Page:PhilipK.Hitti-SyriaAShortHistory.djvu/199

Rh Latin throughout the whole period, a medical treatise by al- Majusi translated at Antioch in 1 127 by a Pisan. Another work translated in Antioch (1247) was The Secret of Secrets, a pseudo- Aristotelian treatise on occult science which had a wide vogue in the late Middle Ages. Systematic hospitaliza- tion in the Occident probably received a fresh stimulus from the orient, where Nur-al-Din's great hospital in Damascus led the way. A number of hospices and hospitals, chiefly for lepers, began to appear in twelfth-century Europe.

In literature the influence was even slighter and more difficult to detect. Stories, including some of Persian and Indian origin, were transmitted and appear strangely altered in the Gesta Romanorum and other collections. Chaucer's Squieres Tale has an Arabian Nights antecedent; Boccaccio's Decameron contains a number of tales derived orally from oriental sources. The Holy Grail legend preserves elements of undoubted Syrian origin.

In Syria the Franks learned the use of the crossbow, the wearing of heavier mail by knight and horse, the employ- ment of the tabor and naker in military bands, the conveying of military intelligence by carrier pigeons and the use of fire for signalling at night. They also acquired the practice of holding tournaments among knights wearing distinctive heraldic devices. The double-headed eagle, the fleur-de-lis, the rosette and other emblems were borrowed from Moslem foes. Many Mamluks bore names of animals, whose images they blazoned on their shields, as did their Christian imi- tators. 'Azure' and other heraldic terms have an Arabic origin.

The order of Templars, which, with that of the Hospital- lers, was the Crusaders' nearest approach to harmonizing war and religion — an old achievement in Islam — followed in its organization a pattern similar to that of the Assassins. At the bottom of the Christian order stood the lay brothers, esquires and knights, corresponding to the associates, devotees and comrades. The knight wore a white mantle Rh