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BOOK VII.
THIRD CRUSADE.
A.D. 1148-1188.
WE cannot help being convinced, whilst reading this history, that the
religion of Mahomet, thoroughly warlike as it is in principle, does
not endue its disciples with that obstinate bravery, that boundless
devotedness, of which the Crusaders presented so many examples. The
fanaticism of the Mussulmans required victory to keep up its power
or its violence. Bred in a conviction of blind fatalism, they were
accustomed to consider successes or reverses as simple decrees of
Heaven; victorious, they were full of ardour and confidence; conquered,
they were depressed, and without shame succumbed to an enemy, whom
they believed to be the instrument of destiny. An ambition for renown
seldom excited their courage, and even in the excesses of their warlike
fervour, the fear of chastisements and punishments kept their faces
towards the enemy more frequently than any generous love of glory. A
chief, whom they themselves dreaded, was the only captain that could
lead them to victory; and thus despotism became necessary to their
valour.
After the conquest of the Christians, the dynasties of the Saracens
and the Turks were dispersed and almost annihilated; the Seljoucides
themselves had fallen back to the very extremities of Persia, and
the people of Syria scarcely knew the names of those princes whose
ancestors had reigned over Asia. Everything, even despotism, was
destroyed in the East. The ambition of the emirs took advantage of the
general disorder: slaves shared the spoils of their masters; provinces
and cities became so many principalities, the uncertain and transient
possession of which was a constant subject of dispute. The necessity
for defending the Mussulman religion, whilst threatened by the
Christians, had alone preserved the credit of the caliphs of Bagdad.
They were still the chiefs of Islamism; their approbation seemed
necessary for the preservation of the power of usurpers or conquerors;
but their authority, which was nothing but a sacred phantom, commanded
nothing but prayers and vain ceremonies, and inspired not the least
fear. In this state of degradation their only employment seemed to
be to consecrate the fruit of treachery and violence. It was not
sufficient to bestow cities and employments which they had no power to
refuse; all whom victory and license had favoured came to prostrate
themselves before the vicars of the prophet; and crowds of emirs,
viziers, and sultans, to borrow an Eastern expression, appeared to rise
from the dust of their feet.
The Christians were not sufficiently aware of the state of Asia, which
they might have conquered; and agreed so ill among themselves that they
could never take advantage of the divisions which prevailed among their
enemies. They seldom had, either in attack or defence, a well-sustained
plan, and their impetuous bravery, directed generally by chance or
passion, could only be compared to the tempest, whose fury rages or
abates at the pleasure of the winds which reign over the horizon.
Fortune, which had offered them such a brilliant opportunity for
extending their empire, became, at last, adverse to them, and from the
bosom of the chaos in which the East was plunged, arose a formidable
power, which was destined to conquer and destroy them.
Noureddin, son of Zengui, who had obtained possession of Edessa before
the second crusade, had inherited the conquests of his father, and
added to them by his valour. He was bred among warriors who had sworn
to shed their blood in the cause of the Prophet, and when he mounted
the throne he revived the austere simplicity of the early caliphs.
Noureddin, says an Arabian poet, united the most noble heroism with
the profoundest humility. When he prayed in the temple, his subjects
believed they saw a sanctuary in another sanctuary. He encouraged the
sciences, cultivated letters, and, above all, applied himself to the
maintenance of justice throughout his states. His people admired his
clemency and moderation; and the Christians even were forced to praise
his courage and his profane heroism. After the example of his father
Zengui, he made himself the idol of his soldiers by his liberality; by
taking charge of their families, he prevented their desire for the
possession of lands, and thus accustomed them to consider the camp
as their home and their country. In the midst of armies which he had
himself formed, and which respected in him the avenger of the Prophet,
he restrained the ambition of the emirs, and directed their efforts
and their zeal towards one sole object, the triumph of Islamism. His
victories, his fortune, his religious and political virtues drew upon
him the attention of the entire East, and made the Mussulmans believe
that the period of their deliverance had arrived.
