'Let us consider them as being already our prisoners,' they said, 'and allow them to ransom
themselves
on terms agreed between us.
Arab-Historians-of-the-Crusades
rs and leaders of his army, to station themselves in front of the Franks and to bring them crisis in place of calm.
If they came out to fight the Muslims would fall on them with just vengeance; if they moved anywhere the Muslims would spring on them like lions on hares; if they tried to reach Tiberias to defend it and seek help there they would betray the fact at once and the Muslims would immediately set out to attack them.
1I. e. Christians; those who venerate the three Hypostates or divine persons.
78 Arab Historians of the Crusades
THE FALL OF TIBERIAS
Saladin surrounded Tiberias with his personal guard and his most faithful troops. He advanced the infantry and sappers, the Khurasani and the artillery, surrounded the walls and began to demolish the houses, giving battle fiercely and not sparing the city in the attack. This was Thursday, and he was at the head of his troops. The sappers began to mine one of the towers. They demolished it, knocked it down, leapt on to it and took possession of it. Night fell, and while the dawn of victory was breaking for them, the night of woe was darkening for the enemy. The citadel put up resistance and the Countess shut herself up there with her sons. When the Count heard that Tiberias had fallen and his Princedom been taken he was seized with consternation and lost all his strength of purpose, putting himself completely in the hands of the Franks. 'From today onwards,' he said, 'not to act is no longer possible. We must at all costs drive the enemy back. Now that Tiberias is taken and the whole Princedom with all my possessions, acquired or inherited, is lost, I cannot resign myself or recover from this reverse. '1 The King was his ally and offered no opposition, but consented to this without hypocrisy, with sincere and unmixed affection, in a friendly manner completely lacking in coldness. He gave him precise promises without having to be asked twice, and set out on the march with his army, his sight and his hearing, his dragons and demons, beasts and wolves, the followers of his error and the faction of his evil deeds. The earth trembled beneath their feet, the heavens were clouded with the dust thrown up by them. News came that the Franks had mounted and were on the move with the ranks of their steadfast faith, who leapt into the attack, drawn up for battle and flooding over the ground, creeping forward on the defensive, kindling the fire of war, responding to the cry of vengeance, running to reach their dwellings. This was Friday 24 rabi? ' II. As soon as the news was verified the Sultan confirmed that his decision, based on his earlier judgment, was accurate, and rejoiced to hear that they were on the march; 'If our objective is gained,' he said, 'our request will have been heard in full and our ambition will have been achieved. Thanks be to God, our good fortune will now be renewed, our swords sharp, our courage valiant, our victory swift. If they are really defeated, killed and captured, Tiberias and all Palestine will have no one left to defend them or to impede our conquest. '
Thus he sought God's best (fortune) and set off, casting all delay aside. On Friday 24 rabi? ' II the Franks were on the march toward Tiberias with all their forces, moving as fast as if they were always going downhill. Their hordes rolled on, their lions roared, their vultures flew above them, their cries rose up, the horizon was hidden by the clouds of them, their heads sought eagerly for those who were to strike them off. They looked like mountains on the march, like seas boiling over, wave upon wave, with their crowding ranks, their seething approach-roads and mutilated barbarian warriors. The air stank, the light was dimmed, the desert was stunned, the plain dissolved, destiny hung over them, the Pleiades sent dust down upon them, the chargers' saddle-cloths brushed the ground and swept it, their hurrying hooves scored the earth. The knights clad in mail went with raised visors amid the swords, the hardened warriors and heroes of battle were loaded down with
In this account the Count expresses quite different loyalties from those described by Ibn al-Athi? r
1
on the eve of the battle.
Part Two: Saladin and the Third Crusade 79
the apparel of war, and their number was complete. Ahead of them the Sultan had drawn up his battalions and strengthened all his resolve for the fight. He set his army to face them and kept a watch on their vanguard in case they should charge; he cut off their access to water and filled in the wells, which caused them great hardship. He prevented their getting down to the water and set himself between them and their objective, keeping them at a distance. This was on a burningly hot day, while they themselves were burning with wrath. The Dog Star was blazing with merciless heat that consumed their water supplies and offered no support against thirst.
Night separated the two sides and the cavalry barred both the roads. Isla? m passed the night face to face with unbelief, monotheism at war with Trinitarianism, the way of righteousness looking down upon error, faith opposing polytheism. Meanwhile the several circles of Hell prepared themselves and the several ranks of Heaven congratulated themselves; Malik (the Guardian of Hell) waited and Ridwa? n (the Guardian of Paradise) rejoiced. Finally, when day dawned and the morning gleamed out, when dawn sent waves of light across the sky and the clangour of the trumpets startled the crow from the dust, when the swords awoke in their sheaths and the lances flamed with eagerness, when the bows stirred and the fire glowed, when blades were unsheathed and prevarication ripped away, then the archers began to scorch with their burning shafts men destined for Hell fire; the bows hummed and the bowstrings sang, the warriors' pliant lances danced, unveiling the brides of battle, the white blades appeared naked out of the sheath amid the throng, and the brown lances were pastured on entrails. The Franks hoped for a respite and their army in desperation sought for a way of escape. But at every way out they were barred, and tormented by the heat of war without being able to rest. Tortured by the thirst they charged, with no other water than the 'water' of the blades they gripped. The fire of arrows burned and wounded them, the fierce grip of the bows seized tenaciously upon them and struck them dead. They were impotent, driven off, pushed to extremes and driven back, every charge thrown off and destroyed, every action or attack captured and put in chains. Not even an ant could have escaped, and they could not defend themselves by charging. They burned and glowed in a frenzied ferment. As the arrows struck them down those who had seemed like lions now seemed like hedgehogs. The arrows beat them down and opened great gaps in their ranks. They sought refuge on the hill of Hitti? n to protect them from the flood of defeat, and Hitti? n was surrounded by the flags of destruction. The sword-blades sucked away their lives and scattered them on the hillsides; the bows found their targets, the wild fates stripped them, disasters crushed them, destruction picked them out, they became death's target and fate's prey. When the Count realized that they were defeated his anguish was clear to see. He gave up all effort and planned a way of escape. This was even before the main body of the army was roused and the embers were fanned, before the war was set alight and the flame burned. His band went off to find a way of escape and took the road across the wadi, refusing to stop. He went off like a flash of lightning in his folly, before the leak became too big; he fled with a few followers and did not return to the attack. Thus he absented himself from the fight, seized by an unconquerable terror that forced him to flee. The fighting grew more violent as lance crossed lance and sword struck sword. The Franks were surrounded whichever way they turned and completely encircled. They began to pitch their tents and to rally their troops, setting up their pavilions on Hitti? n, while the gallant archers hammered away at their swords. But they were prevented from planting
80 Arab Historians of the Crusades
and raising their tents, and plucked from the roots and branches of life. They hoped to improve their position by dismounting from their horses, and they fought tenaciously, but the swords went through them as a torrent flows and our army surrounded them as Hellfire surrounds the damned. Finally they resorted to saddling the ground, and their girth clasped the nipples of the plain. 1
The devil and his crew were taken, the King and his counts were captured, and the Sultan sat to review his chief prisoners, who came forward stumbling in their fetters like drunken men. The Grand Master of the Templars was brought in in his sins, and many of the Templars and Hospitallers with him. The King Guy and his brother Geoffrey were escorted in, with Hugh of Juba? il, Humphrey, and Prince Arna? t of al-Karak, who was the first to fall into the net. The Sultan had vowed to have his blood and had said: 'When I find him I shall kill him immediately. ' When the Prince was brought before him he made him sit beside the King, and reproached him for his treachery and paraded his wickedness before him. 'How often have you made a vow and broken your oath; how many obligations have you failed to honour, how many treaties made and unmade, and agreements reached and repudiated! ' The interpreter passed on this reply from him: 'This is how kings have always behaved; I have only followed the path of custom. ' Meanwhile the King was dying from thirst and was shaking with fear like a drunkard. But Saladin addressed him affably, calmed the wave of terror that had swept over him, assuaged his fear and reassured him in his heart; he sent for iced water for him, to soothe his burning throat and quench his tormenting thirst. Then the King passed the goblet to the Prince for him too to quench his thirst, and he took it in his hand and drank. The Sultan said to the King: 'You did not have my permission to give him drink, and so that drink does not imply his safety at my hand. ' Then he mounted his horse and left him to roast himself at the fire of his fear; he stayed out riding until his tent had been pitched, his standards and banners planted and his troops had returned from the battle to their base. Then he entered the pavilion, summoned the Prince, raised his sword and struck him on the shoulder, and as he fell ordered that his head should be struck off. He was dragged out by the feet. This was done in the King's presence and filled him with despair and terror. The Sultan realized that the King was consumed with fear and assaulted by terror and consternation, and so he called him to his side, made him come up close and reassured and calmed him. He put him at his ease as he stood at his side and calmed him by saying: 'This man's evil deeds have been his downfall, and as you saw his perfidy has been his destruction. He died for his sins and wickedness; the spark he struck from life is extinguished and the source of his being has dried up. '
This defeat of the enemy, this our victory occurred on a Saturday, and the humiliation proper to the men of Saturday was inflicted on the men of Sunday, who had been lions and now were reduced to the level of miserable sheep. 1 Of these thousands only a few individuals escaped, and of all those enemies only a few were saved. The plain was covered with prisoners and corpses, disclosed by the dust as it settled and victory became clear. The prisoners, with beating hearts, were bound in chains. The dead were scattered over the
Ibn al-Athi? r puts the meaning of this elegant metaphor in simpler words; they had dismounted, now 'they sat on the ground'.
