The Mercenary Mediterranean_ Sovereignty, Religion, and Violence in the Medieval Crown of Aragon - Hussein Fancy

a sovereign crisis 51

Çahim and Çahit, then within a year, the Crown was aiming to recruit these

notorious Ghuzāh leaders.

The name Çahim Abebaguen also provides us with proof that Con-

rad and Samuel’s recruitment effort ended in success. The five horse-

men, with whom this book began, riding mules borrowed from a Jew in

Granada, were in fact the representatives of “Çahim Abennaquem.” Sev-

eral months after meeting Conrad Lancia and Samuel Abenmenassé in

Granada, these horsemen, among the first to respond to the call, crossed

into the lands of the Crown of Aragon. At the border of Valencia, after

examining their letters of introduction, royal officials impounded the jen-

ets’ swords, indicating a well- earned distrust of these raiders.^85 The sol-

diers next appeared in the city of Valencia, where they met with the local

Muslim leader, Abrahim Abençumada, who had helped to finance Con-

rad’s mission, suggesting that the Mudéjares, who once sought aid from

these soldiers against the Crown, were now supporting their recruitment

for the Crown.^86 Some days later, the jenets stayed in the Christian town of

Vilafranca, some one hundred miles north of Valencia, after which a royal

official wrote a letter to the king, complaining that these Muslim travel-

ers had borrowed fifteen solidi from him and failed to repay him.^87 These

soldiers then passed into and through the kingdom of Catalonia, but we

learn nothing more of their journey through this predominantly Christian

kingdom. Finally, having crossed the length of the realms of the Crown

of Aragon, they arrived at the base of the Pyrenees, at Coll de Panissars,

where they received an audience with King Pere, who was preparing for

battle against the French crusaders.

Some months later, King Pere would write a letter to Samuel, who had

apparently remained in Muslim Granada, to announce the success of his

negotiations at Coll de Panissars.^88 He ordered that Abrahim Abençu-

mada should cease interfering “because we [the king] got along well with

them [the jenets],” confirming the Mudéjar governor’s role in the recruit-

ment.^89 But Pere’s insistence on dealing directly with the jenets hints at

a certain wariness of interactions between the Mudéjares and the jenets

that is borne out by later history.^90 This letter also solves a more mundane

mystery when Pere explains that he has decided to give these soldiers

Samuel’s mules, items of great value, as a gift.^91 The royal physician, in

other words, was the Jew who lent the jenets the mules that they rode the

long distance from Granada.

Having successfully completed the negotiations, Pere paid for the

expenses of the five jenets in traveling to the Crown and returned their

swords.^92 He further issued an expense account (expensarium) to cover the