The Crusades and the Near East

by Kostick, Conor

  11 Susan Reynolds, ‘Medieval Origines Gentium and the Community of the Realm’, History 68, 1983, 375–90; Herwig Wolfram, ‘Le genre de l’origo gentis’, Revue belge de philologie et d’histoire/Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Filologie en Geschiedenis 68, 1990, 789–901; Arnold Angenendt, ‘Der eine Adam und die vielen Stammväter. Idee und Wirklichkeit der Origo gentis im Mittelalter’, in Peter Wunderli (ed.), Herkunft und Ursprung: Historische und mythische Formen der Legitimation, Sigmaringen:

  Thorbecke, 1994, pp. 27–52; Klaus Schreiner, ‘Religiöse, historische und rechtliche Legitimation spätmittelalterlicher Adelsherrschaft’, in O.G. Oexle and Werner Paravicini (eds), Nobilitas: Funktion und Repräsentation des Adels in Alteuropa, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997, pp. 376–430.

  12 Reynolds, Kingdoms and Communities in Western Europe, 900–1300, pp. 256–302.

  13 Reynolds, Kingdoms and Communities in Western Europe, 900–1300, p. 260.

  14 There is not sufficient space here to go into the ramifications of the Byzantine monarchic title of basileus. It is most often translated as ‘emperor’, not least because its incumbents regarded themselves as heirs to the Roman Empire, but some Westerners, often with political intent, portrayed the basileus as simply another king.

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  15 On the Normans, see especially G.A. Loud, ‘The “Gens Normannorum” – Myth or Reality?’, in R.A. Brown (ed.), Proceedings of the Fourth Battle Conference on Anglo-Norman Studies 1981, Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 1982, pp. 104–16, 205–6; J.R. Bliese, ‘The Courage of the Normans – A Comparative Study of Battle Rhetoric’, Nottingham Medieval Studies 35, 1991, 1–26; Emily Albu, The Normans in Their Histories: Propaganda, Myth and Subversion, Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2001; and Nick Webber, The Evolution of Norman Identity, 911–1154, Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2005. On Flanders, Véronique Lambert, ‘Methodologische beschouwingen bij het onderzoek naar de concepten “natie”, “nationalisme” en

  “nationale identiteit” in de Middeleeuwen”, Jaarboek voor Middeleeuwse Geschiedenis 4, 2001, 66–85.

  16 Jonathan Riley-Smith, ‘The Title of Godfrey of Bouillon’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 52, 1979, 83–6; A.V. Murray, ‘The Title of Godfrey of Bouillon as Ruler of Jerusalem’, Collegium Medievale 3, 1990, 163–78; A.V. Murray, The Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: A Dynastic History, 1099–1125, Oxford: Prosopographica et Genealogica, 2000, pp. 63–77.

  17 A.V. Murray, ‘Daimbert of Pisa, the Domus Godefridi and the Accession of Baldwin I of Jerusalem’, in A.V. Murray (ed.), From Clermont to Jerusalem: The Crusades and Crusader Societies, 1095–1500, Turnhout: Brepols, 1998, pp. 81–102; Murray, The Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, pp. 94–7.

  18 WT 116–17. For a detailed commentary on this passage, see A.V. Murray, ‘William of Tyre and the Origin of the Turks: On the Sources of the Gesta Orientalium Principum’, in Michel Balard, B.Z. Kedar and Jonathan Riley-Smith (eds), Dei Gesta per Francos: Etudes sur les croisades dédiées à Jean Richard/Crusade Studies in Honour of Jean Richard, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001, pp. 217–29.

  19 Robert Bartlett, The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change, 950–1350, London: Allen Lane, 1993, esp. pp. 106–96.

  20 Iohannis abbatis Victoriensis, Liber certarum historiarum, Fedor Schneider (ed.), 2, Hannover: Hahn, 1909–10, I.251–2.

  21 Johannes de Fordun, Cronica gentis Scotorum, William Forbes Skene (ed.), 2, Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1871–2, I.294–5.

