THE LIFE OF SALADIN AND THE FALL OF THE KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM

CHAPTER XVI.

THE BATTLE OF ACRE.

1189.

WHEN the fall of Jerusalem became known in Europe, a universal cry of dismay was heard in every court and camp and village. The black sails of the ship which bore the Archbishop of Tyre, like Theseus of old, from the dismal scene announced from afar the “mortal news”.

“It is hard”, says our most learned English authority on Crusading history, “at this distance of time to realize the measure of the disaster in the eyes of the western world. It was not merely that the Holy City had fallen; that all the scenes of that Bible history, which constituted emphatically the literature of medieval Christendom, had passed into the hand of the infidel. It was all this and something more: the little Kingdom of Jerusalem was the one outpost of the Latin Church and Latin culture in the East; it was the creation of those heroes of the First Crusade whose exploits had already been the theme of more than one romance; it lay on the verge of that mysterious East, with all its wealth of gold and precious stones and merchandise, towards which the sword of the twelfth-century knight turned as instinctively as the prow of the English or Spanish adventurer turned four centuries later towards the West. . . . Palestine inspired alike the imagination, the enterprise, and the faith of western Christendom”.

To recover what had been lost became the passionate desire of each pious knight, the ambition of every adventurer. The Pope issued a trumpet-call for a new Crusade, which should wash out every sin. Richard of England, then Count of Poitou, was the first to take the Cross. The Kings of England and France made up their quarrel and received the sacred badge from the Archbishop of Tyre. Baldwin of Canterbury preached the Crusade, in which he was later to die before Acre, and a “Saladin tax”, a tithe of every man’s wealth, was collected throughout the length and breadth of the land. The eloquence of Berter of Orleans roused the enthusiasm of France, which re-echoed with his chant:

" Lignum crucis

signum ducis

sequitur exercitus,

quod non cessit

sed praecessit

in vi sancti spiritus."

1189] The Third Crusade.

The zeal of Christendom was readily kindled, but its armies were slow to move. William of Sicily had been prompt to succor Tripolis; but England and France resumed their standing strife, and their sovereigns did not begin their leisurely Crusade till the summer of 1190. Alone among the great princes of Europe, the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, whose seventy years had not quenched the fire of a chivalrous nature, led a vast army from Germany through the territory of the Greeks in May, 1189, but the brave old warrior met his death in the swift waters of the Salef, and only a remnant of his host slowly struggled onwards to the battle-fields of Palestine.

Meanwhile the Franks at the seat of war had not been idle. Queen Sibylla had claimed from Saladin the performance of the promise made at Ascalon; and her husband Guy with his ten fellow-prisoners at Damascus were brought before the Sultan at Tortosa in July, 1188, and after they had pledged their knightly honor never to bear arms against him, they were suffered to go free. The Marquess of Montferrat was sent to his son at Tyre; Humphrey of Toron was restored to his mother, the widow of Reginald of Châtillon; and King Guy and his brother, with the Master of the Temple, joined Sibylla and concerted plans of vengeance at Tripolis and Antioch. They were all duly absolved from their oath, and lost no time in rewarding Saladin's good faith and generosity after their usual manner. A number of knights and volunteers gathered round Guy's standard, and at their head the King and Queen proceeded to Tyre. Conrad of Montferrat, however, flatly refused to recognize their authority or to admit them into his city, which, he said, God had given into his charge. The King and Queen were forced to camp outside, and after some successful skirmishes with the outposts of the Saracens, who were lying before Belfort (Shekif Arnun) some fifteen miles off, Guy summoned the Sicilian fleet to follow him along the coast, and boldly marched upon Acre in August.

