Saladin’s army marched out of Cairo singing war songs. A
young soldier riding beside Saladin asked, ‘Why do the Franks
hold Jerusalem when it’s so holy for us Muslims?’
‘It’s a very long story,’ said Saladin:
The problem is that the city of Jerusalem is holy for the Franks too.
Jesus lived much of his life in the city, and also died there. Jerusalem
is the most important place of pilgrimage for people from Europe, but
when the Turks took it in 1071, it was more difficult for Europeans to
visit. They were angry about that and they decided that they wanted
Jerusalem back. They called their campaign a crusade. They came
from across the sea and in 1099 they took the holy city. They killed
nearly everyone in the place! Now, after almost a hundred years,
many Franks are born in Palestine and they think that it’s their
home.
Of course, as you know, Jerusalem is a holy place for Muslims, too,
because the Prophet Mohammed, peace be on him, travelled from
there up into the sky to meet God and the prophets. Also the Al-Aqsa
Mosque is one of the oldest holy places of Islam. It’s wrong that the
Franks are using the building as a church and praying in it. Nuradin
wanted to bring Muslims together to win it back, and I want to make
his great hope come true!
Planning this new campaign, Saladin remembered Shirkuh
one to stop them. He called all his knights together from their
castles with letters that his soldiers carried secretly through the
Muslim army lines. It was a dangerous plan, but it worked. The
Franks arrived to help their king and they surprised Saladin’s
army at Ramla. Saladin’s soldiers had to run to escape and the
Franks nearly killed Saladin. It was a very bad defeat, and after
it many emirs no longer wanted to be in Saladin’s army.
Saladin told his men, ‘Thinking that Baldwin the Leper is
weak because he’s young and ill was a mistake! We’ll have to
work harder to take Jerusalem. Some of you must ride the fastest
camels to Cairo to tell the Egyptians that we’re safe. We’ve lost a
battle, but we can win the war if we fight together!’
The only good news for Saladin was that, after Ramla,
Baldwin’s army wasn’t ready to keep fighting. ‘But we must do
something to stop him,’ Baldwin said to his knights. ‘Make all
your castles strong and next time we’ll be ready for the enemy!’