MEDIUM ÆVUM, VOL. LXXXIV, No. , pp. –
© SSMLL,
LA TERRE DES SARAZINS: THE SUMMARY VERSION
Recent years have seen a revival of interest in an intriguing crusade-era work
called the Relatio tripartita.1 The brief begins with an account of the Ayyūbid
sultan al- dil (Saphadin),2 his sons and wives, and continues with gazetteers
of Egypt and the Holy Land. An incipit identifies the piece as a letter to Pope
Innocent by an unnamed patriarch of Jerusalem regarding the Muslim princes
and the status of those regions.3 Innocent III launched two major crusades to
recover the Holy Land, and his double initiative has created uncertainty about
the date of the Latin work.4 Laying aside any suspicion that the report’s stated
context is a fiction, we may ask, was the dossier compiled in , toward
the beginning of Innocent III’s reign and during the run-up to the Fourth
Crusade; about , as the armies of the Fifth Crusade set sail for Acre; or
at an intermediate date? This essay examines and discusses pertinent texts of
La Terre des Sarazins (LTS) and throws new light upon the Anglo-Norman (AN)
work by publishing, for the first time, a critical edition of the summary version.
. The ‘Relatio tripartita’
The literary tradition of the Relatio is quite involved.5 As an heirloom text
passed among numerous authors and works, the Relatio reached several
generations of medieval readers of history. Filling multiple pages of wellknown thirteenth-century chronicles, the Relatio and its vernacular, successor
texts found copyists and readers even as Fidenzio of Padua, Marino Sanudo,
and others were advocating a renewed assault on the Holy Land.6 The germ of
the Relatio’s descriptions of Egypt and the Holy Land had appeared in Burchard
of Strasbourg’s De statu Egypti vel Babylonie a generation before the reign of
Innocent III.7 The Relatio was then inscribed in at least ten longer, early and
mid-thirteenth-century Latin works, as historians mulled past crusades and as
schemes for new ones were hatched. Besides the Latin text in Gray’s Inn MS ,
a manuscript from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries,8 the earliest witnesses
of the Relatio survive as insertions in the Chronica of Richard de San Germano,
who places it sub ;9 and in book III of Jacques de Vitry’s Historia orientalis
(–).10 The Relatio then resurfaces in Roger of Wendover (d. ), Flores
historiarum;11 Albericus Trium Fontium, Chronicon (c.);12 Vincent de Beauvais,
Speculum historiale (c.–/);13 Matthew Paris, Chronica majora;14 the
Rothelin continuation of Guillaume de Tyr;15 Guillaume de Nangis (d. ),
Chronique française;16 Jean de Vignay’s Miroir historial (c.);17 and in a work called
MEDIUM ÆVUM
LXXXIV.
the Relatio Ierosolimitani patriarche.18 Some manuscripts contain both the Relatio
(or LTS) and a ‘trailer’ text, the Tractatus de locis et statu sancte terre ierosolimitane, a
description of the Holy Land that is more detailed than the Relatio’s.19
Authorship of the Relatio was formerly assigned routinely to Haymarus
Monachus and dated , and circumstantial evidence supports these claims.
According to this view, Innocent III ordered the report in autumn and
received the patriarch’s reply by December of that year.20 Until lately, most
scholars have accepted that Innocent made his request as preparations for the
Fourth Crusade were afoot,21 and that Haymarus, as patriarch of Jerusalem,
promptly wrote the Relatio in response. With the word frequenter, however,
Innocent was ordering not a single report, once and for all, but a stream of
briefs on conditions in the Latin kingdom.22 This raises the possibility that,
although it was apparently ordered in , the Relatio we know arrived years
later in the series of updates from various leaders in the East, including the
patriarch. Unfortunately, the registers of Innocent’s letters for some years are
lost.23 Haymarus seems to have answered Innocent’s request quickly by sending
information about the Muslim hierarchy, including also a description of the Holy
Land and a geography of Egypt.24 As far as it goes, the summary recorded by
Röhricht corresponds to the contents of the Relatio, although the date and the
author’s identity are now under review. Professor Richard formerly also accepted
the date ,25 but he has lately claimed that the Relatio was composed instead in
.26 He focuses on Patriarch Raoul de Mérencourt as the more likely author
of the report, arguing that towards the end of his life, probably in spring ,
Innocent III requested the information from Raoul. According to Richard,
Innocent died on July , but Raoul completed the assignment, which
reached Innocent’s successor, Honorius III (r. –), in .
Although I am not convinced by Professor Richard’s argument, I agree that
historical conditions indicate a date of composition after . The strongest
evidence for a later date is that, whereas the Relatio presents al- dil as a
confident, commanding, and powerful Ayyūbid ruler, he was not yet firmly
in control of the Muslim states in . Al- dil’s triumphal entry into Cairo
occurred only in .27 According to the Relatio, al- dil neutralized (the text
states erroneously, ‘killed’) all but one of his nephews, yet we know that his
feuds with Ṣal ḥ al-Dīn’s sons al-Afḍal and especially al-Ẓ hir dragged on at
least until . Though the rebellious al-Ẓ hir accepted al- dil’s suzerainity
in March of that year, the caliph did not recognize al- dil as sultan until .
Meanwhile, the date is too late for the composition of the Relatio because
Richard of San Germano, in his Chronica, had inserted the text sub , as
noted. Following M.-L. Bulst-Thiele, Tony Hunt has more plausibly set as
the date of composition of the Relatio, that is, towards the end of Haymarus’
life and just before the Fourth Crusade, but also after al- dil was established as
sultan of Egypt and Syria.28 I concur that the Relatio was most likely composed
in ; and the versions of LTS, after .
LA TERRE
DES SARAZINS
. The manuscripts of ‘La Terre des Sarazins’
The Relatio survives in a Continental French translation and in the AN versions
that concern us here.29 LTS is a wide-ranging and exotic miscellany that recalls
biblical miracles and apocryphal legends, geographies, encyclopedias, letters,
and itineraries and guides for pilgrims.30 It is perhaps not surprising that such a
manifold work was so long-lived. LTS is not a chronologically ordered narrative
but a bullet list of loosely related articles ranging in length from two or three
printed lines to as many as twenty or more.31 The work’s interest and adaptability
encouraged later medieval editors and compilers to borrow and reorder entire
sections or series of short items. For AN, this process generated versions
that are recognizably related in language, word choice, and subject matter, but
distinctive in specific content, sequence, and length, owing principally to the
omission, insertion, and rearrangement of parts. An articulatory analysis of
the AN witnesses permits the development of a fingerprint for each and, by
comparing these, a clear and definitive delineation of four families of texts, from
longer to shorter. These are here called the amplified, standard, summary, and
truncated versions of LTS.
There are seven known manuscripts of LTS in AN, and each is noted below.32
This list provides a brief description and the sigla of the four manuscripts of
the summary and truncated versions:
J = Cambridge, St John’s College MS I , fols –a.33 Thirteenth–
fourteenth century. Formerly belonged to Syon Abbey. Contains La
Petite Philosophie and excerpts from Gervase of Tilbury, Otia imperialia.
On fol. r, LTS bears the rubricated title Recapitulacio terre sancte et
descripcio eiusdem. Summary version.
U = Cambridge, University Library, Gg. . , fols a–a.34 c.. Also
contains Le Char d’orgueil, L’Ordre de chevalerie, La Petite Philosophie,
Les Pèlerinages de la Terre Sainte, and Le Roman des sept sages. Summary
version. Base manuscript.
H = London, British Library, Harley MS , fols b–b.35 –.
A celebrated MS with ‘strong connections in the West Midlands’.36
Truncated version.
M = Oxford, Merton College , fols r–v.37 Fourteenth century. A
collection of independent books, booklets, and quires sewn together
in the later fourteenth century. Contains Bede’s Commentary on Mark
and excerpts from Peter Lombard’s Sententiae, among others. Truncated
version.
London, British Library, Arundel MS , fols v–v. Thirteenth
century. Standard version.38
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce , fols v–r. Late thirteenth
century. Standard version.39
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley (), fols b–b.
–. Hereafter Bodl. . Amplified version.40
MEDIUM ÆVUM
LXXXIV.
Professor Hunt’s article, the most recent study of the corpus, is valuable for its
printing of the text of Douce 137 and for the announcement of two previously
unknown manuscripts. Hunt delineates the six manuscripts of LTS he knows and
establishes a nomenclature for three distinctive versions—standard, summary,
and amplified. I build on his work by expanding the historical context; by
considering MSS J and U; by recognizing a fourth, truncated version; and by
giving a critical edition of the summary version of LTS, basing this on U.
The group HJMU has two branches: JU, containing the summary version,
and HM with their truncated version. JU have and printed lines,
respectively, while HM offer a much shorter version, at and about lines
each.41 J and U both contain LTS and La Petite Philosophie, as noted. Articulatory
differences also separate the branches, the salient one being that HM omit the
section represented by lines – of our critical edition, an account of aldil’s meetings with his sons, his protocol for reception of foreign dignitaries,
and his relations with his wives.42 Line by line, JU and HM are too divergent
for the variants to be tracked in a useful critical edition. In order to focus on
the summary version, hereafter I exclude the truncated version from detailed
consideration.
. The date of the summary version of ‘La Terre des Sarazins’
One incongruity aside, the summary version offers compelling evidence that it
could not have been composed until after the death of al- dil in . This
claim arises from historical conditions and internal evidence, including the
interplay of present- and past-tense verbs,43 as shown by the excerpts below:
Quant Saffadin lur pere fu mort, cil Melalin fu reliaunt de la terre e sire de tuz
les freres.44
Saffadin is Sultan al- dil, who has died.45 Al- dil’s eldest son al-K mil (Melalin)
then assumed the sultanate and command of the Muslim army in Egypt.
The text twice uses preterite fu, ‘was’. Al- dil died on August , and
the promotion of al-K mil occurred shortly thereafter. As stated, al-K mil’s
brothers recognized him as al- dil’s rightful successor and their lord. This
sentence could not have been written before Aug .
Saffedin out quinze femmes ausi cum ces ancessurs urent en lur lei. Quant eles
furent en sun paleys si dormereit ové chescune. E si acune de eles out fiz de li,
ele serreit de tutes les autres honurés; e si gireit ové cele plus sovent ke ové totes
les autres. Cele ke n’ust nul enfaunt de li serreit balie a un mameliu a garder cum
ben li plut. E quant acune de eles morust, si freit mettr’ un’ autre en sun liu.46
The account of al- dil’s relations with his wives uses past tenses (out, furent,
ust), thus bolstering the impression that al- dil was dead when the summary
version was written.
E ceo firint il checun an, e si funt il uncore li plus haut de linage. Checun fiz aporte
un anel ou le ymage sun pere pur le honur de li.47
LA TERRE
DES SARAZINS
Pret. firint indicates that this practice by al- dil and his sons has ended even
though, as expressed later in pres. ind. funt, members of al- dil’s family have
adopted the tradition and are carrying on. The sons are living, but their father
the sultan has died. In the second sentence, the sons wear the ring (pres. ind.
aporte = porte) as a memento to honour al- dil: ‘Each son wears a ring with
an image of his father, to honour him.’ The passage post-dates August .
Cil prist triwes ou les Cristiens drekes a le grant passage.48
Cil is al- dil’s second son, al-Mu aẓẓam or Coradin.49 The phrase drekes a le grant
passage [=‘until the great sea-crossing’] denotes the sea-transit of the army of
the Fifth Crusade in , a date coinciding with the expiration of the six-year
truce of John of Brienne and al- dil and the arrival of the Frankish vanguard
at Acre.50
Cil tient Damas e la seint’ terre de Jerusalem e tute la terre ke Cristiens unt perdu.51
Cil refers again to al-Mu aẓẓam. The phrase tute la terre ke Cristiens unt perdu
indicates the lands recaptured by Saladin in , including Jerusalem. Pres.
ind. tient, ‘he holds’, ‘he possesses’, is appropriate since al-Mu aẓẓam held his
lands until his death in . The use of the pres. ind. here is consistent with
a later paragraph about the income of al- dil’s sons (lines –). Al- dil is
dead, but his sons rule their fiefs.
Ces deus porz soleynt fere plus de mal a la Cristienté ke tuz les porz de paynime.52
Note imperf. ‘soleynt’ in this key sentence for the dating of the summary
version of LTS: ‘These two ports [= Damietta and Tanis] used to do more harm
to Christendom than all the (other) pagan ports.’ The army of the Fifth Crusade
captured Damietta on November and nearby Tanis eighteen days later.
The army held both cities until al-K mil checkmated the Frankish forces on
August . At no other time did the Franks occupy both cities.53 The sentence
was written between November and August .
An inconsistency remains: if the summary version was composed –,
why does it not mention the Franks’ formidable Château Pèlerin (’Atlit),
completed in spring ?54 Château Pèlerin is mentioned in other versions of
LTS.55 Meanwhile, it is possible to explain why the text does not mention the
Ayyūbids’ new fortress on Mount Tabor, which Innocent had singled out as
an egregious affront in Quia maior, his appeal for the Fifth Crusade.56 This is
probably because al-Mu aẓẓam, who was instrumental in building the fortress
with his father, razed it in spring , fearing that the Franks might use it to
their advantage.57
All things considered, we can assert with some confidence that the summary
version of LTS was drawn up after the death of al- dil in August , and
more specifically between November and August , during the Frankish
occupation of Damietta and Tanis.
MEDIUM ÆVUM
LXXXIV.
