Crusades-Encyclopedia Return to Crusades-Encyclopedia   Return to Table of Contents Rape and the Crusades
Rape has long been associated with warfare and the crusades were no different. Vivid and troubling descriptions of the brutal rape of Christians, both male and female, by Muslims has existed in crusades propaganda since the very beginning of the crusading era. Such images of abuse served as a powerful tool that could stir the hearts of knights steeped in an era of militant Christianity. While undoubtedly some reported instances of rape have been exaggerated by Christian writers, there are occasions when Muslim sources confirm such actions were, in fact, directed at Christians by Muslim warriors. In the supposed Letter of Alexius, of which surviving copies are believed to be based on a no longer surviving original text from around 1094 A.D., we find the earliest of what will become relatively common charges of widespread “slaughter” and “killing” of Christians by Muslim Turks. But the text also issues a cautionary note to the reader that it will attempt to describe “a few” of the things it claims are both “indescribable” and “evil”, things so horrible that just the mention of them will “disturb even the air itself.” (1) At this point, the text launches into a litany of horrors describing the bloody circumcisions of Christian youths over baptismal fonts, the “defilement” of Christian women, the forcing of virgins to sing lewd songs to their mothers, and forcing mothers to sing perverse songs while their daughters are raped.  The author is only getting started. We are then told to prepare ourselves for “greater depravity.” The author then lists the Christian victims of rape. He writes, "Men of every age and order, boys, adolescents, youths, old men, nobles, serfs, and, what is worse and more shameless, clergymen and monks, and alas and alack, what from the beginning has never been said or heard, bishops!- they defile with the sin of sodomy.” Shortly after this catalogue of victims, we are then told that the author will omit the rest of the crimes, “in order not to disgust the readers.” He reminds us, once again, that these are only a few of the “innumerable evil things” that are being done against Christians. At this point, the Emperor makes his request for aid invoking the “sympathy” of all Christians.” (2) [Continued...] Letter of Alexius to Count Robert of Flanders- Crusades-Encyclopedia 1. Letter of Alexius to Count Robert of Flanders- Crusades-Encyclopedia- For additional background information on the so-called Letter of Alexius, see Einar Joranson, “The Problem of the Spurious Letter of Emperor Alexius to the Court of Flanders.” The American Historical Review, 55:4 (1950): 811-832. While the exact date of the surviving version of the letter is unknown, it is believed written between the years 1106 to 1118.  Einar Joranson points out that the copy of the letter that survives is not genuine, but that the text may be based on an original from c. 1094-1095. 2. Ibid. (c) Andrew Holt, December 2005- Permission is granted for electronic copying and distribution in print for educational and personal use. No permission is granted for commercial use.