Xerigordos (Greek: ἠ Ξερίγορδος), often incorrectly Xerigordon in modern historiography, was a castle in Anatolia (today Turkey) that served as the setting of the Siege of Xerigordos as a part of the People's Crusade in 1096. The contemporary records assert that the fortress was located on a hill[1] and its water supply came from both a water well and a spring just outside the walls. The exact location has not yet been identified. Albert of Aix wrote that it was about three miles away from Nicaea.[2]
The Greek name Xerigordos is known only from Anna Komnene's Alexiad (Χ.6.2), where it is in the accusative form τὴν Ξερίγορδον (Xerigordon). Guibert of Nogent, in the Gesta Dei per Francos, written in Latin, calls the castle Exorogorgum and places it four days' journey beyond Nicaea. It has been tentatively identified with the modern site known as Eskikale (Turkish "Old Castle").[2][3]
References edit
- ^ Runciman, Steven (1 January 1994). A History of the Crusades. Folio Society.
- ^ a b Runciman, Steven. "The First Crusade: Constantinople to Antioch" (PDF). In M. W. Baldwin (ed.). A History of the Crusades: The First Hundred Years. University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 280–307. ISBN 9780299048341.
- ^ Conor Kostick, The Social Structure of the First Crusade (Leiden: Brill, 2008), p. 82.