Collapse (?) of the Tomb of the Patriarchs

AD 1113 Jul 18 Jerusalem

In Jerusalem and the surrounding area an earthquake was felt, perhaps quite strongly, since it was feared that buildings would collapse.

Fulcher of Chartres witnessed two earthquakes in Jerusalem, the first on the 15th day before the Kalends of August 1113 = 18 July, and a second on the fifth day before the Ides of August in the same year (9 August). At this time the combined Muslim forces had reached the outskirts of Jerusalem and invasion seemed imminent to the Christians (Fulch. 50/208). Traditionally in Mediterranean cultures earthquakes have been a bad omen for an invader, so Fulcher may have included this as a portent of the Muslims’ withdrawal two months later; note that most Christian chroniclers of the crusades were clerics.

The Estoire de Jerusalem et d’Antioche also mentions two earthquakes during the period while the Christians of Jerusalem were expecting a Muslim invasion in 1113. It places the first at midnight and the second at the third hour (uns a mie nuit, l’autre ` a tierce) ` , which probably means 9 am, when the Office of Terce would have been recited. No date is given, however.

The Historia Hierosolymitana places these two earthquakes at the same time and in the same context as the above two sources, adding the important details that ‘the people were consumed with fear, frightened lest buildings collapsed’, which suggests that the earthquake was strongly felt.

Sicard, Bishop of Cremona (died 1215), records an earthquake in the Kingdom of Jerusalem (in Hierosolymitano regno) in 1113. This may indicate that the earthquake was felt over a wider area than the city of Jerusalem itself, where Fulcher and other writers witnessed it, most of them being chaplains to leading crusaders. Such a mild earthquake is unlikely to have been felt throughout the whole kingdom, which stretched from Elim in the south to Galilee in the north; so, if Sicard is just using ‘Kingdom of Jerusalem’ as a commonplace, this earthquake may have been felt for a radius of a few miles around Jerusalem.

Notes

References

Ambraseys, N. N. (2009). Earthquakes in the Mediterranean and Middle East: a multidisciplinary study of seismicity up to 1900.

AD 1114 Apr–May Jerusalem

A series of earthquake shocks over two months shook at least part of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which had already had its crops destroyed by a plague of locusts. There may have been foreshocks and aftershocks.

This event is mentioned only in the Historia Hierosolymitana, being placed in April and May of 1114, after a swarm of locusts. Since it is not mentioned by Fulcher, whose chronicle covers the period up to 1127, it is unlikely that it affected Jerusalem. Rather, there was probably a series of local earthquakes, perhaps in the north of the kingdom around Lake Galilee.

Notes

References

Ambraseys, N. N. (2009). Earthquakes in the Mediterranean and Middle East: a multidisciplinary study of seismicity up to 1900.

AD 1117 Jun 26 Jerusalem

An earthquake occurred, probably in the region of Jerusalem. It may have caused structural damage.

The principal source for this event is Fulcher, who places it in 1117 on the sixth day before the Kalends of July (26 June; Fink actually gives ‘on the sixth day before the Kalends of June’, which is probably an accidental error), shortly after an eclipse. Fulcher regards the earthquake as something of a portent, especially insofar as the eclipse which preceded it did not occur on the expected date (Fulch. Gest. Franc. LXI/219 and n. 1).

The Historia Hierosolymitana of about 1122 also records an earthquake on the same date, following a plague of locusts; it notes that ‘the Buildings were shaken to ruins’.

Abu’l-Faraj (writing in the thirteenth century) notes the deaths of ‘thirteen kings’ during (5 May 1117 to 23 April 1118) a.H. 511 and a.S. 1429 (September 1117 to September 1118), including that of the Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus (died 15 August 1118, Grumel 1958, 358). Before these deaths, he says, an earthquake occurred. Of course, it is not certain that Abu’lFaraj is referring to the same event as Fulcher; he could be alluding to the Constantinople earthquake of 1118 although Fulcher’s earthquake occurred closer to Abu’lFaraj’s main area of interest, which was Syria. See also Alexandre (1990, 147–154).

