Jerusalem's history seems irrevocably tied to its monumental and symbolic sites and buildings. Yet, as Anna Gutgarts' new book reveals, there is a subtler but important medieval history that can be narrated for Jerusalem, one that shows the dynamism of urban development and its links to changing social, economic and environmental conditions. This book provides a much-needed scholarly update to the material history of Jerusalem during the 'crusader period', drawing together urban history, socio-cultural history, architectural history and theories of space and place to offer an excellent rereading of a city that was inhabited and experienced - a lived cityscape - as well as idealised and imagined.

The book is divided into five main chapters, preceded by a clear introduction and followed by a thoughtful conclusion, an appendix of places, bibliography and index. It is written clearly and with a lively tone, and draws on an impressive range of written, visual and material sources. To my mind, the book argues persuasively for a dynamic and diverse city during the period of Frankish rule. Indeed, far from being a city of opposites and dichotomies, Jerusalem was, as Gutgarts shows, 'a kaleidoscope of diverse communities' (21).

Chapter 1, "The Transformation of Frankish Jerusalem", is primarily methodological and historiographical. This is a very useful chapter in that it outlines previous approaches to the post-1099 history of Jerusalem and the main sources that have traditionally underpinned those approaches. Gutgarts notes the reliance of previous historical studies on narrative sources (especially chronicles and pilgrimage accounts) that tend to emphasise the monumental landscape of the city. Likewise, archaeological studies have focussed on the larger-scale aspects of urban development, such as walls, monuments, shrines and streets. The institutional records of religious institutions sometimes provide a different perspective, offering insights into more 'mundane moments of municipal activity' (25), but these are often fragmented. These sources have tended to be used separately, too, as Gutgarts notes. This means that the daily life of the city's inhabitants has been overlooked as a significant driver of urban change.

What do we know of the quotidian activities of Jerusalem's inhabitants and their influence on the medieval city? Gutgarts argues that drawing together the many records of property transactions that survived for the city allows for both quantifiable data analysis and a new set of qualitative approaches to advancing our knowledge. She has created a database of the documents that record the distribution of landed properties in Jerusalem and its surrounds and the activities of the institutions of the city from 1099-1187, some 900 transactions. These documents are not previously unknown. But Gutgarts' categorical analysis of them allows for both a new detailed breakdown of each transaction as well as illuminating the broader patterns, such as activity within a particular area of the city over a long period or, even more broadly, the transition from a highly disrupted city to a place of 'active settlement effort' (38). The chapter delineates types of transactions such as donations, confirmations, various forms of direct exchange and rental lists, before turning to the question of 'agency' of participants in the transaction. Here, the database reveals shifts over time in the participation in transactions of members of different social groups, casting into sharper relief the spatial distribution of different demographics and their contributions to the city's evolving landscape. Thus, spatial analysis can run alongside data analysis to nuance significantly the city's history.

Chapter 2 considers "The Earthly City" in terms of settlement patterns and property distribution, especially around the mid-twelfth century when new building programs emerged. This came at a time when there was an increase in commercial transactions in the city and its surrounds, and when Latin settlement had expanded beyond the Patriarch's Quarter. The development of areas such as the via Templi and the Street of the Furriers indicates both residential expansion and new connections based on commercial activity. Gutgarts shows clearly that the documents pertaining to property transfer can be fruitfully read alongside narrative descriptions of the urban landscape to reveal shifting urban settlement patterns beyond the renovation and construction of religious sites. Such patterns were also linked to institutional developments including the Hospital, the Holy Sepulchre and the Latin monarchy itself to create something of a 'proto real estate market' at this time (55).

Changes in the city were reflected in its surrounds, as Chapter 3 shows. Gutgarts identifies three stages of development in Jerusalem's hinterland. The first involved the initial and sometimes slow distribution of property among the nobility and key institutions; the second involved the reallocation of property in the 1130s and 1140s; the third stage featured commercial development in the hinterland which mirrored to some degree the legal and economic structures of the city itself. Far from being separate zones of activity and development, the urban centre and hinterland were intrinsically connected during this period of population growth and urban densification.

Chapter 4 explores how social groups formed after the Frankish conquest. The burgesses, for instance, came to coalesce as a distinct group both legally and economically, while the shift toward urban real estate transactions meant that the relationships between this group and institutions such as the chapter of the Holy Sepulchre also informed urban development and changes to the cityscape. A discussion of the role of the confraternity of the Holy Sepulchre shows the burgesses' strong connection to the Holy Sepulchre, while an illuminating reading of rental lists reveals the increasing integration of non-Latin inhabitants over time. Trust and risk mitigation lay at the heart of the property transactions which tell the story of the building and maintenance of this most distinctive and diverse urban community.

The final substantive chapter considers the rural settlement of Magna Mahumeria in terms of the development of its burgess communities in the mid-to late-twelfth century. Here, Gutgarts finds that the means by which the patriarchate and the Holy Sepulchre created relationships of trust with the burgess class in Jerusalem were exported to the rural hinterlands. This consolidation affected the landscape, including the cultivation of new land, while immigration, too, made a significant impact on the shape of both communities during this period.

This is a scholarly and careful book that touches on and engages with a wide range of interpretative methods and themes. Sometimes clarification is needed, such as the frequent use of the word 'mechanisms' to describe many different social structures and institutions but which is sometimes too vaguely deployed. Quite a lot of overt signposting betrays the book's origins as a dissertation. But overall, the book makes a significant historical and methodological contribution to the study of medieval Jerusalem and to urban history, understood broadly, overall. The strength of the book lies in its solid evidentiary foundations and its engagement with both existing historiography and the possibilities of contemporary theory and method. It is an exciting intervention into the tumultuous history of Jerusalem and its surrounds.

Megan Cassidy-Welch