In any case, what mattered, after all, in the context of the revitalisation of the jihad ideal in the Levant was the public stance of the ruler. Here Saladin built on the foundations laid by Nur al-Din. Each step on Saladin’s path towards the goal of recapturing Jerusalem was ratified retrospectively by the Sunni caliph at Baghdad. This was a ‘legal fiction’, yet Saladin punctiliously asked for the caliph’s ‘diploma of investiture’ after each new conquest. After his capture of Hims in Syria from fellow Sunni Muslims he attempts to justify this as part of his progress in a just cause: ‘Our move was not made in order to snatch a kingdom for ourselves but to set up the standard of jihad. These men had become enemies, preventing the accomplishment of our purpose with regard to this war.’50
Thus, whatever his personal motives may have been, and they almost certainly included personal and family aggrandisement, the importance of Saladin to a discussion of jihad propaganda is that every inch of the way he is shown as justifying his actions retrospectively in terms of jihad. The truth of Saladin’s motivation can never be assessed and this is probably an irrelevant consideration anyway. What mattered was how his contemporaries – his fellow military commanders, his personal advisers and the religious classes – saw him and reacted to him. Thus it was possible for Saladin to evolve into a charismatic and highly successful jihad leader and to sustain the propaganda campaign which underpinned his two great successes, at Hattin and Jerusalem. One of his contemporaries, ‘Abd al-Latif, sums up most eloquently Saladin’s undoubted charisma: ‘Men grieved for him as they grieve for prophets. I have seen no other ruler for whose death the people mourned, for he was loved by good and bad, Muslim and unbeliever alike.’ (plate 4.7 and figure 4.7)51
Plate 4.7 Mausoleum of Saladin, medieval and modern cenotaphs, Damascus, Syria
Figure 4.7 Mausoleum of Saladin, plan, late twelfth century, Damascus, Syria
Saladin and Jerusalem
The sources point clearly to the reconquest of Jerusalem by Saladin as the pinnacle of his career. This reconquest is portrayed as the realisation of a burning personal ambition on his part. By the time that Saladin had actually taken Jerusalem he retrospectively describes all his actions leading up to the event as having been entirely directed towards that end. It would appear too that public opinion had been so successfully mobilised by this point that only the capture of Jerusalem would be the ultimate proof both of his success and of his sincerity. Jerusalem was not strategically important but it had become the focus of Saladin’s somewhat tardily launched jihad campaign, and the Holy City simply had to be taken.
A tone of profound emotional intensity and longing for Jerusalem is exploited to the full by Saladin’s entourage and by the religious classes who gave him their wholehearted support. With Saladin’s capture of the city in 583/1187, the theme of Jerusalem reaches its peak. Some sixty letters, a dozen poems and several sermons (khutbas) are dedicated to this triumphal moment. A celebratory ode (qasida) sent to Saladin in Jerusalem from Cairo after his conquest of the Holy City proclaims:
You have revivified the religion of Muhammad and its props …
You have kept in firm order the office of Holy War (diwan al-jihad).52
Thus we see that this military conquest is invested with its full quota of religious significance; God’s will has been done and the right religion has been reinstated in His Holy City.
The deep impact of the recapture of Jerusalem on the Muslim population of the Levant was recorded joyfully by contemporary chroniclers. According to ‘Imad al-Din and Ibn Shaddad, Muslims gathered to witness Saladin’s ceremonial entry into Jerusalem, to participate in the festivities and to start the hajj from there. Maximum propaganda benefit was derived from the chosen moment of entry into the city. Always astute and aware of the profound impact which his victorious entry into Jerusalem would make, Saladin waited to take possession of the city until Friday 27 Rajab 583/2 October 1187, the anniversary of the Prophet’s Night Journey into Heaven. Ibn Shaddad exults in this felicitous timing: ‘What a wonderful coincidence! God allowed the Muslims to take the city as a celebration of the anniversary of their Holy Prophet’s Night Journey.’53 This event was the climax of Saladin’s career. At long last the paramount aim of his jihad had been achieved.
