Primary Sources Flashcards
Early Medieval Christian views of Arabs
Sources from Fletcher, Cross and Crescent:
Ammanius Marcellinus, Res Gestae:
Distances Arabs as the unpalatable Other.
‘No man ever grasps a plough-handle nor cultivates a tree… they rove continually… without fixed abodes or laws… Wholly unacquainted with grain or wine, they feed on wild animals and milk and a variety of plants.’
Isidore of Seville, Etymologie:
Contemporary of Muhammad, who sums up the Christian consensus regarding Islam.
‘They are… called the Ishmaelites… because they are descended from Ishmael [son of Abraham]. They are also called Hagarenes because they are descended from Hagar [Abraham’s slave concubine, mother of Ishmael]. They also… perversely call themselves Saracens because they mendaciously boast of descent from Sarah [Abraham’s legitimate wife].’
Doctrina Jacobi nuper baptizati:
Christian tract of anti-Jewish polemic cast in dialogue form composed probably in Palestine round about the time of the surrender of Jerusalem.
Abraham, a Palestinan Jew, says -
‘A false prophet has appeared among the Saracens… They say that the prophet… is proclaiming the advent of the anointed one who is to come. I, Abraham, referred the matter to an old man very well-versed in the scriptures… He replied, groaning mightily: “He is an impostor. Do the prophets come with sword and chariot? Truly the happenings today are works of disorder…“… I, Abraham, made enquiries, and was told by those who had met him: “There is no truth to be found in the so-called prophet, only bloodshed for he says he has the keys of paradise, which is incredible”.
Venerabilis Bedae Opera Historica: Bede, 720AD - 'they oppress the whole of Africa with their domination and, odious and hostile to all, they control the greater part of Asia, and even part of Europe too.' Bede, Ecclesiastical History, 731AD 'the very terrible plague of Saracens'
John of Damascus, Dialogue between a Saracen and a Christian:
Envisages a situation in which a Muslim puts awkward questions to a Christian on such matters as the nature of Christ, creation, free will and so forth. The Christian parries these question so skilfully that ‘the Saracen went his way surprised and bewildered, having nothing more to say’.
John of Damascus, On Heresies (c. 745AD):
Section on the superstition of the Ishmaelites contains in embryo some themes that would occur again and again in Christian anti-Islamic polemic.
John first explained the biblical derivation of the Ishmaelites. Then he went on to castigate Muhammad as a false prophet who dribbled part of his teaching from the Old and New Testaments, and also from the sayings of a heretic Christian monk. Muhammad wrote down ‘some ridiculous compositions in this book of his’
Anon, Chronicle of 754:
New arrivals referred to exclusively in ethnic terms. No hint that it was an entirely new religious culture. Gives a sense of reassuring cultural continuity.
Early Medieval Arab views of Christians
Koran:
29:45 -
Muslims should respect the Ahl al-kitah, ‘People of the Book’ - Jews and Christians
‘Dispute not with the People of the Book save in fairer manner, except for those of them that do wrong’
Willibald, Hodoeporicon:
Recounting events of 723AD. English pilgrims arrested in Syria as spies and imprisoned.
When told of the Spaniards, the King said “Why should we punish them? They have done us no harm. Allow them to depart and go on their way.”
Transition of territories from Roman to Arab rule
Willibald, Hodoeporicon:
Recounting events of 723AD. English pilgrims arrested in Syria as spies and imprisoned.
‘a man from Spain came and spoke with them inside the prison… This Spaniard had a brother at the royal court, who was the chamberlain of the king of the Saracens’
When told of the Spaniards, the King said “Why should we punish them? They have done us no harm. Allow them to depart and go on their way.”
Bishops at strongly iconoclast Church council of Constantinople in 754AD:
Condemns John (called Mansur before settling down to a religious life at the monastery of St Saba) for serving the Arabs who took Damascus 645AD -
‘Anathema to Mansur, the man of evil name and Saracen sentiments! Anathema to Mansur, the insulter of Christ and traitor to the Empire!’
Anon, Chronicle of 754:
Deplored the disruptions of the Arab conquest. However, seems to have accepted the legitimacy of the new masters. Even used their dating system alongside that with which he was familiar.
New arrivals referred to exclusively in ethnic terms. No hint that it was an entirely new religious culture. Gives a sense of reassuring cultural continuity.
Christian-Muslim collaboration
Al-Tabari:
Religious tract answering objections of Christians to Islam. Identifies prophethood of Muhammad as the central issue in contention, and addressed it with sensitivity to Christian feelings, defending it wherever possible using citations from Christian scripture.
‘If you reflect on these proofs of prophecy and fulfilment, you will correctly find the reasons and causes for which we have accepted the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), are the same reasons and causes by which you had accepted Christ and Moses (peace be upon them).’
