Muslims as Pagan Idolaters in Chronicles of the First Crusade

Abstract

In the Chronicles of the Archbishops of Salzburg we find the story of Archbishop Thiemo, who died in the crusade of 1101.¹ Thiemo, we are told, along with Duke Welf of Bavaria, led a group of Bavarians and Swabians toward Jerusalem (already under Christian rule). As they approached the holy city, these crusaders were surrounded and defeated “by an innumerable multitude of gentiles (ethnici).” These pagans were led by three brothers from Corosan “who in their ferocity were more tyrannical and in their cult more pagan than [the Roman Emperor] Decius”—an emperor best known for his brutal persecutions of Christians. These “pagans” were angered by the recent victory of the crusaders and eager to wreak vengeance on Christian pilgrims.² They led Thiemo and other pilgrims away into slavery. One day their king discovered that Thiemo had been trained as a goldsmith, so he asked him to repair a golden idol. Thiemo asked for a hammer and approached the idol. He addressed the demon inhabiting the idol, ordering it in the name of God to leave the statue.³ When the demon uttered blasphemies, Thiemo smashed the idol with his hammer. This led to his martyrdom: he was thrown into prison, brought out the next day, put on an ass, whipped, and brought to an arena before the throngs; there the king accused him of sacrilege. Thiemo replied that the idols were not gods but demons, and preached that the king should desist from the worship of Saturn, Jove, and the obscene Priapus.