Participation in wars:
Consolidation of the possessions of the Syrian emirs. Wars with the Crusaders.
Participation in battles: Conquest of Egypt. Conquest of Hama. Conquest of Damascus. Battle of Hulme. Siege of Mosul. Battle of Mezaphat. Battle of Hattin. Capture of Acre. Capture of Ascalon. Capture of Jerusalem.
(Saladin) Outstanding commander, founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, ruler of Egypt
Saladin was the son Ayyuba and nephew Shirkufa- 2 Kurdish military leaders who distinguished themselves in service Sultan Nureddin, who continued the work of his father, the Mosul atabek Imadoddina Zenti, was able to unite the possessions of countless Syrian emirs, take Edessa from the crusaders and constrain their state from all sides.
Nureddin installed Ayyub as leader of the newly annexed Damascus in 1154, and sent Saladin to Egypt in 1169, ordering him to be taken away from Fatimid caliphs, whose power has weakened quite a bit. In 1169, having overthrown the last Fatimid Adad, Saladin's uncle died Shirkuh, who exercised Nureddin's power over the conquered lands. Power over Egypt completely passed to Saladin.
Soon he began to behave quite independently in relation to Nureddin. The Sultan immediately began to prepare a campaign to pacify Saladin, but in the midst of preparations he unexpectedly died. Saladin entered Syria, where he assumed the title of Sultan, and began to rapidly eliminate Nureddin's incapable successors.
For a whole decade, Saladin fought to unite the surrounding lands around his power.
In 1174 he captured Hama and Damascus, in 1175 took Aleppo in 1176. defeated the troops Seyfeddine of Mosul at Khalma and in the same year, after a stubborn struggle, he made peace with the Syrian assassins.
In continuation of 1182 and 1185. Saladin besieged Mosul, after which the Mosul atabek Izzeddin recognized his supremacy. From that moment on, Egypt and Syria, together with the small Mesopotamian states, were completely included in the united state of Saladin, and now he decided to expel the crusaders, whom he persistently fought in 1177-1179.
June 10, 1179 Saladin in Battle of Mezaphat defeated the united army Baldwin the Leper and Raymond III.
July 4-5, 1187 battle of Hattin Saladin utterly defeated the combined forces of Jerusalem and Tripoli. Soon after this, an impressive part of Palestine and the cities of Acre, Ascalon and, finally, on October 2, 1187, Jerusalem itself fell to Saladin. He could not take possession of Tire only, because in 1188 he was able to defend it Conrad of Montferrat. The Saracens also did not have a triumph at Tripoli and Antioch.
Meanwhile, new reinforcements arrived from Europe for the crusaders, who in 1189 led the siege of Acre. With the arrival of the troops of the King of England Richard the Lionheart and the King of France Philip Augustus the city was forced to capitulate in 1191. Despite the fact that according to the agreement concluded with Saladin Richard I Before his departure from Palestine, he abandoned the conquest of Jerusalem; the year 1192 began a streak of failures for Saladin. A few months later, Saladin died of fever.
Among the eastern leaders of this time, Saladin stood out for his admirable political farsightedness and such courage that even the crusaders bowed before. But despite this, the emirs of remote provinces showed disrespect behind the back of their overlord. All this led to the fact that after the death of Saladin, the state he created went into regression.
Biography
Saladin, Salah ad-Din Yusuf Ibn Ayyub (in Arabic Salah ad-Din means "Honor of the Faith"), (1138 - 1193), the first Sultan of Egypt from the Ayyubid dynasty. Born in Tekrit (modern Iraq). The success of his career became possible only thanks to the conditions that prevailed in the East in the 12th century. The power that belonged to the orthodox caliph of Baghdad or the heretics of the Fatimid dynasty of Cairo was constantly “tested for strength” by the viziers. After 1104, the Seljuk state was again and again divided among themselves by the Turkish atabeks.
Saladin's life came precisely at a time when there was a conscious need for political unification and defense of Islam. By origin, Saladin was an Armenian Kurd. His father Ayyub (Job) and uncle Shirku, sons of Shadi Ajdanakan, were military leaders in the army of Zengi. In 1139, Ayyub received control of Baalbek from Zengi, and in 1146, after his death, he became one of the courtiers and began to live in Damascus. In 1154, thanks to his influence, Damascus remained in the power of Nur ad-Din, and Ayyub himself began to rule the city. Thus, Saladin was educated in one of the famous centers of Islamic science and was able to embrace the best traditions of Muslim culture.
His career can be divided into three periods: the conquest of Egypt (1164 - 1174), the annexation of Syria and Mesopotamia (1174 - 1186), the conquest of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and other campaigns against Christians (1187 - 1192).
Conquest of Egypt.
The conquest of Egypt was necessary for Nur ad-Din. Egypt threatened his power from the south, being at times an ally of the crusaders, and also being a stronghold of the heretical caliphs. The reason for the invasion was the request of the exiled vizier Shewar ibn Mujir in 1193. At this very time, the crusaders were raiding the cities of the Nile Delta. And Shirku was sent to Egypt in 1164 along with Saladin, a junior officer of his army. Discovering that Shirku was planning not so much to help him as to seize Egypt for Nur ad-Din, Shewar ibn Mujir turned for help to the Christian king of Jerusalem Amalric I. The crusaders helped Shewar defeat Shirku near Cairo on April 11, 1167 and force him to retreat ( Shirku's nephew, young Saladin, distinguished himself in this battle). The crusaders firmly established themselves in Cairo, which was approached several times by Shirku, who returned with reinforcements. They also tried, although unsuccessfully, to besiege Saladin in Alexandria. After negotiations, both sides agreed to leave Egypt. True, under the terms of the peace treaty, a Christian garrison was supposed to remain in Cairo. The unrest soon started by the Muslims in Cairo forced Amalric I to return to Egypt in 1168. He entered into an alliance with the Byzantine emperor Manuel I Komnenos, who at the beginning of 1169 sent a fleet and a small expeditionary force to Egypt by sea. The skillful maneuvering (both political and military) of Shirk and Saladin, the bad luck that plagued the enemy, as well as the mutual distrust between the crusaders and the Byzantines - all this prevented successful coordination of actions. And so both armies, the Crusaders and the Byzantines, retreated from Egypt. Shirku became vizier under the Fatimid caliph, while remaining subordinate to Nur ad-Din, but died soon after in May 1169. He was succeeded by Saladin, who actually became the ruler of Egypt with the title "al-Malik al-Nazir" (The Incomparable Ruler).
