The Crusades and the Near East

by Kostick, Conor

  The multiplication of written sources did not promote an accurate image of Islam. Quite the contrary, the more widespread the idea of the Saracens became in the west, the more peculiar it became by the later Middle Ages. Whereas crusading inevitably embedded Saracens in the popular western imagination, the (reading) public was mostly interested in the exotic stereotypes included in a good story, not scholarly qualified information. Peter the Venerable’s introduction to the new Koran translation of 1156, which d’Alverny described as a text that gathered together the complete medieval view on Islam,17 was clearly not a 137

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  bestseller of its time, with one surviving manuscript. Robert Ketton’s translation of the Koran survives in more copies (eighteen), but most of these have been dated later than the twelfth or thirteenth century.

  Saracens in crusade-related sources

  Before the late eleventh century, references to Islam from central and western Europe occur mostly in annals. Although frequent enough, they are rarely more than brief mentions of Saracen raiders assaulting the Catholic lands, or war parties sent to attack Muslim adversaries. The tone of such annalistic entries is neutral, and the reference consists of concise facts: the year and place with an additional sentence or two on the nature of the military campaign and its leaders.

  The term ‘Saracen’ was used even earlier than in these historical sources, in fact well before the emergence of Islam. The earliest mention of them in Migne’s Patrologia Latina consists of short Syrian stories written down by the third century AD. They take the form of having a Christian hermit as the main character, who is attacked by Saracens while wandering alone in wilderness. The holy man is miraculously rescued by saying the name of Christ or calling for divine aid.

  In Vita Antonii the saint cries, ‘ Domine Jesu Christe, voluntas tua fiat, ’ after which the earth swallows the murderous Saracen.18 In another story, demons possess the Saracen aggressors, and make them turn their swords on themselves when the words ‘ Salvator noster Christe Deus, salvum fac servum tuum’ are said aloud.19 In one case, the Saracen permits the monk to leave peacefully on hearing the words

  ‘ per Deum, quem coelis, dimitte me! ’.20

  In the early Christian texts, the term ‘Saracen’ indicates ethnicity and place of origin, the Arabian peninsula, as well as religious exclusion of either Christianity or Judaism. When a particular Saracen happens to be Christian, this will be specifically pointed out by calling him either ‘Christian Saracen’ or ‘baptized Saracen’ before the rise of Islam. The exact origin of the term is enigmatic.

  Medieval authors follow the Church fathers Eusebius, Jerome, Orosius, Isidore and Augustine, who derive the Saracen race from Ishmael. Isidore of Sevilla’s brief explanation (quoting Eusebius of Caesarea) comes up repeatedly in later sources, including those from the medieval west. Accordingly, before free Sarah bore Isaac, Abraham’s slave maid Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, whose descendants were called Agarens after his mother and eventually Saracens.21 In medieval texts, the latter is clearly the more popular etymology. While learned people used both terms for Muslims, storytelling tradition refers only to Saracens.

  Another frequently quoted text is an excerpt from Augustine’s Errationes in psalmos nos. 81–2. Agarens are here described as proselytes, and enemies of the people of the Lord, whom they are inclined to kill. Their name in Latin indicates alien – this might appear to be a rather surprising remark, but Augustine probably had in mind the Hebrew root

  (hgr), which includes a connotation of

  emigration and being a stranger – and thus they are inimical and prone to wicked behaviour.22 Psalm 82, the Song of Asaf, on which Augustine comments, lists the 138

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  enemies of the ancient Israelites and calls for their eternal shame, burning and devastation.

  These two excerpts reappear from time to time in western history-writing from the eighth century onward.23 The mentions of Saracens are usually brief, and before the latter part of the eleventh century Christian authors do not appear to be very interested in Saracens, who are seen as the enemies of Christendom, but still enemies inter pares among other raiders. In Carolingian chronicles and annals as well as those written in southern Italy and Sicily, the tone remains quite neutral until the turn of the eleventh century, although the references become more frequent during the ninth century. The same applies to Iberian texts from the areas involved in the reconquista.24 In the descriptions of any length, Saracens are depicted as in the early Christian tradition: non-Christians from the desert.

  Sometimes the term seems to be used synonymously for any non-Christian invaders of European heartlands,25 including Tatars and Vikings: it would be very surprising for Arab pirates to have attacked France from the northern seas.

  Generally speaking, the western use of the term is not always precise before the eleventh century.

  In the Koran, Ishmael is the firstborn son of Abraham and co-founder of the Temple.26 The Koran does not refer to competition between Ishmael and Isaac and both half-brothers are spoken of as equally important men of faith. Although Hagar is known to Hadith and Arabic folklore, the Koran does not mention Ishmael’s mother at all, and does not refer by name to Sarah either, simply describing Isaac’s mother as the wife of Abraham. As Islam strictly forbids idolatry, it is hardly surprising that the alternative Talmudic interpretation of Ishmael as the first idolater,27 repeated by Christian authors, is completely absent from the Islamic tradition.

