The Battle For Jerusalem

Summary

Throughline: The Battle for Jerusalem

Host/Author: NPR
Episode Title: The Battle For Jerusalem
Release Date: October 3, 2024

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Throughline, NPR's time-traveling podcast, takes listeners on a journey beyond the headlines to explore the historical forces that have shaped our world. In the episode titled "The Battle For Jerusalem," hosts Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei delve into the pivotal conflicts surrounding this sacred city, examining the motivations, strategies, and enduring impacts of the Crusades and the rise of Saladin.

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1. The Call to Arms: The First Crusade

The episode opens with a reenactment of Pope Urban II’s impassioned speech at Clermont, France, on November 27, 1095. In a moment that would ignite centuries-long conflicts, Pope Urban II urges Western Christians to embark on a pilgrimage turned holy war to reclaim Jerusalem from Muslim rule.

Pope Urban II (01:47): "A race utterly alienated from God has invaded the land of the Christians."

Ramtin Arab Louie narrates the fervor of the time, explaining how Pope Urban II's call resonated deeply in a highly religious society saturated with imagery of sin and redemption.

Arab Louie (03:10): "He asked the knights of Western Europe to undertake this enormous journey, a form of pilgrimage in which they would go thousands of miles, largely into unknown territory."

Historian Commentary (04:02): The Pope framed the Crusade as both a penitential act and a divine mission, promising eternal glory in the Kingdom of Heaven for those who participated.

The First Crusade saw an unprecedented mobilization, with estimates suggesting an initial force of 50,000 fighters embarking on the arduous journey. Despite facing fierce opposition and immense hardships, by summer 1099, the Crusaders reached Jerusalem.

2. The Siege and Capture of Jerusalem (1099)

Upon arrival, the Crusaders laid siege to Jerusalem's formidable walls. Sandy Kaplan provides a vivid account of the siege's brutality, contrasting it with Saladin’s later conquest.

Kaplan (08:06): "On July 15, 1099, the Crusaders finally break through the walls of Jerusalem."

The subsequent sacking of the city was marked by unprecedented violence, with Pope Urban II recounting the horrors inflicted upon the Muslim defenders.

Pope Urban II (09:09): "None of them were left alive. Neither women nor children were spared."

This brutal conquest left a lasting scar, setting the stage for enduring animosity between Christian and Muslim worlds.

3. The Rise of Saladin: Uniting the Muslim World

Fast forward to the mid-12th century, the episode introduces Salahdin Yusuf Ibn Ayub, known as Saladin, whose emergence would redefine the balance of power in the Middle East. Born in 1138 in Tikrit, Saladin rose from his Kurdish roots to become a unifying force against the fractured Muslim empires of the time: the Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt and the Seljuq Sultanate in Syria.

Historian Paul Cobb (13:07): "This was a complicated web of factions and rivalries... but this situation would be completely altered by someone born in a small city in the heart of the Middle East."

Saladin's strategic acumen and generous leadership style earned him both loyalty and respect. Suleiman Murad, a professor of religion and Middle Eastern studies, highlights Saladin's diplomatic prowess:

Murad (17:50): "He won everybody over by his shrewdness, by his generosity."

Despite initial loyalties to his feudal lord, Nur Al Din, Saladin seized the opportunity following Nur Al Din's death in 1174, consolidating his power to rule over Syria and Egypt. This unification laid the groundwork for his future campaigns against the Crusader states.

4. Baldwin IV: The Leper King of Jerusalem

The narrative shifts to Jerusalem in the late 12th century, introducing Baldwin IV, known as the Leper King. Born in 1161, Baldwin ascended to the throne at just 13 years old after the sudden death of his father, Amalric.

Ramtin Arab Louie (27:20): "His tutor, William of Tyre, noticed that... Baldwin, although his comrades did not spare him, endured it altogether too patiently, as if he felt nothing."

Despite his debilitating illness, Baldwin IV proved to be a competent and courageous ruler. However, his declining health intensified the kingdom's succession crisis, eventually placing his sister, Sybilla, and her husband, Guy of Lusignan, at the center of political turmoil.

5. Political Intrigue and the Path to Conflict

Sybilla’s marriage to Guy of Lusignan stirred tensions among Jerusalem’s nobility, who viewed Guy as an outsider unfit to lead. This discord was exacerbated by the aggressive actions of Reynald de Chatillon, whose violation of a truce provided Saladin with a pretext to unite the Muslim factions against the Crusaders.

Historian (35:23): "Reynald de Chatillon was known for being impulsive and extremely violent."

