volume one

HISTORY 0¥ THE CEXJSADES. 267
the conquered country might not be left without inhabitants,
the interest of propert)^, or proprietorship, was called in to
strentjtlien the waverino- love for the new abode. Everv
man who liad remained a year and a day in a house, or upon
cultivated land, was recognised as the legitimate proprietor
of it. All rights of possession were annulled by an absence
of the same duration.
The first care of Grodfrey was to repel the hostilities of
the Saracens, and to extend the frontiers of the kingdom
intrusted to his defence. By his orders Tancred entered
into G-alilee, took possession of Tiberias, and several other
cities situated in the neighbourhood of the Lake of Grenesareth.
As the reward of his labours, he obtained possession
of the country he conquered, which in the end became a
principahty.
Tancred, master of a rich province, advanced into the
territories of Damascus, whilst Godfrey, in a fortunate ex-
cursion, imposed tributes upon the emirs of Caesarea, Ptolemais,
and Ascalon, and brought to submission the Arabs
dwelling on the left shores of the Jordan. He was returning
victorious to Jerusalem, when the city of Asur, which had
surrendered after the battle of Ascalon, refused to pay
tribute, and shook off the yoke of the Christians. Grodfrey
resolved to lay, siege to this rebel city ;* he collected his
troops, marched them towards Asur, and proceeded to attack
* We have been guided principally in the history of Jerusalem, by
the chronicle of Fouloher de Chartres, that of Albert d'Aix, the anonymous
author of the Gesta Francormn expugnanlinm Hiervsalem, and
the history of William of Tyre. There is iiotiiinjz; in French upon the
kingdom of Jerusalem. Being ignorant of the German language, we
regret our inability to avail ourselves of the second volume of the History
of the Crusades, by M. Walken, to the extent we could have wished.
We may say the same of the history by M. Hacken, and several other
German works upon the estal)lishment of the Christians in the East.
Among the Arabian liistorians from whom the learned D. Bertheraud
has made extracts, we have consulted— 1, IVie Musstdmaa Annalu of
Aboulfeda. 2. The History of Tabari, or rather the continuation of that
historian, who is called the Livy of the Arabians. 3. The History of
Jerusalem, by Moudgiredclin. 4. The History of Aleppo, by Kemaleddin.
5. The History of the Attabecs, by Ben Latir. Thu^e historians and
some others have furnished us wiili some points of comparison, and
some document frequently incomplete, generally useless. The Oriental
historians only become an abundant source of information at the epoch of
the reigns of Noureddin and Saladin.
1.3*