“Re-Orienting” Estoires d’Outremer: The Arabic Context of the Saladin Legend

Although the Estoires d’Outremer was written in Old French, the story it tells about Saladin agrees with narrative traditions circulating in Arabic far beyond the borders of the Frankish East. The power of the work for the Outremer nobility lies in the combination of Old French chivalric modus with the Arabic materia .