Many of the earliest Muslim perceptions of the geography of western Europe and its inhabitants were based on the writing of the second-century Greek scholar of Alexandria, Ptolemy, which came into the Islamic world through the work of the tenth-century Muslim scholar al-Khwarazmi and others. Indeed, the Ptolemaic heritage remained intact for many centuries of Islamic history, with few new ideas being added by Muslim authors.
Plate 5.1 Jami‘ al-Nuri, minaret, probably 566–8/1170–3, Mosul, Iraq
Accordingly, medieval Muslim geographers divided the world into seven latitudinal zones or ‘climes’; the position of a given race in a particular clime predisposed them to the possession of certain attributes. The greatest harmony and balance lay in the third and fourth zones which comprised the central lands of the Arab world (cf. colour plate 5), North Africa, Iran and parts of China. The Franks, on the other hand, dwelt in the sixth clime. Like the Slavs and Turks who also inhabited this zone, the Franks pursued the arts of war and the chase, were of melancholic temperament and prone to savagery. They were also filthy and treacherous.
The great ‘Abbasid writer al-Mas’udi (d. 345/956) has unusually wide horizons within an Islamic context. In two of his works he includes a list of the kings of the Franks from Clovis to Louis IV.20 This was, on his own admission, based on a book written in 328/939 by a Frankish bishop for the future Umayyad Spanish ruler al-Hakam. According to al-Mas‘udi, the Franks are descended from Japhet (the son of Noah); they are ‘a numerous, courageous, well-organised and well-disciplined people, with a vast and unified realm’.21
Al-Mas’udi goes on to describe the land of the Franks as follows:
As regards the people of the northern quadrant, they are the ones for whom the sun is distant from the zenith, those who penetrate to the North, such as the Slavs, the Franks, and those nations that are their neighbors. The power of the sun is weak among them because of their distance from it; cold and damp prevail in their regions, and snow and ice follow one another in endless succession. The warm humor is lacking among them; their bodies are large, their natures gross, their manners harsh, their understanding dull, and their tongues heavy. Their color is so excessively white that it passes from white to blue; their skin is thin and their flesh thick. Their eyes are also blue, matching the character of their coloring; their hair is lank and reddish because of the prevalence of damp mists. Their religious beliefs lack solidity, and this is because of the nature of cold and the lack of warmth.22
The above account emphasises the excessive cold and dampness of the clime within which the Franks reside: it is these climatic characteristics that render the inhabitants dull of understanding, gross of nature, lumbering in stature and coarse in manners. These negative qualities became rooted in the Muslim mind in relation to the Franks. Indeed, they reappear, for example, in a work on the categories of the nations, written in 1068 by a Muslim judge in Toledo, Sa‘id b. Ahmad. He describes the barbarians who live in the north (that is, Europe) as more like beasts than men and he continues in the following terms: ‘their temperaments are therefore frigid, their humours raw, their bellies gross, their colour pale, their hair long and lank. Thus they lack keenness of understanding and clarity of intelligence and are overcome by ignorance and apathy, lack of discernment and stupidity.’23
Figure 5.10 Types of Mamluk pen-box blazon, thirteenth-fifteenth cen turies, Egypt and Syria
Other Spanish Muslim writers depict western Europe as a vast, cold, fertile land and they stress once again that the Franks are doughty fighters but unhygienic in their habits.24
The Dutch scholar Remke Kruk has recently studied the work of Ibn Abi’l-Ash’ath, a Persian physician who lived in Mosul and died around the year 360/970.25 In his Book of Animals (Kitab al-hayawan) Ibn Abi’l-Ash’ath gives a systematic survey of animate beings, including man.26 Speaking of those who dwell in the intemperate zones of the world, Ibn Abi’l-Ash’ath writes that they have no wisdom (hikma – the ‘knowledge of the two opposites’).27 Since they are deficient in this attribute, they are like animals in that they have only generic characteristics and they lack individuality.28 He declares confidently that the inhabitants of the intemperate cold regions shed their hair annually as animals do.29
Later Medieval Views of the Franks in the Cosmographical and Geographical Literature
During the Crusading period, the Muslim writer al-Idrisi (died c. 560/1165), living under Norman Christian rule in Sicily, completed his geographical work normally known by the short title the Book of Roger in 1154. He relies in this work on informants from western Europe as well as the usual earlier geographical writers, and he has an unusually wide outlook and range of information.