Saladin is the ruler of Egypt. Conquest of Syria and Mesopotamia.
In his relations with the Fatimid caliph, Saladin showed extraordinary tact, and after the death of al-Adid, which followed in 1171, Saladin already had enough power to replace his name in all Egyptian mosques with the name of the Orthodox caliph of Baghdad.
Saladin founded his Ayyubid dynasty. He restored the Sunni faith in Egypt in 1171. In 1172, the Egyptian Sultan conquered Tripolitania from the Almohads. Saladin constantly showed his submission to Nur ad-Din, but his concerns about the fortification of Cairo and the haste that he showed in lifting the sieges from the fortresses of Montreal (1171) and Kerak (1173) suggest that he was afraid of envy on the part of his master . Before the death of the Mosul ruler Nur ad-Din, a noticeable coldness arose between them. In 1174, Nur ad-Din died, and the period of Saladin's Syrian conquests began. Nur ad-Din's vassals began to rebel against his young al-Salih, and Saladin moved north, formally with the goal of supporting him. In 1174 he entered Damascus, took Hams and Hama, and in 1175 captured Baalbek and the cities surrounding Aleppo (Aleppo). Saladin owed his success, first of all, to his well-trained regular army of Turkish slaves (Mamluks), which included mainly horse archers, as well as shock troops of horse spearmen.The next step was to achieve political independence. In 1175, he forbade mentioning al-Salih's name in prayers and engraving it on coins and received formal recognition from the Baghdad caliph. In 1176, he defeated the invading army of Sayf ad-Din of Mosul and entered into an agreement with al-Salih as well as the Assassins. In 1177 he returned from Damascus to Cairo, where he built a new citadel, an aqueduct and several madrassas. From 1177 to 1180, Saladin waged war against Christians from Egypt, and in 1180 he concluded a peace treaty with the Sultan of Konya (Rum). In 1181 - 1183 he was mainly concerned with the state of affairs in Syria. In 1183, Saladin forced the atabeg Imad ad-Din to exchange Aleppo for the insignificant Sinjar, and in 1186 he obtained a vassal oath from the atabek of Mosul. The last independent ruler was finally subdued, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem found itself alone with a hostile empire.
Saladin's conquest of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
The childless King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem's illness with leprosy led to a struggle for succession to the throne. Saladin benefited from this: he completed the conquest of Syria, while continuing to raid Christian territories, although he was defeated at the Battle of Ram Allah in 1177.
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In 1187, the four-year truce was broken by the famous bandit Raynald de Chatillon from the castle of Krak des Chevaliers, provoking the declaration of a holy war, and then the third period of Saladin’s conquest began.
With an army of approximately twenty thousand, Saladin besieged Tiberias on the western shore of Lake Gennesaret. Guido Lusignan gathered everyone he could under his banner (approximately 20,000 people) and marched against Saladin. The King of Jerusalem ignored the advice of Raymond of Tripoli and led the army into the arid desert, where they were attacked and surrounded by Muslims. Many of the crusaders near Tiberias were destroyed.
On July 4, at the Battle of Hattin, Saladin inflicted a crushing defeat on the united Christian army. The Egyptian sultan managed to separate the crusader cavalry from the infantry and defeated it. Only Raymond of Tripoli and Baron Ibelin, who commanded the rearguard, with a small detachment of cavalry were able to break through the encirclement (according to one version, with the tacit approval of Saladin, who sincerely respected the old warrior). The rest of the crusaders were killed or captured, including the king of Jerusalem himself, the Grand Master of the Templar Order, Raynald of Chatillon and others. Reynald of Chatillon was executed by Saladin himself. And Guido subsequently released Lusignan, making him promise that he would no longer fight. Meanwhile, Raymond, who returned to Tripoli, died from his wounds.
Saladin captured Tiberias, Acre (now Acre in Israel), Askelon (Ashkelon) and other cities (the soldiers of their garrisons, almost without exception, were captured or died at Hattin). Saladin was already on his way to Tire when Margrave Conrad of Montferrat arrived by sea with a detachment of crusaders just in time, thus providing the city with a reliable garrison. Saladin's onslaught was repulsed.
On September 20, Saladin besieged Jerusalem. In the absence of the king, who had taken refuge in Acre, the defense of the city was led by Baron Ibelin. However, there were not enough defenders. Food too. Initially rejecting Saladin's relatively generous offers. Eventually the garrison was forced to surrender. On Friday, October 2, Saladin entered the Holy City, which had been in Christian hands for almost a hundred years, and performed a ritual of cleansing it, showing magnanimity towards the Christians of Jerusalem. Saladin released the townspeople on all four sides on the condition that they pay an appropriate ransom for themselves. Many were unable to be redeemed and were enslaved. All of Palestine was captured by Saladin.
In the kingdom, only Tire remained in the hands of Christians. Perhaps the fact that Saladin neglected to take this fortress before the onset of winter was his gravest strategic miscalculation. The Christians retained a strong stronghold when the remaining Crusader army, led by Guido Lusignan and Conrad of Montferrat, attacked Acre in June 1189. They managed to drive away Saladin's army, which was coming to the rescue of the besieged. Saladin did not have a fleet, which allowed the Christians to wait for reinforcements and recover from the defeats they suffered on land. On the landward side, Saladin's army surrounded the crusaders in a tight ring. During the siege, 9 major battles and countless small clashes took place.
Saladin and Richard the Lionheart.
