Page 106 - Encyclopedia Of World History

456 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

Ibn Jubayr’s Description
of Muslim Life under

the Franks
sader port cities as Acre and Tyre, from which they trans-
In 1184 Ibn Jubayr, a native of Muslim Spain,
ported to Europe eastern goods in unprecedented quan-
spent thirty-two days in the Latin kingdom of
tity. The textiles, spices, dyes, slaves, and sugar that
Jerusalem while traveling home from a pilgrimage
flowed into Europe not only enriched and made possible
to Mecca. In his journal, which he kept on an
the growing power of these three commercial giants, they
almost-daily basis, he recorded his perceptions of
also sharpened the European taste for the goods of Asia.
how Muslims fared under their Frankish masters.
One taste that knew no limits was the desire for sugar.
Our way lay through continuous farms and Western colonists learned from their Muslim neighbors
ordered settlements, whose inhabitants were all how to grow sugarcane on large slave plantations and
Muslims, living comfortably with the Franks. how to refine it. In the late fifteenth century and follow-
God protect us from such temptation. They sur- ing, Europeans would create sugar-producing slave plan-
render their crops to the Franks at harvest time, tations and mills off the west coast of Africa and in the
and pay as well a poll-tax of one and five qirat Americas, thereby radically altering the demographic
1
[about ⁄32 of an ounce of gold] for each person. and ecological faces of these lands.
Other than that, they are not interfered with, save Despite poulains, Italian merchants, and sugar pro-
for a light tax on the fruits of trees.Their houses duction, the crusader states were not major avenues for
and all their effects are left to their full possession. cultural exchanges between Europe and the Levant.The
All the coastal cities occupied by the Franks are great influx of Islamic learning that entered western
managed in this fashion, their rural districts, the Europe in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, for exam-
villages and farms, belonging to the Muslims. But ple, originated in Spain and Sicily and not in the crusader
their hearts have been seduced, for they observe East.
how unlike them in ease and comfort are their One of the most significant consequences of the cru-
brethren in the Muslim regions under their (Mus- sader states is that all four, but especially the principality
lim) governors. This is one of the misfortunes of Antioch, brought their Frankish lords into direct com-
afflicting the Muslims. The Muslim community petition with the Byzantine empire, whose emperor
bewails the injustice of a landlord of its own claimed lordship over lands now occupied by westerners.
faith, and applauds the conduct of its opponent In one of world history’s most ironic turn of events, the
and enemy, the Frankish landlord, and is accus- Crusades, which began as an effort to aid eastern Chris-
tomed to justice from him. He who laments this tians, ended up dividing the Byzantine and western
state must turn to God. branches of Christendom.
Broadhurst, R. J. C. (Trans.). (1952). The travels of Ibn Jubayr (pp. 316-317). Lon- On their way to the Holy Land, early crusaders passed
don: Jonathan Cape
through Byzantine territory, and the presence of often-
disorganized crusader forces in an alien land resulted in
a series of misunderstandings and conflicts, some quite
western, or Latin, Christians were known to easterners) bloody.The result was that by the Third Crusade (1188–
who were born and raised in the crusader states. Called 1192) the emperor of Byzantium, Isaac II, entered into
derisively poulains (young colts) by newcomers from the an apparent conspiracy with Saladin, sultan of Egypt and
West, these native-born colonists were often indistin- Syria, to harass and destroy German forces crossing
guishable in dress and manners from their non-Frankish Anatolia. Isaac’s plan failed, and the Holy Roman Em-
neighbors. peror, Frederick I, chose not to attack Constantinople.
Italian maritime cities, most notably Genoa, Pisa, and The imperial capital was not so fortunate a little more
Venice, established huge trading emporiums in such cru- than a decade later. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the