ABSTRACT
The cultural history of the Frankish Levant, which has yet to be written, sparkles with arresting figures. A wine-drinking Muslim poet, physician, and administrator, who serves first Frankish and then Muslim masters, writes a book on the coming of the Franks to the East. A siege expert from Jerusalem who claims to have destroyed many Saracen castles puts his expertise at the disposal of Frederick Barbarossa and helps him to conquer a Lombard town. A hermit from Blois leaves Frankish territory to preach Christianity to a Muslim ruler, thereby prefiguring Francis of Assisi by a century. A Frankish king asks for non-scriptural proof of the resurrection of the flesh. A Jerusalem-born cleric, who studies for 20 years in France and Italy before returning home, writes a history of Muslim rulers based on Arabic sources. An Armenian archbishop, fascinated by the religiosity of some Frankish monks who settled near Antioch, sets out to translate the Life and Rule of Saint Benedict from the Latin into his native Armenian. An ophthalmologist who presents himself as de Jerusalem and exhibits familiarity with Salernitan lore as well as with several Arabic terms, advocates the use of embryonic tissue to enhance wound healing, thus anticipating a procedure introduced in 1913. A Dominican friar returns to Acre from Damascus with a story originally told about an early Muslim mystic. 1
The first author is primarily responsible for the utilization of the Western texts and the second mainly for the utilization of the Arabic texts. The authors would like to thank Professor Frank H. Stewart for his helpful suggestions on a draft version of the article.