Baldwin III., who undertook to stop the career of Noureddin, displayed
great valour in several battles. The most important and the most
fortunate of his expeditions was the taking of Ascalon, in which the
Mussulmans always kept up a formidable garrison. This city, which is
situated in a fertile plain, and which the Mussulmans call _the Spouse
of Syria_, was succoured by an Egyptian fleet, and for a long time
resisted all the efforts of the Christians. Rivers of blood flowed
before its walls during several months; both Mussulmans and Christians
fighting with fury, and neither giving nor receiving quarter. During
the siege the knights of the Temple particularly distinguished
themselves by their valour; the thirst for booty, far more than the
love of glory, making them brave the greatest perils. The garrison and
the inhabitants, exhausted by fatigue and pinched by famine, at length
opened the gates of the city. Baldwin granted them a capitulation,
permitted them to retire into Egypt with their families, and caused a
_Te Deum_ to be sung in the great mosque, which he consecrated to St.
Paul.
After this victory the king of Jerusalem marched to encounter
Noureddin, and compelled him to raise the sieges of both Paneas and
Sidon. Baldwin was engaged in assisting the principality of Antioch,
always disturbed by factions, always threatened by the Mussulmans, when
he was poisoned by a Syrian physician. As soon as he became sensible of
his danger, he set out for Jerusalem, and died in the city of Berouth.
His remains were transported to the holy city, the clergy coming out
to meet the funeral train. The people descended from the mountains to
join the procession, and through the country and in the cities nothing
was heard but lamentations. Noureddin himself, if we are to believe
a Christian historian,[294] was affected by the sorrow of the Franks.
Some of his emirs advising him to take advantage of this melancholy
occasion to enter Palestine, “God forbid,” replied he, “that I should
disturb the proper grief of a people who are weeping for the loss of so
good a king, or fix upon such an opportunity to attack a kingdom which
I have no reason to fear.” Remarkable words, which at once denote two
great men, and which further show what a serious loss the Christians
had sustained.
As soon as the funeral ceremonies of Baldwin III. were over, warm
debates arose upon the choice of a successor. The greater part of
the barons and knights attached to the memory of Baldwin proposed to
call to the throne his brother Amaury, count of Jaffa and Ascalon.
This party was the most reasonable and the most conformable to the
laws and interests of the kingdom; but the brother of Baldwin, by
the haughtiness of his deportment, had made himself many enemies
among the people, the clergy, and the army. He was reproached with an
ambition and an avarice fatal to the interests of the Christians; and
he was accused of not being restrained by honour, justice, or even
the precepts of religion,[295] in the execution of his projects. His
partisans extolled his active and enterprising character, his bravery
so often proved, and his great skill in war. Among the nobles of the
kingdom who opposed his succession, and attributed to him ambitious
views much to be dreaded, were several who themselves nourished
aspiring projects, and allowed themselves to be seduced by the hope
of ascending the throne. The conflicting parties were on the point
of taking up arms to sustain their pretensions or their hopes, when
the grand master of the Hospitallers exhorted the barons and knights
to preserve the peace and the laws of the kingdom by crowning young
Amaury. “The crown,” said he to them, “which you refuse to place upon
the head of a Christian prince will soon be upon that of Noureddin or
of the caliph of Egypt. If this misfortune should happen, you will
become the slaves of the infidels, and the world will accuse you
of having opened the gates of the holy city to the Saracens, as the
traitor Judas gave up the Saviour of the world into the hands of his
enemies.” This speech, and the sight of the troops which Amaury had
already collected to defend his rights, disarmed the factions which
disturbed the kingdom. The brother of Baldwin was crowned in the Holy
Sepulchre, and received the oaths of allegiance of those even who had
openly declared themselves opposed to his claims.
As soon as Amaury had ascended the throne, he directed all his energies
towards Egypt, now weakened by the victories of the Christians. The
caliph of Cairo having refused to pay the tribute due to the conquerors
of Ascalon, the new king of Jerusalem placed himself at the head of his
army, traversed the desert, carried the terror of his arms to the banks
of the Nile, and only returned to his kingdom when he had forced the
Egyptians to purchase peace. The state in which Egypt was then placed
was likely soon to recall the Christians thither; and happy would it
have been for them if they had known how to profit by their advantages;
and if their fruitless attempts had not served to favour the progress
of a rival power.
