n, The Mirror of the Times), of which two versions have come down to us, is
particularly
important
1 Three volumes, edited by M.
1 Three volumes, edited by M.
Arab-Historians-of-the-Crusades
mie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres.
Most of the Oriental section was edited by Barbier de Meynard, and the five volumes published (Paris, 1872-1906) contain extracts, in the original and in translation, of such historians as Ibn al-Athi?
r, Abu Shama and Abu l-Fida?
.
This imposing work is ill-adapted for reading as a continuous narrative, and has also been criticized for its choice of extracts and for errors in the text and the translations.
Nevertheless it remains a standard work of reference for both Orientalists and mediaevalists.
This volume--a very modest work compared with either of these two--of course includes passages from both. Most of the excerpts, however, are taken directly from the original texts, nearly all of which have now been published or are available in the collection of photostats of historical manuscripts at the Fondazione Caetani per gli studi musulmani in Rome. Seventeen authors are represented; certainly not an exhaustive list of all the Muslim sources for the Crusades, but including all the most important ones and as many as possible of the various types of historical literary writings mentioned earlier. The translation is inevitably fairly free, for a literal translation would be impossible to read easily for any length of time. The precise references given will enable Arabists to verify particular points. While acknowledging our debt to earlier translators, where they have existed, and apologizing for our inevitable errors, we hope that the best interpretation of these passages will be found here, based on emendations to the text that will easily be reconstructed by the specialist.
The criteria of choice will be quite obvious: historical importance, human or literary interest and amusing or picturesque detail--without much historical importance perhaps, but the sort of vivid image that remains fixed in the memory, and is almost too appealing to Muslim historians and modern anthologists.
The second section of the book, devoted to Saladin and the Third Crusade, is inevitably, by both these criteria, the largest. We hope that the book as a whole will give a picture of the period that is both clear in outline and accurate in detail, and that as far as space allows the authors' characteristic styles will be revealed.
I have come to the end of several months spent in the company of these Muslim historians of the Crusades, listening again to their fierce and fanatical hostility to our ancestral faith, their zeal and love for their own faith and its traditions, and their admiration for the champions and martyrs who devoted themselves to its defence. I have studied the Muslim world for many years, but I must confess that never before have I experienced such a sympathetic comprehension and respect for a civilization whose faults and failings need no emphasis but which possessed inspiring qualities of endurance, dedication and self-sacrifice, amazing elasticity and powers of recuperation, and an unyielding faith in the absolute and supreme Law. When qualities such as these are shown by an enemy they
Introduction xix tend to be described in terms of their associated defects. It is time for us, without either
denying our own faith or shirking the facts, to give them the name they deserve. Rome, September 1957.
In this second edition certain errors have been corrected and the bibliography brought up to date.
June 1963.
FRANCESCO GABRIELI
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
In transcribing Arabic proper nouns we have ignored, for the sake of typographical simplicity, the distinction between long and short vowels and the normal and emphatic consonants. As a guide to pronunciation where the stress does not fall on the penultimate syllable words have been accented by a bar if long or by an acute accent if short. The titles of the sections are sometimes the author's and sometimes the editor's; it did not seem necessary to complicate the layout by distinguishing between the two.
F. G.
A standard transliteration of Arabic words into English has been used except in a few cases,
where we have kept a very familiar anglicized form.
E. J. C.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE
General modern histories of the Crusades written by non-Orientalists who have however made use of Reinaud and the Recueil (see above) are R. Grousset, Histoire des Croisades et du Royaume Franc de Je? rusalem, Paris 91934-36; S. Runciman, A History of the Crusades, Cambridge, 1951-54, both in three volumes with enormous bibliographies (R. Grousset has also produced a popular general outline of the period, L'e? pope? e des Croisades, Paris, 1939); and A. Waas, Geschichte der Kreuzzu? ge, Freiburg, 1956, 2 vols. Two volumes have so far appeared of the great History of the Crusades, the work of many collaborators edited by La Monte and Setton: The first hundred years and The later Crusades, 1189-1311, Philadelphia, 1955 and 1962.
The definitive work on Muslim historiography and its varieties is F. Rosenthal, A History of Muslim Historiography, Leiden, 1952; for a review and fundamental evaluation of the Arab historians of the Crusades see C. Cahen, La Syrie du Nord a` l'e? poque des Croisades et la principaute? franque d'Antioche, Paris, 1940, pp. 33-93 ('Les sources arabes'), which has been brought up to date by Cahen in his article on the Crusades in Encyclope? die de llslam, 2nd ed. (1961), pp. 64-67. See also my own chapter Historiography of the Crusades in Historians of the Middle East, Oxford, 1962, pp pp. 98-107. A bibliography of individual authors and subjects would, I think, be too specialized to be useful; I shall only mention H. A. R. Gibb's three important studies: 'Notes on the arabic materials for the history of the early Crusades', in Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, VII (1935), pp. 739-54; 'The arabic sources for the life of Saladin', in Speculum, XXV (1950), pp. 58-72; and 'The achievement of Saladin', in Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, XXXV (1952), pp. 44-60 (for Saladin see also my own profile in Storia e civilta` musulmana, Naples, 1947 and Florence, 1948); also J. Kraemer, Der Sturz des Ko? nigreiches Jerusalem (583-1187) in der Darstellung des 'Ima? d ad-Din al-Ka? tib al-Isfaha? ni? , Wiesbaden, 1952; B. Lewis, 'The sources for the history of the Syrian Assassins', in Speculum, XXVII (1952), pp. 475-89; F. Gabrieli, 'Gli Ospitalieri di San Giovanni negli storici musulmani delle Crociate', in Annuario della R. Scuola Archeologica di Atene, VIII-IX (1929), pp. 345-56.
THE AUTHORS AND WORKS IBN AL-QALA? NISI1
Abu Ya'la Hamza ibn Asad at-Tami? mi? , known as Ibn al-Qala? nisi (Damascus, c. 465/1073- 555/1160). He is the earliest Arab historian to write about the Crusades, in his chronicle known as Dhail ta'ri? kh Dimashq (Appendix to the History of Damascus, referring to a chronicle of that title by Hila? l as-Sabi). This work, which is attached to as-Sabi's in a single MS. , covers the period 363/974-555/1160, the year of the author's death, and deals to some extent with the history of Mesopotamia, but chiefly of Syria and Damascus, where Ibn al-Qala? nisi held various municipal and administrative posts. He writes from first-hand experience of the First and Second Crusades up to the time of Nur ad-Din's entry into Damascus. The narrative is circumstantial and accurate, showing a certain partiality for Tughtiki? n's dynasty in Damascus. The style is dry and objective, apart from a few chapters in more stylised prose. His objectivity about most matters, his eye-witness accounts of events through which he lived and his use of documents make Ibn al-Qala? nisi's chronicle a basic source for the first period of the Crusades.
Text: Amedroz' edition, Leiden, 1908.
