The Knight, the Cross, and the Song. Stefan Vander Elst
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are direct descendants of the Saracens of the chansons.
Within the Gesta’s invocation of the chansons in its depiction of the enemy we find a first indication of the Anonymous’s goal for the work—to apply to the First Crusade an older, literary image of the conflict between Christian and Muslim. Further characterization of the Muslim in the Gesta, in descriptions of Muslim martial qualities, social habits, and religious practice, echoes what we find in the chansons. For example, the clichéd chanson description of the Muslim as only a baptism away from being among the finest knights in the world, equal if not superior to the Westerner, is reflected in the Anonymous’s account of the Turks:
Quis unquam tam sapiens aut doctus audebit describere prudentiam militiamque et fortitudinem Turcorum? … Verumtamen dicunt se esse de Francorum generatione, et quia nullus homo naturaliter debet esse miles nisi Franci et illi. Veritatem dicam quam nemo audebit prohibere. Certe si in fide Christi et Christianitate sancta semper firmi fuissent, et unum Deum in trinitate confiteri uoluissent Deique Filium natum de Virgine matre, passum, et resurrexisse a mortuis et in caelum ascendisse suis cernentibus discipulis, consolationemque Sancti Spiritus perfecte misisse; et eum in caelo et in terra regnantem recta mente et fide credidissent, ipsis potentiores uel fortiores uel bellorum ingeniosissimos nullus inuenire potuisset.
[GF 21: What man, however experienced and learned, would dare to write of the skill and prowess and courage of the Turks? … They have a saying that they are of common stock with the Franks, and that no men, except the Franks and themselves, are naturally born to be knights. This is true, and nobody can deny it, that if only they had stood firm in the faith of Christ and holy Christendom, and had been willing to accept One God in Three Persons, and had believed rightly and faithfully that the Son of God was born of a virgin mother, that he suffered, and rose from the dead and ascended in the sight of his disciples into Heaven, and sent them in full measure the comfort of the Holy Ghost, and that he reigns in Heaven and earth, you could not find stronger or braver or more skilful soldiers.]30
There is therefore an essential similarity between Frank and Turk in the Gesta: both are outstanding fighters, which, in the eyes of the Turks, is a result of a shared heritage. Nevertheless, this similarity goes hand in hand with an essential difference: the Turks do not believe in the “One God in Three Persons.” Although some of the Anonymous’s fellow travelers show a relatively sophisticated understanding of the monotheism at the heart of Islam,31 he himself describes the Muslim as a polytheist. Kerbogha swears “per Machomet et per omnia deorum nomina” [GF 52: “by Mohammed and by all the names of our gods”] and his mother “per omnium deorum nomina” [GF 53: “by the names of all the Gods”]. The Egyptians are no different from the Turks, and after the Battle of Ascalon the Fatimid emir exclaims: “O deorum spiritus, quis unquam uidit uel audiuit talia? … Iuro per Machumet et per omnia deorum numina, quod ulterius non retinebo milites conuentione aliqua” [GF 96: “O spirits of the gods! Who has ever seen or heard such things as these? … I swear by Mohammed and by the glory of all the gods that I will never raise another army”]. The Anonymous therefore continues to ascribe to Muslims the polytheism that characterizes them in the chansons. He also echoes the jongleurs’ suggestion of what happens to those who believe in this multiplicity of gods after death. Just as lines 1265–68 of the Chanson de Roland have Gerin strike the Saracen Malpramis, and “L’osberc li rumpt entresque a la charn, / Sun bon espiet enz el cors li enbat; / Li paiens chet cuntreval a un quat. / L’anme de lui en portet Sathanas” [“He rends his hauberk right down to his flesh / And plunges his fine spear deep into his body. / The pagan falls to the ground in a heap; / His soul is carried off by Satan”], so the Anonymous shows the downward trajectory reserved for the Muslim dead: “Illi qui uiui nequiuerunt transire pontem pre nimia multitudine gentium et caballorum, ibi receperunt sempiternum interitum cum diabolo et angelis suis” [GF 41: “Those who did not succeed in crossing the bridge alive, because of the great press of men and horses, suffered there everlasting death with the devil and his imps”].