On June 8, 1191, Richard I of England (later the Lionheart) arrived near Acre. Basically all the crusaders tacitly accepted his leadership. Richard drove off Saladin's army, which was coming to the rescue of the besieged, and then waged the siege so vigorously that the Muslim garrison of Acre capitulated on July 12 without Saladin's permission.
Richard consolidated his success with a well-organized march to Askelon (modern Ashkelon in Israel), which was carried out along the coast to Jaffa, and with a great victory at Arsuf, in which Saladin's troops lost 7 thousand people and the rest fled. The losses of the crusaders in this battle amounted to about 700 people. After this battle, Saladin never dared to engage Richard in open battle.During 1191 - 1192, four small campaigns took place in the south of Palestine, in which Richard proved himself a valiant knight and a talented tactician, although Saladin surpassed him as a strategist. The English king constantly moved between Beitnub and Askelon, with his ultimate goal being the capture of Jerusalem. Richard I constantly pursued Saladin, who, retreating, used scorched earth tactics - destroying crops, pastures and poisoning wells. Lack of water, lack of feed for horses and growing discontent in the ranks of his multinational army forced Richard to come to the conclusion that he was unable to besiege Jerusalem unless he wanted to risk the almost certain death of his entire army. In January 1192, Richard's impotence manifested itself in the fact that he abandoned Jerusalem and began to fortify Askelon. Peace negotiations that took place at the same time showed that Saladin was the master of the situation. Although Richard won two magnificent victories at Jaffa in July 1192, the peace treaty was concluded on 2 September and was a triumph for Saladin. All that remained of the Kingdom of Jerusalem was the coastline and a free route to Jerusalem, along which Christian pilgrims could easily reach the Holy Places. Askelon was destroyed. There is no doubt that the cause of the death of the kingdom was the unity of the Islamic East. Richard returned to Europe, and Saladin to Damascus, where he died after a short illness on March 4, 1193. He was buried in Damascus and was mourned throughout the East.
Characteristics of Saladin.
Saladin had a bright character.
Being a typical Muslim, harsh towards the infidels who captured Syria, he, however, showed mercy towards the Christians with whom he directly dealt. Saladin became famous among Christians and Muslims as a true knight. Saladin was very diligent in prayer and fasting. He was proud of his family, declaring that “the Ayyubids were the first to whom the Almighty granted victory.” His generosity was shown in the concessions given to Richard and his treatment of the captives. Saladin was unusually kind, crystal honest, loved children, never lost heart and was truly noble towards women and all the weak. Moreover, he showed true Muslim devotion to a sacred goal. The source of his success lay in his personality. He was able to unite Islamic countries to fight the crusader conquerors, although he did not leave a code of laws for his country. After his death, the empire was divided among his relatives. Although a capable strategist, Saladin was no match for Richard in tactics and, in addition, had an army of slaves. “My army is not capable of anything,” he admitted, “if I do not lead it and watch over it every moment.” In the history of the East, Saladin remains the conqueror who stopped the invasion of the West and turned the forces of Islam to the West, the hero who overnight united these unbridled forces, and, finally, the saint who embodied in his own person the highest ideals and virtues of Islam.References.
1. Smirnov S.A. Sultan Yusuf and his crusaders. - Moscow: AST, 2000.
2. World history of wars / resp. ed. R. Ernest and Trevor N. Dupuis. - Book one - Moscow: Polygon, 1997.
3. World history. Crusaders and Mongols. - Volume 8 - Minsk, 2000.
Once upon a time, seven Greek cities argued for the right to be called the birthplace of Homer. In the same way, all the peoples of the Middle East consider Sultan Saladin their fellow tribesman. More than 800 years ago, he defended Islamic civilization from the crusader knights and returned to it the holy city of al-Quds, which we call Jerusalem. Moreover, he did it with such dignity that even his enemies could not reproach him for a single dishonorable act.
Mostly the general public knows about him from the chivalric romances retold by Sir Walter Scott. This is where the name Saladin comes from. In fact, his name was Salah ad-din, which means “Glory of Faith.” But this is only an honorary nickname for the boy Yusuf, born in the spring of 1138 in the family of the military leader Naj ad-din Ayyub ibn Shadi. He was a Kurd by origin, a representative of a wild mountain people who jealously guarded their freedom and the Yazidi faith. But this does not apply to Saladin - he was born in Tikrit, Iraq, where his father served the local ruler. His mother was an Arab, and he was raised in strict Islam.
We know almost nothing about Saladin's early years. It is known, however, that already in 1139 the father of the future hero moved to Syria to serve the atabek Imad-addin Zengi. Assessing the commander’s abilities, Zengi brought him closer to him and gave him control of the city of Baalbek. After the death of Mr. Ayub, he supported his eldest son Nur ad-din in the struggle for power, for which the latter made him the ruler of Damascus in 1146. In this magnificent city, Saladin grew up and received an education, which for a noble eastern youth at that time amounted to the basics of faith, horse riding and saber skills. It is possible, however, that Saladin was also taught to read and write and the basics of versification. In any case, having become the Sultan, he knew how to read and write, unlike many European rulers.
The possessions of the Zengi dynasty bordered the crusader states in Palestine, which arose after the First Crusade in 1099. In the East, knights lived the same way as they were used to in the West. Having built castles in places convenient for defense, they imposed various duties on the peasants, both immigrants from Europe and local Arabs, Greeks and Syrians. Formally, their possessions were subordinate to the king of Jerusalem, but in fact they were independent. Their rulers themselves administered justice and reprisals, established laws, declared war on each other and made peace. Many of them did not disdain robbery, attacking merchant caravans and merchant ships. Trade brought great income to the crusaders. According to the calculations of the French historian Fernand Braudel, trade turnover between the West and the East during that period increased 30-40 times. A major role in the crusader states was played by the military knightly orders - the Templars and the Johannites (Hospitaliers). Their members took monastic vows of chastity, poverty and obedience to superiors. In addition, they swore to fight against infidels and protect Christians. At the head of each order was a Grand Master, to whom several hundred knights obeyed.