I. e. the Christians were humiliated like despised Jews.
1
1
Part Two: Saladin and the Third Crusade 81
mountains and valleys, lying immobile on their sides. Hitti? n shrugged off their carcasses, and the perfume of victory was thick with the stench of them. I passed by them and saw the limbs of the fallen cast naked on the field of battle, scattered in pieces over the site of the encounter, lacerated and disjointed, with heads cracked open, throats split, spines broken, necks shattered, feet in pieces, noses mutilated, extremities torn off, members dismembered, parts shredded, eyes gouged out, stomachs disembowelled, hair coloured with blood, the praecordium slashed, fingers sliced off, the thorax shattered, the ribs broken, the joints dislocated, the chests smashed, throats slit, bodies cut in half, arms pulverized, lips shrivelled, foreheads pierced, forelocks dyed scarlet, breasts covered with blood, ribs pierced, elbows disjointed, bones broken, tunics torn off, faces lifeless, wounds gaping, skin flayed, fragments chopped off, hair lopped, backs skinless, bodies dismembered, teeth knocked out, blood spilt, life's last breath exhaled, necks lolling, joints slackened, pupils liquefied, heads hanging, livers crushed, ribs staved in, heads shattered, breasts flayed, spirits flown, their very ghosts crushed; like stones among stones, a lesson to the wise. 1
This field of battle had become a sea of blood; the dust was stained red, rivers of blood ran freely, and the face of the true Faith was revealed free from those shadowy abominations. O sweet rivers of victory over such evil! O burning, punishing blows on those carcasses! O sweet heart's comforter against that confusion! O welcome prayers at the joyful news of such an event! Such is the number of the slain that the tongues of all the peoples would not be capable of counting and enumerating them; as for the prisoners, all our tents could not produce enough tent-cords to bind and fetter them, and I saw thirty or forty on a single rope, led by a single rider, and in one place a hundred or two hundred captives guarded by a single man. Here rebels became prisoners, enemies were denuded, sovereigns made subject, great men humiliated, Counts reduced to game, horsemen hunted down, honoured men reviled, the faces of the infernal Templars ground in the dust, skulls trampled underfoot, the bodies they were blessed with hewn to pieces and scattered. How many proud men were taken, how many leaders bound and led, how many polytheists were grinding their teeth, how many infidels filled with gloomy thoughts, how many Trinitarians cut in half, how many impious enquirers after God had their arms bound; how many wounders were wounded, and injurers injured, and kings enslaved, and profaners profaned, and destroyers destroyed, and plunderers plundered, and noble lords in fetters, and violent men in chains, and freemen in servitude, and followers of error in the hands of the followers of truth!
THE CAPTURE OF THE GREAT CROSS ON THE DAY OF BATTLE
At the same time as the King was taken the 'True Cross' was also captured, and the idolaters who were trying to defend it were routed. It was this cross, brought into position and raised on high, to which all Christians prostrated themselves and bowed their heads. Indeed, they maintain that it is made of the wood of the cross on which, they say, he whom they adore was hung, and so they venerate it and prostrate themselves before it. They had housed it in a casing of gold, adorned with pearls and gems, and kept it ready for the festival of
Our author must surely have considered this macabre tirade one of the most successful examples
1
of his literary style.
82 Arab Historians of the Crusades
the Passion, for the observance of their yearly ceremony. When the priests exposed it to view and the heads (of the bearers) bore it along all would run and cast themselves down around it, and no one was allowed to lag behind or hang back without forfeiting his liberty. Its capture was for them more important than the loss of the King and was the gravest blow that they sustained in that battle. The cross was a prize without equal, for it was the supreme object of their faith. To venerate it was their prescribed duty, for it was their God, before whom they would bow their foreheads to the ground, and to which their mouths sang hymns. They fainted at its appearance, they raised their eyes to contemplate it, they were consumed with passion when it was exhibited and boasted of nothing else when they had seen it. They went into ecstasies at its reappearance, they offered up their lives for it and sought comfort from it, so much so that they had copies made of it which they worshipped, before which they prostrated themselves in their houses and on which they called when they gave evidence. So when the Great Cross was taken great was the calamity that befell them, and the strength drained from their loins. Great was the number of the defeated, exalted the feelings of the victorious army. It seemed as if, once they knew of the capture of the Cross, none of them would survive that day of ill-omen. They perished in death or imprisonment, and were overcome by force and violence. The Sultan encamped on the plain of Tiberias like a lion in the desert or the moon in its full splendour.
THE CONQUEST OF THE CITADEL OF TIBERIAS
He sent men to the citadel to receive its surrender with a promise of safe-conduct, and established the Faith there in place of the falsehood that had dwelt there before. The Lady, the Countess of Tiberias, had defended it and carried there all her property and possessions. He granted her a safe-conduct for the journey for her companions and property, and she left with her women and men and luggage, taking everything to Tripoli, the city that belonged to the Count her husband. So once again Tiberias was inhabited in safety by the people of the Faith, and Sarim ad-Din Qaima? z an-Najmi, one of their greatest dignitaries, was appointed its governor. Meanwhile Saladin encamped outside Tiberias, after having cured all mankind of its ills, and his army covered the whole plain.
SALADIN'S TREATMENT OF THE TEMPLARS AND HOSPITALLERS, BEHEADING THEM AND CAUSING GENERAL REJOICING AT THEIR EXTERMINATION1
On the morning of Monday 17 rabi? ' II, two days after the victory, the Sultan sought out the Templars and Hospitallers who had been captured and said: 'I shall purify the land of these two impure races. ' He assigned fifty dinar to every man who had taken one of them prisoner, and immediately the army brought forward at least a hundred of them. He
This episode, described by our eye-witness with his usual stylistic embellishments, is a blot on Saladin's renowned magnanimity; the reason for the slaughter was the hatred aroused in the Muslim camp by the two warrior orders by conduct in war certainly no more humane and 'Christian' than that of their enemies.
1
Part Two: Saladin and the Third Crusade 83
ordered that they should be beheaded, choosing to have them dead rather than in prison. With him was a whole band of scholars and sufis and a certain number of devout men and ascetics; each begged to be allowed to kill one of them, and drew his sword and rolled back his sleeve. Saladin, his face joyful, was sitting on his dais; the unbelievers showed black despair, the troops were drawn up in their ranks, the ami? rs stood in double file. There were some who slashed and cut cleanly, and were thanked for it; some who refused and failed to act, and were excused; some who made fools of themselves, and others took their places. I saw there the man who laughed scornfully and slaughtered, who spoke and acted; how many promises he fulfilled, how much praise he won, the eternal rewards he secured with the blood he had shed, the pious works added to his account with a neck severed by him! How many blades did he stain with blood for a victory he longed for, how many lances did he brandish against the lion he captured, how many ills did he cure by the ills he brought upon a Templar, how much strength did he give to the leaders whom he supported, how many banners did he unfurl against disasters that retreated! I saw how he killed unbelief to give life to Isla? m, and destroyed polytheism to build monotheism, and drove decisions through to their conclusion to satisfy the community of the faithful, and cut down enemies in the defence of friends!
The Sultan sent the Frankish King to Damascus with his brother, and Humphrey, and the ruler of juba? il, and the Grand Master of the Temple and all the great barons who had been captured, to be imprisoned there and immobilized after all their activity; the army dispersed with its prisoners, and the embers of the assembled unbelievers faded and were extinguished.
Jerusalem Reconquered
(IBN AL-ATHI? R, XI, 361-6)
When Saladin had completed his conquest of Ascalon and the surrounding regions he sent for the Egyptian fleet and a large detachment of troops under Husa? m ad-Din Lu'lu' al-Hajib, a man well known for his courage, energy and initiative. This force set out by sea, intercepting Frankish communications; every Frankish vessel they sighted they attacked, and captured every galley. When they arrived and Saladin could rely on their support, he marched from Ascalon to Jerusalem. The venerable Patriarch,1 who carried greater authority than the King himself, was there and so was Balia? n ibn Barza? n, ruler of ar-Ramla,2 who was almost equal in rank to the King. The knights who had survived Hitti? n had also concentrated there. The inhabitants of that region, Ascalon and elsewhere had also gathered in Jerusalem, so there was a great concourse of people there, each one of whom would choose death rather than see the Muslims in power in their city; the sacrifice of life, possessions and sons was for them a part of their duty to defend the city. During that interval they fortified it by every means to hand, and then all mounted the walls, resolved to defend them with all their might, and showed determination to fight to the limit of
1 Heraclius.
2 Balia? n of Ibelin.
84 Arab Historians of the Crusades
their ability in the defence of Jerusalem. They mounted catapults to ward off attempts to approach the city and besiege it.
During Saladin's advance one of the ami? rs went ahead with his band of men without taking any precautions to defend himself; a troop of Franks who had left Jerusalem on reconnaissance came face to face with him and in a battle killed him and some of his men, which caused great grief and sorrow to the Muslims. Half-way through rajab/September 1187 they besieged Jerusalem. As they approached they saw on the walls a terrifying crowd of men and heard an uproar of voices coming from the inhabitants behind the walls that led them to infer the number of people who must be assembled there. For five days the Sultan rode round the city to decide on the best point for the attack, for the city was more strongly defended than ever before. The only point at which to attack was on the north side, near the Bab 'Amuda and the Church of Zion. So on 20 rajab Saladin moved his army to the north side, and on the same evening began to mount his siege-engines. Next morning they were all ready and began their battery of the walls, from which the Franks replied with other machines that they had constructed there. Then began the fiercest struggle imaginable; each side looked on the fight as an absolute religious obligation. There was no need for a superior authority to drive them on: they restrained the enemy without restraint, and drove them off without being driven back. Every morning the Frankish cavalry made sorties to fight and provoke the enemy to battle; several of both sides fell in these encounters. Among the Muslim martyrs was the ami? r 'Izz ad-Din Isa ibn Malik, one of the leading ami? rs and the son of the ruler of Ja'bar. Every day he had led the attack himself, and at his death passed to God's great mercy; a man dear to Muslims both great and small, whose death brought grief and sorrow to many. They charged like one man, dislodged the Franks from their positions and drove them back into the city. When the Muslims reached the moat they crossed it, came up under the walls and began to breach them, protected by their archers and by continuous artillery fire which kept the walls clear of Franks and enabled the Muslims to make a breach and fill it with the usual materials. 1
When the Franks saw how violently the Muslims were attacking, how continuous and effective was the fire from the ballistas and how busily the sappers were breaching the walls, meeting no resistance, they grew desperate, and their leaders assembled to take counsel. They decided to ask for safe-conduct out of the city and to hand Jerusalem over to Saladin. They sent a deputation of their lords and nobles to ask for terms, but when they spoke of it to Saladin he refused to grant their request. 'We shall deal with you,' he said, 'just as you dealt with the population of Jerusalem when you took it in 492/1099, with mur- der and enslavement and other such savageries! ' The messengers returned empty-handed. Then Balia? n ibn Barza? n asked for safe-conduct for himself so that he might appear before Saladin to discuss developments. Consent was given, and he presented himself and once again began asking for a general amnesty in return for surrender. The Sultan still refused his requests and entreaties to show mercy. Finally, despairing of this approach, Balia? n said: 'Know, O Sultan, that there are very many of us in this city, God alone knows how many. At the moment we are fighting half-heartedly in the hope of saving our lives, hoping to be spared by you as you have spared others; this is because of our horror of death and our love
Once they had cleared a tunnel they would fill it with combustible materials and set fire to it to
1
bring down the wall above.
