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
saying, ‘Never waste time. March quickly and take the enemy
by surprise!’ At first, Saladin’s soldiers followed his orders. They
were fast and deadly. The Frankish knights weren’t ready, and
the Muslims won without trying very hard. But then Saladin’s
men slowed down and stopped being careful. They thought that
they could take Jerusalem without any trouble!
King Baldwin the Leper was only sixteen when he learned that
Saladin’s army was attacking Palestine, and that there was noone 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!’
The knights decided to build a new castle on the Jordan River.
King Baldwin said, ‘Don’t build at Jacob’s Ford! Franks and
Muslims live on both sides of the river and everyone can cross
the Jordan freely there. We’ll have trouble if we change things.’
But the knights didn’t listen and built the castle there, and
in 1179 there was a fight about the land. During the battle, a
small group of Saladin’s soldiers nearly caught King Baldwin.
Old Humphrey of Toron helped his king escape, but the knight
was badly wounded and died. Saladin, now forty-one, was sad.
‘Humphrey was my good friend in Alexandria after that terrible
siege finished. He was a chivalrous man and a brave knight. I
wish that more Franks could be like him!’
After the battle of Jacob’s Ford, Saladin sent his army in small
groups to attack Palestine. ‘It’ll be easy to catch Saladin’s men
when they come back,’ Baldwin said. ‘They’ll be tired and we
can fight small groups of soldiers and win!’ Near the Litani
River, they met some of Saladin’s men on their way home.
Baldwin’s knights quickly won the battle, but before they knew
it, Saladin and the rest of his army arrived. Saladin’s soldiers
killed hundreds of Franks, and caught many of their important
knights.
Three years later, Baldwin and Saladin agreed to stop fighting
for a while, but the peace was short. One of Baldwin’s knights,
Reynald of Chatillon, was a man who was hungry for gold and
for power. When he married, his wife gave him Kerak Castle
which looked down on the road that ran between Damascus
and Makkah. This castle made it easy for him to attack Muslim
pilgrims and to take their money from them.
‘Reynald, you are breaking the peace,’ King Baldwin told him
angrily. ‘We have promised the Muslims that the pilgrims’ road
will be safe.’
‘Your promise doesn’t worry me. Anyone crossing my land
must pay!’ said Reynald.
Saladin thought that Reynald was a man without honour,
and he decided to stop him. He marched to Kerak with his men.
But when Saladin was just going to attack the castle with siege
engines, he heard that Isabella of Jerusalem was marrying the
grandson of his old friend, Humphrey of Toron, there. ‘Find out
where the party will be,’ he said to his soldiers, ‘I don’t want to
hit that side of the building!’ To thank Saladin for this, Isabella
sent food to the men in his army.
Later, King Baldwin went to help Reynald. Together they
ended the siege and pushed Saladin and his army back. After
this, Reynald went on attacking Muslim pilgrims.
‘We must stop Reynald and the Franks,’ Saladin said to
his generals, ‘But we must make them fight in open country.
They’re too strong in their castles!’