Crusade and Christendom by Bird Jessalynn; Peters Edward; Powells James M

Author:Bird, Jessalynn; Peters, Edward; Powells, James M.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Ibn Wasil (ca. 1282): Frederick arrives at Acre

IN 625/1228 the emperor Frederick arrived at Acre with a great company of Germans and other Franks. We have already described how Fakhr ad-Din, the son of the sheikh ash-Shuyukh, was sent to the king-emperor from the sultan al-Malik al-Kamil. This was in the time of al-Malik al-Mu‘azzam.7 The idea of the approaches made to the emperor, the king of the Franks, and of his invitation, was to create difficulties for al-Malik al-Mu‘azzam and prevent his availing himself of the help offered to him by the sultan Jalal ad-Din ibn ‘Ala ad-Din Khwarizmshah and Muzaffar ad-Din of Arbela, in his quarrel with al-Malik al-Kamil and al-Malik al-Ashraf.

The emperor made his preparations, and arrived with his army on the coast of Syria in the same year and disembarked at Acre. A great number of Franks had preceded him there but they could not move off for fear of al-Malik al-Mu‘azzam and so they were waiting for their leader the emperor.8 This word means in the Frankish language “the king of the princes.” His kingdom consisted of the island of Sicily, and Apulia and Lombardy in the Long Country [Italy]. It is the author, Jamal ad-Din ibn Wasil, who speaks: “I saw these parts when I was sent as ambassador of the sultan al-Malik az-Zahir Rukn ad-Din Baibars [d. 1277], of blessed memory, to the emperor’s son, Manfred by name. The emperor was a Frankish king, distinguished and gifted, a student of philosophy, logic, and medicine and a friend to Muslims, for his original home was Sicily, where he was educated. His father and his grandfather were kings of the island,9 but its inhabitants were mostly Muslims.”

When the emperor reached Acre, al-Malik al-Kamil found him an embarrassment, for his brother al-Malik al-Mu‘azzam, who was the reason why he had asked Frederick for help, had died [1227], and al-Kamil had no further need of the emperor. Nor was it possible to turn him away and attack him because this would have led him to lose the goals on which his heart was set at the time. He therefore made a treaty with Frederick and treated him with great friendship.

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