Egypt was at that time the theatre of a civil war, occasioned by the
ambition of two leaders who disputed the empire of it. For a length
of time the caliphs of Cairo, like those of Bagdad, shut up in their
seraglio, had borne no resemblance to the warrior from whom they
derived their origin, who had said, whilst pointing to his soldiers and
his sword, “_These are my family and my race_.” Enervated by effeminacy
and pleasures, they had abandoned the government to their slaves, who
adored them on their knees, and imposed laws upon them. They no longer
exercised any real authority but in the mosques, and only preserved the
disgraceful privilege of confirming the usurped power of the viziers,
who corrupted the armies, disturbed the provinces, and in the field of
battle quarrelled with each other for the right of reigning over both
people and prince.
Each of the viziers, to secure the triumph of his cause, called in by
turns the arms of the neighbouring powers. On the arrival of these
dangerous auxiliaries, all was in confusion on the banks of the Nile.
Blood flowed in all the provinces, sometimes shed by the executioners,
sometimes by the soldiers; Egypt was at once desolated by its enemies,
its allies, and its inhabitants.
Chaver, who, amidst these revolutions, had raised himself from the
humble condition of a slave to the post of vizier, had been conquered
and displaced by Dargan, one of the principal officers of the Egyptian
militia. Obliged to fly and abandon Egypt, where his rival reigned,
he went to seek an asylum at Damascus, imploring the assistance of
Noureddin, and promising a considerable tribute if that prince would
furnish him with troops to protect his return into Egypt. The sultan of
Damascus yielded to the prayers of Chaver. To command the army which
he resolved to send into Egypt, he selected Chirkou, the most skilful
of his emirs, who having always shown himself cruel and implacable
in his military expeditions, was likely to be without pity for the
vanquished, and to take all advantage of the miseries of a civil war,
for the benefit of his master. The vizier Dargan was not long in being
warned of the projects of Chaver and the preparations of Noureddin. To
resist the storm about to burst upon him, he implored the aid of the
Christians of Palestine, and promised to give up his treasures to them
if they succeeded in preserving his power.
Whilst the king of Jerusalem, seduced by this promise, was collecting
an army, Chaver, accompanied by the troops of Noureddin, crossed the
desert, and approached the banks of the Nile. Dargan, who came out to
meet him with the Egyptian army, was conquered by the Syrians, and lost
his life in the battle. The city of Cairo soon opened its gates to the
conqueror. Chaver,[296] whom the victory had delivered from his enemy,
shed torrents of blood in the capital to insure his triumph, received
amid the general consternation the congratulations of the caliph, and
resumed the reins of government.
It was not long, however, before divisions arose between the general
of Noureddin, who daily placed a more excessive price on his services,
and the vizier, whom Chirkou accused of perfidy and ingratitude. Chaver
desired in vain to send the Mussulmans back into Syria; they replied to
him only by threats, and he was on the point of being besieged in Cairo
by his own deliverers. All the Egyptians, particularly the people of
the capital, were seized with trouble and consternation.
In the midst of so pressing a danger, the vizier Chaver placed his
only hope in the Christian warriors, whose approach he had not long
since so much dreaded. He made the king of Jerusalem the same promises
that he had offered to Noureddin; and Amaury, who only wanted to enter
Egypt, whatever might be the party that prevailed there, set out upon
his march to defend Chaver with the very same army he had collected to
fight against him. When arrived on the banks of the Nile, he united his
troops with those of the vizier, and they sat down before the city of
Bilbeis, into which Chirkou had retired. Noureddin’s general resisted
during three months all the attacks of the Christians and Egyptians;
and when the king of Jerusalem proposed peace to him, he demanded
payment of the expenses of the war. After some negotiations, in which
he displayed great haughtiness, he marched out of Bilbeis still
threatening the Christians, and led back his army to Damascus, loaded
with the spoils of his enemies.
Chirkou had beheld the riches of Egypt, and become acquainted with the
weakness of its government; the first advice he offered to Noureddin,
after his arrival, therefore, was to endeavour to unite this rich
country to his own empire. The sultan of Syria sent ambassadors to
the caliph of Bagdad, not to ask aid of him, but to give a religious
colour to his enterprise. During several centuries, the caliphs of
Bagdad and Cairo had been divided by an implacable hatred; each of them
boasting of being the vicar of the Prophet, and considering his rival
as the enemy of God. In the mosques of Bagdad, they cursed the caliphs
of Egypt and their sectarians; in those of Cairo, they devoted to the
infernal powers, the Abassides and their partisans.