IBN AL-ATHI? R
'Izz ad-Din Ibn al-Athi? r (Jazirat Ibn 'Umar, 555/1160- Mosul 630/1233) came of a Mesopotamian family and is the most famous of three brothers, all well known to Muslims of Arabic education. His most important work is Kamil at-Tawarikh (The Perfect History, or The Collection of Histories), an enormous history of the whole Muslim world from Arabic and Hebrew legends and the history of pre-Muhammedan times to the year 628/1231. For the earlier period (to the beginning of the tenth century A. D. ) he reproduces for the most part at-Ta? bari's great collection, but for the last three centuries and in particular for his own period the breadth and balance of his statements, the wealth of material collected and above all his robust and personal view of history make him a very important source; some would call him the only real Arab historian of the period. This marked individuality is also the cause of his defects as an author: a tendency sometimes to favour the Zangid dynasty (Zangi, Nur ad-Din and their successors), inaccurate chronology and sometimes a certain lack of respect for his sources. But with these reservations one can only admire the unity of a work that embraces the whole Muslim world from Transoxiana to the farthest
1 The order of these notes, which in all cases but the first corresponds to that in which the authors appear in the book, is only roughly related to their chronological order.
The Authors and Works xxiii
Maghrib and Spain, one in which the author seeks to trace the causal links of events, and is able to overcome the difficulties of the annalist's technique and present his facts clearly and convincingly.
For his history of the Crusades Ibn al-Athi? r was an eyewitness, although not always a sympathetic one, of Saladin's career, and made use of Ibn al-Qala? nisi, Baha? ' ad-Din and 'Ima? d ad-Din as sources. The clarity and simplicity of his style, which avoids archaisms and embellishments and aims at pre-senting the essential facts, has contributed to his reputation as the chief historian of the later Crusades.
Text: Tornberg's edition, vols. X, XI, XII, Leiden, 1853-64.
KAMA? L AD-DIN
Kama? l ad-Din Ibn al-'Adi? m (Aleppo 588/1192-Cairo 660/ 1262) was the historian of his native city, in particular in an enormous biographical work, not yet published in modern times, (Bughyat at-Talab, The Students' Desire), of which only a part remains, and also in a history of the city (Zubdat al-halab fi ta'ri? kh Halab, The Cream of the Milk in the History of Aleppo), based on material collected for the larger work and extending to 641/1243. This work does for Aleppo of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries what Ibn al-Qala? nisi's chronicle does for twelfth-century Damascus. Its value to historians of the Crusades is as an Arabic account of the events in northern Syria.
Text: Sami Dahha? n's edition, II, Damascus, 1954.
USAMA
Usama ibn Munqidh, Ami? r of Shaizar (Shaizar 488/1095- Damascus 584/1188) is one of the most interesting of the Syrian Arabs living during the Crusades. A man of action and a writer, horseman and huntsman, lover of books and courtier, and an unscrupulous political intriguer, he spent most of his long life in contact with the Franks, the ami? rs of Syria and the Fatimid Caliphs of Egypt, but in the end died in obscurity at the height of Saladin's triumphs. He owes his reputation to his autobiography (Kita? b al-I'tiba? r, Book of Instruction with illustrations), which has come down to us in an incomplete MS. in the Escurial. It is a sincere if rather verbose self-portrait, and a storehouse of anecdotal information about his Muslim and Frankish contemporaries. Only fragments of the rest of his rich literary production are preserved, among them the Kita? b al-'Asa (The Book of the Stick), a collection in the traditional Arabic manner of anecdotes, rhymes, sayings and proverbs on the subject of sticks. The last of our selections from his work is taken from this book.
Text: Derenbourg's edition, Paris, 1886 (and for the last example, H. Derenbourg, Ousama ibn Mounkidh. Un e? mir syrien au premier sie`cle des Croisades, I, Paris, 1893, pp. 528-29).
xxiv The Authors and Works
BAHA? ' AD-DIN
Baha? ' ad-Din Ibn Shadda? d (Mosul 539/1145-632/1234) entered Saladin's service in 1188, was made Qadi to the army and remained a faithful member of the Sultan's household until Saladin's death. Under his immediate successors he was Grand Qadi of Aleppo. His biography of the Sultan (an-Nawadir as-Sultaniyya wa l-mahasin al-yusufiyya, Sultanly Anecdotes and Josephly Virtues, Joseph being Saladin's personal name) is an excellent historical and biographical source, dictated by sincere devotion and admiration unmixed with servile flattery and based for the most part on personal observation. The style is simple and free from literary affectations. Baha? ' ad-Din gives us the most complete portrait we have of Saladin as the Muslims saw him, and a vivid chronicle of the Third Crusade.
Text: in Recueil des Historiens des Croisades, Historiens Orientaux, III, Paris, 1884. 'IMA? D AD-DIN
'Ima? d ad-Din al-Isfahani (Isfahan 519/1125-Damascus 597/ 1201) was secretary to Nur ad-Din and then to Saladin, whose chancellor he was under the Qadi al-Fadil. He was a scholar and a rhetorician to the marrow and left a valuable anthology of twelfth-century Arabic poetry as well as various historical works, written from start to finish in the most ornate and artificial style of which the language is capable: blank and rhyming verse, uninterrupted sequences of alliteration, metaphors and puns. This difficult and tedious literary form soon led other anthologists such as Abu Shama (see below) to give the gist of 'Ima? d ad-Din's history elsewhere, but there are facts of vital historical importance not included in these synopses for which we must go back to the original. Preserved and published in the same volume is 'Ima? d ad-Din's history of the fall of Jerusalem, which extends as far as Saladin's death (al-Fath al-qussi fi l-fath al-qudsi, which might be translated Ciceronian Eloquence on the Conquest of the Holy City: puns find their way even into the title); we also have a part, still unedited, of the Barq ash-Shami, or Lightning of Syria, which chronicles Saladin's life and deeds from 1175. In these two works modern research is revealing, beneath the impossible style, an important source for Saladin's career and for events in Syria and Mesopotamia, in which 'Ima? d ad-Din was a protagonist and which he describes circumstantially, accurately and faithfully. We have, however, to contend with the fact, clearly revealed in the passages chosen, that the concrete details are almost lost in an appalling mass of verbiage.
Text: Landberg's edition, Leiden, 1888.
ABU SHAMA
Shiha? b ad-Din Abu l-Qasim Abu Shama (Damascus 599/ 1203-665/1267) was a philologist, teacher and industrious anthologist. His Kita? b ar-Raudata? in, The Book of the Two Gardens, concerning the two dynasties of Saladin and Nur ad-Din, brings together valuable material, for most of which we also have his original sources. He quotes (giving his references) from Ibn al-Qala? nisi, 'Ima? d ad-Din (reduced to a more sober and endurable style), Baha? ' ad-Din, Ibn al-Athi? r and others. More important to us are his quotations from the lost
The Authors and Works xxv
Shi'ite historian of Aleppo, Ibn Abi t-Tayy, among other things the author of a biography of Saladin. The Two Gardens also reproduces numerous documents from the Sultan's chancellery, most of them from the chief secretary, individual collections of whose letters also exist.
Text: Cairo 1287/1870.
MANAQIB RASHID AD-DIN
We use this name to refer to a writer of the Isma'ilite sect in Syria (the Assassins). The Virtues of our Lord Rashid ad-Din, as the full title of his work may be translated, is a collection of recollections and anecdotes about the Great Master Rashid ad-Din Sina? n, a contemporary of Saladin and thus leader of the sect in Syria at the time of Saladin's greatest power. These records, in which edification is given a much more important place than historical information, were collected in 1324 by an obscure follower of the sect, Shaikh Abu Fira? s of Ma? inaqa, at a time when the influence of the Isma'ilites was on the wane. The passage translated here appears, under its cloak of legend, to be an account of the assassination of Conrad of Montferrat.
