heart, taking Santiago de Compostela, the alleged burial
place of the apostle James. When he entered Santiago
the town was all but deserted, except for a Christian
monk whom Al-Mans.u ̄ r allowed to go free. Although
Al-Mans.u ̄ r rode his horse into the cathedral to show his
contempt for Christianity, the tomb of the apostle was
not disturbed. He destroyed all the surrounding buildings
and took the bells of the cathedral back to Córdoba both
as booty and as a sign of humiliation. He converted the
bells into lamps for the mosque, where they remained
until the thirteenth century. Besides warrior and states-
man, Al-Mans.u ̄ r was a poet and a builder, and he
expanded the Great Mosque of Córdoba. A devout
religious man, he publicly abjured philosophy and sci-
ence by burning the books in Al-H. akam II’s library
that dealt with these subjects, and always carried with
him a Qu’ra ̄ n that was copied out in his own hand.
Whenever the name of Allah was uttered in his pres-
ence, he never failed to repeat it. If tempted to act
in an impious way, he was reputed always to have
resisted temptation. Nevertheless, he was known to
have enjoyed all pleasures—even wine, which he
failed to renounce until two years before his death.
In 991, virtually ignoring Hisha ̄ m, he made his eigh-
teen-year-old son ‘Abd al- M a ̄ lik chamberlain, and later
designated ‘Abd al- Ma ̄ lik as his successor. Al-Mans.u ̄r
died in 1002 while on an expedition against the Chris-
tians. His other son, Al-Muzaffar, succeeded him, but
died six years later. Al-Muzaffar was briefl y succeeded
by his brother, ‘Abd al-Rahma ̄ n, known as Sanchuelo,
who conspired to grasp the title of caliph for himself.
The death of Al-Mans.u ̄ r was followed by a crisis of
authority and struggles among his family; Hisha ̄ m II,
the grandson of ‘Abd al-Rahma ̄ n III, who was inca-
pable of ruling; and several other contenders, including
Al-Mahdi, who eventually seized power. Al-Mans.u ̄r’s
biography, al-Ma’a ̄ thir al-‘ A ̄miriyyah was written by
Husayn Ibn ‘A ̄sim at the end of the eleventh century.
Further Reading
Chejne, A. G. Muslim Spain: Its History and Culture. Minne-
apolis, 1974.
E. Michael Gerli
MARCABRU (fl. 1130–49)
Little can be said for certain about the origins of the
troubadour Marcabru. Relying in part on the lyrics, his
two vidas are probably right to describe him as an early
Gascon singer of low birth. Evidence in the songs ties
him to courts in southern France and Spain, where he
was evidently a jongleur. In some forty-two surviving
lyrics, Marcabru is preoccupied largely with social satire
and moral allegory. He vehemently denounces a decline
in societal mores. One vida also describes him as “ma-
ligning women and love.” But it is still debated whether
Marcabru’s many pronouncements on love in society are
entirely negative or rather idealize love along the lines of
a Christian or courtly model. His voice is raw and bitter,
his images original and forceful, his language aphoristic
and diffi cult. He is sometimes read as a precursor of the
trobar clus school. Aside from his thirty-two sirventes,
his lyrics include the romance A la fontana del vergier,
the crusade song Pax in nomine domini, and the pas-
torela Autrier jost’ una sebissa. Marcabru’s thematic
and stylistic infl uence on subsequent troubadour song
was massive and pervasive.Further Reading
Marcabru. Poésies complètes du troubadour Marcabru, ed. Jean-
Marie-Lucien Dejeanne. Toulouse: Privat, 1909.
Harvey, Ruth E. The Troubadour Marcabru and Love. London:
Westfi eld College, 1989.
Pirot, François. “Bibliographie commentée du troubadour Marca-
bru.” Moyen âge 73 (1967): 87–126. [“Mise à jour,” by Ruth E.
Harvey and Simon Gaunt. Moyen âge 94 (1988): 425–55.]
Thiolier-Méjean, Suzanne. Les poésies satiriques et morales
des troubadours du XIIe siècle à la fi n du XIIIe siècle. Paris:
Nizet, 1978.
Roy S. RosensteinMARCEL, ÉTIENNE
(1310–1358)
A prosperous Parisian draper who, as prévôt des march-
ands, led a rebellion against the monarchy in 1357–58.
Born into a less wealthy cadet branch of a large and
infl uential family, Marcel was successful in business, a
supplier for the royal household, and a respected fi gure
in Paris by the late 1340s. He was elected prévôt in 1354.
Connected by kinship or marriage to many Parisians
who had gained wealth and sometimes ennoblement in
royal service, risking disgrace and destitution for cor-
rupt practices but often regaining royal favor, Marcel
was perhaps too cautious or too honest to follow their
example, and he increasingly resented these rich royal
offi cers from his own circle.
In December 1355, the Estates General met in Paris,
and Marcel became the spokesman for the towns of
Languedoil, as the assembly worked out an ambitious
plan to raise a large tax to support the army, in exchange
for governmental reforms and a return to stable currency.
Marcel and the Parisians were then staunch supporters of
John II in his campaign against the kings of England and
Navarre, who had claims to the French throne and sought
to partition the realm. By May 1356, however, the tax
plan was failing, and without adequate revenues for his
troops John II resumed manipulating the currency and
restored to power the offi cials he had agreed to dismiss.MARCEL, ÉTIENNE