Part Two: Saladin and the Third Crusade 85
of life. But if we see that death is inevitable, then by God we shall kill our children and our wives, burn our possessions, so as not to leave you with a dinar or a drachma or a single man or woman to enslave. When this is done, we shall pull down the Sanctuary of the Rock and the Masjid al-Aqsa and the other sacred places, slaughtering the Muslim prisoners we hold--5,000 of them--and killing every horse and animal we possess. Then we shall come out to fight you like men fighting for their lives, when each man, before he falls dead, kills his equals; we shall die with honour, or win a noble victory! ' Then Saladin took counsel with his advisers, all of whom were in favour of his granting the assurances requested by the Franks, without forcing them to take extreme measures whose outcome could not be foreseen.
'Let us consider them as being already our prisoners,' they said, 'and allow them to ransom themselves on terms agreed between us. ' The Sultan agreed to give the Franks assurances of safety on the understanding that each man, rich and poor alike, should pay ten dinar, children of both sexes two dinar and women five dinar. All who paid this sum within forty days should go free, and those who had not paid at the end of the time should be enslaved. Balia? n ibn Barza? n offered 30,000 dinar as ransom for the poor, which was accepted, and the city surrendered on Friday 27 rajab/2 October 1187, a memorable day on which the Muslim flags were hoisted over the walls of Jerusalem. At every gate Saladin set ami? rs in charge of taxation to claim the appropriate ransom from the inhabitants. But they cheated in carrying out their duties, and divided among themselves money that would oth- erwise have filled the State treasury to the benefit of all. There were in fact exactly 70,000 cavalry and infantry in Jerusalem, not counting the women and children with them; not a surprising number when you consider that there were people there from Daru? m, Ramla, Gaza and elsewhere, so many of them that they filled the streets and churches and walking was impossible. An indication of the numbers is the fact that most of them paid the ran- som, and Balia? n ibn Barza? n freed 18,000, for whom he paid the 30,000, and yet apart from all these the number of those who could not pay and were taken prisoner came to exactly 16,000 persons, men, women and children.
A certain number of ami? rs maintained that some subjects from their feudal estates were living in Jerusalem, and they freed them on payment of the tax to themselves. Others dressed Franks in the clothes of Muslim soldiers, got them out of the city, and ransomed them for a sum that they themselves decided. Others asked Saladin for the gift of a certain number of Franks, and when he granted them this made the men pay the tax to themselves. In fact only a small sum actually found its way into the treasury.
There was in Jerusalem a woman, married to a Byzantine king, who became a nun1 and settled there with a great train of domestics, slaves and handmaids and a quantity of gold and precious stones. She asked for safe-conduct for herself and her dependants, and the Sultan granted it and let her go. In the same way he set at liberty the Queen of Jerusalem,2 whose husband, imprisoned by Saladin, became King of the Franks through her agency and ruled the kingdom as her viceroy. He also let her take her possessions and dependants,
This detail makes it difficult to identify her as Maria Comnena, widow of Amalric I and later wife of Balia? n of Ibelin.
Sibylla, wife of Guy of Lusignan.
1
2
86 Arab Historians of the Crusades
and she asked permission to join her husband, who was then held prisoner in the fortress of Nablus. This was granted and she went and stayed with him. The wife of the Prince Arna? t of al-Karak whom Saladin had killed with his own hand on the day of Hitti? n also came before him to intercede for her son3 who was a prisoner. Saladin said: 'If you will give me al-Karak, I will let him go. ' She went to al-Karak, but the Franks there would not let her yield the fortress, so Saladin refused to give up her son, but only her possessions and followers.
The Grand Patriarch of the Franks left the city with the treasures from the Dome of the Rock, the Masjid al-Aqsa, the Church of the Resurrection and others, God alone knows the amount of the treasure; he also took an equal quantity of money. Saladin made no difficul- ties, and when he was advised to sequestrate the whole lot for Isla? m, replied that he would not go back on his word. He took only the ten dinar from him, and let him go, heavily escorted, to Tyre.
At the top of the cupola of the Dome of the Rock there was a great gilded cross. When the Muslims entered the city on the Friday, some of them climbed to the top of the cupola to take down the cross. When they reached the top a great cry went up from the city and from outside the walls, the Muslims crying the Alla? h akbar in their joy, the Franks groaning in consternation and grief. So loud and piercing was the cry that the earth shook.
Once the city was taken and the infidels had left, Saladin ordered that the shrines should be restored to their original state. The Templars had built their living-quarters against al- Aqsa, with storerooms and latrines and other necessary offices, taking up part of the area of al-Aqsa. This was all restored to its former state. The Sultan ordered that the Dome of the Rock should be cleansed of all pollution, and this was done. On the following Friday, 4 sha'ba? n/9 October, the Muslims celebrated the communal Friday prayers there. Among them was the Sultan, who also prayed at the Mosque of the Rock,1 with Muhyi ad-Din ibn az-Zaki, qadi of Damascus, as ima? m and preacher. Then Saladin appointed a qadi and an (ordinary) ima? m for the five canonic prayers, and ordered that a pulpit should be built for him. He was told that Nur ad-Din had once had one made in Aleppo, which he had com- manded the workmen to embellish and construct to the best of their ability, saying: 'We have made this to set up in Jerusalem. ' The carpenters had taken so many years to make it that it had no rival in the whole of Isla? m. Saladin had it brought from Aleppo and set up in Jerusalem, more than twenty years after it was made. This was one of the noble deeds of Nur ad-Din and one of his good works, God have mercy on him! 1
After the Friday prayer Saladin gave orders for the restoration of al-Aqsa, giving every encouragement to its embellishment and having it faced with stone and fine mosaics. Marble of an unrivalled quality was brought, and golden tesserae from Constantinople and other necessary materials that had been kept in store for years, and the work of restoration was
Stephanie, mother of Humphrey of Toron.
We have already noted that al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock, the so-called Mosque of 'Umar, were close together but separate. In this passage there is no doubt that the great ceremony was held in al-Aqsa and that Saladin also prayed in the Dome of the Rock, as is clear from 'Ima? d ad-Din's account.
As we have seen before, Ibn al-Athi? r let slip no opportunity of expressing his attachment to the Zangid dynasty supplanted by Saladin.
3 1
1
Part Two: Saladin and the Third Crusade 87
begun. To hide the pictures that covered the walls, the Franks had set slabs of marble over the Rock, concealing it from sight, and Saladin had them removed. It had been covered with the marble because the priests had sold a good part of it to the Franks who came from abroad on pilgrimages and bought pieces for their weight in gold in the hope of benefiting by its health-giving influences. Each of them, on his return home with a piece of this stone, would build a church for it and enclose it in the altar. One of the Frankish Kings of Jerusalem, afraid that it would all disappear, had it covered with a slab of marble to preserve it. When it was uncovered Saladin had some beautiful Qur'a? ns brought to the mosque, and magnificent copies of the sections of the Holy Book for use in worship. He established reciters of the Qur'a? n there, heaping them with bountiful endowments. So Isla? m was restored there in full freshness and beauty. This noble act of conquest was achieved, after 'Umar ibn al-Khatta? b1--God have mercy on him! --by no one but Saladin, and that is a sufficient title to glory and honour.
The Frankish population of Jerusalem who had not departed began to sell at very low prices all their possessions, treasures and whatever they could not carry with them. The merchants from the army and the non-Frankish Christians in Jerusalem bought their goods from them. The latter had asked Saladin's permission to remain in their homes if they paid the tax, and he had granted them this, so they stayed and bought up Frankish property. What they could not sell, beds and boxes and casks, the Franks left behind; even superb columns of marble and slabs of marble and mosaics in large quantities. Thus they departed.
('IMA? D AD-DIN, 47-69)
Saladin marched from Ascalon to Jerusalem, victorious in his decision, accompanied by victory, escorted by glory. He had tamed the indomitable colt of his desires, and made fertile the meadow of his wealth. His hope had an easy passage, his paths were fragrant, his gifts poured out, his sweetness perfumed the air, his power was manifest, his authority supreme. The glory of his army flooded like an ocean over the plain and filled the desert, pouring out thanks and gratitude. The dust raised by his hosts had spread its cloak over the dawn; the cloud of it seemed to have replaced the clear morning hour with the shadows of evening. At times the earth groaned under the squadrons, the heavens received with joy the particles of dust. He marched on, rejoicing by his presence the surrounding regions, and the points of his lances related stories of his conquests from the mountain tops; to the scenes his hopes described he could add those that his success had made reality. Sweet and lofty fruits and flashes of light appeared from the roots of victory and from his success. Isla? m wooed Jerusalem, ready to lay down lives for her as a bride-price, bringing her a blessing that would remove the tragedy of her state, giving her a joyful face to replace an expression of torment, making heard, above the cry of grief from the Rock, calling for help against its enemies, the reply to this appeal, the prompt echo of the summons, an echo that would make the gleaming lamps rise in her sky, bring the exiled Faith back to her own country and dwelling-place and drive away from al-Aqsa those whom God drove away with his curse. Saladin marched forward to take up the reins of Jerusalem. that now hung loose, to silence the Christian clappers and allow the muezzin to be heard again, to
1 The second Caliph (634-44), under whom the Muslims took Jerusalem for the first time, in 637.
88 Arab Historians of the Crusades
remove the heavy hand of unbelief with the right hands of the Faith, to purify Jerusalem of the pollution of those races, of the filth of the dregs of humanity, to reduce the minds to silence by silencing the bells. The news flew to Jerusalem, and the hearts of its inhabitants beat with terror and their chests palpitated and throbbed with fear of the army of Isla? m. The Franks, as the news spread, wished that they had never been born. Thus it was with the Frankish leaders Balia? n ibn Barza? n and the Grand Patriarch and the heads of the Orders of the Temple and the Hospital. Balia? n was troubled, and fires of anguish consumed him; the glow of Patriarchal pride was extinguished, and all felt uneasy in their houses, as if every one of them had become a trap set for the unbelievers. They wanted to take action in their calamitous situation, but the minds of the unbelievers could not agree. The Franks despaired of finding any relief from their situation and decided all to give their lives (in defence of Jerusalem).