Guidoboni and Comastri (2005, 129–130), on the basis of a garbled Armenian colophon, split this earthquake into one earthquake in Jerusalem and another in the district of Vaspurakan in Armenia.

Notes

References

Ambraseys, N. N. (2009). Earthquakes in the Mediterranean and Middle East: a multidisciplinary study of seismicity up to 1900.

AD 1118 Constantinople

An earthquake was felt in Constantinople, apparently rattling the roof-tiles of one house. However, it is not reported as having caused general concerny.

This event is recorded by Anna Comnena (born 1083, died after 1148) as a sign of the wickedness of the Bogomil monk Basil. She mentions that the roof-tiles of his house rattled, but says nothing about wider effects in the city. This was probably, therefore, one of Constantinople’s frequently occurring minor tremors.

The date is slightly problematic. The date reference (Ann. Comn. XV. viii. 1/496) prior to this passage is unfortunately in a lacuna, but, because this earthquake took place very near the end of the emperor Alexius’s life (he died on 15 August 1118), it is reasonable to place this event in 1118.

Notes

References

Ambraseys, N. N. (2009). Earthquakes in the Mediterranean and Middle East: a multidisciplinary study of seismicity up to 1900.

[AD 1119 Hebron]

A collapse occurred in the caves of Khalil. The cause is uncertain.

Yaqut (1178–1229) records that al-Hrawi heard in a.H. 567 (AD 1171–72) from some inhabitants of Khalil whom he met in Jerusalem that in a.H. 513 (14 April 1119 to 1 April 1120) there had been a collapse in the Khalil caves, which is said to have revealed the bodies of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. These were reportedly seen by King Baldwin II (who reigned from 1118 to 1131). The cause of the collapse remains uncertain.

Notes

References

Ambraseys, N. N. (2009). Earthquakes in the Mediterranean and Middle East: a multidisciplinary study of seismicity up to 1900.

(050) 1114 August 10 Jerusalem and Palestine ?

• source 1 - Fulk Chart., Hist., p.428
• sources 2 Estoire de Jerus. et d'Ant,, p.645; Lis. Tours, Ad secund., p.571 historiography Rohricht (1898)
• catalogues d. Mallet (1853); *Ben-Menahem (1979); Amiran et al. (1994)

On 10 August 1114, an earthquake was felt in the region of the crusader kingdom of Jerusalem (which, in 1114, included some territory in Palestine). There is evidence that an earthquake was felt, but its exact location is unknown. The principal source is the Latin chronicler Fulk of Chartres, but although he personally experienced the earthquake, he does not explicitly describe its strongest effects, simply mentioning it immediately after recording a plague of locusts which had devastated the territory of Jerusalem (where Fulk lived) during the preceding April and May, and immediately before describing the destructive earthquake of 13 November of that year (see the next entry), which caused serious damage in an area corresponding to present-day northern Syria and central and southern Turkey.

It seems reasonable to suggest that the earthquake of 10 August 1114 was felt in the same area as that of the following 13 November.

This is what Fulk has to say:

English

1114. A plague of locusts poured out of Arabia into the territory of Jerusalem and devastated the cultivated fields for many days during the months of April and May. Then, on the feast of St.Lawrence [10 August], there was an earthquake.

Latin

Anno millesimo centesimo decimo quarto, multitudo locustarum infinita ebuliit, a parte Arabiae advolans in terram Iherosolymitanam, quae per dies aliquantos segetes, mense Aprili et Maio, multum vastaverunt. Die deinde festo sancti Laurentii, terrae motus factus est.

