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

CHAPTER III.

THE HARBINGER.

1127.

AMONG the numerous Seljuk officers, once slaves of Melik Shah, who were rewarded for their services with valuable appointments, Ak-Sunkur held a high place. As court chamberlain he was wholly in the confidence of his royal master, and enjoyed the special privilege of standing at his right hand at all public levees and councils of state. Later, as governor of the province of Aleppo, his rule was clement and enlightened; his name became a proverb for loyalty and uprightness; and he died for his faithfulness to his old master’s son (1094). He left a boy of ten, Zengy, surnamed Imad-al-din or “Pillar of the Faith”, round whom the retainers rallied. The greatest man then ruling in Mesopotamia was Kurbugha, lord of Mosul and many other cities, a vassal-in-chief of Melik Shah’s son and successor. Kurbugha had not forgotten his old friend the “Gyrfalcon”, and he summoned Zengy and his mamelukes to his court. “Bring the lad” he wrote, “for he is the son of my comrade in arms, and it behooves me to see to his nurture”. So they went to Mosul, were assigned becoming fiefs, and followed their new lord on his campaigns. Once near Amid, when the issue of a battle trembled in the balance, Kurbugha embraced Zengy before the army, and then consigned him to his own mamelukes, saying, “Behold the son of your old master; fight for him!”  They closed round the boy and set-to with such fury that the day was won. This was Zengy’s first battle-field, and he was then about fifteen.

Henceforward for many years he lived the life of a privileged favorite at the court of Mosul under successive leaders — a notable squire of the fighting lords who held the borderland between the Crescent and the Cross. He had grown tall and distinguished- looking, of swarthy complexion and piercing eyes, and his character was as upright as his carriage. Up to his thirty-eighth year he continued to play a secondary part in the wars and politics of Mesopotamia. Five great barons, one after the other, held the government of Mosul with the defense of the marches, and each of them treated him like a son, endowed him with rich fiefs, and gave him high command in their constant expeditions against the Franks. On one of these occasions, at the siege of Tiberias, Zengy distinguished himself by a conspicuous deed of valor. At the head of his men he had repulsed a sortie of the garrison, and pursued them to the gate of the city, which he dinted with his lance. Then facing about, he found he was alone; his troop had halted after the engagement, and left him to follow the enemy singlehanded. For some time he maintained his hazardous position, and kept the Franks busy, in the hope that his men would come up and join in an assault; but when none appeared, he reluctantly beat a retreat, and slowly returned to the lines unhurt. The fame of his exploit was noised abroad and he was known thereafter by the name of al-Shamy, “the Syrian”.

Zengy “the Syrian”

In 1122 “the Syrian”  was rewarded by the Seljuk Sultan for his military services by the gift of his first direct government, the fief of Wasit, then a large and important city, together with the post of warden of Basra. He quickly justified the Sultan's choice. The Arabs of “the Swamps” in Lower Mesopotamia, into which the Euphrates and Tigris in those days poured their waters, were eager to recover their lost supremacy in the fertile fields watered by the Great River; but so long as Zengy commanded the frontier, they were held in check. The Arab historian gives a graphic picture of the critical battle fought on March 1st, 1123, between the Arabs and the Turks. The former were led by the famous Emir of the Asad tribe, Dubays, son of Sadaqah, who had settled at Hilla, attacked Madain (Ctesiphon), and even marched upon the “City of Peace”, Baghdad itself, the seat of the Abbasid Caliphate. The Caliph al-Mustarshid was no laggard; he put himself at the head of his Turkish guard, marshaled his troops, and clad in his black robe and turban, with the cloak of the Prophet on his shoulders and the sacred staff in his hand, he embarked in his galley. On landing on the other side he was received by his great vassal, al-Bursuqi, the lord of Mosul, Zengy of Basra, the chief Qady, the head of the noble Seyyids, the chief of the Ulema, and other noted warriors and dignitaries, who, as soon as they saw the well-known baldachin surmounting the Caliph's horse, fell on their knees and kissed the ground before him. Al-Mustarshid received them in his tent, and one after the other the barons took the oath of faithfulness. Then they marched upon Hilla, the enemy's stronghold. Dubays met them by the canal called “Nile”, which connected the Euphrates and Tigris, and both sides prepared for battle.