. MS U of ‘La Terre des Sarazins’
MS U’s summary version of LTS covers the sultan’s harem, the Assassins,
Jerusalem’s pilgrimage sites, miracle-working icons, the chief cities of Egypt,
the balsam trees of Cairo, and the Nile River crocodiles. Lacking stylistic
sophistication, the summary version adopts a respectful attitude toward Muslims,
a matter-of-fact, reportorial tone, and simple sentence structures.58 At the outset,
as noted, the author lends urgency to the report by referring to the Christian
armies then assembling for departure for the East. The opening lines specify
that our text is the patriarch’s reply to Innocent’s appeal for information about
the Holy Land:
Li Apostle de Rome Innocent vout saver les custumes de la tere dé Sarazins. Eynz
ke le hoste dé Cristiens ert apresté e apareilé, si manda al patriarche de Jerusalem
ke il enqueist la verité e les custumes e les nuns des hauz Saracins ke tenent les
terres, e ke il le mandast a la glise de Rome par ces lecteres. Li patriarche enquist
la verité de la terre e fist a saver a l’Apostolie, e dist en tele manere cum vus orrez
aprés. (lines –)
It has been suggested that medieval writers of pilgrimage accounts or
descriptions of the Holy Land consulted a standard source-book. Other than the
Relatio and Burchard of Strasbourg’s narrative, however, I have found no likely
exemplars upstream from LTS. In stating, ‘Jerusalem est assis en miliu le mund,
si cum li autre livret dist’ (line ), the summary version is citing not a sourcebook but its ‘trailer’ text, the Tractatus. This ‘booklet’ immediately follows LTS
in MS U, beginning, ‘La terre de Jerusalem est assise en miliu le mund, ceo est
a saver en miliu la terre ke est habitable’ (fol. v). Comparison of the various
witnesses of the Relatio and LTS clearly demonstrates, however, that compilers
felt free to rearrange earlier versions of these texts to suit their projects, publics,
and designs for extending the tradition.
Triplex in structure like its Latin model, the summary version of LTS focuses
on the sultan, Egypt, and the Holy Land. The compiler clearly demarcates the
beginning and the end of LTS, referring each time to the patriarch’s report to
the pope (lines –, f.). The section on al- dil lists his sons, their domains
and income, also touching on the sultan’s domestic life. Next are descriptions
of the cities of Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, including terrain, distances, history,
and religious associations of place names; and an account of Jerusalem, its holy
sites, and related biblical events. The emphasis on Egypt reflects the realization
by Christian planners that the lands lately lost to the Muslims could not be
recovered in a frontal assault. At least since the s, western strategists had
recognized that the path to Jerusalem lay through Egypt, but this plan was not
implemented on a large scale until the Fifth Crusade.59 Sailing from Acre, the
Franks struck Egypt on May , capturing Damietta’s formidable Chain
Tower only on August. Damietta itself fell on November , after a
protracted siege.60
The AN colouring of U’s summary version of LTS suggests that the redactor
was of English culture and birth. In the typical AN spellings Apostolie, ‘pope’
LA TERRE
DES SARAZINS
(lines , ; cf. Apostle , Apostole ), Babilonie (lines , ; cf. Babilone line
, Babiloines line ), and Tiphanie (line ), ‘Epiphany’, the i in digraphs li
and ni is non-syllabic.61 To judge by their spelling, lecteres (line ), ‘writing’, tierez
(line ) and terece (line ), ‘third’, and receivere (line ) exhibit a common AN
inorganic e;62 note also payunime (line ; cf. paynime lines , ). Characteristic
AN graphies admit intervocalic w in triewe (line ), ‘truce’, trowage (line ),
‘tribute’, and Bedewins (line ).63 Also typical of AN are kalifre (line ),
‘caliph’, and Gazres (line 122), ‘Gaza’. One finds both eglise (lines , , , etc.)
and aphetic glise (line ).64 The reduction of diphthongs typical of AN may be
detected in manere (line ), paumer (line ), ‘palm’, pé (line ), ‘foot’, fez(e) (lines
, , etc.), ‘time(s)’, fens (line ), ‘manure’, pus (lines , , , etc.), frut
(line *), condut (line ), ‘conduit’,65 and l(i)u(e) (lines , , , etc.), ‘place’,
and fu (line ), ‘fire’, reflect the levelling of triphthong -ieu.66 Final -n after r
is retained in ivern (lines , ).67 The letter c stands for s in ces (lines , ,
, etc.),68 m for n in pelrimage (line ), and i for e in primere (lines , ) and
chivaus (line ), the latter a characteristic raising of the vowel after a palatal.69
Corranz (line ) and enterre (line ), ‘intact’, are rare examples of doubled
consonants in our text.70 Graphy aun as in saunz (line ), taunt (lines , ),
graunt (line ), reliaunt (line ), commaundement (line ), and (re)maunda (lines
, ), indicating velarization of /ᾶ/ and identified as an early thirteenthcentury development, is also seldom used.71
Verb forms include pres. ind. vet (lines , ),72 a thirteenth-century form,
and pres. ind. avum (line );73 also, Western pret. vout (lines , ), out
(lines , , , etc.), and sout (line ).74 Est is once written é (line ).75 The
pres. ind. of aver is consistently ad (lines , , , etc.), an AN orthographic
convention.76 Pres. ind. of seer, ‘be located, lie’, is written siet (lines , 1)
and seet (line ). The reduction of diphthongs typical in AN is discernible in
pres. ind. chet (lines , , ), ‘empties’, tent (line ), ‘rules’, revent (line
), ‘returns’, and pot (line );77 likewise, in pres. ind. tenent (line ) and venent
(lines , ), p.p. as adj. destrutes (line ),78 pret. surent (line ), ‘followed’,79
and inf. aver (lines *, ), saver (lines , ), and ver (line ).80 Pres. ind. se levent
(line ), ‘bathe’, occurs; also, enclinerunt and beiserunt (line ), which Professor
Pope describes as occasional AN pres. ind. forms.81 Ert doubles as impf. ind.
(line ) and fut. ind. (lines , ).82 Syncopated cond. forms include
demandreit (line ) and freit (line ).83
Possession is frequently indicated by the juxtaposition of nouns, e.g. les fiz
Saladin (line ), la feste Nostre Dame (line ), le sanke Nostre Seignur (line ), la
tur le Soudan (line ), le cors seinte Katerine (line ), les dras sun cher fiz (line ),
etc., in which the possessor is human (or divine), but there is also one instance
with intervening prep. a, la tur al Soudan (line ).
There are two abrupt shifts from pres. indic. to pres. indic. , as in il
encline e aoure e dit ces oreysuns; pus manguent e beivent a grant feste eynz ke il issent de
lur temple (lines f.), where the sg. verbs refer to the caliph while the subject of
the pl. verbs is not stated. The pattern recurs in e pus si revent coronez a sun paleys,
e demeinent grant feste (lines f.). The subject of the pl. verbs is very plausibly
MEDIUM ÆVUM
LXXXIV.
‘the caliph and his subjects’, although the text does not state this explicitly.
Additionally, narrative passages set in the past occasionally accept present-tense
verbs, e.g. the use of pres. indic. receit (line ) and pres. indic. estunt (line
) in the account of Saphadin’s reception of foreign emissaries (lines –).
The cond. is used occasionally. After si, we find pres. indic. or impf. indic. in
the protasis and pres. indic. or cond. in the apodosis (lines f., f.). The cond.
is coordinated with subj. impf. in sentences beginning with cele ke or quant (lines
f.). Curiously, cond. serreit, demandreit, and porreit are used in the context of a
narrative set in the past to express habitual past practice (lines f.).
The lexis of LTS is not particularly broad, but several words deserve mention.
These evoke Egyptian wildlife (tors savages line , chivaus sauvages line , cocatrix
line ), Muslim offices and ranks (kalifre line , trogeman line , soudan lines ,
, , mameliu line ), hydrology (condut line ), local products (samit line
, baume lines , , ), defensive structures (forceleis line ), and military
and diplomatic conventions (triwe line †, le grant passage line , trowage line
). The redactor favours the additive expression ke … ke… , ‘as well as’, which
appears repeatedly (lines , f., , f., ).
The scribe uses two characters for capital letter S. The first is easily
recognized, but the scribe also uses a reclining capital S which stands for this
letter in some cases, e.g. Saladin (fol. r, line of our text) and Saffadin (fol.
r, line ). In addition, the scribe often writes -k final followed by a minim
resembling a curviform lower-case i, e.g. in cinke (fol. v, lines , ), porke
(fol. r, line ), idunke (fol. v, lines , ) and dunke (fol. r, line ), sanke
(fol. v, lines , *), and illoke (fol. r, line ). The scribe uses the same
abbreviation for relative pronoun ke (fol. v, line (ke ové); fol. r, line ).
The following critical edition of the summary version is based on U with
variant readings from J. Although the text as written is without paragraphs,
I have introduced paragraphing and line numbers to facilitate reading and
reference. Variants from H and M are not systematically tracked. Only in select
cases where neither the base nor the control manuscript makes sense, or,
exceptionally, where the manuscripts of the truncated version add interest to
our text, do the Rejected readings and Palæographical notes show alternative
readings from H and M. The Notes section refers to DsE, GDF, NpH, and MS
L not to record the minutiae of their variants, but to highlight words or phrases
other than numbers that may contribute to our understanding of the text of U.
Meredith College
BRENT A. PITTS
La Terre des Sarazins
Summary version
U = Cambridge, University Library, Gg. . (XIVin)
[fol. r] Li Apostle de Rome Innocent vout saver les custumes de la tere
dé Sarazins. Eynz ke le hoste dé Cristiens ert apresté e apareilé, si manda
al patriarche de Jerusalem ke il enqueist la verité e les custumes e les nuns
des hauz Saracins ke tenent les terres, e ke il le mandast a la glise de Rome
LA TERRE
DES SARAZINS
par ces lecteres. Li patriarche enquist la verité de la terre e fist a saver a
l’Apostolie, e dist en tele manere cum vus orrez aprés.
Deus freres esteint mult hauz homes sarazins. Li un aveit a nun Saladin,
e li autre Saffadin. E avint ke Saladin aveit nef fiz e morut.84 Saffadin remist
vif e ocist tut les fiz Saladin sun frere fors un sul ki out a nun Noradin. Cil
tient la terre de Halap, plus [fol. v] ke deus cent ke cités ke chasteus forz.85
Saffadin fu frere Saladin e out xv fiz.86 Li un aveit a nun Melalin,87 cil
esteit eynez. Cil tient Alisandre e le Kayre e Babilone e Damiete e tute la
terre de Egypte vers midi e de autre part grant partie.88 Quant Saffadin lur
pere fu mort, cil Melalin fu reliaunt de la terre e sire de tuz les freres.
Le secund fiz fu apelé Coradin.89 Cil tient Damas e la seint’ terre de
Jerusalem e tute la terre ke Cristiens unt perdu, plus ke .iij. cenz citez ke
chasteus forz, saunz les viles. Cil prist triwes ou les Cristiens drekes a le
grant passage.90
Le tierez fiz out a nun Melchifas. Cil tient la terre de la Gamele bien .iij.
cenz e vij. ke chasteus ke citez.
Li quart fiz out a nun Melomedem.91 Cil tent Asie e plus ke sis cenz ke
citez ke chasteus.
Le quint out nun Melechuafat.92 Cil tient la terre de Galilee,93 la ou fu
ocis Abel.
Le sime ad nun Melchinos.94 Cil tient la terre de Baudas ou li apostolye
dé Sarazins meint, liquel il apelent ‘kalifre’.95 Cil est cremuz e duté e ad
commandement sur tuz en lur ley sicum li Apostolie de Rome de nostre
ley. E cil ne puet estre veu ke deus fez al meys. E quant il vet al Mech pur
Maumeth sun deu aorer, il encline e aoure e dit ces oreysuns; pus
manguent e beivent a grant feste eynz ke il issent de lur temple; e pus si
revent coronez96 a sun paleys, e demeinent grant feste. Baudas est chef de
payunime sicum Rome de Cristienté.97
[fol. r] Le setime fiz out a nun Çalaphas.98 Cil ne tient point de heritage,
mes est ou sun frere einez;99 si porte la banere kant il chevache. A celi
enveient les autres freres chescun an mil besanz e deus destrers enselez.
E quant Saffadin vout ver ces fiz, si chevache sun chef envolupez
de un vermail samit. E ces enfaunz chevachent .ix. liues encontre li, si li
enclinerunt quatre fez e pus li beiserunt les meins e les pez; e puis li bayse
chescun en la buche treis fez. E ceo firint il checun an, e si funt il uncore
li plus haut de linage. Checun fiz aporte un anel ou le ymage sun pere pur
le honur de li.100 Tuz ceus volent volenters rendre tote la terre ke Cristiens
soleint tenir e rendre a Rome grant trowage par issi ke lur terre lur seit asuré,
e des hore mes serreient en peis.101
Saffadin, solum les custumes de ces ancessurs, ne vout mustrer sun
visage communement for dis fez par an. E quant reys ou princes de la terre
li enveast sun message, al primer jur lé receit hom en la primere sale de sun
paleys; si estunt devant li armés, ke Turks ke serjanz, ben deus cenz.102 Al
secund jur serreit un trogeman103 apelé ki li demandreit la enchesun de sa
venue, kar devant le tiers jur ne porreit parler ou le soudan.
MEDIUM ÆVUM
LXXXIV.
Saffedin out quinze femmes ausi cum ces ancessurs urent en lur lei.