The role of Jerusalem in the Muslim Counter-Crusade, and the multifaceted image which Muslims by now had of the Holy City, is epitomised in the sermon (khutba) delivered by Ibn al-Zaki (d. 588/1192), a Shafi‘ite preacher from Damascus, on the occasion of Saladin’s entry into Jerusalem. Ibn al-Zaki was selected after a fierce competition as the best preacher amongst many to proclaim the victory sermon.54 A lengthy quotation from the actual sermon is given by the medieval biographer Ibn Khallikan in his obituary notice of Ibn al-Zaki: ‘Praise be unto God by whose aid Islam hath been exalted, and by whose might polytheism hath been humbled. …‘55
Ibn Zaki reminds his hearers of the importance to the Muslims of Jerusalem, which has returned to the fold of Islam after being ‘abused by the polytheists for nearly one hundred years’.56
In this sermon we see the encapsulation of the Muslim view of Jerusalem in the twelfth century. We can also identify here the elements which constituted the composite Islamic sanctity of the Holy City and which were already to be found in the Merits of Jerusalem literature:
It was the dwelling-place of your father Abraham; the spot from which your blessed Prophet Muhammad mounted to Heaven; the qibla towards which you turned to pray at the commencement of Islam, the abode of the prophets; the place visited by the saints; the cemetery of the apostles … it is the country where mankind will be assembled for judgement; the ground where the resurrection will take place…,57
According to Ibn al-Zaki, then, Jerusalem is the home of Abraham, the place of the ascension (mi’raj) of the Prophet Muhammad from the Dome of the Rock (plate 4.8) into the Heavens, the first qibla of Islam; thus the city possesses important connotations associated with the foundation of Islam. It is also the place where mankind will assemble to be judged on the Last Day.
In full-blown panegyric, Saladin’s victories are compared by Ibn al-Zaki to the Prophet’s achievements at Badr and the glorious days of the first conquests of Islam. Saladin is labelled amongst other lofty epithets ‘the champion and protector of thy [God’s] holy land’ and the one ‘who vanquished the adorers of the Cross’.58 Indeed, Saladin is placed on the same level as the first caliphs of Islam who established an empire stretching from Spain to India. Speaking of Saladin, Ibn al-Zaki proclaims:
Plate 4.8 Dome of the Rock, exterior, 72/691–2 onwards, Jerusalem
(Creswell Photographic Archive, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, neg. C. 1406)
You have renewed for Islam the glorious days of al-Qadisiyya, the battle of al-Yarmuk, the siege of Khaybar, and the impetuous attacks of Khalid b. al-Walid. May God grant you His best reward for the service you have rendered to His blessed Prophet Muhammad.59
Official letters, sent to the caliph and other rulers, celebrated the glorious victory in Jerusalem. ‘Imad al-Din quotes part of a celebratory letter on Saladin’s entry into the city, in which the importance of Jerusalem is explained:
Jerusalem (al-Bayt al-Muqaddas), which God has exalted and ennobled and has made sacrosanct as He made His sanctuary sacrosanct and holy (at Mecca), is the dwelling place of the prophets who have been sent, the settlement of the saints and the righteous, the place of the heavenly ascent (mi‘raj) of the chief of the prophets and the apostle of ‘the Lord of the worlds’.60
Of course, the letters and sermons from this period are highly rhetorical in nature; they make inflated claims and are full of clichés and word-plays. What is the truth which lies beneath them? Clearly Saladin should be judged by his actions. Strategically Jerusalem was much less important than the coastline, but emotionally its significance was paramount. It had to be taken for Islam and Saladin became increasingly determined to take it. His biographers show him as being genuinely devoted to jihad. The importance of the jihad pr
opaganda was that it served as a rallying cry, as a force for unification and religious commitment both for the public and in the ranks of the armies and military leaders. It was the ideal focus for a joint purpose which animated ruler, troops, ‘ulama’ and the population at large, all of whom were infused with the shared aim of taking back Jerusalem from the infidel. Indeed, it is true to say that by 1187 the Muslims had acquired an ideological edge over the Franks, an edge which the Muslims had long lacked. Their armies were now regularly accompanied by the ‘ulama’ who read to them and preached to them, and Saladin is presented as being personally and publicly committed to jihad. Once again, Islam had shown itself able to revitalise itself from within.