Gradually, the crusaders fit into the political system of the Middle East. Enmitying with some local rulers, they entered into alliances with others and exchanged gifts. There was no unity among Muslims: supporters of the Baghdad caliph were at enmity with the Shiite Fatimid dynasty in Egypt, and the Turkic Seljuk empire split into parts, control over which passed to the Sultan’s educators, the atabeks. Among them were the Zengids, who made it their goal to expel the “Franks” from Palestine, and especially from Jerusalem. In addition to Christian and Jewish shrines, there were also Islamic ones, including the Qubbat al-Sakhr (Dome of the Rock) mosque, from where the Prophet Muhammad, according to legend, ascended to heaven on the winged horse Borak. After the conquest of the city by the Crusaders, they were all converted into Christian churches, and Nur ad-din Zengi vowed to return them. Saladin became his assistant in this.
Saladin's army at the walls of Jerusalem
The path to empire
But first, the young man had to fight not with the “infidels” at the walls of Jerusalem, but with his fellow believers on the banks of the Nile. To encircle the possessions of the crusaders, Nur ad-din planned to subjugate Egypt, where the vizier Shevar ibn Mujir rebelled against the local caliph al-Adid. To help the latter, Zengi in 1164 sent an army led by Shirku, Ayub's brother. With him was 25-year-old Saladin, appointed commander of hundreds of horsemen. The campaign turned out to be unsuccessful: the straightforward Kurds encountered the treachery of the Egyptians. At the decisive moment, Shevar not only went over to the side of his enemy, the caliph, but also called upon King Amaury I of Jerusalem for help. The knights helped defeat Shirka near Cairo in April 1167 and dug in themselves in the Egyptian capital. It was here that Saladin first showed himself: when his disheartened comrades were ready to leave the country, he and his detachment captured the most important port of Alexandria and prevented the crusaders from receiving reinforcements. After long negotiations, both sides agreed to leave Egypt, but Shirku remained there, becoming the vizier of the caliph.
In May 1169, Shirku died, most likely from poison, and his nephew Saladin inherited the position. To the surprise of many, he proved himself not to be a simple-minded fighter, but a skillful politician who attracted the courtiers and people to his side. When al-Adid died in 1171, Saladin took his place without any resistance. His former master Nur ad-din expected him to submit, but Saladin, having become the Sultan of Egypt, made it clear that he did not need leadership. Moreover, after the death of Nur ad-din in 1174, he intervened in the dispute between his heirs and quietly took away their Syrian possessions, including Damascus (his father had already died by that time). When their relative, the powerful atabek of Mosul, stood up for the Zengids, Saladin defeated him and forced him to admit his supremacy. The enemies tried to set the assassins against the Sultan - ruthless killers who were feared by the entire East. But he created a secret service that one fine day arrested all the assassins in Damascus. Having learned of their execution, the leader of the murderers, the famous “Mountain Elder,” chose to make peace with the decisive Sultan.
Now everything was ready for the march on Jerusalem. The moment was fortunate: the city was ruled by the young King Baudouin IV, who was suffering from leprosy. His possible heirs openly fought for power, weakening the strength of Christians to the limit. Meanwhile, Saladin formed and trained an army, the basis of which was the Mamluks - former slaves. From these skilled warriors, selflessly loyal to their commanders, detachments of mounted spearmen and archers were recruited, who quickly advanced and also quickly retreated, leaving behind the clumsy knights in their armor. The other part of the army was made up of forcibly mobilized fellahins, who fought poorly and reluctantly, but could crush the enemy en masse.
After Baudouin's death, power passed from hand to hand until it went to his sister Sibylla and her husband Guido Lusignan, who did not enjoy authority and could not prevent the arbitrariness of the feudal lords. The most violent of them, Baron Renaud de Chatillon, robbed a caravan carrying Saladin's own sister to her fiancé. She was not injured and was released, but first the baron requisitioned all her jewelry. At the same time, he touched the girl, which was considered an unheard of insult. Saladin vowed revenge, and in June 1187 his 50,000-strong army set out on a campaign.
The capture of Jerusalem by the Saracens under Saladin in 1187. Book illustration. 1400
Fight of lions
First, the Sultan laid siege to the fortress of Tiberias. King Guido opposed him, but Saladin lured his army into the arid desert, where many knights died from the arrows of enemies and the scorching sun. While they were getting out of there, the fortress was forced to surrender. The Crusader army, which consisted of 1,200 knights, 4,000 mounted warriors and 18,000 infantry, headed towards Tiberias and was met by Saladin between two hills called the Horns of Gattin. On July 4, the decisive battle took place. Having fortified themselves on the hills, the Muslims fired from above at their opponents, who were suffering from thirst and smoke from dry branches set on fire by order of the Sultan. Fighting desperately, the knights managed to capture the Horns, but lost almost all their horses and were surrounded by enemy cavalry. Count Raymond of Tripoli with a small detachment managed to break through the encirclement and escape. The rest had to surrender by evening. The following were captured: King Guido himself, his brother Geoffroy, the masters of the Templars and Johannites, almost the entire crusader nobility, except for Count Raymond, but he, too, arrived in Tripoli and died from his wounds.
The Sultan's offender, Renaud de Chatillon, was also captured. He aggravated his guilt by his impudent behavior, and Saladin cut off his head with his own hand. And then, according to Kurdish custom, he moistened his finger with the blood of the enemy and ran it over his face as a sign that revenge had been accomplished. Other prisoners were sent to Damascus, where their fate was decided. Saladin ordered the execution of all the Templars and Johannites (230 people), considering them sworn enemies of Islam. The Muslim allies of the crusaders were also executed as accomplices of the enemy. The rest of the knights, including King Guido, were released, taking an oath from them never to fight with the Sultan. Ordinary warriors were sold into slavery.
