by Robyn Young
With the fall of the Temple, the battle was ended. Acre, first captured by the Crusaders two hundred years ago, was back in Muslim hands. Khalil had sent one of his generals down to Tyre to see that it too was taken, although from the reports sent back it seemed few citizens were there to witness its demise, for many had put to sea, seeing the vast pall of smoke rising from Acre on the horizon. Sidon, Beirut and Haifa, the Franks’ last strongholds, would soon share Acre’s fate and then, at last, it would be over. No more would the Western invaders hold sway in Palestine; no more would they threaten them or take their lands, turning mosques into churches and Muslim citizens into slaves. Khalil was a conqueror, victorious. The men of his army praised him as a hero, as vanquisher of the infidel, as God’s own sword. Khalil accepted their praise without comment. In the days to come he would receive it with gratitude and with pride, for he was glad that it had finally ended and that he had done what he had set out to do. Now that the Western Christians were gone, the Mamluks could turn their full attention to the Mongols without worry that the two forces would ally. Khalil had followed in the footsteps of Baybars and Saladin, excising the last of the poison from the wound first carved by the Franks two centuries before. He had liberated his people. It was over. It was finally over.
But in the grave that was Acre, in the bloody streets that stank of death, it was hard to be glad. And so, al-Ashraf Khalil turned from the trudging lines of captives and walked grimly away from the ruins of the Temple, his face lit by the setting sun.
THE PHOENIX, THE MEDITERRANEAN, 30 MAY A.D. 1291
Will stood on the deck of the Phoenix, the blue sea stretching before him. Behind him men, women and children huddled on the decks. After days of silence, the murmur of conversation had begun again. People had started to eat, to tend to wounds and comfort their neighbors, and the atmosphere, although still subdued, had lifted a little. It was, Will knew, the way of things. Despite what they had been through, they had survived. The only thing they could do now was to go on surviving, to go on living, no matter what they had lost. He looked down at his open palm, at the gold ring lying in it, remembering Elwen’s cool skin as she had placed it on his finger, pushing it gently over the ridge of his knuckle. He had worn it thereafter on the chain with the St. George pendant. The pain, both of her passing and her betrayal, was deep within him. He could feel the enormity of it, struggling to break free and engulf him. But he hadn’t let it. He couldn’t.
Three days ago, he had sat with Rose at the stern, ignoring the curious glances of some of the knights, and asked her to tell him what had happened at the house. It took his daughter a long time to say the words, and they were torturous for her to utter, even the parts she hadn’t understood. But keeping his tone calm and composed, Will eventually coaxed the truth out of her. Now he knew the extent of Garin’s treachery, from the attack on Honfleur to the attempted taking of the Black Stone. But, more than that, he knew the face of his enemy.
Garin had been a pawn, a weak, controlled pawn. It was King Edward who was the real traitor, the wolf in the fold and instigator of all his woes. He had been their guardian. He had become their enemy.
The seneschal was right. The Anima Templi’s work was not finished, not by a long way. He was its head, and as all those before him, he had a duty to defend it from harm. That was why Everard had chosen him. He would make certain the Brethren would go on. But, in order to do that, he had to go on. Lifting the gold ring to his lips, Will kissed the cool metal tenderly, then flung it to the sea. It went spinning over and over, flashing in the light, before it hit the water and disappeared beneath the waves. Will felt someone move up alongside him.
“Rose is awake,” said Simon, resting his arms on the side of the galley. “She’s down in the hold asking for you.”
“I’ll be there in a moment.”
Simon nodded and clasped his shoulder before moving off.
Will drew in a breath, and with it his determination strengthened. He still had Rose. Whether she was his daughter or not, he loved her. He had Simon and Robert, and somewhere, back in Scotland, he had family. The crumpled letter from his sister, Ysenda, was folded in his pouch, salvaged from the preceptory. He was not alone. His mind filling with memories of moors and rain, Will turned his back on the East and looked west toward home. Toward revenge.
