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01:00Choose a place and escape to where the past comes alive.
01:06My eyes have seen the glory.
01:08The History Channel.
01:38A hundred thousand Europeans had stormed the East in the name of God.
01:44The holy city of Jerusalem had fallen for the iron men with crosses on their armor.
01:54They carved a new kingdom out of the Islamic world.
01:58And they had bequeathed a new problem to their children and grandchildren.
02:04How to survive.
02:39In the Islamic world, independent emirs ruled their own cities.
02:44So long as they remained divided, the Crusader Kingdom was safe.
02:49But if they were ever brought under a single ruler, it would be doomed.
02:58Naturally, every ambitious warlord wanted to rule his neighbors.
03:01And in the 1140s, the most ambitious of all was a man named Zengi.
03:08Zengi had emerged from the turmoil of Turkish politics to become master of Aleppo and Mosul.
03:14Also, naturally, he wanted to offer his protection to Damascus as well.
03:18The leaders of Damascus, however, weren't quite so certain they wanted it.
03:21After all, when Zengi had taken the nearby town of Baalbek,
03:25after swearing on the Koran that he'd protect the lives of the garrison,
03:28he'd crucified 37 of them and had the commanding officer burnt alive.
03:33It was the kind of protection the Damascenes thought they could well do without.
03:37So their leader made a rather surprising but extremely crafty move.
03:41He signed an alliance with the Christians of the Crusader state.
03:48Zengi was now hemmed into his fortress at Aleppo.
03:50But this didn't suit him one little bit.
03:55Zengi was a Turk of the old school,
03:57a restless, hard-drinking warrior,
03:59always on the lookout for new conquests.
04:02So in 1144, he and his army and his elite corps of engineers
04:07rode out of Aleppo,
04:09heading for the most vulnerable outpost of the Crusader kingdom.
04:20His target was their very first conquest, Edessa.
04:23It was here that Zengi undermined the very foundations of Latin rule in the East.
04:28The ground was, quite literally, dug away from under the Crusader's feet.
04:40Zengi, the wily commander, had chosen his moment.
04:43The whole Crusader garrison was off pillaging along the banks of the Euphrates.
04:49The defence of the city was in the hands of its Armenian Christian inhabitants.
04:55Zengi shrewdly declared that he had no quarrel with them.
04:59He was making war on the Crusaders,
05:01the French as they were known in the Arab world.
05:07Oh, unfortunate people.
05:09You can see that all hope is lost.
05:12Have pity on yourselves,
05:14your women,
05:15your homes.
05:19You know well that once,
05:21under Muslim rule,
05:22the city was prosperous,
05:24the eye of Mesopotamia
05:25and the strongest fortress in the Muslim East.
05:28But now the French have ruined the city
05:31and razed its territories.
05:46The inhabitants did not surrender,
05:48so Zengi's engineers lit the blue touch paper and retired.
06:27The fall of Edessa was celebrated throughout the Islamic world
06:30as the first real blow against the Christian invaders from the West.
06:34And Zengi was hailed as the first leader of the Holy War,
06:38the Jihad.
06:46He rather liked this.
06:47Whether he was a gifted opportunist
06:50or a leader sent by God
06:51is highly debatable.
06:53Either way,
06:54he reveled in this new star billing.
06:56The Emir,
06:58the General,
06:59the Great,
07:01the Just,
07:02the Aid of God,
07:04the Triumphant,
07:05the Unique,
07:07the Pillar of Religion,
07:08the Cornerstone of Islam,
07:10Ornament of Islam,
07:12Protector of God's Preaches.
07:13This is the Damascus Chronicler,
07:16Ibn al-Khalanisi.
07:17He's actually quite caustic
07:19about the increasing number of titles
07:21the Sultans are appropriating for themselves.
07:23And he apologizes to his readers
07:25for not giving Zengi its full and correct title
07:27every time he mentions them.