The King's force was very inferior to the army which Saladin could bring against him. The estimates of the various chroniclers differ, and none, probably, can be taken as more than a very rough guess, but the statement in the “Itinerary” is perhaps as good as any other. Guy's army, including the Pisans of Tyre who had thrown in their lot with the King, is there reckoned at 9000 men of all nations, of whom 700 were knights; but in a few days “the Morning Star visited them from on high; for behold fifty ships, such as are commonly called coggs, having 12,000 men on board, are seen approaching”. These were Danes and Frisians, “men of large limbs, invincible resolution, and fervent devotion”. The total was thus 21,000. Baha-ed-din estimated the Frank army at the same date at 2000 knights and 30,000 foot, and adds that he never heard anyone put them at a lower figure, and that “they were constantly reinforced by sea”. It was true, for the famous knight James of Avesnes, “a Nestor in counsel, an Achilles in arms, and in honour a Regulus” soon joined the besiegers; and so did the Bishop of Beauvais, “who strove to be a Turpin, if he could but find a Charles” with many others. The Christians placed Saladin's army at a much larger number than their own, but neither side attempts to give accurate figures.

It is time to inquire what Saladin was doing to allow the assembling of the King's forces, and to let him advance upon Acre. After the surrender of Belvoir in January, 1189, thee Sultan with his brother el-Adil visited Jerusalem and kept the Feast of Sacrifice there; he then inspected Ascalon, and stayed at Acre till March. He had placed his old officer Karakush, the founder of the citadel of Cairo, as commandant, with a garrison of tried veterans from Egypt, and having ordered the repair of the walls of the great coast fortress, which was to be the capital of Palestine, returned to Damascus. In April, in an evil moment, he set out to reduce Belfort, a strong castle of the Templars, east of Tyre, which was the only inland fortress remaining to the Christians, except the famous Crac des Chevaliers perched on an inaccessible crag of the Lebanon, which defied the Moslems till 1285. If Saladin consulted an augury in the Koran on this occasion, as was his custom, the sacred book led him grievously astray. The place might have been masked by a moderate force whilst the Sultan devoted his energies to the far more important task of crushing the King's small army before it grew too strong. As it was, four precious months were wasted in front of Belfort, whilst the memory of Hittin, already two years old, was suffered to fade from Christian minds, and the enemy waxed bolder every day.

Reginald of Sidon, one of the few survivors of Hittin, commanded at Belfort, and he rendered an invaluable service to the cause. He saw that the great thing was to gain time, and being a wily diplomatic person, he set to work to “throw dust”  in the good Sultan's eyes. He spoke Arabic, and had studied the history and literature of the Moslems. His intelligence was only equaled by his fascinating manners. Using these advantages, he came to Saladin’s tent, professed himself his devoted servant, and promised to surrender the castle without a blow, if only he were allowed three months to bring his family and dependents from Tyre, for whom he dreaded the Marquess's revenge. After the surrender, there was nothing he would like better than to live at Damascus, at the Sultan's gracious Court, — with a suitable maintenance. Indeed, in his many conversations, the clever rogue discovered Saladin’s blind side: he began to discuss serious questions of religion, and Saladin reasoned with him, and doubtless cherished the hope, dear to the lay missionary, of bringing a convert to the true faith.

The Sultan's “intelligence department” must have been singularly incompetent not to have warned him that the governor of Belfort was a particular friend and ally of the Marquess of Montferrat, and was not in the least likely to intrigue against him. Doubts, at last, of his fascinating guest began to disturb Saladin’s mind, but he was pledged to the three months’ truce, and could do nothing till it expired.

1189] The March on Acre. 257

It was then discovered that Reginald had been playing with him all the time, and that while the worthy governor had been opening his mind to theological debate the garrison had been strengthening the fortifications; — the castle was further from capitulating than ever. It was a melancholy disillusionment, and Saladin showed unusual generosity in sparing the diplomatist's life and only putting him into chains; but in the mean while April had passed into August, and King Guy was ready to advance upon Acre.

