Chapter Eighteen

 

 

The Moors

 

 

After several days of travel Tristan crossed into the province of Burgundy and finally made the rise leading up to the Cluny Monastery. As he entered the gates, he encountered a bustle of activity going on within the complex, and saw that an entire caravan of foreign-constructed carriages and wagons had filled the stable area and had even spilled out into the main yard.

Then he heard a familiar voice calling to him. “Tristan! Where have you been, lad?” It was Abbot Hugh, and he look flustered.

“Are the Moors here already?” Tristan asked, already guessing the answer.

“Yes, two days ago. I wanted to begin negotiations yesterday, but Cardinal Odo’s order was to have you open the session due to your knowledge of Arabic and your experience negotiating with Lord Abdul Azim and the Seljuq Turks on behalf of Pope Gregory several years ago. Praise Heaven you have arrived! We were beginning to panic.”

“I thought they were not to arrive for another day yet.”

“They came early for some reason! Caught us off guard.”

“Oh, yes, I should have guessed,” said Tristan, privately chastising himself for overstaying at Mala’s camp. “It is a diplomatic maneuver the Arabs use from time to time, to catch the enemy off guard and gain an edge during negotiations. No need to worry, Abbot, we will stall for three or four days more before beginning the talks, to repay their courtesy.”

“What?”

“Yes, to regain the advantage, to let them know they are in our house, therefore we determine the schedule, not them.”

“Ah, clever lad! Yes, thank Heaven you’ve arrived.”

The formal negotiations between the Gregorian Catholic Church and the Moors of North Africa, then, were opened by Tristan posing as Lucien Broussard, Papal repre-sentative, and began three days later than had been originally scheduled, much to the irritation of the Moors. Despite this initial displeasure, the Moors quickly developed respect and admiration for this Lucien Broussard; he was respectful, engaging, and possessed an impressive knowledge of their culture. More importantly, he spoke their language and possessed a sense of humor, dry as it was. Tristan, therefore, as Lucien Broussard, was able to establish a working rapport with the Moors, which they found refreshing. During most negotiations with Christians, they had found westerners to be arrogant and condescending.

Tristan was uniquely qualified to conduct these talks with the Moors, due primarily to a combination of his own in-depth research while a student at Cluny, his years of learning Arab and Persian tongues, and his experience negotiating with the Seljuq Turks several years earlier. In fact he was one of the few Churchmen who actually possessed a reasonable grasp of the Muslim world as it really was. Western Europe as a whole at this time viewed the Muslims as a united race of dark people who, like heathen locusts, were encroaching on Christendom from every front. Western Europe also referred to all of these people, regardless of origin or habitat, as Saracens. Tristan was well aware of the vast historical and demographic differences between the actual Saracens as opposed to the Moors and the Turks. He also knew that even within each of these three distinct groups, the rivalry and infighting was so fierce that achieving unity against the West was next to impossible. And unlike his counterparts, Tristan recognized that the Muslims were not a primitive race of idolaters, but an eclectic collection of various cultures who had embraced the teachings of Mohammed. However much he privately admired their cultures and advanced technology, he did also consider them a threat to Christendom, and feared that one day they might unite and make a move against the European continent and Christianity.

At issue during these particular negotiations was the city of Tunis where the current Mohammedan ruler had taken to capturing Christians, who were fairly populous in the region, and enslaving them for financial gain. Cardinals Odo and Desiderius had half-heartedly rattled the threat of potential war if the situation in Tunis did not improve, but the Moors had ignored these threats. They knew that the Gregorians were still at war with Heinrich who controlled Rome and also that the Gregorians had been unable to select a Pope in over a year. Having learned that the Gregorians had retaken Rome and would soon be selecting a Pope, the Moors had agreed to convene with Abbot Hugh in Cluny for negotiations.

Tristan’s mission, therefore, was to convince the Moors that the war against Heinrich had turned back in favor of the Holy See and that upon the selection of a Pope, a union of Italian militias from Rome, Pisa, and Genoa would quickly sail against Tunis. This he did convincingly.

“Under the banner of Saint Peter, these armies will quickly overrun your shores as the first act of our new Pope though the Holy See would much prefer a peaceful settlement,” he declared. “We have no desire to commence a new war, only to save our fellow Christians from enslave-ment, the new Pope will have no other choice. Peace or war, it is in your hands, my friends… not ours.”

This created a stir amongst the Moors because, as in all political situations as this, certain individuals benefit from war, while others lose. Though victory in war is the quickest way to fill one’s treasury, war is also the greatest risk to those who are content with what they already have, and many of the Moorish diplomats attending the negotiations were living a life of peaceful prosperity.

Tristan’s instructions had also directed him to feed specific information to the Moors, some of which was either false or magnified in scope. This information included Mathilda’s recent progress against the Germans in northern Italy as well as the number of Italian city-state militias available to the Holy See. It also included intimating to the Tunis delegation the huge amount of wealth under the control of the Benedictine Brotherhood which possessed vast estates in France, Spain, and Italy, and also enjoyed great support from the monarchs and powerbrokers of these same countries. And finally, Tristan was to wave the specter of Duke Robert Guiscard and the Normans of Lower Italy in their faces because Guiscard was known to them for conquering Sicily and certain other Muslim domains of southern Italy in previous years.

Of course, Duke Guiscard was dead and his sons Roger Borsa and Bohemud had never indicated the slightest interest in sending troops to Tunis. “Ah, the sons of Duke Guiscard are even more rabid warriors than was the old Duke himself,” Tristan warned, “and would love to seize North Africa to add to their Norman domains!”

His mission, then, was one of puffery, deception, and confusion, which he shuffled out with an extraordinary mix of finesse and sophistication for one so young. Abbott Hugh was himself one of the most experienced and respected diplomats of the continent; his expertise revolved around European diplomacy, not dealing with the Muslims. And as he watched Tristan manipulate the ebb and flow of discussions as they dragged on for days, and as the days dragged on for weeks, his admiration grew.

Tristan’s instructions had also directed him to do one other thing… grow a beard and mustache prior to his return to Rome. This he did not accomplish quite as successfully. To the amusement of the Moors, Tristan’s youthful face and tender skin developed an initial stubble which was blond and fuzzy. It gradually turned into a beard that was quite meager in comparison to their own thick, dark beards. Nevertheless, Tristan made light of this with daily remarks of self-deprecation which only further endeared him to the visitors.

By month’s end the talks were finalized and the Moors packed their wagons and set out for the coast. Absolutely nothing had actually been settled during their stay in Cluny, but Abbot Hugh and Tristan were well satisfied with the outcome. In reality, Cardinal Odo had not expected a breakthrough, nor had he expected the Moors to free all Christian slaves in Tunis as requested. What he did expect was that the Moors would return to North Africa with a newfound respect for the power of the Holy See, a respect that had been in decline over the past five years. This intent was yet another one of his intricate intrigues. In the back of his mind, when the moment was right, Odo did fully intend to attack Tunis. This negotiation session, then, was to notify the Moors that the Holy See possessed troops, wealth, and will, and would therefore be a formidable enemy in the future.

“Come Lucien Broussard,” Abbott Hugh laughed after the Moors had left. “Our tailors have nearly completed your military uniform and they await you for a final fitting. Then you shall become Captain Stephane Broussard of the Burgundian Guard!”