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

100 chapter five

Mahomet Abolxahe was granted 15 duplas to cover the cost of bringing

his wife, Horo, and family to him.^11 Although no evidence indicates such

a thing, it is not unreasonable to imagine that some women accompanied

their husbands to the battlefront.^12 Ibn Khaldūn recorded the presence

on the battlefield in North Africa of Berber women, who lifted their veils

“to incite the men.”^13 Regardless of whether they settled or followed their

husbands, the wives of jenets received some financial support from the

Crown.^14

To conclude from these privileges and protections, however, that the

lives of these women were privileged and protected — that they shared

in their husbands’ exceptional status — would be to leave the curtain half

drawn. The fact that the wives of Muça Almentauri and Maymon Aven-

borayç accrued significant debts may indicate that their stipends, of which

little detail exists, were minimal.^15 The challenge of making ends meet

may have been compounded or perhaps caused by the difficulties some

women encountered in obtaining disbursements from royal officials.^16 In

the case of Muça and Maymon, their wives sought help by turning to mon-

eylenders, who lent them cash at precipitous interest.^17 Their decision to

take usurious loans underscores not only the depth of their crisis but also

these women’s lack of real social protection.

What became of the wives of Muça and Maymon? Two documents,

separated by over five hundred folios in the chancery registers, reveal that

Muça and Maymon used their influence with the Crown to defer this debt

and deter these creditors.^18 On July 23 , the jenets managed to appeal di-

rectly to King Jaume II in Barcelona. They arranged to have their salaries,

two hundred solidi each, paid directly to their wives in Valencia.^19 Just

over a week later, on August 3 , King Jaume wrote to the local justice to

offer the jenets’ wives protection, arrange a six- month extension on the

loan, and adjust its interest to a “more appropriate” amount, four denarii

per libra.^20 While these jenets of the royal household used their influence

with the Aragonese king to solve this problem, it cannot be said that the

problem was truly solved for their wives, who lived far from the court.

Despite the king’s intervention, the unnamed wives of Muça and Maymon

still had to face their creditors and the unpaid debt.

The Bestial Floor

Family, however, was not just a matter of what one might call private life

for the jenets but rather overlapped with the history of their professional