The caliph of Bagdad did not hesitate to comply with the wishes of
Noureddin. Whilst the sultan of Syria was solely occupied by his
endeavours to extend his empire, the vicar of the Prophet was only
ambitious to preside alone over the Mussulman religion. He commanded
the Imans to preach a war against the Fatimites, and promised the
delights of Paradise to all who should take up arms in the holy
expedition. At the call of the caliph, a great number of faithful
Mussulmans flocked to the standard of Noureddin, and Chirkou, by the
order of the sultan, prepared to return into Egypt, at the head of a
powerful army.
The fame of these preparations spread throughout the East, particularly
in Egypt, where it created the most serious alarms. Amaury, who
had returned to his own states, received ambassadors from Chaver,
soliciting his help and alliance against the enterprise of Noureddin.
The states of the kingdom of Jerusalem were assembled at Naplouse, and
the king there exposed to them the advantages of another expedition
into Egypt. An impost was levied to carry on a war from which the
greatest hopes were entertained, and the Christian army soon set out
from Gaza to fight with the troops of Noureddin on the banks of the
Nile.
In the mean time Chirkou was crossing the desert, where he encountered
the greatest dangers. A violent tempest surprised him on his march; all
at once the heavens were darkened, and the earth, which was strewed
with the prostrate Syrians, became like a stormy sea. Immense waves of
sand were lifted by the winds, and rising into whirlwinds or forming
moving mountains, scattered, bore away, or swallowed up men and horses.
In this tempest the Syrian army abandoned its baggage and lost its
provisions and arms, and when Chirkou arrived on the banks of the Nile,
he had no means of defence left except the remembrance of his former
victories. He took great care to conceal the losses he had experienced,
and the wreck of an army dispersed by a fearful tempest proved
sufficient to throw all the cities of Egypt into consternation.
The vizier Chaver, frightened at the approach of the Syrians, sent
ambassadors to the Christians, to promise them immense riches, and
press them to hasten their march. On his side, the king of Jerusalem
deputed to the caliph of Egypt, Hugh of Cæsarea, and Foulcher, a knight
of the Temple, to obtain the ratification of the treaty of alliance
with the Egyptians. Amaury’s deputies were introduced into a palace
in which no Christian had ever before been admitted. After having
traversed several corridors filled with Moorish guards, and a vast
number of apartments and courts in which glittered all the splendour
of the East, they arrived in a hall, or rather a sanctuary, where the
caliph awaited them, seated on a throne shining with gold and precious
stones. Chaver, who conducted them, prostrated himself at the feet
of his master, and supplicated him to accept the treaty of alliance
with the king of Jerusalem. The prayer of the vizier was an imperious
order, and the commander of the faithful, always docile to the will of
the lowest of his slaves, made a sign of approbation, and stretched
his uncovered hand out to the Christian deputies in presence of the
officers of his court, whom so strange a spectacle filled with grief
and surprise.
The army of the Franks was close to Cairo; but as the policy of Amaury
was to lengthen the war, in order to prolong his stay in Egypt, he
neglected opportunities of attacking the Syrians with advantage, and
gave them time to recruit their strength. After having left them a long
time in repose, he gave them battle in the isle of Maalle, and forced
their intrenchments, but did not follow up his victory. Chirkou, in
his retreat, endeavoured to reanimate the depressed courage of the
soldiers of Noureddin, the latter not having yet forgotten the evils
they had encountered in the passage over the desert. This calamity,
still recent, together with the first victory of the Christians,
destroyed the confidence they had in their arms and the protection of
the Prophet. One of the lieutenants of Chirkou, upon witnessing their
gloomy rage, cried out in the midst of the Mussulman army: “You who
fear death or slavery, return into Syria; go and tell Noureddin that to
repay him for the benefits with which he has loaded you, you abandon
Egypt to the infidels, in order to shut yourselves up in your seraglios
with women and children.”
These words reanimated the zeal and fanaticism of the Syrian warriors.
The Franks and the Egyptians who pursued the army of Chirkou, were
conquered in a battle, and forced to abandon in disorder the hills
of Baben,[297] where they had pitched their tents. The general of
Noureddin took all possible advantage of his victory; he passed as a
conqueror along the fertile banks of the Nile; penetrated, without
encountering an obstacle, into lower Egypt; placed a garrison in
Alexandria; and returned to lay siege to the city of Koutz, the capital
of the Thebais. The ability with which Chirkou had disciplined his
army, and planned the last battle he had fought with his enemies; his
marches and his counter-marches in the plains and valleys of Egypt,
from the tropic to the sea, announced the progress of the Mussulmans
in military tactics, and warned the Christians beforehand of the enemy
that was destined to put an end to their victories and conquests.
