God's Armies
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hagiography Lives of saints.
hajj Pilgrimage to Mecca.
Hamasah of Abu Classic collection of Arabic poems known by heart by
Tamman Saladin.
haram Pagan sanctuary.
Hashemites A lesser clan of the Quraysh to which Muhammad belonged; contemporary rulers of Jordan.
Helpers Converts to Muslim teaching in Medina.
hijab Headscarf.
hijra Muhammad’s flight from Mecca to Medina in 622; starting point for the Islamic calendar.
Hira Capital of the ancient kingdom of Southern Iraq.
Ibn Saud Arab desert leader who revived Wahhabism and became king of Saudi Arabia in 1932; the name was assumed in honour of a predecessor.
Ilkhanate A breakaway state of the Mongol Empire, established in the thirteenth century and ruled by the Mongol House of Hulegu, the grandson of Ghengiz Khan, which converted to Islam. It was established in the thirteenth century and was based primarily in Iran and neighbouring territories.
imam A preacher leading prayers; for Ismaili Shiites, an infallible guide to doctrine.
Ismaili Shiite Muslims who believed that Ismail, the seventh imam, had rightly taken prophetic authority; this tradition founded the Fatimid dynasty in Egypt.
jahiliyya Time of ignorance in Arabia before the coming of the Prophet.
jama-l Sunnism A movement launched by Nur al-Din to unite rival schools of Sunni jurists and moderate Shiites in the interests of destroying Fatimid heresy.
Janissaries Slave soldiers recruited from Christian children in the Balkans by Ottomans.
jihad Striving against evil in the soul or striving in war against the enemies of the Faith.
jinn Spiritual beings created from fire, capable of assuming various shapes.
jizya Head tax paid by Christians and Jews under Muslim rule.
Kaba The shrine in Mecca, object of the pilgrimage of the hajj, incorporating the black stone, believed to have been bestowed on Abraham by the Archangel Gabriel.
Karbala Site of the martyrdom of the Shiite al-Husayn in 680.
khanqah Training place for Sufis.
Khurasanis A body of soldiers faithful to the Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur, kept as a garrison in Baghdad.
khutba Prayer for a ruler, solemnly pronounced on the occasion of Friday prayers.
kiswa Veil covering the temple of the Kaba.
Kufic Ornamental calligraphy of the Quran, whose beauty, in the judgement of Nur al-Din, obscured meaning.
laity Members of the Church distinguished from the priesthood.
madrasa Training college for Sunni scholars and qadis.
Mahgrib North-western Africa, source of a simple administrative Arabic script adopted for the Quran under Nur al-Din’s influence.
Mamluk Slave soldier, also ruling dynasty in Egypt.
mangonel A throwing machine.
manumitting Releasing from slavery.
mawali New converts to the faith in the epoch of the Umayyads who ceased to pay the jizya.
Melkites Arab-speaking churchmen with patriarchates; a Melkite Patriarch was responsible for the miracle of the Holy Fire.
mihrab Niche in a mosque showing the direction of Mecca.
minbar Pulpit in a mosque.
minha Authority devised to search out and intimidate those who declined to accept Mutazilism.
monotheism Form of belief in one God.
monothelitism A form of Trinitarian doctrine designed to compromise between competing interpretations; imposed on the Byzantine Empire by Emperor Heraclius.
mouvance A circle of landholding, the centre point in anarchic fighting between rivals in the lands of the western Franks.
muezzin Call to prayer.
mujahidin Zealots of armed jihad against enemies of Islam.
mulukhiyya Flavouring for soups in Egypt, condemned by Caliph al-Hakim.
muqarnas Vaulting, adopted to illustrate eleventh-century Abbasid orthodoxy on the utter dependence of the universe on God.
murrain Infectious disease affecting cattle and sheep (similar to arnaldia).
Mutazilism Rationalist teaching developed by the Abbasid Caliph al-Mamun in the ninth century, arguing that the Quran was created and could rightly be interpreted by caliphs on matters not settled in the Quran.
naphtha Deadly inflammable fluid developed by the Byzantines.
nass Shiite doctrine whereby imams of this persuasion could decide on rightful succession.
