Crusades
Family: War, peace and the conduct of conflict · 17 entries
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Event
The battle of the Sudan between the two palaces
c. August 1169 CE · c. 1 Dhu al-Qa'da 564 AHDhu al-Qa'da 564 (1169): after Saladin executed Mu'tamin al-Khilafa — the Fatimid palace eunuch caught corresponding with the Franks — and set Baha al-Din Qaraqush over the palace, the Sudanese troops of Cairo, over fifty thousand strong out of solidarity, rose against the Salahiyya regiments and fought them between the two palaces; Saladin had their Mansura quarter burned over their families, they broke, took safe-conduct out of Egypt, and Turanshah destroyed the remnant at Giza — the end of the Fatimid army.The Frankish siege of Damietta (564 AH)
c. October 1169 CE · Safar 564 AHSafar 564 (Oct–Dec 1169): Frankish Syria, reinforced by fleets answering appeals to Sicily and al-Andalus, besieged Damietta fifty days; Saladin fed it men and money down the Nile while Nur al-Din loosed his raiders deep into the emptied Frankish lands — the besiegers withdrew to find their own country wasted, in Ibn al-Athir's proverb the ostrich that went out seeking horns and came back without ears.The Sicilian assault on Alexandria (569 AH)
c. 1 August 1174 CE · 26 Dhu al-Hijja 569 AH26 Dhu al-Hijja 569 (1174): answering the restoration plotters' letters, a Sicilian armada — two hundred troop-shinis, thirty-six horse-transports, six siege-train ships and forty supply vessels, fifty thousand foot and fifteen hundred horse under the Sicilian king's cousin — landed by the Pharos and set siege-towers against Alexandria's wall; the townsfolk and nearby iqta' troops held three days, burst out and burned the towers, and a rumour of Saladin's approach broke the Franks — the camp was stormed in the dark, the fleet fled under hull-piercing swimmers, and three hundred knights on a hill were finished by morning.The battle of the Ford of Sorrows (Jacob's Ford, 575 AH)
1179 CE · 575 AHThe Franks built a strong castle by Jacob's Ford near Banias at the 'Ford of Sorrows'; in 575 Saladin, holding Banias, sent out a foraging escort that the Frankish king's whole host fell upon — he raced up, the Muslims were nearly flung from their stands, then broke the Franks: their king escaped alone while Balian 'ibn Barzan' of Ramla and Nablus, his brother of Jubayl, the lord of Tiberias, the masters of the Templars and Hospitallers and the lord of Janin were taken. Ibn Barzan ransomed himself for 150,000 Tyrian dinars and a thousand Muslim captives; the day's work was Izz al-Din Farrukhshah's, who recited al-Mutanabbi's two verses and threw himself on death — then Saladin demolished the fort.The capture of Shaqif Habs Jaldak (Beaufort, 578 AH)
c. June 1182 CE · Safar 578 AHSafar 578: while the Frankish host massed at Kerak watching Saladin's march from Egypt, Izz al-Din Farrukhshah gathered the Syrian regiments and swept through the emptied Frankish lands — plundering Daburiyya and its villages — and stormed the Shaqif 'Habs Jaldak', the fortress overlooking the Sawad above Tiberias that had long tormented the Muslims; its fall broke the Franks' edge.Battle of Hattin
c. 4 July 1187 CE · 25 Rabi' II 583 AHOn Saturday, five days before the end of Rabi' al-Akhir in 583 AH, Saladin and the Muslims engaged the Franks, who were tormented by thirst and had lost heart. The Muslim vanguard shot arrows like locusts spreading across the ground and killed many of the Franks' horses. The Franks were heading for Tiberias to reach water, but Saladin blocked their path, drew up his army against them, and rode among the Muslims urging them on. One of his young Mamluks charged fiercely and fought until he was killed; then the Muslims launched a violent charge that broke the Franks. Some volunteers set fire to the dry grass, which was abundant; the fire burned, and the wind carried its heat and smoke toward the Franks, so that thirst, the heat of the day, the fire and the fighting came upon them together. The Muslims surrounded them like a circle around its diameter, and those who remained climbed a hill near Hattin, where they could pitch no tent except their king's. The Muslims took their great cross, which the Franks call the Cross of the Crucifixion and which they believe contains a piece of the wood on which Christ was crucified. Al-Malik al-Afdal, Saladin's son, recounts that he stood beside his father at the first clash: when the Franks charged repeatedly until they drove the Muslims back toward the tent, his father grew downcast, gripped his beard and cried, 'The Devil lied!'; al-Afdal, joyful, cried, 'We have defeated them!' His father turned to him and said, 'Be quiet; we will not defeat them until that tent falls.' When the tent fell, the sultan dismounted, prostrated in thanks and wept for joy. The king and his brother were captured, along with Prince Arnat, lord of Karak, the lord of Jubayl, the Grand Master of the Templars and a group of Hospitallers. Whoever looked at the dead would not think any prisoners had been taken, and whoever looked at the captives would not think anyone had been killed. Saladin gave the king iced water, and the king gave what was left of it to Arnat. Saladin said, 'He did not drink the water with my permission, so he will not obtain what he wishes'; he rebuked him for his wrongs, rose, and struck his neck, saying that he had twice vowed to kill him if he ever prevailed over him: once when Arnat meant to march on Mecca and Medina, and once when he seized the caravan treacherously. He ordered the Templar and Hospitaller prisoners gathered; two hundred were brought before him and their necks were struck, because they were fiercer than all the other Franks. Ibn al-Athir says that about a year later he passed the site of the battle and saw the ground full of their bones.The German King's Campaign and His Drowning