Quant eles furent en sun paleys si dormereit ové chescune. E si acune de
eles out [fol. v] fiz de li, ele serreit de tutes les autres honurés; e si gireit
ové cele plus sovent ke ové totes les autres.104 Cele ke n’ust nul enfaunt de
li serreit balie a un mameliu a garder cum ben li plut. E quant acune de eles
morust, si freit mettr’ un’ autre en sun liu.105
Ore avez oi dé quinze fiz Saffadin, coment li set sunt feffez. Ore vous
dirrai coment les .viij. sunt assemez. Les deus gardent le sepulture Nostre
Seignur ou cinke Crestiens. E ont tutes les aporz, c’est a dire, lé presenz ki
valent par an mil besanz. Les quatre unt rent’ de un’ ewe ke ad nun le
Nil.106 Cele ewe aruse checun an la terre de Egypte en le moys de aust, si
lur vaut par an quarante mil besanz sarazineys.107 Les deus pusnez gardent
e servent Mahumet e unt tute l’aport, c’est a dire, les presens ke vaut par
an quarante mil besanz.
Ore vous dirrai de la seinte terre de Jerusalem e del pais envirun.
Jerusalem est assis en miliu le mund, si cum li autre livret dist.108 De l’une
part vers le orient est une terre ke est apelé Arabie; de l’autre part vers midi
est la terre de Egypte. De l’une part est la grant mer vers le ocident; de
l’autre part est la terre de Surye e la mer de Cipre.109 De Jerusalem a Acre
sunt treis jornés; e a Damas, cinke jorneys.
Damas est une bone cité enclos de mur e enviruné de bons gardins e de
vergers; e si ad grant eise de ewe dedenz e dehors.110
E si ad une eglise de Cristiens a cinke liues de la vile, en un seint liu
dedenz une montaigne ke l’om apele Sardenay.111 Illuc est une eglise de
Nostre Dame. En cele [fol. r] eglise sunt duze nonaynes virgines e viij.
moygnes. Illuc est une table de fust de un aune de long e demi aune lee. De
cele table ist oyle suef flayrant plus de baume; e ki est oynt de cel oyle, de
quel’ enfermeté ke il seit pris, si ert gari.112 En cel’ table est une ymage de
Nostre Dame depeynte e entaliee.113 E en cele eglise venent les Sarazins del
pays envirun deus fez le an, a la feste Nostre Dame en aust; en septembre
si l’aourent e offrent.114 Cele table fu fete en Costantinoble; un patriarch le
purchaça en Jerusalem cum il vint en pelrimage, e puis le dona a une abbesse
de cel liu ke le fist porter a Sardaney.
Prés de Antioche ad une manere de gent sarazine ki sunt apellez
Hasyesyns, e lour seignur est apelé li Veus de la Montaigne.115 Iceo gent
vivent sanz ley e manguent char de porke encontre la ley dé Sarazins. E
gisent ou lur mere e ou lur surs e ové tutes les femmes ke il trovent, si talent
lur prent. Cele gent meinent en forceleis e en montaignes.116 Lur terre est
mult plein de bestes dunt il vivent. Lur sires est mult cremuz de tute gent
cristiens, sarazins e guis kar il soleit ocire mult de gens merveilusement.117
Il i ad un haut paleys118 enclos de haut mur; si le fet ben garder, si ke homme
ne put entrer fors par un’ entré. En cel paleys fet il norir mult dé fiz de
ces vilayns,119 si les fet aprendre divers langages. Lur mestre ki les aprent
lur enseigne coment il deivent aver Parays; e dist ke il ne le purrunt aver
autrement sinun par fere le commaundement lur seignur. Ces enfanz, de
LA TERRE
130
DES SARAZINS
l’houre k’il serrunt nez, [fol. v] ne verrunt ja autre hom ne femme for
lur mestre e lur nurice, dreke taunt ke il lur vendra a prover pur fere akune
malice. Idunke les fet eynz venir devant li, si lur demande s’il volent aver
Parays. E icés responent: ‘Sire, volenteres!’ Idunke lur done li sire a checun
un grant cotel agu e trenchant, si les enveit ou li plet pur mal fere. En cel’
maner’ fet il ocir mult de genz.
Dama soleit meindre un riche homme par quey la terre est apelé
Fenice.120 Ces terres divise une montaigne ke ad nun Liban. Liban est desus
Triple.121 En Fenice é Acre, Surs e Barut, Sarepte e Sece e Gibelet e Triple.
En Barut out un’ ymage aprés la Passiun Nostre Seignur ke les Juis
ferirent de une lance en le coste, en despit de Nostre Seignur; e en issit
sanke e ewe.122 E mult de Juis crurent en Nostre Seignur pur cel miracle.
De cel sanke plusurs en unt, e dient ke ceo est le sanke Nostre Seignur.
Sur est la plus noble cité e la plus bele de Fenice.123 Ele ne voleit mi’
receivere Nostre Seignur quant il precha sur la marine; eynz ocirent taunt
de homes ke li surent, dunt nul ne sout le numbre fors Deu sul.124
Libauns est un munt dunt deus fluvies neessent ke sunt apelez Farfar e
Abana. Abana curt par le munt de Liban e as pleynes de Arcades;125 e chet
en la mer la ou Eustace perdi sa femme e ces enfauns.126 Farfar curt par
Sirie desu e les murs de Antioche al port de seint Simun.127
Al pé del munt [fol. r] de Liban sordent deus fontaignes, Jor e Dan. E
desus le munt de Gelboe ou fu ocis Saul e Jonathas sun fiz,128 la assemblent
e sunt apelez Jordan. En cel flum fu Nostre Seignur baptizé de seint Johan
le Baptiste, a treis liues de Jerico.129 Cel flum deseire Ydumee e Galilee e la
terre de Jerusalem.
De Jerusalem al flum sunt nef liues; e a Bethleem, .iiij. liues; e a Damas,
cinke jorneys.130
Pres d’Escalun sur mer est Gazres, une forte cité dunt Sampson le fort
brisa les portes; si les porta desur un munt beien loynz de la vile.131
De Jerusalem al munt de Synai ad .xij. jorneys. La terre parentre est
deserte e sabelus’ e ne porte nule chose for bussuns e par enz arbussuns. Si
est terre destempré, ke nul homme i entre for les Bedewins ke i passent a la
feze. En ivern i est mult freid, en esté trop chaud. E nurit leons e senglers
e tors savages e autres bestes savages; e poi i ad de ewe fors acun jor en
ivern. De l’une part est la Ruge Mer.132 En cel desert ad une roche de .xl
.vj. espaumes haut; si la feri Moyses, e le ewe en sailli.133 Aprés est Arabie,
e aprés est Sinai, ki est aprés de Egipte.134
Egypte est une terre mult chaude, e poi i plut e plus i vente. A la feze
est cele terre arusé de Nil.135 Le Nil est un flum, si ad set braz corranz par
Egipte; e plus est grant ke n’est le Syn136 e si vient de Parais. E mult i ad
de pessuns, mes poi sunt bons. Cel liu norist mult de chivaus sauvages ke
meinent desuth aigue;137 e a la terre seche en ist acun fors.138 En le braz de
flum ke curt a Tanise sunt mult de cocatrix.139 [fol. v] Li cocatriz est une
beste de la faiture e de la furme de lesarde, mes mult est grande. E si ad
quatre piez e curtes quises e grande teste e gros piez e plener;140 e mult est
MEDIUM ÆVUM
LXXXIV.
orrible beste a veer. A la feze en ist akun hors, e si il encontre homme ou
beste, tost la devoure.141
Cel flum ke est apelé le Nil comence a crestre a mi join,142 si crest dekes
a la feste de la seinte Croys.143 Quant ele est descrue, si venent les paysans
del pais, si sement tote maneres de blez e de linz; si les syent en marz,144
nul ne pot autrement.145
E la ou li plus grant partie chet del Nil en la mer, la siet Damiete.
Damiete est une bone cité e forte enclose de duble murs e de fossez e si
ben pavé e garnie de trente granz turs estre lé petites dunt il i ad plus de
.xl. Par devers le flum est la tur al Soudan, einz enmi le flum est une graunt
tour ke garde lé entré et lé issue par treis grosses chenes ke vunt a la tur le
Soudan, ke nul’ nef ne puet entrer, aler ne venir si par congé nun.146 Kar
Damiete est chef de tuz les porz de paynime;147 si est chef e la plus bele
cité de tute Egipte, de Alisaundre e de Babilonye.
De Damiete al munt de Synai ad .viij. jornez, ou le cors seinte Katerine
gist.148 Li Sarazins portent grant honur e reverence a ces moignes ki la
gardent.
De Damiete a Tanise est une jorné. Tanise est une cité ke seet sur la mer,
si curt un braz del flum de Damiete.149 Ces deus porz soleynt fere plus de
mal a la Cristienté ke tuz les porz de paynime.150
De Damiete dekes a la novele Babilonie sunt .iij. jorneys.151 De la novele
[fol. r] Babilonie al Kayre est la terece partie de une liue. La soleit estre
les seges reaus e le principal paleys. Ore est une simple cité, mes mult est
riche, si ke trestute manere de genz crestiens, sarazins e juis i meinent; e si
tient checun sa ley.
Cele cité est environé de vergers e de gardins. Prés de illoke est un arbre
ke porte le baume.152 Cel arbre est issi fet cum le cep de une vine,153 e la
folie tote tele cum trifolie. Cel arbre est meur en la issue de may, e dunke
fent hom l’escorce cum lé vigneroun del pais le sevent fere. E puis en chet
grosse gutte ke l’em receit en vesseus de verre; si le mettent pus en fens de
columb demi an, e dunkes ert cel liqur espurgé.
En cel’ terre est un curtil ou est une fontaigne dunt cel arbre est arusé.154
E ne put estre arusé de autre ewe si de cel’ fontaigne nun; en nul lu ne crest
verrei baume fors a cele fontaigne. La soleit Nostre Dame laver les dras sun
cher fiz quant ele fu en Egipte pur Herodes.155 Li Sarazins aportent grant
honur a cel lu, e volunters vunt la chescun an a la Tiphanie, si se levent.
Al Kayre ad un paumer ou Nostre Dame esgarda les dates e desira le
frut.156 E li arbre se abessa devant li, e ele prist del frut. E le arbre se redressa
veiant les Sarazins, e les Sarazins la coperent; e l’endemein la troverent
enterre.157 E pus tuzjurs les Sarazins ont honuré e honurent cel arbre.
[fol. v] E sachez ke tres Babiloines sunt.158 La primere siet sur le flum
de Cobar, de cele fu li reys Nabugonosor. L’autre est en Egipte, de cele fu
li reys Pharaon. Ces deus sunt destrutes. La terce fu cele dunt nus avum
parlee.
De la novele Babilonie a Alisaundre sunt treys jorneys par terre e .vj. par
LA TERRE
DES SARAZINS
ewe. Le Nile ne vet mie prés dé murs, mes aukes est loynz. Alisaundre est
une riche cité e noble, si est al soudan de Babilonie.159 Eynz enmi le port
est une tur ke garde lé entré e lé issue del port, ke est aukes bas.160 Illuke
mettent il le fu par nuyt pur les mariners guier.161 En cel’ cité n’i ad poynt de
duce ewe fors par condut ou par cisterne.162 En cele cité sunt mult eglises
de Cristiens: illuke est le eglise seint Marke le Evangeliste, si est la chapele
ou il escrist ces Evangiles e ou il suffrit martirement.163 Si est le liu de sa
sepulture, e illuke en emblerent les Veniciens la sepulture ou tut le cors.164
Illuke elit hom le patriarche dé Cristiens.165 E sachez ke feves e pois e tutes
maneres de blez i seime l’em; e les leguns a la feste seint Martin checun an,
si les syent en mars. E les berbis e les chevres founent deus feze par an.166
Ore vous ai dist coment ly Apostole maunda al patriarche de Jerusalem,
e coment le patriarche remaunda les custumes de la terre dé Sarazins.
Rejected readings and palaeographical notes
In the following, numbers refer to lines in the critical edition. Unlabelled
readings after a square bracket indicate rejected readings in the base manuscript,
U. The sigla H, J, and M denote those manuscripts. (For variants from DsE,
GDF, NpH, and MS L, see the next section.)
saver les custumes] s. les uses e les c. J e ke il le mandast] e ke il de
demandast; e il le maundist J par ces lecteres] p. lettres J f. a l’Apostolie e
dist en tele] al apostoille en t. J f. sul ki out a nun Noradin Cil tient la terre] s.
cil o. a n.N. e ti. la te. J plus ke] p. ke de with de s.s. deus cent] .v.c. J
Saffadin fu frere Saladin e out] Saf. qe fu fr.sal.o. J Li un aveit a nun Melalin]
Li un a. a n. Mekadin; Li uns out a n. mehlalin J esteit] est J Damiete]
damete terre; Damiece J vers midi e] vers midi li suth e; v.m. e J reliaunt]
tenaunz J fu] est J la seint’ terre de] la scinte tut de J f. .iij. cenz citez
ke chasteus forz saunz] .iii.c. qe ci. qe ch.s. J triwes ou les Cristiens] tr. as
c. J Le tierez fiz out a nun Melchifas] Li t. des f. ad a n.m. J terre de la
Gamele] t. de la lamele J fiz out a nun Melomedem] f. ad a n. meliemodain
J Asie e plus] a.p. J quint out nun Melechuafat] q. ad a n. melchimafath
J f. terre de Galilee la ou fu ocis Abel] t. de farcho (sarco H) ou a. fu oc. J
ad nun Melchinos] ad a n. marhinot J Baudas] Banas; Baudach J f. lur
ley sicum li Apostolie de Rome de nostre ley] lour ley issi cum li a. de r. ad en
n. ley J deus fez al meys] d.f. par an JM il vet al Mech] il v. al meth; il va
al m. J aorer il encline] a. e il e.; a. il lencline J f. oreysuns pus manguent]
o. en lour ley e p.m. J f. pus si revent coronez a] p. si r. chescun a; p. se r.c.
a J paleys e demeinent grant feste] p. e d.g. festeste; p. demenaunt mout g.f.