THE CHURCH OF THE RESURRECTION1
The Franks said: 'Here our heads will fall, we will pour forth our souls, spill our blood, give up our lives; we shall endure blows and wounds, we shall be prodigal of our spirits in defence of the place where the Spirit dwells. This is our Church of the Resurrection, here we shall take up our position and from here make our sorties, here our cry goes up, here our penitence is performed, our banners float, our cloud spreads. We love this place, we are bound to it, our honour lies in honouring it, its salvation is ours, its safety is ours, its survival is ours. If we go far from it we shall surely be branded with shame and just censure, for here is the place of the crucifixion and our goal, the altar and the place of sacrifice, the place of assembly and the sanctuary, the place of descent and of ascent, the flight of steps and the observation-post, the symposium and the theatre, the place for ornament and decoration, the prologue and epilogue, the food and the nourishment, the works of marble and intaglio, the permitted and the forbidden places, the pictures and the sculptures, the views and configurations, the lions and the lioncubs, the portraits and likenesses, the columns and slabs of marble, the bodies and souls. Here are pictures of the Apostles conversing, Popes with their histories, monks in their cells, priests in their councils, the Magi with their ropes,2 priests and their imaginings; here the effigies of the Madonna and the Lord, of the Temple and the Birthplace, of the Table and the fishes, and what is described and sculpted of the Disciples and the Master, of the cradle and the Infant speaking. 3 Here are the effigies of the ox and the ass, of Paradise and Hell, the clappers and the divine laws. Here, they say, the Messiah was crucified, the sacrificial victim slain, divinity made incarnate, humanity deified. Here the dual nature was united, the cross was raised, light was extinguished and darkness covered the land. Here the nature was united
In Arabic al-Qiyama, but the Muslim writers of the time felt obliged to turn it derisively into al- Qumama, the dung-heap, and it appears in this form in 'Ima? d ad-Din; it is the Holy Sepulchre. A reference to Qur'a? n XX, 69, where the Egyptian Magi, casting their ropes down before Moses, make them appear to be serpents.
There are two Qur'a? nic references here: the table is that of the Eucharist, which according to Muhammad descends miraculously from heaven (Q. V), and the Christ child speaking is influ- enced in its turn by the Evangelium infantiae (Q. XIX, 31).
1
2
3
Part Two: Saladin and the Third Crusade 89
with the person, the existent mingled with. the non-existent, the adored Being was baptized and the Virgin gave birth to her Son. 1
They continued to attach errors like this to the object of their cult, wandering with false beliefs far from the true forms of faith, and said: 'We shall die in defence of our Lord's sepulchre, and we shall die in fear of its slipping from our hands; we shall fight and struggle for it: how could we not fight, not contend and join battle, how could we leave this for them to take, and permit them to take from us what we took from them? ' They made far-reaching and elaborate preparations, stretching out endlessly to infinity. They mounted deadly weap- ons on the walls, and veiled the face of light with the sombre curtain of walls. They sent out their demons, their wolves ran hither and thither, their impetuous tyrants raged; their swords were unsheathed, the fabric of their downfall displayed, their blazing firebrands lit. They burned with enthusiasm and surged like a wave, they launched appeals and their hostile bands rode out, their loathesome vipers glided about, their priests aroused their passions, their leaders cheered them on, their hearts were stirred. Their spies brought them messages of disaster, telling them of the advance of al-Malik an-Nasir2 and his victorious troops, with banners displayed, swords in hand, plucked from the sheaths, bloodstained lances, troops in serried ranks, chargers trained to wreak vengeance on enemies, souls inflamed with the fire of the True Faith, with burning resolution, their odd-toed horses on leading-reins, their swords stained with blood. The hills were dewy, the scabbard-bearers raged, lance-points were sharpened, the chargers' reins slackened, their burden now secure. The valleys flowed down from their hills, the champions curvetted amid their standards; their squadrons blocked the mountain passes like waves scattering the dust, like eagles over-shadowing the sun; the blades of their javelins could have ignited wicks. They were like winds blowing about the mountains, they carried their lances as if they had been cords. They were the lion's claws lurking in the thicket; their ranks advanced in the strength of their uncrushable resolution. Each believer made a covenant with his Lord, and was ready to ward off his approaching doom, prompt to soothe the troubles in his heart and to pour out generously its irrigating flood; rebutting all evil from behind the shelter of his breastplate, full of gallantry and valour, drawing the daughter of the sheath from her scabbard, washing the thirsty blade with enemy blood, grasping in his hands the white blades of India, bring- ing talk of disaster to an end with his lights and his thunder, his destiny as piercing as the sword with which he laboured. Each young man longed for the fire of battle, each man of the Faith was jealous for the Lord's religion, each army was like a tempestuous sea, every- one who stained a sharp sword with blood was defending the True Faith, everyone who believed in the other life hated this lower one and asked God for martyrdom, drawn away from desire for earthly survival and ready to pour out his wealth in the holy cause. The Sultan advanced in the authority he had won, with his valiant knights, with the lesser kings his sons and brothers, with the lion-cubs his mamlu? ks and pages, with his noble ami? rs, his
This curious jumble of Christian dogmas and rites betrays the Muslim author's lack of real infor- mation and his preconceived hostility. But apart from the stylistic frills this description, to us almost a caricature, is the usual picture of Christianity painted by mediaeval Muslims. Nor can we say that the Christian view of Isla? m was any more accurate.
'The King who brings victory to the Faith' was, as has been mentioned before, Saladin's official
1
2
name.
90 Arab Historians of the Crusades
great friends, in squadrons ranked according to their merit, in platoons drawn up in solemn cavalcades, with lances whose metal points gleamed like stars, with serried ranks bearing their sharp swords, with yellow standards that would bring disaster to the Banu l-Asfar,1 with white swords and brown lances, ready to bring crimson death to the blue-eyed enemy, with pavilions and tribes, with lances and darts, with neighing chargers pawing the earth, with pliant spear-points and knights on horseback, and people all ready, for jealous love of their Faith, to give their souls and their precious possessions. (When Saladin reached Jerusalem) he at once asked to see the Masjid al-Aqsa and wanted to know the nearest road leading to it, and who were its most distinguished devotees, expressing the noble senti- ments with which God nobly inspired him.
DESCRIPTION OF JERUSALEM
The Sultan said: 'If God gives us the grace to drive His enemies from Jerusalem what happiness will be ours! What blessings shall we owe to Him if He chooses to assist us! For Jerusalem has been in enemy hands for ninety-one years,2 during which time God has received nothing from us here in the way of adoration, while the zeal of (Muslim) sovereigns to ransom her languished and the generations followed one another and the Franks were settled here in power. And God has reserved the merit of conquest for a single house--the Ayyubid--to unite all hearts in appreciation of its members. He has chosen in particular the age of the Ima? m an-Nasir li Din Alla? h to be given an advantage over other ages, and has chosen to give Egypt and its army an advantage in this over every other country. And how could He not assist in the conquest of the mighty Jerusalem and of the Masjid al-Aqsa, founded in piety, since she is the seat of the prophets, the home of the saints, the place where the pious adore their God, the place that the great saints of the earth and angels of heaven visit. From there the great assembly and diaspora take place and crowd upon crowd of ambassadors of the pious friends of God go there. There is the Rock, whose eternal splendour has been preserved from any deterioration, from which the Road of the Ascension (of the Prophet to Heaven) leaves the earth; above it the proud Dome rises like a crown, there the lamp has shone and from there Bura? q1 departed, there the night of the heavenly journey, with the descent of the light-giving torch, illumined the whole world. Within its gates is the Gate of Mercy;2 he who enters by it gains the right to
The Banu l-Asfar (the Arabic could mean 'sons of the yellow', hence the pun about 'yellow standards', although the real derivation is from the Biblical Sofer, Esau's nephew), is the Arabs' name for the ancient Romans, and by extension the Latins, the man of the West. In the next line they are called 'blue eyed', referring either to an ethnic characteristic or to its traditionally evil significance.
The lunar years of the hijra, from 492/1099 to 583/1187.
The heavenly charger on whose back Muhammad left the Rock on his ascent (mi'ra? j) and his miraculous voyage beyond the tomb. In this panegyric of Jerusalem eloquent hints come through even 'Ima? d ad-Din's rhetoric of the reasons why the place was, and is, so sacred to the pious and warlike zeal of Isla? m. See also the letter from Saladin to Richard for a more sober development of the same theme.
Bab ar-Rahma, now the Golden Gate, one of the gates of the temple precinct.
1
2 1
2
Part Two: Saladin and the Third Crusade 91
dwell eternally in Paradise. Within it are the Seat of Solomon and the Oratory of David, and the Fountain of Aloes, which represents for those who go down to drink it the (heavenly) river Kauthar. Jerusalem is the first of the two qibla, the second of the two Houses of God, the third of the Sacred Zones. 3 It is one of the three places of prayer of which the Prophet says in his sayings that horsemen face in their direction to mount, and ally their hopes to them. And who knows that God will not, by means of us, restore her to her former beauty, as He honours her by mentioning her among His most noble creations at the beginning of the sura4 in which He says: 'Praise Him who took His servant on a journey by night from the Sacred Mosque (at Mecca) to the Remote Mosque (in Jerusalem). ' She has prayers and virtues innumerable; the holy journey by night took place to and from her, over her heaven was opened wide, she is referred to in the accounts of the prophets, the thanksgiving of the saints, the tombs of the martyrs, the miracles of the bountiful, the symbols of the scholars. Here is the home of pious acts and the theatre of joys. Her lofty Rock is the first qibla, from which the Prophet's foot ascended, bringing eternal benediction. Beside it our Prophet prayed with the prophets, accompanied by the faithful Spirit, and from it he ascended. Here is the oratory of Mary, of whom God says: 'Each time that Zacharias entered the room to her. . . . '1 Jerusalem is the city that David founded and advised Solomon to build, and in her honour God revealed the verse: 'Praise be. . . . ' She it was that al-Faru? q2 conquered and with which a sura of the Revelation begins. How illustrious and great is she, how noble and proud, high and gleaming, lofty and glorious! O blessed are her benedictions and blessed her auspices, noble her states and sweet her beauties! God has made manifest her nobility and position in the words of the Qur'a? n: 'Whose precinct we have blessed. '3 O how many miracles God has shown to the Prophet here, and now He has set before our eyes her virtues that formerly we had only heard of! '
Thus the Sultan described her distinctions and beauty, which, as he undertook and swore, he would bring back to the brilliance they used to have, and he took an oath not to depart until he had honoured his word and raised his standard on her highest point, and had visited with his own feet the place where the Prophet had set foot, and heard the call from the Rock, for he longed to light up the faces of his family4 with the joyful news. So he advanced, certain of absolute victory and of the end of all difficulties, while the anguish of the Franks was clear to see. He reached the western side of Jerusalem on Sunday 15 rajab/ 20 September. The hearts of the unbelievers thudded, the faction of polytheists was in a confusion of breathless anguish, destiny performed the miracle. There were in Jerusalem at the time 70,000 Frankish troops, both swordsmen and archers, and champions of error armed
The qibla is the direction of prayer, originally ordained by Muhammad to be the direction of Jerusalem before he changed it definitely to Mecca. Jerusalem is God's second house after the Ka'ba at Mecca, and the third sacred precinct after Mecca and Medina.