6. The Battle of Hattin: Saladin’s Decisive Victory

In 1187, Saladin assembled a formidable force of 30,000 troops to confront the weakened Crusader army of 20,000 stationed near the village of Hattin. Employing tactical brilliance, Saladin avoided direct confrontation, instead opting to deplete the Crusaders through relentless harassment and strategic maneuvers.

Ramtin Arab Louie (39:41): "Saladin did not want to attack the Franks head on, even though he had a larger force. Instead, he chose to be patient."

The Crusaders, exhausted and dehydrated, found themselves encircled with dwindling hope.

Saladin's Son (47:55): "The sultan dismounted, prostrated himself in thanks to God Almighty, and he wept for joy."

The Battle of Hattin concluded with a decisive Saladin victory, leading to the capture of key Crusader leaders, including Guy of Lusignan and the notorious Reynald de Chatillon.

7. Reclaiming Jerusalem: A Contrast in Leadership

Unlike the massacre of 1099, Saladin’s reconquest of Jerusalem in 1187 was marked by restraint and orders to protect civilians.

Arab Louie (50:02): "Unlike the Crusaders, in 1099, he would take the city without massacring civilians."

This act not only solidified Saladin’s reputation as a just and magnanimous leader but also set a contrasting precedent in the treatment of conquered populations.

8. Legacy and Lasting Impact

The loss of Jerusalem was a profound blow to Christendom, inspiring subsequent Crusades, though none matched the first in success. Jerusalem remained under Muslim control for centuries, underscoring the enduring significance of Saladin's leadership and the complex interplay of religious and political motivations that continue to resonate today.

Suleiman Murad (51:25): "The fact that we think the Crusades can be relevant to our moment is because our moment is a period of clash."

Conclusion

"The Battle For Jerusalem" meticulously unpacks the intricate history of one of the most contested cities in the world. By weaving together primary sources, expert insights, and compelling narratives, Throughline offers listeners a comprehensive understanding of how the clash between the Crusaders and Saladin shaped the geopolitical and cultural landscapes of the Middle Ages—a legacy that still echoes in contemporary conflicts.

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Notable Quotes:

• Pope Urban II (01:47): "A race utterly alienated from God has invaded the land of the Christians."
• Ramtin Arab Louie (03:10): "He asked the knights of Western Europe to undertake this enormous journey..."
• Suleiman Murad (17:50): "He won everybody over by his shrewdness, by his generosity."
• Historian Tom Madden (35:23): "Reynald de Chatillon was known for being impulsive and extremely violent."
• Saladin’s Son (47:55): "The sultan dismounted, prostrated himself in thanks to God Almighty, and he wept for joy."
• Suleiman Murad (51:25): "The fact that we think the Crusades can be relevant to our moment is because our moment is a period of clash."

This episode is a testament to Throughline's commitment to bringing history to life, offering listeners deep insights into the factors that have shaped enduring conflicts and alliances.

Transcript

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[Ramtin Arab Louie]

Hey, how you doing? It's Ramtin here. Before we get started, we want to thank you all for listening to Throughline. Without you, this show doesn't exist. And we've got a way for you to actually help us out by telling us what you like and how we could improve the show by completing a short anonymous [e-mail] throughlinesurvey. It takes less than 10 minutes, I promise. And you'll do all of us here at Throughline a huge favor by filling it out. That's npr.org throughline survey. Thank you so much. And now onto the show.

[Narrator]

Prologue the Call to Arms.

[Pope Urban II]

O race of Franks, we wish you to know what grievous cause has led us to your country.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

November 27, 1095.

[Pope Urban II]

What peril threatening you and all the faithful has brought us?

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

Pope Urban ii, the leader of the Catholic Church, one of the most powerful men in Europe, is in Clermont, France, to give a speech.

[Pope Urban II]

A race utterly alienated from God has invaded the land of the Christians.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

In front of both clergy and laymen, he gives a fiery sermon where he calls for a war to take back Christianity's holiest city, Jerusalem, from its Muslim rulers.

[Pope Urban II]

They destroy the altars after having defiled them with their uncleanness, they circumcised the Christians, and the blood of the circumcision they either spread upon the altar or pour into the faces of the baptismal.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

He challenges Christians to journey to the Middle east and take back the Holy Land by force.

[Historian]

He asked the knights of Western Europe to undertake this enormous journey, a form of pilgrimage in which they would go thousands of miles, largely into unknown territory.

[Pope Urban II]

Enter upon the road to the Holy Sepulchre, wrest that land from the wicked race and subject it to yourselves.

[Historian]

He's asking them to make a great sacrifice and potentially to lose their lives.

[Narrator]

If they died in battle, they would be, in a way, a martyr for their faith.

[Pope Urban II]

When an armed attack is made upon the enemy, let this one cry be raised by all the soldiers of God. It is the will of God.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

It is the will of God.

