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The Military Religious Orders and Water Governance. A Medieval Critical Infrastructure System (12th–16th Century)

1000 Worte Forschung: ongoing dissertation project in Medieval History, developed within the framework of the DFG Research Training Group KRITIS, at the Technical University of Darmstadt. The interdisciplinary group brings together humanities, social sciences, and engineering to analyse urban critical infrastructures, such as energy, water, communication, and transport systems.

This study examines the socio-political dynamics of the Military Religious Orders – Templar, Hospitaller, and Teutonic – in water governance and risk management,[1] from their emergence during the Eastern Crusades to the 16th century, through the lens of contemporary concepts. Their internal organization[2] makes them ideal for analysis of water management as medieval multi-level governance[3] system, within the Zentrum–Peripherie[4] framework. From marginal figures to key authorities in both headquarters and cities,[5] their widespread presence across Europe and the Mediterranean, particularly on islands[6] and urban hubs demonstrate adaptability and strategic skills. Although sources are dispersed and complex, recent advances in digitization[7] and field research have enabled a methodology favouring qualitative over quantitative approaches.

The conceptual starting point for our study is critical infrastructure,[8] a term that emerged in the United States during the 1996 Internet expansion, reemerging after the 2001 Twin Towers attack.[9] Today, infrastructure is no longer limited to static structures like buildings, but includes dynamic systems – like rivers – now considered as infrastructure,[10] or the fluvial anthroposphere.[11] We propose that infrastructure and its criticality may reside in the element itself – water – not merely a passive resource, but an active component in socio-political and environmental systems. Freshwater and saltwater environments are considered, examining a universal and adaptable system characterized by shared infrastructure across fluvial and maritime anthropogenic landscapes.

The study is divided into two main sections. The first identifies and analyses key elements through case studies from published and unpublished archival material. The initial case highlights the complexity of managing[12] access to a fluid resource. The second examines water’s everyday uses [fig.1] and infrastructures enabling economic and political management: supply systems reliant on cisterns and pipes; water as energy via mills; and water as a boundary with defensive and connective roles, especially through ships as mobile infrastructure. This framework generates socio-political risks and conflicts[13] over ownership and control. Among the selected case studies, particularly illustrative is the thirteenth-century conflict between the Templars and Hospitallers over the use of the Na’am River (Flumen Acconensis) east of Acre, a dispute escalated to papal arbitration.[14] We adopt a theoretical perspective, viewing engineering infrastructure as an enabler of governance and a mediator between nature and society.[15] The second section addresses water-related disaster risks[16] and vulnerabilities through case studies selected for significant infrastructural impact, drawn from narrative and archival sources. Though varied, these risks consistently feature water: excess causes floods, endangering lives and infrastructure, as in the case of the Damietta crusade (1218–19) [fig. 2]; in geological events, it increases tsunami risk; and in epidemics, water functions as both boundary and vector, notably in maritime transmission.

This preliminary work proposes a cross-disciplinary inquiry advancing the underdeveloped field of water governance and Military Religious Orders and warrants further study.

Fig. 1: Water. Paris, Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Ms. 1028 f. 226r, ca. 1380–1395. Licence: none (Public Domain)

 

Water Flooded crusaders in Damietta. Ms.Français 22495, f. 268r, 14th Century, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France. Licence: none (Public Domain)

Fig. 2: Water Flooded crusaders in Damietta. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Ms. Français 22495, f. 268r, 14th Century. Licence: none (Public Domain)

 

[1] Gerrit Jasper Schenk, Learning from History’? Chances, problems and limits of learning from historical natural disasters, in: Cultures and Disasters. Understanding Cultural Framings in Disaster Risk Reduction, ed. by Fred Krüger [et al.], London/New York 2015, pp. 72–87.

[2] Cf. La Commanderie. Institution des ordres militaires dans l’Occident medieval. Colloque, Sainte-Eulalie de Cernon, 13–15 octobre 2000, ed. by Léon Pressouyre and Anthony Luttrell, Paris 2002.

[3] Liesbet Hooghe and Gary Marks, Multi-Level Governance and European Integration, Lanham 2001.

[4] Jürgen Sarnowsky, Zentrale und Provinzen: Die Strukturen des Johanniterordens im späten Mittelalter, in: Zur Geschichte des Johanniterordens im friesischen Küstenraum und anschließenden Binnenland: Beiträge des Johanniter-Symposiums vom 11. bis 12. Mai 2007 in Cloppenburg-Stapelfeld, ed. by Hajo van Lengen (Die Blaue Reihe 15), Cloppenburg 2008, pp. 32–34; Klaus Militzer, Zentrale und Region: gesammelte Beiträge zur Geschichte des Deutschen Ordens in Preussen, Livland und im Deutschen Reich aus den Jahren 1968 bis 2008 (Quellen und Studien zur Geschichte des Deutschen Ordens 75), Weimar 2015.

