No More Learning

The 'Mother of the Qu'ra? n', called the first sura or fa? tiha (opening), which begins with the eulogy 'In the name of God, the merciful, the forgiving'.
The 'consensus' of scholars and 'analogical reasoning' in establishing a judicial ruling are two of the basic principles of Muslim law.
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and harshness for the enemies of God. The cries of men weeping, the babble of lamenta- tion, rose up far and near; hearts melted and cares were lightened, cries rose up and tears fell down. Sinners repented, the wicked wereconverted, penitents groaned, those who had turned to God lamented for themselves. Brilliant mystic ecstasies and sweet revelations occurred, prayers rose on high, supplications were heard, examples of divine love were collated and many blessings of divine providence were confirmed. The Sultan prayed in the Dome of the Rock amid throngs of believers who occupied the whole extent of the atrium, the whole community supplicating God to continue their victories. To him were turned the faces raised to the qibla; hands were raised to God and prayers went up to heaven for him. Saladin also appointed a preacher to a permanent post in the Masjid al-Aqsa.
A DESCRIPTION OF THE SACRED ROCK--GOD PRESERVE IT!
As for the Rock, the Franks built over it a church and an altar, so that there was no longer any room for the hands that wished to seize the ba? raka2 from it or for the eyes that longed to see it. They had adorned it with images and statues, set up dwellings there for monks and made it the place for the Gospel, which they venerated and exalted to the heights. Over the place of the (Prophet's holy) foot they set an ornamented tabernacle with columns of marble, marking it as the place where the Messiah had set his foot; a holy and exalted place, where flocks of animals, among which I saw species of pig,1 were carved in marble. But the Rock, the object of pilgrimage, was hidden under constructions and submerged in all this sumptuous building. So the Sultan ordered that the veil should be removed, the curtain raised, the concealments taken away, the marble carried off, the stones broken, the structures demolished, the covers broken into. The Rock was to be brought to light again for visitors and revealed to observers, stripped of its covering and brought forward like a young bride. He wanted the pearl extracted from its shell, the full moon brought from behind the clouds, the prison torn down, the condemned ransomed, its beauty revealed, its blessed aspect allowed to shine, its true face made clear, its genuine honour brought to light, its fine state restored, its high honour and standing brought back. Surely it is something whose beauty consists in being unadorned, whose nakedness is clothing and whose clothing is nakedness. It was restored to its former state and the outstanding splendour of its beauty was brought into the open. Before the conquest only a small part of the back of it was exposed, and the Unbelievers had cut it about shamefully; now it appeared in all its beauty, revealed in the loveliest of revelations. Candelabra gleamed upon it, light on light, and over it was placed an iron grille.
Even up to this day concern for its adornment has not come to an end, but still grows. The Sultan appointed an ima? m for the Dome of the Rock; one of the finest readers of the Qur'a? n, a man of the highest eloquence, clarity of voice, reputation for religious piety and knowledge of the seven--no, of the ten Qur'anic readings,1 and one who breathed
The healthful influence flowing from a sacred person or object.
Romanesque animal carvings (on capitals, bas-reliefs? ); the pigs may really have been there, or the author may be referring to the Christians.
Readings of the Sacred Book, handed down in seven or more slightly differing versions.
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Part Two: Saladin and the Third Crusade 101
the sweetest odour of sanctity. He gave him money and satisfaction and the benefit of his favour in the office assigned to him. He gave him a house and a garden as a pious endow- ment to his office, and conferred copious benefits upon him. He had brought to the Dome of the Rock and the mihra? b of al-Aqsa complete copies, portions and venerated sections of the Qur'a? n, now raised up on their lecterns and placed on their shelves in view of the visi- tors. What is more he set up for the Rock in particular and Jerusalem in general custodians to keep it all in good condition. He nominated only men of piety and devotion, dedicated to the worship of God. O the glorious nights there, the crowds assembled, the great candles blooming, conspicuous humility, devoted contrition, the tears of the pious falling fast, the hearts of the devotees glowing in their breasts. Here was every friend of God who vener- ated his Lord and hoped for blessing and bounty from him, and every poor, ill-clad, obscure wretch who, if he swore an oath in God's name, carried it out, everyone who passed the night in prayer and exalted the divine truth and exposed it to view, everyone who held regu- lar, intoned recitals of the Qur'a? n, who drove out the devil and convicted him of falsity, who was well known in the mornings for his religious exercises and familiar by night for his recital of the offices and his prayers. O happy day for this sanctuary, when the angels moved against its invaders and the sun reached it again with its light and its blooms, and hearts brought their secrets to it, and sinners cast down their burden of sin there, and the dawn of every day begged it as a gift to reveal itself! O victorious one who undertook to purify it, O pure one who sought to bring it back into the light!
