NOURREDIN—RISE OF SALADIN—KING GUY—QUEEN SIBYLLA.
The return of the two royal crusaders was not so much of an affliction
to the kingdom of Jerusalem as it was felt to be a disgrace to their own
nations. Relieved of their rivalry, King Baldwin III. took counsel of
his own ambition to avenge the recent disasters. He found himself pitted
against the most astute leader the Moslem cause had yet produced.
Nourredin had swept like a cyclone over Mesopotamia and northern Syria,
had conquered all his competitors, and established his throne at
Damascus. Leaving Ayoub, the father of Saladin, as governor, he was
pouring his invincible warriors southward.
Nourredin was more than a soldier; he had mastered much of the science
of the age, and displayed a statesman’s clemency and justice in
administration. As a thorough religionist he held his power in
stewardship of his cause and refused all personal emolument from his
position. His wife once complained of the trivial value of his gifts to
her; he replied, “I have naught else, for all I have I hold only as
treasure for the faithful.” He treated his soldiers as his children; if
any of them fell in battle he made their families his care, anticipating
thus the modern system of army pensions.
Baldwin III., undeterred by the greatness of his rival, besieged and
captured Ascalon, whose wealth suggested the Arabic title of the “Spouse
of Syria” (August 12, 1153). Four years later he assaulted Cæsarea on
the Orontes, and would have gained the place but for the outburst of the
chronic jealousy among the Christians. In 1159 he obtained for wife
Theodora, niece of the Emperor Manuel of Constantinople, and with her
munificent dowry the alliance of the Greeks. Manuel appeared in Syria
with an enormous army, which, however, accomplished little and withdrew,
having been quickly appeased by the shrewdness of Nourredin, or, as some
say, having been frightened by news of insurrection in Constantinople.
Nourredin then extended his ravages, avoiding direct encounter with
Baldwin, who died February 10, 1163, and is said to have been poisoned
by the court physician at Antioch. The magnanimity of Nourredin and his
appreciation of the character of young Baldwin were illustrated by his
reply to those who urged this as an opportune time for assault upon
Jerusalem: “No; we should pity this people’s sorrow, for they have lost
a prince whose like is not now left in the world.”
Amaury (Amalric) succeeded his brother, Baldwin III., on the throne. Had
his gains equalled his ambition, his power would have dominated far
beyond any boundaries the Christian sword had as yet set to the kingdom
of Jerusalem.
The Moslem world was nominally divided between the Syrian caliph of
Bagdad and the Egyptian caliph of Cairo. Egypt was wretchedly governed.
The caliph of Cairo was but a creature of his viziers. Amaury, seeing
the possibility of extending his domains to the Nile, took arms against
him. In 1163 he sent an army which might have held the country, had it
not been driven out by the enemy’s flooding the valley of the Nile. One
party in Egypt invoked the assistance of Nourredin, who sent as his
general Shirkuh the Kurd, uncle of Saladin. Amaury accomplished against
him the capture of Pelusium in 1164. In 1167 he took Alexandria,
commanded at the time by young Saladin. He later penetrated to Cairo and
laid El Fostat in ashes. In 1168 Shirkuh renewed the war. Amaury,
marching from Egypt to meet his antagonist in the desert, was flanked by
that general, who suddenly occupied the land left undefended. Amaury,
who had married a niece of the Emperor Manuel, made with the Greeks an
unsuccessful attack upon Damietta. Here the Christians felt the hand of
one who was destined ultimately to overthrow all their power in the
East. Saladin was in command. On the death of Shirkuh he had been
appointed vizier by the caliph of Cairo. The caliph, wearied of being
controlled by designing and capable men who absorbed in their own
interests the power they defended, selected Saladin, thinking that the
young man’s inexperience would be less of a menace to the caliphate.
Nourredin, however, divined the genius of the young vizier and assigned
to him the supreme command in Egypt. He then deposed the caliph, and
with his reign brought to an end the dynasty of the Fatimites, which for
two hundred years had held the land of the Nile. Thus Nourredin ruled
supreme from Babylonia to the desert of Libya. Only the kingdom of
Jerusalem marred the map of his dominion. To reconquer this for Islam
was his incessant purpose. With his own hands he made a pulpit, from
which he promised the faithful one day to preach in the mosque of Omar
on the temple site.
But the Moslem world was already attached to one destined to be greater
than Nourredin. The youth of Saladin had been one of apparent indolence
and dissipation, but he veiled beneath his indifference the finest
genius and most unbounded ambition. As soon as he felt the possession of
power he assumed a corresponding dignity, and men recognized him as one
appointed of Heaven. Turbulent emirs, who had ignored him as a chance
holder of position, now sat reverently before him. Even the priests were
struck with the sincere austerity of his devotion. The caliph of Bagdad
bestowed upon him the distinguished dignity of the vest of honor. Poets
began to mingle his name with those of heroes as the rising star. The
pious included it in their prayers as the hope of Islam.