07:29Otherwise, he says,
07:30he won't have room in this chronicle for anything else.
07:47Zengi was at the height of his power,
07:49preeminent amongst the Arabs
07:50and feared by the Franks.
07:52One night, however,
07:53when he was sleeping in his tent
07:55after a particularly heavy bout of drinking,
07:57he woke up to see one of his eunuchs
07:59drinking from his own special goblet.
08:02Well, Zengi muttered a few drunken threats
08:04about what he would do to the fellow
08:05when he woke up in the morning
08:06and then fell fast asleep again.
08:08Probably he was so drunk
08:09he'd have forgotten all about it.
08:11But the eunuch was so terrified
08:13about what might happen to him
08:14that as soon as he was certain
08:15the great man was snoring safely,
08:17he snatched up a knife
08:18and stabbed him all over
08:20in a frenzied attack.
08:22He slumbered amidst a proud army,
08:24surrounded by his warriors with their swords.
08:27He perished.
08:28Neither riches nor power of use to him.
08:32Zengi was dead.
08:34But his son strode over to the body
08:36and took his father's ring.
08:39He inherited Aleppo and Edessa
08:42and the rising tide of outrage in Europe
08:45that the Muslim world had dared
08:47strike back against the Christians.
08:51Zengi had sown the wind.
08:53His son was going to have to reap the whirlwind.
08:57Rassica them
08:58in order that their sword
09:00be no longer suspended
09:01over the heads of the just.
09:13The Islamic reconquest of Edessa
09:15had stunned Europe
09:17and St. Bernard of Clairvaux,
09:19the finest orator in Christendom,
09:21was busy reissuing the call
09:23to God's own bloodbath.
09:29Go forward, knights, in safety
09:32and with undaunted souls
09:34drive off the enemies of the cross of Christ.
09:43This Christian backlash
09:45was to meet its match in Zengi's son.
09:48Unlike his father,
09:50he'd been educated by Arabs
09:51and had learned about the proper duties
09:53of an Islamic ruler.
09:54The son of Zengi
09:56took religion very seriously.
10:01His name was Nur-A-Din
10:03or light of religion.
10:05Although he used to upset people
10:07by insisting on calling himself
10:08plain Mahmoud
10:09and sometimes even
10:11this dog Mahmoud.
10:12Nur-A-Din
10:13was even more popular than Zengi
10:15and popular opinion
10:16was a new and potent force
10:18in Arab politics.
10:19It had grown
10:20as a specific reaction
10:22to the Crusades.
10:33Nur-A-Din
10:34was a master
10:35of harnessing public opinion
10:36and public opinion
10:38demanded holy war
10:39against the Christians.
10:42Especially amongst those
10:44who had lost their lands
10:45to the invaders.
10:47The poems of the first generation
10:49Arab refugees
10:50record their stunned distress.
10:56I know nothing but weeping.
10:59I come from a town
11:00which God has condemned
11:01my friend
11:02to be demolished.
11:04I do not know
11:05if it is pasture
11:06for savage beasts
11:07or my house
11:08the home
11:09where I was born.
11:24The greatest concentration
11:26of refugees
11:27was in Damascus.
11:29And it was here
11:30that the call
11:31for holy war
11:32or jihad
11:33became most strident.
11:44Nur-A-Din
11:45like its father
11:46wanted Damascus.
11:48He began to sell himself
11:49to its people
11:50as the leader
11:51of jihad.
11:54Nur-A-Din
11:55declared to his people
11:57I am a prophet
11:58and I receive
11:59revelations from God
12:01directing me
12:02to fight
12:02against the Crusaders.
12:04And what is crucial here
12:06is that the people
12:07believed in him
12:08and were prepared
12:09to follow him.
12:13The ordinary people
12:15of Damascus
12:15began to rally
12:16behind Nur-A-Din's
12:17slogan
12:18of jihad
12:19and unity.
