Almería 1147-Thessaloniki 1185: comparative study of two conquests through written sources

Abstract

In the middle of the 12th century, Pope Eugene III proclaimed the Second Crusade, which took place in the Iberian Peninsula, Asia Minor and the Holy Land, and in northeastern Europe. The campaign in the Peninsula was launched against Muslim Almeria and involved the peninsular Christian kingdoms and the Italian republics of Genoa and Pisa. The main source of information on the Christian conquest of Almeria is the text of the Genoese admiral and participant in the campaign, Caffaro, and secondly the Chronicle of the reign of Alfonso VII. On the other hand, the Islamic sources, although more numerous, offer little content. In the last quarter of the same century another campaign was carried out on the eastern side of the Mediterranean by the Norman kingdom of Sicily and Apulia against the Eastern Roman Empire. The Sicilian invasion of 1185 ended with the fall and brief occupation of Thessaloniki, the second most important city of the empire. The archbishop of the city, Eustathius, as an eyewitness, provides a lot of information about the events of the conquest, while the work of Choniates is complemented with information about the general campaign and the Byzantine counterattack. Both conquests caused definitive repercussions in the Mediterranean zone.