God's Warriors: Crusaders, Saracens and the Battle for Jerusalem

225 Pages·2005·81.31 MB·English

by  Helen J. Nicholson

C U ADE S. SARACE A D THE BATTLE FOR JERUSALEM
OR HELE ICHOLSO (, OR OAVIO ICOLLE
r
:
GODS WARRIORS
CRUSADERS. SARACENS AND THE BATTLE FOR JERUSALEM
CRUSADERS.SARACE S AND THE BATTLE FOR JERUSALEM
DR HELEN NICHULSUN 6 uR DAVID NICOLLE
Firstpublishedin2005 byOspreyPublishing
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Previouslypublishedas Campaign19: Hattin 1187;Warrior 10:Saracen Faris
AD 1050-1250;andWarrior91: KnightTemplar 1120-1312.
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CONTENTS
PART ONE
HATTIN 1187
BY DR DAVID NICOLLE
INTRODUCTION 6
THE OPPOSING LEADERS 15
THE OPPOSING ARMIES 22
OPPOSING PLANS 50
THE CAMPAIGN 53
AFTERMATH AND RECKONING 82
PART TWO
RIVAL MILITARY ELITES
INTRODUCTION BYDBDAVIDNICOLLE 86
SARACEN FARIS BYDBDAVIDNICOLLE 90
KNIGHT TEMPLAR BYDBHELENNICHOLSON 140
CONCLUSION
196
APPENDICES
APPENDIX ONE 198
The battlefields of the 1187 campaign today
APPENDIX TWO 201
Museums and collections containing
Saracen artefacts
APPENDIX THREE 203
Templar sites today
GLOSSARY
206
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND FURTHER
209
READING
INDEX
215
PART ONE
HATTIN 1187
INTRODUCTION
The Crusades seemed to erupt into the late 11th-century Middle East without
warning. Yetinrealitytheywere the culminationofacenturyduringwhich Catholic
Western Europe had been changing at an increasing rate, not least in its attitudes
towards war and religion. The 11th century had also seen considerable economic
and populationgrowth and, although there were ups and downs, itwould bewrong
to see the First Crusade as a product of poverty, despair and religious hysteria.
Hysteria there may have been, but this did not create the Crusades.
InearlyChristiantimeswarfarehad beenseenas, atbest,anunfortunatenecessity.
Now, however, the concept of Holy War spread, along with such phenomena as the
Holy Banner given by the Church to a military leader, and of the Militia Christi or
Warrior of Christ, and the growing cult of warrior saints. It was also increasingly
acceptedthatmenwhofell fightingfor theChurchnowdiedasmartyrs.Whetherthese
ideas owed anything to the Islamic concept of 'lesser' jihad- widely mistranslated as
Holy War - is hotly debated, as is the influence of early Byzantine concepts of
religiously justified warfare upon the idea ofmilitary jihad in the first place. What is
clear is that, in Christian Western Europe, co-existence with Islam was increasingly
denied. Christ's supposed enemies must be defeated and destroyed- 'truth' was to be
proved by the sword.
During the 12th century, four so-called Crusader States were established in the
Middle East, in and around the Holy Land of Christianity but also in the heartland
ofIslamiccivilization. Furthermore 'Frankish' orWesternEuropeanLatinorCatholic
Christians now occupiedJerusalem, a city that was sacred to all three monotheistic
religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In fact, the First Crusaders had expelled
the Muslim and Jewish inhabitants of the Holy City with great slaughter. The First
Crusadehad indeed beenaresounding, and eventodayastonishing, successfrom the
Westerners' point ofview.
By the 1180s the realms carved out following the First Crusade were no longer
real 'Crusader States', because the descendants ofthe FirstCrusaderswere no longer
striving to expand. Instead they were struggling to survive and to protect the Holy
6
HATTIN 1187 INTRODUCTION
Theivorycoverof
QueenMelisende's
Psalter, madein
JerusalemAD 1131-43.
Itsymbolizesthe King
ofJerusalem'sclaimto
ruleas KingDavid's
successor.Thewarriors
reflectByzantineor
Islamicarmsand armour,
particularly'Fortitude'
whoslays'Avarice' below
and totherightof'David
and Goliath'. (British
Museum, London)
7
GOD'S WARRIORS
TheancientRoman
cityofBa'albakin
Lebanonwasthecentre
ofastrategicfrontier
governorateinSaladin's
empire.Manyancient
buildingswere
incorporatedintoits
fortificationsandnew
defencessuchasthe
SouthernToweronthe