J Baudas] Baudac J Rome de] rome est de J fiz out a nun Çalaphas]
f. ad a n. saraf J mes] einz J enveient] en en ueient; enuoient J E
ces enfaunz chevachent] Si (?) emfaunt cheuaucherent J f. si li enclinerunt]
si lenclinerent J pus li beiserunt] p. le beiserent J puis li bayse] p.b. J
firint] fist J si] issi J haut de linage] h. del l. J Checun fiz aporte un
anel ou le ymage] c. des f. port un an. del y. J f. Tuz ceus volent volenters] Tut
MEDIUM ÆVUM
LXXXIV.
cil uoleiet uoluntiers J f. terre ke Cristiens soleint tenir] ter. cum c. le s.ten.
J grant trowage par issi ke] g. treu p. si qe J des hore mes serreient en
peis] desormes ne seient enpires J communement for dis fez par an] c. qe
.x. feiz lan J quant reys ou princes de la terre] q.r. ou p. de sa t.; q. ascun r.
ou p. de t. J f. lé receit hom en la primere sale] le rescut lem a la p.s. J si
estunt devant] si serreient d. J trogeman] drogeman J sa venue] sa uoie
J parler ou le soudan] p. al s. J urent] auoient J furent en sun paleys]
f. totes enz un p. J dormereit] dormeit J eles] eux J li ele serreit de
tutes les autres honurés] li cele s. dame des a. J f. e si gireit ové cele plus
sovent ke ové totes les autres] si g. od li p.s. qe od les a. J garder cum ben
li plut] g. cumbien qe li p. J eles] eaux J freit] refreit J feffez] chase J
assemez] assene J cinke] .xv. J f. tutes les aporz c’est a dire lé presenz
ki valent par an mil besanz] tote laport qe uaut bien par an .xx. m.b. J unt]
unt la J ad] ad a J checun an] c. en; c. an J en le moys de aust] enz el
meis daust J quarante] .xv. J sarazineys] sarazins J f. pusnez gardent
e servent Mahumet] p.s. e g.m. J f. l’aport c’est a dire les presens ke vaut par
an quarante mil besanz] laport qe v. al meins par an .xx. m.b. J terre] cyte
J en miliu] enmi J si cum li autre livret dist] om. J vers le orient] v.
occident J est la terre de Egypte] est une t. de egypti J vers le ocident]
v.o. J f. de l’autre part] Dautre p. J sunt] ad J de mur] de bon m. J
e si ad grant eise de ewe] e ei. deawe J ad une eglise] ad eglises J f. vile en
un seint liu dedenz une montaigne ke l’om apele] v. est un seintisme leu denz
un m. qom a. J est] ad J sunt] ad J virgines] vigines; virgines J est]
ad J aune lee] a. de l. J plus de baume] p. qe b. J pris] entrepris J
depeynte] peinte J E en] En J f. les Sarazins del pays envirun deus] li s.e.
le p. deus J f. aust en septembre si l’aourent] au. e en se. si aourent J Cele
table fu] C.f.; C.t.f. J f. le purchaça] laporta J puis le] p. la J abbesse]
albesse; abesse J ke le fist porter a Sardaney] qe la f.p. en s. J Antioche]
antiohe; antioche J f. sunt apellez Hasyesyns e lour seignur est apelé li Veus]
sunt apele li ueus de la montaigne; sunt apelle hauzassis e lour auowe est appelle
li ueuz J Iceo] Icele J trovent] encuntrent J cristiens sarazins e guis
kar] c. e des s.k. J il soleit [MS soleint] ocire mult de gens merveilusement] il
sout o. assez me. J Il i ad un haut paleys enclos de haut mur] Il ad un ha.p.e.
de mout ha.m. J entrer fors par un’ entré] entrer si p. un entree nun J f.
mult dé fiz de ces vilayns] mous d.f. ses v. J f. Lur mestre ki les aprent lur
enseigne] Li m. [faded] qe les a. si lour e. J f. e dist ke il ne le purrunt aver
autrement sinun [MS si] par fere le commaundement lur seignur] e nel deiuent
au.av. si par f. le c. lour se. noun J f. Ces enfanz de l’houre k’il serrunt nez]
Cil e. del hour qil sunt n. J autre hom ne femme for] a.h. fors J f. dreke
taunt ke il lur vendra a prover pur fere akune malice] desqe ataunt qil l. vodra
fere fere a.m. J fet eynz venir] f.v. J s’il] sil il; sil J icés] cil J Sire]
oyl J ou li plet] ou plus li p. J cel’] tele J f. par quey la terre est apelé
Fenice] p. ki la t. est a. edom ou ydume une autre t.e.a.f. J Ces terres divise
une montaigne ke ad nun Liban] Cestes t.d. un mount qest apelle l. J En
Fenice é Acre Surs e Barut] E f. e a. Burs e b.; En f. est A.S. e B. J Sece]
LA TERRE
DES SARAZINS
Seat J e en issit] e i.; e en i. J unt] out J sanke Nostre Seignur] sa.
de n.se. J Sur est la plus noble cité e la plus bele de Fenice] Guces est … de
f.; S. est la p.b.c. e la p. forte c. de f. J voleit] uout J sur la marine eynz
ocirent] s. loing la m.e. en occistrent J Libauns] Libanus J f. neessent ke
sunt apelez Farfar e Abana Abana curt] n. ke s.ap.f. e ab.c.; n.f. e ab.ab.c. J
par le munt] p.m.; p. le m. J f. e as pleynes de Arcades e chet en la mer la
ou Eustace] e a pleyns de ar. e c. en la m. la ou eu.; e as pleins de archados jesqe
en la m. la ou seint eu. J; Eustace] placidas H perdi] per with dis (or dir ?)
s.s.; perdi J f. par Sirie desu e les murs de Antioche al port de seint Simun]
par surye solom les m. dauriothe (?) e adis milles chiet enmer desuz an. al po. de
se. symeon J Al pé del munt de Liban] Del p. del m.l. J desus] desur
J ou fu ocis Saul e Jonathas] ou fu o.s. e jonachas; ou s.f.oc. e j. J la
assemblent] la se a. J Seignur] sire J deseire] desseure J After J adds
De antioche a acre ad .xii. journeez par terre e iiii. par eawe. De acre a Nazareth
ad .vi. leus e amont thabor .viij. lues e li mouns de cayphas a .iiii. lues e chastel
pelerin a .vij. lues. De chastel pelerin a cesaire .v. liues de cesaire a japhet .xii.
lues de japhe a scalon .vi. lues e a bettinoble .viii. lues de bettinoble a jerusalem
.v. lues e a Bethleem .iii. lues with vacat s.s. (cf. H, fol. a) flum sunt nef
liues] f. ix. l. J .iiij. liues] .iii. l. J Pres d’Escalun sur mer est Gazres] P.
descalun est la m. de g.; p. de scalon s.m. est gadres J une forte cité] une c.
J dunt] dunt repeated; dunt J desur] sur J jorneys] jornes with faint
corr.; iournees J f. terre parentre est deserte e sabelus’] t. entre desert est s.;
t. entre est d. e sablenose J f. e ne porte nule chose for bussuns e par enz
arbussuns] si ne po.nu.c.f.b. e petitz arbrisseus J
destempré] destrepe J f. ke nul homme i entre for les Bedewins ke
i passent a la feze] qe n. ni abite f. li bede[stain] qe i p. a la fe J i est] i e.
repeated; i e. J mult freid] m. sreit J f. nurit leons e senglers e tors [MS
cors] savages e autres bestes savages] n. moutz l. e se. e b.sa. J f. jor en
ivern] j. de i. J espaumes] espaunes de J haut si la feri Moyses e le ewe
en sailli] haut la feri moyses e le ewe en sailli; h. La fert m. la pere e ew. en sa.
J f. Arabie e aprés est Sinai] ar. e ap. est sina; ar.ap. est syna J aprés de
Egipte] pres de e. J e plus] e mout J f. A la feze est cele terre arusé de
Nil] E ala f. est ar. del n. J le Syn e si vient] le rin e v. J f. ad de pessuns]
ad p. J f. Cel liu norist mult de chivaus sauvages ke meinent desuth aigue]
Cel l. … desuth ayguf (or aygus ?); Il n. mu.ch.s. qe me.d. arguz J a la terre
seche en] a la t. fethe (?) en; a la fiez en J f. En le braz de flum] Al b. del
f. J a Tanise sunt mult de cocatrix beginning with -nise, inserted below by scribe]
athamise ad m.c. J beste de la faiture e de la furme de lesarde] b. de la de
la fa. e la fu. de un l. J E si] Si J e curtes quises e grande teste e gros
piez e plener] e curt q. e grosse t. e groz piz e pl. J hors] fors J tost la
devoure] t. lad devoree with -ee expuncted J apelé le Nil comence a crestre a
mi join] a.n.co. a cr. enmi j. J f. crest dekes a la feste de la seinte Croys] cre.
tresqe la f. la s.cro. J f. Quant ele est descrue si venent les paysans del pais si]
q. il est des. siuient li paisaunt del pais de la terre si J f. sement tote maneres
de blez e de linz si] se.b. de la terre to.m. si J f. marz nul ne pot autrement]
MEDIUM ÆVUM
LXXXIV.
m. nele ne porteret a. J grant partie chet del Nil en la mer] g. braz d.n.c. en
m. J f. la siet [MS si est] Damiete Damiete est une bone cité] la s.d.u.b.c. J
f. enclose de duble murs e de fossez e si ben pavé e garnie de trente granz
turs] e. dedeus paire des m. e de f.b.p. e ga. a la ronde dexxx. gr.tu. J f. Par
devers le flum est la tur al Soudan einz enmi le flum est une graunt tour ke garde
lé entré et lé issue par treis grosses chenes ke vunt a la tur le Soudan ke nul’] Par
divers la tur al s. si est en le fl. grande e forte ke ga. le en. et le i. par treis ch. ke
unt a la tur le s. ke nul; Par d. le fl. est la tour al s. einz enmi le fl. est une grant
tour qe ga. lentre e lissue del fl. par tr. grosses ch. qe v. a a la tour del s. de la
tour dedenz qe nul J ne puet entrer aler] ne p.a.; ne puisse e.a. J chef
de tuz les porz de paynime] c. des po. de pa. J f. chef e la plus bele cité] ch.
de la p.b.ci.; ch. e la p. forte ci. J De] E de J reverence a] r. e a J
est une jorné] ad un j. J f. cité ke seet sur la mer si curt] ci. si siet sur m. si
i cu. J f. soleynt fere plus de mal a la Cristienté ke tuz les porz de paynime]
so.pl.m.f. sur christiens qe t. les potz de pa. J dekes] om. J sunt] ad J
al Kayre est la terece partie de une liue] a la kayce est la t.p. de une l.; al k.
ad le t. dune l. J les seges reaus] le sege real J f. si ke trestute manere
de genz crestiens sarazins e juis i meinent e si tient] si qe ihauntent tote ma. de
g.c. e sa. e j. e si i ti. J Cele cité est environé de vergers e de gardins] Ce.
est en. auironee des g. e de v. J le baume] le basne J est meur en la
issue de may] est maiour al i. de may J f. e dunke fent hom l’escorce cum
lé vigneroun] e du. fet h. lescorcer c. le vigneroun (? u + minims beneath bar); e
idonc f. lom lescors c. le v. J f. E puis en chet grosse [MS gresse] gutte ke
l’em receit en] e p. encheent grosses goutes siles r. lom en J f. le mettent
pus en fens de columb demi an e] le reponent p.de. an en f. de c. e J terre
est] t. ad J ou est] ou ad J estre arusé de autre ewe] es. de au.ew.; es.ar.
dautre enwe J fors a cele fontaigne] fors la J f. La soleit Nostre Dame
laver les dras sun cher fiz] a cele funtaine so.n.da. les dr. sun c.f. laver J
aportent] portent J e volunters vunt la chescun] e vo. unt la c.; e mout vo.
i vu.c. J un paumer ou Nostre Dame esgarda les dates e desira] un p. qe
porte dates N. dame iuint si les es. e de. J ele prist del frut E] ele en p.d.f.
ceo qe li plout e J f. se redressa veiant les] se redeesca devaunt les J la
coperent] le c. J f. l’endemein la troverent enterre] lendemain fu redrescee J
E pus tuzjurs les Sarazins ont honuré e honurent cel arbre (-rent cel a. inserted
below by scribe); e li s.o.p. honoree c.a. e honurent J f. primere siet sur le flum
de Cobar] p. si est le f. de c.; p. siet sur le f. de c. J f. fu li reys] fu r. J f.
fu li reys] fu r. J Ces] celes J destrutes] destuces; destruites J terce
fu] t. est J sunt] ad J aukes est loynz] a. ensuz J al soudan] al rey
J port est une tur ke garde lé entré e lé issue] p. ad un haut t. qe g. lentree
e lissue J Illuke mettent il le] I. met hom le J guier] enginer; engigner
J cité n’i ad] c. ne ni ad; c. nad J sunt] ad J sepulture e illuke en
emblerent les Veniciens la sepulture] se.i.em. le v. sa se. J Illuke elit hom le
patriarche] I.e. lem p. J E sachez ke feves] e s.f. J f. blez i seime l’em e
les leguns a la feste seint Martin checun an si les syent en mars] b. e de autres
fruiz iseme lem de la f. seint martin si le sy. en marche J f. E les berbis e
LA TERRE
DES SARAZINS
les chevres [MS chewers] founent deus feze par an] e sachez qe les ch. e les b. i
fo.d.fe. en lan J patriarche remaunda les custumes] p. li r. le contenement
e les c. J
NOTES
In the following, all references to NpH are to volume III.
