a mercenary economy 89
underscore the complexity of parsing these soldiers’ motivations. One,
known as Abū’l- Ḥasan ‘Alī b. Ruburtayr, converted to Islam and served
the Almohads.^91 The other, also Berenguer Reverter, moved between
North Africa and Barcelona, signed his letters in Arabic and Latin, and
eventually joined the Knights Templar, a crusading order.^92
Although the same Chronica Adelfonsi Imperatoris reported that
many Christian soldiers fled from Islamic lands to Toledo after the siege
of Marrakesh in 1147 by the Almohads, within a year, the Almohads, too,
began to employ Christians in their armies in North Africa.^93 In fact, the
rise of the Almohad Empire marked an important step toward the insti-
tutionalization of Christian militias. Like their predecessors and contem-
poraries, the Almohads maintained a palatine guard of Christian slaves or
former slaves, whom they referred to as “Ifarkhān” or “Banū Farkhān,”
an enigmatic term whose meaning is contested.^94 Yet the Almohads also
recruited large numbers of apparently free Christian soldiers from the
Iberian Peninsula.^95 The well- known Portuguese warlord Geraldo Sem-
pavor (the “Fearless”) and the Castilian prince Don Enrique are worth
mentioning in this context.^96 For his part, Geraldo Sempavor pledged loy-
alty to the Almohad caliph Abū Ya‘qūb (r. 1163 – 1184 ) and was rewarded
with lands in the western Atlas.^97 According to Ibn Khaldūn, the caliph
al- Ma’mūn (r. 1227 – 1232 ) reportedly recruited some 12 , 000 Christian sol-
diers through an agreement with Fernando III of Castile.^98 Significantly,
these soldiers were allowed to build a church at Marrakech.^99
After the rise of the Almohads, the influence of these soldiers in royal
courts appeared to increase. Once in the corridors of power, Christian mi-
litias and their captains became embroiled in intrigues and palace coups.^100
Nevertheless, as Ibn Khaldūn explained, they held a reputation for fierce
loyalty and were prized as heavy cavalry, which was unknown in North
Africa (fig. 4 ):
We have mentioned the strength that a line formation [of heavy cavalry] behind
the army gives to fighters who use the technique of attacking and fleeing (al- karr
wa’l- farr). Therefore the North African rulers have come to employ groups of
Franks (ṭā’ifa min al- Ifranj) in their army, and they are the only ones to have
done that, because their countrymen only know how to attack and flee.^101