Saladin
From TheHeroesWiki
Saladin is one of the greatest Muslim rulers of all time. He is well known in the books of history, not just as a brave and a genius military general but also as a just ruler towards his people (Muslims and non-muslims) and towards his enemies.
Contents |
The Age of Saladin
The last Fatimid Caliph was only eighteen when the Seljuks captured Cairo. The Seljuks who came originally form Central Asia had already conquered Syria and Palestine, and established their Capital in Damascus. By 1168, Egypt had become a battle ground between the Seljuks and the Crusaders, with the Fatimids having virtually little or no control, although they sided mostly with the Crusaders. It was in 1168 that the victorious Shirkoh entered Cairo, and was named governor of Egypt by the Sultan of Damascus, Noor-el-Din. When he died a year later, his nephew was immediately appointed as the next governor. He was young - in his early thirties - and full of will. Quickly, he would become one of the most famous figures in Medieval history. His name was Salah-el-Din the Ayyubid, better known in Western history as Saladin. The young general is one of the few commanders in history who are tremendously respected by their friends and enemies alike. When he took control over Cairo, the Fatimids remained isolated in their palaces. Saladin did not seek revenge, but rather waited until their Caliph died. He then expelled the Fatimids out of their palaces and sent them to exile. Unlike his successors, the young general did not seize the Fatimid's wealth, nor did he occupy their palaces. Like a caring ruler, he opened the gates of Cairo and allowed Egyptian citizens to live within the city walls in areas which had been exclusively occupied by Fatimid royalty. Because of his sincerity and kindness, he became popular among Egyptian citizens -Muslims and Christians alike- and even had a Jewish personal doctor(Maimonides). And when he later fought Richard the Lionheart, legend goes that Saladin ordered his horsemen to carry ice down the mountain to comfort the British King when he was sick.
In Cairo, Saladin not only built mosques and palaces (in fact he did not build a palace for himself), but also colleges, hospitals, and a fortress, the Citadel, which still remains one of Cairo's landmarks to this day. Unfortunately, it is to be taken against him and his successors that they used some of the Pyramids stones to meet the excessive need for building materials in the growing city. The Citadel was built on a elevated spot near the the Muqattam Hills, and occupies a strategic spot from which you can, to this day, have a panoramic view of Cairo. New city walls were also erected outside the Fatimid walls to defend Cairo from enemy raids.
In 1182, Saladin marched to Palestine and Syria and never returned to Cairo. For the next 10 years, he fought the Crusaders and managed to end their presence in the region, at least temporarily. When he died in Damascus in 1193, he had almost no personal possessions, but he earned himself a remarkable place in history.
Saladin's tolerance Vs Crusader's
Before the recapturing of Jerusalem
A demographic factor made it more favourable to Salah al-Din. The northern triangular section of the city, which extended between St. Stephen's Gate and the Gate of Jehoshafat and which was known in medieval times as the Juiverie, enclosed the quarters of the native Christians. Often referred to in medieval chronicles as 'Syrians," they formed the most underprivileged community in Jerusalem under Latin rule and were despised by their Latin neighbours. Medieval Latin pilgrims placed them at the bottom of the demographic scale next to Muslims, or "Saracens." The native Christians were more inclined towards Salah al-Din than towards the Latins. For besides their hostile relations with the Latins and their linguistic and ethnic identification with the Arabs of the area, they were also influenced by the Greek Orthodox Church in Byzantium. Byzantium at this time was an ally of Salah al-Din. The Emperor Isaac II Angelus had confirmed an agreement with Salah al-Din in A.D.1185, according to which Salah al-Din offered to convert existing Latin churches in the Holy Land to the Christian rite once they had been recovered.
Once in Jerusalem, Salah al-Din seems to have contacted the leaders of the native Christian community through an Orthodox Christian scholar from Jerusalem, known as Joseph Batit. Batit, as Runciman says, had even secured a promise from the leaders of the community that they would open the gates of the city in the vicinity of Salah al-Din, but this did not take place because the Latins decided to surrender the city.
After the recapturing of Jerusalem
.........Certainly Salah al-Din's magnanimity towards the Latins contrasts sharply with the attitude of the victorious Crusaders in 1099.
