Arab. Son of shame, give me something for my journey, for I have decided to go.
Ma'an (to his treasurer): Give him a thousand pieces of money.
Arab. Noble prince, I have heard much of thy great forbearance, and came only to try thee. Thy gentleness is indeed very great, and has no like among men. I pray God that thy life may be long, and thy forbearance be ever a noble example to which men may look up!
TRUTHFULNESS TO TRUST
The following historical incident is related by Arab authors as the highest example of faithfulness to trust. Al-Samau'al (Samuel) was the emir of a Jewish tribe in Southern Arabia, shortly before the time of Mohammed. A friend of his, before setting out on a journey, left with him some very fine mailed armour. This friend was killed in a battle, and one of the kings of Syria demanded the arms. Al-Samau'al refused to give them up except to the rightful heir, and the king laid siege to him in one of his fortresses. One day his son fell into the hands of the enemy, and the king threatened to kill him if the arms were not given up. Again he refused, and from the turrets of the castle saw his son put to death. The siege was soon after raised, and the arms were delivered to the heirs of his friend.
TRUTHFULNESS TO PLEDGE
The terms of surrender at the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin, in 1187, were that the Crusaders should retire with their goods from that city to one of the garrisoned ports which were held by the Franks, on the payment of ten pieces of gold for each man. As they were filing out of the city, and handing in their ransom-money, Saladin and his generals looked on, watching the proceedings. The patriarch's turn came, and he was followed by a number of mules laden with much treasure. Saladin made no sign, but his generals said: "Sire, the conditions of surrender were for private property, not for such treasures of money, which we urgently need for carrying on the war." To this appeal he replied: "No, I have pledged my word, and for the ten pieces of gold agreed upon he shall be free."
But just as he was so strictly truthful to his word, he was equally severe in exacting the same truthfulness from his foes. Thus after the great battle of Hittin, when the Crusading army was utterly crushed, a large number of prisoners fell into his hands, including the King of Jerusalem and Count Raymond de Chatillon, Governor of Kerak, to the east of the Jordan. The count was a bad, dishonourable man, and had (not long before) shamelessly violated an armistice, and fallen on a defenceless Moslem caravan which was passing through his province, killing the men and seizing their property. When Saladin heard of this base breach of the laws of war he was furious, and vowed that if this perfidious prince should ever fall into his power, he would kill him with his own hand; and now the count was his prisoner. The day of battle, in the month of August, had been very hot, and the Crusaders, with their heavy coats of mail, and without a drop of water to drink, had suffered terribly from thirst. The tents of Saladin were pitched near the Lake of Tiberias, and when the king and the count were brought in, the king asked for a drink of water—which Saladin at once ordered. A large goblet of iced water was handed to him, and after quenching his thirst he passed the cup to the count. Saladin looked on, but said nothing until the count had finished drinking, and he then said to him: "I gave no orders for drink for you; if I had, your life would have been safe by our laws of hospitality. But you are a bad, faithless man, who broke the terms of our truce, and you shall now suffer the death which you deserve," and with one stroke of his scimitar he cut off his head. He then sent for the Knights of St. John, of whom there were about a thousand prisoners, and said to them: "So far as you have been brave warriors, and cost the Moslems many a man, I have nothing to say; but you have not been fair and honourable in our wars, nor true to your engagements, and I now offer you the option of Islam or death." To a man they all chose death in preference to adopting a faith which they hated; and so they were led to the shores of the lake and there beheaded.
More than seven hundred years after these tragic events, William II., the present Emperor of Germany, who is a descendant of the Crusading Princes, and a Knight of the Brandenburg branch of the order of St. John, came to Damascus in 1898; and one of the first things he did there was to visit the tomb of Saladin, and lay on it a wreath of flowers. It was a generous and beautiful and well-deserved tribute to the memory of a truly great man, from whom the Christian nations of his times learned much of their chivalry and truthfulness to their pledged word.