There had been ample notice of the attack. The King's movements about Tyre were no secret; Saladin had his outposts there, and early in July there had been more than one skirmish with his troops at the bridge over the Litany. Saladin was in the habit of riding out every day to reconnoitre, for his camp at Marj Oyun was within easy reach of the coast as well as of Belfort, and he had himself witnessed one of these encounters in which the Franks had the advantage. He had even made a rapid ride to Acre in July, to order further fortifications, and enjoin the utmost watchfulness upon the garrison. He was clearly alive to the danger of a Christian attack. Yet he kept his army before Belfort until the guile of its governor was exposed, and it was not till the 27th of August, after hearing that the Franks were actually on their way, that he finally gave orders for the march to Acre. He left a sufficient force to blockade Belfort, which surrendered seven months later, and no doubt he might have masked it in the same fashion three months before, and gone to meet the enemy.

At last, however, the Saracens were on the road and marching night and day. They took the easy route by Tiberias, and then struck across by the great west road past Kafar Kenna (Cana) to el- Kharruba, where they picked up a division which had come by the mountains of Toron to watch the enemy. Detachment after detachment was sent on, and men and stores were thrown into the threatened fortress; and the whole army was camped on the hills over against Acre three days after their departure from Belfort. King Guy had arrived there two days earlier, on the 28th, the feast of St. Augustine, and had established his camp on “Mount Turon”, the Hill of Prayers (Tell el-Musalliyin), now Tell el-Fokhkhar, just opposite the city gate. Saladin's object was to outflank the enemy — to besiege the besiegers; he extended his lines from the river Belus to the hill of el-Ayyadiya, placing his head-quarters on Tell Keysan; after a month he moved further north, so as to stretch his lines as far as the coast above Acre, and making his headquarters at el-Ayyadiya.

“If a ten years” war made Troy renowned; if the triumph of the Christians ennobled Antioch; surely to Acre belongs eternal fame — the city for which the whole world contended”. It stands on a tongue of land jutting out to the southward, behind which the Mina or harbor is sheltered from the west and north. The northern or Musart quarter was not built in Saladin's time and the city measured three- quarters of a mile by a quarter; strong walls and towers protected the city from the land, east and north; the sea washed the other sides. Among the defenses, the Turris Maledicia or Accursed Tower at the north-east angle was so named because legend connected it with the bribe of Judas; and the harbor was guarded by a chain and by a formidable rock fort, called the Tower of Flies, for the unsavoury reason that it had once been a famous place of sacrifice. The ramparts of the city overlooked the great plain of Acre, twenty miles from north to south, watered by the two great branches of the river Belus, with numerous tributary streams, and bounded on the south by the Kishon running parallel with the great barrier of Mount Carmel and falling into the sea at Haifa at the extremity of the bay. Isolated hills of no great height afford military positions at a distance of about five miles from the coast, and a couple of miles behind these the southern prolongation of the Lebanon range formed the eastern boundary of the plain, and served Saladin at once as a refuge from the malaria of the lowlands in winter, a retreat from superior forces, and a post of vantage and observation.

The Franks were not strong enough at this time to completely blockade the city, and the right wing of the Saracens, under the ever -valiant Taki-ed-din, easily forced their way in (15-16 Sept.). Saladin himself entered Acre and examined the enemy's position from the ramparts. Baha-ed-din also visited the fortress: “I climbed to the top of the wall”, he says, “as every one did, and thence I hurled at the enemy the first thing that came to hand”. The place was strongly garrisoned and well provisioned, and there was no present fear of its being stormed or starved.

Perpetual skirmishing went on between the armies, and the soldiers on both sides became so accustomed to these little affairs that they would sometimes break off in the middle of an encounter and fall to talking. When they were tired of skirmishing, they diverted themselves with pitting boys of each side against each other, that they too might share in the fun, and the lads had a furious tussle whilst their elders formed the ring in a strictly sportsmanlike manner. On the other hand we read of barbarous deeds on both sides — of wild Bedawis in Saladin's pay, who fell upon straggling Christians, cut off their heads, and brought them to the Sultan for reward; and of Christian women, dragging Turkish prisoners by the hair, shamefully misusing them, and hacking off their heads with knives”

1189] Battle of Acre.

