A History of the Crusades-Vol 2 (49 page)

Shirkuh did not long survive his elevation. He
died from overeating on 23 March 1169. His fame in history has been outshone by
those of his master Nur ed-Din and of his nephew Saladin. Yet it was he who
saw, more clearly than any other Moslem, that the conquest of Egypt, with its
strategic position and its boundless resources, was the necessary preliminary
to the recovery of Palestine; and, in spite of the hesitations and scruples of
Nur ed-Din, he had worked ceaselessly to this end. His nephew reaped the
harvest of his persistence. His appearance was insignificant. He was short and
stout, red-faced and blind in one eye; and his features revealed his low birth.
But he was a soldier of genius; and few generals have been so devotedly loved
by their men.

The fateful importance of Shirkuh’s triumph was
well realized by the Franks. While some of them blamed it on the greed of Miles
of Plancy, who had made his King accept money rather than fight, others sought
a scapegoat in the Master of the Hospital, who was forced to retire from his
post and go home to the West. Amalric himself appealed to the West for a new
Crusade. An impressive embassy, led by the Patriarch Amalric and the Archbishop
of Caesarea, was dispatched early in 1169 with letters to the Emperor
Frederick, to Louis VII of France, to Henry II of England, to Margaret, Queen
Regent of Sicily, and to the Counts of Flanders, Blois and Troyes. But after
two days at sea the ambassadors’ ships ran into so severe a storm that they
were driven back to Acre; and none of the passengers would consent to risk
again the perils of the deep. A second embassy was sent out, led by Frederick,
Archbishop of Tyre, accompanied by his suffragan, John, Bishop of Banyas, and
Guibert, Preceptor of the Order of the Hospital. They reached Rome in July
1169; and Pope Alexander III gave them letters of recommendation to all his
clerics. But none of their letters was of avail. King Louis kept them for many
months at Paris, where the Bishop of Banyas died, while he explained to them
his preoccupations with the Plantagenets. They went on to England where King
Henry talked of his troubles with the Capetians. The quarrels between the Pope
and the Emperor made a visit to Germany pointless. After two years of
ineffectual begging they returned disconsolate to Palestine.

1169: Allied
Campaign against Egypt

An embassy to Constantinople was more
successful. Manuel was well aware that the balance of power in the East had
been dangerously upset. He offered Amalric the co-operation of the great
Imperial fleet for his next campaign. The King accepted gladly. Egypt might yet
be recovered. Nur ed-Din seemed to be fully occupied in the north. The death of
Kara Arslan, the Ortoqid emir of Diarbekir in 1168, and the quarrels over the
inheritance had embroiled him with his brother Qutb ed-Din of Mosul; and the
revolt of Ghazi ibn Hassan, governor of Menbij, had followed soon afterwards
and took several months to liquidate. Now Qutb ed-Din was dying, and the
question of the succession to Mosul would soon arise. In Egypt Shirkuh’s titles
and power had passed to his nephew Saladin. But Saladin was untried as a ruler.
Others of Shirkuh’s emirs had hoped for the succession; but the Caliph had
chosen Saladin, trusting that his inexperience would force him to rely on
Fatimid officials. Meanwhile al-Adid’s chief eunuch, a Nubian called
al-Mutamen, or the Confidential Adviser, wrote secretly to Jerusalem to promise
help should the Franks invade Egypt. Unfortunately, one of Saladin’s agents,
puzzled by the shape of a pair of sandals worn by a court messenger, took them
and unstitched them, and found the letter within. Saladin waited to take
vengeance. But news of his insecurity encouraged the Christians.