Some 12th century Christian sources, which depend to a considerable degree on the text of Fulk of Chartres, so misread his work that their information about this earthquake on the feast of St.Lawrence is distorted. Thus, in the anonymous Estoire de Jerusalem et d'Antioche, the damage effects which Fulk attributes to the earthquake of 13 November are transferred to that of 10 August, while the chronicler Lisiard of Tours confuses the two events by recording a single earthquake which is supposed to have begun in April and May 1114.

References

Guidoboni, E. and A. Comastri (2005). Catalogue of Earthquakes and Tsunamis in the Mediterranean Area from the 11th to the 15th Century, INGV.

(057) 1117 June 26 Scandelion [Lebanon]

• sources 1 Fulk Chart., Hist., p.435; Lis. Tours, Ad secund., p.574
• sources 2 Tol. Lucca, Hist., cols.1090-1
• catalogues d. Amiran et al. (1994)

On 26 June 1117, an earthquake caused collapses at the fortress of Scandelion (south of Tyre), and in an area which the sources do not identify but must have been in Palestine (the principal source, Fulk of Chartres, was living in Jerusalem at the time of the earthquake) and southern Lebanon (Scandelion is in fact on the southern coast of Lebanon, about 12 km from Tyre).

After recording a plague of locusts and a lunar eclipse, Fulk of Chartres writes:

1117. [...] The month of June. [...] When He wishes, God causes the earth to shake and then calms it again. That is what happened a little later that month, deep in the silence of the night, on the sixth day before the Calends of July [26 June]. Then the king [Baldwin of Jerusalem] built a fortified place about five miles outside the city of Tyre, and called it Scandelion, which means Field of the Lion, and he repaired the damage and posted guardians there to keep the said place under control

1117. 1...] Quidem mense, qui Iunius erat Deus 1...] qui etiam quando vult terrain facit tremere, et postea quiescere; quod subsequenter accidit in eodem mense noctis intempestae silentio, VU kalendas Iulii.

Tune edificavit rex quoddam castrum prope urbem Tyrum, intra quintum ab urbe milliarium, quod vocavit Scandalion, et Campum Leonis interpretatum, et resarcivit diruta eius, et posuit in eo custodes ad coercendum urbem predictam.

Lisiard of Tours, who depends largely on Fulk of Chartres, records:

1117. [...] The plague of locusts was followed, on the sixth day before the Calends of July, by a terrible earthquake, which showed men the need to act rapidly in order to placate the wrath of God. Buildings were so shaken that they collapsed, and so the hard hearts of foolish men were moved to penitence.

Anno M.C.XVII. [...]. Secutus est locustae pestem, sexto kalend. Julii, horribilis nimis terrae motus, iram Dei praemonens citius debere placari. Concutiebantur ad ruinam aedificia, ut dura hominum stolidorum ad poenitentiam concuterentur corda.

Tolomeo da Lucca, a Tuscan author who lived from about 1240 to 1327, mistakenly associates this earthquake with the one which occured in the same year in Italy, as well as with the death of Alexius I Comnenus immediately afterwards.

References

Guidoboni, E. and A. Comastri (2005). Catalogue of Earthquakes and Tsunamis in the Mediterranean Area from the 11th to the 15th Century, INGV

Yaqût¹ mentions:

Al Hrawi said: "I entered Jerusalem in the year 567 and met Machaykh from the city of Khalil [Hebron] who told me that in 513, on the day of King Baldwin, there had been a collapse in the Khalil [Hebron] Caverns. A group of Franks entered and found Abraham, Isaac and Jacob there, peace be upon them, covered in worn shrouds. They were leaning against the wall and above them, there were candles. They were bareheaded. The king replaced their suzires [?] and unblocked the cave".

Abu Ya'ila al-Qalanisi² bears the same testimony. References

Taher, M.A. (1979): Corpus des texts arabes relatifs aux tremblements de terre et autres catastrophes naturelles, de la conquete arabe au XII H/XVIII JC, Ph.D. Thesis (Univ. Paris), 337 pp.