Author’s Note
I endeavored to stay as close to the history as possible in the writing of this novel, but as history doesn’t always work as neatly or conveniently as one might like I’ve inevitably had to apply a certain amount of artistic license. Dates, in particular, can often prove problematic as you try to weave a fictional story and characters through real events in the narrative, and sometimes it becomes necessary for details to be tweaked for the sake of the plot and ease of reading. For instance, by this point in the Templars’ history the office of seneschal had been abandoned, but as the duties of this post were taken over by an official who, along with Theobald Gaudin, was also entitled grand commander, I have resurrected it to avoid unnecessary confusion. The town of al-Bira was attacked by the Mongols in the winter of 1275 and the siege was actually raised before Baybars’ force reached it. King Hugh III initially retired to Tyre after leaving Acre rather than going straight to Cyprus, and it would have taken a little longer than I have described for news to reach the city that Charles d’Anjou had bought the rights to the throne of Jerusalem. The Islamic month of Muharram occurred in June of 1277 rather than April, and Tripoli, which was besieged at the end of March 1289, in reality took almost a month to fall to Kalawun’s forces.
My version of Baybars’ demise is fictitious; Baraka Khan couldn’t have poisoned his father, for he remained in Cairo when Baybars left on the Anatolian campaign, but the sultan’s death has nonetheless been the subject of much speculation. Several chroniclers believe Baybars died after drinking poisoned kumiz. These accounts suggest that astrologers warned him of a lunar eclipse that would herald the death of a king and that to safeguard himself he decided to poison another ruler, an Ayyubid prince who had aided him against the Mongols at Albistan, but who thereafter had displeased him. The accounts vary in detail, but tend to agree that Baybars drank the poisoned cup he had prepared for the prince by mistake. Other sources say he died from a wound sustained on campaign, others still that he succumbed to a sickness. Whatever happened, Baybars did not die instantly, but after thirteen days of ill health. For those who wish to discover more information on historical events detailed in the narrative, I have enclosed a bibliography for further reading.
The fall of Acre in 1291 to the Muslim forces under Sultan al-Ashraf Khalil heralded the ending of the Crusades first preached by Pope Urban II in France two hundred years earlier. Theobald Gaudin, the Temple’s grand commander, led the knights who sailed with him out of Acre down the coast to their stronghold at Sidon, where he was elected grand master. Here, the surviving Templars remained for a month, but were forced to withdraw when the Mamluks arrived. Gaudin sailed for Cyprus with the Order’s treasury, leaving only a small group of knights based on an island two miles off the coast. The Templars would maintain a garrison here for twelve years, but the remaining Frankish settlements in the Holy Land would be captured by the Mamluks over the following months.
Acre was virtually abandoned and left in ruins for years, while many of the citizens who survived the siege disappeared into the prisons, labor camps and harems of the Mamluks. Some captives, including knights from the military orders, were ransomed, others converted to Islam. Decades later, a Western pilgrim in the Holy Land saw Templars working as wood-cutters near the Dead Sea.
Sultan Khalil did not long survive his victory over the Franks. At the end of 1293 he was assassinated by his own generals, shortly after proclaiming a jihad against the Mongols. He was succeeded by his brother, Kalawun’s young son, al-Nasir Muhammad. The Mamluk Sultanate continued to hold sway in the Middle East until it was overthrown by the Ottoman Turks in 1517.
In the West, desire to win b
ack territory lost to the Muslim forces didn’t die immediately with the fall of Acre, but although later planned Crusades to recapture the Holy Land proved unsuccessful the echoes of this bloody period in the world’s history would resonate painfully on both sides of the sea for centuries to come. We are still feeling those echoes today.
—Robyn Young
Brighton, March 2007
Character List
(* denotes real figures from history)
*ABAGA: Mongol ilkhan of Persia (1265-1282)
AISHA: daughter of Kalawun, married to Baraka Khan
*AL-ASHRAF KHALIL: son of Kalawun; sultan of Egypt and Syria (1290-1293)
ALESSANDRO: Knight Templar, personal guard to Guillaume de Beaujeu
AMAURY: royal guard under Hugh III
ANDREAS DI PAOLO: Venetian silk merchant
ANGELO VITTURI: Venetian slave trader, son of Venerio
*ARGHUN: son of Abaga, installed as ilkhan in 1284
*ARMAND DE PÉRIGORD: grand master of the Temple (1232-1244)
*AS-SALIH ALI: son of Kalawun
*BALIAN OF IBELIN: Hugh III’s bailli in Acre
*BARAKA KHAN: son of Baybars, married to Aisha; sultan of Egypt and Syria (1277- 1279)
*BAYBARS BUNDUKDARI: sultan of Egypt and Syria (1260-1277)
BERTRAND: royal guard under Hugh III
CARLO: Knight Templar, personal guard to Guillaume de Beaujeu
CATARINA: daughter of Andreas
CECELIA DE LYONS: mother of Garin
*CHARLES D’ANJOU: brother of Louis IX; king of Sicily and Naples (1266-1285), king of Jerusalem (1277-1285)
CONRADT VON BREMEN: German horse dealer
DAWUD: Mamluk amir
*EDWARD I: king of England (1272-1307)
ELIAS: rabbi and bookseller
ELWEN: Will’s lover
EVERARD DE TROYES: Templar priest and head of the Anima Templi
FATIMA: wife of Baybars, mother of Salamish
FRANCESCO: Knight Templar, personal guard to Guillaume de Beaujeu
GARIN DE LYONS: former Knight Templar in the service of Edward I
*GÉRARD DE RIDEFORT: grand master of the Temple (1185-1189)
*GREGORY X: Pope (1271-1276)
GUIDO SORANZO: Genoese shipbuilder
*GUILLAUME DE BEAUJEU: grand master of the Temple (1273-1291)
GUY: royal advisor to Hugh III
HASAN: former comrade of Everard de Troyes, died in Paris in 1266
*HENRY II: son of Hugh III; king of Cyprus (1285-1324), king of Jerusalem (1286-1291)
*HUGH III: king of Cyprus (1267-1284), king of Jerusalem (1269-1277)
*HUGUES DE PAIRAUD: visitor of the Temple, based in Paris
IDRIS: a Syrian Assassin
ISABEL: Will’s mother
ISHANDIYAR: Mamluk amir
JACQUES DE LYONS: Knight Templar and uncle of Garin, former member of the Anima Templi, died at Honfleur in 1260
JAMES CAMPBELL: Knight Templar and father of Will, former member of the Anima Templi, died at Safed in 1266
*JEAN DE VILLIERS: Grand Master of the Hospital (1284-1293)
*KALAWUN AL-ALFI: Mamluk amir, Baybars’s chief lieutenant and father-in-law to Baraka Khan; sultan of Egypt and Syria (1280-1290)
KAYSAN: a mercenary, hired to protect pilgrims in Arabia
*KHADIR: Baybars’s soothsayer
*LOUIS IX: king of France (1226-1270)
LUCA: Genoese boy, brother of Marco
*LUCIA: countess of Tripoli
MAHMUD: Mamluk amir
MARCO: Genoese man, brother of Luca
*MARIA OF ANTIOCH: cousin of Hugh III and claimant to Jerusalem
MARY: Will’s sister, died in Scotland when they were children
MICHAEL PISANI: Pisan arms merchant
NASIR: Kalawun’s comrade and officer in the Mansuriyya
*NICHOLAS IV: pope (1288-1292)
*NICHOLAS DE HANAPE: patriarch of Jerusalem
NIZAM: wife of Baybars, mother of Baraka Khan
OMAR: former comrade of Baybars, died in an attack by Assassins in 1271
OWEIN AP GWYN: uncle of Elwen and Will’s former master, died at Honfleur in 1260
*PETER DE SEVREY: marshal of the Temple
*PHILIPPE IV: king of France (1285-1314)
*RABBAN SAUMA: ambassador to Ilkhan Arghun
RENAUD DE TOURS: French armorer
ROBERT DE PARIS: Knight Templar
*ROBERT DE SABLÉ: grand master of the Temple (1191-1193)
*ROGER DE SAN SEVERINO: Charles d’Anjou’s bailli in Acre
ROOK: formerly in the service of Edward I, was killed by Garin in 1268
ROSE: daughter of Will and Elwen
*SALAMISH: son of Baybars
SCLAVO: Genoese landlord
SENESCHAL, THE: official of the Temple and member of the Anima Templi
SIMON TANNER: Templar sergeant
*TATAWUN: Mongol commander
*THEOBALD GAUDIN: grand commander of the Temple
USAMAH: Mamluk amir
VELASCO: Templar priest and member of the Anima Templi
VENERIO VITTURI: Venetian slave trader, father of Angelo
WILL CAMPELL: commander in the Knights Templar and member of the Anima Templi
YSENDA: Will’s youngest sister
YUSUF: Mamluk amir
ZACCARIA: Knight Templar, personal guard to Guillaume de Beaujeu
Glossary
ACRE: a city on the coast of Palestine, conquered by the Arabs in AD 640. It was captured by the Crusaders in the early twelfth century and became the principal port of the new Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. Acre was ruled by a king, but by the mid-thirteenth century royal authority was disputed by the local Frankish nobles and from this time the city, with its twenty-seven separate quarters, was largely governed oligarchically.
AMIR: Arabic for commander, also used as a title for some rulers.
ANIMA TEMPLI: Latin for “Soul of the Temple.” A fictional group within the Knights Templar founded by Grand Master Robert de Sablé in 1191 in the aftermath of the Battle of Hattin to protect the Temple from corruption. It is formed of twelve Brethren, drawn from the order’s ranks, with a Guardian to mediate during disputes, and is dedicated to achieving reconciliation among the Christian, Muslim and Jewish faiths.
ASSASSINS: an extremist sect founded in Persia in the eleventh century. The Assassins were adherents of the Ismaili division of the Shia Muslim faith and, over the following years, spread to several countries, including Syria. Here, under their most famous leader, Sinan, “the Old Man of the Mountain,” they formed an independent state, where they retained control until they were eventually subsumed into the Mamluk territories controlled by Baybars.
AYYUBIDS: dynastic rulers of Egypt and Syria during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, responsible for the creation of the Mamluk (slave) army. Saladin was of this line and during his reign the Ayyubids achieved the height of their power. The last Ayyubid was Turanshah, who was killed by Baybars under the orders of the Mamluk commander Aibek, ending the Ayyubid dynasty and beginning the reign of the Mamluks.
BAILLI: the representative of a king or other ruler.
BERNARD DE CLAIRVAUX, ST.: (1090-1153) abbot and founder of the Cistercian monastery at Clairvaux in France. An early supporter of the Templars, Bernard aided the order in the creation of their Rule.
BEZANT: a gold coin of the medieval period, first minted in Byzantium.
BLACK STONE: in Arabic “al-Hajar al-Aswad,” a sacred relic set in the eastern corner of the Ka‘ba in Mecca, held in place by a silver band and kissed or touched by Muslims during the rites of pilgrimage. In 929, the Karmatians (Ismaili Shias) took possession of the Black Stone and carried it out of Mecca, effectively holding it ransom until its restoration twenty-two years later.
CRUSADES: a European movement of the medieval period, spurred by economic, religious and political ideals. The First Crusade was preached in 1095 by Pope Urban II at Clermont in F
rance. The call to Crusade came initially as a response to appeals from the Greek emperor in Byzantium whose domains were being invaded by the Seljuk Turks, who had captured Jerusalem in 1071. The Roman and Greek Orthodox Churches had been divided since 1054 and Urban saw in this plea the chance to reunite the two Churches and, in so doing, gain Catholicism a firmer hold over the Eastern world. Urban’s goal was achieved only briefly and imperfectly in the wake of the Fourth Crusade of 1204. Over two centuries, more than eleven Crusades to the Holy Land were launched from Europe’s shores.
DESTRIER: Old French for war horse.
ENCEINTE: fortifications enclosing a castle.
FALCHION: a short sword with a curved edge, primarily used by infantry.
FRANKS: in the Middle East the term Franks (al-Firinjah) referred to Western Christians. In the West it was the name of the Germanic tribe that conquered Gaul in the sixth century, which thereafter became known as France.
GRAIL ROMANCE: a popular cycle of romances prevalent during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the first of which was Joseph d’ Arimathie written by Robert de Borron at the end of the twelfth century. From this time, the Grail, the concept of which is thought to be derived from pre-Christian mythology, was Christianized and adopted into the Arthurian legend, made famous by the twelfth-century French poet Chrétien de Troyes, whose work influenced later writers such as Malory and Tennyson. The following century saw many more takes on the Grail theme, including Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival, which inspired Wagner’s opera. Romances were courtly stories, usually composed in verse in the vernacular, that combined historical, mythical and religious themes.
GRAND MASTER: head of a military order. The grand master of the Templars was elected for life by a council of Templar officials and until the end of the Crusades was based at the Order’s headquarters in Palestine.