Knowing that experience is often wiser than genius, Saladin judiciously
guarded himself from the errors of youth by associating his father,
Ayoub, with him in the government of Egypt. Nourredin, whose successful
career had allowed him no jealousy of ordinary men, showed that he was
restless at the popularity and ability displayed by his young subaltern,
and was preparing to take Egypt under his own immediate government when
death, his first vanquisher, came upon the veteran (May, 1174). Saladin
immediately proclaimed himself Sultan of Egypt, and hastened to secure
the succession of Nourredin’s power as Sultan of Damascus.
Two months later (July, 1174) Amaury followed his great competitor to
the grave, and the kingdom of Jerusalem fell to his son, Baldwin IV., a
leprous lad of thirteen years. The personal contrast of this sovereign
with Saladin was ominous of the contrast between the coming history of
the two powers they respectively led. The education of Baldwin was
conducted by William of Tyre, the chief historian of this period. The
regency of the kingdom was disputed by Milo de Plausy and Raymond, Count
of Tripoli. Raymond was great-grandson of Raymond of Toulouse, the
renowned leader of the first crusade, and inherited, together with his
ancestor’s bravery, his impatience and passion for personal precedence.
He deemed that he had a right to the highest emoluments of the kingdom
as compensation for having suffered eight years’ imprisonment among the
Infidels. Milo was elected regent by the barons, but was shortly
afterwards assassinated by unknown hands on the street. Raymond
succeeded to the regency. The suspicion of having instigated the murder
of his rival was supplemented by a later suspicion that he secretly
betrayed the Christian cause in the interest of Saladin. It is not
necessary to believe this, as the prowess of the new ruler of Egypt is
sufficient to account for his successes. Raymond was unwise in his
movements; he busied himself with a wretched attempt upon Alexandria,
and then made truce with Saladin in the north just at a moment when
peace enabled the young Saracen to strengthen his power over his
Mohammedan neighbors.
In time Baldwin IV. took the reins into his own hands. Saladin was
pouring his forces over the Holy Land. His newly organized troop of
Mamelukes formed his body-guard. Baldwin shut himself up in Ascalon, but
soon the general devastation of his kingdom maddened the Christians to
desperation. They issued from Ascalon with such fury that the Egyptian
army was swept from the field and but few of Saladin’s soldiers lived to
accompany their young leader back to Cairo.
This defeat, far from depressing the courage of Saladin, only taught him
new lessons of caution. Little by little his sword carved away the
Christian kingdom, until Baldwin was forced to sign a truce. Renaud,
Lord of Carac, broke this compact, and with the aid of an army of
Templars plundered the Moslem caravans, massacring defenceless men and
capturing the women. He made an incursion as far as Arabia, and
announced his purpose of going to Mecca to plunder the tomb of the
Prophet. But the swift riders of Saladin were upon his track. Renaud
barely escaped, many of his troops being captured. Most of these were
put to death in Egypt, a few being reserved as victims in the annual
sacrifice at Mecca. Saladin was infuriated by Renaud’s breach of faith,
and won the title of “Scourge of God,” even among the Christians, by the
swift and fearful retaliation which he took upon the cities of northern
Palestine.
The increasing leprosy of Baldwin rendered him incapable of discharging
his royal duties. A sort of political leprosy or dry-rot seemed to
infect the state. The crown retained its shape, but not its lustre, for
it could not control the internecine strife of the Christian barons, who
waged war upon one another from their mountain fastnesses. The
Hospitallers and Templars, too, combined against the priesthood, and
hooted and shot at them as they went to the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre. The priests retaliated by gathering the arrows and placing
them on the Mount of Olives, calling heaven to avenge the insult offered
to its ministers. The various nations represented by the influx of
pilgrims added to the confusion by reviving in Palestine the prejudices
of sections of Europe. Vice everywhere had open license. William of
Tyre, in describing the condition of affairs, drops his pen, lest his
readers should accuse him of defaming human nature by his recital.
Agents were sent to the courts of Europe, appealing for succor to the
kingdom, which was falling to pieces in punishment of its own demerits.
The piety of Christendom made no response except in pity for a
government which they called “Christ’s Second Crown of Thorns.”
Baldwin IV. died in 1185. Baldwin V., a child, had been crowned as his
successor two years before. This prince was the child of Sibylla by her
first husband, the Marquis of Montferrat. Since the death of the marquis
she had married Guy of Lusignan. Little King Baldwin died a year later
(1186). Sibylla was accused of having poisoned her own child to advance
her new husband’s interest. The suspicion was not lessened by her
adoption of a disgraceful ruse to gain for Guy the vacant throne. As the
daughter of one king of Jerusalem and sister of another, she might have
held the sovereignty but for the opposition to Guy, whom she associated
with herself in the government. She proposed to the chiefs that she
should divorce Guy, saying, “If a divorce takes place between me and my
husband, I wish you to make me sure by your oaths that whomsoever I
shall make choice of for my husband you will choose for your head and
lord.” She then swore that she would award him whom she regarded as the
ablest defender of Jerusalem with her hand and crown. This was agreed
to. The patriarch solemnly announced her divorce and placed the crown in
her hands. Sibylla, to the surprise of all, turned to Guy and, placing
the crown upon his head, boldly declared, “I make choice of thee as king
and as my lord; for whom God hath joined together let not man put
asunder.” The audacity of Sibylla apparently cowed the warriors about
her; they acquiesced, and some even applauded the cleverness of her
deceit.