Women Captives During the Crusades

A discussion of the treatment of female captives during the era of the Crusades. Were there differences in how Crusaders and Saracens treated female captives?

Sources quoted in this podcast:

“Women and children together came to 8,000 and were quickly divided up among us, bringing a smile to Muslim faces at their lamentations. How many well-guarded women were profaned, how many queens were ruled, and nubile girls married, and noble women given away, and miserly women forced to yield themselves, and women who had been kept hidden stripped of their modesty, and serious women made ridiculous, and women kept in private now set in public, and free women occupied, and precious ones used for hard work, and pretty things put to the test, and virgins dishonoured and proud women deflowered, and lovely women’s red lips kissed, and dark women prostrated, and untamed ones tamed, and happy ones made to weep! How many noblemen took them as concubines! How many ardent men blazed for one of them, and celibates were satisfied by them, and thirsty men sated by them, and turbulent men able to give vent to their passion! How many lovely women were the exclusive property of one man! How many great ladies were sold at low prices, and close ones set at a distance, and lofty ones abased, and savage ones captured, and those accustomed to thrones dragged down!”
-Imad ad-Din, as quoted in Arab Historians of the Crusades, translated by Francesco Gabrieli (Barnes and Noble Books, 1993), p. 162-63.

“Those Turks who had good and swift horses escaped, but the stragglers were abandoned to the Franks. Many of these, especially the Saracen footmen, were taken. On the other hand few of our men were injured. In regard to the women found in the tents of the foe the Franks did them no evil but drove lances into their 

bellies.”

-Fulcher of Chartres, translated by Francis Rita Ryan, p. 106.

“Many of the Saracens who had climbed to the top of the Temple of Solomon in their flight were shot to death with arrows and fell headlong from the roof. Nearly ten thousand were beheaded in the Temple. If you had been there your feet would have been stained to the ankles in the blood of the slain. What shall I say? None of them were left alive. Neither women nor children were spared.”

-Fulcher of Chartres, p. 122.

“The army entered the city, massacred its inhabitants, pillaged and burned it, leaving it in ruins and taking prisoner all those who remained alive...The dead bodies were so many that they blocked the streets; one could not go anywhere without stepping over them. And the number of prisoners was not less than 50,000 souls. I was determined to enter the city and see the destruction with my own eyes. I tried to find a street in which I would not have to walk over the corpses; but that was impossible.”

-Sibt ibn al-Jawzi, in Norwich, John Julius (1991). Byzantium: The Apogee. New York: Viking. pp. 342–343. 

“[Saladin] performed his ablutions and prayed, before being brought fourteen Franks and a Frankish woman taken captive with them, who was the daughter of a distinguished knight. With her was a Muslim captive whom she had received. The Sultan freed the Muslim woman and the rest he herded into the armoury. They had been brought from Beirut, having been captured in a very numerous traveling party. They were put to death.”

–Baha ad-Din, 169-70. 

“The Muslims had thieves who would enter the enemy’s tents, steal from them, even taking individuals, and then make their way back. It came about that one night they took an unweaned infant three months old. They brought it to the Sultan’s tent and offered it to him. Everything they took they used to offer to him and he would reward and recompense them. When the mother missed the child she spent the whole duration of the night pleading for help with loud lamentations. Her case came to the notice of their princes, who said to her, ‘He has a merciful heart. We give you permission to go to him. Go and ask him for the child and he will restore it to you.’ So she went out to ask the Muslim advance guard for assistance, telling them of her troubles through a dragoman who translated for her. They did not detain her but sent her to the Sultan. She came to him when he was riding on the Tell al-Kharruba with me and a great crowd attending upon him. She wept copious tears and besmirched her face with soil. After he had asked about her case and it had been explained, he had compassion for her and, with tears in his eyes, he ordered the infant to be brought to him. People went and found that it had been sold in the market. The Sultan ordered the purchase price to be paid to the purchaser and the child taken from him. He himself stayed where he had halted until the infant was produced and then handed it over to the woman who took it, wept mightily, and hugged it to her bosom, while people watched and wept also. I was standing there amongst the gathering. She suckled the child for a while and then, on the orders of the Sultan, she was taken on horseback an restored to their camp with the infant.”

–Baha ad-Din 147-48.

“The king of Damascus [Toghtekin] now sent wise and discreet men as envoys to the chiefs of our army, namely, the Patriarch, the Doge of Venice, the Count of Tripoli, William Bures, and the other lords of the realm. They bore proposals of peace couched in conciliatory language. After much discussion and many disputes, an agreement was reached between the two parties: the city would be surrendered to the Christians on condition that those citizens who wished be allowed to depart freely with their wives and children and all their substance, while those who preferred to remain at Tyre should be granted permission to do so and their home and possession guaranteed them.”

–William of Tyre, vol II, p. 19.