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!’ Chapter 6 – A great general
After Nuradin’s son Al-Saleh died in 1181, Syria and Egypt 
could fight fully on the same side at last. At the same time, the 
Franks had terrible problems. King Baldwin’s leprosy made 
him weak; he couldn’t see, and he couldn’t fight. It was hard 
for him to be King of Jerusalem and he had no son. Two people 
wanted to take his place and be King of the Franks. One was 
Raymond of Tripoli. He spoke Arabic and he understood both 
Muslims and Franks well. But there was another knight, new in 
the Holy Land – Guy of Lusignan. He arrived from Europe and 
married King Baldwin’s sister. When Baldwin died in 1184, the 
Franks made Guy King of the Franks, because they thought that 
Raymond was too friendly with the Muslims. 
In 1187, Saladin, now forty-nine, spoke to his generals:
‘The Franks’ new king is weak, but they are still brave and, 
when they fight together, their armour and their big horses 
make them very strong. Our horses are smaller, but faster. 
We wear less armour, but we move more quickly. We’re better 
at fighting in the desert. We’re also much faster at sending 
news to each other with carrier pigeons. We must be clever if 
we’re going to win against them, so I have a plan. We’ll attack 
Raymond of Tripoli’s castle near Lake Tiberias and my hope is 
that they’ll hurry to fight us, forgetting the problems of moving 
a large army over that part of the country.’
When the Franks heard that Saladin’s army was at Tiberias, 
many of them wanted to march at once, but Raymond said, 
‘Tiberias belongs to me. I’ve never seen so strong a Muslim army, 
and I think that we’re not wise to fight them even if my castle 
and my wife are in danger!’ 
But Reynald of Chatillon replied, ‘You’re trying to make us 
afraid because you prefer the Muslims to us!’