c. 1190 CE · 586 AHIn 586, after the Muslim king's taking of Jerusalem alarmed him, the king of the Germans set out — a kind of Franks, the most numerous and fiercest of them — and took the road through Constantinople. The Byzantine ruler sent to Saladin to warn him and promise that he would not let him cross. When the Germans arrived, Saladin could not stop them because of their numbers, but he cut off their supplies, and provisions ran short until they crossed the strait into the realm of Qilij Arslan ibn Mas'ud the Seljuk. The Turkmen rose against them, harrying them and killing any who fell behind; it was winter, the snow lay deep, and cold, hunger and the Turkmen destroyed them. When they neared Konya, Qutb al-Din Malikshah ibn Qilij Arslan came out to block them but had no strength against them. They sent to Qilij Arslan saying they had not come against his lands but against Jerusalem; he allowed his subjects to sell them food and handed over more than twenty emirs as hostages. The German king marched to the land of the Armenians, whose ruler Lafun supplied them with food, then moved toward Antioch and camped by a river on the way, where the king went in to bathe and drowned in a spot where the water reached only to a man's waist. His son succeeded him and marched on Antioch, but the followers quarrelled: some stayed behind and some made a brother of the king their ruler. The force that went on, numbering over forty thousand, was struck by plague and death until it reached Antioch looking as though it had been dug out of graves; only about a thousand men were left, who took ship to the Franks at Acre.The Franks take Acre and kill the captives
c. 12 July 1191 CE · 17 Jumada II 587 AHOn Friday, 17 Jumada II 587, the Franks took Acre after a long siege. Among the things that most weakened its defenders was that Amir Sayf al-Din Ali ibn Ahmad al-Hakkari, known as al-Mashtub, went out to King Afrinsis offering to hand over the city in exchange for freeing those inside; the king did not answer him, and the people lost heart. Two amirs from within used the night as a mount, secretly took to the sea by boat, and reached the Muslim army, so the city's people were certain of ruin. Al-Mashtub agreed with the Franks to surrender the city for two hundred thousand dinars, five hundred named captives, the return of the Cross of the Crucifixion, and fourteen thousand dinars for the Marquis, lord of Tyre, with two months allowed to collect it. Once they had taken the city, the Franks betrayed those inside and imprisoned them. Saladin gathered a hundred thousand dinars and consulted his amirs, who advised him to send nothing until the Templars guaranteed good faith; the Templars refused to swear or to guarantee, saying they feared treachery from their own side. Saladin, realising their intent to betray, sent nothing. On Tuesday, 27 Rajab, the Franks went out to the outskirts of the city and found most of the Muslims in their hands already slain by the sword; they spared the amirs and those with wealth, to seek ransom from them. Saladin spent the money he had gathered and sent the captives and the cross to Damascus.The assassination of the Marquis of Tyre (588 AH)
c. 28 April 1192 CE · 13 Rabi' II 588 AH13 Rabi' II 588 (April 1192): the Marquis of Tyre — 'greatest of the Frankish devils' — was cut down by two Assassins in monks' garb who had spent six months in the households of Sidon's lord and Ibn Barzan winning his trust; wounded at a bishop's banquet, he was carried to a church where one of them, hiding inside, finished him; Ibn al-Athir reports Saladin had offered Sinan ten thousand dinars for the deed or for Richard's, and the Franks blamed the English king.Al-Adil takes Jaffa and the Franks take Beirut (593 AH)
September 1197 CE · Shawwal 593 AHShawwal 593: al-Adil massed the Ayyubid armies at Ayn Jalut, stormed Jaffa's citadel in a day and took all in it as booty and captives. The German-led Frankish relief reached Caesarea too late — their king Henry of Champagne had fallen from a high place at Acre and died, throwing them into confusion. The Ayyubids then razed Beirut's walls; the Franks slipped in, reoccupied it and besieged Tibnin before withdrawing.Shaqif Castle handed to the Franks, 638
1240 CE · 638 AHIn 638 al-Salih Isma'il surrendered Beaufort castle to the Franks for his own purpose; the Muslims hated him for it — Ibn Abd al-Salam and Ibn al-Hajib denounced him and were jailed, Ibn Abd al-Salam removed from Damascus's minbar.
Work
Screening Room
Saladin the Victorious
1963 CE · 1383 AH†Youssef Chahine's Egyptian epic starring Ahmed Mazhar as Saladin and the liberation of Jerusalem — the most famous Arabic film on the Crusades.The Sultan and the Saint
2016 CE · 1437 AH†UPF's docudrama, narrated by Jeremy Irons, on St Francis of Assisi's meeting with Sultan al-Kamil at Damietta in 1219 amid the Fifth Crusade.Saladin: The Conqueror of Jerusalem
A Turkish–Pakistani co-production on Saladin's rise in Egypt and the recapture of Jerusalem — the largest recent screen production on the Crusades leader.Kingdom of Heaven
2005 CE · 1426 AH†Ridley Scott's epic about Balian of Ibelin and the defence of Jerusalem in 1187; Saladin is a major, dignified character and the film's portrayal of the Crusades has been widely discussed.Saladin: The Animated Series
MNC Animation's Malaysian series dramatising Saladin's youth for children, aired on Al Jazeera Children's Channel — among the first animated works on a major Islamic figure.
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