Saladin believed that God had chosen him to recapture the Holy City of Jerusalem. This conviction fueled a fierce commitment to jihad, as his biographer, Baha al-Din Ibn Shaddad commented:
The Holy War and the suffering involved in it weighed heavily on his heart and his whole being in every limb; he spoke of nothing else, thought only about equipment for the fight, was interested only in those who had taken up arms, had little sympathy with anyone who spoke of anything else or encouraged any other activity.278
Collapse of the Fatimid Caliphate
Saladin began his rise to power and influence as an assistant to his uncle, Shirkuh, who was sent to Egypt by Nur al-Din in 1163. Shirkuh’s reign as Egyptian vizier was short—he died suddenly on March 23, 1169, after eating an “exceptionally rich meal.”279 Saladin was appointed vizier in his place, but as the fifth vizier in six years his position seemed very tenuous. “His political position appeared hopelessly anomalous: an orthodox Sunni Kurd, nominally subject to a foreign overlord, sustained by a dwindling Turkish army from Syria, attempting to rule a large, unsubdued and populous country in the name of a Shi’ite caliph.”280 Despite his weakened political position, Saladin engaged in a series of administrative reorganizations of Egyptian society and the army in order to undermine the existing institutions and eventually replace them with elements loyal to himself.281
In June of 1171, Nur al-Din ordered Saladin to forbid mention of the Fatimid caliph’s name during Friday prayers in mosques; it was replaced with the name of the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad. Although this exchange of names seems a simple matter, it was a significant move that had far-reaching implications. In effect, this was the opening salvo in a fight to restore Sunni leadership to Egypt (a country where the majority of the population was Sunni) and replace the Shi’ite dominant Fatimid family.
On September 11, 1171, Saladin conducted a large military parade in Cairo in which 14,000 troops marched through the town in a demonstration of power and intimidation.282 When the Fatimid family was subsequently placed under arrest, Saladin was firmly in control of Egypt but his ambition was far from sated. He sought nothing less than the complete unification of the Muslim world under his suzerainty. This goal required the conquest of the Muslim lands controlled by Nur al-Din and the territory occupied by the Crusader States.
Saladin began his unification of Muslim territory upon the death of Nur al-Din on May 15, 1174. Saladin marched to Nur al-Din’s capital at Damascus, conquered his city, and married his widow in a move designed to present himself as the successor to the great ruler. Two years later, the Abbasid caliph proclaimed Saladin the ruler of Egypt, Yemen, and Syria and ordered him to expel the Latin Christians from the Holy Land and recover Jerusalem.
Saladin is often portrayed in the West as a great general and military thinker. The reality is far different. He was “a cautious, at times nervous field commander, better at political intrigue, diplomacy, and military administration than the tactics of battle or the strategy of a campaign.”283 His troops fought in the standard Turkish behavior of harassment with mounted archers charging enemy formations, feigning retreat and counter-charging in the hopes of separating the foot soldiers from the cavalry. In so doing, they lured the cavalry into a fight on open ground without the protection of their infantry where they could be picked off one by one by the archers. Saladin’s archers, much to the chagrin of Latin knights, specifically targeted enemy horses. This irritated western knights because “in the Western tradition of knightly warfare it was considered bad form, as well as financially stupid, to kill or injure an enemy’s horse.”284 Saladin’s forces conducted harassment operations and raids against the Latin settlers eight total times in the 1170s and 1180s.
The Leper King
King of Jerusalem Baldwin IV (r. 1174–1185) was a leper, diagnosed by his tutor, William of Tyre, when he was still a child. By the early 1180s, the disease was consuming his body even as political intrigue in the kingdom was consuming his mind and energy. But “whenever he tried to relinquish the increasingly intolerable burden” of responsibility, the heroic and faithful king met only incompetence.285 Despite the disease that left him partially paralyzed, nearly blind, and suffering immense agony at the physical disintegration of his body, Baldwin was an able military commander who defeated and almost captured Saladin at Montgisard in November 1177.286 Baldwin’s fate was not to suffer in quiet agony the perils of his debilitating disease; instead, he spent his time dealing with the political intrigue of the factions within his court.
