A Fragment of Shlomo bar Shimshon’s Chronicle of the Crusaders’ Advance through the Kingdom of Hungary during the First Crusade

This paper presents the text and the translation of a fragment of the Сhronicle (גזרות שנת ד'תתנ''ו) by Shlomo bar Shimshon, compiled in the first half of the 1140s. The translated frag-ment is dedicated to the description of the crusaders’ advance through the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary during the First Crusade. In addition to the translation, the author presents an overview of the Chronicle of Shlomo bar Shimshon as a historical source. Also, the fragment under study contains data on such figures significant for the European history of the late 11th and the 12th centuries as Peter the Deserted (Peter of Amiens), Count Emiho of Leiningham, King of Hungary Kalman the Scribe. The chronicler, following the description of the Jewish pogroms in the Rhine region of Germany, inserts into his work a passage about the failure of the crusaders in Hungary, thus crowning the eschatological message of his work and introducing the discourse of ‘the punishment of enemies’. From the content of this fragment, one can draw information concerning the advance of the crusaders through the territory of the Hungarian Kingdom during the First Crusade; the peculiarities of Jewish chronicle-writing in Western Europe; the possible contacts between the author of the chronicle and Latin chroniclers of the first half of the 12th century.