example, It always looked (more broadly than Malloy's characterization) like a mosque, 'retrofitted' to being a church.  Looking online for the original mosque, I could never find more than that there was one here, dating to the first half of the 13th c. CE.  Any further detalis conspicuous by their absence.)

Edited October 22, 2023 by JeandAcre
How many times would you like to say, "Typo"?

[seth77]

14 hours ago, JeandAcre said:

Your typical brilliant and admirably concise explication, @seth77.  Hats off!  And yes, the way you seamlessly integrate the numismatic dimension with its historical context is always terrific.

Once I get an honest minute, I might post some coins of these participants in the Barons' Crusade, and one or two others, one by way of an anonymous, contemporary immobilizaton.  (Pierre de Dreux /'Mauclerc,' former Duke of Brittany --who actually staged a successful chevauchee /cattle raid, netting the crusading army some much needed victuals.  By this time, Pierre's son had reached his majority, and had been ruling the duchy for a couple of years.  Deniers in his name feature the arms of Dreux --a relatively early example of heraldry on coins.)

But for now, just a couple of other cool things.  For the 'Crusader States,' the first half of the 13th century has to be my favorite period.  As you note, far from involving a continuous decline following Saladin's reconquest of Jerusalem, the trajectory is far more richly textured, nuanced, and complex.  The Franks continued to make discrete, but very significant territorial gains.  Thanks again for the details on that, with the focus on this that you can get from this specific a context. 

But I have to yammer some more, on a broader level.  I can't doubt that you, @seth77, will be well acquainted with all of this.  Forging ahead: during this interval, relations between various Frankish polities and their mostly Ayyubid neighbors involved alliances as well as sustained trade.  This is a relatively late, but resonant instance of the same sort of armed but no less substantive coexistence that you can see across the European Mediterranean during the 11th and 12th centuries.  Just from Iberia to Norman Sicily and southern Italy ...thank you, to the Frankish Levant.  Each context demonstrates a medieval equivalent of something between, and even above, what we more commonly know as 'appropriation,' on one hand, and 'assimilation' on the other.  People were just engaged with their neighbors.  On a level that people who spend their spare time plugged into their electro-neural implant of choice may never fully apprehend.  Right, you can argue that, prior to the invention of racism in its modern, quasi-scientific ideological form, thanks to the European convergence of colonialism with the first, duly abused glimmers of the Scientific Revolution, these folks in the 12th and 13th centuries had access to more options than we do, rather than less.  It's easy to imagine that, while assimilation was never total, appropriation never took place without a substantial degree of cultural respect.

Without citing either, I need to mention Lower's book on the Barons' Crusade, which is on the same level as Perry's biography of Balian's slightly older contemporary, (sic:) John of Brienne.  They're both detailed, but remarkably concise academic studies, from the last couple of decades.  In, thank you, English, just in case you need that as much as I do.

...Meanwhile, though, Balian was a maternal descendant and heir of the Ibelins,who are candidates for having been the most powerful seigneurial family within the borders of Jerusalem /Acre from the mid-12th century well into the 13th.  Before siding with Frederick II, Balian had supported Jean de Brienne, who succeded to Jerusalem /Acre by marriage.  Once Frederick effectively usurped the throne, Balian readily reversed his loyalties. 

This evokes the mere pragmatism which was common among the the Franks who had actually been in the neighborhood for a long enough generational interval. ...Often enough, even from the 12th century, the more literal crusaders already struck them, as well as their Islamic neighbors, as unlettered, correspondingly volatile hillbillies.  Writing in later 12th c. CE, the Syrian prince and diplomat, Usama Ibn Munquidh, had this to say ...among other things:

"It is always those who have recently come to live in Frankish territory who show themselves more inhuman than their predecessors who have been established amongst us and become familiarized with [Musims]."  (Allen and Amt, eds.  The Crusades: A Reader.  2003.  P. 113.)  ...Please bear in mind that, even with the harshness of the rhetoric, this was being said seven centuries ago.  Back then, the rules --both of engagement, and over broader cultural levels-- really were different. 

Right, my denier of Balian.  @seth77, your observations on the significance of the denomination being explicitly given in the legend is very enlightening.  All I knew was that this was decidedly anomolous for coins of the 13th century.  Which, from here, was fun enough.  Apart from that, this remains my only segneureal example.  It's easy to imagine that, once Frederick II had succeeded to the throne, the local baronage were effectively, if somewhat passively 'kingmakers;' necessary to sustain his rule, even after the fact.  ...Anyway, it was Serious Fun to get this, with the convergence of chronology, reign, and legends and motifs.

The other thing that I really need about the ostensible reverse motif involves Malloy's observation that it depicts a "three-storied edifice with arcade and cupola (the converted mosque made into the cathedral of Sidon)."  (As noted in the OP; p. 156, #4.)  

Malloy cites nothing for the original mosque, or for Sidon even subsequently having had a cathedral.  But the dome is that distinct from the issues of Amaury I, immobized into the earlier 13th century, as @seth77 observes.  In this context, the depictions of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre consistently lack this feature.  Since getting this example, It always looked (more broadly than Malloy's characterization) like a mosque, 'retrofitted' to being a church.  Looking online for the original mosque, I could never find more than that there was one here, dating to the first half of the 13th c. CE.  Any further detalis conspicuous by their absence.)

An extraordinary specimen.

[JeandAcre]

Many thanks, @seth77.  From you, that is high praise indeed.  Here's the auction page.  https://www.biddr.com/auctions/elsen/browsa=2802&l=3115296  It was from the same auction that netted me my third and easily best 'DAMIATA' denier of Jean de Brienne, which I've reposted an embarrassing number of times.

To everyone else, Don't Miss @Ocatarinetabellatchitchix's interview:  

You're not only a numismatic scholar of the highest order; you also just happen to be a polymath!  If I hadn't been on my way out the door for work, I'd've said the same in the thread.