After this, Saladin marched victoriously through Palestine, which there was no one to defend. Acre and Ascalon surrendered to him, and the last Christian port, Tire, was saved only thanks to the arrival from Europe of Margrave Conrad of Montferrat with a strong detachment. On September 20, 1187, the Sultan besieged Jerusalem. There were not enough defenders, and there was not enough food, the walls were very dilapidated, and on October 2 the city surrendered. Saladin did not repeat the atrocities that the crusaders had once committed: he allowed all residents to leave the city for a relatively small ransom and even take some of their property with them. However, many poor people had no money and also became slaves. There were almost 15 thousand of them. The winner received enormous wealth and all the shrines of the city, whose churches were turned back into mosques.
The news of the fall of Jerusalem caused grief and anger in Europe. The monarchs of the largest countries England, France and Germany gathered in a new crusade. As usual, there was no agreement between them, so the armies moved towards the goal one by one. The first to set off in May 1189 was the German Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. He followed by land, capturing the Seljuk capital of Konya (Iconium) along the way. But in June 1190, the emperor unexpectedly drowned while crossing the mountain river Salef. His army partly returned home, partly still reached Palestine, but there they almost completely died out from the plague epidemic.
Meanwhile, the English of Richard I and the French of Philip II were still reaching the Holy Land by sea. Along the way they had to fight a lot. King Richard earned his nickname Lionheart by fighting not with Muslims, but with the inhabitants of Sicily who rebelled against him. During another military campaign, he took Cyprus from the Byzantines, which was given to the fugitive king of Jerusalem, Guido Lusignan. It was not until June 1191 that the two kings arrived in Palestine. Saladin's fatal mistake was that he left Tire to the crusaders. Having strengthened there, they were able to receive help from Europe and besieged the powerful fortress of Acre. King Richard appeared at its walls, and a fight between two opponents, equal in strength and courage, began.
The duel between a crusader and a Muslim is believed to be between Richard the Lionheart and Saladin. Book miniature. England. Around 1340
With his fearlessness, the English king aroused the sincere admiration of Saladin. They say that one day, having learned that his enemy had a headache from the heat, the Sultan sent him a basket of snow from the mountain peaks. Ordinary Muslims treated Richard much worse and even frightened children with him. There were reasons for this: the knightly king showed his cruelty more than once. On July 12, Acre fell, and at its walls he put to the sword about 2,000 Muslim prisoners who could not pay the ransom. After this, the crusaders moved south, defeating enemy detachments one after another. It was here that the shortcomings of Saladin’s army, which consisted of forced people, became apparent. The Sultan said in his hearts: “My army is not capable of anything unless I lead it and look after it every moment.” Needless to say, if Mamluks with drawn sabers were on duty behind the fighting Egyptians. The knights did not have this: each of them knew what they were fighting for.
Death on takeoff
Moving from Acre to Ascalon, Richard threatened to return the entire coast to Christian rule. To prevent him, Saladin with an army of 20 thousand on September 7, 1191 blocked the king’s road at the Arsuf fortress. Here again the superiority of European tactics was demonstrated: the knights were able to quickly build a defense against which the rolling waves of Muslim horsemen were powerless. Having lost 7,000 people killed, Saladin's soldiers retreated in panic. After this, the Sultan never again dared to enter into a major battle with Richard. The English king captured Jaffa and Ascalon and began to accumulate forces for a strike on Jerusalem. However, soon luck turned against the Christians again: Richard and Philip entered into a fierce dispute over the crown of the now defunct Kingdom of Jerusalem. The first supported his protege Guido Lusignan, the second - Margrave Conrad of Montferrat. Having lost the argument, Philip angrily withdrew his army to France. Envy also played a role: the Frenchman did not accomplish any feats, and no one called him the Lionheart.
No more than 10,000 knights remained from the crusader army, and Richard had to admit that fighting their way to the Holy City through the armies of enemies was tantamount to death. Saladin ordered his viziers to equip and drive more and more armies into Palestine. He knew that the villages were emptying and the country was threatened by famine, but the holy war came first. For the Sultan it was not an end in itself, but a means of strengthening the empire.
The Caliph of Baghdad, whose power had waned but whose authority remained high, sent him his blessing and assurance of full support. In the future, Saladin planned a campaign against Baghdad to restore the great Arab Caliphate. His warriors had already captured Libya and even distant Yemen, and were ready to go further. But first it was necessary to finish off the crusaders. In September 1192, Richard concluded a peace treaty, which became an important victory for Saladin. The knights were left with only the sea coast, and Ascalon was destroyed under the terms of the peace. Christian pilgrims were given the opportunity to visit Jerusalem and worship the shrines there. The Sultan made this concession: the main thing was that the terrible Englishman with the heart of a lion returned home.
On his way home, Richard experienced the full consequences of his not entirely knightly act. During the capture of Acre, he threw down the flag of the Austrian Duke Leopold, which he had raised first, from the wall. The Duke harbored a grudge and now took Richard, who was in his lands, captive and imprisoned him in the castle. The king was released only two years later for a huge ransom. This did not teach the eccentric monarch anything: at home he immediately got involved in another war and in 1199 died from an accidental arrow during the siege of a French castle. “Everything that his courage won, his imprudence lost” with these words the chronicler summed up the fate of the Lionheart. His enemy Saladin was no longer alive. On his last campaign he fell ill with a fever and died in Damascus on March 4, 1193. The whole East mourned him as a defender of the faith.
