Two Centuries of Patience:
From the Fall of Jerusalem to Ain Jalut

Before the enemy arrivedWeakness from within

The Crusades did not succeed because Europe was very strong. They succeeded because the Muslims were very weak.

From the second Abbasid era (after the mid-3rd century AH) the caliphate grew weaker year after year. The author lists the causes:

A map of division in 1096On the eve of the First Crusade

The First Crusade step by stepFrom the Pope’s sermon to the fall of Jerusalem

Steadfastness insideWhat did Palestinians do under occupation?

Many Palestinians stayed on their land. Others emigrated to Transjordan and Damascus rather than collaborate with the occupier, so farming in the coastal cities collapsed. They fought the Crusaders and became guides for Muslim armies, so much so that the Crusader historian William of Tyre wrote of them:

“They taught our enemy how to destroy us, because they have ample knowledge of our condition.”

Choose a leaderFrom Aqsunqur to Saladin

Nur al-Din’s revival: six pillars“After the Rightly Guided Caliphs and Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, I have not seen a better ruler than the Just King Nur al-Din.” – Ibn al-Athir

Nur al-Din understood that the struggle was not only military. For him it was a contest between truth and falsehood that concerned all Muslims regardless of tribe or origin, with no final peace until every inch was returned. So he rebuilt the community from within before leading it against the enemy. Flip each card:

Building a united frontDrag the slider to see how Nur al-Din encircled the Crusaders

He did it with patience and wisdom, and with great care not to shed Muslim blood. People compared his jihad with their own rulers’ inaction, longed for his rule, and welcomed him when their cities joined him. During his reign he recovered some 50 cities and castles from the Crusaders and broke the Second Crusade (1147–1148), led by the King of France and the German Emperor.

The man before the commander

Back to divisionAfter Nur al-Din’s death

His son al-Salih Ismail was proclaimed ruler at the age of 11, and “the emirs quarrelled and opinions were confused.” The author comments that hereditary rule, the absence of consultative institutions and struggles over power delayed the decisive battle, so Saladin had to fight the battle for unity all over again for more than 12 years. Meanwhile he never stopped fighting the Crusaders: he defeated their fleet off Alexandria, raided Ascalon, Beisan, Nablus and Jenin, and destroyed the fleet of Reynald of Châtillon, who had planned to attack Mecca and Medina.

How did Saladin think?His strategy of preparation, as the book summarizes it

The Battle of HattinSaturday 24 Rabi al-Akhir 583 AH · 4 July 1187

Saladin crossed the Jordan and took Tiberias, drawing the Crusaders out in the summer heat. The Muslims surrounded them and set fire to the dry grass around them, so that five kinds of heat closed in on them, as Ibn al-Athir describes:

Then the Sultan ordered the cry of “Allahu akbar” and a full charge. According to the sources the book cites, 30,000 Franks were killed and 30,000 captured, among them the King of Jerusalem, Guy of Lusignan, and Reynald of Kerak, whom Saladin executed himself to keep an oath he had sworn after Reynald attacked a Muslim caravan during a truce. Ibn al-Athir relates that a peasant was seen leading more than thirty Crusader prisoners tied together with a tent rope, and that one captive was sold for a pair of sandals!

The liberation of Jerusalem27 Rajab 583 AH · 2 October 1187

Saladin besieged the city, defended by some 60,000 Crusader fighters, and the two sides fought “the fiercest battle people had seen.” Then the Franks asked for safe conduct in return for surrendering the city. Saladin consulted his commanders, who advised accepting, and he granted it. His tolerance and mercy were acknowledged by the Crusaders themselves.

The story wasn’t overAfter liberation

The Mongol whirlwind7th century AH / 13th century CE

An alliance against IslamCrusaders and Mongols

Europe welcomed the Mongol onslaught and sought to coordinate with it against the “common enemy.” Hülegü favoured the Nestorian Christians, his wife was Christian, and his general Kitbuqa had converted. The King of Armenia, the Prince of Tripoli and the Frankish lords of Tyre, Acre and Cyprus allied with the Mongols to destroy the Muslims in Asia and hand Jerusalem to the Franks.

The threatening letterHülegü writes to Qutuz

Sultan al-Muzaffar Qutuz took power in Egypt in Dhu al-Qada 657 AH. A student of the scholar al-Izz ibn Abd al-Salam, he was brave and popular. Within months a harsh letter arrived from Hülegü demanding surrender. Qutuz decided to march out and meet them himself: to lift morale, to free Syria, Palestine and Al-Aqsa, and to show the Mongols they now faced “a new kind of men,” since the best defence is attack.

Ain Jalut: material balance vs. real balanceFriday 25 Ramadan 658 AH · 3 September 1260 · north-eastern Palestine

Qutuz waited until after the Friday prayer: “Do not fight them until the sun has passed its zenith, the shadows lengthen, the winds blow, and the preachers and the people pray for us.”

The accounts say that Qutuz’s wife Jullanar was killed fighting. He rushed to her crying, “O my beloved!” She said, “Do not say ‘O my beloved,’ say ‘O Islam!’” He rose repeating it, and the army repeated it with him until victory.

The Mamluks expel the last CrusadersThe Kingdom of Acre remained on the coast from Jaffa to Acre

Lessons from the experienceAs the author draws them