The importance of Jerusalem to Saladin is enshrined in a monumental inscription dated 587/1191 in his name on the Dome of Joseph (Qubbat Yusuf) on the Haram esplanade: ‘the victorious king, the probity of this world and of [true] religion, the Sultan of Islam and of the Muslims, the servant of the two noble sanctuaries and of Jerusalem’.61
During the course of the Third Crusade, Saladin and Richard the Lionheart negotiated over Jerusalem. Richard vowed that he would never give up Jerusalem, to which Saladin’s response was unequivocal:
Jerusalem is to us as it is to you. It is even more important for us, since it is the site of our Prophet’s nocturnal journey and the place where the people will assemble on the Day of Judgement. Do not imagine therefore that we can waver in this regard.62
Saladin’s devotion to Jerusalem is epitomised in the sources by their accounts of his personal and practical involvement in building up its fortifications (plates 4.9, 4.10):
He was then (589/1193) concerned with building walls and digging trenches round Jerusalem. He took charge of it himself and even carried stones on his own shoulders, so that all, rich and poor, strong and weak, followed his example, including even the scribe ‘Imad al-Din and the Qadi al-Fadil.63
Plate 4.9 City walls from within, various periods from antiquity onwards, Jerusalem
(Creswell Photographic Archive, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, neg. C. 4969)
Plate 4.10 City walls, exterior with view of the snow-covered city behind, various periods from antiquity onwards, Jerusalem
(Creswell Photographic Archive, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, neg. C. 1456)
Nur al-Din and Saladin – a Comparison
Both Nur al-Din and Saladin are treated as exemplary models by medieval Muslim historians,64 but even in Saladin’s own time a comparison was made between him and his illustrious predecessor, Nur al-Din. According to ‘Imad al-Din al-Isfahani, Nur al-Din and Saladin were both meritorious and he views Saladin as the true heir of Nur al-Din. In his judgement, however, Saladin, is the greater of the two: ‘He modelled himself on all the qualities of Nur al-Din … He studied from him the principles of virtue, and then in his own days surpassed him in them.’65
Writing in the Ayyubid period, Abu Shama (d. 665/1258) yearns for a rediscovery of religious unity and jihad. His historical work is entitled The Book of the Two Gardens (Kitab al-rawdatayn); this romantic title is a reference to the two reigns of Nur al-Din and Saladin. Whilst he values both these great men, he also pronounces that ‘Saladin was greater in jihad’.66 The word rawda, especially in this highly charged religious atmosphere, also has paradisal connotations, and these may be deliberately alluded to here. Abu Shama underlines Saladin’s superiority over Nur al-Din by stressing that Saladin ruled more territories, and above all that it was he who conquered the Holy Land.67
Recent research suggests that it is possible that the other contemporary biographer of Saladin, Ibn Shaddad, may have written his biography of Saladin as a response to a work of Ibn al-Athir, entitled The Splendid Chronicle of the Atabegs of Mosul (Al-bahir fi tarikh atabakat al-Mawsil), half of which is devoted to eulogising the deeds of Nur al-Din. Nur al-Din is shown in this work as the ideal ruler and mujahid, ascetic, pious and just. Holt argues that Ibn Shaddad in his turn, when writing his biography of Saladin, was doing so not just to gratify his Ayyubid patrons, the family of Saladin, but also to better the achievements of Ibn al-Athir. Furthermore, he wished to legitimise his master’s usurpation of the territories of the family of Nur al-Din and the continuation of Ayyubid rule after Saladin’s death in 1193.68
Regardless of the competitive aspect in the composition of the biographies of Nur al-Din and Saladin, so shrewdly analysed by Holt, it remains indisputable that both these leaders were military chiefs with no Islamic right to rule. They had come to power through their military strength. Neither of them, then, fitted the requirements of the Shari‘a. Both felt the need for legitimisation from the caliph for their seizure of territories held by other Muslim princes. It is, moreover, significant that their rival biographers make great efforts to portray their masters as pious prosecutors of the jihad and as embodying the virtues of the ideal mujahid, even when the evidence points unmistakably in rather different directions.