The Franks had cut pieces from the Rock, some of which they had carried to Con- stantinople and Sicily and sold, they said, for their weight in gold, making it a source of income. When the Rock reappeared to sight the marks of these cuts were seen and men were incensed to see how it had been mutilated. Now it is on view with the wounds it suffered, preserving its honour for ever, safe for Isla? m, within its protection and its fence. This was all done after the Sultan left and after an ordered pattern of life had been estab- lished. Saladin also had the mihra? b of al-Aqsa lined with marble in a magnificent and splendid manner,1 and the Ayyubid sovereigns vied with each other in the liberality of the good works they performed here, assuring themselves of the love of men's hearts and the gratitude of their tongues. Not one of them but has showered largesse and benefits upon it to the heights of his powers, illuminating and glorifying it, ornamenting and beautifying it, tending and adorning it, enriching and providing for it, perfecting and completing it, preferring and patronizing it. Thus al-Malik al-'Adil Saif ad-Din Abu Bakr2 had works of art executed for it worthy of the deepest gratitude, and increased its resources with copi- ous benefits, gracious and conspicuous concessions and praiseworthy generosity, with the virtuous acts he was well known for and the meritorious service that ensured its success. Al-Malik al-Muzaffar Taqi ad-Din 'Umar3 performed there every deed of universal and widespread munificence, with prohibitions and commands, constructions and restorations. Among his laudable acts and famous deeds of generosity was his appearance one day at the Dome of the Rock with a band of noble princes of his house carrying rose-water and
The commemorative inscription, still in position, records for posterity the great Sultan's names. Saladin's brother (Saphadin), Sultan of Egypt and Syria until 1218.
Saladin's nephew, ruler of Hama? t (1178-91).
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money for charity and public donation. He seized the opportunity to perform this original act of virtue, taking water and sprinkling the courts and colonnades with his own hand, washing them several times with water until they were clean. After the water he sprinkled the place with rose-water, so that the courts were impregnated with the fragrance; thus he washed the walls and cleaned the pavements. Then he called for censers of perfume and perfumed the mosque, and the believers breathed in all this sweetness, entirely against the will of the enemy. Nor did he and his followers cease for the whole of that day purifying that blessed precinct until they were sure that it was purified, that its sweetness was clear and its cleanness pleasing, and that no one could contemplate it without admiring it. Then he distributed the money to the deserving and was proud to surpass even generous men in his expenditure. And al-Malik al-Afdal Nur ad-Din 'Ali1 was the cause of all shining light, pious generosity, glowing liberality, prosperous grace, pure munificence and sweet heady perfume, extraordinary gifts and unimaginable generosity, unusual largesse and conspicu- ous support. Thus he performed deeds that have immortalized his fine face and caused tongues to speak his praise, he poured blessings on this sanctuary and spread deep carpets, guided and gave, gave again, illumined and endowed, poured out generosity and broke the seal of liberality, and emptied his purse to the bottom so that we believed that his money was exhausted and had failed completely.
More will be said later about the wall of Jerusalem built by him and of the moats he dug, but he was already unsurpassable for his amazing acts of generosity and bounty, in which no one could possibly equal him, and in which no one could dominate the lists but he. Finally, al-Malik al-'Azi? z 'Uthma? n;2 his beneficence was a source of strength to the Faith; when he returned to Egypt after having been present at the conquest and the victory he left his whole arsenal of arms to Jerusalem, not thinking to order me to take it away after he returned to Egypt. There were mounds of money, mountains of baggage, ample provisions, defensive weapons, great coats of mail, sharp swords, helmets and casques, lances and javelins, spears and missiles,1 chargers and lances, ballistas and bows, Yemenite, Indian and Yazanite lances, lances from Rudaina and Mashrafite swords,2 stockades and palisades, shields and lances, iron spears and Macedonian sarrisas, ordnance, multiple and flame- throwing ballistas, tubes of naphtha and stonebreakers, equipment for breaching walls and every other form of military gear. The city was reinforced with this arsenal and its defences made secure. In addition, one of the conditions of the surrender was that the Franks should leave us their horses and harnesses, and should leave the city without waiting for the rest to exhaust the time limit for paying the ransom. In this way Jerusalem acquired ample munitions and had no need of help (from outside).
Saladin's son and his successor in Syria (1186-96).
Another of Saladin's sons and his successor in Egypt (1193-98).
Qanabil now means 'bombs', but must then have referred to some other sort of arms or projec- tiles that we cannot identify more closely.
Yazanite lances and those from Rudaina were highly prized by the ancient Arabs, as were Mashrafite swords from the Syrian hinterland.
