Adam of Bremen 11idea of Christian unity. Thereafter the Holy See acquired a
house behind Saint Peter’s Basilica for Abyssinian pil-
grims, who contributed not only to Abyssinian studies in
Europe but also to interest in Semitic languages and East-
ern Christendom.
Further reading:O. G. S. Crawford, ed., Abyssinian
Itineraries, circa 1400–1524, Including Those Collected by
Alessandro Zorzi at Venice in the Years 1519–24,Works
Issued by the Hakluyt Society, 2nd Series, 109 (Cam-
bridge: Hakluyt Society, 1958 for 1955); C. F. Becking-
ham, “Abyssinia and Europe, 1200–1650,” in The
European Outthrust and Encounter: The First Phase c.
1400–c. 1700: Essays in Tribute to David Beers Quinn on
His 85th Birthday,ed. Cecil H. Clough and P. E. H. Hair
(Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1994), 77–95;
Ephraim Isaac, “Abyssinia (Ethiopia),” DMA1.30–33.
accounting SeeBANKS AND BANKING.
Achaia SeeMOREA, CHRONICLE AND DESPOT OF.
Acre (Akka, Acco, Akko)Acre is a city near the eastern
shore of the Mediterranean Sea, at the north end of the
Bay of Haifa, formerly the Bay of Acre. It was conquered
by the Arabs at the start of the caliphate of UMAR
(634–644), rebuilt in the reign of Caliph Muawiya
(661–680), and its port was restored at the end of the
ninth century. Its fame derives principally from the role it
played during the Crusades. BALDWINI, king of Jerusalem,
took it from the FATIMIDSin 1104 with the help of
Genoese ships. Its favorable harbor position made it the
point of convergence of caravans from inner Syria and the
east, and Acre was the destination of choice for all West-
ern fleets. Communes such as GENOA, Marseille, VENICE,
and PISAwere granted their own quarters and important
privileges there. Western merchants sold mainly wood,
metals, and cloth and bought from Muslim merchants
medicinal products, spices, cotton, silk, dyestuffs, and
various luxury goods such as precious stones, porcelain,
perfumes, and precious woods. Customs duties, imposed
especially on goods from the East, were levied at the royal
market in the northeast part of the town, and in the inner
port quarter, at the court of the Chain, which also served
as a court of justice for maritime and mercantile affairs.
The town was taken by SALADINon July 9, 1187, but
on July 12, 1191, after a two-year siege, the Eastern
Franks and those communes participating in the Third
Crusade regained possession. After the 1192 treaty of
Jaffa concluded between RICHARD I LIONHEART and
Saladin, Acre became the capital of a second Latin king-
dom. Its population increased, and the suburb or new
town of Montmusard developed north of the city wall
and was given its own wall during the visit of LOUISIX to
Palestine after 1250.
Acre in the 13th century was deeply divided among
several Christian factions. The Italian communes
installed in their fortified quarters were usually at odds
with each other for commercial dominance. The military
orders of TEMPLARSand HOSPITALLERSpossessed a quarter
in the town and frequently intervened in the ceaseless
conflicts that shook the kingdom after emperor FREDER-
ICKII’s disputed accession to the throne of Jerusalem in- In 1231 a commune was formed around the anti-
imperialist nobles led by the IBELINS. It managed the gov-
ernment of the town for 10 years. These divisions became
all the more dangerous for Acre when the MAMLUKS,
installed in Egypt from 1250, began to lead an offensive
JIHADagainst the Franks after 1265. The fall of Acre on
May 18, 1291, was the culmination of this Muslim recon-
quest and put an end to two centuries of Latin presence
in Syria-Palestine. In the Mamluk period, Acre was no
more than a ruined and deserted town, which was rebuilt
only in the mid-18th century.
Further reading:Bernard Dichter, Akko: A Bibliogra-
phy(Acre: Municipality of Akko, 1979); Bernard Dichter,
The Maps of Acre: An Historical Cartography (Acre:
Municipality of Acre, 1973); Jaroslav Folda, Crusader
Manuscript Illumination at Saint-Jean d’Acre, 1275–1291
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1976);
Charles William Wilson, The Land of Galilee and the
North(Jerusalem: Ariel, 1975).
Adam of Bremen (ca. 1040–ca. 1085)historian, canon
in Hamburg, author
Adam was born about 1040 in eastern Franconia, proba-
bly near Würzburg, and was possibly educated at Bam-
berg. Details of his life are sketchy, but Archbishop
Adalbert in 1066 or 1067 invited him to Bremen. He
became canon of the cathedral chapter and assumed
responsibility for the cathedral school. Adam began gath-
ering material for his History of the Archbishops of Ham-
burg-Bremen,which he wrote between 1073 and 1076.
Adam was well acquainted with classical authors and
GREGORYof Tours, EINHARD, and BEDEand used monastic
annals, biographies, and papal documents. He also drew
upon oral sources, especially the Danish king Svein
Estridsen (r. 1046–74). Adam was a good historian and
the first noteworthy geographer in medieval Germany.
His Historytraces Christianity in Lower Saxony to
936 and the careers of the archbishops of Hamburg-
Bremen to 1045, describes Slavic peoples and their
land, and conflicts between the church and the Saxon
aristocracy. The Historycontains a biographical sketch of
Adam’s patron, Bishop Adalbert (1043–72); descriptions
of Danish expansion under CANUTEthe Great; the lives of
Saint Olaf, Magnus the Good, and Harold Hardrada in
Norway; the battle of Stamford Bridge; the Norman Con-
quest in England by WILLIAMI THECONQUERORin 1066;
and the conversion to Christianity by the northern Slavic