  22 Donald Matthew, The Norman Kingdom of Sicily, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp. 207–53.

  23 For the composition of the main expeditions during the First Crusade, see especially: E.M. Jamison, ‘Some Notes on the Anonymi Gesta Francorum, with Special Reference to the Norman Contingent from South Italy and Sicily in the First Crusade’, in Studies in French Language and Medieval Literature Presented to Professor Mildred K. Pope, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1939, pp. 195–204; A.V. Murray,

  ‘The Army of Godfrey of Bouillon, 1096–1099: Structure and Dynamics of a Contingent on the First Crusade’, Revue belge de philologie et d’histoire/Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Filologie en Geschiedenis 70, 1992, 301–29; Jonathan Riley-Smith, The First Crusaders, 1095–1131, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997; Conor Kostick, The Social Structure of the First Crusade, Leiden: Brill, 2008.

  24 Marcus Bull, ‘The Capetian Monarchy and the Early Crusade Movement: Hugh of Vermandois and Louis VII’, Nottingham Medieval Studies 50, 1996, 25–46.

  25 Heinrich Hagenmeyer, Le Vrai et le faux sur Pierre l’Hermite, Paris: Librairie de la Société Bibliographique, 1883; Jean Flori, Pierre l’Hermite et la première croisade, Paris: Fayard, 1999.

  26 On these disputes, see John France, Victory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994; Murray, The Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, pp. 67–8; and T.S. Asbridge, ‘The Principality of Antioch and the Jabal as-Summaq’, in J.P. Phillips (ed.), The First Crusade: Origins and Impact, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997, pp. 142–52.

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  27 For a representative treatment, see Graham Robb, The Discovery of France, London: W.W. Norton & Co., 2007, pp. 50–70.

  28 To these language groups we should add some speakers of Breton and English (among the followers of Robert of Normandy) and Frisian (with Godfrey of Bouillon). There were probably also speakers of Lombardic dialects of Italian among the survivors of the People’s Crusades.

  29 Walther von Wartburg, Evolution et structure de la langue française (12th edn), Basel: Francke, 1993 [1946], pp. 73–5; Alain Rey, Frédérick Duval and Gilles Siouffi, Mille ans de langue française, Paris: Le Grand Livre du mois, 2007, pp. 101–57, 362–5.

  30 Walter Kienast, Der Herzogstitel in Frankreich und Deutschland (9. bis 12.

  Jahrhundert), Wien: Oldenbourg, 1968, pp. 11–35.

  31 Michel Balard, ‘ Gesta Dei per Francos: L’usage du mot “Francs” dans les chroniques de la Première Croisade’, in Michel Rouche (ed.), Clovis: Histoire & mémoire, Paris: Fayard, 1997, pp. 473–84; A.V. Murray, ‘Ethnic Identity in the Crusader States: The Frankish Race and the Settlement of Outremer’, in Forde, Johnson and Murray (eds), Concepts of National Identity, pp. 59–73; Peter Thorau, ‘Die fremden Franken – al-farang

  ˘ al-guruba

  ¯’. Kreuzfahrer und Kreuzzüge aus arabischer Sicht’, in Alfried

  Wieczorek, Mamoun Fansa and Harald Meller (eds), Saladin und die Kreuzfahrer, Mannheim: Zabern, 2005, pp. 115–25.

  32 RA 244, 259; GF 33, 68, 91.

  33 RC 651, 660–1, 675–6; AA 300–1, 330–1, 334–6, 478–9, 600–1, 604–5, 608–9. The marquisate of Provence, to the east of the Rhône, was actually part of the kingdom of Burgundy at the time of the First Crusade.

  34 RA 244 var. E: ‘Erat autem inter eos qui profecti fuerant ad prospiciendum fugae et clamoris causas, Flandrensis comes et cum eo quidam Provinciales: namque omnes de Burgundia et Alvernia, et Gasconia, et Gothi, Provinciales appellantur, ceteri vero Francigenae; et hoc in exercitu, inter hostes autem omnes Franci dicebantur.’ The RHC edition gives Francigenae instead of Franci as the penultimate word of the quotation, which makes no sense as the term that is meant is clearly being contrasted with the previous use of Francigenae. I therefore prefer the variant reading.