[Historian]

And in a society that's saturated with religiosity, there's images all over churches of the consequences of sin and what the pope is saying, that you can avoid eternal damnation if you Complete this pilgrimage, this act of penance.

[Pope Urban II]

Undertake this journey for the remission of your sins, with the assurance of the imperishable glory of the Kingdom of Heaven.

[Narrator]

Going to war to risk your life for the sake of the Holy Land, for the sake of your Savior, was the ultimate penitential act.

[Historian]

But you can remain violent because in his eyes, you are channeling that violence for a just cause.

[Sandy Kaplan]

Word of the Crusade soon spreads all over Europe.

[Historian]

Tens of thousands of people respond to this. Not just knights. Normal people are drawn towards this goal of Jerusalem. So men, women, old people, young people, churchmen, all head off in these great series of expeditions that we know as the First Crusade.

[Sandy Kaplan]

The First Crusade was an unprecedented massive military campaign to reclaim Jerusalem from what Europeans called Saracens, or Muslims. Some estimates say the Crusader army started out consisting of 50,000 fighters from all over Europe. They traveled thousands of miles to the Middle east, raiding and losing. Along the way. They faced fierce opposition from Muslim forces in Turkey, Lebanon and Palestine. Thousands died from disease and battle. Yet by the summer of 1099, not even four years after his speech at Claremont, the battered and emaciated soldiers of the Pope's Crusade arrived on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

[Narrator]

The army itself was near breaking point. This is what was left of a much larger army that had left Europe. So you can imagine the zeal with which the hunger with which they approached the walls of Jerusalem.

[Sandy Kaplan]

Jerusalem is one of the holiest cities in the world. It's where Jews built their greatest temple. According to Islam, it's where the prophet Muhammad made his night journey to heaven. And according to Christian tradition, Jerusalem is where Jesus Christ was killed and resurrected. It had long been a site for pilgrimage for all the Abrahamic faiths.

[Narrator]

But this was a new kind of pilgrimage. This was armed pilgrimage, sponsored by and authorized by the Pope.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

The Crusader army, known by the Muslim defenders as Franks, encircled the city and its high walls, looking for a way in.

[Historian]

And they lay siege to the city. In their preparations, they process around it a sort of religious ritual processing around the city.

[Narrator]

The Franks used catapults and siege engines to deal with the stout walls of Jerusalem.

[Sandy Kaplan]

On July 15, 1099, the Crusaders finally break through the walls of Jerusalem.

[Pope Urban II]

At the noon hour on Friday, with trumpet sounding, amid great commotion, the Franks entered the city.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

This account of the sacking of Jerusalem comes from a Crusader who was there.

[Pope Urban II]

Some Saracens, Arabs and Ethiopians took refuge in the Tower of David. Many fled to the roof of the Temple of Solomon. In this temple, almost 10,000 were killed.

[Narrator]

The accounts from the time of the massacres that took place tend to exaggerate what happened, I think. But they speak of terrible scenes.

[Pope Urban II]

If you had been there, you would have seen our feet colored to our ankles with the blood of the slain. None of them were left alive. Neither women nor children were spared.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

All of this death and violence over one city, a city that wasn't rich. It didn't have much strategic value, but it was and is a symbolic treasure. Even today, Jerusalem is a focal point of war and power struggles, a place so important that people are willing to kill and die to control it.

[Sandy Kaplan]

As the years of Christian rule over Jerusalem turned into decades, Islamic scholars intensified their calls to take the city back. Eventually, one ruler would respond to their call. What happened next was one of the most consequential battles of the Middle Ages, a battle that would forever change the course of relations between the Islamic and Christian worlds, Europe and the Middle East.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

In this episode, we're going back to the front lines of this war to explore a simple what is Jerusalem Worthy?

[Sandy Kaplan]

Hi, this is Sandy Kaplan from Sacramento, California. You're listening to throughline from NPR.

[Narrator]

Part 1 Saracens.

[Sandy Kaplan]

In the decades after the establishment of the Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem in 1099, Christian power expanded in the Middle East. Crusaders soon controlled most of Palestine, Lebanon, and parts of Syria.

[Narrator]

Meanwhile, the Muslim world was a divided one.

[Sandy Kaplan]

The Muslim Middle east was split between.

[Narrator]

Two rival empires, two rival states, the.

[Sandy Kaplan]

Fatimid Caliphate based in Egypt, which also.

[Narrator]

Controlled parts of Palestine that had been in power for over 100 years.

[Sandy Kaplan]

And to the east, the Seljuq Sultanate in Iraq.

[Narrator]

And in most of Syria, that region was governed by the Seljuk Turks.

[Sandy Kaplan]

This is Paul Cobb.

