‘I want to be like Caliph Umar,’ said Saladin to his men:
When his armies won all of Palestine in the early days of Islam, he
took Jerusalem peacefully and entered the town like a poor man, on
foot. The Patriarch Sophronius gave him the keys of the town after
they made a peace agreement. It said that the Franks, their houses
and churches were safe, and that they could pray in the way they
wanted, and that no Muslim was going to hurt them or take their
money. Then Umar visited the town with the Patriarch. When he saw
that people used the Holy Mount in the middle of the town as a place
for rubbish, he started to clean it with his own hands. Then he asked
men to build what is now the Al-Aqsa Mosque there. After that, when
he went with the Patriarch to see the church where they buried
Jesus, it was time to pray. Umar left the church to pray outside. He
said, ‘If I pray inside the church, then one day other Muslims will
want to make it into a mosque!’ He was generous to all religions.
‘We agree that we don’t want to hurt people in the town. But
the Franks fight to the last man!’ Saladin’s generals said.
When Saladin met the Franks, he said, ‘I think – like you –
that Jerusalem is the City of God. I don’t want to attack God’s
home. So, if you surrender, then you will all be free to leave it
with your things. Your churches will be safe, and when people
want to make a pilgrimage to the holy places, they can travel
freely into the town at any time.’
The Franks knew that they weren’t strong, but they said,
‘How can we give you the town where Jesus died? If we let you
take Jerusalem without fighting, people will rightly say that
we’re afraid to die for Jesus. We must do our best to hold it!’
‘Then I’ll take Jerusalem by the sword, and many people will
lose their lives!’ Saladin promised.