Text: 'Journal Asiatique' series VII, IX (1877), pp. 324-489 (S. Guyard, Un grand Maitre des Assassins au temps de Saladin).
IBN WASIL
Jama? l ad-Din Ibn Wasil (Hama? t 604/1207-697/1298) held several offices under the last Ayyubids and early Mamlu? ks. In 1261 he went as Baibars' ambassador to Manfred, and ended his career as Grand Qadi of his native city. His greatest work (Mufarrij al-Kuru? b fi akhba? r Bani Ayyu? b, The Dissipator of Anxieties Concerning the History of the Ayyubids) is chiefly concerned with Saladin's career, but first deals with the history of the Zangids, and after Saladin with the Mamlu? ks up to 680/ 1282. It is therefore one of the best sources for the thirteenth-century Crusades (the Fifth Crusade, Frederick II's journey, St. Louis' Crusade); later anthologists have drawn from it. It has long remained unpublished, for no good reason, and an edition is only now under way. 1
Text: MS. Paris Ar. 1702 (photostat from the Caetani collection). SIBT IBN AL-JAUZI
The grandson (sibt) of an earlier chronicler, Ibn al-Jauzi, was a famous preacher who lived for most of his life in Damascus as a friend of the Ayyubid princes (Baghda? d 582/1186- Damascus 654/1256). His enormous and prolix universal history (Mir'a? t az-zama?
n, The Mirror of the Times), of which two versions have come down to us, is particularly important
1 Three volumes, edited by M. Shayya? l (Cairo 1954-62) have so far appeared.
xxvi The Authors and Works
because of the period of the author's life and the course of Syrian history at that time. It is to this work, for example, that we owe the fascinating details of Frederick's visit to Jerusalem, as well as some illuminating details of the siege of Damascus by the Crusaders a century before.
Text: a partial edition by Jewett, Chicago, 1907 (covering the years of the hijra 495-654). For the siege of Damascus, see a note in Amedroz' edition of Ibn al-Qala? nisi.
Ta'ri? kh Mansuri
The chronicle, taking us up to 631/1233, of an obscure functionary of the Ayyubid princes of Syria, a certain Abu l-Fada'il of Hama? t; dedicated to al-Malik al-Mansu? r, Ami? r of Hims (from whom the title comes; A Mansurite History). Its importance lies in the facts it gives about Frederick II in the Holy Land, and the end of the Muslims in Sicily as described by Sicilian Arabs who came to Syria as emissaries and refugees. These valuable fragments, from the Asiatic Museum in Petersburg, were edited by Amari.
Text: in Biblioteca Arabo-Sicula, Second Appendix, Leipzig, 1887. IBN 'ABD AZ-ZAHIR
Muhyi ad-Din Ibn 'Abd az-Zahir (Cairo 620/1233-692/1293) was secretary to the Mamlu? k Sultans Baibars and Qalawu? n, compiler of their official acts of chancellery and later their biographer, drawing on the material he had collected. Parts of Baibars' biography (Sirat al-Malik az-Zahir) still exist, and so does the anthology edited by his nephew Shafi' al- 'Asqalani. The greater part of the biography of Qalawu? n is to be found in the anonymous Tashri? f al-ayya? m wa l-'usu? r bi-sirat as-Sulta? n al-Malik al-Mansu? r (The Honouring of the Years and the Days, through the Life of the Sultan al-Malik al-Mansu? r). Ibn 'Abd az-Zahir also wrote a life of Qalawu? n's son al-Ashraf, conqueror of Acre, of which a fragment has been published. The rest of this author's work is so far unedited, despite his importance as a contemporary and witness of the events narrated and a transmitter of precious official documents (letters, treaties etc. ). Naturally his obsequious attitude to his masters makes it necessary to use his information with caution.
Text: Shafi''s anthology of the life of Baibars, MS. Paris Ar. 1707, and Tashri? f (Life of Qalawu? n) MS. Paris Ar. 1704 (photostat from the Caetani collection).
See Ibn 'Abd az-Zahir.
Tashri? f
MAQRIZI
Taqi ad-Din al-Maqrizi (Cairo 776/1364-845/1442), a great scholar and antiquarian, collected valuable material on the historical topography of Egypt. His importance for our period lies in one of his historical works which is almost entirely compiled from other
The Authors and Works xxvii
writers (Ibn Wasil, Sibt Ibn al-Jauzi, Ibn 'Abd az-Zahir and other lesser-known sources) but which is indispensable in our present state of knowledge: his Kita? b as-sulu? k fi ma? 'rifa ta'ri? kh al-mulu? k, The Book of Proceeding to the Knowledge of the History of the Kings, which includes Ayyubid and Mamlu? k history from 577/1181 to 840/1436. It therefore covers the two Frankish expeditions to Egypt and the Mamlu? ks' final victory in Syria.
Text: M. Ziyade's edition, Cairo, 1934.
IBN AL-FURA? T
Nasir ad-Din Ibn al-Fura? t (Cairo 735/1334-807/1405) was, like Maqrizi and almost all his contemporaries, a great anthologist whose importance depends on that of the sources transcribed by him. His great Ta'ri? kh ad-duwal wa l-mulu? k, The History of the Dynasties and the Kings, of which parts of an unpublished MS. are in existence, brings us up to the end of the fourteenth century and contains interesting material on the early Mamlu? ks. Another long-recognized value of Ibn al-Fura? t, as of Abu Shama, is his quotations from the lost Ibn Abi t-Tayy on Saladin's life and times.
Text: Wien Ar. 814 A. F. , vols. VI, VII (photostat from the Caetani collection).
AL-'AINI
Badr ad-Din al-'Aini ('Ainta? b 762/1360--Cairo 855/1451) was a Mamlu? k official and courtier as well as a philologist and student of hadi? th. He also compiled a general history ('Iqd al-Juma? n fi ta'ri? kh ahl az-zama? n, The Necklace of Pears concerning the History of the People of the Time) which is usually consulted for sources not yet attributed to known authors or directly accessible.
Text: Recueil des Historiens des Croisades, Historiens Orientaux, II, Paris, 1887. ABU L-FIDA? '
Abu l-Fida? ' 'Ima? d ad-Din Isma'i? l ibn 'Ali al-Ayyubi, the Abulfeda of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Arabists, is a sympathetic figure, an ami? r who is also a man of letters, rather in the style of Usama. He was a member of the Ayyubid house after it had lost all autonomous power, supplanted in Syria and Egypt by the Mamlu? ks, and he succeeded in getting them to recognize his rights to Hama? t, where he ruled with the title of al-Malik al-Mu' ayyad until his death. His two main literary works, the history (Mukhtasar ta'ri? kh al-Bashar, Historical Compendium of the Human Race) and the geography (Taqwi? m al-bulda? n, Determination of the Longitude of the Lands), happened to be among the first works of Arabic literature to be known and partially edited in Europe since the beginning of the modern Arabist movement here. This led at first to an over estimation of the value of these two anthologies, which have been almost supplanted by the older originals discovered since then. The section of the history dealing with the author's own lifetime retains its interest. He saw service as a young man at the fall of Tripoli and Acre and so was an eye- witness of the tragic ending of the Crusades.
xxviii The Authors and Works
Text: Recueil des Historiens des Croisades, Historiens Orientaux, I, Paris, 1872.