  35 Ludo Milis, ‘The Linguistic Boundary in the County of Guînes: A Problem of History and Methodology’, in Ludo Milis, Religion, Culture, and Mentalities in the Medieval Low Countries: Selected Essays, Jeroen Deploige, Martine De Reu, Walter Simons and Steven Vanderputten (eds), Turnhout: Brepols, 2005, pp. 353–68.

  36 AA 160–1.

  37 AA 380–1, 384–5.

  38 RC 676–7.

  39 France, Victory in the East, pp. 197–296; John France, ‘The Crisis of the First Crusade: From the Defeat of Kerbogha
to the Departure from Arqa’, Byzantion 40, 1970, 276–308.

  40 RC 675–6: ‘Qui alterutri linguae consonabat, modo cum ea verberat, interdum pro ea innocens verberatur. Narbonenses, Arverni, Wascones, et hoc genus omne Provincialibus: Apulis vero reliqua Gallia, praesertim Normanni conspirabant; Britones, Suevos, Hunos, Rutenos et hujus modi linguae suae barbaries audita tuebatur.’

  41 RC 662: ‘Dum tandem exciti surgunt urgentque Alemanni: / Turba, Latinorum pudor! ut testantur et ipsi / per plateas Graeci clamantes “Caco-Alemanni”.’

  42 Murray, The Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, pp. 77–81.

  43 A.V. Murray, ‘The Origins of the Frankish Nobility of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1100–1118’, Mediterranean Historical Review 4, 1989, 281–300; A.V. Murray,

  ‘Norman Settlement in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1099–1131’, Archivio Normanno-Svevo 1, 2008, 61–85.

  44 See, for an overview, Laura Minervini, ‘French Language in the Levant’, in A.V. Murray (ed.), The Crusades: An Encyclopedia, 4 (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2006), II.479–81; 128

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  and, for recent findings, Cyril Aslanov, ‘Languages in Contact in the Latin East: Acre and Cyprus’, Crusades 1, 2002, 155–81. It is often assumed that much of the populations of the principality of Antioch and the county of Tripoli had a definite Norman and Provençal character, respectively. This was probably at least true of much of the ruling elite. For example, Walter, the Chancellor of Antioch, on three occasions refers to the troops of Count Pons of Tripoli as Provinciales : Walter the Chancellor, Galterii Cancelarii Bella Antiochena, Heinrich Hagenmeyer (ed.), Innsbruck: Wagner’sche Universitäts-Buchhandlung, 1896, pp. 96–7.

  45 Murray, ‘Ethnic Identity in the Crusader States’.

  46 ‘John of Würzburg’, in Peregrinationes Tres, R.B.C. Huygens (ed.), Turnhout: Brepols, 1994, pp. 125–6: ‘tota civitas occupata est ab aliis nacionibus, scilicet Francis, Lotharingis, Normannis, Provincialibus, Alvernis, Hyspanis et Burgundionibus simul in eadem expeditione convenientibus, sic, ut nulla pars civitatis etiam in minima platea esset Alemannis distributa, ipsis non curantibus nec animum ibidem remanendi habentibus, tacito eorum nomine solis Francis liberatio sanctae urbis ascribitur, qui et hodie cum aliis prenominatis gentibus urbi praefatae adiacenti provinciae dominantur.’

  47 ‘John of Würzburg’, pp. 124–5. The most plausible explanation for this evident confusion was that John was simply in error about the identification of the tomb. The church of the Holy Sepulchre tended to be reserved for high-status burials in the Latin kingdom, and there is contemporary evidence that Wigger was buried in Jaffa: AA 584–5.