[Narrator]

I'm a professor of Islamic history in the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of Pennsylvania.

[Sandy Kaplan]

He's also the author of a book called the Race for An Islamic History of the Crusades. Paul says that these two powers, the Fatimids and Seljuks, came from opposite ends of the Islamic world and had been fighting for decades, scratching and clawing for each other's territories.

[Narrator]

And it is no accident that the frontier between those two rivals ran right through Syria and Palestine, exactly where the Franks, the Crusaders, created their states.

[Sandy Kaplan]

It was a complicated web of factions and rivalries, a Machiavellian game of thrones where Crusaders, Fatimids, and Seljuks fought each other essentially to a stalemate. But this situation would be completely altered by someone born in a small city in the heart of the Middle East, a child who would grow up to become One of the most legendary figures of the Middle ages, Salahdin Yusuf Ibn Ayub, or as he's come to be known, Salahdin. 1138 A.D. saladin was born in Tikrit.

[Historian]

Which is in modern Iraq, nearly 40.

[Sandy Kaplan]

Years after the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem.

[Historian]

But he didn't live there for very long. Fairly quickly with his family, he moved to Damascus, one of the great cities of the Near East. This is Jonathan Phillips, professor of crusading history at Royal Holloway University of London.

[Sandy Kaplan]

And he's the author of the book the Life and Legend of the Sultan Salahdin. Salahdin's father was a commander serving the local ruler of Damascus.

[Historian]

His father's called Ayub.

[Sandy Kaplan]

Ayub.

[Historian]

And his father is a very good administrator. He's a religious man. His uncle Shirku, he's a great warrior. And so Saladin, in a sense from his father and his uncle, has got two great teachers or two great influences.

[Narrator]

He was trained in the military arts, of course, but also in Islamic law, but also in the finer sides of what is known in Arabic as Adeb.

[Sandy Kaplan]

Adeb, which refers to courtliness, kind of like chivalry.

[Narrator]

He himself was a fan of certain poets whose poetry he read frequently. He was a pious man himself, but.

[Sandy Kaplan]

Above all else, he was raised to be a warrior for his people, for his feudal lord, and for God.

[Narrator]

He was a member of the military elite.

[Sandy Kaplan]

His father and uncle swore allegiance to the lord of Damascus, a Turk named Nur Al Din. Basar's family was different from many of Nur Al Din's military elite.

[Suleiman Murad]

His family are Kurdish.

[Sandy Kaplan]

Kurds are an ethnic group who've lived in the Middle east for centuries. They are an Arab or Turkish.

[Narrator]

Kurds had great reputation as soldiers, which.

[Sandy Kaplan]

Meant rulers always wanted them on their side. Salahdin eventually became a commander in Nur Al Din's army, but he was still a Kurdish outsider, and he wasn't really viewed by anyone as a potential future ruler. But as you'll see, Sunahdin seemed to always be in the right place at the right time if it wasn't for.

[Suleiman Murad]

An event that happened in the late 1160s that opened up for him a great opportunity to become a politician. I don't think he would have remained a general and we would not have heard of him much.

[Sandy Kaplan]

This is Suleiman Murad.

[Suleiman Murad]

I'm professor at Smith College. I teach religion and Middle Eastern studies.

[Sandy Kaplan]

And he's published several books on the.

[Suleiman Murad]

Crusades, including Muslim Sources of the Crusader Period and anthology.

[Sandy Kaplan]

Suleiman says that in the late 1160s. The Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt, one of the two great Muslim powers of the Middle east, was declining and in a state of civil war. Egypt at this time was one of the richest places on earth with vast agricultural wealth. So when the Fatimid Caliphate appeared to be falling apart, everyone in the region, including Nur al Din, the Seljuk ruler of Damascus, saw an opportunity. So he sent two of his most trusted soldiers, Salahuddin and his uncle Shirkuh, to Egypt to take advantage of the situation.

[Suleiman Murad]

Saladin was working for his uncle.

[Sandy Kaplan]

So Shirkuh goes there with a simple.

[Historian]

Mission to assume power over the failing Egyptian regime.

[Suleiman Murad]

But Shirkuh died.

[Historian]

It's said to be of overeating.

[Suleiman Murad]

So who's next in line?

[Sandy Kaplan]

None other than Salahdin.

[Suleiman Murad]

He was very young. He was probably 30 years old.

[Sandy Kaplan]

Despite being an outsider, Salahdin went right to work consolidating power.

[Narrator]

Saladin set about replacing the Fatimid administrators in the palace with his own men.

[Historian]

His father comes in and becomes the treasurer of the country. Other family members come to Egypt. He's building himself a power base.

[Suleiman Murad]

He won everybody over by his shrewdness, by his generosity.