Emoul, by now a Latin refugee, indicated that the ransomed refugees were assembled in three groups. One was placed in the custody of the Templars and another in that of the Hospitallers, while Balian and Patriarch Heraclius took charge of the third. Salah al-Din assigned each group fifty of his officers to ensure their safe arrival in territories held by the Christians. One chronicler gives Salah al-Din's officers credit for their humane treatment of the refugees, noting that these officers,
" who could not endure the suffering of the refugees, ordered their squires to dismount and set aged Christians upon their steeds. Some of them even carried Christian children in their arms."
.........The third group headed for 'Asqalan and then to Alexandria. According to Emoul, they were treated hospitably in Egypt and remained in Alexandria until March 1188, when they were put on ships for Europe. The captains of Genoese, Pisan, and Venetian ships at first resisted boarding 1,000 poor refugees, but they were later obliged by Alexandrian officials to accept these destitutes in order to obtain sailing permits. Assurances were also secured of good treatment of the refugees on the part of the Italians by means of the threat that if they did not keep their promises, their fellow citizens would suffer in retaliation once they had arrived in Egypt. "Thus did the Saracens show mercy to the fallen city," says Lane-Pool. "One recalls the savage conquest by the first Crusaders in 1099, when Godfrey and Tancred rode through the streets choked with the dead and dying."
If the taking of Jerusalem were the only fact known about Salah al-Din, it would be sufficient to prove him the most chivalrous and great-hearted conqueror of his own, and perhaps of any, age.
The Fate of the Native Christians
'Imad al-Din indicates that, after paying their ransom, the native Christians requested Salah al-Din's permission to remain in their quarters in safety. Salah al-Din granted their request, provided that they paid the poll tax (jizya). Some members of the Armenian community also asked to stay in the city and were allowed to do so, provided that they also paid the tax. Many of the poor from both groups were exempted. Rich Christians bought much of the property of the departing Latins. Salah al-Din allowed them to pray freely in their churches, and he handed over control of Christian affairs to the Byzantine patriarch. 'Imad al-Din notes that at first Salah al-Din ordered the closure of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Its future was discussed, and some even advised that it should be demolished in order to sever completely the attachment of the Christians to Jerusalem. However, a majority of the Muslims rejected the idea. They argued that demolishing the church would not help, for it would not prevent Christians from visiting it. According to 'Imad al-Din:
" Those who come to visit it come to worship at the location of the cross and the sepulchre rather than at the building itself. Christians will never stop making pilgrimages to this location, even if it has been totally uprooted." Those who spoke in favour of preserving the Church of the Holy Sepulchre even suggested that when the Caliph 'Umar conquered Jerusalem, he confirmed the right of Christians to the church and gave no orders to demolish the building.
When the Byzantine emperor received the news of Salah al-Din's victory in Jerusalem, he asked him to restore the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to the Greek Orthodox Christians, a request that Salah al-Din granted. The Latins, however, were not allowed into Jerusalem for four years. In September 1192 the knights of the Third Crusade were allowed into the city as pilgrims to pray at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. When Hubert, Bishop of Salisbury, met with Salah al-Din, he was granted permission to have four Latin monks in the church.
Richard the Lionheart Makes Peace with Saladin
Medieval Sourcebook: Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi: Richard the Lionheart Makes Peace with Saladin, 1192
[Adapted from Brundage] Two days later the Crusading army left Acre and marched south along the coast, trailed by Saladin's forces. An unsuccessful attempt at negotiation between Saladin and Richard broke down early in September and on September 7 battle was joined near Arsuf. The Crusading army, though hard-pressed, held its ground and at the end of the fray Richard's men retained control of the battlefield.
The army proceeded from Arsuf to Jaffa, which the Crusaders took and fortified strongly. Jaffa, they hoped, would be the base of operations in a drive to reconquer Jerusalem itself. As the winter of 11911192 approached, active campaigning was abandoned and further sporadic negotiations between Richard and Saladin were taken up, though without any immediate result. During the winter months Richard's men occupied and refortified Ascalon, whose fortifications had earlier been razed by Saladin.
The spring of 1192 saw continued negotiations and further skirmishing between the opposing forces. During this period Richard began to receive disturbing news of the activities of his brother John and of Philip Augustus, and as the spring gave way to summer it became evident that Richard must soon return to Europe to safeguard his own interests there. Saladin several times attacked Jaffa and once was on the point of taking the city during Richard's absence; the plan, however, was foiled by Richard's unexpected return.
