Nur al-Din asked me to write a two-line poem on his tongue about the meaning of jihad, so I said:
‘My zeal is for campaigning and my delight is in it. I do not have any other wish in life except it.
The successful outcome of seeking is by striving and by jihad.
Freedom from care is dependent on exertion [in the path of God]’.118
In another poetic snippet, ‘Imad al-Din puts the following lines into the mouth of Nur al-Din:
I have no wish except jihad
Repose in anything other than it is exertion for me.
Seeking achieves nothing except by striving.
Life without the striving of jihad is an [idle] pastime.119
Predictably, full-blown rhetorical claims are made for Nur al-Din in his funeral elegy, also written by ‘Imad al-Din:
Religion is in darkness because of the absence of his light [this is a pun on the name of Nur al-Din – the light of religion]
The age is in grief because of the loss of its commander.
Let Islam mourn the defender of its people
And Syria [mourn] the protector of its Kingdom and its borders.120
Yet, such claims may well have been justified in the case of this charismatic leader, whose career has been unjustly neglected in the West.
Notes
1. Usama, Hitti, 124.
2. War, Technology and Society in the Middle East, ed. V. J. Parry and M. E. Yapp, London, 1975.
3. Ibid., 386.
4. Cf. also Qur’an 2: 186–9, 2: 190–3, 47: 4–5.
5. Al-Tibrizi, Mishkat al-masabih, trans. J. Robson as Mishkat, Lahore, 1972, vol. Ill, 817.
6. Ibid., Ill, 817.
7. Al-Shafi‘i, Risala, trans. M. Khadduri as Islamic Jurisprudence, Baltimore, 1961, 84.
8. Such as al-Shafi’i, and al-Mawardi. Cf. EP: Dar al-‘Ahd.
9. Ibn Qudama, Al-‘Umda, trans. H. Laoust as Le précis de droit d’Ibn Qudama, Beirut, 1950, 280.
10. C. Imber, Ebu’s-Su’ud: The Islamic Legal Tradition, Edinburgh, 1997.
11. Ibid., 67–8.
12. Ibid., 68–9.
13. Th. W. Juynboll, Handbuch des islamischen Gesetzes nach der Lehre der schafi’itischen Schule, Leiden and Leipzig, 1910, 339.
14. B. Lewis, ‘Politics and war’, in idem, Studies in Classical and Ottoman Islam (7th–16th Centuries), London, 1976, 1, 176.
15. C. E. Bosworth, ‘The city of Tarsus and the Arab-Byzantine frontiers in early and middle ‘Abbasid times’, Oriens, 33 (1992), 271, 280–1.
16. Arabic text in M. Canard, Sayf al-Dawla: recueil des textes, Algiers, 1934, 261.
17. Ibid., 168–9.
18. Ibid., 172–3.
19. Ibid., 156–7.
20. Sivan, L’Islam, 195, citing Paris ms. 4958, fol. 16.
21. Quoted by Sivan, L’Islam, 13.
22. Sivan, L’Islam, 13.
23. R. S. Humphreys, ‘Ayyubids, Mamluks, and the Latin East in the thirteenth century’, Mamluk Studies Review, 2 (1998), 4.
24. Sivan, L’Islam, 44.
25. Cf. the discussion in A. Noth, ‘Heiliger Kampf (Gihad) gegen die “Franken”: Zur Position der Kreuzzüge im Rahmen der Islam-geschichte’, Saeculum, 37 (1986), 243.
26. EI2: Al-Mustarshid.
27. Cf. Noth, ‘Heiliger Kampf’, 250.
28. Ibid., 251–2.
29. Ibn al-Athir, Kamil, X, 190.
30. E. Sivan, ‘La genèse de la contre-croisade’, JA, 254 (1966), 199–204.
31. Ibn al-‘Adim, Zubda, Dahan, II, 185.
32. Ibn al-‘Adim, Zubda, Dahan, II, 188–9.
33. C. Hillenbrand, ‘The career of Najm al-Din Il-Ghazi’, Der Islam, 58/2 (1981), 250–92.
34. Ibn al-Jawzi, X, 13.
35. C. Hillenbrand, ‘Jihad propaganda in Syria from the time of the First Crusade until the death of Zengi: the evidence of monumental inscriptions’, in The Frankish Wars and Their Influence on Palestine, ed. K. Athamina and R. Heacock, Birzeit, 1994, 60–9.