Anonymous Palestinian monk:
Regarded Christian community of his own day as dissemblers.
‘They hide their faith, and they divulge to them [i.e. Muslims] what suits them… They stray off the road which leads to the kingdom of heaven… hypocrites among us, marked with our mark, standing in our congregations, contradicting our faith, forfeiters of themselves, who are Christians in name only.’
Vita Iohannis abbatis Gorziensis:
John, bishop of Cordoba:
Explained to a visitor how the Christians of Al-Andalus managed to survive:
‘Consider under what conditions we live. We have been driven to this by our sins, to be subjected to the rule of the pagans. We are forbidden by the Apostle’s words to resist the civil power. Only one cause of solace is left to us, that in the depths of such a great calamity they do not forbid us to practise our own faith… For the time being, then, we keep the following counsel: that provided no harm is done to our religion, we obey them in all else, and do their commands in all that does not affect our faith.’
John of Gorze, somewhat angered, replied:
‘It would be fitting for someone other than you, a bishop, to utter such sentiments. Your superior rank should have made you a defender of the faith… Never could I approve that the divine laws should be transgressed out of fear or for friendship… Even if I accept that you, constrained by necessity, fall in line with them, I, by the grace of God free from such necessity, will in no way be deflected by any fear or enticement or favour… I will not for the sake of life itself run away from the task of witnessing the truth.’
Christian-Muslim Diplomacy
Covering letters from Patriarch of Constantinople, Nicholas Mystics:
Letter sent as part of negotiations to free prisoners of war. Language of diplomacy.
Abbasid Caliph addressed as ‘the best of my friends’.
Evidence for cross-cultural spreading of ideas and goods.
Thomas N. Bisson, Fiscal Accounts of Catalonia under the Early Count-Kings (1151-1213):
1196, declares without surprise that the will of a lately-deceased civil servant had been copied into ‘a certain paper book’, demonstrating that paper had spread to Barcelona from the Muslim world by this year.
Ibn Sina (known in the West as Avicenna, 980-1037), Kitah ash-shira (the Book of the Cure [of Ignorance]):
encyclopedia of philosophy organised under the headings of Logic, Physics, Mathematics and Metaphysics, drawing extensively on Plato, Aristotle and the Neoplatonists.
Ibn Sina, al-Quanun (Canon of Medicine):
This book remained the standard medical textbook for centuries after his death. Drew on the works of Galen.
al-Biruni (973-1048), Kitah al-Hind (Book of India):
Familiarised fellow Muslims with the learning of Hinduism,
Trade.
Ibn Fadlan, record of Scandanavian merchant adventurers (Rus) encountered on a diplomatic meeting to a Turkic chieftain on the upper Volga 922:
Rus lays goods out before a wooden carving and prays to it that the God would ‘send me a merchant with many dinars and dirhams, who will buy from me whatever I wish.’
Asser, De Rebus Gestis Aelfredi:
King Alfred the Great of Wessex (871-99) gave his biographer and friend, Welsh priest Asser, ‘a strong man’s load of incense’ which must have originated in East Africa or India, presumably imported by way of the Mediterranean.
11th Century memorandum:
‘When the Venetians come to Pavia [in Lombardy] they are required to render annually to the master of the treasury a pound each of pepper, cinnamon, galingale and ginger. And to the master’s wife that must supply an ivory comb and a mirror and a set of dressing-table accessories.’
Characteristic products of the Islamic world, these are most likely to have been acquired by the Venetians in Egypt.
Christian-Muslim frontier interaction pre-Crusades
Anon, Digenes Akrites:
Poem celebrating martial and amorous exploits of a hero named Basil, also known as Digenes, ‘the twice-born’, and Akrites, ‘a border soldier’/ ‘a pacifier of the marches’.
Twice-born because Christian mother, Muslim father. Father permitted to marry mother by her family on condition he became a Christian, which he did.
In Book V, Akrites meets a young woman, daughter of an emir, who has fallen in love with a Christian man, and converted to Christianity at his bidding.
Poem demonstrates fluid cross-cultural loyalties.
Primary enemy not the infidel but the marauder and brigand.
Basil is only credited with waging holy war in one passage of his entire work, when with God’s help he ‘put down all the Hagarenes’ insolence’, but even there the context is not religious struggle, but bringing peace to troubled borderlands.
The Tibyan: Memoirs of ‘Abd Allah ibn Buluggin, last Zirid Amir of Granada
Abd Allah = emir of Granada from 1073 to 1090.
Work illuminates Christian-Islamic political/ diplomatic relations in al-Andalus.
Graphically describes process of negotiating with Alfonso VI or his envoys.
