The Sultan then ordered his nephew, El Melik el Muzaffar to march upon the fortress of Tibnín. After a week’s siege the inhabitants were obliged to sue for quarter. The request was referred to Saladin personally, who granted quarter to the defenders of the town, taking hostages for their good conduct, on condition of their entirely surrendering it within five days, and setting free all the Mohammedan captives who remained in their hands. This plan he adopted thenceforth with all places which he conquered, and thus set at liberty a large number of prisoners, many of whom were doubtless fighting men, and would add greatly to the numerical strength of his army.
The occupation of Tibnín by Saladin’s troops took place on the 26th of July, 1187, and three days afterwards the Muslim flag was flying from the walls of Sidon.
Saladin next attacked Beirút[Beirút], which place prepared for a long resistance; but his sappers and miners having succeeded in undermining the wall and weakening the foundations of the tower, the besieged deemed it better to capitulate, and the town was occupied by the Saracens on the 6th of August.
While he was at Beirút[Beirút] a letter came to the Sultan from one of his officers at Damascus, informing him that Odo, Lord of Jebail, who, it will be remembered, was taken prisoner at Hettín, had consented to surrender his town on condition that he should be himself released from captivity. Saladin ordered him to be brought to Beirút in chains, and having concluded the bargain and obtained possession of Jebail (August 14th), he set Odo at liberty. The arrangement was not a politic one for the Mussulmans, for Odo was an active and influential chief, and was destined to give them much trouble. The greater part of the inhabitants of Beirút, Sidon, and Jebail were Mohammedans, which may account for the easy conquest of those places. The Christian part of the population, who had received permission to withdraw on the entry of the Sultan’s troops, removed to Tyre, where the Count of Tripoli had retired after the defeat of the Christians at Tiberias. Hearing that Saladin was marching upon him, the count vacated the city and fled to Tripoli, where he died. The Marquis of Montferrat, who had only arrived that year on the coast of Syria, happened at this time to put into the port of Acre, not knowing that it was in the possession of the Muslims. He was at first surprised that no demonstration of joy greeted his arrival, but quickly perceiving the real state of the case, he would willingly have sought safety in flight. The wind, however, being unfavourable, he asked for quarter and requested that he might be allowed to land. Permission was given him, but he pretended that he dare not trust himself ashore without a safe-conduct in the Sultan’s own handwriting, and gaining time by this and similar devices, he took advantage of a favourable wind springing up and sailed away to Tyre. Here he landed, and at once set about fortifying and entrenching the town, and, being joined by the fugitives from all the towns conquered by the Mussulmans, he succeeded in establishing himself in an almost impregnable position.
After the conquest of Beirút and Jebail, Saladin returned by way of Sidon and Sarfend, and, passing by Tyre without attempting to assault it, he proceeded to the coast of Philistia, and, having taken Ramleh, Yabneh, Bethlehem, and Hebron on his way thither, sat down before Ascalon and prepared to bring his engines of war to bear upon the walls. For fourteen days the city held out, at the end of which time the inhabitants surrendered on the urgent representations of the king and the Grand Master of the Templars, to whom Saladin had given a promise that he would release them from captivity so soon as he should have mastered the forts and towers which still remained in the hands of the Crusaders. Ascalon was enabled to make very good terms with its conqueror, all the residents being permitted to leave unmolested, and taking with them all their property and possessions. It surrendered on the 5th of September, 1187, having been in the hands of the Crusaders for nearly thirty-five years. At Ascalon Saladin was joined by his son, el Melik El ‘Azíz ‘Othmán, from Cairo, who brought with him a contingent of troops, and information of the departure of the Emír Lúlú with the Egyptian fleet to intercept the arrival of reinforcements to the Crusaders by sea.
And now came the supreme moment for the Christian power; the Sultan gave orders to march upon Jerusalem, and the greatest consternation prevailed within the Holy City.