His description of France in the sixth clime is precise enough to include details of place-names and distances, but it perpetuates the image of the swirling gloom of the northern regions of the world. Speaking of the Sea of Darkness, al-Idrisi writes: ‘The waters of this sea are thick and dark in colour; the waves rise up in frightening manner: its depth is considerable; darkness prevails there continually.’30
England in the seventh clime fares a little better: it is described as a large island shaped like an ostrich’s head: ‘Its inhabitants are courageous, vigorous and enterprising but a continual winter prevails there.’31
An important source for Muslim views of the Franks is the work of the cosmographer and geographer al-Qazwini (d. 682/1283) (cf. colour plate 6). In his geographical work entitled The Monuments of the Countries and the History of the Inhabitants (Athar al-bilad wa-akhbar al-‘ibad) he borrows extensively from a number of earlier sources.32 Indeed, this work of al-Qazwini is far from being one of original scholarship, but it is a very learned compilation and synthesis of existing knowledge. He draws, for example, on the geography of al-Udhri, the works of al-Mas‘udi, as well as Ibn Fadlan’s account of his journey to southern Russia in the 920s. Al-Qazwini builds, then, on the corpus of ‘information’ about western Europe which had circulated in the Islamic world for centuries. There is little that is new in his details about the Franks and his account, the usual mixture of the exotic, the real and the imaginary, is intended, as were other works of ‘marvels’ (‘aja’ib) literature, to titillate and entertain audiences. He describes the Franks and their country as follows:
Frank-land, a mighty land and a broad kingdom in the realms of the Christians. Its cold is very great, and its air is thick because of the extreme cold. It is full of good things and fruits and crops, rich in rivers, plentiful of produce, possessing tillage and cattle, trees and honey. There is a wide variety of game there and also silver mines. They forge very sharp swords there, and the swords of Frank-land are keener than the swords of India.
Its people are Christians, and they have a king possessing courage, great numbers, and power to rule. He has two or three cities on the shore of the sea on this side, in the midst of the lands of Islam, and he protects them from his side. Whenever the Muslims send forces to them to capture them, he sends forces from his side to defend them. His soldiers are of mighty courage and in the hour of combat do not even think of flight, rather preferring death. But you shall see none more filthy than they. They are a people of perfidy and mean character. They do not cleanse or bathe themselves more than once or twice a year, and then in cold water, and they do not wash their garments from the time they put them on until they fall to pieces. They shave their beards, and after shaving they sprout only a revolting stubble. One of them was asked as to the shaving of the beard, and he said, ‘Hair is a superfluity. You remove it from your private parts, so why should we leave it on our faces?’33
There is an emphasis here on the cold climate of the land of the Franks but there is little concrete information and no supplementary details which might have filtered through to the author through obvious knowledge acquired about the Franks during their presence on Muslim soil for two centuries. It is, however, important to stress that al-Qazwini mentions once again the moral baseness and the lack of personal hygiene of t
he Franks. As we have already seen, these characteristics stem inevitably from their geographical position in the world. As in earlier accounts, the Franks are praised for their courage in war.
The Muslim geographer al-Dimishqi (d. 727/1327) also deals with the Franks in his erudite compilation entitled The Selection of Time amongst the Marvels of Land and Sea (Nukhbat al-dahr fi ‘aja’ib al-barr wa’l-bahr).34 In the sixth clime he places the Franks as well as the Turks and the Khazars: The sixth [clime] is most extreme in cold, dryness and distance from the sun, together with a preponderance of dampness too.’ In his view the Franks are white and like wild beasts. They are concerned with nothing but wars, fighting and hunting.35
The Portrayal of the Franks in Popular Folk Literature
As well as the vague and stereotyped descriptions of the Franks and Frankland perpetuated throughout the early centuries of Islam in the genres of ‘high literature’ such as historical chronicles, cosmographical works and diverse geographical writings, there is a further dimension to be considered: the depiction of the Franks in popular folk literature already mentioned above.
