All commentators stress the harshness that the captives endured. They were quickly transported from the place they were captured, often with only the clothes on their backs, which might have to serve them as their only garments for months. More seriously, women captives faced the possibility or the reality of rape. Once in captivity, they suffered continued deprivations of food and shelter.66
The Muslims held their Christian captives under tighter control than slaves of other origins. Because many tried to flee back across the frontier, they had to be guarded closely to prevent flight. As they waited, the captives endured conditions described as “harsh,” “bad and painful,” and “sad.” They usually were locked up in closed cellars, often with leg irons, handcuffs, or other impediments to movement. As they worked as wood cutters, mill workers, harvesters, they could be chained together in gangs, and they faced harsh corporal punishment for infractions. Alvaro de Olid in 1439 described the prison for captives in Granada and wrote of the prisoners: “I swear to God that some of them lacked the appearance of a man, for they were nothing but skin and bone. . . . looking from head to foot one could count how many bones they had in the body, so great was their labor.”67 Pedro de Medina, writing long afterward in the mid-sixteenth century, recalled the tradition that late medieval Christian captives in the Muslim city of Ronda, built on high cliffs above the river, had to carry water in leather containers (zaques) up some fifty meters from the river to the city. This gave rise to Spanish commonplace expressions: “May God set me free from the zaques of Ronda,” and “That’s the way you die, carrying zaques in Ronda.”68
Existing documents recorded few voices of actual slaves, but we do have the words of the fifteenth-century poet ‘Abd al-Karīm al Qaysī, who was for a time held captive in the Portuguese city of Évora. His ode to Muḥammad related to his own captivity.
O, captive among foes, who enters through his chains upon humiliation and contempt, / whom God has ordained to live in captivity subjected to dreadful trials,/ endure patiently God’s judgment and comply with His decree, then your name will be written with Him among the chosen. / Plead for your deliverance because of the esteem of the most excellent Messenger, then you will see his miracles immediately.69
If not ransomed, captives were sold at auction. Some ended up as farm workers, and many others worked at urban tasks. The greatest peril for the Christian captives was to be sold to North Africa or other more distant parts of the Muslim world where they would be farther from possible redemption, and, because slave prices were higher in North Africa, the cost of their ransoms would be greater. Escape from North Africa was almost impossible, and unsuccessful attempts could be punished by mutilation of noses and ears.70
In such circumstances, with the existence of the captives in a precarious state and with the prospect of redemption uncertain at best, it is not surprising that stories of miraculous interventions transcended the religious frontier. A late ninth-century example involved the famous Muslim scholar of Córdoba, Baqī ibn Makhlad, who prayed on behalf of an impoverished mother with a captive son. Shortly afterward, the mother returned to the scholar with her son in tow. He told that his chains had miraculously broken and he walked home unimpeded. Various holy Muslims of the twelfth century were said to be able to free themselves or others by various miraculous methods, including changing the wind to blow a Christian ship with Muslim captives onto a Muslim shore where the captives were saved. Such stories about pious scholars and holy men intervening for captives continued across the religious divide into the sixteenth century and perhaps later.71
On the Christian side, the miracles attributed to Santo Domingo (St. Dominic) of Silos (d. 1073) included stories of miraculous interventions to free captives.72 One of the earliest stories, dating to fourteen years after Domingo’s death, involved the Castilian soldier Pedro, captured during a Christian raid into Muslim territory and held in captivity in Murcia. The saint appeared to him and offered him a way to escape. During a siesta one Friday, Peter
effortlessly took the iron fetters from his feet, and with the grace of the man of God, Dominic, going before him, in twelve days of good progress he reached the royal city of Toledo. When he got there, he told everybody all that had happened to him on St. Dominic’s account, giving clear proof that all he has said was true. . . . All who heard this marvelous miracle . . . encouraged Peter to go to the monastery [of Silos] where the Saint’s tomb was and there to tell all that had happened. This he duly did, and in the monastery of Silos narrated the great miracle from which he had benefited, gave thanks to God and to his liberator, and safely and joyfully went home.73
Tales of Domingo’s interventions continued to appear throughout the Middle Ages. Pero Marín, a monk of Silos, collected and recorded a series of the miracle stories over a long period from 1232 to 1293. An early one, dated 1232, told of the Muslim commander in Córdoba who rode out with an armed party to raid Christian lands. At the Alcolea bridge, two leagues from Córdoba,
he met in the middle of the bridge a man surrounded by an intensely bright light. The Moor asked him in Spanish “Who goes there?” The bright light replied: “I am St. Dominic of Silos.” The Moor then asked: “Where are you going?” St. Dominic replied: “I am going to Cordova [sic] to rescue prisoners.” Then the Moor ordered his soldiers to turn, and he got back to Cordova before dawn. In one prison in which he kept fifteen Christians, he shackled them all by the foot and throat and hand, and together with his men lay down to rest on the cover of the entrance to the prison. He sent messages to other Moors who had captives telling them to guard them well, for St. Dominic was in the city: and they put strong shackles on all of them. When day came they inspected the prison where the Moor’s fifteen captives had lain, and found no trace of them, nor of the shackles. The Moor alerted the others, who then inspected their prisons, finding no captives in them. It was said that day 154 prisoners were released by St. Dominic and found to be missing.74
A story of 1277–79 related how a group of mariners from Santander received the saint’s assistance to escape from their captivity in Arzila in North Africa, and another told of a soldier’s escape with the saint’s help from Granada, just as his captor was about to send him to North Africa.75
Accounts circulated about the assistance of other saints who rescued captives. One story about Santiago (St. James), the patron of Spain, provides a convenient overview of the slaving markets of the whole Muslim world.
In . . . 1100 a certain citizen of Barcelona is said to have come as a pilgrim to the cathedral of St. James in Galicia. He prayed to the Apostle only that he should free him from captivity by his enemies, if perchance he should suffer that. Then he went home, and later, while sailing to Sicily on business, he was captured at sea by Saracens. What next? He was bought and sold thirteen times at marts and markets. Those who purchased him were unwilling to keep him, because St. James always broke his chains and shackles. First he was sold in Kurashan, the second time in the city of Jezirah in Slav lands . . . , the third time in Blasia [unidentified], the fourth in Turkish lands . . . , the fifth in Persia, the sixth in India, the seventh in Ethiopia, the eighth in Alexandria, the ninth in North Africa, the tenth in Barbary, the eleventh in Bizerta, the twelfth in Bougie, the thirteenth in the city of Almería. In this last place, when he was shackled by a certain Saracen by a double chain drawn tightly round his legs, as he was praying to St. James on high, the Apostle himself appeared to him, saying: “Since, when you were in my church, you prayed only that I would set your person free, and not for the salvation of your soul, you have been cast into all these perils. But because the Lord has taken pity on you, He sent me to you in order that I should free you from this prison.”76
Redeemed captives, no doubt willing to believe they had received miraculous aid in their successful escapes, spread tales such as these that later coalesced into canonical miracle accounts.
The Christian captives who were taken to North Africa were held, at least initially, in special prisons known as “baños” before they could be ransomed and returned to Spain. While awaiting ransom, they could be employed in a variety of occupations that in certain cases mirrored those in which the Muslim captives worked in Spain. They could be put to work as rowers on galleys and other corsair vessels. On land, they worked,