A History of the Crusades-Vol 2 (58 page)

In September Saladin appeared before Ascalon,
bringing with him his two chief captives, King Guy and the Grand Master Gerard.
Guy had been told that his liberty could be bought by the surrender of Ascalon;
and on his arrival before the walls he harangued the citizens telling them to
give up the struggle. Gerard joined his plea to Guy’s; but they answered them
both with insults. Ascalon was bravely defended. The siege cost Saladin the
life of two of his emirs. But on 4 September the garrison was forced to
capitulate. The citizens were allowed to leave with all their portable
belongings. They were escorted by Saladin’s soldiers to Egypt and housed in
comfort at Alexandria, till they could be repatriated to Christian lands. At
Gaza, whose Templar garrison was obliged by the laws of the Order to obey the
Grand Master, Gerard’s command that it should surrender was carried out at
once. In return for the fortress he obtained his liberty. But King Guy was kept
for some months longer in prison, first at Nablus and later at Lattakieh. Queen
Sibylla was allowed to come from Jerusalem to join him. As Saladin doubtless
expected, their release next spring added to the embarrassment of the
Christians.

1187: The
Defence of Jerusalem

The day that Saladin’s troops entered Ascalon
there was an eclipse of the sun; and in the darkness Saladin received a
delegation from the citizens of Jerusalem, which he had summoned to discuss
terms for the Holy City’s surrender. But there was no discussion. The delegates
refused to hand over the city where their God had died for them. They returned
proudly to Jerusalem; and Saladin swore to take it by the sword. In Jerusalem
an unexpected helper had arrived. Balian of Ibelin, who was with the Frankish
refugees at Tyre, sent to ask Saladin for a safe-conduct to Jerusalem. His
wife, Queen Maria, had retired there with her children from Nablus, and he
wished to bring them down to Tyre. Saladin granted his request on condition
that he only spent one night in the city and did not bear arms. When he came
there, Balian found the Patriarch Heraclius and the officials of the Orders
trying to prepare the city’s defence; but there was no leader whom the people
trusted. They all clamoured that Balian should stay and lead them and would not
let him go. Deeply embarrassed, Balian wrote to Saladin to explain the
violation of his oath. Saladin was always courteous to an enemy that he
respected. He not only forgave Balian but himself sent an escort to convey
Queen Maria, with her children, her household and all her possessions, down to
Tyre.
With her went Balian’s young nephew Thomas of Ibelin, and the
young son of Hugh of Jebail. Saladin wept to see these children, heirs to
vanished grandeur, pass through his camp into exile.

In Jerusalem Balian did what he could. The
population was swollen by refugees from all the neighbouring districts, few of them
of use as fighters. For every man there were fifty women and children. There
were only two knights in the city; so Balian knighted every boy over sixteen
that was born of a noble family and thirty men of the bourgeoisie. He
dispatched parties to collect all the food that could be found before the
Moslem armies closed round. He took over the royal treasury and the money that
Henry II had sent to the Hospital. He even stripped the silver from the roof of
the Holy Sepulchre. Arms were given to every man that could bear them.

On 20 September Saladin encamped before the
city and began to attack the north and north-west walls. But the sun was in his
soldiers’ eyes and the defences there were strong. After five days he moved his
camp. For a short moment the defenders believed that he had lifted the siege;
but on the morning of 26 September his army was established on the Mount of
Olives and his sappers, flanked by his horsemen, were mining the wall near the
Gate of the Column, not far from the spot where Godfrey of Lorraine had broken
into the city eighty-eight years before. By the 29th there was a great breach
in the wall. The defenders manned it as best they could and fought furiously;
but they were too few to hold it for long against the hordes of the enemy. The
Frankish soldiers wished to make one tremendous sortie and if need be die. But
the Patriarch Heraclius had no mind to be a martyr. If they did so, he said,
they would leave their women and children to inevitable slavery and he could
not give his blessing to so impious an action. Balian supported him; he saw the
folly of wasting more lives. On 30 September he went himself to the enemy camp
to ask Saladin for terms.