As Lyons, Kruk and others have shown recently, the popular epics knew of areas of the world beyond Byzantium, kingdoms and islands inhabited by ‘Franks’. Lyons describes the Franks as ‘silhouettes’ on the historical horizon of this kind of literature.36 They are ‘huge, clean-shaven men’; ‘they carry lances or spears of tempered steel, with broad heads; their archers never miss, and their shafts pierce mail. In their armies, rider, horse and armour form a single whole’.37 Such descriptions reflect cultural attitudes over many centuries but are often too imprecise to be evaluated as proper historical evidence, although we can see here a repetition of the clear emphasis on the military skills of the Franks, stressed as early as the time of al-Mas’udi, as well as comments on their size and lack of facial hair.
Such popular literature is a vast and largely untapped source of popular attitudes, beliefs and stories which helped to create Muslim stereotypes of the Franks. Such works help to show the development of the Muslim perception of the ‘enemy’ and the constituent parts of that perception – the portrayal of the Franks as dirty, deceitful and lacking in marital jealousy, and of Frankish women as sexually loose. Clearly, then, the stylised anecdotes and jokes about the Franks in Usama’s memoirs which have been taken as ‘historical truth’ by some scholars need to be seen as being a reflection of shared attitudes and prejudices about the Franks which were already deeply ingrained by Usama’s own time.
An Overview of Muslim Attitudes to the Franks before 492/1099
The preceding discussion points to entrenched Muslim attitudes towards the Franks which had been moulded long before the coming of the First Crusade. An awareness of these attitudes is essential for an understanding of the comments and themes found in Muslim writings about the Franks of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in the Near East. We can thus understand the horizons of Muslim expectation about the Franks and realise that there was little likelihood of genuinely deep understanding of the attitudes and beliefs of the other side. An awareness of the Muslim attitudes to the Franks which were widespread before iioo helps towards a truer evaluation of Usama’s testimony in particular, and allows us to make a more accurate assessment of the major themes which the Muslim writers of the Crusading period continue to discuss in relation to the Franks. As we shall see shortly, there is collusion between Usama and his readers when he writes knowingly about the curious antics of the Franks. Usama is unashamedly exploiting a range of preconceptions and prejudices about the Franks, knowing that his audience shares these views and will enjoy his stories which illustrate them. He begins his discussion of the idiosyncrasies and customs of the Franks with a typical flourish:
Figure 5.11 Mihrab, Mosque of al-‘Ayni, 814/1411, Cairo, Egypt
Mysterious are the works of the Creator, the author of all things! When one comes to recount cases regarding the Franks, he cannot but glorify Allah (exalted is He!) and sanctify him, for he sees them as animals (baha’im) possessing the virtues of courage and fighting, nothing else; just as animals have only the virtues of strength and carrying loads.38
As we have seen, other medieval Muslim writers display the same prejudices.
By the time of the Crusades therefore there was a whole repertoire of stereotyped images of the Franks, long embedded in the Muslim psyche, and repeated over time with little variation in cosmographical, historical and other literary genres.39 The Franks did not follow civilised pursuits. They were filthy in their personal habits, lacking in sexual morality and proper marital jealousy, but courageous and redoubtable in war.
Arabic ethnographic writings which formed an integral part of adab literature, urban secular writing for a sophisticate elite, fostered a clear sense of a common cultural identity. Outside this identity lay ‘barbarism’ in its many manifestations. Such internal cohesion was nurtured by a feeling of Muslim exclusivity, ‘consolidating their differences from outsiders’.40 Closer acquaintance with the Franks was to enhance such feelings of Muslim exclusivity rather than modify this rigid edifice of preconceived and vague opinions and prejudices.
Two Stereotypical Frankish Characteristics: Lack of Hygiene and Sexual Laxity
We have seen how the filth of the inhabitants of northern Europe was a cliché of Muslim ethnographic literature long before the coming of the Crusades. It is interesting to speculate on the extent to which living in the Middle East might modify both the Franks’ own attitudes to hygiene and washing habits, and the Muslims’ unfavourable view of them in this respect. A difference in climate could exert an influence in this sphere of human activity, as too would the practices of the Muslims, who visited the public bathhouses regularly and for whom ablutions were an integral part of daily religious worship.
