The Crusades Through Arab Eyes

Antioch’s emir, Yaghi-Sīyān, expelled the city’s Christian men so they could not ally with the Crusaders. The Franj could only overrun the city’s walls if they found accomplices from within. One Muslim historian recounts that the emir provided protection for their families after their expulsion. Antioch’s army was vastly outnumbered, but the city was well-fortified with an impressive supply of surplus food. He could not depend on regional allies for military support because others did not face direct Frankish threat,

and it was not necessarily bad for his neighbors if Yaghi-Sīyān was in a spot of trouble […] But he never imagined that his coreligionists would go so far as to hand him over, bound hand and foot, to the mercenaries of the basileus [Byzantine emperor]. (22)

The war between two brothers, Ridwān of Aleppo and Duqāq of Damascus, paralyzed Syria. Ridwān was wed to Yaghi-Sīyān’s daughter and closest to Antioch, but also wanted control over his father-in-law’s kingdom. Yaghi-Sīyān therefore turned to Duqāq. He agreed to bring his army from Damascus north to Antioch, but he turned back along the way after he failed to attack a foraging Crusading army with any success. Spies reported to the emir that the Franj were on the verge of famine with hundreds already dead.

Torrential rain and periodic earthquakes terrified the invaders, some of whom deserted. Yaghi-Sīyān appealed to Ridwān for help; he agreed since the Franj were pillaging his lands. The Franj and Syrian forces met in February 1098 with the Muslim party seeming to have the advantage: “What no one knew was that the battle was lost before it even began. Terrified by what he knew about the fighting abilities of the Franj, Ridwān dared not take advantage of his numerical superiority” (25). He was already on the defensive. The Franj destroyed the Aleppan army. Yaghi-Sīyān ordered his troops to retreat to Antioch’s protective walls when he heard the news. He soon appealed to the atabag of Mosul, Karbūqa, who viewed this request as an opening to extend his influence in Syria. Antioch awaited his arrival while the city suffered under the Franks’ blockade.

Karbūqa, however, failed to provide his promised support swiftly when he heard that the Franj had seized Edessa: “He would first head north and settle the problem of Edessa in a few days; then he would be able to engage the besiegers of Antioch without risk” (30). He laid siege to the city for three weeks to no avail before departing for Antioch. Meanwhile, Fīrūz, an Armenian Muslim charged with overseeing defense of the city’s towers, defected to the Franj and arranged for them to overcome the defenses. Yaghi-Sīyān fled, with historian Ibn al-Athīr reporting his distress. The Crusaders ravaged the city. Yaghi-Sīyān’s son, Sham al-Dawla, now helmed the resistance. He “barricaded himself in a citadel with a small group of fighters” (33). The Franj could not penetrate it, so they formed a “security zone” (33) around the perimeter.

Karbūqa’s forces arrived and trapped the Franks, though his late arrival produced fissures among the emirs. Duqāq of Damascus was the source of this dissent, holding that Karbūqa was the true threat and did not foresee the Crusaders forming kingdoms in the east. Karbūqa soon removed Shams from commanding the citadel and relations broke down.

Meanwhile, the Crusaders depleted their pillaged food stores, leaving them weakened, but the miraculous discovery of the “Holy Lance” soon revived them. Muslim soldiers abandoned the campaign, and Karbūqa appealed to the Crusaders for a truce, which destroyed his reputation among the remaining troops. The Crusaders ignored his plea and advanced, routing his forces and leaving Syria defenseless.

The Crusaders arrived at the inconspicuous, undefended city of Ma`arra after Antioch’s defeat in 1098. The city resisted the siege for several weeks before contacting Bohemond, the Frankish ruler of Antioch. He agreed to spare them if they relented. They agreed, but the Franj nonetheless unleashed a bloodbath, documented in both Frankish and Muslim chronicles. Surviving sources even describe the Crusaders engaging in cannibalism. Indeed, an extant epistle from the Frankish barons to the papacy relays news of such behavior but blames it on famine. Maalouf asserts, “But the explanation seems unconvincing, for the inhabitants of the Ma`arra region witnessed behavior during that sinister winter that could not be accounted for by hunger” (39).

This affair generated a “chasm” (40) between the European Christian and Islam worlds that persisted for generations, terrorizing the people of the region. The surrounding emirs failed to resist the Crusaders as they traveled southward. Instead, they lavished them with gifts and sent emissaries to negotiate good relations. The Sultan of Shayzar, for example, provided them with guides. Peasants fled in fear as the Franj approached Jerusalem. The Crusaders seized the citadel, Hisn al-Akrād, along the Mediterranean coast, where embassies flooded in with lavish offerings: “No prince, no notable, no qādi, could indulge in the slightest gesture of resistance without placing his entire community in danger” (41). The ruler of flourishing Tripoli entered negotiations with the Franks, which was a fatal mistake.

The European delegation was impressed with the principality’s wealth. By February they began besieging Tripoli’s second biggest city. Tripoli’s ruler, Jalāl al-Mulk, now realized that his realm might fall. ‘Arqa’s inhabitants put up a dogged defense and the Crusaders eventually retreated. The Crusaders marched south again, crossing the River of the Dog, thus initiating conflict with the Fatimids in Egypt.

The vizier in Egypt, al-Afdal, had not been displeased when he learned of the Crusaders’ successes in Syria, due to his rivalry with the Seljuks: “Since the middle of the century, Seljuk advances had been eroding the territory of the Fatimid caliphate and the Byzantine Empire alike” (45). This made the Fatimids and Byzantines natural allies. Both hoped to recover lands the Seljuks had taken. The vizier sent a delegation to the Europeans that proposed they split Syria between them. However, The Crusaders quibbled over control of Jerusalem and would not come to an agreement. Al-Afdal was perplexed.

Al-Afdal decided to launch a surprise attack after Antioch’s fall and Karbūqa’s rout. He successfully conquered Jerusalem after 40 days. Victory was short-lived, however, because the Franks continued their March toward the Holy City. He appealed to Byzantines for help, but Emperor Alexius had no power over the Franj who were now acting independently. Al-Afdal reached out to the Crusaders again. He promised Christian pilgrims could visit sites in Jerusalem whenever they wished and promised freedom of religion. The Crusaders, however, declared war and responded that they would conquer the city. When the Europeans arrived at the walls of Jerusalem, they began building siege warfare machines and breached the walls.

Intense fighting erupted within. The Egyptian general negotiated terms of surrender that included protection for himself and his men. Ibn al-Athir writes that the Franks spent the next week massacring the city’s Muslim population. The Crusaders sacked the sacred mosque of `Umar and slaughtered Jewish inhabitants when they burned down a synagogue. They expelled eastern clergy from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and arrested and tortured the priests who refused to tell them where the relic of the True Cross was hidden. The Crusaders, led by Godfrey of Boullion, Jerusalem’s new ruler, set out for Ascalon when they learned of al-Afdal’s advance. The clash ended in the Fatimid force’s defeat.

Meanwhile, al-Harawi stormed into the mosque of Baghdad, where he sought to shock his fellow Muslims into resistance. The young caliph, al-Mustazhir Billāh, was uninterested and powerless to help the Syrian refugees who appealed for help: “They [the Abbasid caliphs] were no more than hostages in the hands of their Turkish or Persian soldiers, who were able to make or break sovereigns at will […] To escape that fate, most of the caliphs renounced any political activity” (54). Political fragmentation thus paralyzed the Muslim world while the Franj consolidated power.