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CONCERNING THE ORATORY OF DAVID AND OTHER NOBLE SANCTUARIES. THE CHURCHES ARE SUPPRESSED AND 'MADRASAS' INSTITUTED
The Oratory of David outside the Masjid al-Aqsa was in a fortified stronghold near the city gate. It was set up on high in a commanding position, and was used by the governor. The Sultan took charge of its restoration and established there an ima? m, muezzins and guards. It is a centre for the pious, the goal of visitors morning and evening. It was Saladin who gave it new life and beauty and enabled visitors to enjoy it. As well as this, he gave orders for all the mosques to be renovated and all the sanctuaries to be guarded, and for the goals aimed at to be achieved under happy auspices, and for the water to be purified for the benefit of travellers and pilgrims. The place where this fortress was built had been the house of David and Solomon (God's blessing on both of them), where people went to find them. Al-Malik al-'Adil had encamped in the Church of Zion and his troops were at its gates. The Sultan's household, pious scholars and men of virtue, spoke to him about establishing a madrasa for Shafi'ite lawyers1 and a convent for sufis; he set aside for the use of the madrasa the church dedicated to Saint John near the Gate of the Tribes, and for the convent the Patriarch's house near the Church of the Resurrection. He endowed both liberally, thus benefiting both these communities. He also set aside sites for madrasas for the various (other) communi- ties, to add to the benefits they had already received. He had the Church of the Resurrection closed to Christian visitors even as a refuge. Many discussions were held with him about its fate; some advised him to demolish it and abolish all trace of it, making it impossible to visit, removing its statutes, driving away its errors, extinguishing its lights, destroying its Testaments, eliminating its false allurements, declaring its affirmations to be lies. 'When its buildings are destroyed,' they said, 'and it is razed to the ground, and its sepulchre opened and destroyed, and its fires spent and extinguished, and its traces rubbed out and removed, and its soil ploughed up, and the Church scattered far and wide, then the people will cease to visit it, and the longings of those destined to damnation will no longer turn to seeing it, whereas if it is left standing the pilgrimage will go on without end. ' But the majority said: 'Demolishing and destroying it would serve no purpose, nor would it prevent the infidels from visiting it or prevent their having access to it. For it is not the building as it appears to the eyes but the home of the Cross and the Sepulchre that is the object of worship. The vari- ous Christian races would still be making pilgrimages here even if the earth had been dug up and thrown into the sky. And when 'Umar, prince of the believers, conquered Jerusalem in the early days of Isla? m, he confirmed to the Christians the possession of the place, and did not order them to demolish the building on it. '
The madrasa is an advanced school of theology and Islamic law. The first to be established in Jerusalem was the Shafi'ite because this was the chief school of law in Egypt and Syria, but the Sultan also made provision for the others (Malikite, Hanafite and Hanbalite), if this is what is meant by the 'communities' referred to a few lines on.
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CHAPTER THREE
The character of Con rad of Montferrat, saviour of Tyre and moving spirit of the Third Crusade, impressed itself upon the minds of contemporary Muslim historians more deeply than any apart from that of Richard of England. Here Ibn al-Athi? r describes his adventur- ous arrival at Tyre and reproaches Saladin, perhaps justifiably, for not attacking the city with sufficient determination; the survival of Tyre made the Christian military resurgence and the siege of Acre possible.
CONRAD OF MONTFERRAT AT TYRE; SALADIN'S FRUITLESS SIEGE (IBN AL-ATHI? R, XI, 358-9, 366-8)
When Count Raymond, Prince of Tripoli, fled from Hitti? n, he stopped at Tyre, one of the strongest and best defended cities in Syria. When he saw that the Sultan had taken Tibni? n, Sidon and Beiru? t he was afraid that he would decide to march on Tyre, stripped as it was at that moment of troops to defend it, while he was without the means of resisting him, so he left and went to Tripoli. Thus Tyre lay open and undefended from the Muslims, and if Saladin had attacked it first, before Tibni? n and elsewhere, he would have taken it easily. But he thought that its natural defences would make it difficult to capture and wanted first to secure its surrounding territories in order to take it more easily, and this was why it survived unconquered, this being God's will. It happened that a Frank from Outremer called 'the Marquis'--God damn him! --set out by sea with great wealth on a pilgrimage and trading mission, unaware of the disaster that had befallen the Franks. When he entered the harbour at Acre his suspicions were aroused by the absence of the manifestations of joy, ringing of bells and so on, that usually met the arrival in port of a Frankish vessel, and also by the style of dress of the people there. He dropped anchor, uncertain what might have happened. The wind had fallen. Al-Malik al-Afdal for his part sent his men out in a small boat to see who it was and what he wanted. When the boat came alongside the Marquis, not recognizing it as one of their own, asked what had been happening, and the men on board told him of the Frankish defeat, the fall of Acre and other cities, and informed him at the same time that Tyre and Ascalon and certain other towns were still in Frankish hands, giving him the full details. Since the lack of wind prevented his moving the Marquis sent the messenger back with a request for permission to enter the city in safety with his merchandise and money. This was granted, but he sent the messenger back again and again, each time with new requests, to gain time until the wind should rise and he could use it to escape. In the course of these comings and goings the wind began to blow again and he at once set sail for Tyre. Al-Malik al-Afdal sent a galley after him in pursuit but it failed to catch him and he reached Tyre, where a great number of Franks was gathered. For when Saladin took each town, Acre, Beiru? t and the others mentioned above, he had allowed the populations to leave freely, and they had all come to Tyre. So the place was thronged,
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but it lacked a leader to unite it and a commander to lead it in battle. The people were not warriors, and were talking of making a treaty with Saladin and offering to surrender the town to him when the Marquis arrived and dissuaded them from such an act and gave them new hope by promising to defend the city himself. He distributed the money he had with him on condition that the city and its territory belonged to him and no one else. When they agreed he made them swear to it, and after that took up residence there and governed the city. He was a devil incarnate in his ability to govern and defend a town, and a man of extraordinary courage. His first act was to strengthen the city's defences: he renewed the entrenchments, set the walls in order, and increased the armaments. The citizens agreed to defend the city and to fight for it.
