Principality of Antioch
The Principality of Antioch (Latin: Principatus Antiochenus; Norman: Princeté de Antioch) was one of the Crusader states created during the First Crusade which included parts of modern-day Turkey and Syria. The principality was much smaller than the County of Edessa or the Kingdom of Jerusalem. It extended around the northeastern edge of the Mediterranean, bordering the County of Tripoli to the south, Edessa to the east, and the Byzantine Empire or the Kingdom of Armenia to the northwest, depending on the date.
This article is about the Crusader state. For other uses, see Antioch (disambiguation).
Principality of Antioch
Vassal of the Byzantine Empire
(1138–1153, 1159–1183)
Vassal of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia
(1254–1260)
Vassal of the Ilkhanate
(1260–1268)
Latin Church (ruling elite and nobility)
1098
1268
It had roughly 20,000 inhabitants in the 12th century, most of whom were Armenians and Greek Orthodox Christians, with a few Muslims outside the Antioch city itself. Most of the crusaders who settled there were of Norman origin, notably from the Norman Kingdom of southern Italy, as were the first rulers of the principality, who surrounded themselves with loyal subjects. Few of the inhabitants apart from the crusaders were Roman Catholic even though the city was under the jurisdiction of the Latin Patriarchate of Antioch, established in 1100. This patriarchate would endure as a titular one after the Crusades, until it was dropped in 1964.
Non-Latin population[edit]
The native population of the principality was rather diverse. A significant proportion were Miaphysite Armenians, who could be found in Antioch and other urban and rural areas. Based on the rich evidence available, it has even been proposed that they were the most numerous ethnic group. Also important were the so-called suriani, who actually comprised two Christian peoples: the Aramaic-speaking Syriacs (also called "Jacobites") and the Arabic-speaking Melkites. When the county of Edessa fell in 1144 and the region around Melitene became increasingly unsafe, many Jacobites sought refuge in the cities and town of the principality. This led among other things to the spread of the veneration of Mor Barsauma to whom a church was erected in 1156 by a couple of Frankish donors.[24] The first prior was a monk of the Mor Bar Sauma Monastery with which the church maintained close ties.[25]
Furthermore, there were also Muslims in the capital, in the south, and probably also the east of the principality. They appear only rarely in Antiochene charters, making an estimation of their numbers difficult. Other minorities were the Greeks (graeci) and Jews.[26]
