Salah El-Din and Richard the Lionheart... When negotiations are
! fiercer than battles
In the middle of 1187 AD corresponding to 583 AH, the Islamic army led by Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi achieved a crushing victory over the Crusaders in the Levant at the famous site of Hattin in the land of Palestine . Of the cities and castles of the Levantine coast.
Previous events are known to most history readers, due to the large number of spotlights on them. But what many do not know is that long wars followed Hittin, and that lasted a few years, in the battlefields, as well as in the corridors of politics and at the negotiating tables, and that it changed to a large extent the map that was formed after the unique victory of Hittin. The heroes of those wars were the two famous leaders, Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi on the Islamic side, and Richard the Lionheart, King of England, on the side of the Crusaders.
The Third Crusade... The Campaign of Kings and the Epic of Acre
As soon as news of the crushing defeat at Hattin, and the subsequent return of Jerusalem to the Muslims, reached all over Europe, sadness and anger erupted in hearts and hearts, and the Pope of Rome, Urban III , died in agony, while his successor Gregory VIII called for a major crusade to restore Jerusalem, and to recover The Crusader kingdoms in the East are in danger of annihilation.
This will be the third crusade, which will be known as the campaign of kings, because of the many kings of Europe who came out in it, such as Frederick Barbarossa of Germany (who went to the Levant by land and drowned in a river in Asia Minor and his forces were scattered), and Philip, King of France, and Richard the Lionhearted, King of England, both of whom went to the East By sea, the general leadership of the campaign was in the hands of the latter. But due to the enormity of the campaign, and the varying orientations of the kings and princes in it, its arrival in the East was delayed by a few years.
The Crusader supplies began arriving by sea to the Crusaders of Levant in 585 AH = 1189 AD , so their souls strengthened, and the Crusader forces left the neighboring city of Tyre, which Salah al-Din did not make enough effort to break into after Hattin, and imposed a land siege on the city of Acre, and those forces were supplied with two thousand knights. and 30,000 men.
Salah al-Din al- Ayyubi succeeded in penetrating the land siege around Acre with his army, and brought many men and supplies to it to support its steadfastness. He holed up behind an earthen berm, and began to establish their positions, taking advantage of the stress that Salah al-Din's army was experiencing after years of continuous wars.
Despite the Egyptian fleet’s success in escaping the naval blockade more than once, and in delivering aid and support to Acre and its garrison, the siege continued for months and lengthened, as both sides were unable to resolve, despite a major attempt by the Crusaders to storm the city by building three major towers that took seven months to set up. But the city's garrison hardly withstood that great attack.
Meanwhile, the preparation of the Kings' campaign was in full swing, so Richard the Lionheart opened the treasuries of England wide to finance a major military campaign that included tens of thousands of soldiers and knights, and on the long sea route to the Levant, his forces occupied parts of the island of Sicily in southern Italy, and the island of Cyprus Eastern Mediterranean, whose inhabitants the Crusaders imposed exorbitant taxes to supplement the expenses of the great expedition. As for Philip II, King of France, he arrived in the Levant with thousands of his soldiers and knights, riding on the back of the fleet of the Italian Republic of Venice.
The Fatimids and the First Crusade... The enemy of my enemy is not always my friendno!
By the summer of 1191 AD , the main force of the Third Crusade, consisting of the armies of the kings of England and France, had reached the coast of Acre, which had been besieged for two years. The garrison of Acre to break the siege on the city, despite the bravery of those raids, and inflicted some significant losses on the Crusaders' forces.
The English fleet also succeeded in encircling a large naval convoy that was coming from Beirut to support Acre, so its Muslim navigators carried out a commando operation , drowning themselves in ships so that they would not be captured, and the Crusaders benefited from the dense supplies.
A few weeks after Richard's arrival, the decisiveness came unexpectedly, as some of the weak souls in Acre conspired with the Crusaders, and received a financial bribe in exchange for opening the gates of the city from the side of the land to the Crusaders, who took advantage of the opportunity and poured into it, and tightened control over it, and captured thousands of its garrison Exhausted and its overpowered Muslim population, 2,500 of these captives would be the victims of a major war crime, when Richard the Lionheart ordered the execution of them all so that Saladin would not use them in the resistance efforts against the campaign in its next movements to Acre.