  48 Bernd Ulrich Hucker, ‘Das Grafenpaar Beatrix und Otto von Botenlauben und die deutsche Kreuzzugsbewegung’, in Hans-Jürgen Kotzur (ed.), Die Kreuzzüge: Kein Krieg ist heilig, Mainz: Zabern, 2004, pp. 22–47; H.E. Mayer, ‘Drei oberrheinische Kreuzfahrer des 13. Jahrhunderts: Berthold von Nimburg (Vater und Sohn) und Werner von Egisheim’, Zeitschrift für die Geschichte des Oberrheins 153, 2005, 43–60.

  49 Steven Runciman, ‘The Crusades of 1101’, Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinischen Gesellschaft 1, 1951, 3–12; James Lea Cate, ‘The Crusade of 1101’, in K.M. Setton et al. (eds), A History of the Crusades, 6, (2nd edn), Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969–89 [1969], I.343–67; Alec Mulinder, ‘The Crusading Expeditions of 1101–2’, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Wales, Swansea, 1996; Marie-Luise Favreau-Lilie, ‘Welf IV. und der Kreuzzug von 1101’, in D.R. Bauer and Matthias Becher (eds), Welf IV. – Schlüsselfigur einer Wendezeit: Regionale und europäische Perspektiven, München: C.H. Beck, 2004, pp. 420–47.

  50 Alan Macquarrie, Scotland and the Crusades, 1095–1560, Edinburgh: J. Donald, 1997.

  51 OD 40–5.

  52 RH III.38: ‘Tendunt cruce praevia versus Orientem / Atque secum contrahunt totum Occidentem: / Lingua, ritu, moribus, cultu differentem / Producunt exercitum sed fide ferventem.’

  53 Das Itinerarium Peregrinorum: Eine zeitgenössische englische Chronik zum dritten Kreuzzug in ursprünglicher Gestalt, H.E. Mayer (ed.), Stuttgart: A. Hiersemann, 1962, pp. 311–12.

  54 RH III.175, 179, 183; Itinerarium Peregrinorum,

  Mayer (ed.), pp. 332–3;

  Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi, in Chronicles and Memorials of the Reign of Richard I, William Stubbs (ed.), Rolls Series 38, 2, London: Longman, 1864–5, I.229, 249–50, 269, 389; The Chronicle of the Third Crusade: The Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi, H.J. Nicholson (tr.), Aldershot: Ashgate, 1997, pp. 217, 225, 237, 253, 277, 342.

  55 Jim Bradbury, Philip Augustus, King of France 1180–1223, London: Longman, 1988, pp. 87–91.

  56 Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi, Stubbs (ed.), I.295; RH III.113.

  57 Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi, Stubbs (ed.), I.325–7, 330–2, 394–6, 431–2; The Chronicle of the Third Crusade, Nicholson (tr.), pp. 299, 300, 345–6, 373.

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  58 Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi, Stubbs (ed.), I.396: ‘Non enim hi fuerant quales olim vere peregrini in Antiocheni expeditione, quam gens nostra potenter obtinuit, unde quoque et adhuc recitatur in gestis super tam famosa victoria Boimundi et Tancredi, necnon et Godefridi de Builon, et aliorum prcerum praestantissimorum, qui tot praeclaris triumparunt victoriis, quorum opera jam nunc fiunt tanquam cibus ab ore narrantium’; The Chronicle of the Third Crusade, Nicholson (tr.), p. 346.

  59 RC 672.

  60 RC 693–4.

  61 RC 632–3.

  62 AA 200–1, 328–9. On Albert’s rhetorical techniques, see Peter Knoch, Studien zu Albert von Aachen, Stuttgart: Klett, 1966, pp. 108–46.

  63 O.S. Pickering, ‘The Crusades in Leeds University Library’s Genealogical History Roll’, in A.V. Murray (ed.), From Clermont to Jerusalem: The Crusades and Crusader Societies, Turnhout: Brepols, 1994, pp. 251–66.

  64 Friedrich Kraft, Heinrich Steinhowels Verdeutschung der Historia Hierosolymitana des Robertus Monachus, Straßburg: K.J. Trübner, 1905.

