Nearly 600 years before the Fourth of July was a big deal for us Americans, it was a date for celebration across the Muslim world, which was then near its peak. That, obviously, takes a little bit of explaining.
So, back in late 1095 AD a Pope named Urban II gave a sermon in the French city of Clermont. In that sermon he put forth a call to arms to all Christendom to retake the “Holy Land” from the forces of Islam that had captured it several centuries earlier, while Europe was still trapped in the Dark Ages. With that Urban launched, however unintentionally, centuries (perhaps even millennia) of violence, and the first step was known as the First Crusade.
That Crusade found the Muslim forces, perceived in Europe as a unified entity, fractured and in some elements at war with itself. Truth be told, the European Catholics were pretty messed up too, just not as messed up, and that mattered. The result was a triumph, despite the logistic and political limitations of the ad-hoc First Crusade. However improbably, they took Jerusalem in 1099.
Then they slaughtered a huge percentage of its population, Muslims and Jews alike. This was probably was not what Jesus Christ would have been keen about, I guess. But in the end, they owned that section of the “Holy Land,” in all of its blood-soaked glory.
The Second Crusade was pretty much a cock-up, so we do not need to talk about that.
Flash forward to the 1170s and then after that to the Battle of Hattin.
The Muslim world, already divided by the schism between Sunni Islam and Shia Islam, still had problems getting together decades after the Europeans established the “Kingdom of Jerusalem.” That is until the force of arms under a commander named Salah ‘ah-Din (aka Saladin) managed to unify them under one banner. He literally beat the majority of the Islamic World into shape, at least for a while. Sometimes by negotiation, but when necessary, by the sword. He could be smooth, and he was without doubt honorable according to the codes of the time, but as need be he was not necessarily subtle in his methods with his co-religionists. He fought battles, killed men, and wrought havoc to achieve this unification. But, in the end, it was effective. For the first time since the Christians invaded more than seventy years before, the Muslims were a unified force under the direction of one man.
Now, this time it was the Christians who were irrevocably divided. King Baldwin of Jerusalem, a leper made famous in the movie The Kingdom of Heaven, had already died. He was only 24, so the throne passed to the child of his sister, who died just a year later. The sister, well, she married a moron. That moron was handed the throne. His name was King Guy.
Some among the nobles of this invasive “Christian” kingdom, pragmatically, sought peace and neutrality. But various extreme factions such as the religious/fighting “brotherhoods” such as the Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitaller, pursued purity at any cost. No negotiations with the Muslims, no treaties or peace, just attack, attack, attack. It was not a well thought-out prescription for a minority force far away from their own base. And then there were those who lived there, in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and combined this sort of rigidity with pure avarice.
The most extreme of them, a “noble” known as Count Reynard, took it to extremes. He was, for all intents and purposes, evil. On a regular basis he lied, cheated, robbed, and betrayed. He would sign treaties, just to get an advantage (claiming that any treaty with the Muslims was moot, since they did not count). He probably would have done well in Gordon Gekko’s world. Ultimately, his transgressions against a whole host of different Islamic leaders and merchants brought ruin to the whole Christian kingdom, as it was his actions that ultimately brought Saladin against them.
Reynard must have been a smooth talker though, because it was his counsel prevailed. Faced with an army that Saladin brought into “their” lands, the response was attack, and damned be to the odds.
Not a good idea.
Saladin had actually been trying to lure the Europeans (roughly 15,000-20,000) to attack his force of about 30,000 men. Never before had the Muslims been able to muster such a large force in one place and he wanted to use it while he could. Water was to be his major weapon as he had one primary tactical dilemma: How was he to get an outnumbered force to leave their own base and meet him on an open battlefield? To this end he set out bait.
In late June Saladin crossed the Jordan River from the east and with his army took the city (though deliberately not the citadel) of Tiberius. It is an ancient Roman city located on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, a “sea” in name only, as though it is the largest body of fresh water in the entire region, it is only a few miles across and long. There are no shortage of lakes here in the US that are far larger than this “sea.” But as a large body of water in a very dry land, the name “sea” stuck. You may have heard of it, the Apostle Peter used to go fishing there and once, it is said, Jesus walked upon it.
