Frank / Saracen

Also known as Faranj, Sarrazins

The principal umbrella terms for Latin Christians (Frank / Faranj) and Muslims (Saracen / Sarrazin) in Latin and Arabic sources of the period — both imprecise.

'Frank' (Latin Francus, Arabic Faranji or al-Ifranj) was the standard Arabic and Byzantine term for any Latin Christian, regardless of actual ethnic origin. A Norman from Sicily, an Englishman from York, a Provençal merchant, and a German Teutonic Knight were all Faranj to a Mamluk chronicler. The term reflects the practical fact that the Latin Christians of the Crusades spoke largely Romance and Germanic languages, used Latin liturgically, and acknowledged the pope of Rome.

'Saracen' (Latin Saraceni, Old French Sarrazin) was the corresponding Latin Christian umbrella term for Muslims of every kind: Arabs, Kurds, Turks, Persians, Egyptians, North Africans. Its etymology is obscure and probably accidental — late-antique Greek geographers had used Sarakēnoi for an Arab tribe of the Sinai — but by the central Middle Ages it had become the all-purpose Western label.

Both words were imprecise then, and they remain imprecise as modern descriptors. They are unavoidable when working with the period's sources, but should always be unpacked: which Franks (Norman, French, German, Italian, locally-born), which Saracens (Sunni, Shi'a, Turk, Arab, Kurd, Mamluk).

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