After the death of the Sultan, his empire was divided by his heirs. Al-Aziz got Egypt, al-Afzal Damascus, al-Zahir Aleppo. Alas, none of the Ayyubids showed the qualities of the founder of the dynasty. Having entrusted the security of their possessions to ministers and generals, they indulged in drunkenness and entertainment with concubines. Quite soon the Mamluks decided that they would handle the affairs of the country themselves, and in 1252 they drowned the last Ayyubid, the boy Musa, in the Nile. After a bloody showdown, the Kipchak Baybars came to power, who not only finally expelled the Crusaders from the Holy Land, but also defeated the terrible Mongols, who conquered half the world. In 1260 he expelled the Ayyubids from Damascus, and in 1342 the last representative of this dynasty died. It seemed that Saladin and his cause were forever consigned to history. However, the warrior was remembered in the twentieth century, when the Arabs again rose up against the European colonialists. The Sultan became an example for the Egyptian President Nasser, and for the Syrian Assad, and for the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who was very proud to be his fellow countryman - also born in Tikrit. It got to the point that Osama bin Laden compared himself to Saladin, although he, on the contrary, fought against assassins, whom we would call terrorists. He was a man of his time - cruel, but true to the ideals that our indifferent age so lacks.From nobles to military
Salah ad-Din is not actually the name of the commander and Sultan of Egypt and Syria, who is commonly called Saladin in the West. It is an honorary nickname meaning "piety of faith." It should be noted that Saladin confirmed his truthfulness with his life and career. The Sultan's name was Yusuf ibn Ayyub, he came from a family of mercenaries and this predicted a military career for him. Saladin was proud of his pedigree and said that “the Ayyubids were the first to whom the Almighty granted victory.” However, young Saladin showed no interest in military affairs. He was passionate about philosophy, could answer questions from Euclid and the Almagest, and knew arithmetic and Islamic law. Saladin was also interested in religion, which was greatly influenced by the capture of Jerusalem by Christians during the First Crusade. Saladin was fond of genealogy, knew the biography and history of the Arabs, and could even recite by heart the ten-volume book of Arabic poetry by Abu Tammam.
None of his hobbies suggested a future brilliant military career, until, at the insistence of his relatives, he had to take up military affairs under the patronage of his uncle Asad ad-Din Shirkukh. Together with him, he won several high-profile victories and conquered Egypt in 1169.
Unexpected power
But that same year his uncle died. The Amir of Damascus, Nur ad-Din, chose a new successor to the post of Grand Vizier of Egypt, but unexpectedly the Shiite caliph al-Adid gave power to the Sunni Saladin. Perhaps the caliph did this because he considered Saladin a weak and insecure ruler. “There is no one among us weaker and younger in years than Saladin, so he must be guided, and he will not leave our tutelage. The time will come and we will find means to win over the soldiers to our side, and when the army supports us and we gain a foothold in the country, we will easily get rid of Saladin.” But as soon as Saladin gained power, he showed himself to be a decisive and independent leader, which infuriated Nur ad-Din. Saladin immediately opened a campaign against the Crusaders in 1170 and then captured the castle of Eilat, which served as a threat to the passage of Muslim ships.
After the death of al-Adid in 1171, Saladin became Sultan of Egypt and restored the Sunni faith there. Officially, despite all the power, Saladin continued to represent Nur ad-Din in Egypt. Saladin decides to independently attack the fortresses of the Jerusalem state, but Nur ad-Din finds out about this and sends his troops from Syria, Saladin closes his camp and returns to Egypt, and Nur ad-Din offers his sincere apologies. He does not accept them, the tension between them increases. In 1173, after the death of Saladin's father, Nur ad-Din began preparing a campaign against Egypt. By the following summer, Saladin was gathering troops near Cairo in preparation for an attack, but suddenly Nur ad-Din dies and Saladin gains political independence. Now he has two options - go to the crusaders or conquer Syria, which will now be divided by the vassals of Nur ad-Din.
Conquest of Syria
Saladin can take Syria before enemies arrive, but attacking his master's land is contrary to the Islamic traditions that he zealously revered. This could make him an unworthy leader in the war against the Crusaders. Then Saladin decides to take the position of protector of the 11-year-old heir Nur ad-Din al-Saleh and writes him a letter in which he promises to be “his sword.” At the same time, invaders come to Aleppo and al-Saleh is forced to move there with his army to suppress the rebellion. While the heir remains in Aleppo, Saladin advances a detachment of 700 cavalry to Damascus, who are let into the city by people loyal to his family. The commander left the city to one of his brothers and began to seize the remaining lands that once belonged to Nur ad-Din. He takes Hama and Aleppo. Saladin owed his military success to his well-trained regular Mamluk army, which included mainly horse archers and troops of mounted spearmen.
Battle of Hattin
Gradually he subjugates Syria. In 1175, he forbade mentioning the name of al-Salih in prayers and engraving it on coins and soon received formal recognition from the Baghdad caliph. The following year he enters into an agreement with the heir of Nur ad-Din. Saladin returns from Damascus to Cairo, where he builds a new citadel. Finally, Saladin subjugates the last independent ruler and the Jerusalem state is left alone with a powerful enemy.
Fighting the Crusaders
Saladin united the Muslims of the East to fight the Crusaders. After the final subjugation of Syria, he concentrates entirely on the idea of expelling Christians from Jerusalem and vowed on the Koran that he will get rid of the enemies of Islam. Prince Arnaut, who had once been in Muslim captivity and was personally liberated by Saladin, contributed to decisive action. The Sultan of Egypt, as a measure to combat the crusaders, established an economic blockade. Then the main export product on which the knights made money was spices and spices, exported by caravans and ships through the Red and Mediterranean seas to Europe. Saladin controlled the Red Sea and the land caravan routes. In 1187, Prince Arnaut attacked an Egyptian caravan, which was also accompanied by Saladin's sister. But Saladin was a wise ruler and decided not to respond to aggression with aggression. He turned to the King of Jerusalem, Guido de Lusignan, and demanded compensation for the damage and punishment for the perpetrators. But after his demand remained unanswered, Saladin announced a campaign against Jerusalem.
Jerusalem surrenders to Saladin
The decisive battle took place at Hattin Hill. The Crusaders could not fight for long in the desert without water and shade, so the Egyptian Sultan took advantage of his army and inflicted a crushing defeat on the King of Jerusalem. The king himself and many other representatives of the knightly orders were captured. It is interesting that Saladin spared almost all the prisoners, except for representatives of the Templars and Hospitallers, the most fierce enemies of Islam. They were executed. The king and Arnaut appeared before Saladin. The Sultan greeted the king warmly and even offered him a soft drink, but with Arnaut, as a traitor, he was strict and cruel. Saladin invited him to convert to Islam and when he refused, he cut off Arnaut's hand, and the Sultan's soldiers then beheaded him. Soon Saladin captured Jerusalem, the city practically surrendered without a fight. There were a huge number of prisoners, but Saladin spared them and gave them the right to ransom himself. Many were able to do this, others were paid for by knightly orders, while the poor fell into slavery. So Saladin destroyed the first Jerusalem state.