I cannot speak to the walking, but in 1187 one thing was clear, it was good for drinking.
Hearing of Saladin’s movements, his attack, and the fact that the castle had not yet fallen, the army of the Christians debated internally before the feckless King Guy. Wiser counsel (including the noble whose own wife was besieged in the castle at Tiberius) recommending holding fast where they were, but the rash and the ideological insisted upon attacking, regardless of the odds. So on the morning of 3 July they left their own campground, heading towards Tiberius.
Their problem was that this summer was particularly dry, with the creeks dry and no source of water at all until they reached the Sea of Galilee. But to get to the water the Crusaders would have to pass through Saladin’s army, though it appears that they did not know that yet. This is because Saladin’s was an army he had largely kept concealed until the last moment.
To do this Saladin set up his own forces about five miles from the coast of the Sea of Galilee, and from Tiberius. There he kept most of the army on the ground below the last line of higher terrain from which one can see the sea. These heights along the route from Acre to Tiberius were known as the “Horns of Hattin.” Hugging this line of heights also meant that most of his men could not be seen by any long-range scouts.
Then he set about harassing the approach of the Crusaders. First he sent his men, his well watered cavalrymen it should be noted, around both flanks of the approaching Christian army as they moved west-to-east. This initial move was intended to cut off the Crusader’s line of retreat and slow their advance. It worked.
Now the Crusaders could not fall back upon their own water supply, and within hours after starting the majority of the Crusaders had probably already consumed what water they had on hand. Remember, they set off thinking that they could be at the Sea of Galilee by mid-day or late afternoon. Harassed by Muslim cavalry along the whole route it took them more than twice as long as a normal march might on the same ground. Then, at dusk, they reached the Horns of Hattin, the last high-point before you reach the plains, and the fresh water of Galilee. They could see the water, just over five miles away. But now they could see something else, the main body of Saladin’s army, sitting just below them, between them and the sea.
The Crusader forces, mostly infantry it should be mentioned, paused. They needed water, and since Saladin had already sent that large blocking force around behind them to stop their escape should they try to retreat, their only route was forward. It was July, in what is now Israel. Things can get dry. At that point they were really dry. There had been no water resupply once they had left their original base, and now a force larger than their own was sitting smack-dab between them and any chance of getting a drink. After some initial desultory attempts, the Christians pitched camp on the hills for the night. A long, thirsty night.
Saladin’s men, through his generalship, had water, and that mattered.
Ultimately, confined to the “Horns of Hattin”, with water in sight but unattainable due to the encircling forces, the Crusaders were on their own horns. In the morning they began a series of desperate attempts to break out, to get to water. Some few escaped, most did not. Saladin added to their discomfort by hemming them in with the simple and obvious expedient of setting the tinder-dry grass surrounding them on fire. One by one the tents of the nobles went down, until only the great pavilion of King Guy remained.
Ibn al-Athir, a Muslim chronicler, put it this way,
“The Franj [Franks, the Muslim generic term for the Crusaders] were on the point of capitulating. The Muslims had set fire to the dry grass, and the wind was blowing the smoke into the eyes of the knights. Assailed by thirst, flames, and smoke, by the summer heat and the fires of combat, the Franj were unable to go on. But they believed they could avoid death only by confronting it. They launched attacks so violent that the Muslims were about to give way. Nevertheless, with each assault the Franj suffered heavy losses and their numbers diminished…”
The entire army, barring a few who broke out, was killed or captured before the end of that Fourth of July. Both the King and the nefarious Reynard became prisoners. Guy was spared, Reynard was executed by Saladin’s own hand.
Saladin would then move on, but July 4 set the stage for the recapture of the city of Jerusalem by the Muslims, as well as a reduction of most of their pocket-kingdom, and it is why that date matters to those attuned to Muslim history.
As always I can be reached at R_Bateman_LTC@hotmail.com