ABU L-MAHASIN
Abu l-Mahasin Ibn Taghribirdi (Cairo 813/1411-874/1469) was also one of the group of soldiers and scholars who flourished in the Mamlu? k era. His great history of Egypt (An-Nuju? m az-Za? hira fi mulu? k Misr wa l-Qa? hira, The Shining Stars concerning the Kings of Egypt and Cairo), is a vast general chronicle of Egyptian history until 857/1453. It is however entirely an anthology of other men's work. His account of the siege and conquest of Acre under al-Ashraf (from a contemporary source), when compared with that of Abu l-Fida? ', is the most interesting Muslim account of the event known to us. In the published fragment of Ibn 'Abd az Zahir's biography of the Sultan there is no reference to this event.
Text: MS. Paris Ar. 1873 (photostat from the Caetani collection). 1
1 The relevant period is not included in the two Western editions of the Nuju? m, those of Juynboll and Matthes and of Popper. I have not been able to consult the Cairo edition.
Part One
FROM GODFREY TO SALADIN
CHAPTER ONE
Our main sources for the First Crusade are Ibn al-Qala? nisi of Damascus and the Mesopotamian Ibn al-Athi? r. Whereas Ibn al-Qala? nisi limits himself to a chronological list of events, Ibn al-Athi? r relates the various stages of the Crusade to the whole picture of Christian uprisings against Isla? m, beginning with the reconquest of Spain and the Norman invasion of Sicily. He gives the most complete and convincing, if not the most strictly factual, account of the fall of Antioch and Jerusalem, the establishment of Christian kingdoms in the Holy Land and the first Muslim attempts at retaliation.
THE FRANKS SEIZE ANTIOCH (IBN AL-ATHI? R, X, 185-8)
The power of the Franks first became apparent when in the year 478/1085-86 they invaded the territories of Isla? m and took Toledo and other parts of Andalusia, as was mentioned earlier. Then in 484/1091 they attacked and conquered the island of Sicily1 and turned their attention to the African coast. Certain of their conquests there were won back again but they had other successes, as you will see.
In 490/1097 the Franks attacked Syria. This is how it all began: Baldwin, their King,2 a kinsman of Roger the Frank who had conquered Sicily, assembled a great army and sent word to Roger saying: 'I have assembled a great army and now I am on my way to you, to use your bases for my conquest of the African coast. Thus you and I shall become neighbours. '
Roger called together his companions and consulted them about these proposals. 'This will be a fine thing both for them and for us! ' they declared, 'for by this means these lands will be converted to the Faith! ' At this Roger raised one leg and farted loudly, and swore that it was of more use than their advice. 1 'Why? ' 'Because if this army comes here it will need quantities of provisions and fleets of ships to transport it to Africa, as well as reinforcements from my own troops. Then, if the Franks succeed in conquering this territory they will take it over and will need provisioning from Sicily. This will cost me my annual profit from the harvest. If they fail they will return here and be an embarrassment to me here in my own domain. As well as all this Tami? m2 will say that I have broken faith
This date clearly refers to the end of the Norman conquest.
This Baldwin (Bardawi? l) is a mythical character, compounded of the various Baldwins of Flanders and Jerusalem; or else the first Baldwin is mistakenly thought to have been already a king in the West.
It is disagreeable to find the great Count acting like a barbarian on the very first page, but the passage is characteristic of the contemptuous crudity with which the Muslims usually spoke of their enemies, as well as giving a fairly accurate picture of Roger's political acumen.
The Zirid ami? r of Tunisia Tami? m ibn Mu'i? zz.
1 2
1
2
Part One: From Godfrey to Saladin 3
with him and violated our treaty, and friendly relations and communications between us will be disrupted. As far as we are concerned, Africa is always there. When we are strong enough we will take it. '
He summoned Baldwin's messenger and said to him: 'If you have decided to make war on the Muslims your best course will be to free Jerusalem from their rule and thereby win great honour. I am bound by certain promises and treaties of allegiance with the rulers of Africa. ' So the Franks made ready and set out to attack Syria.
Another story is that the Fatimids of Egypt were afraid when they saw the Seljuqids extending their empire through Syria as far as Gaza, until they reached the Egyptian border and Atsiz3 invaded Egypt itself. They therefore sent to invite the Franks to invade Syria and so protect Egypt from the Muslims. 4 But God knows best.
When the Franks decided to attack Syria they marched east to Constantinople, so that they could cross the straits and advance into Muslim territory by the easier, land route. When they reached Constantinople, the Emperor of the East refused them permission to pass through his domains. He said: 'Unless you first promise me Antioch, I shall not allow you to cross into the Muslim empire. ' His real intention was to incite them to attack the Muslims, for he was convinced that the Turks, whose invincible control over Asia Minor he had observed, would exterminate every one of them. They accepted his conditions and in 490/1097 they crossed the Bosphorus at Constantinople. Iconium and the rest of the area into which they now advanced belonged to Qilij Arsla? n ibn Sulaima? n ibn Qutlumi? sh, who barred their way with his troops. They broke through1 in rajab 490/July 1097, crossed Cilicia,2 and finally reached Antioch, which they besieged.
When Yaghi Siya? n, the ruler of Antioch, heard of their approach, he was not sure how the Christian people of the city would react, so he made the Muslims go outside the city on their own to dig trenches, and the next day sent the Christians out alone to continue the task. When they were ready to return home at the end of the day he refused to allow them. 'Antioch is yours,' he said, 'but you will have to leave it to me until I see what happens between us and the Franks. ' 'Who will protect our children and our wives? ' they said. 'I shall look after them for you. ' So they resigned themselves to their fate, and lived in the Frankish camp for nine months, while the city was under siege.
Yaghi Siya? n showed unparalleled courage and wisdom, strength and judgment. If all the Franks who died had survived they would have overrun all the lands of Isla? m. He protected the families of the Christians in Antioch and would not allow a hair of their heads to be touched.
After the siege had been going on for a long time the Franks made a deal with one of the men who were responsible for the towers. He was a cuirass-maker called Ruzbih1 whom they bribed with. a fortune in money and lands. He worked in the tower that stood over the river-bed, where the river flowed out of the city into the valley. The Franks sealed their pact
A general of the Seljuqid Sultan Maliksha? h, who in 1076 attacked Egypt from Palestine.
Of course the Fatimids were also Muslims, but they were heretics and so opposed to the rest of sunni Isla? m.
At Dorylaeum.
Literally 'the land of the son of Armenus' as the Arab writers call the Lesser Armenia of the Cilician Roupenians.
Firu? z is an alternative reading.