When Saladin had taken Jerusalem he remained outside the city until 25 sha'ba? n, deal- ing with its re-organization, establishing convents and madrasas. He set up the Shafi'ite madrasa in the house of the Hospitallers; a beautiful building. When he had finished his work in Jerusalem he moved on to Tyre, where many Franks had gathered and of which the Marquis had become lord and governor, ruling it very well and reinforcing its defences out of all recognition. Saladin got as far as Acre and stayed there for a few days, and when the Marquis heard of his arrival there he immediately set about repairing the walls of Tyre and deepening the moats, and established a link between the sea on one side of the city and on the other, so that the city was like an island in the midst of the water, inaccessible and impregnable.
Leaving Acre, Saladin reached Tyre on 9 ramada? n/13 November 1187 and stopped beside a stream within sight of the city, waiting for the rest of his army to catch up with him. On 22 ramada? n he marched on and encamped on a hill close to the walls of Tyre so that he could follow the fighting. He ordered that battalion whose turn it was for action to make ready and arranged that each detachment should be on duty in turn so that the defenders would be under continuous attack. But the area from which they fought was small and only a small band of those within the walls was necessary to defend it, the more so because of the trenches running from sea to sea so that not even a bird, so to speak, could fly over the city. Tyre was like a hand stretched out into the sea, with an arm joining it to the mainland but with sea all around it. The attackers could only advance along that arm of land. The Muslims mounted an attack with catapults, ballistas and siege-engines. Saladin's own family took their turn in the battle: his son al-Afdal, his other son az-Za? hir Ghazi, his brother al-'Adil ibn Ayyu? b, his nephew Taqi ad-Din; and so did the rest of the ami? rs. The Franks had galleys and fire-ships with which they held the sea on either side of the isthmus along which the Muslims were attacking the city. They attacked the Muslim flanks with ballistas, which was a grave disadvantage to our armies, who were being attacked in front by the citizens and on either side by the soldiers posted on the galleys. The isthmus was so narrow that their arrows crossed from one side to the other. Many Muslims were wounded and killed, but they failed to gain the fort.
Saladin ordered the ten Egyptian galleys lying at Acre to sail to Tyre with their crews and soldiers and all their equipment. These prevented the Tyrian ships from coming out to attack the Muslims, who were then able to come up under the fort and attack it by land and sea. Victory was within their grasp. But destiny decreed that an accident should befall them. Five Muslim galleys were guarding the port one night, to cut off the enemy's lines of communication; they were commanded by 'Abd as-Sala? m al-Ma? ghribi, a brave and expe-
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rienced man. After spending the night on the watch they felt that the dawn brought safety, and slept. Suddenly Frankish galleys bore down on them, attacked them and killed as many as they wanted, taking the rest prisoner in their ships and towing them into the port of Tyre under the eyes of the Muslims watching from the land. Some Muslims cast themselves into the sea from the captured galleys, some surviving and some drowning. Saladin ordered the rest of the galleys to Beiru? t, for so small a number was not safe. The eager Franks pursued them. When the Muslims saw the entire Frankish fleet behind them they drove their ships on to the shore and escaped, leaving them there. Saladin had the ships seized and destroyed, and returned to attacking Tyre by land only, which was almost useless because of the lack of space to manoeuvre. One day the Franks made a sortie and attacked the Muslims from behind their trenches. The battle raged until sunset from the early afternoon. A great and famous knight of theirs was captured after a frenzied and murderous attack on him when he fell from his horse. He was taken and killed. The situation continued for several days. Finally Saladin realized that it was going to take a long time to conquer Tyre, and withdrew. It was a habit of his to tire of a siege when a town put up a firm resistance, and to move on. Throughout the whole of this year he had never stopped for long to attack a city, but had taken them all, as we have remarked, within a few days without any trouble or difficulty. Thus when he and his advisers saw that Tyre was a problem of a different order they grew bored and decided to leave. The sole responsibility for Tyre's resistance lies with Saladin, who had sent all the Frankish forces rushing off there and reinforced them with men and money from Acre, Ascalon, Jerusalem and elsewhere, as has been described above, for he allowed them all to depart freely and sent them to Tyre, where as a result there was a concentration of Frankish knights from Palestine with their money as well as the wealth of the merchants and the others. All these defended the city and wrote to the Franks abroad asking their help. This they were promised, and were ordered to hold on to Tyre as a focus of foreign aid and a place of rescue and protection. This impressed on them all the more the need to hold firm and defend the fort. Later, God willing, we shall tell the end of the story, to show that a king should not abandon forceful action even when fate seems to be on his side. Failure accompanied by firm conduct is preferable to success acquired with feeble- ness and lassitude, and makes the King less to blame in men's judgment. 1
When Saladin was deciding to leave he called a council of his ami? rs, whose advice was confused. Some said that departure was advisable, given their heavy losses, dead and wounded, and that the troops were tired and the provisions exhausted:' Winter is com- ing,' they said, 'and the goal is far from being within our reach. Let us go away and rest throughout the cold weather, and in spring let us take up the fight again against this and the enemy's other strongholds. ' This was the advice given by the ami? rs, as if they were afraid that Saladin would extort the taxes they owed him to finance the army if they stayed there, for the exchequer and treasury were empty, because Saladin spent everything that came into it. The other faction wanted to stay and take the city by storm. This fort was vital to
This is only one of the passages in which an ill-disguised hostility to Saladin can be seen in the Mesopotamian historian's writings, caused by his preference for the Zangid dynasty supplanted by Saladin. We shall never know what basis there was for his criticisms of Saladin's conduct of the war; Ibn al-Athi? r reveals himself as a very subtle man, and one who is capable of recognizing, even perhaps in spite of himself, the greatness of Isla? m's champion.