12:22The ruler of Damascus
12:24however
12:24did not share
12:25their enthusiasm
12:26since unity
12:27of course
12:27meant unity
12:28under the leadership
12:29of Nur-A-Din.
12:31in fact
12:32the emir
12:33of Damascus
12:33was now
12:34well on the way
12:34to paranoia.
12:37He was surrounded
12:38by Muslim enemies
12:39so once again
12:41he played
12:41his wild card
12:42and signed
12:43a mutual defence
12:44treaty
12:45with the
12:45Crusader Kingdom.
12:49After all
12:50the Kingdom
12:50of Jerusalem
12:51was now
12:51part of
12:52the Syrian
12:52landscape.
12:53The old
12:54Christian fanaticism
12:55was in its
12:56death throes
12:57or so he thought.
12:59What the emir
13:00of Damascus
13:01didn't know
13:01was that
13:02St Bernard
13:02had been busy
13:03giving Christian
13:04fanaticism
13:05the kiss
13:06of life.
13:12The second
13:13crusade
13:14was already
13:14on the war
13:15path
13:15and for
13:16St Bernard's
13:17crusaders
13:17the only
13:18good Muslim
13:19was a
13:19well
13:20there wasn't
13:21one.
13:24The crusade
13:25leaders
13:26held a grand
13:26assembly
13:26to try and
13:27agree
13:27where to
13:28attack
13:28the Muslims
13:28first
13:29and promptly
13:29decided to
13:30do exactly
13:31the wrong
13:31thing.
13:32Instead of
13:32recognising
13:33Nourdin as
13:34their main
13:34enemy
13:34they resolved
13:36to attack
13:36their only
13:37Muslim
13:37ally
13:37Damascus.
13:42It was
13:42as if
13:43the United
13:43Nations
13:44having gathered
13:45its forces
13:45to avenge
13:46Saddam Hussein's
13:47invasion of
13:47Kuwait
13:48had suddenly
13:49changed its
13:49mind
13:50and launched
13:51an all-out
13:51assault
13:52on Saudi
13:52Arabia.
14:01it was
14:01a fiasco
14:02the crusader
14:03army besieged
14:04the emir
14:05their ally
14:05and he
14:06now had
14:06no choice
14:07at all
14:07but to
14:08call for
14:08help
14:08from his
14:09enemy
14:09Nour-A-Din.
14:12For the
14:13citizens
14:13of Damascus
14:14the historic
14:15moment
14:15had come.
14:19They rushed
14:20to the
14:20defence
14:20of their
14:21city.
14:21The hero
14:22of the
14:22hour
14:22was an
14:23angry
14:23old
14:23theologian
14:24called
14:24Al-Findalawi.
14:29It was
14:30the stuff
14:31of legend
14:31and the
14:32story
14:32is still
14:33told today
14:33by the
14:34storyteller
14:34in this
14:35Damascus
14:35cafe.
14:47the
14:48father
14:49of the
14:49man
14:50in the
14:52city
14:52of the
14:52Anar
14:52in
14:53the
14:54Allah
14:54had
14:54have
14:55had
14:55a
14:56There is no power to fight against the war.
15:01God has given up to the believers
15:04that they have to have them.
15:08They went towards the Lord
15:10and went away from the army.
15:12There is no force to fight against the President.
15:16They hit the sword
15:18and hit the sword.