On the evening of Sunday, the 20th of October, the Mohammedan army arrived in front of the town on the west side, where it was met by a large sortie, and a fierce and sanguinary conflict took place. On the 25th, the Sultan moved his camp to the north side of the city, and began to set up his engines and battering rams, and shortly effected a slight breach; at the same time his sappers were undermining the wall which runs parallel to the Wády Jehennum. The Christians, few in numbers and disheartened, made one or two sorties, but victory inclined to the Mussulmans. Balian of Ibelin now sallied forth with a flag of truce, and besought the Sultan to allow them to capitulate, but Saladin would hold no parley with him, and swore that “he would capture the city by the sword, as the Franks had taken it from the true believers.” The Frank leaders, finding entreaties of no avail, swore that if terms were not granted them they would sell their lives as dearly as might be, utterly destroy the city, and the Cubbet es Sakhrah with it, and murder every Mohammedan who remained in their power. As there were some thousands of Muslim prisoners in the city, this last threat induced the Sultan to reconsider his determination, and a council of war was called, at which it was resolved that the peaceable capitulation of the town should be received upon certain conditions. These were, that the Christians should pay ten dínars for every man, five for a woman, and two for a child, and that those who could not pay were to surrender as prisoners. There were said to be more than sixty thousand fighting men in the town, besides women and children and other non-combatants; the sum of money demanded was therefore immoderately large. Balian disbursed thirty thousand dínars on behalf of the poor, and the Grand Masters of the Hospitallers and Templars, as well as the Patriarch, came forward nobly to the relief of their poorer brethren both with money and security. The Mohammedans entered the city on the 1st of November, just before noon-day prayer, and at once took precautions for ensuring the due performance of the stipulation, by locking the gates of the city and allowing no one to leave without payment of the required sum, and, moreover, appointing officers to collect the poll-tax from the inhabitants.
The Mohammedan historians themselves allow that great corruption prevailed amongst these officers, and that for a small consideration they connived at the escape of many Christians by the breaches which had been made during the siege, or even let them down themselves in buckets from the walls. Some of the more distinguished, especially of the women, experienced the Sultan’s clemency; amongst these was a princess of great wealth, who had resided in Jerusalem as a nun, and who was allowed to leave with her property intact. Sybille, the queen consort of the captive king, and the Princess of Kerek, daughter of Philip and mother of Humphrey, were also excused the tax, and permitted to depart. Zeha, one of the Saracen generals, sought and obtained the release of over five hundred Armenians, alleging that they belonged to his country and were only present as pilgrims; and a thousand more Armenians were set at liberty on a similar representation being made in their favour by Muzaffer-ed-dín Kokabúrí, another of Saladin’s officers. Committees were established in various parts of the town where payments were received, and a passport from any of these boards was sufficient to procure the bearer a free passage out of the city. As might be expected much peculation went on amongst the inferior officers, in spite of which nearly one hundred thousand dínars were brought into the public treasury, while many Franks still remained prisoners in default of payment. The Franks were anxious to clear out of the place as soon as possible, and sold their lands and effects at ruinous prices to the Mussulmans, while the patriarch stripped the Holy Sepulchre and other churches of the plate, gold and silver ornaments, and other valuables, and prepared to carry them off with him. El ‘Emád, the Sultan’s secretary, saw with displeasure the disappearance of all this treasure, worth, we are told, more than two hundred thousand dínars, and advised Saladin to forbid its removal, declaring that the privilege extended to private property alone. But the Sultan declared that the Christians should never have occasion to charge the Muslims with a breach of faith, and allowed the Franks to carry off all the portable articles they pleased. Those who were enabled to leave made the best of their way to Tyre; but there still remained over fifteen thousand defaulters, of whom eight thousand were women and children. When the Mussulmans were quietly settled in the possession of Jerusalem the Christians asked and obtained permission to return, on payment of the usual tax.
A curious reason is given by the Arab historians for the strong feeling which the taking of Jerusalem excited throughout Europe. The Christians, say they, made an image of Christ and Mohammed, the latter holding an upraised stick and the former fleeing away, and carried it about with them in Christian countries to induce their co-religionists to revenge their quarrel by a new crusade.
The first Friday after the taking of Jerusalem was a memorable one for Islam; Saladin himself was present at the public service and prayed in the Cubbet es Sakhrah, where a most eloquent sermon (khotbah) was delivered by the poet Muhiy-ed-dín (whose verse prophetic of the occasion has been already alluded to[[74]]) and the concourse of people was so great that there was scarcely standing room in the open court of the Haram Area.