Arsuf

Remains of the Crusader fortress, 2007

Arsuf (Hebrew אפולוניה, also known as Arsur, in ancient Apollonia, later so to speak ) was an ancient city and later Crusader city and Crusader fortress in Israel today, about 15 kilometers north of Tel Aviv.

History

The city was founded in the 6th or 5th century BC as Arschuf. The name comes from the Canaanite - Phoenician fertility god Reshef, who was also the god of the underworld, was identified by the Greeks, especially in Cyprus, but with Apollo. Arschuf flourished as a producer of purple, which was exported to the Roman Empire.

The city was, at least since Alexander Jannaeus the Hasmonäerreich to, later under the name Apollonia the kingdom of Herod and the Roman province of Judaea. In late antiquity it was called, so to speak. In a diocese under gone the city, so to speak, the titular of the Roman Catholic Church goes back to Palestine.

Crusader fortress

In 1101, the city was occupied by a Crusader army under Baldwin I of Jerusalem. The Crusaders, who named the city Arsur, city walls built up again and created the rule Arsuf within the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The estate belonged first to the royal domain of the king of Jerusalem, until this 1163 John of Arsur enfeoffed with the rule. When John died childless, took Melisende, daughter of his brother Guido, the rule. By Melis end second marriage with John of Ibelin, Lord of Beirut (1177-1236), Arsuf came in 1207 to the Ibelin family. Their son John of Arsuf († 1258 ) inherited the dominion which he passed on to his eldest son Balian († 1277 ). 1260 or 1261 sold Balian the rule of the Order of St. John.

In 1187 the city was conquered by the Muslim Ayyubids under Saladin, but fell after the Battle of Arsuf on September 7, 1191 between Richard the Lionheart and Saladin again to the Christians. 1265 Arsuf was captured by the Muslim sultan Baybars I. Mamluk. Walls and fortifications were pulled down, the population dispersed.