15:22It didn't take the Crusaders long
15:24to realize they'd made a big mistake and when they learned that the leader of damascus had
15:29asked for help from his old enemy and what's more that nuradin was actually on his way they knew the
15:34game was up only five days after arriving outside the gates of damascus they packed their bags and
15:39went home so bernard's glorious crusade ended in a humiliating retreat the people of damascus
16:03had struck a triumphant blow for jihad the emir however was rather less than thrilled he kept
16:11the gates of his city firmly shut against nuradin now the crusaders had been defeated the last thing
16:18he wanted was any help from his ambitious neighbor
16:33nuradin wanted damascus but he was determined to conquer it without shedding islamic blood
16:40and he was a past master of the ancient game of propaganda
16:54the people of damascus i desire no more than the well-being of the muslims jihad against the infidel
17:03and the return of the prisons they are holding if you come over to my side with the army of
17:10damascus
17:11if we help each other to wage the jihad my wishes will have been fulfilled
17:20the emir of damascus was not impressed but the people were nobody would defend the city against
17:26the leader of jihad the citizens opened the gates to the light of religion nuradin took over damascus
17:35without shedding a drop of blood
17:41nuradin let it be known that his aim now was the reconquest of jerusalem itself
17:50but a long sustained military campaign was beyond his means nuradin ruled a desert kingdom water was
17:58carefully husbanded irrigation was difficult crops unreliable in a word he was poor
18:10but there was one neighboring land that was wealthy beyond measure it had abundance of everything and
18:16could pay for a huge army egypt
18:26ever since the time of the pharaohs egypt had been the granary of the middle east
18:31with such resources behind him nuradin could crush the crusader state
18:54and the heart of islam is the memory of a civil war amongst the followers of the prophet
19:01his son-in-law the caliph ali was murdered so were ali's grandchildren islam was split the two sides
19:09sunni and shiite remain to this day bitterly divided ali's supporters the shiites don't believe in
19:17letting bygones be bygones egypt was shiite nuradin sunni the shiites of egypt had always regarded the sunni
19:27turks as their enemies they were dead right
19:35nuradin was hesitant about sending an expedition to egypt until one day he opened the quran at random
19:41and what he read made up his mind for him he dispatched his most trusted general occurred by the
19:46name of shirka now this man was a complete contrast to his ascetic majestic master shirka was a one-eyed
19:54fat little man who loved eating and drinking alcohol to excess and he could always be found
19:59in the mess tent with his men swapping jokes he was however a military commander of genius and what's
20:05more he took with him his nephew an unobtrusive almost shy young man in his late 20s and his name
20:12was
20:13salah hadin saladin his secretary recorded saladin's modest recollections
20:29my uncle circle turned to me and said yusuf pack your things we're going
20:36and i heard this order when i heard this order i felt as if my heart had been pierced by
20:40a dagger
20:41and i answered in god's name even where i granted the entire kingdom of egypt i would not go
20:54in the end i did go with my uncle like a man being led off to his death
21:01shirka conquered egypt but died god then placed in my hands power that i had never expected
21:14the cause of shirka's death only two months after his great triumph was that familiar malady over
21:21celebration he seems to have eaten too much during an excessively sumptuous banquet and choked to death
21:29too much food too much wine and too many ladies only one night
21:43shirka's nephew saladin was immediately named as the new vision on the rather
21:47surprising grounds that he was the least likely person for the job
21:54saladin was meant to be a pliant instrument of nur adin he was to remove the shiite caliph of cairo
22:01and hand the wealth of egypt to his master but saladin was now robed in infinite wealth
22:09and it gradually became clear that nur adin's young protege was not his master's humble servant
22:17he destroyed the shiite caliph but that meant that he was now the supreme master of the ancient wealth of
22:24egypt
22:29nur adin realized the threat and tried everything he knew to oust saladin
22:36nur adin tried to draw saladin into open conflict so that he might have an excuse to depose him
22:41but that didn't work so when nur adin finally died it was natural for saladin to succeed him
22:52once more saladin's luck was in nur adin died of a heart attack while playing polo
