Part-II: Rise of Salah ad-Din & the Liberation of Jerusalem
by Muhammad Zunair
The loss of Edessa to Muslims jolted the Crusaders and the Western Christians — making them respond through another military expedition. However, this time, the Crusaders were led by two European kings — Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany — and in addition to the restoration of Edessa, they had other motives as well.
Driven by religious zeal and led by two kings, the Western Christians and the Crusaders had great expectations vis-a-vis recapturing Edessa and further expanding the Eastern Christendom.
However, riddled with conflicts between Byzantines and the Crusaders, Second Crusade couldn’t deliver the expected results, rather it failed quite miserably — resulting in strengthening Nur ad-Din Zengi’s stronghold on the Muslim Levant and giving rise to one of the greatest Muslim conquerors, Salah ad-Din Ayyubi aka Saladin.
Second Crusade(1147–1150)
In response to the fall of the County of Edessa in 1144, Western Christians and Pope Eugene III sent another military expedition — Second Crusade — towards the Eastern Mediterranean.
Led by two kings — Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany — Second Crusade left Europe in the summer of 1147 with high expectations and elevated spirits to recapture the lost territory and to further expand Christendom in the East.
Nonetheless, Byzantine Emperor, Manuel I Komnenos wasn’t particularly pleased about the arrival of a new set of Crusaders, mainly because he had already made a truce with the Sultanate of Rûm. So, when Conrad III reached the Byzantine territory, his men suspected the motives of Manuel I Komnenos and this resulted in distrust and conflicts between the Crusaders and the Byzantines.
As Conrad III was skeptical about the Byzantine Emperor, he neglected his advice and decided to reach Anatolia directly through Nicaea. Consequently, it proved to be a fatal move as Turks killed a number of his men and left him with no option but to retreat to Nicaea.
On the other hand, Louis VII had just arrived in Constantinople so, upon reaching the capital of the Byzantine Empire, he heard the news and went straight to Nicaea to join forces with Conrad III.
After teaming up in Nicaea, both Kings moved towards Antioch. However, as they reached Antioch, they had already lost a number of their men and had a slight hope of recapturing Edessa. Thus, instead of fighting for the restoration of Edessa, they moved towards Damascus and tried to capture the city in 1148.
The reason being, they wanted to take control of the city before Nur ad-Din Zengi. Moreover, they were skeptical of the Christian rulers, who had already settled in the East and had established the Crusade States. Thus, they sieged the city in the hope of undermining Nur ad-Din’s authority in the region and getting an upper hand on him.
Nonetheless, they couldn’t succeed as the conflicts between the Byzantine Empire and the Western Crusaders, poor planning and even worse execution led to the embrassing failure and the Second Crusade fell on its face.
Failure of the Second Crusade and Unification of Muslims
Following the failure of the Crusaders in Damascus, the city came under the command of Nur ad-Din Zengi and this particular event played quite a pivotal role in changing the history of Crusades.
Possessing a renewed spirit of Jihad — which had been inculcated by Nur ad-Din — Muslims started organizing themselves under the unified banner of Islam.
Moreover, the failure of the Second Crusade proved to be a morale-booster for Muslims as they were now confident of their leaders vis-a-vis dealing with foreign military threats.
Interestingly, at the same, political transition was happening in the South. Fatimid Dynasty was declining and Egypt was also up for grab.
Now, both King Amalric I of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and Nur ad-Din knew the geographical significance of Egypt so, they both started their pursuit of capturing Egypt. In addition to the geopolitical advantages, Egypt was also rich in resources and both rulers had some idea that Egypt’s annexation could surely strengthen their economies.
Egypt-Levant Nexus and Rise of Salah ad-Din
Nur ad-Din was sure that by making Levant-Egypt nexus, the Crusade states could be encircled and the land, which had been captured by the Crusaders, could be conquered. Thus, in 1164 Nur ad-Din sent his army under the leadership of his commander, Asad ad-Din Shirkuh.
On the other hand, Amalric also knew that he couldn’t afford this connection to happen as it could prove to be the demise of the Crusade Empire. So, he also started making moves to stop Nur ad-Din from getting control of Egypt.
However, in 1169, after almost 5 years, Shirkuh along with a young man with the name of Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub finally succeeded in expelling the Crusaders and capturing Egypt.
Later, Shirkuh became the Vizier of the First Caliph of Egypt and after his death, that young boy Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub took the position and ushered in a new era of Muslim conquests in the region.
Two years later in 1171, Fatimid Caliph, Ad-Adid died and as Salah ad-Din was from the Sunni school of thought, he brought an end to Shia Fatimid Caliphate and aligned his loyalties with Sunni Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad.
Now, Nur ad-Din Zengi had the geographical advantage and a valiant commander to finally fulfill his mission of expelling the Crusaders from Jerusalem. However, in 1174 Nur ad-Din died and his death started a struggle among Zengis to succeed him as the ruler.
Muslims — who had been unified for the very objective of liberating the holy city of Jerusalem — started fighting among themselves. So, Salah ad-Din wasn’t left with any option but to capture Damascus, which he did in 1174.
After taking control of Damascus, he was proclaimed to be the Sultan of Egypt and Syria by the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad. However, he still had to face a lot of resistance from the sons of Nur ad-Din Zengi, who were still in control of Aleppo.
