Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog

Saint Francis Meets the Sultan June 4, 2016

It is a WIBT moment from the Middle Ages. At the centre of his court, the highest of the lords of the earth, Sultan al-Kamil, nephew of Saladin and protector of the holy places; and before him, an unkempt Christian holy man with a reputation for doing unpredictable things, St Francis of Assisi. The meeting took place in inauspicious circumstances. In 1219 a Christian army was besieging Damietta in Egypt, as the main effort of the fifth crusade. Peace negotiations were underway between the crusading army and the Sultan when Francis somehow persuaded his ecclesiastical superior to go and preach to al-Kamil: Francis had a genuine talent for persuading people to do unlikely things. The meeting has been written about and painted in almost every generation since in took place in August 1219. The earliest illustration, that may be as early as the 1240s, appears in the Bardi chapel in Santa Croce, Florence, the Sultan looking rather worried on his throne. By the end of the Middle Ages the Christian world had turned the meeting into an epic saintly cycle. Francis goes to convert the Sheik, there are temptress women, fire walks, gifts refused and, in one version, it emerges that al-Kamil was persuaded to convert to Christianity, but did not have the courage to go through with it.

What really happened? We are very fortunate to have two contemporary records: Jacques de Vitry and the so-called Chronique d’Ernoul. The so-called Chronique d’Ernoul describes how Francis (unnamed) browbeats cardinal Pelagius into letting them go to the Sultan. This chronicle clearly had (on the basis of other episodes) good sources in the crusader camp: the writer may even have been there himself. (Translation from John Toland’s excellent Saint Francis and the Sultan)

And so the two clerics then left the Christian camp and headed towards that of the Saracens. When the Saracen sentinels saw them coming, they thought that they were messengers or perhaps had come to renounce their faith. When they met them, they seized them, and led them to the Sultan. When they were brought into his presence, they greeted him. The Sultan returned their greeting and then asked if they wished to become Saracens or perhaps had come with some message. They responded that they would never want to become Saracens, but that they had come before him as messengers on behalf of the Lord God, that he might turn his soul to God. ‘If you wish to believe us,’ they said, ‘we will hand over your soul to God, because we are telling you in all truth that if you die in the law which you now profess, you will be lost and God will not possess your soul. It is for this reason that we have come. But if you will give us a hearing and try to understand us, we will demonstrate to you with convincing reasons, in the presence of the most learned teachers of your realm, if you wish to assemble them, that your law is false.’ The Sultan responded that he had qadıs and good clerics of his Law, and that he could not listen to what they had to say except in their presence. ‘Very well,’ responded the two clerics, ‘order them here, and if we cannot demonstrate with solid arguments that what we tell you is true, that your law is false—that is, if you are willing to listen and understand—then you can have our heads cut off.’

Any hope though of a theological debate breaks down.

So the Sultan ordered them to join him in his tent. And so some of the highest nobles and wisest men of his land and the two clerics were gathered together. When they had all assembled, the Sultan explained the reason why he had called them together and brought them into his presence, and what the two clerics had said, and the purpose they had in coming to his court. But they answered him: ‘Lord, you are the sword of the law: you have the duty to maintain and defend it. We command you, in the name of God and of Muhammad, who has given us the law, to cut off their heads here and now, for we do not want to listen to anything they have to say. We also warn you not to listen to them, because the law forbids giving a hearing to preachers. And if there should be someone who wishes to preach or speak against our law, the law commands that his head be cut off. It is for this reason that we command you, in the name of God and the law, that you have their heads cut off immediately, as the law demands.’ Having said this, they then took their leave and departed, without wanting to hear another word. There remained only the Sultan and with the two clerics. Then the Sultan said to them: ‘My lords, they have told me in the name of God and of the law that I should have your heads cut off, because it is so prescribed. But I am going to act against the law, because I am never going to condemn you to death. For that would be an evil reward for me to bestow on you, who conscientiously risked death, as you believe, in order to save my soul for God.’ After saying this, the Sultan told them that if they wished to remain with him, he would give them vast lands and many possessions. But they replied that they did not want to stay, from the moment they saw that he did not want to listen to them or understand their message, and that they would return to the Christian army, if he would permit them. The Sultan replied that he would gladly have them returned safe and sound to the Christian camp. Furthermore, he brought great quantities of gold, silver, and silk garments and invited them to take whatever they wanted. They said that they would take nothing, since they could not have his soul for God, for it was in their eyes more valuable to them than all that he possessed. They said it would be sufficient if he would give them something to eat, and then they would be on their way, since they couldn’t accomplish anything else there. The Sultan gave them plenty of food to eat, whereupon they took their leave of him and he had them escorted safely back to the Christian army.

Jacques writes the following

Lord Rayner, Prior of St Michael has ordered the Order of Lesser Brothers. This Order is multiplying rapidly throughout the world, because it expressly imitates the pattern of the primitive church and life of the apostles in everything. Neverthless this Order seems very dangerous to us, because it sends out two by two throughout the world, not only formed religious, but also immature young men who should first be tested and subjected to conventual discipline for a time. The head of these brothers, who also founded the Order, came into our camp. He was so inflamed with zeal for the faith that he did not fear to cross the lines to the army of our enemy. For several days he preached the Word of God to the Saracens and made little progress. The Sultan, king of Egypt, privately asked him to pray to the Lord for him so that he might be inspired by God to adhere to that religion that most pleased God. Colin, the Englishman, our clerk, also has joined this Order, as well as two more of our company, namely Master Michael and Lord Matthew, to whom I had committed the care of the Church of the Holy Cross. I am having a difficult time holding on to the cantor and Henry and several others.

The importance of this source is its hostility: Francis has founded a dangerous order, he is himself a maniac and, worse still, he is poaching churchmen from Jacques. Jacques also describes the meeting, in his later, Western History where he is more complimentary. He adds the interesting detail that the Franciscans have found, while preaching to Muslims, that they are listened to courteously until they criticize Muhammad ‘as a liar and an evil man’. Who would have thought it… Still in Jacques description above we come as close as we ever will to Francis walking before the Sultan.

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