In the eyes of the Anonymous, even though their polytheist religion can lead only to an eternity in hell, the pagans of the Gesta are nevertheless quite keen to convert the Christians, and here as in the chansons the rewards for changing sides are impressive (if of course never acted upon). When, before the Battle of Antioch, Peter the Hermit is sent to Kerbogha to negotiate, the Turkish commander sends him back to the Christian army with the following words:
Vultis namque scire quid uobis dicimus? Reuertimini ergo quantocius, et dicite uestris senioribus, quia si per omnia cupiunt effici Turci, et deum uestrum quem uos inclini colitis abnegare uolunt et leges uestras spernere, nos illis hanc et satis plus dabimus de terra, et ciuitates et castella adhuc autem quod nemo uestrorum remanebit pedes, sed erunt omnes milites sicut et nos sumus; et habebimus semper eos in summa amicitia.
[GF 67: Do you want to know our answer? Then go back as fast as you can, and tell your leaders that if they will all become Turks, and renounce the god whom you worship on bended knee, and cast off your laws, we will give them this land and more besides, with cities and castles, so that none of you shall remain a foot-soldier, but you shall all be knights as we are: and tell them that we will count them always among our dearest friends.]32
The pagans’ apparent generosity, promising to turn every poor foot soldier rich, is rooted in an assumption of Eastern affluence. Throughout the Gesta, the armies of the enemy are said to travel with a wealth of provisions that become the Christians’ through conquest. As Hill has pointed out, there is something strongly formulaic in the description of the plunder the Crusaders find after every battle. After the Battle of Antioch, for instance, “Illi uero dimiserunt ibi papiliones suos, et aurum, et argentum, multaque ornamenta; oues quoque et boues, equos et mulos, camelos et asinos, frumentum et uinum, farinam et alia multa quae nobis erant necessaria” [GF 70: “The enemy left his pavilions, with gold and silver and many furnishings, as well as sheep, oxen, horses, mules, camels and asses, corn, wine, flour and many other things of which we were badly in need”]. Similarly, after the Battle of Ascalon, “Reuersi sunt nostri ad tentoria eorum, acceperuntque innumera spolia auri, argenti, omniumque bonorum; omniumque animalium genera, ac omnium armorum instrumenta” [GF 97: “Our men went back to the enemy camp and found innumerable spoils of gold and silver, piles of riches, and all kinds of animals, weapons and tools”]. What here echoes the chansons, however, is not just the repetitive wording, the structuring of the spoils from precious metals to valuables to animals and necessary goods, but also the emphasis on the Easterner as opulent. Everywhere the value of the Muslims’ trappings is shown, such as Yaghi-Siyan’s (“Balteum quoque eius et uaginam appretiauerunt sexaginta bizanteis” [GF 48: “His belt and scabbard were worth sixty bezants”]) and the Egyptian emir’s (“Ensem uero emit quidam sexaginta bisanteis” [GF 97: “The amir’s sword was bought for sixty bezants”]); even the dead are buried with “pallia, bisanteos aureos, arcus, sagittas, et alia plurima instrumenta, quae nominare nequimus” [GF 42: “cloaks, gold bezants, bows and arrows, and other tools the names of which we do not know”].
Furthermore, Muslims in the Gesta are not just religiously misguided and opulent, they are also morally decadent: luxurious, promiscuous, and at the same time to a certain extent emasculated. These characteristics are introduced into the Gesta by and through Kerbogha, the best-described Muslim in the work. Shortly after arriving at Antioch with an enormous army, he finds the Franks in dreadful shape. Buoyed by this, the Anonymous says, he sends a letter to his coreligionists in Khorasan. In this wholly imaginary missive the atabeg of Mosul elevates entertainment and lust almost to patriotic duty:
Caliphae nostro apostolico, ac nostri regi domino Soldano militi fortissimo, atque omnibus prudentissimis Corrozanae militibus, salus et immensus honor. Satis sint leti et gauisi iocunda concordia, et satisfaciant uentribus, imperent et sermocinent per uniuersam regionem illam, ut omnino dent sese ad petulantiam et luxuriam, multosque filios patrare congaudeant, qui contra Christianos fortiter pugnare preualeant.
[GF 52: To the khalif our pope and the lord sultan our king, that most valiant warrior, and to all the most gallant knights of Khorasan, greeting and boundless honour! Enjoy yourselves, rejoicing with one accord, and fill your bellies, and let commands