Qur'a? n XVII, 1, the verse referring to the Prophet's nocturnal journey from Mecca to Jerusalem and from there to heaven.
Qur'a? n III, 32.
Honorific surname of 'Umar, see p.
1I. e. Christians; those who venerate the three Hypostates or divine persons.
78 Arab Historians of the Crusades
THE FALL OF TIBERIAS
Saladin surrounded Tiberias with his personal guard and his most faithful troops. He advanced the infantry and sappers, the Khurasani and the artillery, surrounded the walls and began to demolish the houses, giving battle fiercely and not sparing the city in the attack. This was Thursday, and he was at the head of his troops. The sappers began to mine one of the towers. They demolished it, knocked it down, leapt on to it and took possession of it. Night fell, and while the dawn of victory was breaking for them, the night of woe was darkening for the enemy. The citadel put up resistance and the Countess shut herself up there with her sons. When the Count heard that Tiberias had fallen and his Princedom been taken he was seized with consternation and lost all his strength of purpose, putting himself completely in the hands of the Franks. 'From today onwards,' he said, 'not to act is no longer possible. We must at all costs drive the enemy back. Now that Tiberias is taken and the whole Princedom with all my possessions, acquired or inherited, is lost, I cannot resign myself or recover from this reverse. '1 The King was his ally and offered no opposition, but consented to this without hypocrisy, with sincere and unmixed affection, in a friendly manner completely lacking in coldness. He gave him precise promises without having to be asked twice, and set out on the march with his army, his sight and his hearing, his dragons and demons, beasts and wolves, the followers of his error and the faction of his evil deeds. The earth trembled beneath their feet, the heavens were clouded with the dust thrown up by them. News came that the Franks had mounted and were on the move with the ranks of their steadfast faith, who leapt into the attack, drawn up for battle and flooding over the ground, creeping forward on the defensive, kindling the fire of war, responding to the cry of vengeance, running to reach their dwellings. This was Friday 24 rabi? ' II. As soon as the news was verified the Sultan confirmed that his decision, based on his earlier judgment, was accurate, and rejoiced to hear that they were on the march; 'If our objective is gained,' he said, 'our request will have been heard in full and our ambition will have been achieved. Thanks be to God, our good fortune will now be renewed, our swords sharp, our courage valiant, our victory swift. If they are really defeated, killed and captured, Tiberias and all Palestine will have no one left to defend them or to impede our conquest. '
Thus he sought God's best (fortune) and set off, casting all delay aside. On Friday 24 rabi? ' II the Franks were on the march toward Tiberias with all their forces, moving as fast as if they were always going downhill. Their hordes rolled on, their lions roared, their vultures flew above them, their cries rose up, the horizon was hidden by the clouds of them, their heads sought eagerly for those who were to strike them off. They looked like mountains on the march, like seas boiling over, wave upon wave, with their crowding ranks, their seething approach-roads and mutilated barbarian warriors. The air stank, the light was dimmed, the desert was stunned, the plain dissolved, destiny hung over them, the Pleiades sent dust down upon them, the chargers' saddle-cloths brushed the ground and swept it, their hurrying hooves scored the earth. The knights clad in mail went with raised visors amid the swords, the hardened warriors and heroes of battle were loaded down with
In this account the Count expresses quite different loyalties from those described by Ibn al-Athi? r
1
on the eve of the battle.
Part Two: Saladin and the Third Crusade 79
the apparel of war, and their number was complete. Ahead of them the Sultan had drawn up his battalions and strengthened all his resolve for the fight. He set his army to face them and kept a watch on their vanguard in case they should charge; he cut off their access to water and filled in the wells, which caused them great hardship. He prevented their getting down to the water and set himself between them and their objective, keeping them at a distance. This was on a burningly hot day, while they themselves were burning with wrath. The Dog Star was blazing with merciless heat that consumed their water supplies and offered no support against thirst.
Night separated the two sides and the cavalry barred both the roads. Isla? m passed the night face to face with unbelief, monotheism at war with Trinitarianism, the way of righteousness looking down upon error, faith opposing polytheism. Meanwhile the several circles of Hell prepared themselves and the several ranks of Heaven congratulated themselves; Malik (the Guardian of Hell) waited and Ridwa? n (the Guardian of Paradise) rejoiced. Finally, when day dawned and the morning gleamed out, when dawn sent waves of light across the sky and the clangour of the trumpets startled the crow from the dust, when the swords awoke in their sheaths and the lances flamed with eagerness, when the bows stirred and the fire glowed, when blades were unsheathed and prevarication ripped away, then the archers began to scorch with their burning shafts men destined for Hell fire; the bows hummed and the bowstrings sang, the warriors' pliant lances danced, unveiling the brides of battle, the white blades appeared naked out of the sheath amid the throng, and the brown lances were pastured on entrails. The Franks hoped for a respite and their army in desperation sought for a way of escape. But at every way out they were barred, and tormented by the heat of war without being able to rest. Tortured by the thirst they charged, with no other water than the 'water' of the blades they gripped. The fire of arrows burned and wounded them, the fierce grip of the bows seized tenaciously upon them and struck them dead. They were impotent, driven off, pushed to extremes and driven back, every charge thrown off and destroyed, every action or attack captured and put in chains. Not even an ant could have escaped, and they could not defend themselves by charging. They burned and glowed in a frenzied ferment. As the arrows struck them down those who had seemed like lions now seemed like hedgehogs. The arrows beat them down and opened great gaps in their ranks. They sought refuge on the hill of Hitti? n to protect them from the flood of defeat, and Hitti? n was surrounded by the flags of destruction. The sword-blades sucked away their lives and scattered them on the hillsides; the bows found their targets, the wild fates stripped them, disasters crushed them, destruction picked them out, they became death's target and fate's prey. When the Count realized that they were defeated his anguish was clear to see. He gave up all effort and planned a way of escape. This was even before the main body of the army was roused and the embers were fanned, before the war was set alight and the flame burned. His band went off to find a way of escape and took the road across the wadi, refusing to stop. He went off like a flash of lightning in his folly, before the leak became too big; he fled with a few followers and did not return to the attack. Thus he absented himself from the fight, seized by an unconquerable terror that forced him to flee. The fighting grew more violent as lance crossed lance and sword struck sword. The Franks were surrounded whichever way they turned and completely encircled. They began to pitch their tents and to rally their troops, setting up their pavilions on Hitti? n, while the gallant archers hammered away at their swords. But they were prevented from planting
80 Arab Historians of the Crusades
and raising their tents, and plucked from the roots and branches of life. They hoped to improve their position by dismounting from their horses, and they fought tenaciously, but the swords went through them as a torrent flows and our army surrounded them as Hellfire surrounds the damned. Finally they resorted to saddling the ground, and their girth clasped the nipples of the plain. 1
The devil and his crew were taken, the King and his counts were captured, and the Sultan sat to review his chief prisoners, who came forward stumbling in their fetters like drunken men. The Grand Master of the Templars was brought in in his sins, and many of the Templars and Hospitallers with him. The King Guy and his brother Geoffrey were escorted in, with Hugh of Juba? il, Humphrey, and Prince Arna? t of al-Karak, who was the first to fall into the net. The Sultan had vowed to have his blood and had said: 'When I find him I shall kill him immediately. ' When the Prince was brought before him he made him sit beside the King, and reproached him for his treachery and paraded his wickedness before him. 'How often have you made a vow and broken your oath; how many obligations have you failed to honour, how many treaties made and unmade, and agreements reached and repudiated! ' The interpreter passed on this reply from him: 'This is how kings have always behaved; I have only followed the path of custom. ' Meanwhile the King was dying from thirst and was shaking with fear like a drunkard. But Saladin addressed him affably, calmed the wave of terror that had swept over him, assuaged his fear and reassured him in his heart; he sent for iced water for him, to soothe his burning throat and quench his tormenting thirst. Then the King passed the goblet to the Prince for him too to quench his thirst, and he took it in his hand and drank. The Sultan said to the King: 'You did not have my permission to give him drink, and so that drink does not imply his safety at my hand. ' Then he mounted his horse and left him to roast himself at the fire of his fear; he stayed out riding until his tent had been pitched, his standards and banners planted and his troops had returned from the battle to their base. Then he entered the pavilion, summoned the Prince, raised his sword and struck him on the shoulder, and as he fell ordered that his head should be struck off. He was dragged out by the feet. This was done in the King's presence and filled him with despair and terror. The Sultan realized that the King was consumed with fear and assaulted by terror and consternation, and so he called him to his side, made him come up close and reassured and calmed him. He put him at his ease as he stood at his side and calmed him by saying: 'This man's evil deeds have been his downfall, and as you saw his perfidy has been his destruction. He died for his sins and wickedness; the spark he struck from life is extinguished and the source of his being has dried up. '
This defeat of the enemy, this our victory occurred on a Saturday, and the humiliation proper to the men of Saturday was inflicted on the men of Sunday, who had been lions and now were reduced to the level of miserable sheep. 1 Of these thousands only a few individuals escaped, and of all those enemies only a few were saved. The plain was covered with prisoners and corpses, disclosed by the dust as it settled and victory became clear. The prisoners, with beating hearts, were bound in chains. The dead were scattered over the
Ibn al-Athi? r puts the meaning of this elegant metaphor in simpler words; they had dismounted, now 'they sat on the ground'.