1
The full title is Relatio tripartita ad Innocentium III de viribus Agarenorum. A handful of
studies bearing on the Relatio have appeared since : Tony Hunt, ‘Haymarus’s Relatio
tripartita in Anglo-Norman’, Medieval Encounters, (), –; Benjamin Z. Kedar,
‘The Tractatus de locis et statu sancte terre ierosolimitane’, in The Crusades and their Sources, ed. John
France and William G. Zajac (Aldershot, ), pp. –; and Jean Richard, ‘Pouvoir
royal et patriarcat au temps de la Cinquième Croisade’, Crusades, (), –. See
also Ruth J. Dean with Maureen B. M. Boulton, Anglo-Norman Literature (London, ),
§. For Bible passages, the sources consulted are Biblia Sacra iuxta vulgatam versionem, ed.
Robert Weber and Roger Gryson, th edn (Stuttgart, ), and www.latinvulgate.com.
I am grateful to Meredith College and to Dr Garry Walton, Dean, School of Arts and
Humanities, for support for travel to Cambridge University Library in and . I
express my sincere thanks to Shanna Alley, Judy Schuster, and Jacob Vaccaro of Carlyle
Campbell Library for speedy and cheerful interlibrary loan service.
2
Al- dil (–), called Saphadin, is the central historical figure of LTS. For
biographical sketches, see al-Makīn ibn al- Amid, Chronique des Ayyoubides, trans. AnneMarie Eddé and Françoise Micheau ([Paris], ), pp. –; al-Maqrīzī, A History of
the Ayyūbid Sultans of Egypt, trans. R. J. C. Broadhurst (Boston, Mass., ), pp. f.;
Nikita Elisséeff, L’Orient musulman au Moyen Âge, – (Paris, ), pp. –; and H.
A. R. Gibb, ‘Al-Malik al- dil abū Bakr Muḥammad b. Ayyūb’, The Encyclopaedia of Islam
(hereafter EI), vols (Leiden, ), I, f. For a sympathetic portrayal of al- dil by
a late twelfth-century western chronicler, see Marianne J. Ailes, ‘The admirable enemy?
Saladin and Saphadin in Ambroise’s Estoire de la guerre sainte’, in Knighthoods of Christ, ed.
Norman Housley (Aldershot, ), pp. – (pp. –). Meanwhile, Innocent III was
blasting al- dil as the incarnation of the beast of the Apocalypse (Joseph P. Donovan,
Pelagius and the Fifth Crusade (Philadelphia, Pa, ; repr. ), p. ).
3
See lines –. There were five successive patriarchs of Jerusalem during Innocent
III’s reign (–), including Haymarus Monachus (r. –) and Raoul de
Mérencourt (–). For profiles of these and the intervening patriarchs, see Giorgio
Fedalto, La chiesa latina in Oriente, nd edn, vols (Verona, ), I, –; and L. de MasLatrie, ‘Les Patriarches latins de Jérusalem’, Revue de l’Orient latin, (; hathitrust.org),
– (pp. –). The Relatio was probably written at Acre, the seat of the patriarchate
after Ṣal ḥ al-Dīn (hereafter Saladin) reclaimed the Holy City in .
4
For general histories, see Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades, vols (Cambridge,
–); Jean Richard, The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, vols (Amsterdam, ); id., The
Crusades, c.–c., trans. Jean Birrell (Cambridge, ), and Jonathan Riley-Smith, The
Crusades: A History, nd edn (New Haven, Conn., ). For the Fifth Crusade, Palmer
A. Throop, Criticism of the Crusade (Amsterdam, ); Thomas C. Van Cleve, ‘The Fifth
Crusade’, in A History of the Crusades, ed. Kenneth M. Setton, vols (Madison, Wis.,
–), II, –; Donovan, Pelagius and the Fifth Crusade; Joshua Prawer, Histoire du
royaume latin de Jérusalem, trans. G. Nahon, vols (Paris, –), II, –; and James
M. Powell, Anatomy of a Crusade, – (Philadelphia, Pa, ).
MEDIUM ÆVUM
LXXXIV.
5
The Relatio has been printed repeatedly but was without an editor until recently. Christine
Gadrat, Université d’Aix-Marseille, has a critical edition in hand (email correspondence,
April ). I am thankful to Laurent Brun (Ottawa) for bringing Professor Gadrat’s
work to my attention. For the Relatio, I have consulted two works attributed by their
editors to Jacques de Vitry, Gesta Dei per Francos (hereafter GDF), ed. Jacques Bongars
(Hannover, ), I, –; and Narratio patriarchæ Hierosolymitani (hereafter NpH), in
Thesaurus novus anecdotorum, ed. E. Martène and U. Durand, vols (Paris, ; hathitrust.
org), III, cols –. For a recent evaluation of Bongars’s edition, see Jacques de Vitry,
Histoire orientale (Historia orientalis), ed. and trans. Jean Donnadieu (Turnhout, ), pp.
f., who calls it the ‘second printed edition’ of the Historia orientalis; and id., ‘L’Historia
orientalis de Jacques de Vitry, tradition manuscrite et histoire du texte’, Sacris erudiri,
(), – (pp. f.). Compared with Bongars’s GDF, the edition by Martène
and Durand (NpH) is ‘sensiblement différente’, according to Donnadieu, ‘L’Historia
orientalis’, p. , but the variants from NpH shown in the Notes section below hardly
bear out this claim for the Relatio. Until such time as a full study of the Relatio appears, it
is difficult to state which manuscript or printing represents the earliest and best version.
For the Continental French version, see Charles Hopf, Chroniques gréco-romanes (Berlin,
; hathitrust.org), pp. –. For Latin manuscripts, Reinhold Röhricht, Bibliotheca
geographica Palaestinae (Berlin, ; archive.org), p. , lists ten from the thirteenth century,
nine from the fourteenth, and six from the fifteenth. For the manuscripts of the AN
versions, see p. above.
6
See Antony Leopold, How to Recover the Holy Land (Aldershot, ); and Evelyn Edson,
‘Reviving the crusade: Sanudo’s schemes and Vesconte’s map’, in Eastward Bound, ed.
Rosamund Allen (Manchester, ), pp. –.
7
Burchard’s De statu Egypti vel Babylonie (hereafter DsE), is inserted in book VII of
Arnold of Lübeck’s Chronica Slavorum in Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores , ed.
G. H. Pertz (Hannover, ; www.dmgh.de), pp. –. See also Jules de Saint-Génois,
Voyages faits en Terre Sainte par Thetmar en et par Burchard de Strasbourg en , ou
(Brussels, ; books.google.com), pp. –. Histoire orientale de Jacques de Vitry, ed. and
trans. Marie-Geneviève Grossel (Paris, ), p. , dates DsE from c., but Kedar,
‘The Tractatus’, p. , and most other scholars place the work c.. For the Relatio’s
extensive borrowings from Burchard, see Grossel, pp. –.
8
For Gray’s Inn MS (= MS L), see Alfred J. Horwood, A Catalogue of the Ancient
Manuscripts Belonging to the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn (London, ; archive.org), pp.
–. The Relatio is inserted in Article X (fols a–), which Horwood attributes to
Oliver of Cologne [Paderborn] (pp. viii, ). Incipit: ‘Cum bene memorie dominus papa
Innocencius tercius pro deliberatione terre sancte orbem terrarum finesque suos …’ (fol.
r); explicit: ‘Dicto de soldanis babiloniae et damasci … fratribus et consuetudinibus et
moribus eorundem de situ eciam et civitatibus terre egipti …’ (fol. r), a total of ninetyone lines. L was not a source of the summary version of LTS as its narrative sequence
diverges from the patterns in more than twenty texts of the Relatio and LTS that I have
examined. I am thankful to Julia Schneider and the Medieval Institute Library, University
of Notre Dame, for the loan of a microfilm of MS L.
9
Ryccardi de Sancto Germano ‘Chronica’, ed. C. A. Garufi, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores
/ (Bologna, ), pp. –. Beginning at p. , Garufi collates the Chronica and the
Chronica priora in facing columns. In the Chronica, the pope writes to the patriarch and to
the masters of the Hospitallers and Templars; in the Chronica priora, only to the masters
(p. ). Richard de San Germano’s version omits the description of the Holy Land and
Egypt, but, like Jacques de Vitry, he includes a statement of the terms which, according
to the patriarch, al- dil and his sons were disposed to accept, beginning, ‘Uolunt isti
LA TERRE
DES SARAZINS
libenter reddere in manus domini pape terram sanctam …’ (p. ). This text immediately
follows a letter from Innocent III to Saphadin, sub –, in which the pontiff urges
the restoration of the Holy Land to Christian hands (pp. f.). For the date , see
Throop, Criticism, p. n. ; and Joseph Michaud, Bibliothèque des croisades, vols (n.p.,
–; hathitrust.org), II, f.
10
The date follows Christian Cannuyer, ‘La Date de la rédaction de l’ “Historia
orientalis” de Jacques de Vitry’, Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique, (), – (p. ); but
according to Jean Donnadieu (Histoire orientale, ed. and trans. Donnadieu, pp. –), the
Bishop of Acre composed books I and II between and c./. Today many
scholars doubt that Jacques authored book III. Donnadieu, Histoire orientale, pp. , ,
, dismisses book III as spurious and states that it was written not in the Levant but in
Europe, probably after Jacques’s death. See also id., ‘L’Historia orientalis’, pp. f.; and
The ‘Historia occidentalis’ of Jacques de Vitry, ed. J. F. Hinnebusch (Fribourg, ), p. .
For the text, see further La Traduction de l’Historia orientalis de Jacques de Vitry, trans. and
ed. Claude Buridant (Paris, ).
11
Roger of Wendover, Flores historiarum, ed. Henry G. Hewlett, vols (London, –;
hathitrust.org), I, – (sub ); see also II, – (Sardenei, sub ); and Roger of
Wendover’s ‘Flowers of History’, trans. J. A. Giles, vols (London, ; archive.org), II,
–.
12
Albericus Trium Fontium, Chronicon, in Testimonia minora de quinto bello sacro et chronicis
occidentalibus, ed. Reinhold Röhricht (Geneva, ; hathitrust.org), pp. f. (sub ).
13
Vincent de Beauvais, Speculum historiale (Douai, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. ), livre
XXXII, especially chs –, Epistola patriarchae Iherusalem ad papam Innocentium III, available
at atilf.atilf.fr/bichard/.
14
Matthew Paris, Chronica majora, ed. Henry Richards Luard, vols (London, ;
archive.org), II, –.
15
Crusader Syria in the Thirteenth Century, trans. Janet Shirley (Aldershot, ), pp. –;
and Continuation de Guillaume de Tyr, dite du manuscrit de Rothelin, in Recueil des Historiens des
Croisades, historiens occidentaux, vols (Paris, –; gallica.bnf.fr), II, –, especially
pp. – (sub ).
16
Chronique française de Guillaume de Nangis, Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), ms.
fr. , fols – (gallica.bnf.fr).
17
Jean de Vignay’s Miroir historial is a French translation of the Speculum historiale just
mentioned. See London, British Library, Royal MS . D. I, fols v–v (www.bl.uk/
manuscripts).
18
BnF ms. fr. . R. B. C. Huygens (Lettres de Jacques de Vitry, /–, ed. R. B.
C. Huygens (Leyden, ), p. ) states that the Relatio Ierosolimitani patriarche is a version
of our text in a manuscript dated .
19
Thirteenth-century compilers and editors considered the Tractatus as a relevant
extension of the Relatio, and they frequently appended it to the Relatio in their works.
See Itinera Hierosolymitana Crucesignatorum, ed. S. de Sandoli, vols (Jerusalem, –),
III, –. Kedar, ‘The Tractatus’, pp. –, reviews ‘ years of discontinuous
research’ (p. ) and prints the treatise following London, British Library, Royal MS
. C. X. Professor Richard, ‘Pouvoir royal et patriarcat,’ pp. f., also discusses the
Tractatus, which he calls De statu Terrae Sanctae. Denys Pringle, Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the
Holy Land, – (Farnham, ), p. , states that chs – represent the Tractatus,
while – are based on Bede’s De locis sanctis and other texts. See also Andrew Jotischky,
‘The Mendicants as missionaries and travellers in the Near East in the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries,’ in Eastward Bound, pp. – (p. ).
20
Regesta regni Hierosolymitani (MXCVII–MCCXCI), ed. Reinhold Röhricht, vols
MEDIUM ÆVUM
LXXXIV.
(Oeniponti, ; archive.org), I, f., records the request as follows: (‘[] Sept.
–Octob. . Laterani). – Innocentius III (Monacho), patriarchae Hierosolymitano,
episcopo Lyddensi, Hospitalis ac Templi magistris … mandat, ut de statu provinciae
Hierosolymitanae frequenter et veraciter rescribant.’ See also Regesta Pontificum romanorum
inde ab anno post Christum natum MCXCVIII ad annum MCCCIV, ed. Augustus Potthast,
vols (Berlin, ; hathitrust.org), I, (no. ), sub Sept. –Oct. , , which reads:
‘(Monacho) Hierosolymitano patriarchae, Liddensi episcopo, Hierosolymitani hospitalis
et militiae Templi magistris mandat, ut … de statu Terrae sanctae rescribant.’
21
The Fourth Crusade had initially targeted Egypt and the Holy Land. See Geoffroy de
Villehardouin, La Conquête de Constantinople, ed. Jean Dufournet (Paris, ), p. . See
further Crusade and Christendom, ed. Jessalynn Bird, Edward Peters, and James M. Powell
(Philadelphia, Pa, ), p. ; Louise and Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Crusades: Idea and
Reality, – (London, ), p. ; Elizabeth Siberry, Criticism of Crusading, –
([Oxford], ), p. ; Richard, The Crusades, c.–c., p. ; and Leopold, How to
Recover the Holy Land, pp. –, f.