Amalric had urged haste on the Emperor; and on
10 July 1169, the Imperial armada set out from the Hellespont, under the
command of the Grand Duke Andronicus Contostephanus. The main fleet sailed to
Cyprus, capturing two Egyptian ships on the way; and a smaller squadron made
straight for Acre, bringing money-subsidies for Amalric’s soldiers. Amalric was
asked to send to Cyprus as soon as he wished the fleet to sail on. But Amalric
was not ready. The campaign of 1168 had disorganized his forces. The
Hospitallers’ losses had been very heavy. The Templars still refused to take
part; and the barons, discouraged by their previous experience, were no longer
as enthusiastic as before. It was only in late September that he summoned the
fleet to Acre, where its splendid appearance thrilled the inhabitants; and it
was only in mid-October that the whole expedition was ready to leave for Egypt.
The delay was doubly unfortunate. Manuel, who was given to optimism, had
counted on a short campaign and had provisioned his ships for three months
only. The three months were nearly over. Cyprus, not yet recovered from Reynald’s
ravaging, had not been able to help in the revictualment; nor were provisions
obtainable at Acre. At the same time Saladin received ample warning of the
expedition. To secure himself in Cairo, on 20 August 1169, he arrested and
beheaded the eunuch al-Mutamen, then dismissed all the palace servants known to
be faithful to the Caliph, replacing them by his own creatures. The dismissed
officers, encouraged by the Caliph, incited the Nubian Palace Guard to revolt
and attack Saladin’s troops. Saladin’s brother, Fakhr ed-Din, counter-attacked
but could do nothing, till Saladin set fire to the Guards’ barracks at Fostat.
Knowing their wives and families to be there the Nubians fled to rescue them.
Fakhr ed-Din then fell on them and slaughtered them almost to a man. The
Caliph, who had been watching the battle, hastened to assure Saladin of his
loyalty. His desertion of the Nubians completed their rout. The Armenian Guard,
which had not taken part in the fighting, was burnt to death in the barracks.
The opposition to Saladin in Cairo was silenced.

1169: Siege of
Damietta

The Christian army set out at last on 16
October. Andronicus Contostephanus, chafing at Amalric’s delays, offered to
convey the bulk of the soldiers by sea; but the Franks insisted on the land-route.
On 25 October the army entered Egypt at Farama, near Pelusium. Saladin expected
an attack on Bilbeis and concentrated his forces there; but the Franks, ferried
over the eastern branches of the Nile by the Byzantine ships, who had kept pace
with them along the coast, marched swiftly to Damietta, the rich fortress that
commanded the main branch of the Nile, up which the fleet could sail towards
Cairo. Saladin was taken by surprise. He dared not leave Cairo himself, for
fear that the Fatimid supporters might be encouraged to revolt. But he sent
reinforcements to Damietta, and wrote himself to Syria to beg for help from Nur
ed-Din. The garrison at Damietta had thrown a great chain across the river. The
Greek ships, already delayed by contrary winds, could not sail up past the city
and intercept the troops and the provisions that came downstream from Cairo. A
sudden assault might have captured the fortress; but though Contostephanus,
anxious about his dwindling supplies, urged immediate action, Amalric was awed
by the huge fortifications. He wished to construct more siege-towers. His first
tower, by some error of judgement, had been placed against the strongest part
of the walls. The Greeks, to the horror of local Christians and Moslems, used
their engines to bombard a quarter sanctified by a chapel dedicated to the
Virgin, who had halted there in her flight. Every day fresh troops arrived in
the city. Every day the Greek sailors and their compatriots on shore had their
rations reduced; and their Frankish allies, who were amply supplied, would give
them no help. Every day Contostephanus pleaded with Amalric to risk a
full-scale attack on the walls, and Amalric answered that the risk was too
great; and his generals, always suspicious of the Greeks, whispered that
Contostephanus’s zeal was caused by a desire to have Damietta as part of the
Imperial spoils. By the beginning of December it was clear that the expedition
had failed. Without food the Greeks could go on no longer. A fire-boat launched
by the defenders into the middle of the fleet had caused heavy losses, though
Amalric’s prompt intervention had restricted the damage. The fortress was now
well manned and well supplied; and a Moslem army was said to be approaching
from Syria. When the rains came early and turned the Christian camp into a
morass, it was time to raise the siege. Whether Amalric or Contostephanus was
the first to begin negotiations with the Saracens is uncertain; nor are the
terms that were arranged known to us. A money-indemnity was probably given to
the Christians; and Amalric certainly hoped that a show of friendship towards
Saladin might detach him from Nur ed-Din with whom his relations were suspected
of lacking cordiality.

On 13 December the Christians burnt all their
siege-machines to prevent them falling into Moslem hands, and moved from Damietta.
The army reached Ascalon on the 24th. The fleet was less fortunate. As it
sailed northward a great storm arose. The starving sailors could not control
their ships, and many of them foundered. For days Greek corpses were washed
ashore on the coast of Palestine. Contostephanus himself escaped and sailed to
Cilicia and thence travelled overland to report to the Emperor. The remnants of
the armada reached the Bosphorus early in the new year.

The disastrous outcome of the expedition
inevitably gave rise to recriminations. The Franks blamed the Greeks for their
shortage of supplies; the Greeks, more reasonably, blamed the Franks for their
endless delays. But both Amalric and the Emperor realized that the alliance
must not be broken. For Saladin was now unquestioned master of Egypt.