3 4
1 2
1
4 Arab Historians of the Crusades
with the cuirass-maker, God damn him! and made their way to the water-gate. They opened it and entered the city. Another gang of them climbed the tower with ropes. At dawn, when more than 500 of them were in the city and the defenders were worn out after the night watch, they sounded their trumpets. Yaghi Siya? n woke up and asked what the noise meant. He was told that trumpets had sounded from the citadel and that it must have been taken. In fact the sound came not from the citadel but from the tower. Panic seized Yaghi Siya? n and he opened the city gates and fled in terror, with an escort of thirty pages.
This volume--a very modest work compared with either of these two--of course includes passages from both. Most of the excerpts, however, are taken directly from the original texts, nearly all of which have now been published or are available in the collection of photostats of historical manuscripts at the Fondazione Caetani per gli studi musulmani in Rome. Seventeen authors are represented; certainly not an exhaustive list of all the Muslim sources for the Crusades, but including all the most important ones and as many as possible of the various types of historical literary writings mentioned earlier. The translation is inevitably fairly free, for a literal translation would be impossible to read easily for any length of time. The precise references given will enable Arabists to verify particular points. While acknowledging our debt to earlier translators, where they have existed, and apologizing for our inevitable errors, we hope that the best interpretation of these passages will be found here, based on emendations to the text that will easily be reconstructed by the specialist.
The criteria of choice will be quite obvious: historical importance, human or literary interest and amusing or picturesque detail--without much historical importance perhaps, but the sort of vivid image that remains fixed in the memory, and is almost too appealing to Muslim historians and modern anthologists.
The second section of the book, devoted to Saladin and the Third Crusade, is inevitably, by both these criteria, the largest. We hope that the book as a whole will give a picture of the period that is both clear in outline and accurate in detail, and that as far as space allows the authors' characteristic styles will be revealed.
I have come to the end of several months spent in the company of these Muslim historians of the Crusades, listening again to their fierce and fanatical hostility to our ancestral faith, their zeal and love for their own faith and its traditions, and their admiration for the champions and martyrs who devoted themselves to its defence. I have studied the Muslim world for many years, but I must confess that never before have I experienced such a sympathetic comprehension and respect for a civilization whose faults and failings need no emphasis but which possessed inspiring qualities of endurance, dedication and self-sacrifice, amazing elasticity and powers of recuperation, and an unyielding faith in the absolute and supreme Law. When qualities such as these are shown by an enemy they
Introduction xix tend to be described in terms of their associated defects. It is time for us, without either
denying our own faith or shirking the facts, to give them the name they deserve. Rome, September 1957.
In this second edition certain errors have been corrected and the bibliography brought up to date.
June 1963.
FRANCESCO GABRIELI
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
In transcribing Arabic proper nouns we have ignored, for the sake of typographical simplicity, the distinction between long and short vowels and the normal and emphatic consonants. As a guide to pronunciation where the stress does not fall on the penultimate syllable words have been accented by a bar if long or by an acute accent if short. The titles of the sections are sometimes the author's and sometimes the editor's; it did not seem necessary to complicate the layout by distinguishing between the two.
F. G.
A standard transliteration of Arabic words into English has been used except in a few cases,
where we have kept a very familiar anglicized form.
E. J. C.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE
General modern histories of the Crusades written by non-Orientalists who have however made use of Reinaud and the Recueil (see above) are R. Grousset, Histoire des Croisades et du Royaume Franc de Je? rusalem, Paris 91934-36; S. Runciman, A History of the Crusades, Cambridge, 1951-54, both in three volumes with enormous bibliographies (R. Grousset has also produced a popular general outline of the period, L'e? pope? e des Croisades, Paris, 1939); and A. Waas, Geschichte der Kreuzzu? ge, Freiburg, 1956, 2 vols. Two volumes have so far appeared of the great History of the Crusades, the work of many collaborators edited by La Monte and Setton: The first hundred years and The later Crusades, 1189-1311, Philadelphia, 1955 and 1962.
The definitive work on Muslim historiography and its varieties is F. Rosenthal, A History of Muslim Historiography, Leiden, 1952; for a review and fundamental evaluation of the Arab historians of the Crusades see C. Cahen, La Syrie du Nord a` l'e? poque des Croisades et la principaute? franque d'Antioche, Paris, 1940, pp. 33-93 ('Les sources arabes'), which has been brought up to date by Cahen in his article on the Crusades in Encyclope? die de llslam, 2nd ed. (1961), pp. 64-67. See also my own chapter Historiography of the Crusades in Historians of the Middle East, Oxford, 1962, pp pp. 98-107. A bibliography of individual authors and subjects would, I think, be too specialized to be useful; I shall only mention H. A. R. Gibb's three important studies: 'Notes on the arabic materials for the history of the early Crusades', in Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, VII (1935), pp. 739-54; 'The arabic sources for the life of Saladin', in Speculum, XXV (1950), pp. 58-72; and 'The achievement of Saladin', in Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, XXXV (1952), pp. 44-60 (for Saladin see also my own profile in Storia e civilta` musulmana, Naples, 1947 and Florence, 1948); also J. Kraemer, Der Sturz des Ko? nigreiches Jerusalem (583-1187) in der Darstellung des 'Ima? d ad-Din al-Ka? tib al-Isfaha? ni? , Wiesbaden, 1952; B. Lewis, 'The sources for the history of the Syrian Assassins', in Speculum, XXVII (1952), pp. 475-89; F. Gabrieli, 'Gli Ospitalieri di San Giovanni negli storici musulmani delle Crociate', in Annuario della R. Scuola Archeologica di Atene, VIII-IX (1929), pp. 345-56.
THE AUTHORS AND WORKS IBN AL-QALA? NISI1
Abu Ya'la Hamza ibn Asad at-Tami? mi? , known as Ibn al-Qala? nisi (Damascus, c. 465/1073- 555/1160). He is the earliest Arab historian to write about the Crusades, in his chronicle known as Dhail ta'ri? kh Dimashq (Appendix to the History of Damascus, referring to a chronicle of that title by Hila? l as-Sabi). This work, which is attached to as-Sabi's in a single MS. , covers the period 363/974-555/1160, the year of the author's death, and deals to some extent with the history of Mesopotamia, but chiefly of Syria and Damascus, where Ibn al-Qala? nisi held various municipal and administrative posts. He writes from first-hand experience of the First and Second Crusades up to the time of Nur ad-Din's entry into Damascus. The narrative is circumstantial and accurate, showing a certain partiality for Tughtiki? n's dynasty in Damascus. The style is dry and objective, apart from a few chapters in more stylised prose. His objectivity about most matters, his eye-witness accounts of events through which he lived and his use of documents make Ibn al-Qala? nisi's chronicle a basic source for the first period of the Crusades.
Text: Amedroz' edition, Leiden, 1908.
IBN AL-ATHI? R
'Izz ad-Din Ibn al-Athi? r (Jazirat Ibn 'Umar, 555/1160- Mosul 630/1233) came of a Mesopotamian family and is the most famous of three brothers, all well known to Muslims of Arabic education. His most important work is Kamil at-Tawarikh (The Perfect History, or The Collection of Histories), an enormous history of the whole Muslim world from Arabic and Hebrew legends and the history of pre-Muhammedan times to the year 628/1231. For the earlier period (to the beginning of the tenth century A. D. ) he reproduces for the most part at-Ta? bari's great collection, but for the last three centuries and in particular for his own period the breadth and balance of his statements, the wealth of material collected and above all his robust and personal view of history make him a very important source; some would call him the only real Arab historian of the period. This marked individuality is also the cause of his defects as an author: a tendency sometimes to favour the Zangid dynasty (Zangi, Nur ad-Din and their successors), inaccurate chronology and sometimes a certain lack of respect for his sources. But with these reservations one can only admire the unity of a work that embraces the whole Muslim world from Transoxiana to the farthest
1 The order of these notes, which in all cases but the first corresponds to that in which the authors appear in the book, is only roughly related to their chronological order.