[Historian]

He's good, he's diplomatic.

[Suleiman Murad]

Saladin was extremely generous to the extent that in order to assure solidarity and the loyalty of his generals, he would spend on them a lot of money that he himself was poor.

[Sandy Kaplan]

Salahdin understood that if he wanted to rule Egypt, he couldn't do it with an iron fist. He would need to win allies. And he did this by giving out wealth and power to those who would partner with him. He used generosity as a weapon.

[Historian]

And that really is one of the defining characteristics of Saladin and I think why he's so successful.

[Sandy Kaplan]

He rewards people, and his enemies knew it.

[Historian]

There's a writer in the kingdom of Jerusalem called William of Tyre who says there's three things you've got to know about Saladin. He's wise in counsel, he's valiant in war, and he's generous beyond all measure. And for that reason, you need to be worried by him. His generosity is very, very dangerous.

[Sandy Kaplan]

As Salah al Din was consolidating his power in Egypt, he was still technically working for Nur Al Din. And this was a problem. Salahdin now held lands that were wealthier and more powerful than his feudal lord. And he knew it.

[Narrator]

He must have begun to feel like his boss back in Damascus was beneath him.

[Historian]

What that means is that he's setting himself against Nur Al Din.

[Sandy Kaplan]

But just when it seemed like tensions between the Two men were coming to a head.

[Narrator]

Nur ad Din did Saladin the biggest favor he ever did, which is he died.

[Sandy Kaplan]

Salahdin got lucky again.

[Suleiman Murad]

That presented a vacuum for Saladin. And even though he was sworn to assure that Nur Ad Din's children will take over Nur ad Din's empire, Saladin moved in and took everything.

[Historian]

He marries Nur Al Din's widow, which is a way of integrating himself, I suppose, into the Damascene hierarchy.

[Narrator]

Salahdin was a master of manipulating political theater. He knows the value of vivid public statements of legitimacy to bolster his own power.

[Historian]

And from there, he has a springboard to spend the next 10 or 11 years trying to assert his power over Syria.

[Narrator]

And that was a very delicate process for Saladin because he was a ruler that everyone knew was an upstart. A Kurdish kid from Tikrit seized power effectively and was now fighting other Muslims at a time when Jerusalem itself was occupied by Franks.

[Sandy Kaplan]

By the 1180s, Salahdin was ruler of Syria and Egypt, controlling a vast and wealthy empire. But he faced resistance. Many people considered him a usurper and didn't recognize his rule. So he found himself constantly taking his army out to fight against fellow Muslims. And his critics and allies alike started putting pressure on him.

[Suleiman Murad]

Muslim religious scholars start to push Saladin, it's your duty to liberate Jerusalem.

[Narrator]

Why wasn't he directing his efforts there?

[Historian]

And he's criticized by some people. Look, you're fighting your fellow Muslims and not the Crusaders.

[Narrator]

So he needed to present his actions against his Muslim rivals as somehow legitimate by reclaiming Jerusalem itself. That would be a PR move that would make it as if all his campaigning against his Muslim rivals had never even happened.

[Historian]

And he, of course, asserts that he is the best man to draw the near east together and recover Jerusalem for Islam.

[Narrator]

And from then on, his energies were almost solely directed at the Frankish problem.

[Sandy Kaplan]

Salahdin needed to take back Jerusalem, and the Crusaders weren't going to be pushed out easily. Coming up, the leper king rises.

[Narrator]

Hi, this is Lily from Columbia, South Carolina.

[Sandy Kaplan]

I am currently on my morning walk. I absolutely adore your show. And you are listening to Throughline on npr.

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[Narrator]

Part 2 the Leper King.

[Pope Urban II]

The Mentor.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

In a palace In Jerusalem in 1161, a boy is born. He was named Baldwin IV and he would soon be heir to the throne, the future of the Christian empire in the Middle East. After the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem in 1099, most of them returned to Europe having fulfilled their vows. But some veterans of that campaign stayed behind to rule the Holy Land in the name of Christianity. And by the time Baldwin was born, Crusaders were in control of Jerusalem and most of the Mediterranean coast from present day Gaza all the way up to Lebanon and Syria. Eventually, Baldwin would be the Crusader King. But when he was just a boy, Baldwin's life would change.

[Historian]

His tutor, William of Tyre, noticed that when the other boys are playing with.

[Pope Urban II]

Him, they began, as playful boys often do, to pinch each other's arms and.

[Historian]

Hands with their nails, and he felt no pain.

[Pope Urban II]

The other boys gave evidence of pain by their outcries, but Baldwin, although his comrades did not spare him, endured it altogether too patiently, as if he felt nothing.