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the Franks, and once it had gone the Franks abroad would no longer lust after this our land, and would surrender the other territories they held without bloodshed. Saladin wavered between staying and going, and when the retreating faction saw his uncertainty they sabo- taged the jobs assigned to them, in battle or with the artillery, and excused themselves by saying that their troops were discontented, that some had been sent to find provisions, forage for the animals and food for themselves, and other similar excuses, until in the end they were sitting idle and doing no fighting. So Saladin was forced to go, and left at the end of shawwa? l/end of December.
By the beginning of January he was at Acre, where he gave the whole army permission to return home and rest for the winter and told them to meet him there in the spring. The contingents from the East, Mosul, Syria and Egypt went home, while Saladin's bodyguard stayed in Acre. He lived in the citadel and entrusted the com- mand of the city to 'Izz ad-Din Jurdi? k, one of Nur ad-Din's great mamlu? ks, an honourable man whose piety was as great as his courage.
CHAPTER FOUR
The loss of Jerusalem, and the Marquis of Montferrat's courageous defence of Tyre, set in motion the Third Crusade. But the most important event of the Crusade, the long siege of Acre, began long before the arrival of Philip II Augustus and Richard of England, who simply provided the final impetus that reaped the harvest of three hard years' blockade of this Palestinian port, taken by Saladin in 1187. Note the double siege of the city, first by the Franks, and then by Saladin, from outside, of the besieging Franks. Logistic difficulties prevented Saladin from maintaining the contact he had established with the beleaguered Muslims and forced him to stand by, almost impotently, throughout the city's long agony. The accounts of the siege and the attempts to break it are full of unusual and graphic incidents, examples of which have been taken from Baha? ' ad-Din, 'Ima? d ad-Din and Ibn al-Athi? r.
THE FRANKS MARCH ON ACRE AND BESIEGE IT (IBN AL-ATHI? R, XII, 20-6)
We have already spoken of the great concentration of Frankish troops at Tyre. The cause of this was that Saladin allowed them to depart freely from every city and fort that he took and sent them to Tyre with their possessions, women and children. This created an enor- mous concourse of Franks and an inexhaustable supply of money, in spite of the very heavy expenses of the siege. Here monks and priests and a crowd of Frankish knights and nobles dressed themselves in black and expressed great grief at the loss of Jerusalem. The Patri- arch of Jerusalem took them with him on a journey through the Frankish domains calling on the people to help, invoking their aid and inciting them to avenge the loss of Jerusalem. Among other things, they made a picture showing the Messiah, and an Arab striking Him, show-ing blood on the face of Christ--blessings on Him! --and they said to the crowds: 'This is the Messiah, struck by Mahomet the prophet of the Muslims, who has wounded and killed Him. ' This made a deep impression on the Franks and they flocked to the Patri- arch, even the women. There were in fact in the army at Acre a certain number of women, who challenged their enemy's warriors to single combat, as we shall describe later; a man who could not himself fight put a substitute into the field or gave money to the limit of his capacity. In this way they collected immense quantities of troops and money.
A Muslim living at Hisn al-Akra? d told me the following story--he was one of the gar- rison that had handed the fort over to the Franks a long time ago, and who then repented of having given the Franks help in attacking Muslim territory and having fought and battled at their side--this man told me that he had gone with a group of Franks from Hisn al-Akra? d in four galleys to the Frankish and Greek lands beyond the sea to seek help (for the Crusade). 'Our trip', he said, 'took us at length to Rome, that great city, which we left with our galleys full of silver. ' And a Frankish prisoner told me that he was his mother's only son, and their
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house was their sole possession, but she had sold it and used the money obtained from it to equip him to go and free Jerusalem. There he had been taken prisoner. Such were the reli- gious and personal motives that drove the Franks on. They flocked to battle by any means they could, by land and sea, from all directions. If God had not shown his grace to Isla? m in the death of the German King on his way to attack Syria, as will appear later, it would have been said one day that Syria and Egypt had once been Muslim lands.
