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

the unpaid debt 101

service. As in the documents above, passing remarks suggest that these

mercenary companies were agnatic groups, extended families.^21 Sons

served alongside their fathers, and brothers appeared together to collect

their salaries. They were familia in all senses of the Latin: army, servants,

and family. All this, however, seemed to be of little concern to the Crown’s

bureaucrats, who preserved almost no detail about the organization or

composition of jenet companies. Should it have mattered? The jenets

served, and the Crown paid them all the same.

At least on one occasion, the king’s failure to understand the structure

of the companies under his command led to tense negotiations for service.

To the scholar’s benefit, exasperated messengers had to shuttle back and

forth between the king and the jenets, leaving a paper trail that offers a

unique insight. In January 1304 , Pere de Montagut, procurator of Murcia,

and Ferrer des Cortey, bailiff of Murcia, wrote to Jaume II to acknowl-

edge that they had received two letters of instruction with regards to in-

corporating the troops of al- ‘Abbās b. Raḥḥū, a prominent Marīnid prince

and member of the Ghuzāh.^22 Before enlisting al- ‘Abbās’ jenets, these two

royal officials were meant to take hostages (rahenes) from among these

soldiers.^23 By taking hostages, Jaume intended to insure against the jen-

ets’ disloyalty, but from the surviving documentation in the archives, it is

unclear whether this was a customary practice with all the jenets, as it had

been in Mudéjar surrender agreements decades earlier, or a special ar-

rangement.^24 In this case, Jaume had sent these two administrators a list

of men to be taken, the sons of four leaders: Alabes Abarraho (al- ‘Abbās

b. Raḥḥū), Baratdin Abarraho (Badr al- Dīn b. Mūsā b. Raḥḥū), Grenel-

adim Abarraho (Jamāl al- Dīn b. Mūsā b. Raḥḥū), and Jahia Abenmuda-

har. It is worth highlighting again that the first three names corresponded

to leaders of the Ghuzāh.^25 But the two administrators now responded to

Jaume that al- ‘Abbās refused to turn over the four men, his son and the

sons of these three other men. Al- ‘Abbās explained that these hostages

represented only two of the four family lineages in his company of soldiers,

and thus “it would be much more effective if each [family] provides its own

hostage, because if he provided them all, the others would be free to leave

whenever they want (valia molt mes que cascun linatge donas lo seu per ço

con si ell ab son linatge donas tots les dites rahenes los altres tota ora ques

vulgessen sen hieren).” Thus, the royal officials laid out the lineages of each

family for the king, mentioning the tribes to which they belonged, adding,

“Believe, my lord, that from what he says, al- ‘Abbās and the others want

to serve us and in this [respect], they are worth more than all other armed

knights, and know, my lord, that throughout the frontier, your enemies