etymologies and etiologies 37
Marīnid sultan or the Marīnid princes who led the Ghuzāh. These North
African soldiers who had come to the Iberian Peninsula for the sake of
jihād must have become the Aragonese jenets.
Is there definitive proof of this transformation? Ibn Khaldūn did tell us
that a handful of the commanders of the Ghuzāh sought refuge in Chris-
tian courts across the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.^127 But he never
says that the Ghuzāh sold their services to the Aragonese kings in large
numbers at that time. Indeed, from his perspective, the Ghuzāh were ad-
mirable defenders of Islam, true holy warriors. This is the limitation of
the Kitāb al- ibar, which strongly identified with these Berber warriors and
saw them as the vital spirit of renewal.
Latin and Romance archival records, on the one hand, and Arabic chro-
nicles, on the other, thus appear incommensurable. Each set of sources
presents us with a partial view. Each possesses its own concealments and
biases. While Latin and Romance sources speak of jenets, they tell us little
to nothing about the origin of these troops. In fact, the success of these
figure 2. Alfonso X, Cantigas de Santa Maria (no. 187 ) (ca. 1284 ) (detail, middle- left panel).
Heavy and light cavalry in the Granadan army. Monasterio- Biblioteca- Colección, San
Lorenzo de El Escorial, Madrid. Photograph: Album / Art Resource, New York.