Nestorians Dissidents from the Byzantine Church’s definition of the two natures of Christ, human and divine, associated with Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople.
nicolaitism Hereditary priesthood.
niqab Also known as burka: a veil of a Muslim woman, covering the head and face.
Occitan A romance language spoken in southern France, Italy’s Occitan Valleys, Monaco and Spain’s Val d’Aran.
Omar see Umar.
Ortoqids see Artuqids.
Osman Founder of the Ottoman dynasty, whose sword was carried by Ottoman caliphs.
Ottomans Muslim dynasty evolving from Turkish war bands in Anatolia who seized Constantinople in 1453 and created the largest Muslim empire in history.
Outremer The Crusader States.
panegyrist A eulogist or public speaker who uses verse to give high praise to a person or thing.
passagium A deliberately small-scale and highly professional
particulare expedition.
pogroms Persecutions of Jews (latterly, specifically by Tsarist Russia).
Procession of the Holy Spirit Trinitarian doctrine dividing the Greek and Latin Churches: for the Greeks, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son; for the Latins it proceeds from the Father and the Son.
qadis Islamic judges.
Qarmatians Fighting Shiites active in the late ninth and tenth centuries who formed a mini-state.
qibla Direction of prayer.
qumiz Fermented mare’s milk.
Quraysh Ruling aristocracy of Mecca.
ridda Muslim crime of apostasy, for which there are severe penalties.
Rightly Guided A term used by Muslims for the first four caliphs: Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali.
sahil Coastal strip of the Holy Land.
Sassanians Dynasty ruling Persia, whose state religion was Zoroastrianism.
Seljuq Turks Nomads from the Russian steppe driven into settled Islamic lands by famine, converted to Sunnism.
seneschal An officer in the household of important Western nobles usually in charge of domestic arrangements and administration.
Shafites School of Sunni jurists named after Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi (767–820) supported by Saladin, who built a tomb for him in Cairo.
shahada An Islamic creed declaring belief in the oneness of God and the acceptance of Muhammad as God’s prophet.
shahid Martyr or witness.
shura Examination of the suitability of a caliph.
simony Buying or selling of a bishopric or other ecclesiastical office.
siyar An elaborate system of public and private international law which emphasised human rights regardless of religious affiliation created in the eighth century.
sufi An Islamic mystic, title derived from the Arabic for wool, suf.
Sultan Title conferred on Seljuq Turks by Abbasid caliphs in the eleventh century, acknowledging their military power while retaining their own spiritual authority.
sura Chapter of the Quran.
Syriac Aramaic dialect of Syria.
Tafsir Commentaries on the Quran.
Tafurs Cannibal extremists in the crusader force on the First Crusade.
Tanzimat Secularising movement within the late Ottoman Empire, aiming to preserve it by modernising.
taqiyya (quietism) Doctrine developed by the Shiite scholar Muhammad al-Baqr enabling Shiite supporters to conceal their beliefs.
Thagafi Member of the family inhabiting Taif, a wealthy hill town used by Meccans as a relief from summer
heat.
trebuchet Counter-weight throwing machine, potentially more powerful than the mangonel.
Trinitarian Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Turcopoles Muslims enlisted for pay under crusader settlers.
Twelver Shiism Believers that an infallible imam, occulted by God, will come back to usher in the end of the world, a doctrine held by the leadership in contemporary Iran.
ulama Body of Islamic scholars.
Umar (also known Second caliph and conqueror of Jerusalem, as Omar)
Umayyads Hereditary dynasty founded by Muawiya which made Damascus its capital.
umma Muslim community, established in Medina; later used as a term for Muslims throughout the world.
Visigoths Western Goths, a barbarian people settled in southern France and Spain who accepted Christianity.
vizier Chief representative and adviser of the caliph.
Wahhabis Named after the eighteenth-century scholar Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, who preached a puritanical form of Islam based rigidly on the Quran, rejecting Sufism, all forms of intercession, saint cults and shrines, and believing in the duty of the state to enforce doctrine and suppress vice.
