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Learned and popular attitudes to the Arabs in the Middle Ages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Norman Daniel
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Extract

In the Middle Ages the learned, who expected to control public behaviour and belief, tried to give their theories the force of law. Theology was the peak of the system, and canon law, though autonomous, naturally developed in parallel, and without conflict. True and false data about Islam were set in the framework of Catholic theology, and Islam, and the history of the Prophet as well, were defined in European terms unrecognizable by Arabs. The theology of Crusade was the theology of European relations with Islam; theology and history alike were little more than supporting propaganda for aggression, while canon law defined the limits within which the war was supposed to take place.

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Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 109 , Issue 1 , January 1977 , pp. 41 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1977

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References

Notes

1 Most explicitly in Guibert of Nogent, Gesta Dei per Francos, 1, 1 (Patrologia Latina, 156, and Recueil des Historiens des Croisades occidentaux, IV), but all the accounts of the first or second generation have the historical argument of age-old Arab aggression, or a statement of “barbarian” aggression or an assertion of the special vocation of the West (the Franks).

2 Quadruplex reprobatio, cap. 1, MSS in Paris, Cambridge, and Berlin, but printed unedited by W. Dreschler, Strasburg, 1550, as (Galensis) … de origine et progressu et fine Machometis et quadruplici reprobatione prophetiae ejus liber.

3 These stories recur too frequently in almost all histories written in annalistic form (usually under 622) to be cited individually here. Hugh of Fleury, Cronicon (ed. B. Rottendorff, Munster, 1638) is an early instance; among English writers, Gerald of Wales, De principis instructione, Rolls Series 21, 70, and all the forms of the St. Albans Chronicle, with special additions by Matthew Paris.

4 Peter Pascual in Sobre el seta mohometana, I, i, 29 and I, ii, passim, in Obras, ed. P. Armengol Valenzuela (Rome, 1905–8); Ricoldo da Monte Croce, Disputatio, otherwise Antialcoran, passim, in MS (London, Paris); Latin translation of medieval Greek translation in Patrologia Graeca, 104. An early form of this game in Guibert (I, 3, col. 692–3 in Migne), “sed omissis jocularibus…”.

5 See Cohn, N., The pursuit of the Millennium (London, 1957).Google Scholar

6 ed. Bréhier, L., Histoire anonyme (Paris, 1924), 4–5.Google Scholar

7 Baudri, Historia Hierosolymitana, I, 1 (Patrologia Latina, 166, and Recueil, IV); Guibert, op. cit., I, 1 and II, 3 and 4; Albert, Historia Hierosol. expeditionis, I, 1 (Pat., 166, and Rec., IV).

8 Examples are Erchemberti Historia Langobardorum in Monumenta Germaniae historica, Scriptores, Vol. 3; Chronicon Salernitanum, ibid.; Chronicon Novaliciense, ibid., Vol. 7; Chronicon Casinense, ibid., Vol. 3; Chronica Montis Casinensis, Vol. 7; the exception is Liutprand of Cremona's great Antapodosis, ibid., Vol. 3.

9 e.g. Le siége de Barbastre (ed. Perrier, J. L., Paris, 1926)Google Scholar, 1. 1707, “Sarrazin et Escler”, and see Index, s.v. “Escler”; Le charroi de Nîmes (ed. Perrier, J. L., Paris, 1972)Google Scholar, Index, s.v. “Escler”; La chanson d'Aspremont (ed. Brandin, L., Paris, 1924)Google Scholar, s.v. “Esclavon”, “Esclé”; Li coronement Looïs (ed. E. Langlois, Paris, 1925), 1. 829; cf. Roland (ed. J. Bédier), 1. 3225 (not paired with Saracen alone). These are only examples of a widespread usage. Arabs at Cirencester, Gormont et Isembart (ed. A. Bayot, Paris, 1921), 1. 472, must be Danes. Arabs were of course substituted for Basque pagans in Roland.

10 Glaber, Historiae, I, s.a. 973 (MGH Ss. 7).

11 Guibert, op. cit., VII, 20; V, 35; Conquête de Jérusalem (ed. Hippeau, C., Paris, 1868)Google Scholar; cf. Chanson d'Antioche (ed. Paris, P., Paris, 1848), and N. Cohn, op. cit.Google Scholar

12 Opus tripartitum, i, X–XIX, in Appendix ad Fasciculum rerum expetendarum et fugiendarum (ed. E. Brown, London, 1690), Vol. 2.

13 Oeuvres complètes (ed. Faval, E. and Basta, J., Paris, 1959), Vol. I.Google Scholar

14 Salimbene, Cronica, s.a. 1250 (MGH Ss. 32).

15 Decretals, De Judaeis et Saracenis: Gregorii, V, vi; Clementinae, V, ii;Extravagantes, V, viii; Communes, V, ii.

16 Penaforte, Raymundiana, in Monumenta Ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum historica (Rome and Stuttgart, 1898), VI, i, Documents viii.

17 A persistent tendency always to be suspected under the surface. An extreme example is the assimilation of 9th-century Cordova to pagan Rome persecuting Christians: Eulogius (Patrologia, 115) and Alvarus (Patrologia, 221). Canon lawyers tended to assume continuity from ancient paganism to contemporary Islam; see the discussion in Raymund of Penaforte, Summa canonum (Verona, 1774), I, iv, 2: “Sarraceni hodie judaizant”.

18 “Ebryan”, 11. 12 and 1693 in Otuel and Roland (ed. M. I. O'Sullivan, EETS, London, 1935); “Moadas”, 11. 465 and 5509 in Barbastre (ed. cit.). The random list of names draws on ten poems. In Saladin the historical Arab leader Shirkuh (uncle to Salāḥ al-Dīn) appears in the form Corsuble.

19 Not altogether without reason of course; perhaps the best example is Roland itself, where the Arabs are consistently presented in parallel to the Franks, e.g. II. 3637–9, 898–9, 3172.

20 Le bâtard de Bouillon (ed. Cook, R. F., Geneva, 1972)Google Scholar; Saladin (ed. Crist, L. S., Geneva, 1972)Google Scholar; Duke Huon of Burdeux (ed. S. L. Lee, EETS, London, 1882–7, 4 vols.); Renart, Jean, L'Escoufle (ed. Sweetser, F., Geneva, 1974)Google Scholar; Simon de Pouille (ed. J. Baroin, Geneva, 1968).

21 Epistola II in Lettres de Jacques de Vitry (ed. Huygens, R. B. L., Leiden, 1960)Google Scholar and Historia Hierosolimitana in Gesta Dei per Francos (ed. Bongars, J., Hanover, 1611).Google Scholar

22 ed. cit., 1. 848.

23 Smyser, H. M., The pseudo-Turpin (Cambridge, Mass., 1927).Google Scholar

24 Piers the plowman (ed. W. W. Skeat, EETS, London, 1867–85, 5 vols.), B text, Passus XII, 248–9; XV, 383 et seq.; C text, XV, 209–12; XVIII, 151 et seq.