I. e. the Christians were humiliated like despised Jews.
1
1
Part Two: Saladin and the Third Crusade 81
mountains and valleys, lying immobile on their sides. Hitti? n shrugged off their carcasses, and the perfume of victory was thick with the stench of them. I passed by them and saw the limbs of the fallen cast naked on the field of battle, scattered in pieces over the site of the encounter, lacerated and disjointed, with heads cracked open, throats split, spines broken, necks shattered, feet in pieces, noses mutilated, extremities torn off, members dismembered, parts shredded, eyes gouged out, stomachs disembowelled, hair coloured with blood, the praecordium slashed, fingers sliced off, the thorax shattered, the ribs broken, the joints dislocated, the chests smashed, throats slit, bodies cut in half, arms pulverized, lips shrivelled, foreheads pierced, forelocks dyed scarlet, breasts covered with blood, ribs pierced, elbows disjointed, bones broken, tunics torn off, faces lifeless, wounds gaping, skin flayed, fragments chopped off, hair lopped, backs skinless, bodies dismembered, teeth knocked out, blood spilt, life's last breath exhaled, necks lolling, joints slackened, pupils liquefied, heads hanging, livers crushed, ribs staved in, heads shattered, breasts flayed, spirits flown, their very ghosts crushed; like stones among stones, a lesson to the wise. 1
This field of battle had become a sea of blood; the dust was stained red, rivers of blood ran freely, and the face of the true Faith was revealed free from those shadowy abominations. O sweet rivers of victory over such evil! O burning, punishing blows on those carcasses! O sweet heart's comforter against that confusion! O welcome prayers at the joyful news of such an event! Such is the number of the slain that the tongues of all the peoples would not be capable of counting and enumerating them; as for the prisoners, all our tents could not produce enough tent-cords to bind and fetter them, and I saw thirty or forty on a single rope, led by a single rider, and in one place a hundred or two hundred captives guarded by a single man. Here rebels became prisoners, enemies were denuded, sovereigns made subject, great men humiliated, Counts reduced to game, horsemen hunted down, honoured men reviled, the faces of the infernal Templars ground in the dust, skulls trampled underfoot, the bodies they were blessed with hewn to pieces and scattered. How many proud men were taken, how many leaders bound and led, how many polytheists were grinding their teeth, how many infidels filled with gloomy thoughts, how many Trinitarians cut in half, how many impious enquirers after God had their arms bound; how many wounders were wounded, and injurers injured, and kings enslaved, and profaners profaned, and destroyers destroyed, and plunderers plundered, and noble lords in fetters, and violent men in chains, and freemen in servitude, and followers of error in the hands of the followers of truth!
THE CAPTURE OF THE GREAT CROSS ON THE DAY OF BATTLE
At the same time as the King was taken the 'True Cross' was also captured, and the idolaters who were trying to defend it were routed. It was this cross, brought into position and raised on high, to which all Christians prostrated themselves and bowed their heads. Indeed, they maintain that it is made of the wood of the cross on which, they say, he whom they adore was hung, and so they venerate it and prostrate themselves before it. They had housed it in a casing of gold, adorned with pearls and gems, and kept it ready for the festival of
Our author must surely have considered this macabre tirade one of the most successful examples
1
of his literary style.
82 Arab Historians of the Crusades
the Passion, for the observance of their yearly ceremony. When the priests exposed it to view and the heads (of the bearers) bore it along all would run and cast themselves down around it, and no one was allowed to lag behind or hang back without forfeiting his liberty. Its capture was for them more important than the loss of the King and was the gravest blow that they sustained in that battle. The cross was a prize without equal, for it was the supreme object of their faith. To venerate it was their prescribed duty, for it was their God, before whom they would bow their foreheads to the ground, and to which their mouths sang hymns. They fainted at its appearance, they raised their eyes to contemplate it, they were consumed with passion when it was exhibited and boasted of nothing else when they had seen it. They went into ecstasies at its reappearance, they offered up their lives for it and sought comfort from it, so much so that they had copies made of it which they worshipped, before which they prostrated themselves in their houses and on which they called when they gave evidence. So when the Great Cross was taken great was the calamity that befell them, and the strength drained from their loins. Great was the number of the defeated, exalted the feelings of the victorious army. It seemed as if, once they knew of the capture of the Cross, none of them would survive that day of ill-omen. They perished in death or imprisonment, and were overcome by force and violence. The Sultan encamped on the plain of Tiberias like a lion in the desert or the moon in its full splendour.
THE CONQUEST OF THE CITADEL OF TIBERIAS
He sent men to the citadel to receive its surrender with a promise of safe-conduct, and established the Faith there in place of the falsehood that had dwelt there before. The Lady, the Countess of Tiberias, had defended it and carried there all her property and possessions. He granted her a safe-conduct for the journey for her companions and property, and she left with her women and men and luggage, taking everything to Tripoli, the city that belonged to the Count her husband. So once again Tiberias was inhabited in safety by the people of the Faith, and Sarim ad-Din Qaima? z an-Najmi, one of their greatest dignitaries, was appointed its governor. Meanwhile Saladin encamped outside Tiberias, after having cured all mankind of its ills, and his army covered the whole plain.
SALADIN'S TREATMENT OF THE TEMPLARS AND HOSPITALLERS, BEHEADING THEM AND CAUSING GENERAL REJOICING AT THEIR EXTERMINATION1
On the morning of Monday 17 rabi? ' II, two days after the victory, the Sultan sought out the Templars and Hospitallers who had been captured and said: 'I shall purify the land of these two impure races. ' He assigned fifty dinar to every man who had taken one of them prisoner, and immediately the army brought forward at least a hundred of them. He
This episode, described by our eye-witness with his usual stylistic embellishments, is a blot on Saladin's renowned magnanimity; the reason for the slaughter was the hatred aroused in the Muslim camp by the two warrior orders by conduct in war certainly no more humane and 'Christian' than that of their enemies.
1
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ordered that they should be beheaded, choosing to have them dead rather than in prison. With him was a whole band of scholars and sufis and a certain number of devout men and ascetics; each begged to be allowed to kill one of them, and drew his sword and rolled back his sleeve. Saladin, his face joyful, was sitting on his dais; the unbelievers showed black despair, the troops were drawn up in their ranks, the ami? rs stood in double file. There were some who slashed and cut cleanly, and were thanked for it; some who refused and failed to act, and were excused; some who made fools of themselves, and others took their places. I saw there the man who laughed scornfully and slaughtered, who spoke and acted; how many promises he fulfilled, how much praise he won, the eternal rewards he secured with the blood he had shed, the pious works added to his account with a neck severed by him! How many blades did he stain with blood for a victory he longed for, how many lances did he brandish against the lion he captured, how many ills did he cure by the ills he brought upon a Templar, how much strength did he give to the leaders whom he supported, how many banners did he unfurl against disasters that retreated! I saw how he killed unbelief to give life to Isla? m, and destroyed polytheism to build monotheism, and drove decisions through to their conclusion to satisfy the community of the faithful, and cut down enemies in the defence of friends!
The Sultan sent the Frankish King to Damascus with his brother, and Humphrey, and the ruler of juba? il, and the Grand Master of the Temple and all the great barons who had been captured, to be imprisoned there and immobilized after all their activity; the army dispersed with its prisoners, and the embers of the assembled unbelievers faded and were extinguished.
Jerusalem Reconquered
(IBN AL-ATHI? R, XI, 361-6)
When Saladin had completed his conquest of Ascalon and the surrounding regions he sent for the Egyptian fleet and a large detachment of troops under Husa? m ad-Din Lu'lu' al-Hajib, a man well known for his courage, energy and initiative. This force set out by sea, intercepting Frankish communications; every Frankish vessel they sighted they attacked, and captured every galley. When they arrived and Saladin could rely on their support, he marched from Ascalon to Jerusalem. The venerable Patriarch,1 who carried greater authority than the King himself, was there and so was Balia? n ibn Barza? n, ruler of ar-Ramla,2 who was almost equal in rank to the King. The knights who had survived Hitti? n had also concentrated there. The inhabitants of that region, Ascalon and elsewhere had also gathered in Jerusalem, so there was a great concourse of people there, each one of whom would choose death rather than see the Muslims in power in their city; the sacrifice of life, possessions and sons was for them a part of their duty to defend the city. During that interval they fortified it by every means to hand, and then all mounted the walls, resolved to defend them with all their might, and showed determination to fight to the limit of
1 Heraclius.
2 Balia? n of Ibelin.
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their ability in the defence of Jerusalem. They mounted catapults to ward off attempts to approach the city and besiege it.
During Saladin's advance one of the ami? rs went ahead with his band of men without taking any precautions to defend himself; a troop of Franks who had left Jerusalem on reconnaissance came face to face with him and in a battle killed him and some of his men, which caused great grief and sorrow to the Muslims. Half-way through rajab/September 1187 they besieged Jerusalem. As they approached they saw on the walls a terrifying crowd of men and heard an uproar of voices coming from the inhabitants behind the walls that led them to infer the number of people who must be assembled there. For five days the Sultan rode round the city to decide on the best point for the attack, for the city was more strongly defended than ever before. The only point at which to attack was on the north side, near the Bab 'Amuda and the Church of Zion. So on 20 rajab Saladin moved his army to the north side, and on the same evening began to mount his siege-engines. Next morning they were all ready and began their battery of the walls, from which the Franks replied with other machines that they had constructed there. Then began the fiercest struggle imaginable; each side looked on the fight as an absolute religious obligation. There was no need for a superior authority to drive them on: they restrained the enemy without restraint, and drove them off without being driven back. Every morning the Frankish cavalry made sorties to fight and provoke the enemy to battle; several of both sides fell in these encounters. Among the Muslim martyrs was the ami? r 'Izz ad-Din Isa ibn Malik, one of the leading ami? rs and the son of the ruler of Ja'bar. Every day he had led the attack himself, and at his death passed to God's great mercy; a man dear to Muslims both great and small, whose death brought grief and sorrow to many. They charged like one man, dislodged the Franks from their positions and drove them back into the city. When the Muslims reached the moat they crossed it, came up under the walls and began to breach them, protected by their archers and by continuous artillery fire which kept the walls clear of Franks and enabled the Muslims to make a breach and fill it with the usual materials. 1
When the Franks saw how violently the Muslims were attacking, how continuous and effective was the fire from the ballistas and how busily the sappers were breaching the walls, meeting no resistance, they grew desperate, and their leaders assembled to take counsel. They decided to ask for safe-conduct out of the city and to hand Jerusalem over to Saladin. They sent a deputation of their lords and nobles to ask for terms, but when they spoke of it to Saladin he refused to grant their request. 'We shall deal with you,' he said, 'just as you dealt with the population of Jerusalem when you took it in 492/1099, with mur- der and enslavement and other such savageries! ' The messengers returned empty-handed. Then Balia? n ibn Barza? n asked for safe-conduct for himself so that he might appear before Saladin to discuss developments. Consent was given, and he presented himself and once again began asking for a general amnesty in return for surrender. The Sultan still refused his requests and entreaties to show mercy. Finally, despairing of this approach, Balia? n said: 'Know, O Sultan, that there are very many of us in this city, God alone knows how many. At the moment we are fighting half-heartedly in the hope of saving our lives, hoping to be spared by you as you have spared others; this is because of our horror of death and our love
Once they had cleared a tunnel they would fill it with combustible materials and set fire to it to
1
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of life. But if we see that death is inevitable, then by God we shall kill our children and our wives, burn our possessions, so as not to leave you with a dinar or a drachma or a single man or woman to enslave. When this is done, we shall pull down the Sanctuary of the Rock and the Masjid al-Aqsa and the other sacred places, slaughtering the Muslim prisoners we hold--5,000 of them--and killing every horse and animal we possess. Then we shall come out to fight you like men fighting for their lives, when each man, before he falls dead, kills his equals; we shall die with honour, or win a noble victory! ' Then Saladin took counsel with his advisers, all of whom were in favour of his granting the assurances requested by the Franks, without forcing them to take extreme measures whose outcome could not be foreseen.