1187: The
Surrender of Jerusalem

Saladin had the city at his mercy. He could
storm it when he wished; and within the city he had many potential friends. The
pride of the Latin Church had always been resented by the Orthodox Christians
who formed the majority of the humbler folk in the city. There had been no
definite schism. The royal family and the lay nobility, except in Antioch, had
shown friendliness and respect to the Orthodox clergy. But the upper hierarchy
had been exclusively Latin. In the great shrines of their faith the native
Christians had been made to attend ceremonies whose language and ritual were
alien to them. They looked back longingly to the days when under just Moslem
rulers they had been able to worship as they pleased. Saladin’s confidential
adviser for his dealings with the Christian princes was an Orthodox scholar
from Jerusalem, called Joseph Batit. He now made contact with the Orthodox
communities in the city; and they promised to open the gates to Saladin.

Their intervention was not needed. When Balian
came before his tent Saladin declared that he had sworn to take Jerusalem by
the sword and only unconditional surrender would absolve him from that oath. He
reminded Balian of the massacres committed by the Christians in 1099. Was he to
act differently? The battle raged as they spoke; and Saladin showed that his
standard had now been raised on the city wall. But at the next moment his men
were driven back; and Balian warned Saladin that unless he gave honourable
terms the defenders in desperation before they died would destroy everything in
the city, including the buildings in the Temple area sacred to the Moslems, and
they would slaughter the Moslem prisoners that they held. Saladin, so long as
his power was recognized, was ready to be generous, and he wished Jerusalem to
suffer as little as possible. He consented to make terms and offered that every
Christian should be able to redeem himself at the rate of ten dinars a man,
five a woman and one a child. Balian then pointed out that there were twenty
thousand poor folk in the city who could never afford such a sum. Could a
lump-sum be given by the Christian authorities that would free them all?
Saladin was willing to accept 100,000 dinars for the whole twenty thousand. But
Balian knew that so much money could not be raised. It was arranged that for 30,000
dinars seven thousand should be freed. On Balian’s orders the garrison laid
down its arms; and on Friday, 2 October, Saladin entered Jerusalem. It was the
27th day of Rajab, the anniversary of the day when the Prophet in his sleep had
visited Jerusalem and been wafted thence to Heaven.

The victors were correct and humane. Where the
Franks, eighty-eight years before, had waded through the blood of their
victims, not a building now was looted, not a person injured. By Saladin’s
orders guards patrolled the streets and the gates, preventing any outrage on
the Christians. Meanwhile each Christian strove to find the money for his
ransom and Balian emptied the treasury to raise the promised 30,000 dinars. It
was with difficulty that the Hospital and the Temple could be made to disgorge
their riches; and the Patriarch and his Chapter looked after themselves alone.
It shocked the Moslems to see Heraclius paying his ten dinars for his ransom
and leaving the city bowed by the weight of the gold that he was carrying,
followed by carts laden with carpets and plate. Thanks to the remains of Henry
II’s donation, the seven thousand poor were freed; but many thousands could
have been spared slavery if only the Orders and the Church had been more generous.
Soon two streams of Christians poured out through the gates, the one of those
whose ransoms had been paid by themselves or by Balian’s efforts, the other of
those who could afford no ransom and were going into captivity. So pathetic was
the sight that al-Adil turned to his brother and asked for a thousand of them
as a reward for his services. They were granted to him and he at once set them
free. The Patriarch Heraclius, delighted to find so cheap a way of doing good,
then asked that he might have some slaves to liberate. He was granted seven
hundred; and five hundred were given to Balian. Then Saladin himself announced
that he would liberate every aged man and woman. When the Frankish ladies who
had ransomed themselves came in tears to ask him where they should go, for
their husbands or fathers were slain or captive, he answered by promising to
release every captive husband, and to the widows and orphans he gave gifts from
his own treasury, to each according to her estate. His mercy and kindness were
in strange contrast to the deeds of the Christian conquerors of the First
Crusade.

