The Crusades- Islamic Perspectives

by Carole Hillenbrand

It should be pointed out that a similar fate awaited some of the Crusader churches outside Jerusalem which were converted into Muslim monuments. A typical exar e is the Crusader church at Gaza which is now the Great Mosque.191

  The Incidence of Conversion amongst Muslims and Franks

  Instances of Crusaders and Muslims changing faith are reported occasionally in the Islamic sources, although such a process must have occurred frequently as a result of the exigencies of war and survival. How lasting such conversions were is generally not discussed in the sources. Ibn al-Athir mentions one Muslim apostate who was mayor (ra’is) of Saruj in 502/1108–9:

  Plate 6.2 Madrasa al-Halawiyya, prayer hall (note typical Byzantine pendentives), 543/1148–9 and earlier, Aleppo, Syria

  (Creswell Photographic Archive, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, neg. C. 5657)

  Plate 6.3 Madrasa al-Halawiyya, wooden mihrab dated 643/1245, Aleppo, Syria

  (Creswell Photographic Archive, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, neg. C. 5659)

  The mayor of Saruj was a Muslim who had apostacised. Jawali’s associates heard him denigrating Islam and they beat him. There ensued a dispute between them and the Franks because of him. That was mentioned to the count [Baldwin] and he said: ‘This [kind of person] is not suitable either for us or the Muslims’. So they killed him.192

  Ibn Jubayr rises to heights of invective against a former Maghribi prisoner who was now in the employ of a Syrian merchant:

  In one of his patron’s caravans he had come to Acre, where he had mixed with the Christians, and taken on much of their character. The devil increasingly seduced and incited him until he renounced the faith of Islam, turned unbeliever, and became a Christian.193

  Worse was to come, however: ‘We left to Acre, but received news of him. He had been baptised and become unclean, and had put on the girdle of a monk, thereby hastening for himself the flames of hell.’194

  Usama tells the story of a man called ‘Ali ‘Abd b. Abi’l-Rayda’ who fell into the hands of a Frank called Theophile, the lord of Kafartab. Under his new master, ‘Ali led the Franks against the Muslims. His wife who was with him in Kafartab objected to his behaviour, but to no avail. So she arranged to secrete one of her relatives in the house and at night they both killed her husband. She ran away with all her possessions to Shayzar; there she said: ‘I was angered on behalf of the Muslims at what this infidel perpetrated against them.’195 It is not clear from this story whether ‘Ali had converted to Christianity but it seems likely.

  We have already mentioned the young Frankish woman captive who married Malik b. Salim, the lord of Qal‘at Ja‘bar. She bore Malik a son called Badran, who later succeeded his father. At that point his mother escaped from the castle by a rope and went to Frankish-held Saruj: ‘there she married a Frankish shoemaker, while her son was the lord of Qal‘at Ja‘bar’.196 Usama comments at the beginning of this story that ‘The Franks (may Allah’s curse be upon them!) are an accursed race, the members of which do not assimilate except with their own kin’.197

  Usama gives another example of the tenacity of the Christian faith. He tells the story of a young Frankish prisoner ‘who accepted Islam, and his conversion was genuine, judging by what he showed in the practice of prayer and fasting’. He learned the craft of working marble from a stonecutter and was married off by Usama’s father to a pious young Muslim woman – Usama’s father paid for the wedding. A few years later, after the birth of two sons, the husband took them and their mother and all their possessions and joined the Franks in Afamiyya: ‘He and his children became Christians, after having practised Islam with its prayers and faith. May Allah, therefore, purify the world from such people.’198 Later, after the battle of Hattin, Saladin’s deputy in Damascus killed Templars and Hospitallers there but ‘only those who had been offered Islam and refused to become Muslim’. ‘Imad al-Din then comments: ‘Only a few converted genuinely to Islam and were convinced determinedly of the religion.’199

  At the siege of Safad by Baybars in 664/1266, the sultan spared only two prisoners: ‘One of them was the negotiator who had wanted to stay with the sultan and had embraced Islam.’200 According to Ibn al-Furat, he was a Templar called Brother Leon.201