The Arabs numbered ten thousand horse and twelve thousand foot; the Caliph and his lords mustered but eight thousand horse, and their infantry did not exceed five thousand. The Commander of the Faithful stationed himself with his staff behind the line of battle but in full view of the combatants. In front of him stood his chaplains, each with an open Koran before him; all Baghdad was on its knees that day, reciting the Holy Word and seeking the protection of God; and if it was read once, the Book was read right through a thousand times in that hour of stress. The right wing of the Caliph's army was under the command of Zengy and another emir, and received the brunt of the enemy's attack. Antar led his Bedouin horsemen in two brilliant charges, and had almost put the Caliph's troops to flight, when Zengy, by an adroit movement, took the Arabs in flank, and, aided by al-Bursuqi, drove the enemy into the canal. The rout was complete, the prisoners were slaughtered without mercy, their leader fled, and his women fell into the hands of the conquerors.

Zengy at Court

After the victory Zengy resolved to try his luck at court. He was tired of standing at the beck and call of temporary superiors. He called his hench-men and comrades together and addressed them: “Our position”, he said, “is become unbearable. New governors are continually appointed, and we are to obey their whim and pleasure! They send us now to Irak, now to Mosul, today to Mesopotamia, tomorrow to Syria. What do ye advise me to do?” Then Zayn-al-din Ali, the friend whom Zengy trusted most of all, spoke up: “My lord, the Turkmans have a saying, If so be a man must needs set a stone on his head, let it be quarried withal out of a high mountain. In like manner, if it be necessary that we serve somebody, let it be the Sultan himself”. Zengy took this advice and went to Hamadhan, to the court of the Seljuk Mahmud. Here he remained in waiting, without gaining any reward beyond his father’s privilege of standing in the post of honor next to the throne. This honor he enjoyed until his pockets were empty. “O Ali, my friend”, he said to Zayn-al-din, “we have indeed put the stone on our heads, as you proposed, and, faith, it is heavy enough!”

At length one day the Sultan rode forth to play polo, attended by his court. When it came to choosing partners, he singled out Zengy and handed him the chogan mall, saying “Come and play”. After the match he turned to the other courtiers and up-braided them for their boorish jealousy.

“Are ye not ashamed?”  he asked. “Here is a well-known man, whose father held an exalted place in the state, and not one of you has so much as offered him a gift, or bidden him to his table! By Allah, if I have left him so long without providing for his charges or allotting him a fief, it was only that I might see what ye would do”. Then to Zengy: “I give you to wife Kundughly’s widow, and my people shall supply you with gold for the wedding”.

Kundughly had been the richest noble of the court, and his widow was endowed like a king’s daughter. The day after his marriage the fortunate Emir rode forth in great pomp, surrounded by his own and his wife's retainers.  

1127] Atabeg of Mosul  

Zengy ‘s visit to court had succeeded, and he returned in 1124 to the double fief of Basra and Wasit, which he ruled with a firm yet generous hand. When the Sultan and his spiritual suzerain came to blows, Zengy defended Wasit against the Caliph’s army, and then, seizing every boat he could lay hands on, embarked his troops and brought a timely reinforcement to the Sultan, who was then outside Baghdad, and was equally amazed and relieved when he suddenly saw the device of his trusty baron displayed on the approaching flotilla. In the result the Caliph was forced to make peace; the Seljuk graciously consented to take up his undesired abode in the City of Peace; and Zengy received the long coveted post of warden of Baghdad, with the control and patronage of the whole of Iraq (Chaldea). In the autumn of 1127 he was appointed to the government of Mosul and Jezira (the “Island”, Mesopotamia). Nor was he merely a great feudatory and ruler of broad lands; he was also given the important charge of bringing up two of the Sultan’s sons, and by virtue of this office he attained the dignity of an Atabeg or Governor of Princes. The new position placed him in the forefront of the struggle with the Latin power. Henceforward we shall see him as the champion of the Faith against the Franks — the Cid Campeador of the East. His encomiast recites his achievements in rhyming prose :

“He ravaged the Franks in the midst of their domain; and wreaked revenge for the true believers’ pain; till the crescents of Islam waxed full, after their wane; and the suns of faith, of late extinct, flashed forth again; and the Moslems trod proudly, arrayed in victory's dress; and drank of the ever-flowing wells of success; deprived the Trinitarians of keep and fortress; and dealt back their lies and wickedness: so the worship of the One was restored in the  Island  and Syrian regions; and there flocked to the cause of Islam defenders in legions”.

Before he could measure swords with the Crusaders, however, he had to make good his position in his new and important government. Hitherto he had been but one of many peers — a great captain but no king. But at Mosul, two hundred miles away up the Tigris, he was practically independent, and permitted no interference in his government. His system was that which had received the sanction of the ideal emperor, Melik Shah, and which formed the model for the administration of all the states that sprang up from the ruins of the Seljuk empire. It depended upon direct personal rule, carried out by an elaborate network of inspectors, whose reports were checked by an army of spies. Zengy had agents at the capitals of all the neighboring princes and even at the imperial court, and he knew exactly what the Sultan was doing from morning to night. Each day brought couriers from various parts with dispatches, and he was always the first to hear of any news.  