22:59a month later the people of damascus threw open the gates of their city to their new leader saladin
23:07as well at last cairo and damascus were united under one leader
23:17saladin inherited nur adin's mantle he became the new champion of jihad
23:26but he had enemies within
23:32fanatical shiites enraged at the destruction of their egyptian caliph were determined to destroy saladin
23:44in this castle in northern syria the world's first terrorist movement was trained and sent into action
23:52the assassins the assassins this is where the word was invented in arabic the word for assassin is hashish
24:03and the story grew that their leader sinan the old man of the mountains got his followers high on hashish
24:10and gave them visions of paradise before sending them to martyrdom
24:18and the assassins were certainly brave they were kamikaze squads prepared to give up their own lives for the cause
24:27it's a very curious feeling when something that you've written as a joke turns out to have actually happened
24:35in one of the monty python shows we invented a scottish suicide squad called the kamikaze highlanders
24:41next in conditions of extreme secrecy men are being trained for the british army's first kamikaze
24:47regiment the queen's own kamikaze highlanders so successful has been the training of the kamikaze
24:52regiment that the numbers have dwindled from 30 000 to just over a dozen in three weeks
24:59tension all right son of anger there he is now how many chances you got left six sir six
25:04a boy son well here in syria that very scene was played out for real over 800 years ago
25:15richard the lionheart's nephew henry of champagne actually visited one of the assassin's strongholds
25:21in order to negotiate a deal with them well their leader was so keen to impress on his visitor the
25:27absolute obedience of his followers that he started ordering them to jump one by one to their deaths
25:32off the castle wall he was just about to get the third to jump when henry begged him to stop
25:39he was
25:39quite impressed enough thank you very much henry must have gone back to the kingdom of jerusalem
25:44feeling here was a man the crusaders could do business with
25:50saladin had miraculously twice survived the old man of the mountains murder squads
25:58after the failure of the last attempt on his life in aleppo
26:02saladin had a kind of wooden room a tower constructed here he would sit in council
26:12protected from all those who came to speak with him
26:18to solve the assassin problem saladin decided to go for the jugular he marched on their headquarters
26:25the castle of maziof there from the safety of his wooden cage he demanded that sinan come to heal
26:36sinan peace be upon him replied with a pole an upstart who tries to undermine a great master
26:43is like a frog who seeks to pluck out a deep rooted rock we have allowed you to wear the
26:50attire of life
26:51thus far be grateful or we will strip you of it
27:04the siege of maziof was surprisingly short-lived after only two weeks saladin struck camp and slipped
27:12away into the night why is still a bit of a mystery one of the arab chroniclers claims it was
27:20because the
27:20assassins had privately threatened to start killing off saladin's family however present-day members
27:26of the ismaili sect the descendants of the so-called assassins tell a very different story
27:33sinan was moving between two of his outposts
27:41they marveled to see a halo
27:46an aura of light surrounding him
27:52dumbfounded by this strange aura the soldiers were so startled that they turned back in terror
28:00whatever actually happened saladin and sinan declared a truce
28:05sinan promised to call off the assassins and saladin was free to turn to the main business of jihad
28:11the destruction of the crusader kingdom of jerusalem
28:25that kingdom may have been tiny but it seemed impregnable
28:30short of manpower the europeans had learned to use stone in place of armies they turned fear into architecture
28:48and in the castles were permanent professional soldiers the military orders
28:57these religious orders the knights of the temple from the knights of the hospital were a totally new
29:02new invention monks in armor and this place crack de chevalier was one of their greatest strongholds
29:13crack de chevalier is no mere fortified country house it's a barracks of a permanent standing army
29:19the knights hospitaller they don't have farms to divert their attention and they don't serve just for
29:24a limited season they're full-time professional soldiers in the service of god
29:33the order of the hospital was founded with the most amazing amazing ethos which was the veneration of
29:42poor the hospitalers took this to two amazing lengths the poor were to be treated as if each of