The Authors and Works xxiii
Maghrib and Spain, one in which the author seeks to trace the causal links of events, and is able to overcome the difficulties of the annalist's technique and present his facts clearly and convincingly.
For his history of the Crusades Ibn al-Athi? r was an eyewitness, although not always a sympathetic one, of Saladin's career, and made use of Ibn al-Qala? nisi, Baha? ' ad-Din and 'Ima? d ad-Din as sources. The clarity and simplicity of his style, which avoids archaisms and embellishments and aims at pre-senting the essential facts, has contributed to his reputation as the chief historian of the later Crusades.
Text: Tornberg's edition, vols. X, XI, XII, Leiden, 1853-64.
KAMA? L AD-DIN
Kama? l ad-Din Ibn al-'Adi? m (Aleppo 588/1192-Cairo 660/ 1262) was the historian of his native city, in particular in an enormous biographical work, not yet published in modern times, (Bughyat at-Talab, The Students' Desire), of which only a part remains, and also in a history of the city (Zubdat al-halab fi ta'ri? kh Halab, The Cream of the Milk in the History of Aleppo), based on material collected for the larger work and extending to 641/1243. This work does for Aleppo of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries what Ibn al-Qala? nisi's chronicle does for twelfth-century Damascus. Its value to historians of the Crusades is as an Arabic account of the events in northern Syria.
Text: Sami Dahha? n's edition, II, Damascus, 1954.
USAMA
Usama ibn Munqidh, Ami? r of Shaizar (Shaizar 488/1095- Damascus 584/1188) is one of the most interesting of the Syrian Arabs living during the Crusades. A man of action and a writer, horseman and huntsman, lover of books and courtier, and an unscrupulous political intriguer, he spent most of his long life in contact with the Franks, the ami? rs of Syria and the Fatimid Caliphs of Egypt, but in the end died in obscurity at the height of Saladin's triumphs. He owes his reputation to his autobiography (Kita? b al-I'tiba? r, Book of Instruction with illustrations), which has come down to us in an incomplete MS. in the Escurial. It is a sincere if rather verbose self-portrait, and a storehouse of anecdotal information about his Muslim and Frankish contemporaries. Only fragments of the rest of his rich literary production are preserved, among them the Kita? b al-'Asa (The Book of the Stick), a collection in the traditional Arabic manner of anecdotes, rhymes, sayings and proverbs on the subject of sticks. The last of our selections from his work is taken from this book.
Text: Derenbourg's edition, Paris, 1886 (and for the last example, H. Derenbourg, Ousama ibn Mounkidh. Un e? mir syrien au premier sie`cle des Croisades, I, Paris, 1893, pp. 528-29).
xxiv The Authors and Works
BAHA? ' AD-DIN
Baha? ' ad-Din Ibn Shadda? d (Mosul 539/1145-632/1234) entered Saladin's service in 1188, was made Qadi to the army and remained a faithful member of the Sultan's household until Saladin's death. Under his immediate successors he was Grand Qadi of Aleppo. His biography of the Sultan (an-Nawadir as-Sultaniyya wa l-mahasin al-yusufiyya, Sultanly Anecdotes and Josephly Virtues, Joseph being Saladin's personal name) is an excellent historical and biographical source, dictated by sincere devotion and admiration unmixed with servile flattery and based for the most part on personal observation. The style is simple and free from literary affectations. Baha? ' ad-Din gives us the most complete portrait we have of Saladin as the Muslims saw him, and a vivid chronicle of the Third Crusade.
Text: in Recueil des Historiens des Croisades, Historiens Orientaux, III, Paris, 1884. 'IMA? D AD-DIN
'Ima? d ad-Din al-Isfahani (Isfahan 519/1125-Damascus 597/ 1201) was secretary to Nur ad-Din and then to Saladin, whose chancellor he was under the Qadi al-Fadil. He was a scholar and a rhetorician to the marrow and left a valuable anthology of twelfth-century Arabic poetry as well as various historical works, written from start to finish in the most ornate and artificial style of which the language is capable: blank and rhyming verse, uninterrupted sequences of alliteration, metaphors and puns. This difficult and tedious literary form soon led other anthologists such as Abu Shama (see below) to give the gist of 'Ima? d ad-Din's history elsewhere, but there are facts of vital historical importance not included in these synopses for which we must go back to the original. Preserved and published in the same volume is 'Ima? d ad-Din's history of the fall of Jerusalem, which extends as far as Saladin's death (al-Fath al-qussi fi l-fath al-qudsi, which might be translated Ciceronian Eloquence on the Conquest of the Holy City: puns find their way even into the title); we also have a part, still unedited, of the Barq ash-Shami, or Lightning of Syria, which chronicles Saladin's life and deeds from 1175. In these two works modern research is revealing, beneath the impossible style, an important source for Saladin's career and for events in Syria and Mesopotamia, in which 'Ima? d ad-Din was a protagonist and which he describes circumstantially, accurately and faithfully. We have, however, to contend with the fact, clearly revealed in the passages chosen, that the concrete details are almost lost in an appalling mass of verbiage.
Text: Landberg's edition, Leiden, 1888.
ABU SHAMA
Shiha? b ad-Din Abu l-Qasim Abu Shama (Damascus 599/ 1203-665/1267) was a philologist, teacher and industrious anthologist. His Kita? b ar-Raudata? in, The Book of the Two Gardens, concerning the two dynasties of Saladin and Nur ad-Din, brings together valuable material, for most of which we also have his original sources. He quotes (giving his references) from Ibn al-Qala? nisi, 'Ima? d ad-Din (reduced to a more sober and endurable style), Baha? ' ad-Din, Ibn al-Athi? r and others. More important to us are his quotations from the lost
The Authors and Works xxv
Shi'ite historian of Aleppo, Ibn Abi t-Tayy, among other things the author of a biography of Saladin. The Two Gardens also reproduces numerous documents from the Sultan's chancellery, most of them from the chief secretary, individual collections of whose letters also exist.
Text: Cairo 1287/1870.
MANAQIB RASHID AD-DIN
We use this name to refer to a writer of the Isma'ilite sect in Syria (the Assassins). The Virtues of our Lord Rashid ad-Din, as the full title of his work may be translated, is a collection of recollections and anecdotes about the Great Master Rashid ad-Din Sina? n, a contemporary of Saladin and thus leader of the sect in Syria at the time of Saladin's greatest power. These records, in which edification is given a much more important place than historical information, were collected in 1324 by an obscure follower of the sect, Shaikh Abu Fira? s of Ma? inaqa, at a time when the influence of the Isma'ilites was on the wane. The passage translated here appears, under its cloak of legend, to be an account of the assassination of Conrad of Montferrat.
