Introduction
The principal Arabic authority for the Muslim world empire from Samarkand to Cordoba in the time of Saladin is Ibn-al-Athir (1160–1233) of Mosul, author of the Kamil at Tawarikh, i.e. ‘The Perfect [or Complete] History’. Also sometimes known as his World History, it was well in advance, in scope and detail, of his Latin contemporaries. He was an eyewitness of many episodes and is also admired for the simple elegance of his style. The article by Ashtor-Strauss on Jews at the time of Saladin, cited in the bibliography, is still useful. In general, despite the restrictions reintroduced by Saladin, Jews preferred Islamic regimes to the Latin Catholic kingdom of Jerusalem. Many left for Egypt. Alexandria had a population of some 3,000 Jews, Cairo of 2,000, served by two synagogues and a rabbi at the head of the community.
Chapter I Jerusalem
Ibn-al-Athir remains our chief companion, but we also meet the anthologist Abu Shama of Damascus (1203–67), of the next generation. His Kitab ar-Raudatain, ‘Book of the Two Gardens’ (that is, the two dynasties of Nur ad-Din and Saladin), draws on earlier writers such as Imad ad-Din of Isfahan (1125–1201) who was successively secretary to Nur ad-din and Saladin, and whose seven-volume history of Saladin’s times, al-Barq al-Shami, was used by several writers, notably Abu Shama, though the original text has not survived. Abu also excerpted Shama of Imad’s al-Fath al-qussi fi l-fath al-qudsi, roughly ‘An Eloquent Account of the Fall of Jerusalem’, while greatly simplifying the convoluted style. He relies on Imad for information not to be found elsewhere. We owe the account of Saladin’s generosity at Jerusalem to the Latin source known as ‘Ernoul’, edited as Chronique d’Ernoul et de Bernard le Trésorier by L. de Mas- Latrie (Paris, 1971; see also the bibliography under Morgan).
Chapter 2 Across the Battle Lines
Over the decades, Europeans’ attitudes towards themselves as well as to the Muslim world could be mixed – or in the case of the Würzburg annalist downright cynical. But, even at the time, a committed crusade historian like the monk Fulcher of Chartres, who died aged about 60 at Jerusalem circa 1125, having settled there in the year of its capture, could be reasonably objective. His Gesta Francorum Iherusalem peregrinantium (found as Historia Hierosolymitana in R.H.Cr.Occ. III) is a reliable and reasonably objective account of the early years of the First Crusade.
Chapter 3 The Quadrilateral of Power
After his ‘Perfect History’ the best-known work by Ibn al-Athir was ‘The History of the Atabegs of Mosul’. Often verging on the panegyric and certainly less objective than his principal work, for page after page it rings to the triumph of Zengi’s capture of Edessa. A selection in French translation will be found in R.H.Cr.Or. Vol II part ii.
Chapter 4 Nur-ad-Din and the Propaganda of the Jihad
This chapter is indebted to L’Islam et la Croisade by Emmanuel Sivan. It seems that Saladin modelled himself to some degree on Nur-ad-Din’s cultivation of a public reputation for piety, though seen from Egypt his motivation seemed more like ambition than religion. Moreover, though the lord of Aleppo might have dealings with the Franks, his propagandists in Damascus represented the people there as yearning for his leadership to the Holy War, while the prince of their city negotiated with the Christians. Damascus’s historian, Ibn-al-Qalanisi (1073–1160), who held various posts in the city, was an eyewitness of much he described and was reasonably objective. Translated extracts by H.A.R. Gibb appeared as The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades (London, 1932). The basic source for the history of Aleppo is the ‘ta’rikh Halab’ of Kamal-ad-Din ibn al-’Adim (1192–1262), a native of the city.