  The alleged desire for baptism was used as a ploy by Baybars in an attempt to murder Edward I of England. Baybars used the services of Ibn Shawar, who was in charge of al-Ramla. Ibn Shawar made contact with Edward claiming that he wanted to be baptised and that he would send him other Muslims to be baptised too. Edward took one of Ibn Shawar’s messengers, allegedly a convert to Christianity, into his service. This man made an unsuccessful attempt to kill Edward.202

  Freedom of Worship

  Muslims under Frankish Rule

  The evidence from the sources on this important issue is fragmentary.203 Diya’ al-Din reports that under Frankish rule the Muslim inhabitants of a village called Jamma’il in the Nablus area performed the Friday prayer while the sermon (khutba) was also given.204

  For the situation in the Frankish Kingdom of Jerusalem, Usama’s evidence is useful. In a famous incident he visits the Aqsa mosque, now occupied by the Templars. Near it was a small mosque (masjid) which the Franks had made into a church. Usama’s story continues as follows: ‘When I used to enter the Aqsa Mosque, in which were the Templars, who were my friends, they used to vacate that little mosque so that I might pray in it.’205 But this evidence does not suggest that all Muslims were able to pray in the vicinity of the Aqsa mosque. On the contrary, Usama seems to imply that he is being given a special privilege by the Templars who are friends of his. Perhaps this privilege would have been extended to other members of the Muslim knightly classes.

  Ibn Jubayr praises the way in which the Christians round Mount Lebanon behaved towards Muslim hermits, bringing them food and treating them kindly: ‘And if the Christians treat the opponents of their religion in this fashion, what think you of the treatment that the Muslims give each other?’206

  Figure 6.44 Amirs and huntsmen, inlaid brass basin known as the ‘Baptistère de St Louis’, c. 1300 or earlier, Syria

  In Crusader Acre Ibn Jubayr reports that a part of the main mosque had been allotted for Islamic worship by the Franks:

  But God kept undefiled one part of the principal mosque, which remained in the hands of the Muslims as a small mosque where strangers could congregate to offer the obligatory prayers. Near its mihrab is the tomb of the prophet Salih – God bless and preserve him and all the prophets. God protected this part (of the mosque) from desecration by the unbelievers for the benign influence of this holy tomb.207

  Ibn Jubayr mentions that during his visit to Tyre he took a rest ‘in one of the mosques that remained in Muslim hands’.208 This suggests that Muslims were not always allowed to keep possession of their mosques or to continue to worship in them, but that some had been kept for Muslim use. Sometimes a religious monument could be used in both Crusader and Muslim worship. Ibn Jubayr gives the example of ‘Ayn al-Baqar to the east of Acre and praises what the Crusaders have done there:

  Over it (the spring) is a mosque of which there remains in its former state only the mihrab, to the east of which the Franks have built their own mihrab; and Muslim and infidel assemble there, the one turning to his place of worship, the other to his. In the hands of the Christians its venerableness is maintained, and God has preserved in it a place of prayer for the Muslims.209

  Freedom of worship was a very important aspect of the infamous handing back of Jerusalem to the Franks in 626/1228–9. Access to the holy monuments of Islam and worship therein were guaranteed in the agreement:

  The Haram, and the Dome of the Rock and the Aqsa mosque which lay therein, should also remain to the Muslims, with no Franks allowed to enter save as visitors, while its custodians should be Muslims. All the practices of Islam, with the call to prayer and the prayers themselves, should continue to be observed within the sacred area.210

  The Destruction of Religious Monuments

  It is of course understandable that
sometimes feelings of anger and vengeance should prevail. Perhaps it is surprising that more religious buildings were not destroyed in the long conflict between Franks and Muslims. But both sides in the conflict were guilty on occasion.