36. J. Sauvaget, ‘La tombe de l’Ortokide Balak’, Ars Islamica, 5/2 (1938), 207–15.
37. The example of Balak’s tomb was followed up by an inscription dated 524/1130 on a religious college (madrasa) in Damascus founded by Mu’in al-Din Ünür, a freedman of Tughtegin. The latter was one of Balak’s contemporaries and the ruler of Damascus, Unur’s inscription describes his master, who had died a year earlier, in a series of jihad titles, ‘the prince, the one who fights the Holy War, the one who perseveres assiduously on the frontier (against the enemy), the warrior’ (RCEA, VIII, inscription no. 3033, 165).
38. RCEA, VIII, inscription no. 3112, 229–30.
39. Atabegs, 33–4.
40. Atabegs, 33–4.
41. Al-Bundari, Zubdat al-nusra, ed. M. T. Houtsma, Leiden, 1889, 205.
42. Ibn al-Athir, Kamil, XI, 73.
43. Ibn al-‘Adim, Zubda, RHC, III, 689.
44. Atabegs, 34.
45. Abu Shama, I, 32, 34.
46. Sivan, ‘Réfugiés’, 142.
47. ‘Imad al-Din, Kharida, I, 155.
48. ‘Imad al-Din, Kharida, I, 110; Ibn Munir, according to Abu Shama, I, 40.
49. Abu Shama, I, 39.
50. Inscriptions from the late 1130s in Zengi’s name also include such grandiloquent titles. Cf. RCEA, VIII, inscription no. 3093, 213–14.
51. Atabegs, 160, 162; Usama, Hitti, 124; Abu Shama, RHC, IV, 56; Ibn al-Athir, Kamil, RHC, I, 468, 470; Ibn al-Qalanisi, Gibb, 284; cf. also J.-M. Mouton, Damas et sa principauté sous les Saljoukides et les Bourides 468–549/1076–1154, Cairo, 1994, 60, n. 44.
52. For the activities of Nur al-Din in Egypt, cf. Ibn Zafir, 114.
53. H. Laoust, La profession de foi ?ibn Batta, Damascus, 1958.
54. N. Elisséeff, Nur al-Din: un grand prince musulman de Syrie au temps des Croisades, Damascus, 1967, vol. Ill, 735.
55. Y. Tabbaa, ‘Monuments with a message: Propagation of Jihad under Nur al-Din’, in The Meeting of Two Worlds, ed. V. P. Goss, Kalamazoo, 1986, 224–6.
56. Elisséeff, Nur al-Din, III, 394–423.
57. N. O. Rabbat, ‘The ideological significance of the Dar al-Adl in the medieval Islamic Orient’, IJMES, 27 (1995), 3–28, especially 19.
58. Atabegs, 168.
59. Cf. T. Allen, A Classical Revival in Islamic Architecture, Wiesbaden, 1986, ix and I-6.
60. Atabegs, 170–2; ‘Imad al-Din, Sana, 16.
61. Elisséeff, Nur al-Din, II, 559.
62. Elisséeff, Nur al-Din, III, 821.
63. Elisséeff, Nur al-Din, II, 400.
64. Ibn al-Qalanisi, Gibb, 303.
65. Elisséeff, Nur al-Din, II, 426.
66. Ibn al-‘Adim, Zubda, Dahan, II, 291.
67. Ibn al-‘Adim, Zubda, Dahan, II, 315; Elisséeff, Nur al-Din, II, 577.
68. ‘Imad al-Din, Sana, 16.
