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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (162558)	5/19/2005 3:21:30 PM
From: bentway	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

I'm sure it's terrible history Nadine, but I went to see "Kingdom of Heaven" the other day. The noble Christian defender of Jerusalem marched out to meet the noble Saladin, and claimed he would destroy all the holy sites of all three religions there. The noble Saladin said that perhaps that would be the best thing that could happen in the long run, but finally offered to let all the city inhabitants leave with their lives and his protection. I really liked the movie! dicksonc.act.edu.au "Saladin advanced upon Jerusalem. On September 20th 1187 the Holy City was under siege. The Christians were worn down over two weeks by countless attacks, and 'arrows fell like raindrops' (Stevenson, in Brundage, p160). On the 26th, Saladin ordered that the camp be moved quietly, and when the people of Jerusalem saw this they relaxed, but Saladin had not left, only spread his camp out over the hills of the region. He then ordered engines built, and formed up ten thousand knights and ten thousand archers. At daybreak, Saladin's army broke down the walls and entered the city while the defenders, who thought that they were safe, were sleeping. The battle lasted for a few days and Saladin triumphed, but he did not kill everyone in the city; instead, on October 2nd, he asked for ransoms of up to ten bezants per person to leave the city (this seems to have been a fairly large sum of money), or be killed. The gates were closed, and the Muslims went to the 'Temple of the Lord, which they call Beithhalla' (Stevenson, in Brundage, p163) for prayer and other religious rites. So Jerusalem was recaptured from the Christians, who had held it for only eighty-nine years, by the Muslims, for whom it is also a sacred city. This capture of Jerusalem makes a stark contrast to when the Crusaders took it in 1099, where 'our men followed, killing and beheading them [the defenders] all the way to the temple of Solomon. There was such slaughter there that our men waded in blood up to their ankles . . . Our pilgrims, on entering the city, pursued and slaughtered the Saracens all the way to the Temple of Solomon . . . The enemy fought most vigorously for a whole day and their blood flowed through the Temple' (Brehier, in Brundage, p 64). This contrast shows Saladin's chivalric behaviour, as most men would want to revenge themselves on the enemy, and because he did not slaughter all the innocents in the city. Saladin, whose name means 'the bounty of religion', was a prudent man, who preferred to use persuasion in conquest rather than force. As a boy, he was quiet, fascinated by books on theology and that 'all we know tends to the belief that he . . . governed his life on principles of prudence and placidity' (Lane-Poole, p 73)."