Chapter 5 The Family of Aiyub
Interestingly, to the Christian writer William of Tyre (1130–85) Shirkuh seemed ‘a hard-working man, avid of glory’. Born in Syria but educated in Europe, and archbishop of Tyre from 1175, William, who had good Arabic as well as Latin and Greek, is noted for his scholarly Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum, ‘History of things done oversea’. In addition to Ibn-al-Athir’s ‘Atabegs’ and Abu Shama’s ‘Two Gardens’ this chapter uses the biography of Saladin by his secretary, Baha’-ad-Din Ibn Shaddad (1145–1234). A lucid narrative (translated in R.H.Cr.Or., 1884) based on personal observation, it gives the best portrait we have of Saladin from an admiring but not sycophantic Muslim point of view, and a vivid account of his times.
Chapter 6 Vizir of Egypt
The rivalries between the Shia and Sunni communities of Islam were one reason why Sunni Baghdad urged Saladin to suppress the Shia caliphate at Cairo; the rivalries of race compounded the disunity of the Islamic states throughout the period. Ibn-al-Athir’s ‘Atabegs’ gives the details of Shirkuh’s expedition to Egypt and Saladin’s own account of his personal reluctance to go on the second Egyptian expedition. He and Baha’-ad-Din give the telling insights into the Aiyubid family discussions over their deportment towards Nur-ad-Din, and the debates on the same in the councils of his commanders and emirs.
A decisive moment in Saladin’s career was the suppression of the rebellion of the Nubian guards in July–August 1169. According to Imad-ad-Din the Fatimid caliphs’ Nubian regiments had traditionally been a cause of trouble for vizirs: in the unrest during Saladin’s takeover of power they were slipping out of control. Accounts differ as to the exact sequence of events in the uprising. The rebel forces took up position in the great square between the caliph’s East and West palaces. Saladin’s brother Turan Shah was in command of loyal troops there while Saladin 192 Saladin himself and the main force were in the Vizir’s Palace quarter. The Nubians were forced down the main street towards the gate Bab Zuwaila and abandoned their action on news that their quarters at Mansuriya were aflame. Either they were given quarter to rescue their families (as Arab historians reported) or they were harried as they fled. In the next days thousands crossed the Nile for Giza but were hunted down and massacred.
Chapter 7 The Critical Years
As in Chapter 4, Kamal-ad-Din’s ‘History’ is important for events in Aleppo, Ibn al- Athir for general history and events relating to Mosul. Among secondary sources Emmanuel Sivan’s work was most helpful. And as in many parts of the book I turned to Andrew Ehrenkreutz’s biography of Saladin here, for example regarding the sultan’s dealings with the Aleppan regime after Nur-ad-Din’s death.
Chapter 8 Triumph in the North
Thanks to a decade of excavations on the site, described on the Vadum Jacob Research Project website, under Ronnie Ellenblum, Shmulick Marco and Amotz Agnon, the dimensions of the vanished castle at Jacob’s Ford and the strategic consequences of its destruction by Saladin’s forces in 1179 were given new importance in the early 2000s. Archaeologists were able to trace the construction sequence of the site – existing barely eleven months from the initiation of the works in October 1178 to the razing of the structure the following September. Saladin’s letters to the caliph at the time of his difficulties with Mosul are found in Abu Shama. The ‘Travels’ of the Andalusian-born Ibn Jubayr (also Jubair) (1145–1217), being an account of his pilgrimage to Mecca 1183–85, was translated into English by R.J.C. Broadhurst in 1952. The story of the presentation of a fuller’s bowl to Imad-ad-Din, Aleppo’s governor, comes in Kamal-ad-Din.
Chapter 9 Dynast and Hero
I found William of Tyre’s comment on the Christian reaction to the fall of Aleppo and much else in René Grousset’s Histoire des Croisades et du royaume franc de Jérusalem of the 1930s. This magnum opus was basic to subsequent English general histories of the crusades. The story of Saladin’s chivalrous conduct at the siege of al- Karak comes from the Latin source known as Ernoul. That of al-Adil, Saladin’s brother, consulting with his young nephews before accompanying them to Egypt, comes from Baha’-ad-Din, who records that he had it from al-Adil himself.
