Medieval Iberian Crusade Fiction and the Mediterranean World by David Wacks (review)

Medieval Iberian Crusade Fiction and the Mediterranean World is a very scholarly book that focuses on crusade literature written in Spain between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. It is carefully written, extensively researched and contains a fascinating new approach to the subject.

In his introduction, Wacks situates Medieval Iberia in a multilingual Mediterranean environment. He convincingly portrays the difference between Northern European crusades (to the East, especially to Jerusalem) and those located in Iberia, during the re-conquest. He mentions how the holy site of Santiago de Compostela and the relics in Seville and Toledo helped justify the conversion of Jews and Muslims in the name of a “holy war,” an ideal subsequently carried to the New World by the Conquistadores.

In the first chapter, Wacks analyzes a little-known work of thirteenth-century (1250) crusade literature in Arabic (Andalusi) named Ziyad ibn ‘Amir al-Kinat in the greater context of Medieval Iberian, Latin, French and Arabic literatures. He carefully notes the Northern European (especially Arthurian), Iberian and Arabic influences on this work, in which the author’s hero converts the “pagans” (in this case, Christians) to Islam. He includes a fascinating segment on astrology. He translates into English key passages from this work, which are a delight to read, especially in the context of the background provided. The Ziyad is an example of crusader-inspired fiction from non-Christian-dominant societies.

Chapter 2 focuses on the Libro del Caballero Zifar (1300). Wacks includes details about the Andalusi-French-Latin-Arabic background to this book and makes several extremely important points about its source and authorship. The Zifar is based on a tale of St. Eustace yet also draws on Arabic sources, with the use of Arabic place names and quasi-Arabic personal names and narrative motifs. Wacks convincingly demonstrates that the putative author of the Zifar, Ferrant Martínez (an elite member of the Church of Toledo) used the prologue to his book to publicize the return of the bones (sacred relics) of Cardinal Gudiel from Rome to Spain, thus strengthening the role of Christianity in Toledo. Furthermore Wacks finds two passages in the Zifar that appear to be from an imaginative tradition linked to Celtic and Arthurian literatures with parallel passages in the Ziyad. Zifar’s polygamy, argues Wacks, could also be inspired by Ziyad’s. The way in which Zifar is described as a hero-knight links him with the crusader/converter mentality. The Zifar illustrates Christian-Iberian crusading ideals being carried out in a fictionalized Eastern location.

Wacks, in chapter 3, focuses on Ramon Lull’s work of fiction, Blaquerna (1287–1289), and its historical and literary background. He concentrates on Lull’s other writings as keys to an understanding of Blaquerna. He points out that Lull had a sophisticated understanding of Islam doctrine, thanks to his studies of Arabic, which he learned in order to convert the entire world to Christianity through persuasion. The hero Blaquerna is a religious person, a member of a chivalric crusading order, and even becomes Pope. Wacks has translated a number of passages from this book and provides their originals in Catalán in the footnotes. Blaquerna demonstrates a different kind of crusade mentality which is missionary in nature and consists of conquering through persuasion, not through battle.

Chapter 4 includes a detailed analysis of the Crónica de Flores y Blancaflor (c. 1290) and its historical background. Wacks stresses the importance of the fact that this fictional tale (possibly translated from a manuscript in Arabic that is, however, most likely an invention of the author) is different from its French counterpart because of the role that Moorish Spain and Arabic culture play in the tale. The Crónica contains historical material interwoven with a fictional tale in such a way as to serve the political purposes of various Spanish monarchs. One fascinating detail from this story is that the daughter of Flores and Blancaflor becomes the mother of Charlemagne...