ILLUSTRATIONS
1. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was reconsecrated by the patriarch on the fiftieth anniversary of its capture by the First Crusade, its interior skillfully adapted to allow the passage of a multitude of pilgrims through the Holy Places.
2. The Kaba (cube), the ‘House of God’, stands 43 feet (13m) high, constructed of granite masonry, covered with the kiswa, a black silk cloth embroidered with Quranic texts in silver and gold thread, replaced annually. The black stone (see Glossary) to be kissed or acknowledged by the pilgrims is not visible.
3. In a Persian text Ali, veiled and with his holiness symbolised by flames behind his head, is shown on the roof of the Kaba destroying the pagan idols in 630, aiding Muhammad below him, similarly veiled and with symbolic flames.
4. Before Muhammad achieved his overwhelming authority he had to face stone-throwing enemies and is here being defended by Abu Bakr.
5. The winged horse Buraq with a woman’s face in the Night Journey of the Prophet transports Muhammad, accompanied by winged and crowned angels, upwards from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to the highest heaven.
6. The Dome of the Rock, a masterpiece of architecture and decoration, was the work of Caliph Abd al-Malik, asserting Muslim power over Herod’s Temple Mount and dominating the Church of the Holy Sepulchre below.
7. The minbar of Nur al-Din was designed by him to be placed at the end of the Temple Mount in the al-Aqsa mosque once it had been recaptured from the Christians.
8. The Janissaries, seen here on ceremonial parade, were the vital supporting arm of the Ottoman sultans. They were recruited from Christian parents in the Balkans and were as skilled with weapons as the Mamluks had been.
9. The Hospitallers as a naval power are on display in front of their port at Rhodes in Caoursin’s history of the great siege of 1480. Pierre d’Aubusson, the Grand Master and the hero of the defence, is shown on the right of the carack while the Ottoman Prince Zizim on the left, feasts and drinks wines as a pensioner of the order.
10. King Louis Philippe of France distorted history to support colonialism.
11. Kaiser Wilhelm II sought Germany’s economic advantage by declaring himself the friend of all Muslims.
12. Sultan Abdul-Hamid II of Turkey accused Western powers of being nothing but crusaders.
13. The statue of Saladin in Damascus was commissioned by the late President Assad of Syria to honour Saladin’s triumph.
14. A statue now in the Belval Abbey church in Lorraine shows the cloth cross crusaders pinned on their clothing. Is the crusader’s wife welcoming him home or saying farewell?
15. The fragment of a tower in the Turkish township of Antakya, recalling the array of towers in the massive Byzantine fortifications of Antioch which delayed the crusaders in 1097–8.
l6. Krak des Chevaliers: the ramped entry (on the far side of the photo above) took cavalrymen up from the lower level of the concentric castle to the upper level through bends dominated by archers’ slits. At the top lay the residence of the Grand Master.
l7. Krak des Chevaliers: the ramped entry (on the far side of the photo above) took cavalrymen up from the lower level of the concentric castle to the upper level through bends dominated by archers’ slits. At the top lay the residence of the Grand Master.
18. The ‘bone in the throat of the Muslims’, the castle and garrison town of Kerak sat on a rocky spur ten miles east of the Dead Sea and dominated the vital Muslim caravan route. Starvation alone forced its surrender after eight months of blockade in 1188.
19. The ascent to the great mound, once the powerhouse of Nur al-Din at Aleppo, was built by an Ayyubid governor, culminating in a guardhouse to check the entry of enemies.
20. Twists and turns within the guardhouse exposed intruders to the defenders’ weapons of spear and bow. The Ayyubids built a new mosque but retained the mosque of Abraham, used by Nur al-Din for his private devotions.
21. In rugged terrain the castle and town of Masyaf in Syria was an Assassin strongpoint. Saladin, seeking vengeance for two attempts on his life, besieged it in 1176 but failed to capture it.
22. At the Horns of Hattin, Saladin’s masterly plan to destroy the Christian army reached its triumphant climax in July 1187. It turned out to be the end of Christian hopes of taking the Holy Land.
