A 14th century intelligence report

William´s boss 

“How to Defeat the Saracens” is a fascinating text, originally written around 1317 by William of Adam (a.k.a. Guillelmus Ade), a churchman who had traveled extensively in the Middle East. William, a Dominican or perhaps former Dominican serving at the papal court, was styled “Archbishop of Sultaniye”, claiming (surely purely nominal!) jurisdiction over the Middle East, India and Ethiopia. His text proposing a new crusade to liberate the Holy Land is in effect a 14th century intelligence report. Modern historians consider it mostly accurate.

On one level, William's proposal for a full-scale crusade to defeat the Muslim Mamluk rulers of Egypt (who also controlled Jerusalem) was unrealistic. After all, no new crusade was launched at the time. On another level, however, his proposal is eminently realistic. Given the right amount of money, men and luck, none of his proposals are “out there”. I assumed that William's text would be some kind of fringe document written by a zealous crank. In fact, Brother William of the Dominican Order seems to have been an eminently practical man, often on the verge of Realpolitik pure and simple.

William identifies three main problems in the Mediterranean to be overcome before a new crusade could be launched: Christian commercial ties with the Mamluks, Christian pilgrims paying hefty tributes to the Muslims, and the collusion between Byzantium and certain Muslim rulers. Despite papal prohibition, Genoese and Venetian merchants had established lucrative trade deals with Egypt, providing the Mamluks with iron, wood, food and slaves. In this way, the Mamluks were able to replenish their armories, build new galleys, and expand their armies. (The Mamluks, a curious “slave dynasty”, were dependent on constant new imports of slaves for their military and administration.) Thus, the Christians were in reality arming their Muslim adversaries for cheap profit! Likewise, pilgrims visiting Jerusalem paid monetary tributes to the Mamluk rulers. Later, they would visit Cyprus and get absolution from the local archbishop. That the Byzantines were colluding with the Muslims is less surprising. Here, William's blinkered “Latin” perspective shines through. The fourth crusade in 1204, when Venetian-led crusaders had plundered Constantinople and set up a “Latin Empire”, would forever after poison the relations between Eastern Orthodox Christians and their Catholic counterparts. Yet, William, rather than recognizing the Orthodox, proposes yet another “crusade” to conquer and subdue Constantinople as a prelude to his projected attack on Egypt…

William proposes an immediate blockade of Egypt, what we would today call economic sanctions. He wants the Christian powers to patrol the Eastern Mediterranean with galleys, and demands the immediate excommunication of all Christians who continue doing business with the Mamluks or the Mamluk-allied “Golden Horde” in Russia (most of the slaves destined for Egypt were shipped out of southern Russia by the aforementioned Italian merchants). However, William is too realistic to think that purely spiritual or even political considerations are enough. He proposes impunity for anyone who plunders Christian merchant vessels destined for Mamluk ports. In effect, he wants to outsource the economic blockade to pirates. Of course, privateering wasn't a new idea, yet it feels somewhat curious to see a rank appeal to greed in a book written by a member of the Order of Preachers. William is particularly well-disposed towards the Zaccaria brothers, who controlled several islands in the Aegean (most notably Chios), from which they launched raids against merchant ships sailing between Egypt and the Crimea. The crafty archbishop also proposes to seize the money paid by pilgrims for their indulgences at Cyprus, and use them to finance the upcoming crusade!

William, like many of his contemporaries, hoped for a Latin alliance with the Mongol or “Tartar” Ilkhanids, then ruling most of modern-day Syria, Iraq and Iran. Despite their conversion to Islam, the Ilkhanids were enemies of the Mamluks. They were also ill-disposed to their ethnic brethren the Golden Horde in southern Russia. In this context, “How to Defeat the Saracens” contains one proposal that is apparently unique to William. His travels across the Middle East convinced him that Egypt's most important trade relations weren't with Europe or the Golden Horde Tartars, but with India. The port of Aden in Yemen was of pivotal importance at this trade route. William therefore proposes to build four galleys, attack Aden and then block the entrance to the Red Sea, in effect sneaking up on Egypt from behind. William had visited the area, and confidently reports that the inhabitants of Aden have weak defenses and an even weaker fighting-spirit. Also, there were Christian islands in the vicinity, including Socotra, from which armed attacks against Muslim shipping were already launched. Nearby Ethiopia was Christian, albeit not Catholic. The main problem with Adam's proposal should be apparent: how can Catholic galleys ever hope reaching the Red Sea? All land in between Europe and Ethiopia was controlled by Muslim rulers. However, the monkish intelligence operative thinks he has a solution even to this. While visiting Baghdad, he came across Genoese ship-builders working for the Ilkhan. Their ships could be safely sailed down the Tigris and thus reach the Indian Ocean. Thus, even the far-fetched proposal to block Egypt from both the Mediterranean and the Red Sea at once, turns out to be at least theoretically possible…

For whatever reason, the proposals contained in “How to Defeat the Saracens”, while certainly known in the higher echelons of the church hierarchy, were never implemented, at least not to such an extent that they made any difference. Christian Europe was probably too politically split to unite behind a far-reaching proposal of this kind, the attempts at “union” between Avignon/Rome and Byzantium mostly solidified the ill-will on the Byzantine side, and the trade or trafficking with the Mamluks was just too profitable to be easily given up by the parties concerned. (William, ever the realist, believes that the Zaccaria brothers should be granted an exemption, being allowed to trade with the Mamluks in order to obtain cash!) The attempts to forge an alliance with the Mongols also failed, and hence all hopes to take perfidious Aden by surprise.

That being said, “How to Defeat the Saracens” is one of the most fascinating texts I've ever read, and I warmly recommend it to anyone interested in the crusades and, of course, certain modern perturbations, none mentioned here.