Knights Hospitalers

In 1136, King Fulk donated the castle to the Knights Hospitalers.

St Bartholomews Church, built of flint and stone, was first recorded in 1217 and is thought to have had connections with the Knights Hospitalers.

According to legend, the springs region was granted in 1281 by Duke Bernard of Lwowek to the Knights Hospitalers, who cared for patients there.

Although its foundations are early, the Krak in its present form is the product of the Knights Hospitalers, who surrendered it to the Mamelukes in 1271.

It was founded in 1048 as the Knights Hospitalers of St. John of Jerusalem by businessmen from Amalfi, south of Naples.

The 13th-century Knights Hospitalers assisted in the defense of the Kingdom of Cilician Armenia, an ally of the Crusader states, by garrisoning the castle here.

But Timur did take the city of Smyrna, a stronghold of the Christian Knights Hospitalers, thus he referred to himself as ghazi or "Warrior of Islam".

And about the historical background of Hammett's book--the Knights Hospitalers (later of Malta) who created the falcon and how they'd once been the Knights of Rhodes--" "Rhodes turning up again!"

Some of the most famous of these were the Knights Hospitalers, the Teutonic Knights, the Tertiaries, the Order of Saint Lazarus, the Order of the Holy Spirit, and the Hospital Brothers of St. Anthony.