During the summer Richard fell ill and this, added to the news of the rapidly deteriorating situation in Europe, brought him finally to accept Saladin's peace terms . The departure of Richard the LionHearted from the Holy Land in October 1192 ended the third major Western invasion of the East. On this expedition three great armies had toiled to conquer Jerusalem and the whole of Palestine for the West. But, in 1192, Jerusalem was still in Saladin's hands and the deliverance of the East from the Muslims was still a pious hope. The positive achievement of this Crusade was modest: it had reestablished a tiny Latin Kingdom on the Palestinian coast. The major task of the Crusade, however, was left undone.
As his illness became very grave, the King despaired of recovering his health. Because of this he was much afraid, both for the others as well as for himself. Among the many things which did not pass unnoted by his wise attention, he chose, as the least inconvenient course, to seek to make a truce rather than to desert the depopulated land altogether and to leave the business unfinished as all the others bad done who left the groups in the ships.
The King was puzzled and unaware of anything better that he could do. He demanded of Saif adDin, Saladin's brother, that he act as gobetween and seek the best conditions be could get for a truce between them. Saif adDin was an uncommonly liberal man who bad been brought, in the course of many disputes, to revere the King for his singular probity. Saif adDin carefully secured peace terms on these conditions: that Ascalon, which was an object of fear for Saladin's empire so long as it was standing, be destroyed and that it be rebuilt by no one during three years beginning at the following Easter.[March 28, 1193] After three years, however, whoever had the greater, more flourishing power, might have Ascalon by occupying it. Saladin allowed Joppa to be restored to the Christians. They were to occupy the city and its vicinity, including the seacoast and the mountains, freely and quietly. Saladin agreed to confirm an inviolate peace between Christians and Muslims, guaranteeing for both free passage and access to the Holy Sepulcher of the Lord without the exaction of any tribute and with the freedom of bringing objects for sale through any land whatever and of exercising a free commerce.
When these conditions of peace had been reduced to writing and read to him, King Richard agreed to observe them, for he could not hope for anything much better, especially since he was sick, relying upon scanty support, and was not more than two miles from the enemy's station. Whoever contends that Richard should have felt otherwise about this peace agreement should know that he thereby marks himself as a perverse liar.
Things were thus arranged in a moment of necessity. The King, whose goodness always imitated higher things and who, as the difficulties were greater, sent legates to Saladin. The legates informed Saladin in the hearing of many of his satraps, that Richard had in fact sought this truce for a three year period so that he could go back to visit his country and so that, when he had augmented his money and his men, he could return and wrest the whole territory of Jerusalem from Saladin's grasp if, indeed, Saladin were even to consider putting up resistance. To this Saladin replied through the appointed messengers that, with his holy law and God almighty as his witnesses, he thought King Richard so pleasant, upright, magnanimous, and excellent that, if the land were to be lost in his time, he would rather have it taken into Richard's mighty power than to have it go into the hands of any other prince whom be had ever seen.
Source:
Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi, ed. William Stubbs, Rolls Series, (London: Longmans, 1864) VI, 27-28 (pp. 427-30), translated by James Brundage, The Crusades: A Documentary History, (Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 1962), 185-86 For this text see also The Crusade of Richard the Lionhearted, ed. and trans. John L. LaMonte, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1941)
Saladin in Western Literature
Saladin's character also appeared in the masterpiece novel The Talisman by Sir Walter Scott. It was published in 1825 as the second of his Tales of the Crusaders. Full Novel can be found in this link
http://www2.arts.gla.ac.uk/SESLL/STELLA/STARN/prose/WSCOTT/TALISMAN/contents.htm
Sources for the previous adaptations and some external links
Saladin: Article from the Time magazine
Saladin: Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
Some Medieval Accounts of Salah al-Din's Recovery of Jerusalem (Al-Quds)
Medieval Sourcebook: Richard the Lionheart Makes Peace with Saladin, 1192
Saladin and his Cairo by Ismail Abaza
Saladin: A benevolent man, respected by both Muslims and Christians by Faysal Burhan
Saladin: History Learning Site
Hero who fought Crusaders is Role Model for Muslims by Rhonda Roumani
