Templar of Tyre

: "This article is about the author of a medieval document written in the 1300s. For the Archbishop/historian from the 1100s, see William of Tyre"

The Templar of Tyre ("French:" Le Templier de Tyr) is the name of a medieval historian, and the document which he wrote in the 1300s. It is the third and largest section of the "Gestes des Chiprois". It is believed that the document was written by a knight on the island of Cyprus, around the time that the island was the base of operations for the three major military orders, the Knights Templar, the Teutonic Knights, and the Knights Hospitallers. The author of the document was probably an Arabic-speaking translator, a secretary and confidant of the Templar Master William of Beaujeu, though not a Templar himself.

The document provides a first-hand account of the personal experiences of the author, and gives valuable insight to an important period of the Crusades, documenting a period from the early 1230s until about 1314. It covers the final days of the Christian activities in the Holy Land, as they were fighting a losing battle against the Muslim Mamluks, and such important events as the Fall of Acre in 1291, and the dissolution of the Order of the Knights Templar in the early 1300s. Written in French, there is an English translation available.

References

* Malcolm Barber (2001). "The Trial of the Templars", 2nd edition, University Press, Cambridge. ISBN 978-0-521-67236-8.

* Templar of Tyre, Paul Crawford (2003). "Templar of Tyre: The Deeds of the Cypriots". ISBN 1840146184 (English translation)

External links

* [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/GuillaumeTyr5.html Gestes des Chiprois] , at the Medieval Sourcebook