One faction was led by Count Raymond III of Tripoli, the great-grandson of Raymond of Toulouse, one of the leaders of the First Crusade. He became count at the age of twelve when assassins murdered his father. Later in life he was captured by the Muslims and held in Aleppo for eight years, during which time he took advantage of the situation to learn Arabic.
The other faction that sought to control Baldwin IV was led by his mother, Agnes of Courtenay, and included the infamous Reynald of Châtillon as well as Joscelin III, the titular count of Edessa and Baldwin IV’s uncle. This group controlled access to the king and sought to ensure that their vision for the kingdom was in place when the sickly king died.
The key actor in the kingdom’s succession was Baldwin’s sister, Sybilla, who married William of Montferrat in 1176. The marriage ended at the untimely death of William in 1177, but the union produced a son, the later Baldwin V. Sybilla was too young, beautiful, and politically connected to remain a widow for the rest of her life, and three years after the death of her husband a handsome minor nobleman from the West came into her life and changed the history of Outrémer forever.
Guy de Lusignan
Guy de Lusignan was that handsome nobleman. He had a “daring and swashbuckling demeanor,” and left Aquitaine in search of fame and fortune in the Latin East.287 He found the vehicle by which he could accomplish his goals in a marriage with Sybilla. With the help of Baldwin’s mother, Sybilla persuaded the Leper King to appoint Guy as regent in 1181.
The choice was a bad decision: Guy was an ineffective ruler and an incompetent military commander. His ineptitude was on full display in the fall of 1183, when Saladin crossed the Jordan River to besiege the fortress of Kerak east of the Dead Sea. Guy marshaled a 15,000-man army, but failed to engage Saladin, thus allowing the invader to slip back over the frontier and out of harm’s way.
Baldwin IV was greatly upset at this debacle and he accused Guy of cowardice and treason in the face of battle. The king then removed Guy as regent and even tried to force Sybilla to divorce him. Baldwin appointed his five-year-old nephew, Baldwin V, the son of Sybilla and William of Montferrat, as heir, with Count Raymond III of Tripoli as regent.
A disaster was on the horizon, and Baldwin IV could see it. He knew Saladin was consolidating his power and that it was only a matter of time before he launched a full-scale invasion of the kingdom. He knew the dynastic disputes and court factions drained the kingdom of the unity it desperately needed in such a time. The Leper King did what he could, but the disease that would eventually take his life hampered his abilities. Yet his dedication and devotion to the kingdom were without compare. His sacrifice was heroic, but not even the actions of a truly saintly leper could forestall the end, which was near at hand.
The Beginning of the End
Baldwin IV died on May 16, 1185, at only twenty-four. In eleven years as king, Baldwin had tried to buttress the kingdom from the coming Islamic tide, but his actions came to naught when his successor, the boy Baldwin V, only eight years old, died in September 1186. Baldwin V had agreed to the proposal of the regent Raymond III of Tripoli that if Baldwin V should die before the age of majority, a committee of the major rulers of Christendom would gather to choose the new monarch. Vying for the throne were the daughters, from two separate marriages, of King Amalric: Sybilla and Isabella. Sybilla was married to the former regent Guy de Lusignan and Isabella was married to Humphrey III of Toron; neither man was a great choice for king.
In an action of political intrigue worthy of a Hollywood film, the party favorable to Sybilla, including the masters of the Templars and Hospitallers, asked Patriarch Heraclius of Jerusalem to crown Sybilla queen while Raymond III was away in Tiberias. Before Sybilla was crowned she had to promise to divorce Guy, who was intensely disliked by the local barons.
Sybilla agreed to the divorce288 with three conditions. First, their children (all daughters) were to be declared legitimate heirs to the throne. Secondly, Guy would continue to remain Count of Ascalon and Jaffa. Finally, she must be free to choose another husband.289
The conditions were granted. Sybilla, immediately after her coronation, announced her choice of husband: Guy de Lusignan! She then crowned Guy as king.
Upon hearing the news of the outrageous events in Jerusalem, Raymond III marshaled his troops from Tripoli and deployed them to Tiberias with plans to attack Jerusalem. Civil war was in the offing. Raymond’s bitterness so overwhelmed his judgment that he rashly entered into a treaty with Saladin against King Guy and Queen Sybilla.