  A key moment had been the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcre by al-Hakim – an aberrant and disgraceful act which his successor al-Zahir had attempted to rectify by agreeing that the monument should be rebuilt. Although the Franks massacred the inhabitants, Muslim and Jew, in Jerusalem in 492/1099, and although they pillaged the portable contents of the Dome of the Rock and the Aqsa mosque, they did not destroy the monuments themselves. This was probably out of respect for the Holy City and its haram area and because they could see the propagandistic value of appropriating these monuments for Christian use. Nevertheless, some Islamic sources report without comment that the Franks burned down the Jerusalem synagogue with the Jews inside it, and that they also burned other important shrines.211

  Similar destructive acts are reported for the Muslim side. In 517/1123–4 the zealous Artuqid warrior Balak destroyed Christian shrines at Khartpert in retaliation for an uprising of Frankish prisoners.212 In Jumada I 584/July 1188 Saladin destroyed the church at Antarsus (Tortosa) which was ‘one of the largest of its kind’. In 587/1191 he demolished the church at Lydda.213 Saladin’s biographers draw a discreet veil over this information; but al-Maqrizi, who lived in a more overtly ‘fanatical’ age, has no inhibitions about mentioning this in the same way as he recounts the similar activities of Baybars.

  The Ayyubid period witnessed dreadful destruction in Jerusalem: the Khwarazmians – at least nominally Muslims – sacked Jerusalem in 642/1244–5, destroying structures in the Church of the Holy Sepulcre and pillaging Christian graves.214 In 661/1263 Baybars took the lead personally in ordering that the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth should be razed to the ground.215 The church was destroyed so systematically that its original ground plan can be discerned only through the results of archaeological excavation. Five Romanesque capitals, probably the finest sculptures emanating from Palestine under Frankish occupation, have survived; their carvings of human figures portray scenes from the lives of the Apostles.216 Perhaps it was this very representation of the human form in a religious context that inflamed Baybars into destroying the church. He is reported to have known the importance of the church for the Christians: ‘the most famous of their holy places, where in their view the Christian religion had its origin’.217 In 666/1267–8 Baybars also demolished churches in al-Hadath.218

  Figure 6.45 Courtiers by a fountain, Cappella Palatina, ceiling, c. 1140, Palermo, Sicily

  Cultural Exchanges between Muslims and Franks – the Evidence of Islamic Art and Architecture

  It is very difficult to pinpoint the direction of the flow of artistic influences between Muslims and Crusaders and vice versa, and to establish whether a motif or a style was borrowed at the time or reused later. Hence it is important to establish at the outset that the Islamic perspectives which form the focus of this book do not necessarily fit neatly into the art-historical sphere, where it is not always possible to say firmly that Muslims borrowed from Crusaders or Crusaders from Muslims. Nevertheless, some very interesting insights into cultural borrowings and how and why they occurred can be made by analysing the surviving artistic and architectural material from the Crusading period.

  As already mentioned, the major architectural achievements of the Crusaders were in fortresses and churches, and the physical evidence of the Crusader presence in the Levant must have been striking. They built great castles and fortified existing towns. They brought with them a deep knowledge of military technology and the science of masonry. They also built numerous churches both inside and outside Jerusalem.

  Architecture

  It is difficult to assess the impact of the Crusader presence on the building activities of the Muslims. One might have expected that in response to the Crusaders’ attacks and to their network of castles and fortifications the Muslims might have responded by building similar structures to defend themselves. This issue will be examined in Chapter 7.

  Here, however, we will look at the question of whether Crusaders and Muslims ‘borrowed’ from each other’s architectural repertoires in religious buildings (e.g. figure 6.46). A few warning notes should be sounded first. It is perhaps misleading to attempt to assess cross-cultural influences on the basis of what has chanced to survive until the present day. After all, the twelfth and thirteenth centuries witnessed prolonged warfare and a number of serious earthquakes, notably in 1157 and 1170, and the all-important city of Jerusalem was sacked in 1244 by the Khwarizmians and much valuable evidence has been destroyed. It is also important to stress that it is often difficult to assess both the direction and the chronology of architectural borrowings between two traditions. An obvious meeting point for artistic cross-fertilisation in the Crusading period is the city of Jerusalem itself, which was held successively by the Franks and the Muslims between 1099 and 1291. The evidence for mutual artistic influences is, however, sparse since most of Ayyubid Jerusalem has not been preserved.

  Figure 6.46 White Mosque, minaret (note European elements), 718/1318, Ramla, Israel

  The reusing of Crusader Handiwork in Muslim Monuments

  It was quite common for parts of a Crusader building to be reused in an Islamic setting. It is often difficult to disentangle what are Crusader and what are Islamic remains, what is Crusader handiwork in its original site and what has been reworked. What is clear, however, is that Muslim masons were not averse to reusing fragments of Crusader stonework in Islamic religious monuments. And they probably had a variety of motives for doing so.