[5] Cf. Les ordres militaires dans la ville médiévale (1100–1350): actes du colloque international de Clermont-Ferrand, 26–28 mai 2010, ed. by Damien Carraz, Clermont-Ferrand 2013; Stadt und Orden: das Verhältnis des Deutschen Ordens zu den Städten in Livland, Preußen und im Deutschen Reich, ed. by Udo Arnold (Quellen und Studien zur Geschichte des Deutschen Ordens 4), Marburg 1993.

[6] Cf. Islands and Military Orders, c.1291–c.1798, ed. by Emanuel Buttigieg and Simon Phillips, London/New York 2013, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315590127.

[7] Cf. Katy Mortimer, Networks of Crusading: An Introductory Overview of Digital Resources for Research into People, Place, and Space, in: Medieval People: Social Bonds, Kinship, and Networks 36 (2021), pp. 333–352, https://doi.org/10.32773/APXS8477.

[8] Key Concepts for Critical Infrastructure Research, ed. by Jens Ivo Engels, Wiesbaden 2018, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-22920-7.

[9] Dirk van Laak, Lifeline of our Society. A Global History of Infrastructures, Cambridge, MA 2023.

[10] Cf. Kimberley Anh Thomas, International rivers as border infrastructures: En/forcing borders in South Asia, in: Political Geography 89 (2021), 102448; Jenia Mukherjee, Blue Infrastructures. Natural History, Political Ecology and Urban Development in Kolkata (Exploring Urban Change in South Asia), Singapore 2020, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102448.

[11] Lukas Werther [et al.], On the Way to the Fluvial Anthroposphere – Current Limitations and Perspectives of Multidisciplinary Research, in: MDPI Water 13 (2021), no. 2188, https://doi.org/10.3390/w13162188.

[12] Cf. Francesco Salvestrini, Water and the Low (Limina/Limites: Archaeologies, histories, islands and borders in the Mediterranean (365–1556) 15), Oxford 2024, http://dx.doi.org/10.32028/9781803277363; Karl August Wittfoegel, Oriental Despotism: A Comparative Study of Total Power, New Haven/London 1957.

[13] Conflicts over Water Management and Water Rights from the End of Antiquity to Industrialisation, ed. by Michele Campopiano and Gerrit Jasper Schenk (Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte. Beiheft 260), Stuttgart 2024, https://doi.org/10.25162/9783515137539.

[14] Die Urkunden der Lateinischen Könige von Jerusalem, Vol. 3, ed. by Hans Eberhard Mayer, (MGH DD Jerus.), Hannover 2010, no. 789, p. 1373–1374.

[15] Jens Ivo Engels and Gerrit Jasper Schenk, Infrastrukturen der Macht – Macht der Infrastrukturen, in: Historische Zeitschrift 63 (2014), pp. 22–58, https://doi.org/10.1515/9783486781052.22.

[16] Bas van Bavel [et al.], Disaster and History. The Vulnerability and Resilience of Past Societies, Cambridge 2020, https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108569743; Waiting for the end of the world? New perspectives on natural disasters in medieval Europe, ed. by Christopher M. Gerrards, Paolo Forlin and Peter James Brown (The Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph 43), Abingdon/Oxon/New York 2020, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003023449; Krisengeschichte(n). ‚Krise‘ als Leitbegriff und Erzählmuster in kulturwissenschaftlicher Perspektive, ed. by Carla Meyer, Katja Patzel-Mattern and Gerrit Jasper Schenk (Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte. Beiheft 210), Stuttgart 2013, https://doi.org/10.25162/9783515105354.

 

 

D O W N L O A D

(PDF/A-Version)


Dieser Artikel wurde redaktionell betreut von Jakob Mandel, Karoline Döring und Björn Gebert. Er gehört zum 8. (gezählten) Jahrgang von Mittelalter. Interdiszplinäre Forschung und Rezeptionsgeschichte. Die Dateiversion des Artikels im Format PDF/A erscheint i.d.R. innerhalb von 24h nach Veröffentlichung der html-Version.


OpenEdition schlägt Ihnen vor, diesen Beitrag wie folgt zu zitieren:
Letizia Curreri (29. September 2025). The Military Religious Orders and Water Governance. A Medieval Critical Infrastructure System (12th–16th Century). Mittelalter. Abgerufen am 20. Januar 2026 von https://doi.org/10.58079/14ruw


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