On the other hand, the kingdom of Jerusalem was also riddled with the issue of succession as in 1174, Amalric also died — passing his throne to his 13 years old son, Baldwin IV. As Baldwin IV couldn’t rule the Kingdom, Jerusalem was then ruled by regents including the very likes of Raymond III of Tripoli.
Battle of Hattin and Liberation of Jerusalem
In 1182, after almost a decade, Salah ad-Din finally conquered Aleppo — becoming the ruler of the majority of Muslim Levant.
Now, he had the geographical advantage but he didn’t want to execute his grand plan yet. So, instead of marching towards Jerusalem, he decided to honor the truce, which he had made with Raymond III of Tripoli a decade ago.
Salah ad-Din shifted his attentions to cement his rule and to organize his army, while the liberation of Jerusalem remained his ultimate goal.
Consequently, in 1187, Raynald of Châtillon violated the truce and it gave Salah ad-Din the opportunity to finally fulfill his mission of liberating the holy city of Jerusalem. Thus, in the summer of 1187, Saladin’s army starting moving towards Jerusalem.
On the other hand, Crusaders, being aware of the imminent threat, also mobilized their army and occupied the strategic location of La Saphorie. They had an army of around 20,000 but they were without a single, supreme commander.
Thus, a conflict between King Guy of Lusignan and Raymond III led them to leave La Saphorie and to advance towards Salah ad-Din forces. And that was what Salah ad-Din wanted; to meet the Crusader army in the open battlefield.
Moreover, on reaching the Horns of Hattin, the Crusaders found themselves in quite unfavorable circumstances; they were in the open battlefield against a superior army and they didn’t even have access to the nearest source of water as Salah ad-Din’s forces were standing between the Crusaders and the Sea of Galilee.
As the defeat for the Christians seemed inevitable, the Crusaders eventually surrendered and Muslim forces tasted the greatest victory against the Crusaders.
When both belligerents met on the battlefield, Muslims emerged triumphant under the valiant leadership and charismatic command of Sultan Salah ad-Din Ayyubi.
After an astonishing victory in the Battle of Hattin, Salah ad-Din moved the last few pieces to finally execute his grand plan. He sent his troops to get hold of the coastal areas because they were of great strategic significance vis-a-vis the conquest of Jerusalem.
His men succeeded in getting control of all the areas but Tyre remained under the control of Crusaders. However, Salah ad-Din shifted his attention to march towards Jerusalem and to liberate the city from the Christians.
On reaching the gates of the city, Salah ad-Din offered them to surrender and even promised to spare the lives of all the Christians. And that was the moment when they witnessed that Saladin’s chivalry was even greater than his valiance.
Although Salah ad-Din had every right to repeat the slaughter of 1099 — when Crusaders killed every Muslim in the city — yet he spared their lives and let them walk through the gates of Jerusalem alive.
Finally, on October 2nd, 1187, Balian of Ibelin surrendered Jerusalem and Muslims — under the command of Sultan Salah ad-Din — liberated Jerusalem, 88 years after his conquest by the Crusaders.
Moreover, after the liberation of Jerusalem, Salah ad-Din emerged as the supreme leader of the Muslim world— having all the Levant under his control.
However, one coastal area — Acre — was still under the control of the Christians. Salah ad-Din men sieged the city for almost two years but couldn’t succeed.
Also, Christians were struggling with politics, succession-conflicts, and famine and it was becoming difficult to hold the Muslims forces back. However, that was exactly when they got the news of the arrival of the Third Crusade in 1191.
Third Crusade(1189–1192)
Fall of Jerusalem jolted the whole of Europe — sending waves of shock in the West. As a result, in 1189, the Church sent another military expedition — Third Crusade.
Led by three European Kings — Philip Augustus of France, Frederick Barbarossa of Germany and Richard the Lionheart of England — Third Crusade was aimed at recapturing the holy city of Jerusalem from Salah ad-Din Ayyubi.
Frederick Barbarossa was first of three to reach the Byzantine territory because the other two were still figuring out their differences. However, in June 1190, Frederick got drowned before reaching the holy land. Whereas in Europe, Philip, and Richard had finally put aside their differences and were ready to mobilize their armies.
Philip arrived at Acre and was later joined by Richard and together, they rejuvenated the siege of the city and made Salah ad-Din’s forces to surrender. Later, both parties reached an agreement and Acre remained under the control of Christian rulers.
After the end of the siege of Acre, Philip left for France and it left Richard as the only leader in command. However, upon returning to France, he started threatening Richard’s authority by capturing his lands. Thus, it left Richard with no option but to make an agreement with Salah ad-Din and left the East for saving his own rule in England.
More importantly, Philip, on two occasions, tried to march towards Jerusalem but he couldn’t lay siege to the city. Thus, his departure meant that the Third Crusade had mainly failed in its prime objective of recapturing the holy city of Jerusalem.
In terms of the conquest of Jerusalem, the Third Crusade failed miserably but Richard the Lionheart successfully recaptured most areas of the Crusade Empire — enabling Christians to keep fighting for another century for the conquest of holy city of Jerusalem.
Unfortunately, Salah ad-Din died in 1193 and as no one could fill the shoes of Saladin, it weakened Muslim stronghold in the Levant and gave Christians the opportunity to send more military expeditions for another 100 years.
Will the Fourth Crusade succeed in recapturing Jerusalem or will Muslims keep their footing? Wait for the third part!
PS: I know, I have missed some details, including a number of events, but to keep this piece short and precise, I have done it intentionally.