Saladin and the Christians of Jerusalem
Saladin subjugated almost all of Palestine. The crusaders organized the Third Crusade, in which Richard the Lionheart also participated, but the attempt to recapture the land ended ingloriously. Saladin and Richard signed a peace treaty, according to which Jerusalem remained with Egypt, and the crusaders were left with a small piece of the Mediterranean coast.
Noble Knight
Despite his irreconcilable struggle with the crusaders, Saladin remained in the memory of Europeans as a true knight. He showed mercy to Christians during the capture of Jerusalem, and after the Third Crusade he granted immunity and protection to pilgrims so that they could safely visit the Holy Land. Under him, Jerusalem truly became a Holy City, where there was no place for violence and cruelty.
Saladin and Guido de Lusignan
He gained special favor among Europeans when he released the King of Jerusalem, Guido de Lusignan. He was a wise ruler and an excellent commander, but he was forced to admit that his army, consisting of slaves, was not capable of anything without his direct leadership. He united Islamic countries under his hand to fight the invaders, but never left a code of laws for his descendants. After Saladin's death, all lands were divided between his relatives.
Life story of Salah ad-Din
According to medieval legends, this was an exemplary knight of the era. Strong and merciful, wise and brave. It was he who was able to destroy the dream of a Christian Jerusalem and marked the beginning of the gradual disappearance of the Latin kingdoms from the historical scene. In the West he is called Saladin.
Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub was born in 1138 into a family that came from the Kurdish Rawadi tribe and served in the service of the Baghdad caliphs. All family members were zealous Sunnis, and Yusuf, that is, Saladin, also became an example of an ideal warrior for a devout Muslim.
Saladin's father, Ayyub, ruled the Syrian city of Baalbek. Saladin himself was born in Tikrit, north of Baghdad, and spent his childhood in Mosul. 1152 - as a 14-year-old youth, he entered the service of Zengi’s son, Nur ad-Din, who took Edessa and thereby brought closer the beginning of the Second Crusade.
Shiite Damascus often became a forced ally of the kings of Jerusalem in the face of a threat from Sunni converts. After Nur ad-Din took this city in 1157, Egypt remained the last Shiite stronghold. This country was largely weakened by internal strife. The Shia Fatimid dynasty was losing power.
After a palace coup (c. 1162), the vizier Shawar lost his post and fled to Syria, where he convinced Nur ad-Din to help him regain his post in Egypt. Nur ad-Din sent an army to Egypt under the command of Asad al-Din Shirkuh, who took his nephew Saladin on the campaign.
1164 - Shawar regained power over Egypt, and Shirkuh and Saladin returned to Syria. Shavar, it must be said, was always afraid of the invasion of his former allies.
1167 - Almarich and Shawar again fought against Shirkuh. In this battle, Saladin distinguished himself by capturing the royal envoy Hugo of Caesarea and many other knights. He defended Alexandria, besieged by Almaric, for a long time, but was still forced to leave Egypt with his uncle.
Shawar suffered significant damage from the Christian attack. But after the conclusion of the next truce, Almarich returned to Jerusalem, thereby opening the way for Shirkuh and Saladin.
Shawar hailed them as saviors, but Shirkuh no longer had confidence in the man who had made treaties with the infidels against the Muslims. He believed that the reason for this behavior was that the Egyptian caliphs were Shiites - in his opinion, heretics. Therefore, Shirkukh decided to overthrow Shawar and sent Saladin to arrest the vizier.
Shawar was captured and beheaded, and Saladin sent his head to Cairo. Shirkuh became the vizier of Egypt, and the Fatimids remained puppet caliphs for some time.
Saladin's biographers write that Shirkukh "was a great glutton, who loved fatty meat most of all, and suffered from indigestion all the time." 1169, March 22 - Shirkuh died (perhaps after a hearty meal), and Salah ad-Din became the vizier of Egypt. In 1170 he captured Gaza, a border city long held by the Knights Templar...
Salah ad-Din was a fanatical Muslim who considered it his duty to expel all infidels from the Holy Land. He also considered it necessary either to pacify the heretics within Islam, to which he included the Shiites, or to convert them to the true faith.
One of his primary tasks in Egypt was “strengthening the Sunni faith, instructing the local population on the path of true piety, instilling in them the secret knowledge of Sufism.” To fulfill this task, in particular, in 1180 he ordered the crucification of the Sufi heretic Suhrawadi, since he “rejected the Divine law and considered it to have no force.”
1171 - When the last Fatimid caliph died, Saladin took his place, establishing the Ayyubid dynasty (named after Saladin's father).
Having settled in Egypt, Saladin turned his energy to expelling Christians and gaining independence from Nur ad-Din, without wanting to completely break off relations with him. He was helped in achieving both of these goals by the deaths of Nur ad-Din (15 May 1174) and King Almaric (11 July of the same year). The heir of Nur ad-Din was an inexperienced teenager, the heir of Almarikh was 13-year-old Baldwin IV, who also suffered from leprosy from the age of 9. None of them could become a strong ruler, although Baldwin made efforts to do so.
Saladin felt himself to be the spiritual successor of Nur ad-Din. Having captured Damascus, he married the widow of its ruler. Having united Egypt and Damascus under his rule, he could threaten the Latin kingdoms from both the east and the west. Jerusalem lived in anticipation of the blow. But instead, to the great relief of the Christians, Saladin turned east to complete the conquest of the lands that Nur ad-Din had left to his young son - including Mosul and Aleppo.
1180 - Salah ad-Din entered into an alliance with the Seljuk Sultan of Anatolia, Kilych-Arslan II, for a joint campaign against Mosul. He married one of his daughters to the son of the Sultan. The new son-in-law removed his father from power and subsequently became a loyal ally of Saladin.