  With the advent of crusading, the term ‘Saracen’ became restricted exclusively to the Muslim enemy in western sources. Along with the rising number of historiographical entries from the turn of the twelfth century onward, Saracens began to emerge in various fictional and semi-fictional roles in chansons de geste, as well as less known sources, including the vitae. In clerical treatises, chronicles, bulls, letters, canonical legislation and preaching, the tone sharpened along with an increase in the amount of space dedicated to Muslims. Abbot Suger refered to them in his Vita Ludovici Regis VI as ‘inhuman, crude and homicidal barbarians with a striking bodily resemblance to wolves and ravens as a visible mark of their perpetual shame’.28

  Barbarian violence and the imagery of pollution become customary characteristics of Saracens in crusade propaganda from the beginning. In his sermon launching the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont in 1095, Urban II refered to Muslims as people alienated from God, whose presence pollutes the holy ground.29 The sermon concentrated on Christian suffering and defilement at the hands of unbelievers,30 with no mention of the Prophet Muhammad or Muslim religious practices. The sermon of Clermont became a model for later preaching and popularized some negative images of non-Christians, but rather than including 139

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  original ideas, the pope gathered and intensified views already present in earlier texts.31 His naming of a crusader arch-enemy was important, however, because of the extensive publicity that the sermon achieved. The pope could have chosen different terminology. A letter to the Mauritanian prince Anazir written in 1076

  by Urban’s predecessor, Gregory VII, who likewise was an ardent advocate of crusading, still exists. The letter is polite and diplomatic, thanking the prince for setting free Christian captives. The pope stated that omnipotent God wants to save every soul, and that both he and Anazir believe in one God, the creator and governor of the universe.32 Alas, this letter remains exceptional among the extant sources.

  The outburst of crusading fervour by both authorized and unauthorized preachers coincided with the literation of the epic poetry, chanson de geste. From the earliest-known written version of the geste onward, the Bodleian version of the Chanson de Roland of about 1100, Saracens played an important part in the exploits of the military elite of the west. In Chanson de Roland as well as many later works of geste scenes occur in the crusading framework, and crusading ideals appear seamlessly interwoven into the perception of knightly virtues
of the military nobility. Here, however, the view of Saracens is essentially different from clerical instigation. In the world of the chansons, faith supports fighting, but does not necessitate it. The basic obligation to wage war is derived from vassalage, not the crusading vow. The plot merges the cultural conventions of the aristocracy and, while some of these were related to Catholic religiosity, others were not. The division of characters into heroes and villains was certainly not dictated by religious norms. The stress on religion is simply less compared to the preaching of the crusades, related canonical legislation and crusade chronicles combining ideas from ecclesiastic indoctrination and the heroic tradition of the military elite. This basic setting also gave more flexibility to the description of the Saracen within epic poetry and later romances.

  The main function of Saracens in the chansons is to offer a worthy enemy for the Christian hero, thus underlining the protagonist’s military excellence.33

  Secondly, the hints of the marvels of the exotic, unknown east give a special flavour to the story by their presence. Detailed references to Saracen culture remain superficial, however, with no serious attempt to gather information about Muslims. Essentially, the Saracens of the geste share the chivalric culture of the west, their emotions and reactions resemble those of Christian knights, and they act according to the social norms and rules of their Christian opponents. If a virtuous Saracen warrior accepts baptism,34 the difference fades altogether, and he will be integrated into the Christian community. The same applies to the sensual Saracen princess. Epic fighting takes place as a quarrel between rival barons, or on crusade. In the latter case, the essence of the story also comprised military pursuit: aggression and vengeance for the lord and kin, the quest for fortune and glory, acquisition of a fief and fighting for the lady. Intermarriage between Christian knight and converted Saracen lady is a familiar event in the poems. In various famous stories, Guillaume d’Orange marries Guibourc, Baldwin of Bouillon the 140

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  sultan’s daughter Margalie, and Godfrey Corbaran’s sister Florie. In Perceval/

  Parzival tradition, Queen Belacane does not even have to accept baptism to become married to Gahmuret.

  In real life, princesses who married abroad acted as intermediaries between royal houses. If they were successful, they might be able to introduce elements of their familiar culture into the courtly circle and perhaps even contribute to the circulation of various popular traditions. In the chansons, Saracen queens adapt so well that they become indistinguishable from Christians: poets do not mention learned Saracens landing in Normandy with the great ladies, or hint at female Saracens advocating cultural diversity. The statement by Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Gyburg about the heathenism of Adam and every Christian before baptism, indicating the basic equality of Christian and Saracen in birth, has no contemporary parallel.35 For the compilers and their audience, complete equality could exist only between Christians of similar class.