These varied encounters led up to a general engagement, which very nearly brought the war to an end. On the 4th of October, soon after sunrise, the Franks were in motion. Their army was extended in a semi-circle round Acre, over a line of fully two miles, from the sea to the river Belus, to match the length of the concentric Saracen line of battle. Their archers and cross-bowmen were as usual in front, and the knights and infantry were marshaled in close order behind them. They advanced in four divisions. The King commanded the right, with the Gospel borne before him under a canopy of satin. The two centre divisions were under Conrad of Montferrat and Louis, Landgrave of Thuringia, whilst the Templars mustered on the left. Saladin himself commanded the Moslem centre, with his sons el-Afdal and ez-Zafir on his right hand. On the right of the centre were the contingents from Mosul and Diyar-Bekr; and the right wing resting on the sea consisted of the fine troops of northern Syria under Saladin’s best general, his nephew Taki-ed-din. The left of the centre was composed of Kurdish clans from the Tigris led by their chiefs, with the levies from Sinjar, and Kukbury's retainers from Harran; whilst the left wing was formed by picked veterans from Shirkuh’s mamelukes, the old conquerors of Egypt. Thus the most critical posts, the extreme right and left, were confided to the flower of the Saracen army; but the centre, apart from Saladin’s bodyguard, contained doubtful elements in the less tried levies from Mesopotamia and Kurdistan.

The battle of Acre began at the fourth hour after sunrise with an attack of the Franks upon the Saracens’ right wing. Instead of waiting for them, Taki-ed-din ordered his men back, in accordance with the usual Turkish tactics, intending to draw the enemy on, and then manoeuvre to take them in flank. Saladin unfortunately mistook this movement for retreat, and sent part of his centre in support. Thus reinforced the left were able to drive the Franks in. But meanwhile the enemy had noted the weakening of Saladin's centre, and seizing the opportunity advanced upon it in strength, horse and foot keeping solidly together. When they came to close quarters, the infantry opened out, the knights rode through, and delivered the full shock of a mailed charge upon the Saracens. The brunt of this heavy attack fell upon the men from Diyar-Bekr, who broke in disorder and fled from the field: they were next heard from at the bridge by the Lake of Galilee, well on their way to Damascus! The knights, hot-headed and undisciplined as ever, pursued the flying enemy up the headquarters hill, rummaged the camp, and entered Saladin's tent, where the fiery Count de Bar disported himself in triumph. Looking round, they discovered that their charge had not been supported, and that they were separated from their friends. They had now to get back as best they could. Saladin's left had been untouched, and still stood firm. He rallied what remained of his centre, and held them tight in hand till the victorious Franks were passing on their return from his camp; then with his famous battle-cry of “Yala-l-Islam” he hurled his whole force on their rear, calling up his right and his left wings to join in the general charge, whilst the garrison of Acre made a well-timed sortie. The result was the utter rout of the enemy. Seeing their comrades running, the other divisions were seized with panic and fled to their camp on the hill, where they just managed to beat off their pursuers.

In the tumult the King himself rescued his rival, Conrad of Montferrat, from imminent danger. Andrew of Brienne, the pink of chivalry, was slain whilst rallying his comrades, in the very sight of his brother, who left him to his fate. A trooper saw James of Avesnes thrown from his charger and in utmost jeopardy; he gave him his own horse to escape on, and “by his own death nobly saved his lord's life”. But the most notable loss that day was the Master of the Temple. Gerard of Rideford, whose ambition and hate had stirred up strife among the Christians and brought death to many a Saracen, ended his stormy life on the field of Acre. He refused to fly, and died like a soldier. Even women fought manfully on horseback beside their brothers in arms, nor were they discovered till they were made prisoners. It was a day of Heroes and of Amazons.

The Franks confessed to a loss of 1500 killed; but Baha-ed-din, who saw their bodies being carried to the river to be thrown in, estimated their dead at over 4000. On the Moslems' side the loss was more by flight than slaughter. The Diyar-Bekr contingent had vanished; but of the rest, only the leader of the Kurds and one other emir were recorded as killed, with about 150 undistinguished warriors. Panic will account for a good deal, but the disproportion of these estimates is inartistic. The Christian estimate of the Moslem loss at 1 500 horsemen is more consistent with the accounts of the battle.