Racial changes in depicting Saracens in the Middle Ages

"How were Saracens depicted from 1200-1420, and what can this tell modern scholars about the way that western artists and audiences viewed and depicted Saracens?  

RIP - Dr Bernadus Theodoor (Ben) Brus - 1917 - 2016

In The Netherlands only a few researchers focus on the Knights Templar and their presence in the Low Countries. One of them is Dr Ben Brus.

In 2017 I found out that Dr Brus passed away in 2016, only a year before his one hundredth birthday, which would have been Saterday, September 30th.

I had the honour to be in contact with Dr Brus for my own research several times. His work, summarized on his website and visually quoted on Templars Now, is the cornerstone of Templar research in The Netherlands and will remain so for many years to come. With great respect I acknowledge his work and vow to continue it as much as I can in my own way.

In 2019 I met with the family of Dr Brus. We agreed that TemplarsNow will continue the work of Dr Brus in a modest way. First step is by simply re-plublishing importanmt parts of his work in English on TemplarsNow channels. Later on TemplarsNow will undertake additional research on Templar sites in the Netherlands indicated by Dr Brus as certain or probable. All this will be done in honor or Dr Brus' monumental work.

Rest in Peace, Dr Ben Brus.


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Financing the Crusades - general taxation

"A "first crude experiment" in compulsory almsgiving, the levy of 1166 begins the history of general taxation for financing the crusades.

People behind the Knights Templar

Usually the Knights Templar are referred to as if it was a a coherent body. This may have been the case in their later days. But in their early days, when the concept of knight-monks and the organisation were as such new, it seems more likely that they were a on-coherent group of individuals of different origins, mainly coming from early 12th century Francia.