69. Atabegs, 163–75.
70. Atabegs, 163.
71. Abu Shama, I, 175.
72. Abu Shama, I, 5.
73. Abu Shama, I, 293–4, 297–8.
74. Köhler, 239.
75. Köhler, 277.
76. K. A. C. Creswell, Muslim Architecture of Egypt, Oxford, 1959, I/l, 94–5.
77. According to G. Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, Beirut, 1965, 88.
78. A. A. Duri, ‘Bait al-Maqdis in Islam’, Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan, I, ed. A. Hadidi, Amman, 1982, 355.
79. Al-Muqaddasi, trans. Miquel, 145.
80. Ibid., 187.
81. Al-Wasiti, Fada’il al-bait al-muqaddas, ed. A. Hasson, Jerusalem, 1979.
82. Quoted by Sivan, L’Islam, 62.
83. Ibn al-Qaysarani, quoted by Sivan, L’Islam, 62.
84. Cf. also Atabegs, 103, when Ibn al-Athir quotes celebratory verses of Ibn al-Qaysarani on the capture of Joscelin by Nur al-Din.
85. Quoted by Sivan, L’Islam, 63.
86. Tabbaa, ‘Monuments with a message’, in The Meeting of Two Worlds, ed. V. P. Goss, Kalamazoo, 1986, 233.<
br />
87. Lit.: There has ordered its construction the slave…
88. RCEA, IX, inscription no. 3281, 56–7; N. Elisséeff, ‘La titulature de Nur al-Din d’après ses inscriptions’, BEO, 14 (1952–4), 163.
89. Tabbaa, ‘Monuments’, 233; M. van Berchem, Matériaux pour un corpus inscriptionum arabicarum, II: Syrie du Sud, Jerusalem [II: Haram] (Mémoires publiés par les membres de l’IFAO du Caire, XLIV/1–2), Cairo, 1925–7, 401.
90. Tabbaa, ‘Monuments’, 233.
91. M. van Berchem, Corpus inscriptionum arabicarum: Jerusalem Haram, Cairo, 1920–7, vol. Ill, 398–400.
92. Sana, 314–15. Al-Bundari’s date of death is not known. He was working for the Ayyubid ruler al-Mu’azzam ?sa in the 1220s.
93. Ibn al-Athir, Kamil, XI, 365.
94. Ibn al-Jawzi, X, 249.
95. In a letter written in 565 / 1169–70.
96. Ibn Jubayr, according to Tabbaa, ‘Monuments’, 232.
97. Ibn al-Athir, Atabegs, RHC, II, 278.
98. The photograph of this inscription clearly shows the words: ‘Turn thy face toward the Inviolable Place of Worship’. I am deeply indebted to Dr Tariq al-Janabi for lending me a photograph of this inscription.
99. Sura 2: 149.
100. Abu Shama, I, 215; Sivan, L’Islam, 63; cf. also al-Maqrizi, trans. Broadhurst, 85.
101. Abu Shama, I, 18.
102. E. Baden, ‘Die sufik nach ‘Ammar al-Bidlisi’, Oriens, 33 (1992), 91.
103. Abu Shama, I, 18.
104. Anon., The Sea of Precious Virtues, trans. J. S. Meisami, Salt Lake City, 1991, viii.
105. Elisseeff, Nur al-Din, II, 461–2,. The Sea, trans. Meisami, x.
106. Ibid., 25 and 27–8.
107. Ibn Jubayr, trans. Broadhurst, 273.
108. Ibn al-Murajja compiled a work on the Merits of Jerusalem in the 1130s. Cf. Ibn al-Murajja, Fada’il Bayt al-Maqdis, ed. O. Livre-Kafri, Shfaram, 1995.
109. It is even conceivable that al-Wasiti, who was a preacher at the Aqsa mosque, had a particular purpose in writing and reciting his work when he did. A severe earthquake had hit Palestine in 1016, damaging both the Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Inscriptions in both buildings record that they were subsequently repaired by order of the Fatimid caliph al-Zahir; the Dome of the Rock in 1022 and 1027 and the Aqsa mosque in 1034. It is likely that the appearance of the first Merits of Jerusalem treatise at this time was related in some way to this restoration work. It is even possible that al-Wasiti’s compilation was read out publicly when these restorations were complete, perhaps as a stimulus to encourage the faithful to contribute to the costs.