[Historian]

Very tragically, this young man has leprosy.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

Leprosy is a bacterial infection that causes nerve damage to the skin. It was a widely feared illness that disabled and disfigured its victims.

[Pope Urban II]

It is impossible to refrain from tears while speaking of this great misfortune.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

But for young Baldwin, there was no time for self pity.

[Historian]

In 1174, the King of Jerusalem, Baldwin's.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

Father, a man called Amalric, died suddenly. At the age of 13, Baldwin ascended to the throne. He did it with passion.

[Historian]

He lives as active a life as possible.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

When his right hand and arm went numb, he learned to handle a sword.

[Historian]

With his left and is said to.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

Have performed bravely he quickly became a respected king.

[Historian]

They didn't push him aside, they never made him stand down.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

But still, Baldwin knew he didn't have a lot of time.

[Historian]

As his illness gets worse, he can't ride a horse, he has to be carried around in a litter, and his public appearances just diminish. He loses his fingers, parts of his face fall off. He really is appallingly debilitated by this illness. So you have a situation where there's going to be people jockeying for position.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

The kingdom needed an heir. Because of his leprosy, Baldwin would probably never have children. So all eyes turned to his sister Sybilla.

[Historian]

She's the bloodline, and that's the crucial thing that's so important in medieval society. With Baldwin IV going to die without children, it's through her.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

And right around that time, someone arrived in Jerusalem from Europe who caught Sibylla's eye.

[Historian]

A young man called Guy of Lusignan.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

Guy of Lusignan, or in French, Guy de Lusignan.

[Tom Madden]

It's hard to get really, to his personality, because the sources that we have really don't like him very much.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

Guy de Lusignan was a Frenchman of minor nobility.

[Tom Madden]

By all accounts, he was very attractive. He was a very kind of swashbuckling sort, but still intelligent.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

Perfect for Sybilla.

[Tom Madden]

She was absolutely in love with him right from the beginning. There's something about his personality that she loved and everyone else hated.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

Soon, Guy and Sybilla were married.

[Historian]

And there's a lot of tension about this choice because he is an outsider, he's not a member of the nobility of Jerusalem, and so there's some suspicion of him. But Sybilla and Guy are together.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

So as Baldwin's health worsened, Guy, by virtue of being Sibylla's husband, became regent, effectively taking over control of the kingdom of Jerusalem. And while all this drama was playing out, Salahuddin began sending raids into Crusader land.

[Historian]

And Guy's decision is not to fight him in battle. And it's an interesting. It's like a boxer staying out of range, just avoiding, just pulling back from. From the punches. But what it avoids is a battle.

[Tom Madden]

Guy understood that most of Saladin's forces were militia who were only there for a few weeks. And so if instead he just waited and defended against any further incursions, that Saladin would eventually be forced to leave. And so that's what Guy did, and he was right.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

But many crusaders in Jerusalem saw that move as an act of cowardice.

[Historian]

It is a tension because your lands are being ravaged and it makes you look weak. How long can you put up with that? How long can your people put up with that?

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

Baldwin removed Guy as regent, but not long after, Baldwin himself would finally succumb to leprosy and die in 1185. In the end, it was left to Sybilla to rule. The nobility of Jerusalem would crown her queen on one condition. That she annul her marriage to Guy. Delusion.

[Tom Madden]

The people who made her queen hated Guy.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

Sibylla said, okay, deal. As long as when I become queen, I can choose my own husband.

[Tom Madden]

They agree to this, and immediately after she's crowned, she announces that she's using her free choice to marry Guy. She really could have suckered them into it.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

This is Tom Madden.

[Tom Madden]

I'm a professor of history at St. Louis University. I'm also the director of the center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

Tom has written several books, including the Concise History of the Crusades. He says Sybilla was able to outwit all of the noblemen of Jerusalem.

[Tom Madden]

She completely double crossed them and there wasn't much they could do. And so, with her own hands, she crowned him King of Jerusalem.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

When Guy and Sibylla took power, they were fortunate that Salahdin's attention was elsewhere. He had been busy fighting other Muslim leaders for territory, so he was forced to agree to a truce with the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1185. A truce newly crowned King Guy was eager to keep.

[Tom Madden]

They didn't want war with Saladin because he could bring together pretty massive force.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

But there was a growing faction of crusaders who were pushing to confront Salahdin. And one of them, a nobleman named Reynald de Chatillon, would make a move that would throw everything into chaos.

[Historian]

Reynold of Chatillon is somebody Saladin absolutely loathed.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

Reynald de Chatillon was known for being impulsive and extremely violent.

