No one knew what Saladin and Sinan agreed, but the Assassins never tried to hurt Saladin again. By 1177, most of Syria wanted to help Saladin, who was now thirty-nine. Then the news came that the Franks and the people in Byzantium were no longer friends. Saladin felt that perhaps now was the time to start a holy war to take Jerusalem back from the Franks. Chapter 5 – Defeat and victory 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 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 no 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 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.’