rightofthispicturewere
added. (DavidNicolle)
Places of Christianityfrom Muslim reconquest. Leadership was also passing to men
who were working towards co-existence with the surrounding Muslim peoples.
The Kingdom ofJerusalem remained the most important of the Latin States in
Syria and Palestine. Of the others the County of Edessa (Urfa) had already been
8
HATTIN 1187 • INTRODUCTION
reconquered by the Muslims, the Principality ofAntioch had fallen under Byzantine
influence and even the small County of Tripoli now resisted Jerusalem's suzerainty.
In the early 1180sthe Kingdom ofJerusalem had 400,000 to 500,0000 inhabitants,
nomorethan 120,000ofwhomwere Latins (ChristiansofWesternEuropeanorigin).
Therestconsistedofindigenous 'Oriental' Christians,Muslims,JewsandSamaritans.
The balance ofpower between feudal lords and ruler in late 12th-centuryJerusalem
is not entirely clear, but in general it seems that the king and lesser aristocracy were
losing out while the leading barons grabbed ever more control. Meanwhile the
Military Orders (Templars and Hospitallers) were growing in power, being given
more castles which only they seemed able to garrison effectively.
The defence of the Kingdom of Jerusalem was theoretically the responsibility
of all Western European Christians, yet in reality the Latin States had to rely on
themselves after the fiasco of the Second Crusade in 1148. What its leaders now
wanted were professional soldiers and financial support - not hordes of belligerent
Crusaders who stirred up trouble then went home. Meanwhile the catastrophic
Byzantine defeat by the Saljuq Turks at Myriokephalon in 1176, and a massacre of
Latins in Constantinople eight years later, meant that help from the Byzantine
Empire was an illusion. The Kingdom ofJerusalem also faced problems within its
borders. Few Armenians settled in Palestine and the warlike Maronite Christians of
the mountains lived away from the main centres of power while the majority of
Syriac-Jacobite Christians remained deeply suspicious of the Latins. The Latins'
adoption of some eastern habits of dress and cleanliness was superficial and the
cultural gulf between Latins and locals remained unbridged until the end. Relations
between the Latin States and neighbouring Muslim states remained rooted in war,
lasting peace probably being impossible as each side clung to ideologies that could
not accept the other's existence. Attitudes based on the easy victories of the First
Crusademeantthatthemilitaryeliteofthe LatinStateswas stillhugelyoverconfident.
This did wonders for their morale but would soon lead to military disaster. Yet
elements ofdoubt were already creeping in, and the second halfofthe 12th century
saw the building ofmany defensive castles.
The eastern frontier of the Kingdom ofJerusalem actually consisted of distinct
sectors. In the north (the Litani valley) were some impressive castles. The central
sectorfromMountHermon (JabalalShaykh) alongthe GolanHeightstotheYarmuk
valleywas supposedlysharedwiththe rulers ofDamascus. The Muslims thoughtthis
zone should have extended as far as the Balqa hills around Amman but in fact the
Latins dominated a fertile plateau between the River Yarmuk and the Ajlun hills.
Southward again lay the Latin territory of Oultrejordain, lying between the River
Jordan, Dead Sea and Wadi Araba in the west, and the strategic road from Amman
toAqabah. From Oultrejordainthe Latins had leviedtolls onMuslimtraffic between
Syria and Egypt, even on Muslim Haj or pilgrim caravans travelling south to Mecca
and Medina. Then, in the early 1170s, Saladin's reconquest of territory south of
Montreal (Shawbak) had a profound psychological impact, 'liberatingthe Haj Road'
so that pilgrims, at least from Egypt, no longer paid humiliating tolls to the infidel.
9
GOD'S WARRIORS
o
0>
.. Constantinople
Tripoli
0("'+
~o
o
0°
• Konya
Caspian
Sea
Aswan
DongolaJ
Soba
Saladin'sempire
• Sana'a OtherIslamiclands
Christianterritory
Others(Shamanist,Animist,etc.)
o
100 200 300 400 500miles
GUlf ofAden I ! i I I I I I I
o
200 400 600 800km
10