So their troops mustered at Tyre, which was flooded with the multitudes and their great wealth, and received constant naval reinforcements of food, arms and men from the Frank- ish lands, so that Tyre, within and without the walls, could no longer hold them all. At first they wanted to attack Sidon, but we have already described what happened,1 and so they returned and agreed to move on Acre and besiege it tenaciously. They marched all their troops there, clinging as far as possible to the coast, through easy and impassable terrain, broad or narrow, while their ships, loaded with arms and ammunition, moved parallel to them by sea to support them. If they had met an insuperable obstacle they could have embarked and returned home. They left on 8 rajab (585/22 August 1189) and reached Acre at the end of the month, harassed on the way by Muslim bands attacking them and captur- ing stragglers.
News of their departure was brought to Saladin, who marched off to meet them. As the two armies approached one another, he consulted with his ami? rs about whether they should take them by the heel and attack them on the march, or meet them face to face by taking a different route from theirs. The ami? rs said: 'There is no need for us to take the trouble to follow them by their route, for the road is difficult and narrow and we could not easily take them as we want. It is better to proceed by the broader road and attack them from the rear as they approach Acre, where we will disperse them and cut their army to pieces. ' Saladin realized that they preferred the easy way, and he finally acquiesced, although he was him- self in favour of accompanying the Franks on their march and attacking them on route: 'If the Franks reach their destination,' he said, 'and get a firm hold of the territory, it will not be easy for us to dislodge and overcome them. It is better to attack before they reach Acre. ' But they opposed him and in the end he followed their advice and took the road by Kafar Kanna? , and the Franks arrived (at Acre) before them. Now Saladin had detailed a group of ami? rs to contact the Franks, with instructions to accompany them on their march and harass them. The Franks dared not turn upon them, however few they were, and thus if the army had followed Saladin's advice to follow the enemy and attack before they reached and invested Acre his aim would have been achieved and the Franks prevented from reaching the city. But when God wills something He disposes its determinant causes in conformity (with his will).
When Saladin arrived at Acre he saw that the Franks were deployed from sea to sea before the city, leaving the Muslims no way of access to it. So they took up their position facing the Franks and pitched Saladin's tent on the Tall Kaisa? n. His left wing extended as far as the Tall al-'Ayadiyya, his right wing to the river. The baggage was at Saffuriyya. The Sultan sent messengers to the various provinces asking for troops, which arrived from Mosul, Diya? r Bakr, Sinja? r and other regions of Mesopotamia. His nephew Taqi ad-Din
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They had been driven back by Saladin in an earlier encounter.
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arrived, and so did Muzaffar ad-Din ibn Zain ad-Din, Prince of Harra? n and Edessa. Rein- forcements reached the Muslims by land and the Franks by sea. During the time of the siege a number of encounters, great and small, took place between the two sides; pitched battles and lesser affrays occurred, apart from small skirmishes of which no record is necessary. When Saladin arrived he could not make contact with Acre until the end of rajab. He fought there until the beginning of sha'ba? n/half-way through September without achieving his object. The troops passed the night drawn up for battle and on the next day Saladin attacked with all his forces, completely encircling the Franks on all sides, from dawn to midday. Both sides showed an amazing obduracy. At midday Taqi ad-Din led a terrible charge against the enemy facing him on the right wing and dislodged them from their position. They fell over one another in their retreat, not pausing even to help a brother in their flight to safety with near-by companies. They joined their ranks and left half the field empty. Immediately Taqi ad-Din occupied the area they had abandoned and made contact with the city. The Muslims were able to go in and out, communications were established and the blockade of the inhabitants was broken. Saladin was able to send in all the men, munitions, money and arms he wanted, and if the Muslims had kept up the attack until nightfall they would have gained their objective, for it is the first attack that is the most terrifying. But having gained this success they wanted to rest and stop fighting. They said: 'We will attack them tomorrow morning and exterminate them. ' Among the ami? rs whom Saladin sent into Acre was Husa? m ad-Din Abu l-Haija? the Fat, one of the army's greatest generals, a Kurd from Arbela. A great many Franks were killed on this day.
ANOTHER BATTLE, AND AN ATTACK BY THE ARABS
The following day (6 sha'ba? n/19 September) the Muslims attacked the Franks, determined to use every effort to exterminate them. Advancing toward the Frankish lines they saw the enemy on guard and on the defensive, and repented of the slackness of their watch last night. All the Frankish positions were heavily defended, and they had begun to dig a ditch that prevented the Muslims from closing with them. The Muslims persistently offered battle, but the Franks refused either to fight or to abandon their position. So the Muslims turned back.
A band of Arabs had news that the Franks were getting through at a point on the other side to cut wood and perform other tasks; they laid an ambush at the point where the river curves, and when the Franks came out as usual they attacked and killed them all, seized their possessions and took their heads to Saladin, who gave them rewards and robes of honour.
