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History of Palestine

The Kingdom of Jerusalem was founded on blood, suffering, and the expulsion of the Palestinian Muslims from Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Hatred surrounded that Kingdom, and the liberation of Jerusalem was constantly on the minds of the Muslims. Salah el Din al Ayuby, better known in the West as Saladin, was a native of Iraq who, after several illustrious military campaigns, had managed to become Sultan of both Egypt and Syria. He then turned his full attention to Palestine. At the famous battle of Hittin in 1187, Saladin defeated some 20,000 Crusade knights, after which he besieged and captured Jerusalem. In stark contrast to its bloody occupation by the Crusaders, Saladin offered amnesty and safe passage for the Crusaders and their families.

Saladin's victories in Palestine triggered the 'Third Crusade', headed by the three major kings of Europe: Philip Augustus of France, Frederick Bararossa of Germany, and Richard the Lionheart of England. Barbarossa drowned en route while crossing a river and his son, Duke of Swabia, insisted on burying his father's remains in Jerusalem. The body was pickled in vinegar, but it fared so badly on the long journey that the remains had to be interred in Antioch. One or two bones of the old warrior were, however, taken on to complete the pilgrimage. Meanwhile, Richard and Philip had occupied Acre. However, Philip - who had by then had enough of crusading - left for France.

Saladin was then camping outside Acre, negotiating with Richard for payment of a ransom for several thousand Muslim prisoners. When negotiations broke down, Richard coldly ordered the slaughter of the Muslims. He then proceeded southward to Jaffa; keeping to the coast and being supplied by English ships keeping pace with him just offshore. Saladin now struck, and the Norman minstrel, Ambroise, wrote this poem, describing the attacking Muslims:

With numberless rich pennons streaming

And flags and banners of fair seeming

Then thirty thousand Turkish troops

And more, ranged in well ordered groups,

Garbed and accounted splendidly,

Dashed on the host impetuously.

Like lightning speeds their horses' fleet,

And dust rose thick before their feet.

Moving ahead of the emirs

There came a band of trumpeters

And other men with drums and tabors

Except upon their drums to hammer

And hoot, and shriek and make great clamor.

So loud their tabors did discord

They had drowned the thunder of the lord.

Richard repulsed the attack, and for the next year the two leaders exhausted themselves in wars and skirmishes. Saladin and Richard finally agreed that the Kingdom of Jerusalem should be confined to the coastal cities, as far south as Jaffa, and the Ayubid Arabs (Saladin belonged to the Ayubid family) were to have the rest of Palestine. Acre became the capital of this shrunken European Kingdom, and Richard left Palestine in October 1192.

As Richard sailed back home to deal with his scheming younger brother John, his ship was wrecked in the Adriatic and he was captured by Duke Leopold of Austria. When Richard and Philip took over Acre, the British tore down the German standard, an insult that Leopold did not forget. Another grudge held against Richard was on account of the murder of Conrad, Philip's cousin. Speculation had it that Richard himself might have paid the 'Old Man of the mountains', Sheikh Rashid Sinan, to send down a couple of Assassins to knife Conrad. The German Emperor, Henry VI, accused Richard, while being held prisoner, of Canard's assassination.

The Assassins had made their headquarters in the mountains near Aleppo, Syria; and their dagger-men, or fidaees, swore a solemn oath to assassinate at a specific time, which they did under the influence of hashish. In the thirteenth century their fame was such that a widespread panic gripped France at a rumor that Assassins had landed and were on their way to Paris. The Assassins twice wounded Saladin, and he never managed to stamp them out. Richard was finally ransomed for a vast sum of silver raised through taxes and the sale of English gold and silver church plate.

On a mountain-top overlooking Cairo, Saladin built the Citadel, a castle from which his Ayubid dynasty ruled Egypt, Palestine and Syria (the Citadel continued as Egypt's ruling palace well into the nineteenth century).

Like the Abbasid rulers of Baghdad, the Aybids of Cairo relied heavily on Turkish elements to serve their army. These Turkish soldiers were called Mamluks (meaning being owned in Arabic) as they were captured in childhood and trained in every branch of warfare. In 1250, the Turkish Mamluk took control of the Citadel, and with it Egypt. Palestine was soon to follow.