23. Sahyun is a striking example of the lengths to which settler-barons were willing to go to create near-impregnable castles. Forced labour dug out a massive ditch in the rock, leaving a needle to support a drawbridge. T.E. Lawrence in 1909 called it ‘the most sensational thing in castle-building I have seen’. Nevertheless it fell to Saladin in three days in the aftermath of Hattin in July 1188.
24. A pillar of another kind with intricately interwoven stonework, the Ablution Tower on the Haram was the work of the Mamluk Sultan Qaitbay in the late fifteenth century. It reminds the observer that warriors who superseded Saladin’s heirs were capable of sponsoring fine artistic work.
25. The Latin cathedral dedicated to St Antony built at Famagusta in Cyprus between 1308 and 1315 was a sign of continued Western vitality in the Mediterranean after the fall of Acre. It fell into ruin after the Turks took the island in 1571.
26. Bodrum on the mainland of Anatolia, now Turkey, with a port and fortifications, was a high point in the expansion of the Hospitallers. The engraved slab, dating from 1472, has the arms of the Grand Master, supported by the Virgin and St Peter with the arms of the Captain of the castle below.
27. King Ibn Saud
28. Sultan Atrash
29. Sir Mark Sykes
30. François Georges-Picot
Twentieth-century personalities, Western and Eastern. Sykes and Picot were determined that the interests of Britain and France should prevail, whatever the fate of Ottoman lands. Sultan Atrash and King Ibn Saud were inspired by Islamic movements from the past – Atrash leading Druze fighters to defeat the French regular army during the mandate, Ibn Saud rescuing Wahhabism on the brink of death under his father.
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
Colour
1 The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem. Photo: © Sonia Halliday Photo Library
2 The Kaba (cube) the House of God, Mecca. Photo: © Sufi/shutterstock
3 Ali and Muhammad destroying the Idols. Photo: © The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin
4 Muhammad being defended by Abu Bakr. From the Spencer Collection, the New York Public Library Digital Collections
5 The Night Journey of the Prophet. Reproduced with kind permission of Desmond Stewart, Mecca (The Reader’s Digest Association, Ltd., 1980)
6 The Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem. Photo: © akg-images/Bildarchiv Steffens
7 The minbar of Nur al-Din. From Carole Hillenbrand, The Crusades, Islamic Perspectives (Edinburgh
University Press, 1999), with permission of the author
8 The Janissaries on ceremonial parade at the court of Sultan Selim III, Istanbul, late eighteenth century. Photo: ReinhardDirscherl/WaterFrame/Getty Images
9 Prince Zizim is feasted by the Knights of Rhodes. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Caoursin MS Lat. 6067
10 King Louis Philippe of France. Photo: Winterhalter/National Museum of Versailles/Mary Evans/BeBa/Iberfoto
11 Kaiser Wilhelm II. Photo: © Robert Hunt Library/Mary Evans
12 Sultan Abdul-Hamid II. Unattributed design in Le Petit Journal, 21 February 1897/Mary Evans
13 The statue of Saladin in Damascus with sculptor Abdallah al-Sayed. From Hillenbrand, The Crusades, Islamic Perspectives
Black and White
1 Statue from Belval abbey church, Lorraine. From Wolfgang Müller-Wiener, Castles of the Crusaders (Thames and Hudson, 1966). Photo by A. F. Kersting
2 The fragment of a tower in the Turkish township of Antakya. From Müller-Wiener, Castles of the Crusaders
3 Krak des Chevaliers, in the Nusairi mountains. From Müller-Wiener, Castles of the Crusaders
4 Krak des Chevaliers (plan). From Müller-Wiener, Castles of the Crusaders
5 The castle and garrison town of Kerak. From Müller-Wiener, Castles of the Crusaders
6 The Citadel at Aleppo. From Müller-Wiener, Castles of the Crusaders
7 The Citadel (plan). From Hillenbrand, The Crusades, Islamic Perspectives
8 Masyaf, Syria. From Müller-Wiener, Castles of the Crusaders
9 The Horns of Hattin, Israel. From Michael Haag The Tragedy of the Templars (Profile Books, 2012), with permission of the author
10 Sahyun, Syria. From Müller-Wiener, Castles of the Crusaders