22
Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Knights of St John in Jerusalem and Cyprus, c.– (London,
), points out that Innocent III ‘instituted the practice … of demanding and receiving
frequent reports on the situation in the Holy Land from the hierarchies of Syria, the
Templars and the Hospitallers’ (p. ; see also p. ).
23
‘Innocent took particular care with the registers of his letters, but the registers for
, , and have been lost, as have those for – …’ (Crusade and
Christendom, p. ).
24
Röhricht, Regesta regni Hierosolymitani, I, , summarizes Haymarus’s response: ‘([]
Nov. c.). – Haymarus Monachus, patriarcha Hierosolymitanus, ex mandato Innocentii III
papae eidem de statu politico Saracenorum accuratissime refert descriptionem Terrae
Sanctae et Aegypti geographicam addens.’
25
Richard, The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, vol. A, p. .
26
Richard, The Crusades, c.–c., p. ; and especially id., ‘Pouvoir royal et patriarcat’,
pp. f. Grossel, Histoire orientale de Jacques de Vitry, p. , also places the Relatio in the
context of preparation for the Fifth Crusade.
27
I follow Gibb, ‘Al- dil’, EI, I, ; and S. Heidemann, ‘Al-Z hir’, EI, XI, , in this
sentence and the next two.
28
Hunt, ‘Haymarus’s Relatio’, p. , cites Marie Luise Bulst-Thiele, Sacrae domus militiae
Templi Hierosolymitani magistri (Göttingen, ), p. n. . Even Richard, ‘Pouvoir royal
et patriarcat’, p. , does not rule out a date before /.
29
Like Dean and Boulton, Anglo-Norman Literature, § , I call the AN version La Terre
des Sarazins after the title in the work’s incipit and explicit, and to avoid confusion with the
Latin Relatio. In his list of manuscripts, Röhricht, Bibliotheca geographica Palaestinae, pp. f.,
combines Continental French and AN versions under a single heading.
30
Among the types of crusader literature outlined by J. G. Davies, ‘Pilgrimage and
crusade literature’, in Journeys Toward God, ed. Barbara N. Sargent-Baur (Kalamazoo, Mich.,
), pp. –, ‘letters’ (p. ) would seem to be the obvious category for an epistle to
the pope, but as a descriptor this label is too restrictive for LTS.
31
I reference the summary version edited here. The longest section is the account of
Cairo, its precincts and sights (lines –). The article on the Assassins (lines –)
and the sections on Egypt and the Nile (lines –) and Alexandria (lines –) are
also relatively lengthy.
32
The dates and folio references below generally follow Dean and Boulton, Anglo-Norman
Literature, §, although their list is incomplete. I exclude London, British Library, Royal
MS . D. I [= R], fols v–v, an important manuscript of the amplified version
LA TERRE
DES SARAZINS
of LTS in Continental French but with AN characteristics. Jean de Vignay’s translation
of the patriarch’s letter is inserted after Jean de Plan Carpin’s Travels to the East. For
the relationship of R and Bodl. , see Laurent Brun and Mattia Cavagna, ‘Pour une
édition du Miroir historial de Jean de Vignay’, Romania, (), – (pp. , ,
). For the digitized R, see www.bl.uk/manuscripts; for a description, www.bl.uk/
catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts; for R’s production, Richard H. Rouse and Mary A.
Rouse, Manuscripts and their Makers, vols (Turnhout, ), I, –. The Rouses identify
this text as an excerpt from Jean de Vignay’s Miroir historial, a translation of the Speculum
historiale of Vincent of Beauvais, which includes the Relatio.
33
See Paul Meyer, ‘Les Manuscrits français de Cambridge, I: Saint John’s College’,
Romania, [(); archive.org], – (pp. –); Montague Rhodes James, A
Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of St John’s College (Cambridge, ;
archive.org), pp. – (p. ); and Syon Abbey, ed. Vincent Gillespie, Corpus of British
Medieval Library Catalogues, (London, ), pp. f. I am grateful to Kathryn McKee
and the Library of St John’s College, Cambridge, for a digital reproduction of J’s text
of LTS.
34
See A Catalogue of the Manuscripts Preserved in the Library of the University of Cambridge,
vols (Cambridge, –; repr. Munich, ), III, f.; and Paul Meyer, ‘Les Manuscrits
français de Cambridge, II: Bibliothèque de l’Université’, Romania, ((); archive.
org), – (p. ). Meyer dates U ‘des environs de ’ (p. ). Dean and Boulton,
Anglo-Norman Literature, § imply that LTS covers fols a–a and b–a, but the
latter section presents the Tractatus, an extended description of Jerusalem beginning, ‘La
terre de Jerusalem est assise en miliu le mund, ceo est a saver en miliu la terre ke est
habitable’. I am grateful to the staff of the Cambridge University Library for their kind
help during my visits.
35
See Hunt, ‘Haymarus’s Relatio’, p. ; N. R. Ker, Facsimile of British Museum MS. Harley
(London, ), pp. ix–xxiii (p. xiv); and Studies in the Harley Manuscript, ed. Susanna
Fein (Kalamazoo, Mich., ), p. , item .
36
Jean-Pascal Pouzet, ‘Augustinian Canons and their Insular French books in medieval
England’, in Language and Culture in Medieval Britain, ed. Jocelyn Wogan-Browne et al.
(Woodbridge, ), pp. – (p. ).
37
See Hunt, ‘Haymarus’s Relatio’, p. ; and R. M. Thomson, A Descriptive Catalogue
of the Medieval Manuscripts of Merton College, Oxford (Cambridge, ), pp. f. I would
like to thank Julia Walworth, Fellow Librarian, Merton College, Oxford, for a digital
reproduction of M’s text of LTS, and Daron Burrows (Oxford) for checking several
passages of my transcription.
38
For descriptions, see Catalogue of Manuscripts in the British Museum, New Series, I/:
The Arundel Manuscripts (London, ; hathitrust.org), p. ; www.bl.uk/catalogues/
manuscripts; and Hunt, ‘Haymarus’s Relatio’, pp. f.
39
First listed and printed by Hunt, ‘Haymarus’s Relatio’, pp. –.
40
See Dean and Boulton, Anglo-Norman Literature, § ; Paul Meyer, ‘Notice du ms.
Bodley de la bibliothèque Bodléienne (Oxford)’, Romania, ((); archive.org),
– (pp. f.); A Summary Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at
Oxford, vols (Oxford, –; hathitrust.org), II/, –; and Hunt, ‘Haymarus’s
Relatio’, pp. –. Rouse and Rouse, Manuscripts and their Makers, I, n. , surmise
that MS R ‘had perhaps gone to England by c.–, when an extract from Marco Polo
was included in Bodleian Bodl. , written then; perhaps [MS R] had been captured
with John the Good at Poitiers’; see also Brun and Cavagna, ‘Pour une édition du Miroir
historial’, pp. f. I am preparing a critical edition and modern English translation of
this manuscript’s amplified version of LTS.
MEDIUM ÆVUM
LXXXIV.
41
Thus the account of the icon at Sardenay requires ten lines in U (lines –) but
only three in H; similarly, U devotes eighteen lines (–) to the Assassins while H
requires only seven lines.
42
Other peculiarities: H has details not found in JMU, e.g., healing oil flows from
the breast of the icon at Sardenay (‘de sa mamele yst oille qe fet medicine a chescun
maner [d’] enfermeté’, fol. a; cf. lines – of our text); the Assassins’ knives are
poisoned (‘cotels envenimez’, fol. a; cf. lines –); and the section on the Sinai desert
emphasizes the Hebrews’ crossing of the Red Sea (fol. b; cf. line ). Unlike JMU,
H places the description of Beirut’s icon after, not before the account of Sur (fol. a;
cf. lines –); H advances the description of Mt Sinai and the tomb of St Katherine,
using it as a prelude to the account of the Sinai desert (fol. a; cf. lines –, –);
finally, H is without explicit. Meanwhile, M differs from JU in several ways: M transposes
the descriptions of Saphadin’s fifth and sixth sons (fol. r; lines – of our text) and
omits the substance of the account of Mt Sinai and its shrine of St Katherine (lines f.).
In a coda of thirty-five lines, M provides a description of various holy places including
Jerusalem, Bethany, Bethlehem, and Hebron. The compiler of M explicitly separates the
text of LTS and the coda, as follows: ‘Jeo vous dirroi ascunes choses trovez par aillours en
escripct le mandement le patriarke a l’apostoille’ (fol. v). Otherwise, the arrangement
of chapters in M fairly replicates their articulation in JU.
43
For historical figures and events in LTS, I have consulted Ibn al-Athīr (–),
The Perfect History, excerpts in Francesco Gabrieli, Arab Historians of the Crusades, trans.
E. J. Costello (London, ), pp. –; al-Makīn ibn al- Amīd (–), Chronique
des Ayyoubides; and al-Maqrīzī (–), A History; also, Hamilton A. R. Gibb, ‘The
Aiyūbids’, in A History of the Crusades, ed. Setton, II, –, and R. Stephen Humphreys,
From Saladin to the Mongols (Albany, NY, ), pp. –.
44
Lines f. This statement has no equivalent in the standard or amplified version of LTS.
45
See Oliver of Paderborn’s account of al- dil’s death in Crusade and Christendom, p.
; and Ibn al-Athīr’s note in Gabrieli, Arab Historians, p. .
46
Lines –.
47
Lines f. The amplified version hints at the origin of this tradition: ‘Et le piere les
beise chascun troiz foiz et donne a chascun .j. anel d’or qi est ennobly de la taille de son
ymage’ (Bodl. , fol. r).
48
Lines f. Hunt, ‘Haymarus’s Relatio’, p. , calls attention to this line in Bodl. , a
manuscript of the AN amplified version: ‘cest [=al-Mu aẓẓam or Coradin] avoit treues
avec la Patriarche et avec les mestres du temple et de l’ospital jusques au premer passage
qi fu l’an de grace mil .cclxvii.’ The date is surely a scribal error, as al-Mu aẓẓam
had died forty years earlier, in November . The intended date must be , i.e.
‘mil .ccxvii’.
49
For the identification of Coradin with al-Mu aẓẓam, see Michaud, Bibliothèque des
croisades, II, , ; Cannuyer, ‘La Date de la rédaction de l’ “Historia orientalis”’, pp.
f.; and Pringle, Pilgrimage, p. .
50
Powell, Anatomy of a Crusade, p. .
51
Lines f. The amplified version has ‘Corradin le secont pourlist (read poursist) Damas
et la sainte cité de Jherusalem et tote la terre qi avant avoit esté des Crestiens’ (Bodl.
, fol. v).
52
Lines f. The standard version has a similar reading: ‘Ces dous porz solerent plus
mal fere sur Cristiens ke tuz les porz de painime’ (London, British Library, Arundel MS
, fol. r). The amplified version has no equivalent reading.
53
Al-K mil ordered the destruction of Tanis in , apparently as part of a scorchedearth campaign in advance of an expected crusader attack. See Michael Chamberlain,
LA TERRE
DES SARAZINS
‘The crusader era and the Ayyūbid dynasty’, in The Cambridge History of Egypt, ed. Carl F.
Petry, vols (Cambridge, ), I, – (p. ).
54
See Oliver of Paderborn’s detailed description of Château Pèlerin (Crusade and
Christendom, pp. –). The Franks built Château Pèlerin in response to the new threat
posed by Mount Tabor. It beggars belief that our author, if he wrote in –, could
be unaware of Château Pèlerin, and yet Thetmar’s account of his travels in Palestine
and Sinai in – does not mention the Fifth Crusade, which was already under way
by then. See P. D. A. Harvey, Medieval Maps of the Holy Land (London, ), p. ; and
Grossel, Histoire orientale de Jacques de Vitry, p. .
55
e.g. the amplified version states, ‘Et d’Acre jusqes a Cayphas contre le mydi sont ij
liues. Et de la en a v jusqes a chastel Palerin qi est dit le Destroit’ (Bodl. , fol. v);
H briefly mentions ‘le chastel peregrin’ at fol. a.
56
Al-Maqrīzī dates the construction of the fortress June –May , stating that
al- dil personally supervised the work (A History, p. ). John of Brienne stormed the
fortress on December but failed to take it. Quia maior, ‘Innocent’s greatest crusade
encyclical’, dates from late April . See L. and J. Riley-Smith, The Crusades: Idea and
Reality, pp. , f.; and Crusade and Christendom, pp. , –.
57
Runciman, A History of the Crusades, III, .
58
By contrast, Donnadieu, Histoire orientale, p. , detects in Jacques’s work ‘une volonté
de dénigrement de la personne et de l’enseignement de Mahomet dans le contexte d’une
action missionnaire en milieu musulman’.
59
Chamberlain, ‘The crusader era and the Ayyūbid dynasty’, pp. , , .
60
For the Chain Tower, see al-Maqrīzī, A History, pp. f. See also Oliver of Paderborn’s
eyewitness account (Crusade and Christendom, pp. –, f.); I follow the dates given
there. Al- dil died mere days after this disaster.
61
Ian Short, Manual of Anglo-Norman, nd edn (Oxford, ), § ., ., ., .
62
Mildred K. Pope, From Latin to Modern French (Manchester, ; repr. ), § ;
Short, Manual, § ..
63
Short, Manual, § ., ..
64
Pope, From Latin to Modern French, § , ; Short, Manual, § ..