Zengy’s Rule

The widest hospitality was extended to visitors, but it was combined with strict surveillance. No envoys passed through his territory without due notice and permission, and when they came they were furnished with a trusty escort to check inconvenient questioning of the people and spying out of the land. His subjects were not permitted to leave his dominions, lest they should betray the weak points in his defenses; if any escaped, he compelled their surrender. When a company of peasants migrated from Mosul to Maridin, he called upon the Ortukid Prince of that city to send them back. Timurtash objected: “We treat our fellahin well”, he wrote, “and take but a tithe of their produce; had you done the like, these peasants would not have quitted you”.

“Say to your master”, replied Zengy to the messenger, “If thou didst take but one-hundredth of the produce it would be too much, seeing that thou livest in luxury and sloth on thy crag of Mardin; whereas if I taxed my people up to two-thirds, it would be nothing for my services. For I have not only mine own enemies to fight but must wage the Holy War withal, and but for me thou couldst not drink even a cup of water in security at thy Mardin, for the Franks would have gotten possession of it. Wherefore, unless those peasants are sent back, verily I will bring out every clodhopper from Mardin and dump him down at Mosul”.

The emigrants were hastily sent back. Another time Zengy made the Sultan deliver up a fugitive noble; the unhappy man was cast into prison and heard of no more.

Evidently this was no lenient governor. The story is told how Zengy once surprised a boatman asleep at his post, when he ought to have been alert and awaiting him; on being roused the man was so terrified to see his dreaded master standing before him that he dropped dead on the spot. His slaves complained, with too much reason, of his cruelty, and his servants went in such fear that they dared not ask him to repeat an order which they had not understood. It is told how he gave one of his waiting-men a rusk to hold, and the man did not dare to let it go. Nearly a year had passed when Zengy suddenly called for it; the man instantly produced it, carefully wrapped in a napkin. His obedience was rewarded by a rich appointment.

Zengy was a shrewd judge of men, and whenever he found a capable servant or officer, that man was sure of steadfast trust and support. Moreover, severe as he was himself, he allowed no one else to tyrannize over his subjects: “there can be only one tyrant at a time in the land”, he said. Once, on a campaign, when he discovered that, one of his favorite captains had turned a Jewish family out into the winter's cold, to make his quarters in their house, Zengy faced round on the man and gave him a single look, — and that emir went humbly forth from the city and pitched his tent in the mud and rain. Oppression and license were never permitted among his officers, and no one in that age more rigorously punished assaults upon women. The wives of his soldiers, he held, were under his special protection, and no man insulted them with impunity during their husbands’ absence at the war. He discouraged his followers from acquiring property. “So long as we hold the country”, he said, “what boots your estate, when your military fief serves as well? If the country be lost to us, your estates go too. When a Sultan’s followers own lands, they oppress and harass and despoil the folk”. He never allowed his armies to trample on the people’s crops,—they marched, says the chronicler, “as it were, between two ropes”, — and no soldier was permitted to take even a truss of straw from a peasant without paying for it. Acts of violence were rigorously punished by crucifixion. He was lenient in his taxation towards the poor, but rich cities like Aleppo were heavily mulcted for the cost of his campaigns.

After all he gave them a good return for their money. The effects of his severe and resolute rule were seen in the security and prosperity of his dominions, and especially in the revival of his capital.  The father of the historian Ibn-al-Athir relates:

“I saw what Mosul, the Mother of the ‘Island’ was when our martyred lord first came. The greater part of the city was in ruins, and waste land stretched from the Quarter of the Drummers as far as the Citadel and Palace ... The old mosque was deserted, and all the houses near the ramparts were abandoned to the distance of a stone's throw ... But as the Martyr’s reign went on, the country enjoyed protection, the designs of the wicked were frustrated, and the powerful were restrained from tyranny. The tidings of improvement spread abroad, and the folk flocked into his territory and settled there. Verily Generosity breeds attachment. Buildings multiplied at Mosul and the other towns, insomuch that the very cemeteries vanished under new suburbs”.

Zengy built the great Government House opposite the Almeida, doubled the height of the ramparts, deepened the fosse, and erected the gate called after him al-Bab al-Imadi. Before his time Mosul was so poor in fruits that when a merchant sold grapes he cut off little bunches with scissors to make the weight exact; but when Zengy restored its prosperity, fertile gardens grew up around it, pomegranates and pears, apples and grapes abounded, insomuch that last year's gathering was hardly exhausted before the new crop was ready to be plucked.