Text: 'Journal Asiatique' series VII, IX (1877), pp. 324-489 (S. Guyard, Un grand Maitre des Assassins au temps de Saladin).
IBN WASIL
Jama? l ad-Din Ibn Wasil (Hama? t 604/1207-697/1298) held several offices under the last Ayyubids and early Mamlu? ks. In 1261 he went as Baibars' ambassador to Manfred, and ended his career as Grand Qadi of his native city. His greatest work (Mufarrij al-Kuru? b fi akhba? r Bani Ayyu? b, The Dissipator of Anxieties Concerning the History of the Ayyubids) is chiefly concerned with Saladin's career, but first deals with the history of the Zangids, and after Saladin with the Mamlu? ks up to 680/ 1282. It is therefore one of the best sources for the thirteenth-century Crusades (the Fifth Crusade, Frederick II's journey, St. Louis' Crusade); later anthologists have drawn from it. It has long remained unpublished, for no good reason, and an edition is only now under way. 1
Text: MS. Paris Ar. 1702 (photostat from the Caetani collection). SIBT IBN AL-JAUZI
The grandson (sibt) of an earlier chronicler, Ibn al-Jauzi, was a famous preacher who lived for most of his life in Damascus as a friend of the Ayyubid princes (Baghda? d 582/1186- Damascus 654/1256). His enormous and prolix universal history (Mir'a? t az-zama?
n, The Mirror of the Times), of which two versions have come down to us, is particularly important
1 Three volumes, edited by M. Shayya? l (Cairo 1954-62) have so far appeared.
xxvi The Authors and Works
because of the period of the author's life and the course of Syrian history at that time. It is to this work, for example, that we owe the fascinating details of Frederick's visit to Jerusalem, as well as some illuminating details of the siege of Damascus by the Crusaders a century before.
Text: a partial edition by Jewett, Chicago, 1907 (covering the years of the hijra 495-654). For the siege of Damascus, see a note in Amedroz' edition of Ibn al-Qala? nisi.
Ta'ri? kh Mansuri
The chronicle, taking us up to 631/1233, of an obscure functionary of the Ayyubid princes of Syria, a certain Abu l-Fada'il of Hama? t; dedicated to al-Malik al-Mansu? r, Ami? r of Hims (from whom the title comes; A Mansurite History). Its importance lies in the facts it gives about Frederick II in the Holy Land, and the end of the Muslims in Sicily as described by Sicilian Arabs who came to Syria as emissaries and refugees. These valuable fragments, from the Asiatic Museum in Petersburg, were edited by Amari.
Text: in Biblioteca Arabo-Sicula, Second Appendix, Leipzig, 1887. IBN 'ABD AZ-ZAHIR
Muhyi ad-Din Ibn 'Abd az-Zahir (Cairo 620/1233-692/1293) was secretary to the Mamlu? k Sultans Baibars and Qalawu? n, compiler of their official acts of chancellery and later their biographer, drawing on the material he had collected. Parts of Baibars' biography (Sirat al-Malik az-Zahir) still exist, and so does the anthology edited by his nephew Shafi' al- 'Asqalani. The greater part of the biography of Qalawu? n is to be found in the anonymous Tashri? f al-ayya? m wa l-'usu? r bi-sirat as-Sulta? n al-Malik al-Mansu? r (The Honouring of the Years and the Days, through the Life of the Sultan al-Malik al-Mansu? r). Ibn 'Abd az-Zahir also wrote a life of Qalawu? n's son al-Ashraf, conqueror of Acre, of which a fragment has been published. The rest of this author's work is so far unedited, despite his importance as a contemporary and witness of the events narrated and a transmitter of precious official documents (letters, treaties etc. ). Naturally his obsequious attitude to his masters makes it necessary to use his information with caution.
Text: Shafi''s anthology of the life of Baibars, MS. Paris Ar. 1707, and Tashri? f (Life of Qalawu? n) MS. Paris Ar. 1704 (photostat from the Caetani collection).
See Ibn 'Abd az-Zahir.
Tashri? f
MAQRIZI
Taqi ad-Din al-Maqrizi (Cairo 776/1364-845/1442), a great scholar and antiquarian, collected valuable material on the historical topography of Egypt. His importance for our period lies in one of his historical works which is almost entirely compiled from other
The Authors and Works xxvii
writers (Ibn Wasil, Sibt Ibn al-Jauzi, Ibn 'Abd az-Zahir and other lesser-known sources) but which is indispensable in our present state of knowledge: his Kita? b as-sulu? k fi ma? 'rifa ta'ri? kh al-mulu? k, The Book of Proceeding to the Knowledge of the History of the Kings, which includes Ayyubid and Mamlu? k history from 577/1181 to 840/1436. It therefore covers the two Frankish expeditions to Egypt and the Mamlu? ks' final victory in Syria.
Text: M. Ziyade's edition, Cairo, 1934.
IBN AL-FURA? T
Nasir ad-Din Ibn al-Fura? t (Cairo 735/1334-807/1405) was, like Maqrizi and almost all his contemporaries, a great anthologist whose importance depends on that of the sources transcribed by him. His great Ta'ri? kh ad-duwal wa l-mulu? k, The History of the Dynasties and the Kings, of which parts of an unpublished MS. are in existence, brings us up to the end of the fourteenth century and contains interesting material on the early Mamlu? ks. Another long-recognized value of Ibn al-Fura? t, as of Abu Shama, is his quotations from the lost Ibn Abi t-Tayy on Saladin's life and times.
Text: Wien Ar. 814 A. F. , vols. VI, VII (photostat from the Caetani collection).
AL-'AINI
Badr ad-Din al-'Aini ('Ainta? b 762/1360--Cairo 855/1451) was a Mamlu? k official and courtier as well as a philologist and student of hadi? th. He also compiled a general history ('Iqd al-Juma? n fi ta'ri? kh ahl az-zama? n, The Necklace of Pears concerning the History of the People of the Time) which is usually consulted for sources not yet attributed to known authors or directly accessible.
Text: Recueil des Historiens des Croisades, Historiens Orientaux, II, Paris, 1887. ABU L-FIDA? '
Abu l-Fida? ' 'Ima? d ad-Din Isma'i? l ibn 'Ali al-Ayyubi, the Abulfeda of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Arabists, is a sympathetic figure, an ami? r who is also a man of letters, rather in the style of Usama. He was a member of the Ayyubid house after it had lost all autonomous power, supplanted in Syria and Egypt by the Mamlu? ks, and he succeeded in getting them to recognize his rights to Hama? t, where he ruled with the title of al-Malik al-Mu' ayyad until his death. His two main literary works, the history (Mukhtasar ta'ri? kh al-Bashar, Historical Compendium of the Human Race) and the geography (Taqwi? m al-bulda? n, Determination of the Longitude of the Lands), happened to be among the first works of Arabic literature to be known and partially edited in Europe since the beginning of the modern Arabist movement here. This led at first to an over estimation of the value of these two anthologies, which have been almost supplanted by the older originals discovered since then. The section of the history dealing with the author's own lifetime retains its interest. He saw service as a young man at the fall of Tripoli and Acre and so was an eye- witness of the tragic ending of the Crusades.
xxviii The Authors and Works
Text: Recueil des Historiens des Croisades, Historiens Orientaux, I, Paris, 1872.