65
Pope, From Latin to Modern French, § , ; Short, Manual, § ., ..
66
Pope, From Latin to Modern French, § .
67
Ibid., § ; Short, Manual, § ..
68
Pope, From Latin to Modern French, § , where this trait is associated with Later AN.
69
Pope, From Latin to Modern French, § ; Short, Manual, § .*, ..
70
Pope, From Latin to Modern French, § ; Short, Manual, § ..
71
Pope, From Latin to Modern French, § ; Short, Manual, § ..
72
Pope, From Latin to Modern French, § ; Short, Manual, § ..
73
Short, Manual, § ..
74
Ibid., § ..
75
Pope, From Latin to Modern French, § ; Short, Manual, § .*.
76
Short, Manual, § .*, .**.
77
Ibid., § ., ..
78
Ibid., § ..
79
Ibid., § ., ..
80
Ibid., § ..
81
Pope, From Latin to Modern French, § , .
82
Ibid., § , .
83
Ibid., § ; Short, Manual, § ..
84
The record is unclear. At his death in , Saladin ‘left seventeen children, male and
MEDIUM ÆVUM
LXXXIV.
female’ (al-Maqrīzī, A History, p. ); ‘vndecim … filios’ (GDF, p. ); ‘ix. filios’ (MS
L, fol. v). Broadhurst’s Table II (al-Maqrīzī, A History, p. ) shows seventeen sons;
Anne-Marie Eddé, La Principauté ayyoubide d’Alep (/–/) (Stuttgart, ), fig.
, p. , eleven sons and no daughters.
85
Although this claim appears in all the various texts I have seen, there is no historical
evidence that al- dil killed any of his brother Saladin’s sons. According to Professor
Richard, Noradin refers to ‘al-Malik al-Afdhal Nûr al-Dîn ‘Ali, qui avait depuis longtemps
laissé Alep à son frère al-Malik al-Zahir Ghâzi’ (‘Pouvoir royal et patriarcat’, p. ).
Al-Z hir Gh zī was Saladin’s third son and prince of Aleppo during most of al- dil’s
sultanate, from until his death in . See S. Heidemann, ‘Al-Ẓ hir Gh zī’, EI,
XI, .
86
Broadhurst’s Table III (al-Maqrīzī, A History, pp. f.) indicates that al- dil had
nineteen sons; four of them died during al- dil’s lifetime. According to Eddé, La
Principauté ayyoubide d’Alep, fig. , p. , al- dil had thirteen sons and six daughters.
Al-Maqrīzī, A History, pp. f., profiles al- dil’s sons, and Richard, ‘Pouvoir royal et
patriarcat’, pp. –, discusses their names and kingdoms. See also al-Makīn ibn alAmīd, Chronique des Ayyoubides, pp. , –.
87
Melalin is al-K mil, al- dil’s eldest son. Al-K mil succeeded al- dil as sultan in
and ruled until his own death in . An enthusiast of western languages and literatures,
al-K mil purchased literate Christian captives in the aftermath of the Children’s Crusade
(c.), employing them as interpreters, teachers, and secretaries. In , St Francis
attempted unsuccessfully to convert him to Christianity (see Benjamin Z. Kedar, Crusade
and Mission (Princeton, NJ, ), p. ). During the Frankish occupation of Damietta,
al-K mil’s liberal overtures of peace were rejected repeatedly by the papal legate
Pelagius, the patriarch of Jerusalem, and other military leaders. Al-K mil finally gained
a stranglehold on the Frankish army at Mansurah and forced its withdrawal from Egypt
on September . See Runciman, A History of the Crusades, III, , –, , .
For a portrait of al-K mil, see Gibb, ‘The Aiyūbids’, p. .
88
‘et totam terram egypci meridie et septemtrione’ (MS L, fol. v).
89
With his father al- dil, al-Mu aẓẓam (†), or ‘Coradinus’ (MS L, fol. v),
undertook construction of the Mount Tabor fortress in /, then dismantled it in
/ (al-Maqrīzī, A History, pp. , ). According to Denys Pringle, Pilgrimage,
p. , construction began in May and was completed in July . Al-Mu aẓẓam is
perhaps best known in the West for ordering the destruction of the walls of Jerusalem.
See Mahmoud K. Hawari, Ayyubid Jerusalem (–) (Oxford, ), pp. , , , f.;
and Oliver of Paderborn in Crusade and Christendom, p. . Even considering the loss of
Damietta, the suddenness of the Ayyūbids’ reversal of policy is stunning. Al-Mu aẓẓam
had been strengthening Jerusalem’s defences as late as /, and he continued to
initiate and complete a wide range of building projects in the city until the eve of the
Fifth Crusade (see Hawari, Ayyubid Jerusalem, pp. , f., f., f., ). See further
Louis Pouzet, Damas au VIIe/XIIIe siècle (Beirut, ), pp. , f., , , f.
90
See p. . NpH has ‘in mense Januarii fecit treugas usque ad magnum passagium cum
patriarcha & magistris de templo & hospitali & aliis’ (col. ; cf. GDF, p. , lines
–). MS L does not mention this truce.
91
‘melkimodam’ (MS L, fol. v); ‘Melchisenaphat, id est, magnus dominus’ (GDF, p. ,
line ).
92
‘melkimaphat’ (MS L, fol. v); ‘Melchisaphat’ (GDF, p. , line ).
93
‘terram de sarco’ (MS L, fol. v), ‘regnum de Sarcho’ (NpH, col. ), ‘regnum terræ
de Sarco’ (GDF, p. , line ); Genesis iv.–.
94
‘melkinoht’ (?) (MS L, fol. v); ‘Machomet’ (GDF, p. , line ).
LA TERRE
95
DES SARAZINS
‘Kabatus, siue Caliphas’ (GDF, p. , line ). The caliph in was Abû al-‘Abbâs
Aḥmad an-Nâṣir li-dîn Allah. Ibn Jubayr states, ‘Ses rares apparitions le font paraître
mystérieux aux yeux du peuple et ce caractère secret ne fait qu’ajouter à sa renommée.’
Outside the palace, the caliph sometimes wore Turkish-style clothing to avoid detection.
For Ibn Jubayr’s description of Baghdad in , see Voyageurs arabes, trans. Paule CharlesDominique (Paris, ), pp. –.
96
‘postea revertitur coronatus’ (NpH, col. ), ‘& sic reuertitur Caliphas coronatus’
(GDF, p. , line ), ‘postea redit [sic] coronatus’ (MS L, fol. v).
97
‘Iste machomecus cotidie adoratur et colitur a sarazenis et fiunt ad sepulchrum eius
peregriciones ab omnibus sarazenis in ista ciuitate dei baldas que et lingua arabica meth
uocatur’ (MS L, fol. v).
98
‘salaphas’ (MS L, fol. v); ‘Saluphat’ (GDF, p. , line ).
99
‘cum patre suo saphadino’ (MS L, fol. v); ‘cum patre suo’ (NpH, col. ; GDF,
p. , line ).
100
Al- dil gave each of his sons sufficient gold to have such a ring made (GDF, p. ,
lines f.).
101
‘Isti volunt reddere terram sanctam in manus patriarchæ ad opus christianorum, ita ut
omnino sint certi de alia terra quam detinent, quod de cetero non infestabuntur a populo
christiano, & singulis annis volunt esse sub tributo domno patriarchæ Jerusalem, & dabunt
cautionem ratione ecclesiæ, quod amplius non impedient terram sanctam’ (NpH, cols
f.; cf. GDF, p. , lines –).
102
In GDF, the Turkish guards are stationed in the second room of the sultan’s palace
(p. , line ).
103
‘Turquemen, id est interpretem’ (NpH, col. ; cf. GDF, p. , line ).
104
‘ipse dormit cum ea illa, cunctis aliis videntibus’ (NpH, col. ; cf. GDF, p. ,
lines f., and MS L, fol. v).
105
GDF inserts a brief portrait of al- dil: ‘Quinquagenarius est Saffadinus, potens in
armis & gente, eloquens valde in lingua sua. Muniuit ipse tot terram suam, & filiorum
suorum, & exercitus congregat infinitos; sed in omnibus vult cum suis in prædictū modum
obedire Apostolicæ Sedi’ (p. , lines –).
106
‘Quatuor uero alii habent redditus de calice egypti est autem iste calix quedam ianua
in ripo nili’ (MS L, fol. v); ‘Quatuor alii filii habent reditus de Calice quodam fluvio’
(NpH, col. ; cf. GDF, p. , lines f.).
107
Hereafter MS L skips the sections on Jerusalem, Damascus, Sardenay, etc., to insert
descriptions of Egypt and the Nile equivalent to LTS at line , beginning, ‘Egiptus
ista plana terra est et calida raro habens pluuiam sed irrigatur fluuie gyon qui dicitur
nilus’ (fol. v).
108
The clause ‘si cum li autre livret dist’ has no equivalent in NpH, GDF, or MS L.
109
NpH (col. ) and GDF (p. , line ) locate the Sea of Cyprus to the north: ‘a
septentrione mare Cyprium’.
110
‘habens irriguum intus & extra pro voluntate habitantium’ (NpH, col. ; cf. GDF,
p. , line ). Ibn Jubayr gives an extended description of Damascus (Voyageurs
arabes, pp. –), including an introductory faḍā-‘il, or list of the city’s merits. ‘Les
jardins entourent Damas comme le halo entoure la lune, le calice la fleur.’ Regarding the
abundance of water, ‘Le sol de Damas est si saturé d’eau qu’il aurait presque envie d’être
sec …’ (Voyageurs arabes, p. ).
111
See Bernard Hamilton, ‘Our Lady of Saidnaiya’, in The Holy Land, Holy Lands, and
Christian History, ed. R. N. Swanson (Rochester, NY, ), pp. –; and Benjamin
Z. Kedar, ‘Convergences of oriental Christian, Muslim, and Frankish worshippers: the
case of Saydnaya’, in De Sion exibit lex et verbum domini de Hierusalem, ed. Yitzhak Hen
MEDIUM ÆVUM
LXXXIV.
(Turnhout, ), pp. – (pp. f., –). The earliest surviving description may be
that in DsE, written c., just as the shrine was gaining international renown through
the efforts of the Templars (Hamilton, ‘Our Lady of Saidnaiya’, pp. , , ). See
DsE, pp. f.; for Burchard of Mount Sion’s account (–), see Pringle, Pilgrimage,
p. . Thetmar’s description, by far the most detailed, relates the miracle of the icon’s
arrival at Saidnaiya and the ensuing wonders there (see Pringle, Pilgrimage, pp. –). See
also Matthew Paris’s account (Pringle, Pilgrimage, p. ); Shirley, Crusader Syria, p. ; and
Ross Burns, Monuments of Syria (New York, ), p. , who states that the icon was
said to have been painted by St Luke. For Gautier de Coinci’s miracle-poem De l’ymage
Nostre Dame de Sardanei, see Les Miracles de Nostre Dame, ed. V. Frédéric Koenig, vols
(Geneva, –), IV, –. According to P. D. A. Harvey, ‘Matthew Paris’s maps
of Palestine’, in Thirteenth-Century England, VIII, ed. Michael Prestwich, Richard Britnell,
and Robin Frame (Woodbridge, ), pp. – (p. ), Matthew Paris’s Oxford map
and his first-volume Acre map are the only medieval maps to name Sardenay. See Pringle,
Pilgrimage, p. . In the Acre map, the inscription begins ‘Mut i a des merveilles en la
terre seinte dunt li [Ewangeliste] ne funt mentiun. A Sardainne ki est a meimes de Damas
…’ (Harvey, Medieval Maps of the Holy Land, pp. , ; and Konrad Miller, Mappaemundi,
Die ältesten Weltkarten, vols (Stuttgart, –), III, f.).
112
In many versions of the legend, the icon not only exudes oil, as here, but also is
clothed in flesh (Hamilton, ‘Our Lady of Saidnaiya’, p. ). Burchard of Strasbourg
writes, ‘pictura super lignum est incarnata et oleum odoriferum super odorem balsami
incessanter ex ea manat’ (DsE, p. ), and GDF has ‘Hæc imago super lignum fuit
incarnata, effundēs oleum odoriferum super odorem Libani’ (p. , lines f.).
113
‘In hac tabula est depicta imago beatæ Virginis, & super lignum incurvata & deflexa’
(NpH, col. ). GDF, p. , lacks the phrase after ‘Virginis’.
114
NpH specifies ‘in assumtione beatæ Mariæ Virginis & nativitate’ (col. ). The
feasts of the Assumption of the Virgin and of her Nativity are held on August and
September, respectively (Hamilton, ‘Our Lady of Saidnaiya’, p. ).
115
The Assassins were an offshoot of the Ism ‛īli sect. Their origins and centre were at
Alamūt in NW Persia, but they later established strongholds in northern Syria. For an
overview, see Christophe Picard, Le Monde musulman (n.p., ), p. ; and Dorothee
Metlitzki, The Matter of Araby in Medieval England (New Haven, Conn., ), pp. –.
The ‘Old Man of the Mountain’ is probably R chid-al-Dīn Sin n, a near contemporary
of Saladin. The period of Sin n’s rule (–) included two attempts on Saladin’s life
and the street-slaying of Conrad of Montferrat in Tyre in April . See Oliver of
Paderborn’s brief account in Crusade and Christendom, pp. f.; see also Charles E. Nowell,
‘The Old Man of the Mountain’, Speculum, (), –; and Eddé, La Principauté
ayyoubide d’Alep, pp. –. For the assassination of Conrad, see Nowell, ‘The Old Man
of the Mountain’, pp. f.; and Runciman, A History of the Crusades, III, f. In his map
of Acre, Matthew Paris locates the Old Man’s lair and gives an account of the Assassins
in an inscription beginning ‘Tute ceste terre ki grant est e riche …’. See Harvey, Medieval
Maps of the Holy Land, pp. , ; and Miller, Mappaemundi, III, f.