  Saracens of geste are nevertheless understood as human beings, in which view vernacular poetry follows the early Christian thinkers’ claim that all people are human.36 When Meredith Jones claimed that chansons describe Saracens as monstrous and ‘intensely emotional and excitable people’,37 he was quite right, although it should be added that monstrosity, the miraculous and the magical in these sources involve Christian characters as well, and that reactions that we would stigmatize as unrestrained or even as ferocity would indicate proper knightly behaviour for the medieval audience used to protagonists taken over by berserk rage.38

  For Eschenbach, what is alien is marked by unconventional behaviour, often by members of foreign cultures, but also by ellende, persons exiled from their homeland.39 The idea of familiar society is limited to lineage, family and feudal ties concerning the sub-class of the main characters.40 Thus otherness not only marks people outside Christianity, but groups within it. According to David Tinsley, peasants meant little more than animals for medieval western nobility; clerics understood the laity as an outsider group as compared to their own as well as the other way round; men proclaimed superiority over women; and so on.41

  Albrecht Classen writes in the introduction to Meeting the Foreign in the Middle Ages, ‘the epistemological function of the other for medieval culture cannot be underestimated and seems to have been one of its major components. Even though feared and dreaded, misappropriated for cultural stereotypes, and misused for the justification of military operations and religious offensives, the other was not yet the absolute negative.’42 This would also be an appropriate remark in the context of the poetry of the Crusade Cycles.

  In chansons de geste, Machomet does not occur among the Saracen enemies and allies. When his name is mentioned, he is the supreme god of the Saracen pantheon, whose idol is worshipped in mahomeries together with gods familiar from classical antiquity and pre-Christian Frankish lands, typically Apollo, Jupiter and Tervagant.43 These notions can also be found in crusader chronicles. In a famous scene of his Gesta Tancredi, historian Ralph of Caen tells of Tancred of Hauteville’s first impression of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem in 1099: 141

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  A cast image, made from silver, sat on the highest throne. It was so heavy that six men with strong arms could barely lift it, and ten barely sufficed to carry it. When Tancred saw this he said, ‘alas, why is this image here which stands on high? What is the purpose of this image with its gems and gold? What is the purpose of the purple cloth?’ For it was an image of Mohamet, entirely covered with gems, purple cloth and shining with gold. ‘Perhaps it is a statue of Mars or Apollo, for it could never be Christ. There is no insignia of Christ here, no cross, no crown, no key, no pierced side. Therefore, this is not Christ but rather the first antichrist, the depraved and pernicious Mohamet.44

  Tancred was clearly accustomed to seeing decorated sculpture, paintings, frescoes and stained glass, which mainly depict human beings in churches. He was only halted by the unconventional magnificence and placement of the idol, which afterwards was torn into pieces. In chansons such vehement interventions do not take place. In general, Machomet does not seem to represent more than one pagan god in a lengthier list, although he is often the first of them. He is most frequently mentioned when Saracens habitually emphasize their religion by swearing in his name ( par Mahomet mon deu),45 just as Christian knights swear in the name of Christ. In addition to the references to Saracen idolatry, the chansons do not discuss Muslim worship or show any particular interest in Saracen spirituality. The writers take the existence of Saracen gods as a fact and describe the demons that inhabit the idols, but these evil spirits do not represent any real danger for Christians. Tancred’s antichrist is absent from these works .

  The early western vitae Machometi

  Unlike the chansons, the western lives of Machomet concentrate on the religiosity of the founder of Islam. In these texts, idolatry and swearing by exotic godheads is unimportant, but the danger is real. Embricon’s compilation is the longest, at 1,145 lines, while the other three are treatises of variable length: Gautier’s Otia de Machomete is 1,090 lines, Adelphus’s Vita Machometi 322 lines, and Guibert’s text some 230 lines.

  The conspicuous feature of the vitae Machometi is that they are closely connected, not to one or two but to several medieval genres. The link to hagiography is clear: the lustful and violent heathen prerequisite for Christian martyrdom is discernible in Machomet’s character. Unlike a Christian saint, Machomet is not mistreated by pagans, but is the source of violent conflict himself. Machomet is the arch-enemy, but similarly injurious to Saracens and Christians alike. The vitae share the tenets of crusade propaganda: the universal primacy of Christian faith; the existence of aggressive nonconformists willing and able to harm Christendom; and the requirement to lessen the danger surrounding the community of the faithful. They claim to narrate facts about important series of past events in chronological order, as well as to refer to reliable eyewitnesses in the mann
er of a 142

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  chronicle. Moreover, they also devote plentiful space to the relation between the protagonist and his lady, miracles and monstrous outbursts of madness, reflecting the themes of the chansons and romances. The narrative remains parodic: Machomet is depicted as a low-born swindler unable to win his lady’s favour by knightly virtues; the miracles are not real; and the outbursts of choleric rage are reduced to epilepsy.

  The four texts agree on the basic chronology of Machomet’s life and career.

  They claim that he was orphaned at an early age, that he was poor and uneducated, that he was an upstart with low connections, but that he nevertheless managed to rise to an influential position by a fortunate marriage to a rich widow.

  The man of spirit behind Machomet is a Christian heretic or hermit,46 who teaches him the basic tenets of Christianity (in a corrupt form). Having acquired his wealth and some learning, Machomet succeeds in finding support. The audience is convinced by a series of pseudo-miracles, which Machomet produces by conjuring tricks and through the use of trained animals: a cow, a bull and a dove.