Dragomans and Crusaders: the Role of Translators and Translation in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean, 1098-1291
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Dragomans and Crusaders: The Role of Translators and Translation in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean, 1098-1291 By William Stephen Murrell, Jr. Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in History June 30, 2018 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: David J. Wasserstein, Ph.D Leor Halevi, Ph.D William Caferro, Ph.D Richard McGregor, Ph.D To Rachel ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many people and institutions have contributed to this project. First, I would like to thank the Vanderbilt History Department for its generous support for conference and research travel and summer language study. Additionally, my first year of writing was supported by a fellowship from the Andrew W. Mellon Sawyer Seminar at the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities. Thank you to Tony, Samira, and David for organizing the seminar and for inviting me to participate. The fellowship also funded research at the Heberden Coin Room at the Ashmolean. My thanks to Julian Baker for your guidance and patience as I played the numismatist for a few days. I would like to thank Jim Toplon and the entire staff at the Vanderbilt library for tracking down obscure medieval texts and defunct European numismatic journals. In that vein, I would also like to thank Samu Niskanen for double-checking St. Catherine’s College MS 3 for a few crucial terms and saving me another trip across the Atlantic. Though I have worked mostly outside of the crusade studies guild, several giants in the field have helped me along the way. Andrew Jotischky helped me in my research on translators and translation in Syrian monasteries. Thomas Madden helped me identify obscure Venetian administrative officials whose titles kept showing up in Syrian documents. Jonathan Phillips read a very early portion of this project and encouraged me that a dissertation about dragomans and crusaders was worth writing. Finally, Christopher Tyerman ignited my long-held fascination in the crusades and the eastern Mediterranean, first as an author and then as an advisor and mentor when I was a master’s student. iii I would like to thank the participants of the Islamic Studies Seminar at Vanderbilt and the Crusade Studies Reading Group at the University of Tennessee for reading extended portions of my dissertation and offering invaluable feedback and criticism. In particular, I’d like to thank Mohammad Allehbi and Mohammad Meerzai who helped me avoid many mistakes with my Arabic translations and transliterations. This project could not have been completed without the encouragement and guidance of my committee. Richard McGregor encouraged me to think creatively about the relationship between pilgrimage, sacred relics, and translation. Bill Caferro inspired me to take a blue-collar approach to research and writing. Whenever I struggled with inspiration, I would remember his advice: “just write the damn thing.” Leor Halevi taught me to think carefully about the relationship between religion, material culture, and cross-cultural trade. And finally, David Wasserstein trained me to think carefully about language—both as a historical problem and as a historian’s tool. I will very much miss our conversations—both those had in person and those had on paper. The former were casual, meandering, and always pleasant while the latter were forceful, direct, and usually painful. Both have made me a better scholar. I would like to thank my family for their encouragement and support over the last few years. In particular, I am very grateful to my mom and my sister-in-law, Moriah, for helping with Josephine and Liam so that I could carve out quality time for research and writing. I’d like to thank Josephine (4) and Liam (1) for being too young to care about what I do everyday and for constantly bringing me out of the middle ages and into the joyful present. Finally, I’d like to thank Rachel for sacrificing so much to make this season possible. Like the most skilled of dragomans, you have filled many important roles on this journey—wife, mother, baker, breadwinner, copy-editor, translator, and companion. I couldn’t have made it without you. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION .......................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS................................................................................................. iii ABBREVIATIONS ..........................................................................................................vii Introduction: “More Than Mere Interpreters”.....................................................................1 Introduction: The Ubiquity of Language Barriers.......................................................1 The Absence of Translators: A Historiographical Sketch ...........................................6 Well-Trodden Fields, Emerging Interdisciplines, and Blank Spaces ........................11 Finding Dragomans: Sources and Methods ...............................................................20 More than Mere Interpreters: Argument and Structure .............................................25 Conclusion: The Absence of Language Barriers .......................................................30 I. Life and Death: War & Diplomacy............................................................................32 Introduction: The Enigma of Herluin ........................................................................32 The Role of Translators in the Siege of Antioch, 1097-98........................................38 The Identity of Interpreter-Envoys in Third Crusade Negotiations, 1191-92 ...........54 The Products of Translation in Peace-Making with the Mamluks, 1268-90.............80 Conclusion: From the Periphery to the Center ..........................................................89 II. Death and Taxes: Local Administration ....................................................................91 Introduction: From the Battlefield to the Wheat Fields.............................................91 Governance and Communication with the Subjected Population..............................96 Intermediary Officials as Translators.......................................................................106 Conclusion: From the Wheat Fields to the Battlefield.............................................133 III. Coins and Customs Houses: Cross-Cultural Trade..................................................136 Introduction: Cross-Cultural Trade and the Problem of Language .........................136 The Dīwān as a Site of Translation .........................................................................141 The Bezant as an Object of Translation...................................................................164 Conclusion: Coins and Customs Houses.................................................................184 IV. Holy Men and Holy Footprints: Religious Pilgrimage............................................186 Introduction: Footprints at the Dome of the Rock ............................................. 186 Following the Noble Footprints...............................................................................189 Translating Pilgrimage: The Agency of Interpreter-Guides....................................197 Finding Dragomans: The Identity of Interpreter-Guides.........................................203 Translating and Transporting the Noble Footprints ................................................215 Conclusion: Qadam al-Rasūl to Pede Domini ........................................................220 v V. Philosophers and Treasurers: Scientific Scholarship...............................................222 Introduction: “Dim and Shadowy Figures” ..................................................... 222 Biographies of Translators.......................................................................................228 Geography of Translation........................................................................................248 Products of Translation: Medical Glossaries...........................................................266 Conclusion: Embedded and Embodied....................................................................272 Conclusion: Seeing Dragomans ......................................................................................273 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...........................................................................................................283 vi ABBREVIATIONS Ambroise Ambroise, The History of the Holy War: Ambroise's Estoire De La Guerre Sainte. Edited by Marianne Ailes. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2003. AOL Archives de l'Orient Latin. Edited by Paul Riant. Paris: E. Leroux, 1881- 1884. CGOH Delaville Le Roulx, Joseph. Cartulaire général de l'ordre des Hospitaliers de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem (1100-1310). 4 vols. Paris: Leroux, 1894. Cod. Dipl. Geros. Codice Diplomatico Del Sacro Militare Ordine Gerosolimitano. Edited by Sebastiano Paoli. Lucca, 1733. Delaborde, Chartes Delaborde, Henri François. Chartes de Terre Sainte provenant de l'Abbaye de N.-D. de Josaphat. Paris: E. Thorin, 1880. EI2 Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, edited by P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Leiden: Brill, 2006. ELS Enchiridion Locorum Sanctorum. Edited by Donato Baldi. Jerusalem: Typis PP. Franciscanorum, 1955. FC Fulcher of Chartres. Fulcheri Carnotensis Historia Hierosolymitana. Edited by H. Hagenmeyer. Heidelberg: