Жозеп Франсоа Мишо: ПОВЕСТ НА КРСТОНОСНИТЕ ВОЈНИ

ТРЕТА КРСТОНОСНА ВОЈНА

BOOK VII.

THIRD CRUSADE.

 A.D. 1148-1188.

WE cannot help being convinced, whilst reading this history, that the

religion of Mahomet, thoroughly warlike as it is in principle, does

not endue its disciples with that obstinate bravery, that boundless

devotedness, of which the Crusaders presented so many examples. The

fanaticism of the Mussulmans required victory to keep up its power

or its violence. Bred in a conviction of blind fatalism, they were

accustomed to consider successes or reverses as simple decrees of

Heaven; victorious, they were full of ardour and confidence; conquered,

they were depressed, and without shame succumbed to an enemy, whom

they believed to be the instrument of destiny. An ambition for renown

seldom excited their courage, and even in the excesses of their warlike

fervour, the fear of chastisements and punishments kept their faces

towards the enemy more frequently than any generous love of glory. A

chief, whom they themselves dreaded, was the only captain that could

lead them to victory; and thus despotism became necessary to their

valour.

After the conquest of the Christians, the dynasties of the Saracens

and the Turks were dispersed and almost annihilated; the Seljoucides

themselves had fallen back to the very extremities of Persia, and

the people of Syria scarcely knew the names of those princes whose

ancestors had reigned over Asia. Everything, even despotism, was

destroyed in the East. The ambition of the emirs took advantage of the

general disorder: slaves shared the spoils of their masters; provinces

and cities became so many principalities, the uncertain and transient

possession of which was a constant subject of dispute. The necessity

for defending the Mussulman religion, whilst threatened by the

Christians, had alone preserved the credit of the caliphs of Bagdad.

They were still the chiefs of Islamism; their approbation seemed

necessary for the preservation of the power of usurpers or conquerors;

but their authority, which was nothing but a sacred phantom, commanded

nothing but prayers and vain ceremonies, and inspired not the least

fear. In this state of degradation their only employment seemed to

be to consecrate the fruit of treachery and violence. It was not

sufficient to bestow cities and employments which they had no power to

refuse; all whom victory and license had favoured came to prostrate

themselves before the vicars of the prophet; and crowds of emirs,

viziers, and sultans, to borrow an Eastern expression, appeared to rise

from the dust of their feet.

The Christians were not sufficiently aware of the state of Asia, which

they might have conquered; and agreed so ill among themselves that they

could never take advantage of the divisions which prevailed among their

enemies. They seldom had, either in attack or defence, a well-sustained

plan, and their impetuous bravery, directed generally by chance or

passion, could only be compared to the tempest, whose fury rages or

abates at the pleasure of the winds which reign over the horizon.

Fortune, which had offered them such a brilliant opportunity for

extending their empire, became, at last, adverse to them, and from the

bosom of the chaos in which the East was plunged, arose a formidable

power, which was destined to conquer and destroy them.

Noureddin, son of Zengui, who had obtained possession of Edessa before

the second crusade, had inherited the conquests of his father, and

added to them by his valour. He was bred among warriors who had sworn

to shed their blood in the cause of the Prophet, and when he mounted

the throne he revived the austere simplicity of the early caliphs.

Noureddin, says an Arabian poet, united the most noble heroism with

the profoundest humility. When he prayed in the temple, his subjects

believed they saw a sanctuary in another sanctuary. He encouraged the

sciences, cultivated letters, and, above all, applied himself to the

maintenance of justice throughout his states. His people admired his

clemency and moderation; and the Christians even were forced to praise

his courage and his profane heroism. After the example of his father

Zengui, he made himself the idol of his soldiers by his liberality; by

taking charge of their families, he prevented their desire for the

possession of lands, and thus accustomed them to consider the camp

as their home and their country. In the midst of armies which he had

himself formed, and which respected in him the avenger of the Prophet,

he restrained the ambition of the emirs, and directed their efforts

and their zeal towards one sole object, the triumph of Islamism. His

victories, his fortune, his religious and political virtues drew upon

him the attention of the entire East, and made the Mussulmans believe

that the period of their deliverance had arrived.

Baldwin III., who undertook to stop the career of Noureddin, displayed

great valour in several battles. The most important and the most

fortunate of his expeditions was the taking of Ascalon, in which the

Mussulmans always kept up a formidable garrison. This city, which is

situated in a fertile plain, and which the Mussulmans call _the Spouse

of Syria_, was succoured by an Egyptian fleet, and for a long time

resisted all the efforts of the Christians. Rivers of blood flowed

before its walls during several months; both Mussulmans and Christians

fighting with fury, and neither giving nor receiving quarter. During

the siege the knights of the Temple particularly distinguished

themselves by their valour; the thirst for booty, far more than the

love of glory, making them brave the greatest perils. The garrison and

the inhabitants, exhausted by fatigue and pinched by famine, at length

opened the gates of the city. Baldwin granted them a capitulation,

permitted them to retire into Egypt with their families, and caused a

_Te Deum_ to be sung in the great mosque, which he consecrated to St.

Paul.

After this victory the king of Jerusalem marched to encounter

Noureddin, and compelled him to raise the sieges of both Paneas and

Sidon. Baldwin was engaged in assisting the principality of Antioch,

always disturbed by factions, always threatened by the Mussulmans, when

he was poisoned by a Syrian physician. As soon as he became sensible of

his danger, he set out for Jerusalem, and died in the city of Berouth.

His remains were transported to the holy city, the clergy coming out

to meet the funeral train. The people descended from the mountains to

join the procession, and through the country and in the cities nothing

was heard but lamentations. Noureddin himself, if we are to believe

a Christian historian,[294] was affected by the sorrow of the Franks.

Some of his emirs advising him to take advantage of this melancholy

occasion to enter Palestine, “God forbid,” replied he, “that I should

disturb the proper grief of a people who are weeping for the loss of so

good a king, or fix upon such an opportunity to attack a kingdom which

I have no reason to fear.” Remarkable words, which at once denote two

great men, and which further show what a serious loss the Christians

had sustained.

As soon as the funeral ceremonies of Baldwin III. were over, warm

debates arose upon the choice of a successor. The greater part of

the barons and knights attached to the memory of Baldwin proposed to

call to the throne his brother Amaury, count of Jaffa and Ascalon.

This party was the most reasonable and the most conformable to the

laws and interests of the kingdom; but the brother of Baldwin, by

the haughtiness of his deportment, had made himself many enemies

among the people, the clergy, and the army. He was reproached with an

ambition and an avarice fatal to the interests of the Christians; and

he was accused of not being restrained by honour, justice, or even

the precepts of religion,[295] in the execution of his projects. His

partisans extolled his active and enterprising character, his bravery

so often proved, and his great skill in war. Among the nobles of the

kingdom who opposed his succession, and attributed to him ambitious

views much to be dreaded, were several who themselves nourished

aspiring projects, and allowed themselves to be seduced by the hope

of ascending the throne. The conflicting parties were on the point

of taking up arms to sustain their pretensions or their hopes, when

the grand master of the Hospitallers exhorted the barons and knights

to preserve the peace and the laws of the kingdom by crowning young

Amaury. “The crown,” said he to them, “which you refuse to place upon

the head of a Christian prince will soon be upon that of Noureddin or

of the caliph of Egypt. If this misfortune should happen, you will

become the slaves of the infidels, and the world will accuse you

of having opened the gates of the holy city to the Saracens, as the

traitor Judas gave up the Saviour of the world into the hands of his

enemies.” This speech, and the sight of the troops which Amaury had

already collected to defend his rights, disarmed the factions which

disturbed the kingdom. The brother of Baldwin was crowned in the Holy

Sepulchre, and received the oaths of allegiance of those even who had

openly declared themselves opposed to his claims.

As soon as Amaury had ascended the throne, he directed all his energies

towards Egypt, now weakened by the victories of the Christians. The

caliph of Cairo having refused to pay the tribute due to the conquerors

of Ascalon, the new king of Jerusalem placed himself at the head of his

army, traversed the desert, carried the terror of his arms to the banks

of the Nile, and only returned to his kingdom when he had forced the

Egyptians to purchase peace. The state in which Egypt was then placed

was likely soon to recall the Christians thither; and happy would it

have been for them if they had known how to profit by their advantages;

and if their fruitless attempts had not served to favour the progress

of a rival power.

Egypt was at that time the theatre of a civil war, occasioned by the

ambition of two leaders who disputed the empire of it. For a length

of time the caliphs of Cairo, like those of Bagdad, shut up in their

seraglio, had borne no resemblance to the warrior from whom they

derived their origin, who had said, whilst pointing to his soldiers and

his sword, “_These are my family and my race_.” Enervated by effeminacy

and pleasures, they had abandoned the government to their slaves, who

adored them on their knees, and imposed laws upon them. They no longer

exercised any real authority but in the mosques, and only preserved the

disgraceful privilege of confirming the usurped power of the viziers,

who corrupted the armies, disturbed the provinces, and in the field of

battle quarrelled with each other for the right of reigning over both

people and prince.

Each of the viziers, to secure the triumph of his cause, called in by

turns the arms of the neighbouring powers. On the arrival of these

dangerous auxiliaries, all was in confusion on the banks of the Nile.

Blood flowed in all the provinces, sometimes shed by the executioners,

sometimes by the soldiers; Egypt was at once desolated by its enemies,

its allies, and its inhabitants.

Chaver, who, amidst these revolutions, had raised himself from the

humble condition of a slave to the post of vizier, had been conquered

and displaced by Dargan, one of the principal officers of the Egyptian

militia. Obliged to fly and abandon Egypt, where his rival reigned,

he went to seek an asylum at Damascus, imploring the assistance of

Noureddin, and promising a considerable tribute if that prince would

furnish him with troops to protect his return into Egypt. The sultan of

Damascus yielded to the prayers of Chaver. To command the army which

he resolved to send into Egypt, he selected Chirkou, the most skilful

of his emirs, who having always shown himself cruel and implacable

in his military expeditions, was likely to be without pity for the

vanquished, and to take all advantage of the miseries of a civil war,

for the benefit of his master. The vizier Dargan was not long in being

warned of the projects of Chaver and the preparations of Noureddin. To

resist the storm about to burst upon him, he implored the aid of the

Christians of Palestine, and promised to give up his treasures to them

if they succeeded in preserving his power.

Whilst the king of Jerusalem, seduced by this promise, was collecting

an army, Chaver, accompanied by the troops of Noureddin, crossed the

desert, and approached the banks of the Nile. Dargan, who came out to

meet him with the Egyptian army, was conquered by the Syrians, and lost

his life in the battle. The city of Cairo soon opened its gates to the

conqueror. Chaver,[296] whom the victory had delivered from his enemy,

shed torrents of blood in the capital to insure his triumph, received

amid the general consternation the congratulations of the caliph, and

resumed the reins of government.

It was not long, however, before divisions arose between the general

of Noureddin, who daily placed a more excessive price on his services,

and the vizier, whom Chirkou accused of perfidy and ingratitude. Chaver

desired in vain to send the Mussulmans back into Syria; they replied to

him only by threats, and he was on the point of being besieged in Cairo

by his own deliverers. All the Egyptians, particularly the people of

the capital, were seized with trouble and consternation.

In the midst of so pressing a danger, the vizier Chaver placed his

only hope in the Christian warriors, whose approach he had not long

since so much dreaded. He made the king of Jerusalem the same promises

that he had offered to Noureddin; and Amaury, who only wanted to enter

Egypt, whatever might be the party that prevailed there, set out upon

his march to defend Chaver with the very same army he had collected to

fight against him. When arrived on the banks of the Nile, he united his

troops with those of the vizier, and they sat down before the city of

Bilbeis, into which Chirkou had retired. Noureddin’s general resisted

during three months all the attacks of the Christians and Egyptians;

and when the king of Jerusalem proposed peace to him, he demanded

payment of the expenses of the war. After some negotiations, in which

he displayed great haughtiness, he marched out of Bilbeis still

threatening the Christians, and led back his army to Damascus, loaded

with the spoils of his enemies.

Chirkou had beheld the riches of Egypt, and become acquainted with the

weakness of its government; the first advice he offered to Noureddin,

after his arrival, therefore, was to endeavour to unite this rich

country to his own empire. The sultan of Syria sent ambassadors to

the caliph of Bagdad, not to ask aid of him, but to give a religious

colour to his enterprise. During several centuries, the caliphs of

Bagdad and Cairo had been divided by an implacable hatred; each of them

boasting of being the vicar of the Prophet, and considering his rival

as the enemy of God. In the mosques of Bagdad, they cursed the caliphs

of Egypt and their sectarians; in those of Cairo, they devoted to the

infernal powers, the Abassides and their partisans.

The caliph of Bagdad did not hesitate to comply with the wishes of

Noureddin. Whilst the sultan of Syria was solely occupied by his

endeavours to extend his empire, the vicar of the Prophet was only

ambitious to preside alone over the Mussulman religion. He commanded

the Imans to preach a war against the Fatimites, and promised the

delights of Paradise to all who should take up arms in the holy

expedition. At the call of the caliph, a great number of faithful

Mussulmans flocked to the standard of Noureddin, and Chirkou, by the

order of the sultan, prepared to return into Egypt, at the head of a

powerful army.

The fame of these preparations spread throughout the East, particularly

in Egypt, where it created the most serious alarms. Amaury, who

had returned to his own states, received ambassadors from Chaver,

soliciting his help and alliance against the enterprise of Noureddin.

The states of the kingdom of Jerusalem were assembled at Naplouse, and

the king there exposed to them the advantages of another expedition

into Egypt. An impost was levied to carry on a war from which the

greatest hopes were entertained, and the Christian army soon set out

from Gaza to fight with the troops of Noureddin on the banks of the

Nile.

In the mean time Chirkou was crossing the desert, where he encountered

the greatest dangers. A violent tempest surprised him on his march; all

at once the heavens were darkened, and the earth, which was strewed

with the prostrate Syrians, became like a stormy sea. Immense waves of

sand were lifted by the winds, and rising into whirlwinds or forming

moving mountains, scattered, bore away, or swallowed up men and horses.

In this tempest the Syrian army abandoned its baggage and lost its

provisions and arms, and when Chirkou arrived on the banks of the Nile,

he had no means of defence left except the remembrance of his former

victories. He took great care to conceal the losses he had experienced,

and the wreck of an army dispersed by a fearful tempest proved

sufficient to throw all the cities of Egypt into consternation.

The vizier Chaver, frightened at the approach of the Syrians, sent

ambassadors to the Christians, to promise them immense riches, and

press them to hasten their march. On his side, the king of Jerusalem

deputed to the caliph of Egypt, Hugh of Cæsarea, and Foulcher, a knight

of the Temple, to obtain the ratification of the treaty of alliance

with the Egyptians. Amaury’s deputies were introduced into a palace

in which no Christian had ever before been admitted. After having

traversed several corridors filled with Moorish guards, and a vast

number of apartments and courts in which glittered all the splendour

of the East, they arrived in a hall, or rather a sanctuary, where the

caliph awaited them, seated on a throne shining with gold and precious

stones. Chaver, who conducted them, prostrated himself at the feet

of his master, and supplicated him to accept the treaty of alliance

with the king of Jerusalem. The prayer of the vizier was an imperious

order, and the commander of the faithful, always docile to the will of

the lowest of his slaves, made a sign of approbation, and stretched

his uncovered hand out to the Christian deputies in presence of the

officers of his court, whom so strange a spectacle filled with grief

and surprise.

The army of the Franks was close to Cairo; but as the policy of Amaury

was to lengthen the war, in order to prolong his stay in Egypt, he

neglected opportunities of attacking the Syrians with advantage, and

gave them time to recruit their strength. After having left them a long

time in repose, he gave them battle in the isle of Maalle, and forced

their intrenchments, but did not follow up his victory. Chirkou, in

his retreat, endeavoured to reanimate the depressed courage of the

soldiers of Noureddin, the latter not having yet forgotten the evils

they had encountered in the passage over the desert. This calamity,

still recent, together with the first victory of the Christians,

destroyed the confidence they had in their arms and the protection of

the Prophet. One of the lieutenants of Chirkou, upon witnessing their

gloomy rage, cried out in the midst of the Mussulman army: “You who

fear death or slavery, return into Syria; go and tell Noureddin that to

repay him for the benefits with which he has loaded you, you abandon

Egypt to the infidels, in order to shut yourselves up in your seraglios

with women and children.”

These words reanimated the zeal and fanaticism of the Syrian warriors.

The Franks and the Egyptians who pursued the army of Chirkou, were

conquered in a battle, and forced to abandon in disorder the hills

of Baben,[297] where they had pitched their tents. The general of

Noureddin took all possible advantage of his victory; he passed as a

conqueror along the fertile banks of the Nile; penetrated, without

encountering an obstacle, into lower Egypt; placed a garrison in

Alexandria; and returned to lay siege to the city of Koutz, the capital

of the Thebais. The ability with which Chirkou had disciplined his

army, and planned the last battle he had fought with his enemies; his

marches and his counter-marches in the plains and valleys of Egypt,

from the tropic to the sea, announced the progress of the Mussulmans

in military tactics, and warned the Christians beforehand of the enemy

that was destined to put an end to their victories and conquests.

The Turks defended themselves during several months in Alexandria,

against the seditions of the inhabitants and the numerous assaults of

the Christians. They at length obtained an honourable capitulation, and

as their army was becoming weaker every day by famine and fatigue, they

retired a second time to Damascus, after exacting very dear payment for

the transient tranquillity in which they left the people of Egypt.

After the retreat of the Syrians, the vizier Chaver hastened to send

back the Christians, whose presence made him very uneasy. He engaged

to pay the king of Jerusalem an annual tribute of a hundred thousand

crowns in gold, and consented to receive a garrison in Cairo. He loaded

the barons and knights with rich presents, and the soldiers even had

a share in his bounties, proportionate to the fear the Franks inspired

him with. The Christian warriors returned to Jerusalem, bearing with

them riches which dazzled both people and nobles, and inspired them

with other thoughts than that of defending the heritage of Christ.

As Amaury returned to his capital, the sight of his mountainous and

sterile provinces, the poverty of his subjects, and the narrow limits

of his kingdom, made him deeply regret having missed the opportunity of

conquering a great empire. Soon after his return he married a niece of

the emperor Manuel; but whilst the people and his court gave themselves

up to joy, and put up vows for the prosperity of his family and his

kingdom, one single thought occupied him night and day, and haunted

him even amongst the most sumptuous and brilliant festivities. The

riches of the caliph of Cairo, the populousness and fertility of Egypt,

its numerous fleets, and the commodiousness of its ports, presented

themselves constantly to the mind of Amaury. His first endeavour was to

make the marriage he had just contracted subservient to his projects,

and he sent ambassadors to Constantinople, with instructions to induce

Manuel to assist him in the conquest of Egypt. Manuel approved of

the plans of the king of Jerusalem, and promised to send him fleets

and share with him the glory and perils of a conquest which must so

deeply interest the Christian world. Then Amaury hesitated no longer

to declare his designs, and called together the barons and principal

people of his kingdom. In this assembly, in which it was proposed

to invade Egypt, the wisest among whom was the grand master of the

Templars, declared loudly and decidedly that the undertaking was

unjust. “The Christians,” said they, “ought not to set the Mussulmans

the example of violating treaties. It perhaps would not be a difficult

matter to obtain possession of Egypt, but it would not be so easy to

keep it as to conquer it. Noureddin was the most formidable enemy

of the Christians; it was against him they should bring all the

united forces of the kingdom to bear. Egypt must belong to the power

that should remain ruler of Syria, and it was not prudent or wise

to endeavour to anticipate the favours of fortune, and send armies

into a country of which they should only open the gates to the son

of Zengui, as they had done in the instance of Damascus. They would

sacrifice Christian cities, Jerusalem itself, to the hope of conquering

a kingdom. Noureddin had already taken advantage of the king of

Jerusalem’s being engaged on the banks of the Nile, to get possession

of several places which belonged to the Christians. Bohemond prince of

Antioch, and Raymond count of Tripoli, had been made prisoners of war,

and groaned in the chains of the Mussulmans, as victims of an ambition

which had seduced the king of Jerusalem far from his kingdom and the

Christian colonies of which he ought to be the support and defender.”

The knights and barons who expressed themselves thus, added that the

sight alone of Egypt would not fail to corrupt the Christian warriors,

and enervate the courage and subdue the patriotism of the inhabitants

and defenders of Palestine. These opinions, however prudent and just,

had no effect upon the king of Jerusalem and the partisans of the war,

among whom was conspicuous the grand master of the Hospitallers, who

had exhausted the riches of his order by extravagant expenses, and had

raised troops for whose pay he had assigned the treasures of Egypt.

The greater part of the lords and knights, to whom fortune seemed to

be waiting on the banks of the Nile in order to bestow upon them her

favours, suffered themselves to be easily persuaded to the war, and

found it very convenient to consider as an enemy the sovereign of a

country which held out so rich a booty to them.

...

("The History of the Crusades" author: Joseph Francois Michaud; изв.Project GUTENBERG)