THE PITCHED BATTLE BEFORE ACRE
After this encounter the Muslims spent the days until 20 sha'ba? n/ 3 October going down every morning and evening to offer battle to the Franks, who however refused even to leave their camp. The Franks called a council and said: 'The Egyptian army has not yet arrived and we are already menaced by Saladin; what will happen when the Egyptians come? Our best course is to confront the Muslims tomorrow in the hope of defeating them before fresh troops and reinforcements reach them. 'At that time a good part of Saladin's army was else-
Part Two: Saladin and the Third Crusade 111
where: some before Antioch, some preventing Prince Bohemond's marauding bands from raiding the province of Aleppo and some in the district of Hims, before Tripoli, also on patrol. Another party was at Tyre; a part of the Egyptian army was defending the Damietta region, Alexandria and so on, and the rest had not yet arrived, for they had taken the longer route and were delayed. All this persuaded the Franks to come out and fight the Muslims.
The following morning the Muslims were employed as usual, some in coming down to offer battle, others in their tents, others about their various activities such as visiting a friend or procuring provisions for their companions or their horses when suddenly the Franks were seen leaving their tents like a great swarm of locusts skimming over the surface of the land that they filled far and wide. They attacked the Muslim right wing, which was under the command of Saladin's nephew Taqi ad-Din. When he saw that they were heading in his direction he put himself on the defensive, advanced a little toward them and then stopped quite still. When Saladin saw this he sent a reinforcement from his own troops, for the men from Diya? r Bakr and other eastern contingents were drawn up to one side of the central block of troops. When the Franks saw that the centre was only weakly guarded and that many of its men had gone to reinforce the right wing they turned toward the centre, gallop- ing as one man. The Muslim army fled before them. Only a few stood firm, of whom many were killed for the Faith, like the ami? r Mujalli ibn Marwa? n, and Zahi? r ad-Din brother of the faqi? h Isa, governor of Jerusalem, who combined military virtues with religious learning, and the chamberlain Khali? l al-Hakkari and other brave men, who stood firm in the fight. So there was no one left in the centre to confront the Franks, who made for the hill where Saladin's tent was, killing and plundering as they went. They killed several men close to the tent itself, among them our Shaikh Abu 'Ali ibn Rawaha al-Ha? mawi, a learned man and a good poet; he was the heir to martyrdom, for his ancestor' Abdallah ibn Rawaha, a Companion of the Prophet, was killed by the Greeks at the battle of Mu'ta,1 and this (his grandson) was slain by the Franks at the battle of Acre. So the Franks killed him and others and came down the opposite slope of the hill, slaughtering whomever they encountered. It was only by God's grace that they did not cut down Saladin's tent, for if they had the whole Muslim army would have realized how far they had got and that the centre of their own army had fled before the enemy, and this would have led to a general flight.
At this point the Franks looked behind them and saw that their reinforcements were unable to follow them, so they turned back for fear of being cut off from their companions. What held the reinforcements up was the fact that our right wing was still resisting, thus obliging a detachment of Franks to confront them, while the Muslim left wing had charged the Franks. The reinforcements, occupied with their own battle, had been unable to join the main body of troops and so had retreated to their trenches. Then our left wing charged the Franks who had reached the Sultan's tent as they were retreating, and pages from the camp attacked them impetuously. Saladin had gone back to his men when the centre had col- lapsed, persuading and commanding them to reorganize themselves and launch a counter- attack. When he had collected a good number of them around him he attacked the Franks from behind while they were engaged with our left wing. The swords of the faithful faced them on every side, and none of them escaped. Most were killed, the rest taken prisoner,
In Transjordan in 629, when an expedition sent by Muhammad to the boundaries of his territory
1
was surprised by the Byzantines.
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among them the Grand Master of the Temple,1 who had been captured and released once already by Saladin. Captured a second time, he was put to death. The number of dead, not counting those at sea, was 10,000, and these at Saladin's command were thrown into the river from which the Franks drew their water. Most of the dead were Frankish knights, for the infantry had not caught up with them. Among the prisoners were three Frankish women who had fought from horseback and were recognized as women only when captured and stripped of their armour. Of the Muslims who fled some returned by way of Tiberias, others crossed the Jordan and returned to their homes, others reached Damascus. If these troops had not dispersed after their flight they could have exterminated the Franks at their leisure. The rest, for their part, performed prodigies in their attack on the Franks, and all tried to reach the Franks in their camp, hoping that they would have lost heart. Suddenly they heard a cry that their goods had been pillaged. This is how it happened: at the sight of the rout our army had loaded its baggage on to pack-horses, but the rabble and the pages fell on them and looted the contents. Saladin would have liked to pursue and engage the enemy, but he saw that his men were concentrating on running here and there to collect up and reassemble their lost possessions. He issued a proclamation saying that everything that had been taken was to be brought to him, and the amount brought covered the earth: carpets and loaded bags, clothes, arms and the rest, all of which was returned to its real owners. So Saladin failed to achieve his aim on this occasion and the Franks, recovered from their fear, suc- ceeded in re-forming battle lines from their survivors.