29:48were christ himself but in their grim world it was the job of the healer to be a professional killer
29:57as well
29:59in their minds there really is no distinction in terms of charity
30:05between caring for the sick on the one hand and fighting for christendom on the other the two are
30:11simply simply different expressions of the same ideal the military orders represented a formidable obstacle
30:21to saladin and they funneled the wealth of europe into their massive defense works mark you the knight's
30:29hospital has certainly lived up to their name by far the largest part of the crack de chevalier is taken
30:35up with these enormous kitchens and storerooms and just look at the size of this oven
30:45they could have baked enough pizzas in here to feed an army which of course is what they were doing
30:54to flush them out of these impregnable bolt holes saladin would need more than an ordinary army
31:01he would need to mobilize the whole of his kingdom and that wouldn't happen until popular anger had been
31:08brought to boiling point by some major and intolerable outrage there was a man amongst the crusaders
31:15with the talent to achieve just that a frenchman by the name of reynald de chatillon attila the hun with
31:24attitude
31:30reynald had become lord of antioch by the simple expedient of marrying the widow of the prince of
31:34antioch you can get some idea of the character of the man from a little incident that happened in 1156
31:41reynald decided to raid the island of cyprus which of course wasn't muslim it was orthodox christian but
31:47extremely wealthy to show his interest in religion reynald invited the patriarch of antioch
31:53to finance the expedition when the patriarch declined reynald realized he'd have to resort to
31:59his subtlest powers of persuasion so he had the patriarch tortured then had his wounds smeared in
32:05honey and had him chained up all day in the blazing sun like a sort of human flypaper well a
32:11day of
32:11these sort of arguments convinced the patriarch and he stumped up the required uja and reynald was able to
32:16go and devastate cyprus to his heart's content in a final fit of religious zeal at the end of the
32:22raid
32:23reynald had all the priests who were left alive on cyprus assembled and then had their noses cut off
32:29reynald de chatillon was a brutal man i mean there's no question about that
32:34but indeed anyone who deals with crusade history has to get used to a combination of piety and brutality
32:39i mean these are attitudes which we find very hard to accept now but the fact that he is of
32:46a
32:46recognizable type that is the pious warrior serving god with his sword in the east puts his zealotry into
32:56context mark you he had spent 16 years in this aleppo dungeon so no wonder he was a bit irritable
33:05reynald had been captured raiding arab farmers and no one seemed particularly keen to have him back
33:11but after nuradin's death the governor of aleppo made his one and only contribution to history
33:17he decided that reynald should be returned to the community as a reformed character
33:25when he finally got out reynald managed to marry yet another rich widow
33:30and thereby acquired this fortress of kerak
33:37kerak was the most remote most desolate most sun-baked outpost of the crusader kingdom
33:44many christians have had profound mystic experiences in this wilderness
33:48reynald too seems to have found a new certainty and understanding
33:56from this stronghold he intended to carry out his mature philosophy mulled over in all those years
34:02of imprisonment
34:05this involved killing even more arabs getting even more booty and paying absolutely no attention
34:11whatsoever to any treaties or truces on the grounds that an oath sworn to an infidel was entirely worthless
34:22reynald's castle was perched on the edge of the main camel route linking the wealth of egypt to the power
34:27center of damascus
34:48caravans
34:49were the arteries of Saladin's kingdom.
34:51They were virtually moving cities on camelback.
34:54In those days, there could be anything from 30 to 40
34:57to 100 to 1,000 camels in one caravan.
35:03But whatever the size, there was always rich pickings to be had.
35:06And, unfortunately, one of the main caravan routes
35:09went temptingly close to Caracas.
35:13Now, Reynold wasn't a man to resist such temptation for long.
35:17And in 1181, he seized a large caravan
35:20on its way to the holy city of Mecca.
35:26This atrocity against undefended pilgrims
35:29is portrayed to this day as one of Christendom's lowest acts.
35:50But, more to the point, it challenged Saladin's role
35:54as the defender of the faithful.
35:58Patrols were doubled.
36:12The next year, Reynold even tried to attack Mecca itself.
36:16He launched a pirate fleet on the Red Sea,
36:19pillaged one of the chief ports of Mecca,
36:21and sank a pilgrim ship.