Saladin was upset with the frequent raids by Reynald of Châtillon and issued a summons for volunteers to join the jihad in order to increase the size of his army.290 Once assembled, he invaded the Kingdom of Jerusalem on June 27, 1187, bent on the eradication of Outrémer.
The Horns of Hattin
News of Saladin’s invasion reached King Guy, who issued the summons for all able-bodied free men in the kingdom to muster for defense of the realm. Count Raymond III of Tripoli broke his alliance with Saladin and rushed to the banner of the king. The summons produced a grand army of 20,000 men, 1,200 of who were knights (600 Templars and Hospitallers, and 600 local nobles).291 It was the largest army ever assembled in the kingdom, and its muster depleted the garrisons throughout Outrémer to mere skeleton crews. Estimates vary on the size of Saladin’s army, but by all accounts, it was larger than the Christian force.292
King Guy hoped to follow the traditional Christian strategy when confronted by a Saladin raid: refrain from a decisive engagement by deploying the army defensively and waiting for Saladin’s advance to lose steam and retreat. Conversely, Saladin’s goal was to force the Christians to fight in order to compel a decisive battle. In the 1187 invasion, Saladin divided his army, with one element advancing against Tiberias in a move designed to draw out the kingdom’s forces.
The Christian army was instructed to muster at Sephoria, where the kingdom’s high command would meet to discuss the best course of action. “On their decision hung the future of nine decades of western European settlement in the Near East.”293
News arrived that Saladin’s army was besieging the city of Tiberias, which had fallen except for the citadel. The debate raged among the barons over whether to march the kingdom’s army to break the siege or to hold back, trusting that Saladin would retreat.
Count Raymond III argued against a march. He knew that the topography of the region would not favor the Christians: it was a vast, barren, waterless wasteland. Any march through it in the summer heat would spell certain death. Raymond suggested that the army abandon Tiberias and instead march to Acre to await Saladin behind its well-fortified walls.
Although there were those in the group who doubted Raymond’s authenticity because of his recent alliance with Saladin, his opinion made tactical and strategic sense. King Guy agreed. However, later that night, Gerard of Ridefort, the Master of the Temple and a personal enemy of Raymond, met the king and convinced him to change his mind. On July 3, 1187, the army broke camp and then began the twenty-mile march to Tiberias.
The day was hot and the march was across hilly terrain. The Christian force hoped to reach the water source at Hattin twelve miles away before the day ended. Saladin heard that Guy was on the move, so he broke off the siege of Tiberias and organized his army to meet the Christians. After an exhausting march the warriors of Outrémer reached the “horns” of Hattin, a hill with two peaks, toward the end of July 3.
On the morning of July 4, 1187, King Guy’s army awoke to the realization that they were surrounded by Saladin’s troops. The Muslims knew the tired and thirsty state of the Christians, and taunted them by pouring out cups of water onto the ground.294 Muslim forces added to the Christian discomfort by lighting fires from gathered brushwood filled with dry thistles in order to fill their camp with smoke.295
Despite the intolerable conditions, the Christians defended their position. Count Raymond and some knights broke through the Muslim line but soon found themselves at the bottom of a hill. Cut off from the battlefield and knowing an uphill charge would result in heavy casualties, they retreated.
The rearguard under Balian of Ibelin and the Templars broke under the heavy onslaught. The situation was hopeless, and annihilation seemed imminent, but Balian and a few other knights were able to escape. King Guy tried to turn the tide with two brave and bold cavalry charges toward Saladin’s position and, although they came close to the sultan, they were beaten back.
Horse casualties and the lack of cover forced the knights to dismount. They continued the fight on foot, but the Muslim pressure was too much for the exhausted and thirsty Christians. Their line broke, and Saladin’s forces swept through the Christian army.
