Jerusalem, the City of Herod and Saladin

by Walter Besant; Edward Henry Palmer

And now the highest ambition of Saladin was to be crowned with success. Of all the holy places of his religion, only one was more sacred than Jerusalem. It was destined for him to restore that sacred Dome of the Rock which Omar had founded to the purposes for which it was built, and to remove from the midst of the Mohammedan Empire that hornet’s nest of Christians which, for nearly a hundred years, had checked their conquests, insulted their faith, and perpetually done them injury.

The gates of the cities of Palestine flew open at the approach of the conqueror. Tiberias yielded at once, and Saladin sent Raymond’s wife to her husband. Raymond, however, was dying, and of a broken heart. Almost alone among the chiefs he had still some nobility left, and he could not bear to survive the fall of the country, his country, and the end of so many high hopes and glorious achievements. Acre resisted two days, and then opened its gates. Nablous, Ramleh, Cæsarea, Jericho, Jaffa, Beyrout, had no knights left to make defence with, and perforce capitulated. Tyre, Tripoli, Ascalon, alone remained to the Christians. Saladin vainly attempted the first, and desisted from the siege for more important matters. But Ascalon was too necessary, in consequence of its communications with Egypt, to be passed over, and he laid siege to the place in due form. Guy was with him, in fetters. A breach was effected in the walls, and Guy was put forward to urge upon the inhabitants not to make a useless resistance. These sent deputies to the Sultan. “On these conditions only shall you enter Ascalon, except across our bodies. Give life to our wives and children, and restore the king to liberty. Else we will fight.” Saladin granted the conditions. Guy was to be set at liberty within a year; the people of Ascalon were to leave the city freely and to carry with them all that they pleased.

And now, at length, came the turn of Jerusalem. Balian of Ibelin had obtained of Saladin a safe conduct to the city, in order to take out his wife and children, but on the sole condition that he was not to stay there more than one night. He promised, and went. He found the city defended by women and monks. A few pilgrims were there, and some fugitive soldiers who had escaped the slaughter of Tiberias. The people pressed round him with tears, cries, and lamentations, when he told them of his word given to Saladin. “Sir;” said the patriarch, “I absolve you from your oath; know well that it would be a greater sin to keep it than to break it, for great shame would it be for you and for your heirs, if you were thus to leave the city in its hour of danger.” Then Balian of Ibelin yielded, and sent to Saladin that he had been forced to break his word. Saladin by this time was used to the perjury of Christians. For some years the Mohammedans, simple in their faith, could not understand a religion which permitted the most solemn treaties to be broken whenever a priest could be prevailed on to give absolution for the perjury. But they were wiser now. Raymond and Jocelyn, Renaud and Amaury, had taught them the worth of a Christian’s promise, the value of a Christian’s oath. Still, in Balian’s case there was much to be said. It was not in human nature to resist the pleadings of the women and the sight of all these helpless beings whose fate seemed placed in his hands.

There were only two knights in all the city. Balian knighted fifty sons of the bourgeois. There was no money, because Guy had taken it all.[all.] Balian took off the silver from the Holy Sepulchre, and coined it into money for his soldiers. Every day all the men that he could spare rode out into the country and brought in provisions, of which they might have direful need, because the city was so full of women and children that the houses were crowded and the unfortunate creatures were lying about in the streets. Some sparks of courage lived yet among the defeated soldiers, and all swore to defend the city to the last. Balian, of course, knew perfectly well that the cause was hopeless, and only remained to make what terms he could for the people. But it was necessary to make at least some resistance for the sake of honour, barren honour though it might be.

Before the siege began, Saladin sent a message to the city to the effect that if they made any resistance he had sworn to enter it by assault only. Before this message, and after the taking of Ascalon, his offers there were those which nothing but the most extreme confidence in his own power would justify. “I know,” he said, “that Jerusalem is the house of God: that is a part of my religion. I would not willingly assail the house of God, if I can get possession of it by treaty and friendship. I will give you thirty thousand byzants if you promise to give up this city. You shall be allowed five miles all round the city as your own ground to cultivate and use as you please, and I will cause such an abundance of provisions to be sent in that yours shall be the cheapest market in the world. You shall have a truce from now to Pentecost; if, after that time, you seem to see hope of success, keep your town if you can: if not, give it up, and I will see you all safe and sound on Christian soil.” But the deputies went away with many boasts that they were going to die for the glory of God. In the end, nobody died who could by any means avoid it. But at first, when Saladin’s camp was fixed to the west, where, nearly a hundred years before, had been that of Godfrey de Bouillon, the Christians made gallant sorties, and the Saracens could do nothing against the impetuosity of their charges. They observed, however, that after midday the sun was at their own backs and in the faces of the enemy; and they reserved their attacks for the afternoon, throwing dust in the air and into the eyes of the besieged.

After eight days of ineffectual fighting, Saladin changed his camp to the east side, pitching it at the gate of St. Stephen, where the valley of the Kedron has no great depth. In this new position, Saladin was able to erect machines for casting stones and arrows into the city. He also set his men to work undermining the walls. In two days they had undermined fifteen toises of the wall, the Christians not being able to countermine “because they were afraid of the showers of missiles from the mangonels and machines.” The Saracens fired the supports of their mines, and as much of the wall as had been mined fell down.

Then the besieged, finding that no hope remained of holding the town, held a hasty council as to what should be done. For now a universal panic had seized the soldiers; they ran to the churches instead of to the ramparts, and while the defenders of the city prayed within the walls of the church, the priests formed processions and walked round the streets chanting psalms.

Let Bernard the Treasurer tell this story in his own words:

“The bourgeois, knights, and men of arms, in the council, agreed that it would be better to sally forth and for all to die. But the patriarch advised them to the contrary. ‘Sirs, if there were no other way, this would be good advice, but if we destroy ourselves and let the lives perish which we may save, it is not well, because for every man in this town there are fifty women and children, whom, if we die, the Saracens will take and will convert to their own faith, and so they will all be lost to God. But if, by the help of God, we can gain permission, at least, to go out from here and betake ourselves to Christian soil, that would seem to me the better course.’ They all agreed to this advice. Then they took Balian of Ibelin and prayed him to go to Saladin and make what terms of peace he could. He went and spoke to him. And while he was yet speaking with Saladin about delivering up the city, the Turks, bringing ladders and fixing them against the walls, made another assault. And, indeed, already ten or twelve banners were mounted upon the ramparts, or had entered where the wall had been undermined and had fallen down. When Saladin saw his men and his banners on the walls, he said to Balian, ‘Why do you talk to me about delivering up the city, when you see my people ready to enter? It is too late now; the city is mine already.’ And even while they spoke, our Lord gave such courage to the Christians who were on the walls, that they made the Saracens thereon give way and fall to the ground, and chased them out of the moat. Saladin, when he saw it, was much ashamed and troubled. Then he said to Balian that he might go back, because he would do nothing more at the time, but that he might come again the next day, when he would willingly listen to what he had to say.... The ladies of Jerusalem took cauldrons and placed them before Mount Calvary, and having filled them with cold water, put their daughters in them up to the neck, and cut off their tresses, and threw them away. Monks, priests, and nuns went barefooted round the walls of the city, bearing in procession the said Cross before them. The priests bore on their heads the Corpus Domini, but our Lord Jesus Christ would not listen to any prayer that they made, by reason of the stinking luxury and adultery in the city which prevented any prayer from mounting up to God.... When Balian came to Saladin, he said that the Christians would give up the city if their lives were saved. Saladin replied that he spoke too late; but he added, ‘Sir Balian, for the love of God and of yourself, I will take pity on them in a manner, and, to save my oath (that he would only take them by force), they shall give themselves up to me as if they were taken by force, and I will leave them their property to do as they please, but their bodies shall be my prisoners, and he who can ransom himself shall do so, and he who cannot shall be my prisoner.’ ‘Sire,’ said Balian, ‘what shall be the price of the ransom?’ Saladin replied that the price should be for poor and rich alike, for a man thirty byzants, for every woman and every child, ten. And whoever could not pay this sum was to be a slave....

“Balian went back with these hard terms, and during the night prevailed upon the Master of the Knights Hospitallers to give up, for the ransom of the poor, all that was left of the treasure of King Henry of England. And the next day he obtained of Saladin a reduction of the ransom by one half.