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Chapter 6 - Religious Conversion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 February 2024

Alex Mallett
Affiliation:
Waseda University, Japan
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Summary

In his account of his journey through Frankish territory in the eastern Mediterranean in the early 1180s, the Spanish Muslim Ibn Jubayr relates a story he had been told of a Muslim convert to Christianity. This Muslim was originally from Buna, in modern Algeria, and:

In one of his patron's caravans had come to [Frankish] Acre, where he had mixed with the Christians, and taken on much of their character. The devil increasingly seduced and incited him until he renounced the faith of Islam, turned unbeliever, and became a Christian.…..He had been baptised and become unclean, and had put on the girdle of a monk, thereby hastening for himself the flames of hell, verifying the threats of torture, and exposing himself to a grievous account and a long-distant return (from hell).

Ibn Jubayr's rather bigoted comments make little sense from the everyday perspective of the eastern Mediterranean in the crusading period, however, because such conversions were a regular occurrence in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. They were so regular, in fact, that they elicit barely a comment from most of the other writers who mention them. Muslims could, and did, convert to Christianity, while Christians could, and did, convert to Islam. This chapter will briefly explore some examples of people who changed their religion and why they did so, highlighting that the Frankish presence in the Holy Land actually helped facilitate conversions in both directions and thereby permitted, in some ways, a larger degree of religious freedom than existed at other times in the region.

Religious Conversion during the Crusading Period

The Latin chronicler of the First Crusade Albert of Aachen relates that, as early as August 1099, just a month after the capture of Jerusalem, the ruler of the city—Godfrey of Bouillon— had in his entourage a former Muslim who fought alongside the king at the Battle of Ascalon, in which the crusading army defeated a Muslim relief force from Egypt. Godfrey had persuaded the Muslim to convert to Christianity, and for years afterwards he remained a loyal servant to the rulers of Jerusalem. Albert's report is just one of dozens of instances of conversions by Muslims to Christianity that are mentioned in passing in the sources.

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Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Religious Conversion
  • Alex Mallett, Waseda University, Japan
  • Book: Christian-Muslim Relations during the Crusades
  • Online publication: 13 February 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781802701319.007
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  • Religious Conversion
  • Alex Mallett, Waseda University, Japan
  • Book: Christian-Muslim Relations during the Crusades
  • Online publication: 13 February 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781802701319.007
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Religious Conversion
  • Alex Mallett, Waseda University, Japan
  • Book: Christian-Muslim Relations during the Crusades
  • Online publication: 13 February 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781802701319.007
Available formats
×