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He wakes up to the smell of perfume and opens his eyes to see incense burning slowly on a corner of a room richly decorated with silks and art.
France touches his chest and finds himself out of armor, touches his hair and finds it clean of blood and soot, looks at the barred windows and understands that: 1) he had been taken prisoner by the enemy, and 2) this prison cell was nicer than his chambers back home.
The door creaks as it opens and he grabs the first weapon he finds: a pillow.
The tall Turk that enters his room with a tray of food looks at him unimpressed.
He says something, but France frowns at him. He doesn’t speak his tongue. They look at each other for a moment in mute incomprehension before the Turk shakes his head and shrugs, leaves the tray and locks the door on his way out.
France wraps himself on the silk sheets and approaches the food carefully.
It’s good. Worse, it’s better than the grub he had been eating since landing on the Holy Land.
He prays to God for forgiveness and eats it all.
-
On the fifth day he attempts communication again.
“I am the eldest daughter of Christianity and I demand to be released!”
The Turk watches him with mild amusement and a raised eyebrow. France curses him and his entire lineage. He laughs.
“How long will I have to endure this captivity?” he demands to know and the Turk cocks his head at him, blinking.
He takes parchment and ink and writes down numbers that France does not recognize. He frowns at him and the Turk frowns at him in return.
The next day he brings him an abacus and shows him the number again on the beads.
Comprehension downs on him as he reads the value of his ransom.
He’s fucked.
-
By the end of the first month he and the Turk establish a somewhat shaky form of non-verbal communication.
By the end of the first year he already knows basic phrases. But wishes he hadn’t when he discovers how utterly insufferable the Turk can be.
Though he will admit that he is handsome, tall and dark, broad across the shoulders with heavy hands that he keeps on his curved sword at his hip as he takes France for walks in the orchards outside the place where he’s being held. He would also admit that if it weren’t for the fact that the Pope himself had requested his aid in taking back the Holy Land, he would have liked to get to know him better.
But, alas, things are what they are.
“Don’t you have better things to do than chaperone me around?”
The Seljuk chuckles. “Oh, yes,” he says, and looks at France with a sly smile. “But resting my eyes on your pretty face is certainly among them.”
He huffs indignantly, but allows it, continuing their walk by his side.
-
By the third year the Seljuk has introduced him to Persian chess.
France is not good at it and tells him his games suck.
The Turk only laughs.
-
“You seem a little too smart to fall for the Eastern Emperor’s bullshit,” he tells France one day, lying on his bed and eating France’s fruits.
France, who had been tasked with cleaning his shoes of horseshit, glares at him.
“It is my divine duty to clear the earth of your filth,” he spats, but continues scrubbing.
The Seljuk snorts. “You don’t believe that.”
France opens his mouth to retort, but stops himself. Thinks better of it.
“If you did believe that,” the Seljuk continues, “You would have stayed in Jerusalem.” When France does not respond, he smirks and continues. “Did you even cry when you entered the city?”
“I—” he starts, but stops himself again. The Turk’s smirk widens. “I was very moved yes.”
“But did you cry?”
France glares at him, propped up on one elbow on his bed and being more insufferable than ever.
“I don’t think that you’re here because the Pope asked,” the Seljuk says and France drops down the rag he had been using. “I think you want land.”
France stands up, goes to the bed.
“I think you and I are not so different after all,” the Seljuk says and oofs an amused breath when France climbs on top of him, sits on his stomach.
“We could not be more different,” France grits out, pins his wrists above his head on the bed. “You are here to destroy Christianity and I am here to defend it.”
The Turk breaks easily from his hold and turns him on the bed, smiles down on him, his teeth white and sharp. “Are you? Or are you here to gain power over the Eastern Romans? Gain back what you think is yours, France, son of Rome?”
France snarls at him, but the Turk chuckles, leaves him on the bed and walks away, locks the door behind him.
-
“I’ll have you know,” he begins as soon as the Seljuk opens the door later. “That you are mistaken about me.”
He smirks and hands him new clothes. “Your ransom has been paid.”
France takes the linen robes and stares at it.
“I wouldn’t come back if I were you,” the Seljuk tells him on his way out. “We got enough problems with the Mongols as it is. I’d hate to have to kill someone as pretty as you.”
France frowns at the clothes, and then glares at his retreating back.
-
Notes:
In 1073 the Seljuk Turks took Jerusalem after defeating the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire two years prior and expanding their dominion over Anatolia. Pope Urban II used that as an excuse to call for a Holy War (Crusade) to take back the Holy Land.
The First Crusade was successful in taking back Jerusalem and establishing Crusader States, which can be seen as precursors of European colonial expansion. France was particularly involved in the Crusades, to the point that to the Arabs living there at the time all Europeans were referred to as “Franks”.
However, in 1104, after the First Crusade was over, crusaders from the established states were defeated in the Battle of Harran. The King of Jerusalem and the Count of Edessa were captured and held for ransom, only being released in 1108 and 1109. A curiosity included here: Arabic numbers would only be popularized in Europe in 1202 with Fibonacci’s Liber Abaci (Book of Calculation).
The Crusades, although told from the European point of view as a major conflict, are not seen as such by the Arabs, who had bigger problems with the Mongol expansion coming from the east. I highly recommend Today I Found Out’s How do Arabic Nations Teach the Crusades? for more on this topic.
