The Chertsey Tiles: Seal of Amalric, king of Jerusalem by Omar Afifi '24

hi my name is Omar rafifi and I'm a student at the College of the Holy Cross today I'll be presenting the Seal of a Maverick king of Jerusalem this right here is a seal created in the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem Jerusalem was captured from the Muslims in 1099 in the First Crusade and this seal was made sometime between 1163 and 1174. between the conquests of Jerusalem in 1099 and 1163 seven different Crusader Kings ruled the new kingdom of Jerusalem the eighth King who is represented on this seal is King America he became king after his brother Baldwin III died in battle king amarek of Jerusalem had a significant influence on the region during his time for instance a malark tried to invade Egypt four times but failed miserably and ultimately set up Saladin the most well-known Muslim General in the Crusades to take over Egypt in the future the most interesting defeat that my Rick endured in Egypt was when the Egyptians fended off amalrik and his army by opening the dam of the Nile River and flooding the region this defeat sent to mauric back to Jerusalem American Essence helped Salah Dean establish his position as the Region's strongest leader at the time regardless of amalrick's difficulties this seal serves as a testament to the existence of a Christian Jerusalem Kingdom on the upverse side of the seal a moderik is Seated on a backless throne with a scepter in his right hand and a trifoil ornament in his left hand at the border of the seal there is a Latin inscription that translates to Silva malrik interestingly enough the let's seal of Baldwin the first is very similar to the Seal of king of Maverick as we can see King Baldwin is Seated on a backless throne with a scepter with a cross in his right hand and a globe in his left hand quite similar to that of King America's seal on the reverse side of the seal three of the city of Jerusalem's most iconic structures are represented the Holy Sepulcher is on the left the temple is on the right and the Tower of David is in the middle the Holy Sepulcher marked the sights where Christ was crucified and then buried before his resurrection the pilgrimage of a crusader was not considered complete until they had prayed at the Holy Sepulcher many kings of Jerusalem were also crowned and buried there the temple is probably the templeum domini which is what the Crusader called The Dome of the Rock This is certainly very interesting because the Dome of the Rock is most definitely an Islamic Shrine perhaps the Crusaders didn't know or understand that the Dome of the Rock was built under an Islamic ruler but they were Amazed by its structure the Tower of David was used as a lookout spot for guards to prevent Highway robbers and protect the king's Palace located immediately behind the tower going back to King Baldwin's the first seal one on the reverse side as well the three same buildings are represented on the seal and in the same order through Symmetry and simplicity this seal gives us a tangible representation of something intangible the now lost Christian kingdom of Jerusalem