Byzantine influences on Knights Templars' castles: revisiting T. E. Lawrence theory

In his thesis submitted in 1910, T. E. Lawrence assumed that the Military Orders developed individual distinctive types of castles: the Hospitallers evolved complex designs of interrelated defences based on contemporary French models while the Templars “took up the mantle of Justinian” and followed traditional Byzantine models “as represented by the degenerate fortresses in northern Syria” with castles marked by reduced and outdated defensive coefficients. Lawrence conclusions have been considered as valid for a long time due to his key role in the studies on Latin East military architecture and because of missing cases that might have refuted his hypothesis. Despite this and soon after his thesis, a series of archaeological surveys on main Templars, Hospitallers and Byzantine fortified sites deeply changed the knowledge on the topic but this “influence phenomenon” suggested by Lawrence remains to be argued. Which are these Byzantine influences that Lawrence detached in Templars castles? Are there any local evidences coming from the Byzantine heritage that could be taken into account as a specific model? Can these features be considered as outdated for XII centuries’ war techniques in the Crusader East or as a different, and regrettably discredited, type of defence system?