Siege-of-Jerusalem poetry mirrored Jewish and Christian suffering through identical famine scenes

Evidence

Exactly the same military strategy is described in the Caxton Siege of Jerusalem, except that here the action is carried out by the Muslims against the Christians … The suffering of the Jews in the alliterative poem becomes even greater, however, when they are subjected to the pains of hunger as well, as the Romans determine to starve them out of the city. The lack of goods causes prices to be driven up sharply, so that “Was not for besauntes to bye ; that men bite myght, / For a ferthyng-worth of fode ; floryns an hundred / Princes profren in the toun” [There was nothing that could be eaten that could be bought with gold coins; for a penny-worth of food, princes would offer a hundred florins] (1138–40). Similar inflation is depicted in the Caxton Siege, where the crusaders suffer from lack of food … The climax, however, of Jewish suffering in the Siege of Jerusalem occurs when a woman living in Jerusalem during the prolonged siege suffers terrible hunger, and is driven to commit a terrible act. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 254