SALADIN WITHDRAWS FROM THE FRANKS, WHO ARE ABLE TO RENEW THE SIEGE OF ACRE
After all those Franks had been killed the air was heavy with the smell of them and they caused infections that began to affect the health of the army. Saladin himself was ill, tor- mented by the colic from which he suffered from time to time. The ami? rs had an audience of him and advised him to leave the area and lift his pressure on the Franks. They presented their advice in the best possible light: 'We have surrounded the Franks so closely that even if they wanted to retreat they could not. Now it would be advisable to retire and give them. a chance of withdrawing and going away. If they go, we shall be rid of each other, and if they stay we can return and fight them from our old position. You are not well and are in great pain; if word got about (that you are ill) it would be the end of all of us. So our best course is to move off. ' As the doctors too gave the same advice Saladin finally yielded, divining, that is, what God had decided should happen: '. . . and when God wishes evil for a people no power can avert it and no one else can protect them. '1 So they left for Kharruba on 4 ramada? n/16 October. The Sultan ordered the Muslims in Acre to defend themselves, with the gates shut and a guard posted, and he explained the reason for his departure.
Once he and his troops had gone the Franks felt safe and at ease there and continued to blockade Acre. They surrounded it by land from coast to coast, and used their ships to blockade it by sea as well. They began to build a trench and a revetment with earth from
Gerard of Ridfort, captured at Hitti? n and ransomed.
Qur'a? n III, 12; another of Ibn al-Athi? r's criticisms of Saladin's conduct of the war.
1 1
Part Two: Saladin and the Third Crusade 113
the trench, and took other unexpected measures. Every day Muslim outposts came up to their lines, but they neither gave battle nor moved their position, intent only on digging the trench and building the wall to protect themselves from Saladin when he came back to attack them. Now it was clear how well-advised Saladin had been to retire. . . . Every day the spies informed Saladin of what the Franks were doing, and revealed to him the full gravity of the situation, while he, sunk in his illness, was in no state to move in to attack. Someone advised him to send his whole army to Acre to prevent the Franks from digging the trench and building the wall and to attack them, while he stayed behind, but he said: 'If I am not there with them they will achieve absolutely nothing, and it might cause much more harm than good. ' So things dragged on until he was better, and the Franks were able to take their time and do what they wanted. They consolidated and reinforced their position by all avail- able means, while the citizens of Acre made daily sorties, attacking them and killing them outside the city walls.
THE ARRIVAL OF THE EGYPTIAN ARMY AND OF THE FLEET BY SEA
Half-way through shawwa? l/at the end of November the Egyptian army arrived under the command of al-Malik al-'Adil Saif ad-Din Abu Bakr ibn Ayyu? b. Hearts lifted at his arrival with his companions, bringing quantities of siege weapons, shields and wooden spears and arrows and bows, and a large body of infantry. Saladin too mustered infantry in great numbers from the Syrian provinces and decided to march them all against the enemy. After al-'Adil the Egyptian fleet arrived, commanded by the ami? r Lu'lu', a brave and energetic man, a naval and military expert full of useful initiative. He appeared unexpectedly, seized a Frankish ship and plundered it, capturing a lot of goods and provisions, and sent it to Acre, whose inhabitants felt reassured and heartened by the fleet's arrival.
(BAHA? ' AD-DIN, 140-7)
On Wednesday 24 sha'ba? n/4 October 1189 the Frankish forces began an unexpected manoeuvre, using cavalry and infantry, great and small. They were drawn up outside their tents in a central block with left and right wings. In the centre was the King, before whom the Testament was carried under a baldacchino of satin borne by four men, who advanced with it. The Frankish right wing appeared all of a sudden in front of the Muslim left wing and all of the enemy's left wing in front of our right. They occupied the tops of the hills, their furthest right at the river, their extreme left at the sea. In the Muslim army the Sultan commanded the heralds to cry out amid the troops: 'For Isla? m, forward the monotheist army! ' They all mounted, having sold their lives in exchange for Paradise, and posted themselves before their tents. Like theirs, our army extended from the river to the sea. The Sultan had previously had the tents pitched in the order of the battle line, so that there would be no need to take up new positions when the alarm was given. Saladin was in the centre; to the right of him was his son al-Malik al-Afdal, his other son, al-Afdal's brother al-Malik az-Zahir, the Mosul regiments under Zahi? r ad-Din ibn al-Bulunkari, the Diya? r Bakr regiments under Qutb ad-Din ibn Nur ad-Din of Hisn Kaifa? , then Husa? m ad-Din ibn Laji? n of Nablus, then the eunuch Qaima? z an-Najmi with his close-packed ranks linking the centre with the extreme right wing. Here, with the sea on his right, was al-Malik al-
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Muzaffar Taqi ad-Din with his troops. Immediately to the left of centre was Saif ad-Din 'Ali al-Mashtu? b, the great Kurdish prince and general, the ami?