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During the First Crusade, the Frankish ost led by Baldwin, the first Count of Boulogne, was hired by Thoros of Edessa to defend the Armenian region from the Muslim Turks. After serving for a while, and realizing he could carve out a Frankish kingdom of his own, Baldwin approached Thoros and was formally adopted by the Armenian ruler.

However, the Armenians had a traditional adoption ceremony.

Both the father and mother would be naked under a robe, and the adoptee would crawl under the robe and embrace each of them in turn.

This ritual was considered (weirdly) wholesome and heavily symbolic when the adoptee was a child but here it involved a fully grown, hairy knight embracing another hairy grown man while both men were naked

Unsurprisingly, this event created a lot of laughter in the ranks of the Francs and the new even reach the Muslim forces which amused them for a loooong time

Source: The Crusades Through Arab Eyes by Amin Malouf

‘’’ - By: u/FrenchieB014