110. E. Sivan, The beginnings of the Fada’il al-Quds literature’, Israel Oriental Studies, 1 (1971), 264.
111. Al-Sakhawi, I‘lan, trans. Rosenthal, 464: ‘he compiled the history and praise of Jerusalem but did not complete it [the work]’.
112. Al-Wasiti, Fada’il al-bayt al-muqaddas, ed. A. Hasson, Jerusalem, 1979, 93.
113. For details of this man, cf. Ibn al-Jawzi, IX, 80; Ibn al-Athir, Kamil, X, 259.
114. Al-Husayni, Akhbar al-dawla al-saljuqiyya, ed. M. Iqbal, Lahore, 1933/47–8. Ibn al-‘Adim also quotes it in his biographical dictionary.
115. Ibn al-Mubarak, Kitab al-jihad, ed. N. al-Hammad, Tunis, 1972.
116. Mouton, Damas, 61 n. 46.
117. Sivan, L’Islam, 4.6–7.
118. Kharida, 43; Sana, 104,. Abu Shama, I, 528.
119. Abu Shama, I, 625; Kharida, 72.
120. Abu Shama, I, 528; Kharida, 42.
CHAPTER FOUR
Jihad in the Period from the Death of Nur al-Din until the Fall of Acre (569–690/1174–1291)
The spirit of the jihad, in the final analysis, is only a military fiction, a source of energy and enthusiasm at the outset, an ideal mobilization of defensive reflexes in the second Islamic period.1 (Djait)
THIS CHAPTER considers first the importance of jihad in the time of Saladin and his successors, the Ayyubids. It then discusses the jihad context of the Mamluk state which finally uprooted the Crusaders from the Levant at the end of the thirteenth century.
The Career of Saladin: The Basic Framework
As with the career of Nur al-Din, the achievements of his more famous successor, Salah al-Din (Saladin), were recorded with admiration and piety by the Muslim chroniclers. Before assessing the jihad context of Saladin’s career, it is important to cast a brief eye on its major landmarks. The sources for Saladin’s career are unusually rich since two of his close advisers, ‘Imad al-Din al-Isfahani (d. 597/1201) and Baha’ al-Din ibn Shaddad (d. 632/1234), actually wrote biographical accounts of him – a most rare historiographical occurrence up to this period. Other chroniclers, such as Ibn al-Athir (d. 630/1233) and Abu Shama (d. 665/1258), give Saladin’s career very detailed coverage. Another close adviser of Saladin’s, al-Qadi al-Fadil, left a number of letters which are also a valuable and contemporary source for our knowledge of Saladin’s activities and which were quoted at some length by Lyons and Jackson in their book Saladin: The Politics of the Holy War.
Figure 4.1 Coin of Saladin, late twelfth century, Turkey
The first phase of Saladin’s rise to prominence, as already mentioned, had occurred during the lifetime of Nur al-Din, when Saladin was engaged in a complicated struggle for power in Egypt, as the lieutenant of Nur al-Din. The death of Nur al-Din in 569/1174 probably prevented a serious rift erupting between them.2
After 569/1174 Saladin’s major concern was to gain credibility as the successor to Nur al-Din, in the face of the hostility of the latter’s family who aspired to rule his territories. Just like Nur al-Din, Saladin spent his first decade in power fighting fellow Muslims in order to achieve a unified base, and engaged only intermittently in combat with the Franks. Like Nur al-Din he spent many years subjugating his Muslim rivals and he made truces with the Franks. By 579/1183, with his capture of Aleppo, he had united Syria and Egypt under his rule. It was at this point that he turned his attention seriously to the Franks. The inflammatory actions of Reynald of Chatillon in the Red Sea, threatening the Holy Cities, prompted Saladin to attack Reynald’s fortress of al-Karak in 579/1183 and 580/1184: these attempts proved unsuccessful.3
Plate 4.1 Fais of Saladin, copper, 586/1190–1, Turkey or Iraq
The following year (581/1185–6) Saladin fell seriously ill and he spent a considerable time recuperating.4 Soon after his recovery he summoned his allies from the surrounding territories and in 583/1187 launched a major campaign against the Franks. The Frankish town of Antioch was specifically excluded because he had made a truce with its ruler. He met the Franks at Hattin on Saturday 24 Rabi‘ II 583/4 July i 187 and gained a great victory. Acre capitulated five days later, and by the middle of Jumada Il/early September the southern Levantine coast from Gaza to Jubayl (with the exception of Tyre) was in Saladin’s hands. He then advanced on Jerusalem which surrendered on 27 Rajab/2 October.