1170: Earthquake
at Antioch

Saladin was too wise to fall into the
diplomatic trap prepared for him by Amalric. Nur ed-Din had trusted Shirkuh,
but he was suspicious of the ambitions of the new ruler of Egypt. Saladin,
however, behaved with perfect correctitude. In April 1170 his father, Najm
ed-Din Ayub, was sent to him by Nur ed-Din with a company of Syrian troops,
partly as a gesture of friendship, partly perhaps as a hint; for Ayub was
devoted to his master. As a large number of Damascene merchants travelled with
the convoy, eager to open up trade with Cairo, Nur ed-Din himself led a
demonstration against Kerak, in order to allow the great caravan to pass safely
through the territory of Oultrejourdain. It was Nur ed-Din’s only move against
the Franks. During their Egyptian expedition he had left them in peace, and in
January 1170 they had even been able to recover the castle of Akkar, on the
south of the Buqaia, which had been lost probably in 1165. Amalric, as regent
of Tripoli, assigned it together with the town of Arqa to the Hospitallers, who
now controlled the whole valley.

On 29 June 1170 Syria was visited by a terrible
earthquake, as destructive as those of 115 7; and for the next few months
Christians and Moslems alike were busy repairing ruined fortresses. Aleppo,
Shaizar, Hama and Homs were all severely damaged, as were Krak des Chevaliers,
Tripoli and Jebail. At Antioch the damage was enormous; but the Franks saw
divine justice in it. For the Greek Patriarch and his clergy were celebrating
Mass in the Cathedral of St Peter, when the edifice collapsed on them. As
Athanasius lay dying under the ruins, Prince Bohemond and his court hurried to
Qosair, to his rival Aimery, to beg him to return to his see. The brief episode
of Greek ecclesiastical rule was ended.

The Emperor could not intervene, angry though
he was at the news; for things were going badly in Cilicia. The Armenian prince
Thoros died in 1168, leaving a child, Roupen II, to succeed him, under the
regency of a Frankish lord called Thomas, whose mother had been Thoros’s
sister. But Thoros’s brother Mleh disputed the succession. He had at one time
taken vows as a Templar, then, after quarrelling with Thoros and attempting to
assassinate him, he had fled to Nur ed-Din and become a Moslem. Early in 1170
Nur ed-Din lent him troops with which he was able not only to dethrone his
nephew but also to invade the Cilician plain and take Mamistra, Adana and
Tarsus from their Greek garrisons. He then attacked the Templars at Baghras.
Bohemond appealed to Amalric, who marched up into Cilicia and temporarily, it
seems, restored Imperial rule. This friendly action may have reconciled Manuel
to his loss of ecclesiastical control in Antioch. But Mleh was irrepressible. A
year or so later he managed to capture Constantine Coloman and again overrun
Cilicia.

Nur ed-Din was meanwhile occupied farther east.
His brother, Qutb ed-Din of Mosul died in the summer of 1170. His two sons,
Saif ed-Din and Imad ed-Din disputed the inheritance; and some months passed
before Nur ed-Din could settle the matter to his liking. The respite was useful
for the Franks. But the problem of Egypt remained unsolved. Amalric remained
faithful to his policy of a close alliance with the Emperor and constant
appeals to the West. In the spring of 1171 he decided to pay a personal visit
to Constantinople.

1171: Amalric at
Constantinople

His departure was delayed by a sudden offensive
made by Saladin against his southern frontier. Early in December 1170 a great
Egyptian army appeared before Daron, the southernmost Frankish fortress on the
Mediterranean coast. Its defences were weak; and though Saladin had no
siege-engines with him, its fall seemed imminent. Amalric, taking with him the
Patriarch and the relic of the True Cross, hastened with a small but
well-trained force to Ascalon, arriving there on 18 December and moving on to
the Templars’ fortress at Gaza, where he left Miles of Plancy in charge, as the
Templar knights joined him in the march on Daron. He managed to break through
the Egyptian army and enter Daron; whereupon Saladin raised the siege and
marched on Gaza. The lower town was taken, despite a futile resistance ordered
by Miles; and its inhabitants were massacred. But the citadel was so formidable
that Saladin did not venture to attack it. As suddenly as he had come he
disappeared back to the Egyptian frontier. He then sent a squadron up the Gulf
of Akaba, which captured the Frankish outpost of Aila, at the head of the Gulf,
during the last days of the year.