I've scoured both previous posts on here, and on the internet in general about the languages spoken in the crusader states in the 12th century. I saw a previous answer on here that intrigued me. It said that some of the 2nd or later generations of Christian nobles knew how to speak Arabic. I wonder if a knight from a holy order or someone serving under the various crusader nobles, would be likely to know Arabic well enough to hold a conversation (more than just asking for a price of various goods or other generic tasks). The knight in my scenario can either be born in the Levant or spent more than 10 years there.
I'm also very interested to know if local Muslims would learn European languages spoken by the Christian pilgrims and ruling classes (mainly some form of French I assume). I am especially interested to know if a local hostile soldier to the crusader states would have an understanding with any European language. The soldier's background doesn't matter, he could be a noble, former trader, or a peasant. The soldier can serve under whoever, even Saladin, but I don't want to limit my question to Saladin's army as I don't know where Saladin raised the bulk of his army, though I suspect it was done mostly in Egypt or in areas where there is little contact with Europeans, and thus unlikely to speak the language.
So in short, I'm mostly interested to know if there is a chance that Christian and Muslim strangers could speak to each other.
Good book recommendations on the crusader states are also welcome.
Probably the most useful primary source for day to day relations between the Latins and local Muslims is Usmah Ibn Munqidh. His autobiography contains the line "Among the Franks are those who have become acclimatized and have associated long with the Muslims. These are much better than the recent comers from the Frankish lands. But they constitute the exception and cannot be treated as a rule."
His autobiography contains several interesting anecdotes, an important one is a story he relates of one of his associates, through a mutual friend, being invited to dine at the house of an old Frankish knight. The knight, seeing his Muslim guest isn't eating, tells him not to worry, as he never eats Frankish dishes, employing instead an Egyptian cook. Later in the same entry story Ibn Munqidh distinguishes between the knight, who his man understands perfectly and a group of Frankish women, who he could not.
Ibn Munqidh makes no mention of translators in his stories, but neither does he mention a common a language. I am therefore not comfortable asserting for definite how these communications took place, but the impression I personally get is of a shared language. Whilst I’m sure translators played an important role in the Crusader States it isn’t hard to imagine some more open minded people on both sides, especially those with commercial interests in Latin held cities like Acre or Antioch learning the language.
Another story; this is one of my favourite anecdotes from the period. Whilst, as I discuss in the next paragraph, it's worth taking Usmah with a grain of salt, this incident is still worth reading. This story comes from a man named Salim, who worked in a bath house owned by Usmah's father. A Frankish knight came into the bath house and snatched off Salim's loin cloth and was shocked to discover he had shaved his pubic hair. The knight, thinking this was a great look, insisted that Salim shave both him and his wife. Now, is this story almost certainly made up as a way to depict the Franks as crass and lacking propriety? Oh yes. Does that make it less entertaining? Oh no.
Now, as with all medieval sources, we shouldn't take Ibn Munqidh totally at face value; "get a load of this c-razy story my friend told me about those weird Franks!" isn't exactly iron clad. But even the least generous reading, where he's essentially repeating gossip is significant, because even that reveals a world were interactions between Franks and Muslims had become normalised enough to become a genre of popular story.
For what it's worth, I'm personally inclined to believe the story of the Frankish dinner as he mentions by name a man he claims to be important in Antioch "There was in Antioch at that time al-Ra'is Theodoros Sophianos, to whom I was bound by mutual ties of amity. His influence in Antioch was supreme." So there is probably some kernel of truth to the story at least (or, alternately, he's just name dropping to make it seem more plausible).
How willing you are to believe Ibn Munqidh's stories (as I've suggested, some are plausible, some not), has bearing on the topic of language - in humorous anecdotes with little or no factual basis, translators become an unnecessary literary detail. Nevertheless the world that Usmah Ibn Munqidh shines a light on is one where communication between Franks and Muslims has become relatively normalised where commerce is a regular occurrence and friendships are possible. That much I don't believe is made up.
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