The Turks defended themselves during several months in Alexandria,
against the seditions of the inhabitants and the numerous assaults of
the Christians. They at length obtained an honourable capitulation, and
as their army was becoming weaker every day by famine and fatigue, they
retired a second time to Damascus, after exacting very dear payment for
the transient tranquillity in which they left the people of Egypt.
After the retreat of the Syrians, the vizier Chaver hastened to send
back the Christians, whose presence made him very uneasy. He engaged
to pay the king of Jerusalem an annual tribute of a hundred thousand
crowns in gold, and consented to receive a garrison in Cairo. He loaded
the barons and knights with rich presents, and the soldiers even had
a share in his bounties, proportionate to the fear the Franks inspired
him with. The Christian warriors returned to Jerusalem, bearing with
them riches which dazzled both people and nobles, and inspired them
with other thoughts than that of defending the heritage of Christ.
As Amaury returned to his capital, the sight of his mountainous and
sterile provinces, the poverty of his subjects, and the narrow limits
of his kingdom, made him deeply regret having missed the opportunity of
conquering a great empire. Soon after his return he married a niece of
the emperor Manuel; but whilst the people and his court gave themselves
up to joy, and put up vows for the prosperity of his family and his
kingdom, one single thought occupied him night and day, and haunted
him even amongst the most sumptuous and brilliant festivities. The
riches of the caliph of Cairo, the populousness and fertility of Egypt,
its numerous fleets, and the commodiousness of its ports, presented
themselves constantly to the mind of Amaury. His first endeavour was to
make the marriage he had just contracted subservient to his projects,
and he sent ambassadors to Constantinople, with instructions to induce
Manuel to assist him in the conquest of Egypt. Manuel approved of
the plans of the king of Jerusalem, and promised to send him fleets
and share with him the glory and perils of a conquest which must so
deeply interest the Christian world. Then Amaury hesitated no longer
to declare his designs, and called together the barons and principal
people of his kingdom. In this assembly, in which it was proposed
to invade Egypt, the wisest among whom was the grand master of the
Templars, declared loudly and decidedly that the undertaking was
unjust. “The Christians,” said they, “ought not to set the Mussulmans
the example of violating treaties. It perhaps would not be a difficult
matter to obtain possession of Egypt, but it would not be so easy to
keep it as to conquer it. Noureddin was the most formidable enemy
of the Christians; it was against him they should bring all the
united forces of the kingdom to bear. Egypt must belong to the power
that should remain ruler of Syria, and it was not prudent or wise
to endeavour to anticipate the favours of fortune, and send armies
into a country of which they should only open the gates to the son
of Zengui, as they had done in the instance of Damascus. They would
sacrifice Christian cities, Jerusalem itself, to the hope of conquering
a kingdom. Noureddin had already taken advantage of the king of
Jerusalem’s being engaged on the banks of the Nile, to get possession
of several places which belonged to the Christians. Bohemond prince of
Antioch, and Raymond count of Tripoli, had been made prisoners of war,
and groaned in the chains of the Mussulmans, as victims of an ambition
which had seduced the king of Jerusalem far from his kingdom and the
Christian colonies of which he ought to be the support and defender.”
The knights and barons who expressed themselves thus, added that the
sight alone of Egypt would not fail to corrupt the Christian warriors,
and enervate the courage and subdue the patriotism of the inhabitants
and defenders of Palestine. These opinions, however prudent and just,
had no effect upon the king of Jerusalem and the partisans of the war,
among whom was conspicuous the grand master of the Hospitallers, who
had exhausted the riches of his order by extravagant expenses, and had
raised troops for whose pay he had assigned the treasures of Egypt.
The greater part of the lords and knights, to whom fortune seemed to
be waiting on the banks of the Nile in order to bestow upon them her
favours, suffered themselves to be easily persuaded to the war, and
found it very convenient to consider as an enemy the sovereign of a
country which held out so rich a booty to them.
...
("The History of the Crusades" author: Joseph Francois Michaud; изв.Project GUTENBERG)