36:23The governor of Egypt immediately dispatched a force
36:26to deal with the brigands.
36:28And, although Reynold himself escaped,
36:30a lot of his men were rounded up,
36:31taken back to Mecca,
36:32and ceremonially beheaded
36:33at the next religious festival.
36:36Of course, the inevitable result
36:38of this outrage against the Muslim faith
36:40was that it united the entire Muslim world
36:43against the Franks.
36:45Reynold had achieved what Nur ad-Din and Saladin
36:48had been dreaming about for so long.
36:55In November 1183, Saladin set out
36:59to take Kerak off the map.
37:16He was surprised to be told
37:18that the owner of the castle
37:19was far too busy to be besieged at the moment.
37:23Reynold sent out word
37:25that he was celebrating his stepson's wedding.
37:35It was a big society, too.
37:56It was a big society, too.
38:01This is the never-never world of high chivalry.
38:05The story goes that the bridegroom's mother
38:08sent out some of the dishes
38:09of the wedding feast to Saladin.
38:12Whereupon Saladin inquired
38:14in which tower the happy couple
38:15would be spending the night
38:17and ordered his troops not to bombard that bit.
38:20All very nice of him, really.
38:28The guests, however,
38:29were trapped in the wedding reception from hell.
38:32It went on and on and on.
38:44All they could do was keep smiling
38:46and praying for an end to the siege.
38:49Perhaps if anyone but Reynold
38:51had been the host,
38:52the king of Jerusalem
38:53would have come to the rescue sooner.
39:06But Saladin,
39:07on learning through his scouts
39:08that the Christian army was close at hand,
39:11abandoned his engines
39:12and ordered his men to retreat.
39:14Thus, after molesting the city
39:16for an entire month in this way,
39:18he razed the siege
39:19and returned to his own land.
39:30The king of Jerusalem
39:31instructed Reynold
39:32to pay proper respect to truces from now on.
39:35He didn't want unnecessary trouble.
39:39But when a gigantic
39:40and lightly protected caravan
39:42passed slowly across his land under truce,
39:45Prince Reynold,
39:46or Brins Arnat,
39:47as the Arabs called him,
39:48just could not help himself.
39:52This caravan, though,
39:54was special.
39:55It was carrying Saladin's sister.
40:05The End
40:05The End
40:05The End
40:08The End
40:32The princess was carried off with the booty to Kerak Castle.
40:35Some of the Arab chronicles hint that Reynald may have raped there, but whatever the truth of that, Saladin swore
40:41he'd kill Reynald with his bare hands.
40:43The truce was over. Prince Arnett had provoked the great Saladin to do battle.
40:59Reynald had also created enough anger to produce an army of Mujahideen, volunteers ready to die in the name of
41:07Jihad.
41:08Saladin brought an army 30,000 strong across the Jordan.
41:15He quickly surrounded the town of Tiberias, which was held by the Count of Tripoli.
41:20The Count was not there, but his wife was. She was trapped inside the walls. Saladin used her as the
41:28bait.
41:30He had to lure the Crusaders to battle. For the moment he had the forces to win, but they would
41:35soon disperse.
41:37The Crusade leaders were about to make one of the greatest mistakes in the history of the world.
41:43And Saladin was about to become immortal.
42:02The Crusade Kingdom was already bitterly split between hawks like Reynald and doves who wanted peace.
42:09The doves advised waiting until Saladin's volunteers broke up.
42:16That had always worked in the past, but the hawks, Reynald and the leaders of the military orders said that
42:22to avoid battle was shameful
42:24and that they should attack Saladin at once. The hawks won.
42:29The whole army of the kingdom swallowed Saladin's bait and marched towards Tiberias.
42:38They got as far as these two hills, the horns of Hattie.
42:46Well, the Franks were coming from the west, trying to reach the lake of Tiberias over there.
42:55And Saladin tried and succeeded in blocking their way to the lake.
