Meanwhile Saladin had assembled into his hand the reins of Egypt and western Asia.
In 1 185 the Christians of Palestine sent an interest for help to every one of
the courts of Europe. The approach and extent
of the peril drove them to choose the most critical dignitaries as their
delivery people : Heraclius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, together with the
Grand Masters of the Hospitallers and Templars. The ministers offered the crown
of Jerusalem to
King Henry II. of England,
giving him the keys of the Holy Sepulcher an*, of the tower of David.
The interest of the East was supported by Pope Lucius, whose letter to Henry
demonstrates that Europe feared as much as it
put on a show to detest the new Moslem pioneer. The letter read : " For
Saladin, the most barbaric persecutor, has emerged to such a contribute his
rage that, unless the passionate onset of his underhandedness is checked, he
may engage a guaranteed trust that all the Jordan will stream into his mouth,
and the land be contaminated by his most loathsome superstitions, and the
nation yet again be subjected to the damned territory of the most detestable
dictator By the distresses accordingly approaching, we beseech your Mightiness
with a palpitating heart," and so on. In any case, neither King Henry's
inner voice nor his expectation of picking up a brighter crown in paradise was
adequate to draw him from activities closer home.
Saladin quickly verified the Pope's estimate of his ability.
In May, 1187, he overthrew the Templars in a battle at Nazareth. With eighty thousand horse he then
invested and crushed Tiberias on Galilee. The
citadel of this place alone remained untaken. The Christians massed fifty
thousand men on the plain of Hattin, above the city, for one supreme endeavor.
The boldest feared the result. The sight of the wood of the True Cross gave a
martyr courage rather than hope of success. Raymond, whose bravery no man
questioned, made an address to the assembled barons, counselling retreat. He
said : " In this army is the only hope left to the Christians of the East.
Here are gathered all the soldiers of Christ, all the defenders of Jerusalem. The archers of
Saladin are more skilful than ours, his cavalry more numerous and better
trained. Let us abandon Tiberias and save the army." To lose that battle
in the open plain would be, as Raymond foresaw, to lose everything. To retreat
might force the enemy to fight against strongholds, when the advantage would be
on the Christians side.
This discreet counsel of the veteran was derided by the
Master of the Templars, who openly taunted Raymond with some secret alliance
with Saladin. Raymond rejoined, " I will submit to the punishment of death
if these things do not fall out as I have said." The barons were for following
the advice of the veteran, but King Guy, after various changes of mind, gave
the fatal order for battle.
The day (July 4, 1 187) was excessively hot The Christians,
worn out with the march, advanced to the fight, sustained chiefly by the
desperation of their resolve. The Mussulmans occupied the vantage-ground on the
hills which make the western shore of the Lake of Tiberias,
and welcomed their adversaries' approach with a furious discharge of arrows.
Then suddenly, as lightning through a pelting storm, the white turbans and
cimeters of the Saracen cavalry, led by Saladin in person, flashed across the
field. In the language of the Arabic chronicler : " Then the sons of
paradise and the children of fire settled their terrible quarrel. Arrows
hurtled in the air like a noisy flight of sparrows, and the blood of warriors
dripped upon the ground like rain." .
The True Cross, which had enlivened the Christians'
strength, was an event of their shortcoming ; for, giving up on triumph through
their own valor, they looked for the assurance of the symbol of their religion.
Saladin said thereafter that the Franks flew round the cross like moths cycle a
light. Over and over the sultan drove his squadrons through the thickest
positions of his adversaries, and would that day have fixed the Christians'
destiny had not night offered break to the fight. Amid the haziness the
Christians moved their in thick cluster. The Saracens, having unrivaled
numbers, embraced the inverse arrangement and expanded their lines, so that
when morning broke they encompassed their foes on each side. The Christians
futile attempted to break the cordon, which was consistently moving closer and
closer, restricting the space inside it as one by one the destined knights
fell. The Saracens let go the grass of the plain. Swords flashed through the
offensive smoke, and the boldest, whom arms couldn't dismay, dropped from
suffocation. The Templars and Hospitallers kept up the fight throughout the
day, mobilizing about the cross; however that image was at last taken. It was
being borne by Rufinus, Bishop of Acre, when he fell, punctured with a bolt.
Says a contemporary author: " This was done through the exemplary judgment
of God ; for, as opposed to the use of his forerunners, having more noteworthy
confidence in common arms than in glorious ones, he went forward to fight
prepared in a layer of mail."
Guy was a captive, together with the Master of the Templars
and many of the most celebrated knights, who had failed to find death, though
they sought it. Raymond cut his way through the line of Saracens, who praised
his amazing valor as they witnessed his exploit, while the Christians denounced
him for connivance with the foe.
A scene followed which showed the temper of Saladin. The
conqueror received King Guy and his surviving nobles in a manner to lessen, if
possible, their chagrin for the disaster. He presented to the king a great
goblet filled with drink, which had been cooled in the snows from the Lebanons.
Having drunk from it, Guy passed the cup to Renaud, the man who had violated
the truce in former years. Saladin could be magnanimous to a worthy antagonist
So great was his selfcommand that he observed the most punctilious etiquette
even in the rage of a hand-to-hand fight. But to the false and treacherous he
could show no mercy. The sight of the truce-breaker fired him with
uncontrollable frenzy ; he exclaimed, "That traitor shall not drink in my
presence. He gave Renaud the instant choice of death or acceptance of the religion
of Mohammed. Renaud refused to subscribe the Koran. Saladin smote him with the
side of his sabre, a mark of his contempt. At a signal a common soldier swirled
his cimeter, and the head of Renaud fell at King Guy's feet.
Towards the Templars and Hospitallers the sultan had
conceived similar hatred from the conviction that they regarded their covenants
with their enemies too lightly. As these knights of the white and the red cross
were led past him Saladin remarked, " I will deliver the earth of these
two unclean races." He bade his emirs each slay a knight with his own
hand. Neither the defenceless condition of the captives nor the protestation of
his warriors against this cruelty produced any compunction in the breast of the
res- olute conqueror.