1187: The
Refugees

Some of his emirs and soldiers were less
kindly. There were tales of Christians being smuggled out in disguise by
Moslems who then blackmailed them of all that they possessed. Other Moslem
lords professed to recognize escaped slaves and charged high ransoms privately
to let their victims go. But wherever Saladin found such practices, his
punishment was sharp.

The long line of refugees moved slowly down to
the coast, unmolested by the Moslems. They travelled in three convoys, the
first led by the Templars, the second by the Hospitallers, and the third by
Balian and the Patriarch. At Tyre, already overcrowded with other refugees,
only fighting men could be admitted. Near Botrun a local baron, Raymond of
Niphin, robbed them of many of their goods. They moved on to Tripoli. There,
too, earlier refugees filled the city, and the authorities, short of food,
would admit no more and closed the gates against them. It was not till they
reached Antioch that they found any resting-place, and even there they were not
allowed willingly into the city. The refugees from Ascalon were more fortunate.
When Italian merchant captains refused to take them on to Christian ports without
heavy fees, the Egyptian government refused to allow the ships to sail till
they accepted them free.

The Orthodox Christians and the Jacobites
remained in Jerusalem. Each had officially to pay a capitation-tax in addition
to his ransom, though many of the poorer classes were excused the payment. The
rich amongst them bought up much of the property left vacant by the Franks’
departure. The rest was bought by Moslems and by Jews whom Saladin encouraged
to settle in the city. When the news of Saladin’s victory reached
Constantinople the Emperor Isaac Angelus sent an embassy to Saladin to congratulate
him and to ask that the Christian Holy Places should revert to the Orthodox
Church. After a little delay his request was granted. Many of Saladin’s friends
had urged him to destroy the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. But he pointed out
that it was the site, not the building, that the Christians venerated; they
would still wish to make pilgrimages there. Nor did he want to discourage that.
In fact the Church was only closed for three days. Then Frankish pilgrims were
admitted on payment of a fee.

The Christian refugees had not left the city
before the Cross over the Dome of the Rock was taken down and all signs of
Christian worship removed, and the Mosque al-Aqsa cleaned of all traces of the
occupation of the Templars. Both buildings were sprinkled with rose-water and
dedicated once more to the service of Islam. On Friday, 9 October, Saladin was
present with a vast congregation to give thanks to his God in the Mosque.

1187: Reynald of
Sidon’s Diplomacy

With the recovery of Jerusalem Saladin’s chief
duty to his faith had been performed. But there were still some Frankish
fortresses to be reduced. The Lady Stephanie of Oultrejourdain had been among
the ransomed captives at Jerusalem, and she had asked Saladin for the release
of her son Humphrey of Toron. He agreed on condition that her two great castles
were surrendered to him. Humphrey was sent from his prison to join her; but
neither at Kerak nor at Montreal would the garrison obey her order to give
themselves up. As she had failed in her bargain she sent her son back into
captivity. Her honourable action pleased Saladin, who gave Humphrey his liberty
a few months later. Meanwhile al-Adil and the Egyptian army laid siege to
Kerak. The siege lasted for more than a year. For many months the defenders
were near to starvation. Their women and children were turned out to fend for
themselves; some indeed were sold by their men-folk to the Bedouin in return
for food. Only when the last horse in the fortress had been eaten did the
castle surrender, at the end of 1188. Montreal, less closely pressed, held out
for some months longer.

Farther north the Templar castle of Safed
surrendered on 6 December 1188, after a month’s heavy bombardment, and the
Hospitallers at Belvoir, high over the Jordan valley, followed suit a month
later. The Chateau Neuf at Hunin had been occupied some time before. Beaufort,
where Reynald of Sidon had taken refuge, was saved by his diplomacy. He was a
learned man, with a passionate interest in Arabic literature. He came to
Saladin’s tent professing himself willing to surrender his castle and retire to
Damascus, if he were allowed three months to settle his affairs. He even hinted
that he might embrace Islam. So charming was his conversation that Saladin was
convinced of his good faith, only to find out too late that the truce that he
had granted had been used to strengthen the castle defences. In the meantime
Saladin had moved into the territory of Tripoli and Antioch.