116
Peter Willey, Eagle’s Nest (London, ), pp. , , –, estimates that the
Ism ‛īli Nizaris had upwards of fortresses in Iran and Syria. The Syrian strongholds
included Masyaf, Qadmus, Khawabi, Rasafa, Maniqa, Qulay’a, and of course al-Kahf,
R chid-al-Dīn Sin n’s ‘castle of the cave’. See also Burns, Monuments of Syria, p. ; and
René Dussaud, Topographie historique de la Syrie antique et médiévale (Paris, ), pp. –
.
117
Despite portrayals of the Assassins as the Franks’ enemies, the Ism ‛īlis collaborated
with them when a policy of détente was advantageous. In for instance ‘the Assassins
LA TERRE
DES SARAZINS
were tributaries of the Hospitallers at Margat’, and the Ism ‛īlis were suspected of
collusion with the Hospitallers in the assassination of the son of Bohemond IV in
Tortosa Cathedral the following year (Riley-Smith, The Knights of St John, p. ).
118
NpH states, ‘fine palaces’: ‘Habet enim palatia pulcra’ (col. ); ‘Habet … plura
palatia’ (GDF, p. , line ).
119
‘filios rusticorum suorum’ (DsE, p. ).
120
In NpH, the land was called Idumea after the people living there or, some said, after
a certain rich man: ‘Prope Idumæam est quædam terra quæ Phœnicia appelatur’ (col.
). Cf. ‘[F]enice si est une province, si est issi apelee aprés le nun [de] un rei ke regna
en Sidoine e out a nun Fenix’ (Barthélemy l’Anglais, Le Livre des regions, ed. Brent A. Pitts
(London, ), p. ). For the connection with Phoinix, father of the Phoenicians, and
purple dye, see María Eugenia Aubet, The Phoenicians and the West (Cambridge, ), pp.
–.
121
This sentence has no equivalent in NpH.
122
For Beirut’s image of Our Lord, see Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend, trans.
William Caxton, vols (London, ; hathitrust.org), V, – (pp. f.); and Pringle,
Pilgrimage, pp. , .
123
Sur or Tyre. Ibn Jubayr describes the city’s fortifications and port (Voyageurs arabes,
pp. f.).
124
The Gospels do not mention a massacre of Jesus’ followers at Sur (Tyre), although
Jesus did curse Tyre (Matthew xi.–; Luke x.–) and exorcize a demon there (Mark
vii.–; cf. Matthew xv.–). Cf. NpH: ‘Hæc Christum maritima perambulantem, ut
Syri asserunt, noluit recipere. Hæc etiam, testante divina scriptura, multos martyres Deo
reddidit, eos occidendo’ (cols f.; cf. GDF, p. , lines f.).
125
‘& planicies Arcados’ (NpH, col. ); ‘& planities Archados’ (GDF, p. , line ).
126
‘in illis partibus, in quibus S. Eustacius ab uxore privatus & filiis recessit desolatus’
(NpH col. ; cf. GDF, p. , lines f.). See La Vie de Saint Eustace, ed. Jessie
Murray (Paris, ). The Roman commander Placidus took the name Eustace after his
conversion. For Eustace’s river-crossing with his sons, see pp. f.; see also Jacobus de
Voragine, The Golden Legend, VI, –.
127
GDF has ‘mari mediterraneo se commendat’, adding ‘In Antiochia sedit Beatus
Petrus Apostolus septem annis infula decoratus’ (p. , lines f.). The second Tournai
map of Palestine (late twelfth century) locates the gate of Simeon (Simeon’ p[ortu]s) on
the Mediterranean coast north of Tripoli and Beirut (Harvey, Medieval Maps of the Holy
Land, pp. f.).
128
I Samuel xxxi.–. Matthew Paris’s Oxford map shows Mount Gilboa with the
inscription ‘Here fell Saul’ (Harvey, Medieval Maps of the Holy Land, p. ).
129
Matthew iii.–; Mark i.–; Luke iii.f.
130
NpH describes Château Pèlerin thus: ‘Castro Filio Dei, quod prius vocatur sic, modo
Districtum; ubi Templarii in mari firmaverunt castrum firmissimum, &, ut ita dicam,
inexpugnabile’ (col. ); the corresponding text in GDF, p. , ends at ‘districtum’.
131
For Samson, see Judges xiii.–xv.. Colin Morris, The Sepulchre of Christ and the
Medieval West (Oxford, ), p. , speaks rather of the gates of Gath.
132
‘quia mare India tangit eam uno latere, & mare rubrum in alio latere’ (NpH, col. );
GDF, ‘mare tangit desertum in vno latere, & ex alio mare rubrum’ (p. , line ).
133
Numbers xx.–.
134
‘Syna mons est in Arabia continuus Ægypto’ (NpH, col. ); ‘Syna mons in Arabia,
& terminat Ægyptum’ (GDF, p. , lines f.).
135
‘sed irrigatur a Gyon, qui & Nilus appellatur’ (NpH, col. ; cf. GDF, p. , line
; and MS L, fol. v).
136
MEDIUM ÆVUM
LXXXIV.
i.e., the River Seine in France. Most versions that compare the Nile to a European
river mention the Rhine instead. ‘& iste fluvius major est Rheno’ (NpH, col. ; cf.
GDF, p. , line ; MS L om.).
137
‘equos indomitos sub aqua latentes’ (NpH, col. ).
138
This sentence has no equivalent in NpH.
139
See the discussion of the Nile River crocodiles by ‘Abd al-Laṫīf al-Baghd di (),
The Eastern Key, trans. Kamal Hafuth Zand and John A. and Ivy E. Videan (London,
), pp. , . Oliver of Paderborn reports finding and killing crocodiles at Damietta
(Crusade and Christendom, p. ), and ‘Abd al-Laṫīf states that some specimens exceeded
cubits in length, adding, ‘Iron will not pierce [their] skin’ (The Eastern Key, p. ). Jacques
de Vitry, drawing perhaps on personal experience in Egypt, compared obstinate sinners
to crocodiles ‘through whose scales the Word of the Lord was unable to penetrate’
(Debra J. Birch, ‘Jacques de Vitry and the ideology of pilgrimage’, in Pilgrimage Explored,
ed. J. Stopford (Woodbridge, ), pp. – (p. )). Matthew Paris’s Oxford map
mentions the crocodiles, and his map of Acre shows one. See Harvey, ‘Matthew Paris’s
maps’, p. ; and especially id., Medieval Maps of the Holy Land, p. ; see also Miller,
Mappaemundi, III, , .
140
‘magnos pedes et ungues ut ursus’ (MS L, fol. v).
141
‘et animalia uel homines si inuenit occidit’ (MS L, fol. v); ‘& cum animalia vel
homines invenit, cito devorat eos’ (NpH, col. ); ‘& si qua animalia vel homines
inuenerit, mactat si potest, & comedit in momento’ (GDF, p. , lines f.).
142
‘in natiuitate sancti iohannis baptiste’ (MS L, fol. v).
143
The feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, September. See Jacobus de
Voragine, The Golden Legend, V, –.
144
‘et ordeum proieit semen suum et metit in marcio’ (MS L, fol. v).
145
The phrase ‘nul ne pot autrement’ in LTS has no equivalent in GDF, NpH, or MS L.
146
NpH specifies, ‘nisi de licentia So[l]danni’, also mentioning the cargo and destinations
of foreign merchant ships and the sultan’s magnificent income from this traffic (col. ;
cf. GDF, p. , lines f.; and MS L, fols v–r).
147
NpH states, ‘the key’ and ‘the head’: ‘Hæc civitas clavis est & caput totius Ægypti’
(col. ; cf. GDF, p. , line ; MS L, fol. r).
148
See Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend, VII, –. According to legend, angels
bore the martyred St Katherine to Mt Sinai, the seat of her cult. In the eleventh and
twelfth centuries, Rouen in Normandy also became a hub of western devotion to
Katherine. Celebrated as the bride of Christ and as a provider of husbands, Katherine
appealed especially to unmarried female pilgrims. See Katherine J. Lewis, ‘Pilgrimage and
the cult of St Katherine of Alexandria in late medieval England’, in Pilgrimage Explored,
pp. – (pp. , ). For medieval English ‘replica shrines’ of St Katherine, see
pp. f., f. For Thetmar’s visit to Mt Sinai’s church of St Katherine, see Pringle,
Pilgrimage, pp. –.
149
‘hec thanais sita est super aliud nili brachium uersus euchastrum’ (MS L, fol. r).
150
This sentence has no equivalent in NpH or MS L. Tanis (Tinnı̑s) and Damietta were
well known for their luxurious textiles, including splendid dyed garments and robes
interwoven with gold. See Abû Ṣâliḥ, The Churches and Monasteries of Egypt, ed. and trans.
B. T. A. Evetts (Oxford, ; archive.org), pp. (n. ) and (n. ).
151
NpH (col. ) and GDF (p. , lines f.) state that the sultan immured New
Babylon and Cairo to create a consolidated city.
152
NpH (col. ) and GDF (p. , lines f.) speak rather of a garden of balsam
trees. For a contemporaneous description of the extraction of balsam oil, see ‘Abd alLaṫīf, The Eastern Key, pp. , , . Oliver of Paderborn states that the sultan bottled
LA TERRE
DES SARAZINS
and distributed the oil ‘among the princes of the earth as a great gift’ (Crusade and
Christendom, p. ).
153
‘Etiam est lignum balsami quasi lignum vitis triennis’ (NpH, col. ; cf. GDF, p. ,
lines f.; MS L, fol. r).
154
See further Oliver of Paderborn, Crusade and Christendom, pp. f. For stories of the
Holy Family’s exile in Egypt, see ‘The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew’, in The Apocryphal
Jesus, ed. J. K. Elliott (Oxford, ), pp. –; Abû Ṣâlih, Churches and Monasteries, pp.
–; and the later account in ‘Greek Anonymous II’ (c.–c.) printed by Pringle,
Pilgrimage, p. .
155
Matthew ii.–.
156
For the Tree of Obedience, see Stephen J. Shoemaker, Ancient Traditions of the Virgin
Mary’s Dormition and Assumption (Oxford, ), pp. , –. For other medieval
retellings, see Shirley, Crusader Syria, pp. f.; and Matthew Paris (Pringle, Pilgrimage, pp.
f.). Matthew Paris inscribes the story on his map of Acre, beginning ‘Ço est l’arbre de
obedience …’ See Harvey, Medieval Maps of the Holy Land, p. , and Pringle, Pilgrimage,
pp. f.
157
‘quæ sequenti nocte proxima solidata est & recta’ (NpH, col. ; cf. GDF, p. ,
line ; MS L, fol. r).
158
LTS returns to the subject of the development of Cairo at lines –. ‘The Copts
occasionally used Babylon to describe the whole of the great series of towns from Ḳaṣr
al-Sham’a through Fusṭ ṭ and Cairo to Maṭariyye-Heliopolis. This usage then spread to
western writers’ (C. H. Becker, ‘B balyūn’, EI, I, f. (p. )).
159
Alexandria was the hub of western commercial interests in Egypt. The Ayyūbids
encouraged the mercantile activities of the Italians, especially the Venetians for whom
‘al-‘ dil built two foundouks (Picard, Le Monde musulman, p. ). In , when western
merchants were arrested there ‘as a precautionary measure’, some , were rounded
up (Gibb, ‘The Aiyūbids’, p. ).
160
‘ut navigantibus portum indicet, quia Ægyptus est terra plana’ (NpH, col. ).
Adamnan’s seventh-century account calls the structure Farus ‘because of its very
function’ (Adamnan’s ‘De locis sanctis’, ed. and trans. Denis Meehan (Dublin, ), p. ).
See also ‘Abd al-Laṫīf ’s description of the Pharos (The Eastern Key, pp. , ). The
lighthouse was visible from a distance of seventy miles, according to Ibn Jubayr, who
climbed to the top to pray in the oratory there (Voyageurs arabes, p. ).
161
‘et tota nocte ignis in ea ardet, ut appropinquantibus, ne pereant, portum significet’
(DsE, pp. f.).
162
‘Aquam dulcem hæc civitas non habet, nisi illam quam per aquæductum supradicti
Nili uno tempore anni in cisternis suis cives colligunt’ (NpH, col. ; cf. DsE, p. ;
GDF, p. , lines f.; MS L, fol. r).
163
For the life of St Mark, see Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend, III, –. With
the Latins and Greeks, the Copts venerated St Mark as the founder of the church in Egypt
and the first Bishop of Alexandria (Abû Ṣâliḥ, Churches and Monasteries, pp. f. n. ).
164
Regarding St Mark, Burchard writes, ‘Vidi etiam capellam, in qua idem euangelista
ewangelium conscripsit et ubi martyrium excepit et locum sepulture sue, unde a Venetis
furatus fuit’ (DsE, p. ; cf. GDF, pp. f.). For the translatio sancti Marci to Venice in
, see Patrick J. Geary, Furta sacra (Princeton, NJ, ), pp. –.
165
‘In hac ecclesia Patriarcha eligitur & consecratur’ (NpH, col. ; cf. GDF, p. ).
166
‘Et nota quod per totam Ægyptum omne genus leguminum a festo sancti Martini
vsque ad Martium recens colligitur: similiter fructus hortorum & herbarum. Oues &
capræ bis pariunt in anno …’ (GDF, p. , lines f.; cf. DsE, p. ; NpH, col. ;
MS L, fol. r).
Brent A. Pitts