Jerusalem may well have been the psychological climax to Saladin’s career but it still left the Franks in possession of 350 miles of the Syrian coastline and a number of key ports. Saladin followed up the reconquest of Jerusalem by taking more strongholds in northern Syria in 584/1188, but he failed to take Tyre. The advent of the Third Crusade saw the investing of Acre by the Crusaders and its eventual surrender to them in Jumada 11/July 1191, followed by a truce between Saladin and the Franks in Sha’ban 588/September 1192. Saladin died on Wednesday 27 Safar 589/3 March 1193.
Figure 4.2 Map of the Near East in the twelfth century
The Heritage of Nur al-Din
As Lyons and Jackson explain clearly in their biography of Saladin, family dynasties such as those of the Turkish military commanders in Syria in the twelfth century felt the need to justify the power they had usurped; for this they required the support of the religious classes, as well as public ratification of their military activities by the caliph.5 Their religious propaganda, including architecture (plates 4.2–4.5, 4.6; cf. plates 5.7, 3.36 and 5.8; fi
gure 4.3), had the same aim of justifying their authority. We have seen how Nur al-Din’s entourage harnessed his aims in personal and familial expansionist terms to the concept of Holy War and how Nur al-Din himself is portrayed in the sources – certainly in the latter part of his career – as combining personal and public jihad. Saladin could build on the bases of moral unity left by Nur al-Din and like his illustrious predecessor, whose empire he usurped, he could present himself as the defender of Sunni Islam and the promoter of jihad against the Franks.
Plate 4.2 Jami’ al-Nuii, exterior view (photograph taken before 1940 rebuilding), 566–8/1170–3, Mosul, Iraq
Plate 4.3 Jami‘ al-Nuri, window-frame in sanctuary, 566–8/1170–3, Mosul, Iraq
Jihad Propaganda in the Time of Saladin
When Saladin succeeded Nur al-Din as the supreme jihad warrior and the architect of Muslim unity he continued to exploit the wide range of propaganda methods which had proved so successful in the time of Nur al-Din. The early Merits of Jerusalem work of al-Raba’i was read out in public in April 1187,6 at the time when Saladin’s forces were preparing for the campaign which culminated in their taking Jerusalem. This is a clear indication of the emotional impact which the Merits of Jerusalem works now exerted on their audience.
Saladin’s triumphant capture of Jerusalem, the climax of his career, was not heralded by jubilation in Palestine and Syria alone. For once, a writer not in the immediate vicinity of Palestine was moved to compose a Merits of Jerusalem work. The famous Baghdad preacher, lawyer and historian Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597/1200) wrote such a work, in which the shame of the Crusaders’ conquest of Jerusalem is emphasised and the glory of Saladin’s crowning achievement in recapturing it is extolled.7
Plate 4.4 Jami‘ al-Nuri, mihrab, 566-8/1170–3, Mosul, Iraa
Plate 4.5 Jami‘ al-Nuri, dome over mihrab (photograph taken before 1940 rebuilding), mihrab of 566–8/1170–3, dome rebuilt thereafter, Mosul, Iraq
Plate 4.6 Jami‘ al-Nuri, dark blue marble columns in sanctuary. The octagonal columns date from 566–8/1170–3; the composite columns with lyre-shaped capitals were probably incorporated from an earlier building but at a later date. Mosul, Iraq
The Crusades- Islamic Perspectives Page 23