The crusade forces moved from Acre towards the south on the Mediterranean coast, with the intention of occupying the city of Ashkelon , and then using it as a springboard to threaten Jerusalem and Egypt.
Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi mobilized the striking force of his army against the Crusaders a little inward, avoiding any decisive confrontation due to his lack of confidence in the ability to achieve a decisive victory, as happened in Hattin four years ago, and contented himself with launching guerrilla-like attacks to drain the Crusaders' forces.
But nonetheless very careful; A major clash took place between the two sides in the coastal region of Arsouf in Palestine, which ended with a partial victory for the Crusaders, after which Salah al-Din retreated to the interior, in order to defend Jerusalem, the most prominent goal of the campaign. In the wake of the Arsuf battle, Salah al-Din decided to sabotage the city of Ashkelon, so that the Crusaders would not benefit from it, so the fire continued to devour it for three months, after its inhabitants were evacuated, and what could be carried from the supplies and ammunition that was in it.
Salah al-Din and Richard the Lionheart and the battle of negotiations
Correspondence and negotiations between Richard and Saladin began while the former was still in his fleet besieging Acre. Saladin was always inclined to do what was best, and acceded to Richard's some strange little requests, such as sending some fruit, ice, and chicken, because he complained of weakness and sickness that afflicted him for the length of the journey. However, it seems that Salah al-Din's hopes that these humanitarian initiatives would break the crusaders' sharpness have gone to waste, as was evident in the events of the fall of Acre and the subsequent massacre of prisoners.
In the final stages of the Battle of Acre, and as the noose tightened on the steadfast city and its garrison, Saladin offered Richard the Lionheart and those with him to hand over to them Acre and the Holy Cross that the Muslims had obtained after Hittin, and to release what he possessed of the Crusaders prisoners, in exchange for safety for the people of the city. and garrison.
But the Crusaders rejected the proposal, and went too far in their requests, so they offered to accept peace, in exchange for Saladin’s handing over of all the cities that his armies liberated after Hittin, including Al-Quds Al-Sharif, which Saladin absolutely rejected.
After the fall of Acre, negotiations were renewed over the fate of the prisoners . Saladin offered Richard the Lionheart an exchange of prisoners. The Crusaders agreed to hand over the Holy Cross to them, and pay them 100,000 dinars, before sending any Muslim
!captive
Saladin insisted that they release the prisoners first, or send some hostages to ensure the completion of the deal, so the Crusaders insisted on their requests in Salaf. The result was that the Crusaders massacred the prisoners, which we referred to earlier .
At that critical time, Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi was in an unenviable position after three years of his hard and protracted war with the forces of the Third Crusade. the full force of the crusade.
On the other hand, there was a vital bet for Salah al-Din, which is to prolong the battle, as he knows that his opponent, who is coming from overseas, must be eager to return to his remote kingdom to control its conditions, which began to turmoil with the length of his stay in the Levant, very far from home.
The eyes of Salah al-Din were also conveying to him the escalation of differences in the Crusader camp between its various components of the Germans, the French and the English. One of the most prominent examples of this was Richard’s order to assassinate the Crusader ruler of Tyre, and the installation of his nephew as its ruler, as well as the sudden departure of Philip II, King of France, after the occupation of Acre. Ironically, Philip quickly took advantage of the absence of his campaign companion Richard, and attacked some of his lands in Europe.
After the Battle of Arsuf, Saladin encamped in Jerusalem to organize efforts to defend it, intensify fortifications, and fortify the walls. At that time, intensive negotiations were renewed between Salah al-Din and Richard the Lionheart, so the latter sent to Saladin repeatedly a request to hand over Jerusalem and the cities of the coast and the Holy Cross, in exchange for peace. Saladin refused again, and clashes escalated near Jerusalem, with Muslims launching continuous attritional attacks against the Crusaders. to weaken them.
Richard threatened to launch a comprehensive attack on Jerusalem with the striking force of the Crusaders, and his forces seized some fortresses in Palestine, to secure the back of his advancing army and supply lines from the sea.
Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi only intensified efforts to fortify and defend, and despite the fact that Richard the Lionheart’s forces had become less than 20 km from Jerusalem, to the extent that Richard was able to see the city for the first and last time in his life, even from afar; Richard was not able to establish a comprehensive siege on Jerusalem for military and logistical reasons, as most of the Palestinian interior was in the possession of Salah al-Din, and therefore the siege forces could be exposed to attrition attacks from all sides.
Richard and the leaders of the Templars and the Hospitallers were reluctant to launch a comprehensive attack on Jerusalem, given the high human and material cost of such an attack with the desperate defense expected from the Muslims, which would make it difficult for them to defend the city efficiently against any Islamic counterattack, especially since news began to reach them of Salah sending The debt is to all the Muslim princes in the Levant, Iraq and elsewhere to expedite the human and material supplies to support the efforts to defend Jerusalem.
Richard the Lionheart - Source
Richard wanted to improve his negotiating situation, and obtain any serious gains from Saladin, before he found himself compelled at any moment to return to Europe for the sake of his kingdom, which began to be in turmoil. that.
Richard offered Saladin to marry his sister to the just king, Saladin's brother, and his partner in his wars, on the condition that the just and his wife would be the king and queen of the city of Jerusalem, in what resembles the sharing of sovereignty over the holy city as a compromise.
Richard's eyes had conveyed to him the strength and ambition of al-Adil, and he expected that he would be enthusiastic about such an offer, which might cause him to fall into a great conflict with his brother Salah al-Din, and this almost happened. But Saladin refused this offer, risking the wrath of his brother, and, fortunately, when Richard's sister, a fanatical Christian, learned of the deal, she refused it at all.
It seems that the game of prolonging the conflict has paid off. Disputes escalated between Richard and the Crusaders leaders due to the hesitation in the comprehensive attack on Jerusalem, so the majority decided to leave Jerusalem for Ramla in northern Palestine. Salah al-Din left his forces behind the retreating Crusaders, fearing that they would change their direction and attack Egypt, the base of the king of Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi, which at that time had emptied most of its soldiers stationed in the Levant years ago.
The truce of Ramla and a truce of peace between the two leaders
Richard the Lionheart offered Saladin peace for three years, in exchange for handing over Ashkelon to the Crusaders, handing over the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem to the Crusaders, and facilitating the Crusaders' pilgrimage to it without hindrance. Saladin agreed to the part of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, but he refused at all to hand over Ashkelon.
Fighting resumed between the two sides again, when Saladin with his forces stormed the coastal city of Jaffa, which had previously been captured by Richard.
The status quo has become heavy on both sides, Richard's forces have been away from their homes for years, and Salah al-Din's armies have also exhausted the continuous mobilization since before Hittin five years ago, and therefore the chances of success of negotiations have doubled than before, and each party waited for the other to make the concession that occurs The difference is in the negotiation path.
On the second of September of the year 1192 AD, the two parties agreed on the terms of what was known as the Ramla Peace Treaty, the most important of which was a peace truce between the two parties for three years, and that the Crusaders would keep the coast from Jaffa in the north and Acre and its vicinity, while the Muslims would retain most of the interior, and the port of Ashkelon in southern Palestine. And for Jerusalem to remain in the possession of Muslims in return for facilitating the arrival of Crusaders pilgrims to visit it.
Tripoli... the bride of the Mediterranean who resisted the Crusaders for 6 years
A month later, Richard left by sea, and his ship was exposed to a major marine accident near the coast of Italy, so he was captured by his opponent, the King of Austria, who would demand a huge ransom for his release, which would cost a quarter of what the English possessed for a whole year, to return to England in 1194 AD, and spend The rest of his life to fight his opponents in France, where he will be fatally wounded in one of the battles.
As for Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi, he will meet his term after a few months of concluding the peace, and his success with difficulty after a military and political struggle in preserving some of the gains of his most precious victory in Hittin, the most prominent of which of course is Al-Quds Al-Sharif, which his full nephew will hand over to the Crusaders after less than 40 years in a
strange political deal , But this incident is another round.
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