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

56 chapter three

four solidi per diem.^20 The Crown paid the same to Christian light cav-

alry during the conquest of Sardinia, suggesting that the Aragonese kings

valued their jenets no more or less than their Christian counterparts.^21 In

addition, Christian militias operating in Muslim lands during King Alfons

II’s reign received roughly the same compensation, three to six solidi.^22 In

assigning these wages, the Crown of Aragon may have been adhering to

the unspoken professional standards of a broader mercenary economy.

All this is to say that the Aragonese kings did see it necessary to offer the

jenets, their former enemies, exceptional remuneration in order to ensure

their loyalty. They seemed to compensate them just like other soldiers.

Profession

From the perspective of the Crown of Aragon, the jenets were not simply

bodies to add to its armies, cannon fodder: these horsemen also brought

with them a military innovation. Despite being less well armed, or pre-

cisely because they were, the jenets had an advantage over the traditional

heavy cavalry that dominated Muslim and Christian Iberia. These light

cavalry soldiers specialized in small, rapid, and organized incursions that

the Crown’s records refer to as “jenet raids.”^23 They employed a tactic of

attacking and fleeing, which allowed them to harass heavy cavalry, with the

aim of drawing them away from the protection of archers and infantry.^24

With a mixture of horror and admiration, Don Juan Manuel ( 1282 – 1348 ),

the prolific writer and nephew of the Castilian king Alfonso X, said, “The

war of the Moors is not like that of the Christians.... In every way, it is

very different.”^25 If hyperbolic, the Castilian prince was correct in this re-

spect: the military advantage offered by the jenets and sought by the Chris-

tian kings was not their strength but rather their difference from other

types of soldiers. The same desire for strategic difference, Ibn Khaldūn

noted, inspired Muslim rulers to recruit Christian heavy cavalry (fig. 3 ).^26

While the jenets differed from other soldiers in the Aragonese armies

in terms of language, religion, and style, they were not isolated from

them. During the many wars against France and Castile, these horsemen

found themselves fighting shoulder to shoulder with a variety of Christian

troops, both professional and feudal.^27 Indeed, the extent of this collabo-

ration is occasionally surprising. In 1289 , for example, King Alfons issued

the following order protecting a company of jenets and their Christian

associates, departing for raiding activities together: