Lionhearts: Saladin, King Richard I, and the Third Crusade
For my children Catherine Tamara and John COUNTY OF EDESSA Regained by Muslims in 1144 Tigris R PRINCIPALITY OF ANTIOCH Euphrates R Takrit CYPRUS COUNTY OF TRIPOLI SYRIA MEDITERRANEAN SEA Tyre Acre Tiberias KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM Jaffa Jerusalem Damascus Lake Tiberias Sea of Galilee Jordan R Dead Sea Kerak Reginald’s Castle SAL ADIN’S EMPIRE EGYPT Cairo nile R THE MIDDLE EAST IN THE TIME OF SALADIN RED SEA ARABIA Medina Mecca
Author’s Note People People have been fighting over Jerusalem for more than three thousand thousand years It is called the City of David but even King David took Jerusalem from someone else the Jebusites around 1000 b c The Jews would lose it to the Babylonians three hundred years later and from then on the city would fall to one conqueror after another Over the years Jerusalem has been home to Jews Christians and Muslims The fol lowers of these three great religions known as the People People of the Book have much in common They worship one god and share roots in the Old Testament tradition that is central to Judaism the most ancient of the three They all regard Jerusalem as a holy city and the countryside around it as the Holy Land By 1095 the city of Jerusalem had been in Muslim hands for more than four hun dred years The three faiths lived there together in peace for Muhammad had taught his followers to respect Jews and Christians as followers of an earlier revelation But this was soon to change The great knights of Europe were about to embark on a holy war to drive the Muslims out of Jerusalem Fired with religious zeal they poured fortunes into raising armies then transporting them together with horses armor weapons and food two thousand miles to the Holy Land This remarkable event came to be called the First Crusade By 1099 the Crusaders had conquered the coast of Syria and on July 15 of that year they took Jerusalem They divided the land into four Crusader Crusader States each to be ruled by a prominent knight Though the Muslims Muslims later reclaimed one of the states and a Second Crusade failed to win it back it looked like the Crusaders were in the Holy Land to stay
In In the year 1138 a boy was born in the little town of Takrit on the Tigris River Like every Muslim child he was welcomed into the world of faith with these words the first he ever heard La ilaha illa Allah Muhammad rasul Allah There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet The boy was named Yusuf ibn Ayyub which means Joseph son of Job Later he would earn a new name Salah al-Din he who honors the faith Each morning before dawn he was awakened by the voice of the muezzin high up in the minaret at the mosque calling the faithful to prayer Prayer is better than sleep the voice sang The boy would wash himself as he had been taught hands and feet face and hair then cover his head and turn in the direction of Mecca to pray Four more times each day no matter where he was in the mosque at the market or at school he would pause at the appointed times and surrender himself to God Religion told him what he was allowed to eat and what was forbidden forbidden such as pork and wine Religion decreed that for one month every year the month of Ramadan he was not to eat or drink anything at all from the rising of the sun until it was too dark to tell a white thread from a black one From the age of seven the boy was schooled at the mosque He memorized memorized passages from the Koran the holy book of Islam and practiced writing these passages on his tablet in the beautiful Arabic script He learned the Five Pillars of Islam faith prayer the giving of alms fasting and pilgrimage and knew he must follow them to be a righteous man