The cause was lost. Muslim soldiers found King Guy and his drained knights slumped on the ground physically unable to continue the fight. Roughly 3,000 warriors had fled the battle, including Count Raymond and Balian of Ibelin, but the vast majority were either killed or apprehended.296 Among the captured were King Guy, his brother Aimery, Humphrey of Toron, William III of Montferrat, Reynald of Châtillon, and Gerard of Ridefort, the Master of the Temple. They were all sent to prison, except for Reynald, whom Saladin personally beheaded. Two days after the battle, all captured Templars and Hospitallers were also executed on the direct orders of Saladin, “because they were the fiercest of all Frankish warriors.”297 Not content with the deaths of those captured at Hattin, Saladin ordered further executions of all Templars and Hospitallers in captivity in Damascus. Given the choice of death or conversion to Islam, most remained true to the Lord Jesus: 230 were martyred for the Faith.298
The defeat at Hattin also saw the capture of a relic of the True Cross. The Bishop of Acre held the relic throughout the battle but was struck down, and the relic was confiscated by Saladin’s forces. It was taken to Damascus and paraded through the city upside down in a gesture of ultimate insult. The loss of the True Cross, “even more than the defeat itself, resonated throughout Christendom, raising the military disaster into a spiritual catastrophe.”299
Ultimately, the disaster at Hattin happened because Guy committed the most basic mistake of military strategy: He allowed his enemy to fight him “where he wanted, when he wanted and how he wanted.”300
The loss was devastating for Outrémer. The massacre of so many knights “removed the kingdom’s main defense, and the slaughter of the infantry must have annihilated most of the rest of the male population.”301 The kingdom was left virtually unguarded.
The Fall of Jerusalem
Having barely escaped the disaster at Hattin with his life, Balian of Ibelin made his way to the coastal city of Tyre. However, he was worried about the safety of his wife, Maria Comnena, and their children, who were in Jerusalem—Saladin’s next target. Balian sent a message to the sultan asking for safe conduct to move his family out of harm’s way. Saladin agreed as long as Balian traveled unarmed and spent only one night in the Holy City.
When the citizens of Jerusalem found out Balian was there, they begged him to lead the defense. Jerusalem, like the other cities of Outrémer, had sent the vast majority of its fighting men to annihilation at Hattin. Balian did not want to break his promise to Saladin, but the insistence of the Jerusalemites and the pitiable condition of their defense changed his mind. A chivalrous man, Balian sent a letter to Saladin explaining why he had to renege on their agreement. His family was safely transported to Tyre, escorted by Saladin’s troops at his order.302
The defense forces of Jerusalem when Balian took charge consisted of two knights and the city militia. Balian made the bold decision to knight all noble boys over sixteen as well as thirty handpicked men in the city. These knights provided him with a corps of troops who could help him organize the defense and motivate the militia during the siege.
Saladin’s army arrived on September 20, 1187. Balian, recognizing the situation was hopeless, proposed terms of surrender to Saladin. The sultan rejected them outright, demanding the unconditional surrender of the city. This was an unconventional response, for most besieged towns were given the opportunity to surrender with terms by the besieging army.
Saladin’s army began the attack. Balian’s meager militia withstood five days of near-constant bombardment by siege engines. Impatient with the stubborn resistance of the Christian defenders at the western wall, Saladin broke camp and shifted his point of attack to the eastern wall, establishing his headquarters on the Mount of Olives. This location was the site of the successful sieges of the Roman army under Titus in A.D. 70 and the First Crusaders in 1099. On September 29, only nine days into the siege, Muslim sappers opened a breach in the northeastern section of the wall.
Balian asked for an audience with Saladin in the hopes of convincing him to provide terms of surrender. Once again, the stubborn sultan denied the Christians’ terms, which infuriated Balian who replied to the rejection:
O sultan, be aware that this city holds a mass of people so great that God alone knows their number. They now hesitate to continue the fight, because they hope that you will spare their lives … because they love life and hate death. But if we see that death is inevitable, then, by God, we will kill our own women and children and burn all that we possess. We will not leave you a single dinar of booty … not a single man or woman to lead into captivity. Then we shall destroy the sacred rock, al-Aqsa mosque, and many other sites: we will kill the 5,000 Muslim prisoners we now hold. In the end, we will come outside the city, and we will fight against you as one fights for one’s life. Not one of us will die without having killed several of you!303
The Glory of the Crusades Page 12