43:00And, of course, it's dry here. There's no water up on the horns here.
43:04There's no water, not only here on the horns, but in the close vicinity.
43:07And that's why the Franks were so thirsty and so desperate.
43:23The Franks were driven to these horns. They had no other choice left.
43:28The fire the Muslims set up, the arrows of the Muslims, the thirst, the exhaustion.
43:36All this was too much for the food soldiers.
43:39So they left the knights in the plain and came up to the horns.
43:45And although King Guy tried to persuade them to come back and fight, they just wouldn't budge.
43:51And then later the knights, too, ended up here and tried to organize two counterattacks from the horns downhill.
44:16They were running right into Saladin's trap.
44:20The end of the war. The end of the war. The end of the war. The end of the war.
44:25The end of the war. The end of the war.
44:35Enfeebled by thirst and hemmed in by fire, the Crusaders found themselves encircled and outnumbered.
44:46Their object was no longer victory, but escape.
45:07Saladin's victory was total.
45:10Reynald de Chatillon, the king, and the other great Christian knights were taken prisoner.
45:14The entire military force of the kingdom of Jerusalem was smashed on the horns of Hattin.
45:26I saw the limbs of the fallen cast naked on the field of battle.
45:32Lacerated and disjointed with heads cracked open, throats slit, spines broken, necks shattered.
45:39Members dismembered. Noses mutilated, breasts flayed, spirits flown.
45:45Their very ghosts crushed like stones among stones.
45:57Saladin executed all members of the military orders.
46:03For Reynald, however, he had special plans.
46:08Reynald was taken to Saladin's tent.
46:10The sultan left him to stew for time, and then returned with a sword.
46:16And as he had promised, cut off his head.
46:26Then Saladin toured the Crusader kingdom.
46:30One by one, the great cities surrendered to him.
46:33Even the holy city itself.
46:40Saladin timed his triumphal entry into Jerusalem with an eye to posterity.
46:44He came in on the 27th of the month of Rajab,
46:48the anniversary of the Prophet's miraculous night visit to Jerusalem.
46:51And he came in at the exact point in the walls
46:54where the Crusaders had broken through 88 years before.
47:15Saladin didn't take revenge on all the Christians.
47:17He didn't even expel them all from the city.
47:19He allowed the Eastern Christians to stay and carry on as they always had done.
47:23It was only the Latins, those barbarians from the West, that would have to go.
47:27Those who could pay seven gold pieces were allowed to go free.
47:30The rest were taken away as slaves.
47:32Even then, he released many who had no money at all.
47:35Saladin was no match for mothers who wept over their children.
47:45The Christian emperor of Byzantium sent Saladin a message of congratulations
47:50and requested that the holy places be returned to the Orthodox Church.
47:55Saladin agreed.
47:58Civilized life could go on as it had done before the interruption from the barbarian West.
48:21Muslims returned to the Temple Mount.
48:23And in Rome, the Pope was so appalled that his heart stopped and he died.
48:34With Saladin's permission, thousands of refugees fled to the port of Tyre,
48:39the last surviving city in the Crusaders' kingdom.
48:43From there, they hoped to take ship for Europe.
48:46The story of the Crusade seemed over.
48:51Tyre was besieged and prepared to surrender.
48:58And then a ship arrived.
49:01On board was an Italian adventurer with the energy to take control of Tyre and barricade the city.
49:08Conrad de Montferrat.
49:11Saladin decided to wait a while before destroying him.
49:16It was a decision he would live to regret.
49:23He had left a foothold for the Crusaders and for a greater enemy who would be his match.
49:31Richard the Lionheart.
49:33He was a Cire to say.
49:50He had left a foothold for the Crusaders.
49:55Even the top two players, the Cire de Montferrat.
49:59He was named after the Crusaders and for a lower penalty.
50:00He was named after all of the Crusaders.
50:01And the tortillas of the Crusaders were broke.
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