Figure 5.12 Simple Mamluk charges, thirteenth–fifteenth centuries, Egypt and Syria
On his travels through the Holy Land Ibn Jubayr speaks of the Franks’‘absence of cleanliness’.41 He is particularly scathing in his description of Crusader Acre: ‘it stinks and is filthy, being full of refuse and excrement’.42
On his journey eastwards Ibn Jubayr expresses little concern about having to travel in ships controlled by Christian sailors. Perhaps as a result of his experiences of the Franks in the Near East and what he has heard from fellow Muslims during his stay there, he is, however, happy on his return journey from Acre to find that Muslim passengers are placed in separate quarters from the Frankish travellers. Ibn Jubayr hopes and prays that the two thousand Christian pilgrims on the ship will soon leave it.43 Kedar points out that the attitude of Ibn Jubayr towards the Crusaders in the Levant is harsher than towards the Christians of Sicily.44
The testimony of Usama seems to suggest that some of the Franks, especially the knightly classes, began to go regularly to the public bathhouse, once they became settled in the Near East. Their comportment there, however, allows Usama a wonderful opportunity to debunk them. Usama’s famous account of a visit to a bathhouse has been quoted many times in books on the Crusades. The story is put into the mouth of an attendant called Salim from the town of Ma’arrat al-Nu‘man who was working in one of Usama’s father’s bathhouses:
Figure 5.13 Hammam al-Bazuriyya (also known as Hammam Nur al-Din), plan, founded between 549/1154–5 and 568/1172–3, with Ottoman additions, Damascus, Syria
Figure 5.14 Hammam al-Bazuriyya (also known as Hammam Nur al-Din), sections, founded between 549/1154–5 and 568/1172–3, with Ottoman additions, Damascus, Syria
I once opened a bath in al-Ma’arra in order to earn my living. To this bath there came a Frankish knight. The Franks disapprove of girding a cover around one’s waist while in the bath. So this Frank stretched out his arm and pulled off my cover from my waist and threw it away. He looked and saw that I had recently shaved off my pubes. So he shouted, ‘Salim!’ As I drew near him he stretched his hand over my pubes and said, ‘Salim, good! By the truth of my religion, do the same for me.’ Saying
this, he lay on his back and I found that in that place the hair was like his beard. So I shaved it off. Then he passed his hand over the place and, finding it smooth, he said, ‘Salim, by the truth of my religion, do that same to madame (al-dama)’ (al-dama in their language means the lady), referring to his wife. He then said to a servant of his, ‘Tell madame to come here.’ Accordingly the servant went and brought her and made her enter the bath. She also lay on her back. The knight repeated, ‘Do what thou hast done to me.’ So I shaved all that hair while her husband was sitting looking at me. At last he thanked me and handed me the pay for my service.
Figure 5.15 Hammam scene, sketch, Nizami, Khamsa (‘Quintet’), 915–34/1507–27, Iran
Consider now this great contradiction! They have neither jealousy nor zeal but they have great courage, although courage is nothing but the product of zeal and of ambition to be above ill repute.45
This anecdote about the Franks encapsulates the Muslim perception of them as boorish, ill-bred and lacking in proper pride towards their womenfolk. The Crusader knight in question suggests with alacrity and enthusiasm that his own wife should expose herself in a public bathhouse to the bath attendant who then shaves her pubic hair. Each detail of this story is carefully selected to put down the Franks. The Frankish knight behaves with a marked lack of decorum and etiquette from the moment he enters the bathhouse, and Usama makes the most of the comic potential of the situation. We are told that in conformity with Islamic custom the Frankish knight does not wear the usual loin cloth (of knotted towels) around his waist and thereby exhibited his private parts for all to see on his arrival. He then rips off the loin cloth of the bath attendant and displays a naive admiration for Salim’s shaved pubic hair, whilst his own is ‘as long as his beard’.
The Crusades- Islamic Perspectives Page 32