Mainz Anonymous

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Mainz Anonymous is an account of the German Crusade of 1096 written soon thereafter by an anonymous Jewish author.

[edit] Composition

The work is written in Hebrew. Its author is unknown, and it deals primarily with the Crusaders' actions in Mainz: hence its name. However, it also deals with other cities in the Rhineland, specifically Speyer and Worms. It is not entirely accurate: it definitely has a Jewish point of view, and fictionalizes anecdotes occasionally to make a point. It also includes occasional anguished supplications to God.

[edit] References and further reading

Robert Chazan, European Jewry and the First Crusade (California, 1987).
Robert Chazan, In the Year 1096: The First Crusade and the Jews (JPS, 1996).
A. M. Habermann, גזרות אשכנז וצרפת [Massacres of France and Germany, Hebrew] (c. 1945).