ABU L-MAHASIN
Abu l-Mahasin Ibn Taghribirdi (Cairo 813/1411-874/1469) was also one of the group of soldiers and scholars who flourished in the Mamlu? k era. His great history of Egypt (An-Nuju? m az-Za? hira fi mulu? k Misr wa l-Qa? hira, The Shining Stars concerning the Kings of Egypt and Cairo), is a vast general chronicle of Egyptian history until 857/1453. It is however entirely an anthology of other men's work. His account of the siege and conquest of Acre under al-Ashraf (from a contemporary source), when compared with that of Abu l-Fida? ', is the most interesting Muslim account of the event known to us. In the published fragment of Ibn 'Abd az Zahir's biography of the Sultan there is no reference to this event.
Text: MS. Paris Ar. 1873 (photostat from the Caetani collection). 1
1 The relevant period is not included in the two Western editions of the Nuju? m, those of Juynboll and Matthes and of Popper. I have not been able to consult the Cairo edition.
Part One
FROM GODFREY TO SALADIN
CHAPTER ONE
Our main sources for the First Crusade are Ibn al-Qala? nisi of Damascus and the Mesopotamian Ibn al-Athi? r. Whereas Ibn al-Qala? nisi limits himself to a chronological list of events, Ibn al-Athi? r relates the various stages of the Crusade to the whole picture of Christian uprisings against Isla? m, beginning with the reconquest of Spain and the Norman invasion of Sicily. He gives the most complete and convincing, if not the most strictly factual, account of the fall of Antioch and Jerusalem, the establishment of Christian kingdoms in the Holy Land and the first Muslim attempts at retaliation.
THE FRANKS SEIZE ANTIOCH (IBN AL-ATHI? R, X, 185-8)
The power of the Franks first became apparent when in the year 478/1085-86 they invaded the territories of Isla? m and took Toledo and other parts of Andalusia, as was mentioned earlier. Then in 484/1091 they attacked and conquered the island of Sicily1 and turned their attention to the African coast. Certain of their conquests there were won back again but they had other successes, as you will see.
In 490/1097 the Franks attacked Syria. This is how it all began: Baldwin, their King,2 a kinsman of Roger the Frank who had conquered Sicily, assembled a great army and sent word to Roger saying: 'I have assembled a great army and now I am on my way to you, to use your bases for my conquest of the African coast. Thus you and I shall become neighbours. '
Roger called together his companions and consulted them about these proposals. 'This will be a fine thing both for them and for us! ' they declared, 'for by this means these lands will be converted to the Faith! ' At this Roger raised one leg and farted loudly, and swore that it was of more use than their advice. 1 'Why? ' 'Because if this army comes here it will need quantities of provisions and fleets of ships to transport it to Africa, as well as reinforcements from my own troops. Then, if the Franks succeed in conquering this territory they will take it over and will need provisioning from Sicily. This will cost me my annual profit from the harvest. If they fail they will return here and be an embarrassment to me here in my own domain. As well as all this Tami? m2 will say that I have broken faith
This date clearly refers to the end of the Norman conquest.
This Baldwin (Bardawi? l) is a mythical character, compounded of the various Baldwins of Flanders and Jerusalem; or else the first Baldwin is mistakenly thought to have been already a king in the West.
It is disagreeable to find the great Count acting like a barbarian on the very first page, but the passage is characteristic of the contemptuous crudity with which the Muslims usually spoke of their enemies, as well as giving a fairly accurate picture of Roger's political acumen.
The Zirid ami? r of Tunisia Tami? m ibn Mu'i? zz.
1 2
1
2
Part One: From Godfrey to Saladin 3
with him and violated our treaty, and friendly relations and communications between us will be disrupted. As far as we are concerned, Africa is always there. When we are strong enough we will take it. '
He summoned Baldwin's messenger and said to him: 'If you have decided to make war on the Muslims your best course will be to free Jerusalem from their rule and thereby win great honour. I am bound by certain promises and treaties of allegiance with the rulers of Africa. ' So the Franks made ready and set out to attack Syria.
Another story is that the Fatimids of Egypt were afraid when they saw the Seljuqids extending their empire through Syria as far as Gaza, until they reached the Egyptian border and Atsiz3 invaded Egypt itself. They therefore sent to invite the Franks to invade Syria and so protect Egypt from the Muslims. 4 But God knows best.
When the Franks decided to attack Syria they marched east to Constantinople, so that they could cross the straits and advance into Muslim territory by the easier, land route. When they reached Constantinople, the Emperor of the East refused them permission to pass through his domains. He said: 'Unless you first promise me Antioch, I shall not allow you to cross into the Muslim empire. ' His real intention was to incite them to attack the Muslims, for he was convinced that the Turks, whose invincible control over Asia Minor he had observed, would exterminate every one of them. They accepted his conditions and in 490/1097 they crossed the Bosphorus at Constantinople. Iconium and the rest of the area into which they now advanced belonged to Qilij Arsla? n ibn Sulaima? n ibn Qutlumi? sh, who barred their way with his troops. They broke through1 in rajab 490/July 1097, crossed Cilicia,2 and finally reached Antioch, which they besieged.
When Yaghi Siya? n, the ruler of Antioch, heard of their approach, he was not sure how the Christian people of the city would react, so he made the Muslims go outside the city on their own to dig trenches, and the next day sent the Christians out alone to continue the task. When they were ready to return home at the end of the day he refused to allow them. 'Antioch is yours,' he said, 'but you will have to leave it to me until I see what happens between us and the Franks. ' 'Who will protect our children and our wives? ' they said. 'I shall look after them for you. ' So they resigned themselves to their fate, and lived in the Frankish camp for nine months, while the city was under siege.
Yaghi Siya? n showed unparalleled courage and wisdom, strength and judgment. If all the Franks who died had survived they would have overrun all the lands of Isla? m. He protected the families of the Christians in Antioch and would not allow a hair of their heads to be touched.
After the siege had been going on for a long time the Franks made a deal with one of the men who were responsible for the towers. He was a cuirass-maker called Ruzbih1 whom they bribed with. a fortune in money and lands. He worked in the tower that stood over the river-bed, where the river flowed out of the city into the valley. The Franks sealed their pact
A general of the Seljuqid Sultan Maliksha? h, who in 1076 attacked Egypt from Palestine.
Of course the Fatimids were also Muslims, but they were heretics and so opposed to the rest of sunni Isla? m.
At Dorylaeum.
Literally 'the land of the son of Armenus' as the Arab writers call the Lesser Armenia of the Cilician Roupenians.
Firu? z is an alternative reading.
3 4
1 2
1
4 Arab Historians of the Crusades
with the cuirass-maker, God damn him! and made their way to the water-gate. They opened it and entered the city. Another gang of them climbed the tower with ropes. At dawn, when more than 500 of them were in the city and the defenders were worn out after the night watch, they sounded their trumpets. Yaghi Siya? n woke up and asked what the noise meant. He was told that trumpets had sounded from the citadel and that it must have been taken. In fact the sound came not from the citadel but from the tower. Panic seized Yaghi Siya? n and he opened the city gates and fled in terror, with an escort of thirty pages.