  65 Barbara Haupt (ed.), Historia Hieroslymitana von Robertus Monachus in deutscher Übersetzung, Wiesbanden: Steiner, 1972, p. 1: ‘Dis ist die vzrüstünge dez herczaugen Gotfriden von Bullion. so hebet hie an die vorrede Rüprechten vff die historie Gotfrides hirczaugen dez vorgenanten.’ The translation also has the effect of producing very German-sounding names of crusaders, so that, for example, Achard of Montmerle becomes Achardus von Mörelberg while Everard of Le Puiset becomes Eberhard von dem Brünnlein. However, it is difficult to claim that the German translator consciously set out to Germanise the entire work. For example, the term Franci, which we have seen was often used to apply to all of the crusaders, is often mistranslated as Frankricher (the inhabitants of Frankrich, that is, France), thus giving the impression that the crusade was more of a French enterprise than was actually the case.

  66 Hertzog Gotfrid wie er wider die Türgen und hayden gestritten und das heylig Grab gewunnen hat, Augsburg: Lucas Zeissenmayer, 1502.

  67 MS’s-Gravenhage, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KA XX.

  68 For illustrations and commentary, see Martine Meuwese, ‘Antioch and the Crusaders in Western Art’, in Krijnie Ciggaar and Michael Metcalf (eds), East and West in the Medieval Western Mediterranean, I: Antioch from the Byzantine Reconquest until the End of the Crusader Principality. Acta of the Congress held at Hernen Castle in May 2003, Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 2006, pp. 337–56.

  69 A.V. Murray, ‘Kingship, Identity and Name-Giving in the Family of Baldwin of Bourcq’, in Norman Housley (ed.), Knighthoods of Christ: Essays on the History of the Crusades and the Knights Templar Presented to Malcolm Barber, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007, pp. 27–38.

  70 Die Chronik der Grafen von Zimmern, Hansmartin Decker-Hauff, Arne Holtorf, Sönke Lorenz and Rudolf Seigel (eds), 7, Stuttgart: J. Thorbecke, 1964–; Beat Rudolf Jenny, Graf Froben Christoph von Zimmern: Geschichts
schreiber – Erzähler – Landesherr. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Humanismus in Schwaben, Konstanz: Dr. u. Verl.-Anst.

  Konstanz, 1959.

  71 A.V. Murray, ‘The Chronicle of Zimmern as a Source for the First Crusade: The Evidence of MS Stuttgart, Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Cod.Don.580’, in J.P. Phillips, The First Crusade: Origins and Impact, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997, pp. 78–106; A.V. Murray, ‘Walther Duke of Teck: The Invention of a German Hero of the First Crusade’, Medieval Prosopography 19, 1998, 35–54.

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  6

  I N I M I C U S D E I E T S A N C TA E

  C H R I S T I A N I TAT I S ?

  Saracens and their Prophet in twelfth-century

  crusade propaganda and western travesties of

  Muhammad’s life

  Sini Kangas

  This chapter discusses the popular image of Muslims and the Prophet of Islam among western audiences in twelfth-century crusade-related sources. ‘Popular’

  here indicates both oral and written transmission, the basic assumption being that the texts under discussion were read aloud in public, as well as studied in the privacy of reading rooms. The primary sources under discussion consist of four eleventh- and twelfth-century Latin travesties of Machomet’s1 (Muhammad’s) life written in medieval France and Germany: Embricon of Mainz’s Vita Mahumeti, written by 1033, Guibert of Nogent’s description of the founder of Islam included in his Dei gesta per Francos from about 1108, Gautier of Compiègne’s Otia de Machomete from 1137–55 and Adelphus’s Vita Machometi of about 1150. These texts are compared with their contemporary crusader chronicles and scholarly works on Islam, as well as the descriptions of Saracens in the chansons de geste from c.1180 onward.2 In investigating the sources, it is necessary to consider two core issues. First, what kind of information do the texts relate to the Prophet Muhammad and Muslims? To what extent can this information be interpreted as conventional and common to a wider selection of sources? And are there any specific sets of details distinctive to the source or a limited group of sources?