  In the Aqsa mosque, for example, some of the second-hand material used in the arches of the facade includes sculpted ornament taken from Crusader structures of the twelfth century (plate 6.4).219 One of the inscriptions on the porch records that the facade of the portico was constructed by the Ayyubid prince al-Mu’azzam ‘Isa in c. 609/1217–18.220

  The entrance of the monument known as the Qubbat al-mi‘raj on the upper platform of the so-called Temple Mount, dated 592/1200–1, is very similar to the Chapel of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives and the Muslim monument has a number of Crusader spolia.221 Other examples of the reuse of Crusader sculpture in Islamic monuments include the upper part of the Bab al-silsila, where the pendentives of the domes are probably an Ayyubid reconstruction of Crusader pieces (dated by Burgoyne to between 1187 and 1199), and the Nahwiyya madrasa, founded by the Ayyubid ruler al-Mu‘azzam ‘Isa, which has a facade in a hybrid style, reusing Crusader spolia.222

  Plate 6.4 Aqsa Mosque, Ayyubid porch (note incorporation of Frankish elements, perhaps as references to Muslim victory), 615/1218–19, Jerusalem

  (Creswell Photographic Archive, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, neg. C. 4996)

  Figure 6.47 Romanesque capitals reused in Muslim buildings (a: Mashhad al-Husayn, Aleppo; b: Madrasa al-Zahiriyya, Aleppo; c: Citadel, Damascus); twelfth-thirteenth centuries, Syria

  What motivated Muslim craftsmen to reuse Crusader architectural fragments in their construction of new Islamic monuments and to incorporate Crusader spolia into existing Islamic monuments? There were often practical reasons for this. Crusader prisoners of war who had skills as masons would be employed in building new Islamic monuments.223 Material from ruined buildings could be used in constructing new ones nearby and thus save costs. This was especially the case when the spolia bore vegetal or abstract decoration which would not offend Muslim susceptibilities.

  Figure 6.48 Frankish capitals reused in the Jami‘ al-Hanabila, 599/1202–3, Damascus, Syria

  Figure 6.49 Crusader capital reused deliberately upside down as a trophy of victory, mihrab of Abu’l-Fida, Jami‘ al-Nuri, early fourteenth century, Hama, Syria

  Aesthetic considerations could also have played a part in the selection of which spolia or motifs would be reused in Muslim buildings (plate 6.5; cf. also plates 2.9 and 5.4). And no doubt, above
all, there was the wish on the part of the triumphant Muslim conquerors to display the spoils of their victory.

  A key moment was 1291. The beautiful doorway of the church at St Jean d’Acre was brought from Acre in 1291 and incorporated in the mosque of al-Nasir in Cairo (plate 6.6). This was, of course, no mere borrowing of an architectural feature just because the architect, mason or patron liked it. The propagandistic value of the door was enormous. Here a fine but portable artefact was carried away to be displayed in the centre of the Mamluk empire as a permanent testimony of a glorious victory, the definitive defeat of the Crusaders in the Levant, the inevitable victory of Islam over Christianity.

  Plate 6.5 Great Mosque, treasury (1923 photograph), perhaps seventh century, Hama, Syria

  (Creswell Photographic Archive, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, neg. C. 6071)

  Plate 6.6 Madrasa-Mausoleum of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad, Gothic doorway from Acre reused as a trophy, 695–703/1295–1304, Cairo, Egypt

  (Creswell Photographic Archive, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, after K. A. C. Creswell, The Muslim Architecture of Egypt II, 1959. pl. 85a)

  The Evidence of the Architecture of Nur al-Din

  Antique patinas (sigma-shaped tables) were reused in Syrian mosques. One such table was the object of much admiration in the Hanafi Madrasat al-Halawiyya in Aleppo (the former Christian cathedral).224 Ibn al-Shihna, quoting Ibn al-‘Adim, reports:

  They show in the Madrasat al-Halawiyya an altar on which the Christians used to sacrifice, of royal transparent marble, a stone of exquisite beauty: when a candle is placed under it, one sees its light shining through. We were told that Nur al-Din had it brought from Apamea in 544.225