Azymites, Kurds, Persians, Agulani and many other people who could not be counted. The Agulani numbered three thousand; they fear neither spears nor arrows nor any other weapon, for they and their horses are covered all over with plates of iron. They will not use any weapons except swords when they are fighting.]
The enemy the Crusaders meet in battle is therefore not one people but many—varied, distinct, and if not imaginary then historically out of place. The Anonymous’s inaccuracy here is remarkable. It is possible to consider it hyperbole aimed at making the victories seem even more impressive; however, for this one really needs only numbers, not diversity.26 One can, as Hill does, ascribe it to the Crusaders’ ignorance of their enemies,27 but the Anonymous is otherwise knowledgeable about the peoples of the East, and other eyewitness accounts of the battles display a correct understanding of those against whom the Crusaders were fighting.28 Rather, the intent with which the Anonymous chose to portray the Muslims as such a varied lot can be seen in the strong resemblance of his descriptions to those of the pagan enemies in the chansons de geste. Note, for instance, how the Anonymous’s words compare to the following lines from the Chanson de Roland:
Dis escheles establisent après.
La premere est des Canelius les laiz:
De Val Fuit sun venuz en traver;
L’altre est de Turcs e la terce de Pers,
E la quarte est de Pinceneis e de Pers,
E la quinte est de Solteras e d’Avers,
E la siste est d’Ormaleus e d’Eugiez,
E la sedme est de la gent Samuel,
L’oidme est de Bruise e la noefme de Clavers,
E la disme est d’Occian le desert:
Ço est une gent ki Damnedeu ne sert;
De plus feluns n’orrez parler jamais;
Durs unt les quirs ensement cume fer;
Pur ço n’unt soign d’elme ne d’osberc;
En la bataille sunt felun e engrès.
[CR ll. 3237–51: Then they draw up ten more divisions. / The first is of ugly Canaanites; / They came across from Val Fuit. / The next is of Turks and the third of Persians, / The fourth of the fiery Petchenegs [sic], / the fifth of Soltras and Avars, / the sixth of Ormaleus and Eugies, / The seventh of the people of Samuel, / The eighth of Bruise, the ninth of Clavers / And the tenth of people from Occian the Desert; / They are a race which does not serve the Lord God. / You could never hear of more villainous men, / Their skins are hard as iron. / For this reason they scorn helmets and hauberks; / In battle they are treacherous and fiery.]
As indicated above, the chansons too embraced the historically incorrect and the imagined in their depiction of the pagan enemy, an enemy portrayed as diverse and disparate, creating a frenzy of whatever “others” their authors could imagine.29 The Anonymous is less imaginative than the jongleurs, but he retains hints of the marvelous: his Agulani, covered head to toe in iron, are perhaps as remarkable as the Chanson de Roland’s warriors of Occian, whose very skin is as hard as metal. In their variety and wondrousness, the Muslims of the Gesta Francorum 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