Figure 4.8 Rabi‘ ibn ‘Adnan making a night attack, Varqa va Gulshah (‘Varqa and Gulshah’), c. 1250, Turkey
In general, when dealing with the Islamic sources, it is difficult to speak with confidence about the motives of the protagonists in the Counter-Crusade. The sources were often written later than the events they describe and they display obvious partiality. This is true of Nur al-Din, who is regularly eulogised in the Islamic sources, and even more so of Saladin. As Richards points out, ambition, both personal and familial, can co-exist with a moral and religious purpose.69 Certainly it is worth mentioning that, unlike Saladin, Nur al-Din did not have the obvious advantages of two contemporary image-makers to mould his career in the way they wished to present it. Ibn al-Athir, writing two generations or so later for the court circle of the successors of Nur al-Din, is the writer whose role most resembles that of a panegyrical biographer for Nur al-Din. Nevertheless, he is in some respects at a critical disadvantage because of the time lapse between himself and his subject.
Saladin’s biographers, for their part, make it clear underneath their rhetoric that their master was, in their eyes at least, capable of inspiring great loyalty amongst his advisers and soldiers, many of whom would have given their lives for him, and their accounts of his charismatic personal qualities, chivalry and generosity are echoed in the Western Crusader chronicles, which lie outside the remit of this book. Together, they formed the basis of the legend of Saladin in later medieval Europe which the Muslims were eventually to reclaim as their own in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Saladin’s moral superiority over his contemporary peers, both Muslim and Christian, was acknowledged in his own lifetime by his enemies, the Crusaders; his image, even amidst the anti-Muslim bigotry of the European Middle Ages, remained unsullied, even romanticised, and that at a time when Europe’s attitude towards Islam was a sorry mixture of ignorance and hostility.
As for Nur al-Din, he was deprived of the ultimate prize of Jerusalem. Without it his achievements remain less dramatic than those of Saladin; but it was through the career of Nur al-Din that the foundations of a fully-fledged jihad programme were established. Saladin would not have attained his successes had Nur al-Din not prepared the way.
Confronted by the Crusaders, and by the ideological challenge which they represented, the Muslims of the twelfth century were able gradually to restore the notion of jihad from the state of somnolence into which it had fallen and thus to permit it to assume to the full the role that the theoreticians of Islamic law had given it in their books. The real turning-point was the careers of Nur al-Din and Saladin. The one cannot be divorced from the other; they form a continuum in this respect. During their periods in power, Syria and an increasing number of the territories around it were held under strong one-man rule for nearly fifty years. This crucial half-century enabled the Muslims to enjoy a much greater sense of cohesion and unity and to regain Jerusalem from the Franks, who noticeably lacked such continuity of leadership.
Clearly, Muslim military leaders and their entourage learned in this crucial pe
riod how to use a full range of propaganda tools in order to work towards Muslim reunification and Muslim corporate effort against the Franks. Jerusalem in these decades became the supreme focus of Muslim efforts and its Muslim identity was elaborated and appreciated to the full. After the conquest of Jerusalem, it is perhaps understandable that Saladin’s emotional commitment to jihad faltered. Ibn Zaki urges the faithful to continue to prosecute the jihad, and to take back the rest of the Holy Land: ‘Maintain the Holy War; it is the best means which you have of serving God, the most noble occupation of your lives.’70 But no comparable focus for the emotions generated by jihad presented itself to Saladin after Jerusalem.
A Historical Introduction to the Ayyubid Period, 589–647/1193–1249
In a recent overview, the American scholar Humphreys describes the relations between the Muslim rulers of the Levant and the Crusader states after the death of Saladin as ‘something of a puzzle’. Certainly he and others have done much to solve this puzzle,71 as well as to cast light on the ‘apparently vacillating, shifting Muslim policies towards the Crusader states during the decades between 1193 and 1291’.72
Figure 4.9 Madrasa al-‘Adiliyya, perspectival view, 619/1223, Damascus, Syria
Figure 4.10 Madrasa al-Sultaniyya, plan and perspectiva1 view, 620/1223–4, Aleppo, Syria
Figure 4.11 Madrasa al-Rukniyya extra muros, plan and perspectival view, 621/1224–5, Damascus, Syria
The Crusades- Islamic Perspectives Page 25