'Let us consider them as being already our prisoners,' they said, 'and allow them to ransom themselves on terms agreed between us. ' The Sultan agreed to give the Franks assurances of safety on the understanding that each man, rich and poor alike, should pay ten dinar, children of both sexes two dinar and women five dinar. All who paid this sum within forty days should go free, and those who had not paid at the end of the time should be enslaved. Balia? n ibn Barza? n offered 30,000 dinar as ransom for the poor, which was accepted, and the city surrendered on Friday 27 rajab/2 October 1187, a memorable day on which the Muslim flags were hoisted over the walls of Jerusalem. At every gate Saladin set ami? rs in charge of taxation to claim the appropriate ransom from the inhabitants. But they cheated in carrying out their duties, and divided among themselves money that would oth- erwise have filled the State treasury to the benefit of all. There were in fact exactly 70,000 cavalry and infantry in Jerusalem, not counting the women and children with them; not a surprising number when you consider that there were people there from Daru? m, Ramla, Gaza and elsewhere, so many of them that they filled the streets and churches and walking was impossible. An indication of the numbers is the fact that most of them paid the ran- som, and Balia? n ibn Barza? n freed 18,000, for whom he paid the 30,000, and yet apart from all these the number of those who could not pay and were taken prisoner came to exactly 16,000 persons, men, women and children.
A certain number of ami? rs maintained that some subjects from their feudal estates were living in Jerusalem, and they freed them on payment of the tax to themselves. Others dressed Franks in the clothes of Muslim soldiers, got them out of the city, and ransomed them for a sum that they themselves decided. Others asked Saladin for the gift of a certain number of Franks, and when he granted them this made the men pay the tax to themselves. In fact only a small sum actually found its way into the treasury.
There was in Jerusalem a woman, married to a Byzantine king, who became a nun1 and settled there with a great train of domestics, slaves and handmaids and a quantity of gold and precious stones. She asked for safe-conduct for herself and her dependants, and the Sultan granted it and let her go. In the same way he set at liberty the Queen of Jerusalem,2 whose husband, imprisoned by Saladin, became King of the Franks through her agency and ruled the kingdom as her viceroy. He also let her take her possessions and dependants,
This detail makes it difficult to identify her as Maria Comnena, widow of Amalric I and later wife of Balia? n of Ibelin.
Sibylla, wife of Guy of Lusignan.
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and she asked permission to join her husband, who was then held prisoner in the fortress of Nablus. This was granted and she went and stayed with him. The wife of the Prince Arna? t of al-Karak whom Saladin had killed with his own hand on the day of Hitti? n also came before him to intercede for her son3 who was a prisoner. Saladin said: 'If you will give me al-Karak, I will let him go. ' She went to al-Karak, but the Franks there would not let her yield the fortress, so Saladin refused to give up her son, but only her possessions and followers.
The Grand Patriarch of the Franks left the city with the treasures from the Dome of the Rock, the Masjid al-Aqsa, the Church of the Resurrection and others, God alone knows the amount of the treasure; he also took an equal quantity of money. Saladin made no difficul- ties, and when he was advised to sequestrate the whole lot for Isla? m, replied that he would not go back on his word. He took only the ten dinar from him, and let him go, heavily escorted, to Tyre.
At the top of the cupola of the Dome of the Rock there was a great gilded cross. When the Muslims entered the city on the Friday, some of them climbed to the top of the cupola to take down the cross. When they reached the top a great cry went up from the city and from outside the walls, the Muslims crying the Alla? h akbar in their joy, the Franks groaning in consternation and grief. So loud and piercing was the cry that the earth shook.
Once the city was taken and the infidels had left, Saladin ordered that the shrines should be restored to their original state. The Templars had built their living-quarters against al- Aqsa, with storerooms and latrines and other necessary offices, taking up part of the area of al-Aqsa. This was all restored to its former state. The Sultan ordered that the Dome of the Rock should be cleansed of all pollution, and this was done. On the following Friday, 4 sha'ba? n/9 October, the Muslims celebrated the communal Friday prayers there. Among them was the Sultan, who also prayed at the Mosque of the Rock,1 with Muhyi ad-Din ibn az-Zaki, qadi of Damascus, as ima? m and preacher. Then Saladin appointed a qadi and an (ordinary) ima? m for the five canonic prayers, and ordered that a pulpit should be built for him. He was told that Nur ad-Din had once had one made in Aleppo, which he had com- manded the workmen to embellish and construct to the best of their ability, saying: 'We have made this to set up in Jerusalem. ' The carpenters had taken so many years to make it that it had no rival in the whole of Isla? m. Saladin had it brought from Aleppo and set up in Jerusalem, more than twenty years after it was made. This was one of the noble deeds of Nur ad-Din and one of his good works, God have mercy on him! 1
After the Friday prayer Saladin gave orders for the restoration of al-Aqsa, giving every encouragement to its embellishment and having it faced with stone and fine mosaics. Marble of an unrivalled quality was brought, and golden tesserae from Constantinople and other necessary materials that had been kept in store for years, and the work of restoration was
Stephanie, mother of Humphrey of Toron.
We have already noted that al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock, the so-called Mosque of 'Umar, were close together but separate. In this passage there is no doubt that the great ceremony was held in al-Aqsa and that Saladin also prayed in the Dome of the Rock, as is clear from 'Ima? d ad-Din's account.
As we have seen before, Ibn al-Athi? r let slip no opportunity of expressing his attachment to the Zangid dynasty supplanted by Saladin.
3 1
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begun. To hide the pictures that covered the walls, the Franks had set slabs of marble over the Rock, concealing it from sight, and Saladin had them removed. It had been covered with the marble because the priests had sold a good part of it to the Franks who came from abroad on pilgrimages and bought pieces for their weight in gold in the hope of benefiting by its health-giving influences. Each of them, on his return home with a piece of this stone, would build a church for it and enclose it in the altar. One of the Frankish Kings of Jerusalem, afraid that it would all disappear, had it covered with a slab of marble to preserve it. When it was uncovered Saladin had some beautiful Qur'a? ns brought to the mosque, and magnificent copies of the sections of the Holy Book for use in worship. He established reciters of the Qur'a? n there, heaping them with bountiful endowments. So Isla? m was restored there in full freshness and beauty. This noble act of conquest was achieved, after 'Umar ibn al-Khatta? b1--God have mercy on him! --by no one but Saladin, and that is a sufficient title to glory and honour.
The Frankish population of Jerusalem who had not departed began to sell at very low prices all their possessions, treasures and whatever they could not carry with them. The merchants from the army and the non-Frankish Christians in Jerusalem bought their goods from them. The latter had asked Saladin's permission to remain in their homes if they paid the tax, and he had granted them this, so they stayed and bought up Frankish property. What they could not sell, beds and boxes and casks, the Franks left behind; even superb columns of marble and slabs of marble and mosaics in large quantities. Thus they departed.
('IMA? D AD-DIN, 47-69)
Saladin marched from Ascalon to Jerusalem, victorious in his decision, accompanied by victory, escorted by glory. He had tamed the indomitable colt of his desires, and made fertile the meadow of his wealth. His hope had an easy passage, his paths were fragrant, his gifts poured out, his sweetness perfumed the air, his power was manifest, his authority supreme. The glory of his army flooded like an ocean over the plain and filled the desert, pouring out thanks and gratitude. The dust raised by his hosts had spread its cloak over the dawn; the cloud of it seemed to have replaced the clear morning hour with the shadows of evening. At times the earth groaned under the squadrons, the heavens received with joy the particles of dust. He marched on, rejoicing by his presence the surrounding regions, and the points of his lances related stories of his conquests from the mountain tops; to the scenes his hopes described he could add those that his success had made reality. Sweet and lofty fruits and flashes of light appeared from the roots of victory and from his success. Isla? m wooed Jerusalem, ready to lay down lives for her as a bride-price, bringing her a blessing that would remove the tragedy of her state, giving her a joyful face to replace an expression of torment, making heard, above the cry of grief from the Rock, calling for help against its enemies, the reply to this appeal, the prompt echo of the summons, an echo that would make the gleaming lamps rise in her sky, bring the exiled Faith back to her own country and dwelling-place and drive away from al-Aqsa those whom God drove away with his curse. Saladin marched forward to take up the reins of Jerusalem. that now hung loose, to silence the Christian clappers and allow the muezzin to be heard again, to
1 The second Caliph (634-44), under whom the Muslims took Jerusalem for the first time, in 637.
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remove the heavy hand of unbelief with the right hands of the Faith, to purify Jerusalem of the pollution of those races, of the filth of the dregs of humanity, to reduce the minds to silence by silencing the bells. The news flew to Jerusalem, and the hearts of its inhabitants beat with terror and their chests palpitated and throbbed with fear of the army of Isla? m. The Franks, as the news spread, wished that they had never been born. Thus it was with the Frankish leaders Balia? n ibn Barza? n and the Grand Patriarch and the heads of the Orders of the Temple and the Hospital. Balia? n was troubled, and fires of anguish consumed him; the glow of Patriarchal pride was extinguished, and all felt uneasy in their houses, as if every one of them had become a trap set for the unbelievers. They wanted to take action in their calamitous situation, but the minds of the unbelievers could not agree. The Franks despaired of finding any relief from their situation and decided all to give their lives (in defence of Jerusalem).