Chapter 10 Oh! Sweet Victory
In this chapter, Ibn-al-Athir’s ‘World History’ along with Imad-ad-Din’s biography of Saladin, and quotations from it in Abu Shama, are important sources for our knowledge of events. Charles M. Brand’s Speculum article of 1962 has still valuable insights on Saladin’s relations with the Byzantine empire and their joint opposition to the Third Crusade and is drawn on both here and in Chapter 11. J. Prawer’s Crusader Institutions (1980) has an interesting account of the Battle of Hattin. The defeat of the Franks at Hattin smashed the kingdom’s logistical system. Essentially, the Frankish presence in ‘Outremer’ comprised garrison settlements, colonies in effect, that depended for their survival on relatively small numbers of heavily armoured mounted men at arms, operating from scattered fortified bases. Even Notes and Sources 193 small units of such troops could be effective against large forces in limited engagements. If brought together in a single force they had to win or at least retire in good order; Hattin removed western capability from military calculations in the region for a year.
Chapter 11 The Threat from the North
We know of Henry II’s letters from the chronicle of Ralph (Radulfus) de Diceto, the dean of St Paul’s (ed. William Stubbs, London, 1876). The Latin chroniclers’ suspicions of Byzantium are discussed by Charles Brand. Throughout the negotiations Saladin took care for the status and preservation of Islam at Constantinople and the mosque there. Baha’-ad-Din described the arrival of the imam at Constantinople; he also tells us the emperor Isaac grumbled that the only result of his friendship with Saladin seemed to have been to bring down the hatred of the Franks upon his empire. I take the account of Frederick Barbarossa’s death and the reaction to it of the emir from Ibn-al-Athir, who also recorded Saladin’s debate with his emirs about the Christians in Acre.
It is worth noting that Barbarossa had appointed St George’s Day 1189 as the launch date of his crusade. In September 1191, passing through Lydda, home of the saint’s cult since the sixth century, Saladin ordered the destruction of the saint’s church there.
Chapter 12 Acre, the City for which the World Contended
The account of the battle games before Acre comes from Baha’-ad-Din, as does the criticism of the emirs for not pressing the advantage before the Franks could consolidate their position. This chapter draws heavily on him and on Ibn-al-Athir in his ‘World History’. More than once, they indicate that Saladin was thwarted of success because of lack of support and cooperation from his emirs. The hardships of the Christian forces in the Third Crusade are detailed in the Itinerarium peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi (ed. William Stubbs, London, 1864). Meaning literally ‘The travel record of the pilgrims and the deeds of King Richard’, its title is a reminder that contemporaries never used the term ‘Crusade’. For them these campaigns were armed pilgrimages to the Holy City; the Muslims saw their campaigns as jihad or Holy War to recover lands once conquered for the Faith.
Chapter 13 Saracens and Crusaders
A most vivid guide to life in the overseas territories of the expatriate Franks of the twelfth century is to be found in the autobiographical work of Usama ibn Mundiq, emir of Shaizar, who lived from 1095 to 1188. Called Kitab al-I ’tibar or ‘The Book of Instruction’, it survives in an incomplete manuscript in the library of the Escorial, Madrid. Baha’-ad-Din, Ibn-al-Athir and Abu Shama are, of course, important to the narrative, and among secondary sources the work of the French scholars Emmanuel Sivan and Albert Champdor have been useful. For the Assassins I have drawn on the work of Bernard Lewis.
Chapter 14 The Death of a Hero
For the fascinating audience Saladin gave to Bishop Hubert Walter of Salisbury, we have the testimony of the author of the Itinerarium … Regis Ricardi, and for Saladin’s reception of Bohemond of Antioch I have followed the account in 194 Saladin Grousset. But the bulk of this chapter relies on Baha’-ad-Din’s account of Saladin’s last days.
His reputation has not passed down to posterity unchallenged. The deeds of another hero of Islam, Baybars the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt who vanquished both the Christians and Mongols, are still recited in the popular coffee houses of Egypt. Yet it was the name of Saladin that was invoked when President Gamal Abdel Nasser united Egypt and Syria in the short-lived United Arab Republic, and before his overthrow in 2003 Iraq’s deposed dictator Saddam Hussein boasted that he, like Saladin, was born in the city of Takrit (Tikrit).