Austorc d'Aorlhac or Aurilhac (

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

1250) was an

Auvergnat (; ) or (endonym: ) is a northern dialect of Occitan spoken in central and southern France, in particular in the former administrative region of Auvergne. Currently, research shows that there is not really a true Auvergnat dialect but rath ...

troubadour A troubadour (, ; ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female equivalent is usually called a ''trobairitz''. The tr ...

from whom only one '' sirvente'' survives. He was from Aurillac. Austorc's only piece, "Ai! Dieus! Per qu'as facha tan gran maleza", was composed after the defeat in 1250 of the

Seventh Crusade The Seventh Crusade (1248–1254) was the first of the two Crusades led by Louis IX of France. Also known as the Crusade of Louis IX to the Holy Land, it aimed to reclaim the Holy Land by attacking Egypt, the main seat of Muslim power in the Nea ...

under

Louis IX of France Louis IX (25 April 1214 – 25 August 1270), also known as Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death in 1270. He is widely recognized as the most distinguished of the Direct Capetians. Following the death of his father, Louis VI ...

. It was Hermann Schindler who first proposed that the piece referred to the Crusade of 1250 and not that of 1270, on which Louis died. Whatever the Crusade, Kurt Lewent, whose dissertation was the first major study of

Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language, spoken in parts o ...

Crusading songs, believed that Austorc was a combatant in it. Austorc was surprised that God would allow the Crusade's defeat, but not surprised that

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

would therefore convert to

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

. An excerpt goes like this: Five stanzas in length, the ''sirventes'' stands incomplete: the first and last stanza contain lacunae and the final words of the '' tornada'' are lost. It is a ''

contrafactum In vocal music, contrafactum (or contrafact, pl. contrafacta) is "the substitution of one text for another without substantial change to the music". The earliest known examples of this "lyrical adaptation" date back to the 9th century in Gregor ...

'' of a '' canso'' by Peirol, "M'entencio ai tot'en un vers mesa." Only a few years earlier another ''sirventes'' and Crusade song, "Ir'e dolors s'es dins mon cor asseza", by Ricaut Bonomel had been composed as a ''contrafactum'' of Peirol's ''canso''. There was an Austorc d'Ornac who served as a

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states thro ...

Montpellier Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...

in 1252.While T.-B. Émeric-David declared Austorc "completely unknown", Camille Chabaneau identified this Austorc with the troubadour. Jeanroy, p. 86, rejects this identification, though ''d'Orlhac'' was an acceptable spelling of ''d'Aorlhac''.

Notes

External links

Lyric allusions to the crusades and the Holy Land
{{authority control Christian critics of Islam Medieval writers about the Crusades 13th-century French troubadours People from Aurillac Baphomet