Mosul, however, did not think of giving up, and in 1185 Saladin concluded a 4-year truce with the young Baldwin, although he himself had previously condemned those who enter into an alliance with infidels in order to fight other Muslims. At the same time, Salah ad-Din captured Aleppo and installed his brother Al-Adil as ruler there.
What happened next can be assessed in different ways. Be that as it may, the fate of Jerusalem turned out to depend on the actions of one single person, and even his unbridled temper.
Once upon a time there lived a knight, Raynald of Chatillon. He was handsome, charming and brave to the point of recklessness, but at the same time he was poor and... stupid. Having heard enough of the chivalric romances so popular in France, he came to Antioch in the 1150s in search of fortune. Surprisingly, he actually found happiness there in the person of Constance, Princess of Antioch. As a 9-year-old girl, she was married to Raymond Poitiers. When Raymond died, Constance did not want her next marriage to be dictated by state interests, and she chose Reynald as her husband.
Raynald behaved in exactly the same way as Muslim robbers acted in the first half of the twelfth century - he robbed pilgrims going to Mecca, burned cities and villages; The last straw was his attack on a Muslim caravan that was traveling from Cairo to Baghdad. “Reynald treacherously captured him, brutally tortured people... and when they reminded him of the agreement, he replied: “Ask your Muhammad to free you!”
This overflowed Salah ad-Din's patience.
By 1187 Baldwin IV was already dead. Jerusalem was ruled by his sister Sibylla and her husband Guy de Lusignan. Guy was also prone to adventure and did not evoke friendly feelings from everyone. In particular, Guy and his like-minded Grand Master of the Templars Gerard de Ridefort had such a serious conflict with Raymond of Tripoli that the latter chose to conclude a separate agreement with Saladin. But even Guy tried to persuade Reynald to return the goods he had seized during the attack on the caravan. Raynald flatly refused, and it became clear to everyone that Saladin had a good reason for the strike.
It all ended with the defeat of the Christians at the Horns of Hattin on July 4, 1187. Among those captured from Hattin were King Guy, Master Gerard de Ridefort, more Templars and Hospitallers, as well as Raynald of Chatillon. But the most difficult test for Christians was the loss of the Life-Giving Cross, which was carried to the battlefield in a golden ark.
Saladin ordered the noble captives to be brought to his tent. He handed a bowl of water to King Gi. Having quenched his thirst, the king handed the cup to Reynald. Saladin was furious. “I did not allow this wicked man to drink! - he cried. “And I won’t spare his life.” With these words, Salah ad-Din drew his sword and personally cut off the head of Raynald of Chatillon.
The winner released King Guy and Gerard de Ridefort, having received a ransom for them, and ordered all other Templars and Hospitallers to be beheaded. “He ordered the execution of these people, because they were reputed to be the most cruel of all Christian warriors, and thus he freed all Muslims from them.”
After this victory, Saladin could walk around the Holy Land almost freely. On July 10, he took Acre, and on September 4, Ascalon. Queen Sibylla defended Jerusalem as best she could, but she had few warriors. The city fell on October 2, 1187. Saladin demanded a ransom from the residents.
The Patriarch of Jerusalem asked the Hospitallers for 30,000 Byzantines to pay a ransom for 7,000 poor people. Money was provided, but it was not enough to ransom everyone. Then requests were made to the Templars, Hospitallers and all wealthy townspeople for additional donations, but “they still gave less than they should have.”
Even Christian chroniclers note the mercy of Salah ad-Din and his family towards the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Saif al-Din, Saladin's brother, freed 1,000 people, and Saladin himself granted freedom to several thousand. But many residents were unable to pay the ransom and were sold into slavery.
There's no escape from this - knightly nobility has its limits.
Then Salah ad-Din began to cleanse the city of filth. “The Templars built their housing near the Al-Aqsa mosque, their storerooms, latrines and other necessary premises were located in the mosque itself. Everything here has been returned to its previous condition.”
When news of the fall of Jerusalem became known in Europe, Pope Urban IV died - as they said, he could not withstand the severity of the blow. King Henry II of England and King Philip of France, who were always at odds with each other, agreed to conclude a truce and introduce a special tax in their countries, known as the “Saladin Tithe,” in order to raise funds for the campaign to recapture the city.
The Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, the French king Philip Augustus and the English king...Richard the Lionheart... set off to reconquer the Holy Land. In European chronicles, Saladin appears as a dangerous but benevolent ruler. In Muslim chronicles, Richard, in turn, is described as a dangerous, but at the same time educated sovereign. Both sides probably felt that their heroes deserved worthy opponents, and each hero received more praise from the enemy than from his chroniclers.
The magnanimous Saladin, having learned about the illness of the English king, sent his doctor to him...
At the time of the crusade, Salah ad-Din was in his early 50s and his beard began to turn gray. Richard was a little over 30, and Philip was still 10 years younger. The Sultan might have thought that he was at war with schoolchildren. But Richard was able to surprise him with military and diplomatic art.
Reading the chronicles, especially the descriptions of the endless negotiations interspersed with skirmishes that the sovereigns conducted through their envoys, one can conclude that it was a competition of equals. Both rulers fought in the name of faith, each his own. They followed the same rules and used similar combat tactics.
Whether they were true gentlemen or just barbarians depends on the chosen point of view.
Ultimately, Saladin accepted the division of the country and allowed Christian pilgrims to come to Jerusalem again. He himself returned to Damascus, from where he continued to manage his vast possessions. At the end of February 1193, Saladin fell ill and, despite the efforts of doctors, died on March 3 at the age of 55.
He left numerous children and grandchildren, but his dynasty could only last three generations. Without his guiding hand, the brothers and sisters feuded with each other until the Mamelukes, the military caste whose members comprised the Egyptian palace guard, seized power.
Saladin was such a major figure that in the West he was both respected and feared. Unlike the Templars, he became the hero of chivalric novels...
S. Newman
ed. shorm777.ru