[Historian]

There's a caravan moving through his lands in Trans Jordan and he attacks it. And he takes some of the Muslims prisoner and refuses to hand them back. This is the inflammatory act that Saladin is able to exploit and say, right, you've broken the truce. You've broken it, not me. I'm now going to invade.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

Coming up, Salahdin's Jihad for the Holy Land begins.

[Sandy Kaplan]

Hello, this is Sienna Greenwell in Baltimore, Maryland, and you're listening to throughline from npr. I always finish each episode looking at the world in a slightly new way.

[Sienna Greenwell]

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[Narrator]

Part 3 A King to a King.

[Sandy Kaplan]

By late spring of 1187, Salahdin had left Damascus and gathered a force of about 30,000 troops, which.

[Historian]

Maybe doesn't sound much in modern terms, but in medieval terms it's a very formidable force. Definitely the biggest army he's got. And it's also brilliantly well organized, very well armed, hundreds of wagons of arrows, a lot of water available, camels. He's really set this up.

[Suleiman Murad]

Meanwhile, the Crusaders amassed an army of around 20,000 soldiers.

[Sandy Kaplan]

This is Suleiman Murad. Again.

[Suleiman Murad]

The one factor there is that all this army was of local Franks because it was sudden, it wasn't planned, and that actually meant that all Crusader cities had to compromise on their own safety to send essentially all the fighting men.

[Sandy Kaplan]

The Crusader army is set up north of Jerusalem in a small town with water and other resources.

[Narrator]

Remember, it will have been hot. Now add a layer of padding and of armor that played a role in what would happen next.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

Salahdin did not want to attack the Franks head on, even though he had a larger force. Instead, he chose to be patient.

[Narrator]

Saladin must have realized that he could just let the heat do most of the work. But his challenge then was to encourage the Franks to leave their camp and the security of fresh water.

[Historian]

And Saladin has to crack that. And he does it in a very clever way.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

Salahuddin ordered some of his forces to attack another Crusader controlled town called Tiberias.

[Historian]

It's defended by a woman called Escheva, who is the wife of one of the most important barons in the Holy Land.

[Narrator]

And so Saladin used this effect to great advantage to draw the Franks out and playing on that relationship.

[Historian]

Then the cry goes out, we must rescue Esha in Tiberius.

[Narrator]

Exactly what Saladin wanted them to do.

[Historian]

The motor marching across this arid landscape. And on the 3rd of July, they've.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

Made it about halfway to Tiberius. 20,000 men and their horses trek under the beating sun, wearing heavy armor. They were exhausted and dehydrated. And to make matters worse, they weren't the only ones out on the trail.

[Narrator]

Salahuddin sent his troops not to directly confront the army, but to harass them from the sides, to make them stand and fight and exhaust themselves.

[Historian]

He's got these light horsemen on small horses that are archers, that just ride up to the Crusader ranks, fire their arrows, wheel away, and there's thousands and thousands of them. And if you're trying to march along and you're not a professional army and your foot soldiers and you haven't got enough water, obviously you're going to go slower and slower and you're going to take casualties. And on that first day, the 3rd of July, Saladin manages to corral the Franks. They're moving forwards, but they're surrounded on all sides.

[Sandy Kaplan]

And they also have another problem. Approaching the setting sun.

[Narrator]

Night was coming.

[Sandy Kaplan]

The Crusaders were forced to break their march.

[Historian]

They camp overnight.

[Sandy Kaplan]

But there would be no rest in the corner.

[Historian]

Course of that night, Saladin set some of the dry brush alight so that Christians can't sleep properly. He also keeps up noise all night. Drums, trumpets, all meant to disconcert and unsettle the Christians. Saladin's troops have got so much water, they can pour it out on the ground in front of the Christians, just to show them what they haven't got. And it works brilliantly.

[Narrator]

It must have been a night of absolute terror. When dawn broke on the 4th of July, 1187, you would have had a spectacle of an exhausted and depleted Frankish army. Horses, some of them dead from the heat or from injuries received, thirsty, sleep.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

Deprived and filled with anxiety. The Crusader army, commanded by Guy de Lusignan, had their backs against the wall. They had to make a choice.

[Narrator]

Either proceed ahead, try and punch through the harassing encirclement of the troops of Saladin, or they could find a base, a strong point from which to make a last stand. And they had one nearby, near a village called Hattin, which was well known for its springs.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

Near the village was an old, extinct volcanic crater. The rim of the crater was broken.

[Historian]

Which makes it look like a set.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

Of horns, horns of a bull, often.

[Narrator]

Referred to as the horns of Hattin. And that kind of fort that the Franks could use as their final defense.

[Sandy Kaplan]

The Crusaders fight their way to the horns of Hatin.

[Historian]

So they're there in this crater. There's quite a sort of steep slope down it. If you go there today, you can stand on the edge of the rim and look downhill.