THE CHURCH OF THE RESURRECTION1
The Franks said: 'Here our heads will fall, we will pour forth our souls, spill our blood, give up our lives; we shall endure blows and wounds, we shall be prodigal of our spirits in defence of the place where the Spirit dwells. This is our Church of the Resurrection, here we shall take up our position and from here make our sorties, here our cry goes up, here our penitence is performed, our banners float, our cloud spreads. We love this place, we are bound to it, our honour lies in honouring it, its salvation is ours, its safety is ours, its survival is ours. If we go far from it we shall surely be branded with shame and just censure, for here is the place of the crucifixion and our goal, the altar and the place of sacrifice, the place of assembly and the sanctuary, the place of descent and of ascent, the flight of steps and the observation-post, the symposium and the theatre, the place for ornament and decoration, the prologue and epilogue, the food and the nourishment, the works of marble and intaglio, the permitted and the forbidden places, the pictures and the sculptures, the views and configurations, the lions and the lioncubs, the portraits and likenesses, the columns and slabs of marble, the bodies and souls. Here are pictures of the Apostles conversing, Popes with their histories, monks in their cells, priests in their councils, the Magi with their ropes,2 priests and their imaginings; here the effigies of the Madonna and the Lord, of the Temple and the Birthplace, of the Table and the fishes, and what is described and sculpted of the Disciples and the Master, of the cradle and the Infant speaking. 3 Here are the effigies of the ox and the ass, of Paradise and Hell, the clappers and the divine laws. Here, they say, the Messiah was crucified, the sacrificial victim slain, divinity made incarnate, humanity deified. Here the dual nature was united, the cross was raised, light was extinguished and darkness covered the land. Here the nature was united
In Arabic al-Qiyama, but the Muslim writers of the time felt obliged to turn it derisively into al- Qumama, the dung-heap, and it appears in this form in 'Ima? d ad-Din; it is the Holy Sepulchre. A reference to Qur'a? n XX, 69, where the Egyptian Magi, casting their ropes down before Moses, make them appear to be serpents.
There are two Qur'a? nic references here: the table is that of the Eucharist, which according to Muhammad descends miraculously from heaven (Q. V), and the Christ child speaking is influ- enced in its turn by the Evangelium infantiae (Q. XIX, 31).
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with the person, the existent mingled with. the non-existent, the adored Being was baptized and the Virgin gave birth to her Son. 1
They continued to attach errors like this to the object of their cult, wandering with false beliefs far from the true forms of faith, and said: 'We shall die in defence of our Lord's sepulchre, and we shall die in fear of its slipping from our hands; we shall fight and struggle for it: how could we not fight, not contend and join battle, how could we leave this for them to take, and permit them to take from us what we took from them? ' They made far-reaching and elaborate preparations, stretching out endlessly to infinity. They mounted deadly weap- ons on the walls, and veiled the face of light with the sombre curtain of walls. They sent out their demons, their wolves ran hither and thither, their impetuous tyrants raged; their swords were unsheathed, the fabric of their downfall displayed, their blazing firebrands lit. They burned with enthusiasm and surged like a wave, they launched appeals and their hostile bands rode out, their loathesome vipers glided about, their priests aroused their passions, their leaders cheered them on, their hearts were stirred. Their spies brought them messages of disaster, telling them of the advance of al-Malik an-Nasir2 and his victorious troops, with banners displayed, swords in hand, plucked from the sheaths, bloodstained lances, troops in serried ranks, chargers trained to wreak vengeance on enemies, souls inflamed with the fire of the True Faith, with burning resolution, their odd-toed horses on leading-reins, their swords stained with blood. The hills were dewy, the scabbard-bearers raged, lance-points were sharpened, the chargers' reins slackened, their burden now secure. The valleys flowed down from their hills, the champions curvetted amid their standards; their squadrons blocked the mountain passes like waves scattering the dust, like eagles over-shadowing the sun; the blades of their javelins could have ignited wicks. They were like winds blowing about the mountains, they carried their lances as if they had been cords. They were the lion's claws lurking in the thicket; their ranks advanced in the strength of their uncrushable resolution. Each believer made a covenant with his Lord, and was ready to ward off his approaching doom, prompt to soothe the troubles in his heart and to pour out generously its irrigating flood; rebutting all evil from behind the shelter of his breastplate, full of gallantry and valour, drawing the daughter of the sheath from her scabbard, washing the thirsty blade with enemy blood, grasping in his hands the white blades of India, bring- ing talk of disaster to an end with his lights and his thunder, his destiny as piercing as the sword with which he laboured. Each young man longed for the fire of battle, each man of the Faith was jealous for the Lord's religion, each army was like a tempestuous sea, every- one who stained a sharp sword with blood was defending the True Faith, everyone who believed in the other life hated this lower one and asked God for martyrdom, drawn away from desire for earthly survival and ready to pour out his wealth in the holy cause. The Sultan advanced in the authority he had won, with his valiant knights, with the lesser kings his sons and brothers, with the lion-cubs his mamlu? ks and pages, with his noble ami? rs, his
This curious jumble of Christian dogmas and rites betrays the Muslim author's lack of real infor- mation and his preconceived hostility. But apart from the stylistic frills this description, to us almost a caricature, is the usual picture of Christianity painted by mediaeval Muslims. Nor can we say that the Christian view of Isla? m was any more accurate.
'The King who brings victory to the Faith' was, as has been mentioned before, Saladin's official
1
2
name.
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great friends, in squadrons ranked according to their merit, in platoons drawn up in solemn cavalcades, with lances whose metal points gleamed like stars, with serried ranks bearing their sharp swords, with yellow standards that would bring disaster to the Banu l-Asfar,1 with white swords and brown lances, ready to bring crimson death to the blue-eyed enemy, with pavilions and tribes, with lances and darts, with neighing chargers pawing the earth, with pliant spear-points and knights on horseback, and people all ready, for jealous love of their Faith, to give their souls and their precious possessions. (When Saladin reached Jerusalem) he at once asked to see the Masjid al-Aqsa and wanted to know the nearest road leading to it, and who were its most distinguished devotees, expressing the noble senti- ments with which God nobly inspired him.
DESCRIPTION OF JERUSALEM
The Sultan said: 'If God gives us the grace to drive His enemies from Jerusalem what happiness will be ours! What blessings shall we owe to Him if He chooses to assist us! For Jerusalem has been in enemy hands for ninety-one years,2 during which time God has received nothing from us here in the way of adoration, while the zeal of (Muslim) sovereigns to ransom her languished and the generations followed one another and the Franks were settled here in power. And God has reserved the merit of conquest for a single house--the Ayyubid--to unite all hearts in appreciation of its members. He has chosen in particular the age of the Ima? m an-Nasir li Din Alla? h to be given an advantage over other ages, and has chosen to give Egypt and its army an advantage in this over every other country. And how could He not assist in the conquest of the mighty Jerusalem and of the Masjid al-Aqsa, founded in piety, since she is the seat of the prophets, the home of the saints, the place where the pious adore their God, the place that the great saints of the earth and angels of heaven visit. From there the great assembly and diaspora take place and crowd upon crowd of ambassadors of the pious friends of God go there. There is the Rock, whose eternal splendour has been preserved from any deterioration, from which the Road of the Ascension (of the Prophet to Heaven) leaves the earth; above it the proud Dome rises like a crown, there the lamp has shone and from there Bura? q1 departed, there the night of the heavenly journey, with the descent of the light-giving torch, illumined the whole world. Within its gates is the Gate of Mercy;2 he who enters by it gains the right to
The Banu l-Asfar (the Arabic could mean 'sons of the yellow', hence the pun about 'yellow standards', although the real derivation is from the Biblical Sofer, Esau's nephew), is the Arabs' name for the ancient Romans, and by extension the Latins, the man of the West. In the next line they are called 'blue eyed', referring either to an ethnic characteristic or to its traditionally evil significance.
The lunar years of the hijra, from 492/1099 to 583/1187.
The heavenly charger on whose back Muhammad left the Rock on his ascent (mi'ra? j) and his miraculous voyage beyond the tomb. In this panegyric of Jerusalem eloquent hints come through even 'Ima? d ad-Din's rhetoric of the reasons why the place was, and is, so sacred to the pious and warlike zeal of Isla? m. See also the letter from Saladin to Richard for a more sober development of the same theme.
Bab ar-Rahma, now the Golden Gate, one of the gates of the temple precinct.
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Part Two: Saladin and the Third Crusade 91
dwell eternally in Paradise. Within it are the Seat of Solomon and the Oratory of David, and the Fountain of Aloes, which represents for those who go down to drink it the (heavenly) river Kauthar. Jerusalem is the first of the two qibla, the second of the two Houses of God, the third of the Sacred Zones. 3 It is one of the three places of prayer of which the Prophet says in his sayings that horsemen face in their direction to mount, and ally their hopes to them. And who knows that God will not, by means of us, restore her to her former beauty, as He honours her by mentioning her among His most noble creations at the beginning of the sura4 in which He says: 'Praise Him who took His servant on a journey by night from the Sacred Mosque (at Mecca) to the Remote Mosque (in Jerusalem). ' She has prayers and virtues innumerable; the holy journey by night took place to and from her, over her heaven was opened wide, she is referred to in the accounts of the prophets, the thanksgiving of the saints, the tombs of the martyrs, the miracles of the bountiful, the symbols of the scholars. Here is the home of pious acts and the theatre of joys. Her lofty Rock is the first qibla, from which the Prophet's foot ascended, bringing eternal benediction. Beside it our Prophet prayed with the prophets, accompanied by the faithful Spirit, and from it he ascended. Here is the oratory of Mary, of whom God says: 'Each time that Zacharias entered the room to her. . . . '1 Jerusalem is the city that David founded and advised Solomon to build, and in her honour God revealed the verse: 'Praise be. . . . ' She it was that al-Faru? q2 conquered and with which a sura of the Revelation begins. How illustrious and great is she, how noble and proud, high and gleaming, lofty and glorious! O blessed are her benedictions and blessed her auspices, noble her states and sweet her beauties! God has made manifest her nobility and position in the words of the Qur'a? n: 'Whose precinct we have blessed. '3 O how many miracles God has shown to the Prophet here, and now He has set before our eyes her virtues that formerly we had only heard of! '
Thus the Sultan described her distinctions and beauty, which, as he undertook and swore, he would bring back to the brilliance they used to have, and he took an oath not to depart until he had honoured his word and raised his standard on her highest point, and had visited with his own feet the place where the Prophet had set foot, and heard the call from the Rock, for he longed to light up the faces of his family4 with the joyful news. So he advanced, certain of absolute victory and of the end of all difficulties, while the anguish of the Franks was clear to see. He reached the western side of Jerusalem on Sunday 15 rajab/ 20 September. The hearts of the unbelievers thudded, the faction of polytheists was in a confusion of breathless anguish, destiny performed the miracle. There were in Jerusalem at the time 70,000 Frankish troops, both swordsmen and archers, and champions of error armed
The qibla is the direction of prayer, originally ordained by Muhammad to be the direction of Jerusalem before he changed it definitely to Mecca. Jerusalem is God's second house after the Ka'ba at Mecca, and the third sacred precinct after Mecca and Medina.
Qur'a? n XVII, 1, the verse referring to the Prophet's nocturnal journey from Mecca to Jerusalem and from there to heaven.
Qur'a? n III, 32.
Honorific surname of 'Umar, see p.
