Download PDF | David Nicolle, Angus McBride - Saladin and the Saracens-Osprey (1986).
51 Pages
Introduction
Salah al Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, known to his Muslim contemporaries as al Nasir, 'The Vict- orious', and to an admiring Europe as Saladin, is the most famous single figure in the history of the Crusades, being even better known outside the English-speaking world than his Christian foe Richard the Lionheart. While it is natural that Saladin should be well remembered on the Arab and Islamic side, it says a lot about the man and about the entire Crusading enterprise that a Muslim Kurd should be perceived as the chief 'hero' of these events even in Europe.
Traditionally Saladin is portrayed as a quiet, deeply religious and even humble man thrust into prominence by events. In reality he was typical of his day and his culture, though staling head and shoulders above most of his contemporaries in determination, personal morality, political judge- ment and leadership. Like Saladin himself, the societies and military systems that he and his successors led from defeat to eventual triumph were far more sophisticated than is generally realised. This book is an attempt to identify and to briefly describe the main strands in a period of military history which too often confronts Western students with a dauntingly tangled and obscure skein.
Like more recent invaders of the Middle East, the First Crusade struck Syria and Palestine at a moment of acute Muslim weakness. Following the crushing Turkish victory over the Byzantine Empire at Manzikert in 1071, the Saljuqs of Rum (Anatolia) had yet to fully establish themselves in what is now the heartland of Turkey. The Great Saljuq Empire, centred upon Iraq and Iran, was crumbling fast. It had already lost effective control over much of south-eastern Turkey and Syria. Here a variety of Turkish, Armenian, Kurdish and Arab lords struggled for the possession of cities and castles.
In the desert and the Euphrates valley, bedouin Arab tribes retained their independence and joined in a general scramble for control of the fertile regions. The Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt was also in decline, though less obviously so. Fatimid dreams of t conquering all Islam had been abandoned as power slipped from the hands of Shi'ite Caliphs into those of more realistic viziers (chief ministers). This post was now held by a family of Armenian origin which, having re-established order in Cairo following a series of civil wars and political upheavals, how concentrated on rebuilding Egypt's commercial ■ wealth by control of the Red Sea and the trading eports of the Syrian coast. Palestine was simply a defensive buffer against future Turkish aggression. f d These circumstances would never return, and future Crusades achieved nothing like the success of the First; their story was, by contrast, one of growing Muslim strength and unity. This process saw false starts and setbacks, but culminated in the expulsion of the Crusaders from the Middle East two centuries later.
These years also saw the growing militarisation of the region's Muslim states: increasing conservatism in culture; and a sad t decline in that toleration of non-Muslim minorities which had been characteristic of earlier periods (MAA 125, The Armies of Islam 7th-11th Centuries). How far such negative factors can be blamed on the Crusades is still hotly debated. The cohesion and strength built up in the face of a Christian European threat not only enabled the later Mamluk Sultanate to check Mongol onslaughts in the late 13th century, but also to develop an astonishingly effective military system. This was, of course, subsequently imitated with even greater success by the Ottoman Turks (see MAA 140, Armies of the Ottoman Turks 1300-1774).
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