[Sandy Kaplan]

Below them was Salahdin, in the middle of his army, directing soldiers. They charge down the side of the crater.

[Historian]

They're trying to kill Saladin, because if you kill him, morale may crumble.

[Narrator]

Some of the Frankish knights dismounted, drew their swords and faced the enemy.

[Historian]

It's the last roll of the dice, and it's a sensible one, but doesn't work. And so by the late afternoon, the Franks have absolutely run out of steam and Saladin's army break into the crater.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

This is an account of what happened next, according to Salahdin's son.

[Pope Urban II]

We have beaten them. But my father rounded on me and said, be quiet.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

Then Salahdin pointed at the tent of Guy de Lusignan.

[Pope Urban II]

We have not beaten them until that tent falls. And even as he was speaking to me, the tent fell.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

The battle was over.

[Pope Urban II]

The sultan dismounted, prostrated himself in thanks to God Almighty, and he wept for joy.

[Sandy Kaplan]

After the battle, the remaining Crusader forces were rounded up and made prisoners, including.

[Historian]

King Guy of Jerusalem and Reynald of Chatillon, Saladin's arch enemy.

[Sandy Kaplan]

And they were led into Salah Ad Din's private tent.

[Suleiman Murad]

Saladin comes and offers Ghee a glass of water with ice, and Guy drinks from it.

[Sandy Kaplan]

Ice from a mountaintop carried an insulated chest. After Guy drinks, he takes the cup.

[Historian]

And hands it to Reynolds.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

No.

[Historian]

And Saladin is said to have dashed it from his hands and said, no.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

I gave it to the king to drink, not you.

[Suleiman Murad]

Saladin had made a vow that if he were to catch Rinald, he would kill him.

[Sandy Kaplan]

Salah Ad Din draws his sword, slashes.

[Historian]

Him across his shoulder. And his warriors then killed the writhing figure of Reynold in front of them.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

Guy de Lusignan was spared but taken prisoner. After vanquishing the Crusader army, Salahdin continued his march towards Jerusalem. Eventually, his forces reached the walls of the city. Unlike the Crusaders, in 1099, he would take the city without massacring civilians. On October 2, 1187, Salahdin entered Jerusalem victorious, reclaiming the city for Islam. The news was cause for celebration among the region's Muslim clerics, but in Europe, it was a different story.

[Suleiman Murad]

Is this the doom of Christianity?

[Historian]

The pope is said to have died of a heart attack when he heard.

[Tom Madden]

News of the loss of Jerusalem. At this time, it affected everyone from the peasant to king.

[Sandy Kaplan]

In the subsequent decades, there would be calls for new crusades to take back Jerusalem, but none were as successful as the first Christian. Europe's greatest warriors were unable to retake the city. Jerusalem would remain in Muslim hands for hundreds of years, all the way up to the 20th century.

[Suleiman Murad]

What excites us about history, what attracts us to history, is our own reality and how much we want the past to speak to that reality. The fact that we think the Crusades can be relevant to our moment is because our moment is a period of clash.

[Sandy Kaplan]

That's it for this week's show. I'm Rund Abdelfatah.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

I'm Ramtin Arab Louie, and you've been listening to Throughline from npr.

[Sandy Kaplan]

This episode was produced by Me N.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

Me and Lawrence Wu, Julie Kane, Anya.

[Sandy Kaplan]

Steinberg, Casey Minor, Christina Kim, Devin Kadayama.

[Mattress Firm]

Sarah Wyman, Kiana Paclion, Rachel Horowitz, Lena Muhammad, Irene Noguchi.

[Sandy Kaplan]

Fact checking for this episode was done by Kevin Voelkel.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

This episode was mixed by Gili Moon.

[Sandy Kaplan]

Thank you to Johannes Dergi and Colin Campbell.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

And special thank you to the brilliant actor Omar Waqar for his incredible voiceover work.

[Sandy Kaplan]

Music for this episode was composed and performed by our very own Ramtin Adabloui.

[Ramtin Arab Louie]

And as always, if you have an idea or like something you heard on this show, please write [e-mail] thanks for listening.

[Mattress Firm]

This message comes from NPR sponsor Shopify, the global commerce platform that helps you sell and show up exactly the way you want to customize your online store to your style. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com NPR this message comes from Linda Moodbell. Linda Moodbell's online instruction is available anytime, anywhere for students to catch up or get ahead in reading comprehension and math. Linda Moodbell's online instruction is designed to help children feel more confident, prepared and excited about learning and school, and is individualized for all types of students with challenges that affect learning, including dyslexia. Enroll now to receive 20% off the first week of online instruction. Learn [e-mail] NPR.