‘Alvar Fanez [one of the King’s generals] at first sent a message to me on his own account threatening to enter Guadiz and adding that only the payment of a ransom would deter him… I decided to placate Alvar Fanez by making a small payment to him and at the same time concluded an agreement with him whereby he undertook not to come near any of my towns after he had received that payment. He undertook to abide by these terms but, on receiving the money, he observed: “You’re quite safe as far as I’m concerned. But it is more imperative that you placate Alfonso. Those who comply with his wishes will be safe, but he will set me on those who don’t”’
Christian crusaders’ views/ attitudes
Chanson de Roland (surviving manuscript c. 1100):
Old French epic poem, affording a glimpse into the assumptions of the warriors who participated in the First Crusade.
Poem took its cue from a historical event - the defeat of the rearguard of Charlemagne’s army, under Roland’s command, in the Pyrenean pass of Roncesvalles in the year 778 at the hands of local Basque tribesmen. But the poet or poets who subsequently reworked the story transformed it. The enemy became the Muslims of Spain, treachery became the turning point of the plot and Roland was elevated to heroic stature. Militarily insignificant encounter was infused with the grandeur of a battle between Christendom and her foes.
Those foes were incorrectly identified as ‘pagans’.
Poem resoundingly stated ‘pagans are wrong and Christians are right’, and pagans were depicted as untrustworthy, treacherous and cruel - natural enemies of the Christian moral order.
To fight them was to do meritorious penitential work. Dying in battle against them was a martyr’s death
Such were the attitudes that underpinned the morale of the armies of the First Crusade.
Chanson de Roland:
The barons in this poem knew their ‘pagan’ enemies were doughty fighters.
Gesta Francorum:
‘you could not find any braver or more skilful soldiers’ than the Turks.
Jean de Joinville, Life of St Louis:
Quoted Saladin’s maxims with approval -
‘Saladin said that you should never kill a man once you had shared your bread and salt with him.’
Muslim views of Crusaders
Jean de Joinville, Life of St Louis (1309):
Told of the reputation of Richard the Lionheart among Muslims -
‘King Richard is so noted for his daring exploits while overseas that when any horse belonging to a Saracen shied at a bush its master would say to it: “D’you think that’s King Richard of England?”
Memoirs of Usama ibn Munqidh (1095-1188):
Emir of Shaizar in northern Syria.
Especially valuable record of his encounters with the Franks of Outremer.
Usmah regarded the Franks as enemies. He routinely referred to them as “The Franks - God confound them!”
However, he regarded them as worthy enemies.
He was contemptuous of some aspects of their culture, for instance their ignorance of medicine, and bewildered by others, for example the social freedom of Christian women.
On the other hand, during periods of truce you could be friends with the Franks and find shared interests, for example in sports and observation of wildlife.
Several casual references in his memoirs to hunting and hawking expeditions with Frankish friends - indicative of a certain bond with the Frankish aristocracy.
Usamah was a regular visitor to the Frankish royal court, sometimes as a diplomat but on at least one occasion as a litigant in a civil action against a Frankish baron concerning grazing.
Usama’s work stands along, and thus presents problems about how far we may generalise from it.
Crusaders’ narratives
Archbishop William of Tyre (d.1186), History of the Deeds Done beyond the Sea (12th C with 13th C continuations):
Ambitious overview of the Crusades.
Gesta Francorum:
Earliest crusading narrative, by anonymous knight from southern Italy.
Account of the siege and conquest of Lisbon by an English priest who had taken part in that Anglo-Portuguese venture.
Llibre dels Feyts [Book of Deeds] of James I of Aragon:
Memoir of Jean de Joinville:
Jean = friend/ servant of Louis XI of France.
Narrative of the French landing in Egypt.
Enough crusader narratives to fill five substantial folio volumes in the standard 19th C edition of crusading sources, and several new sources have been discovered since then.
Christian-Muslim interaction during the crusade period
Ambroise, The Crusade of Richard Lion-Heart:
Mentions Bernard, a bilingual Christian spy fluent in Arabic.
Jean de Joinville, Life of St Louis:
Tells of conversation with a Saracen who addressed him in fluent French. This man = a Christian convert to Islam living a comfortable life in Egypt with an Egyptian wife. The man still believes Christianity is the word of truth, but is too ashamed to return home and convert back.
Expansion of Christian global knowledge/ understanding
The Mission of Friar William of Rubruck:
Visited Mongul Khan Mongke in the years 1253-5. Set down detailed account of the utterly unfamiliar territory, and strange and exotic people he encountered - their appearance, customs and beliefs. E.g. wrote down details of Mongul yurt homes and noted down the first European description of the yak.
Jean de Joinville, Life of St Louis:
Gives a vivid and keenly interested account of his encounter with fossil fish in Saida.
Marco Polo’s account of his travels, written up for him by ghost-writer Rustichello of Pisa.
