The Race for Paradise: An Islamic History of the Crusades by Paul M. Cobb

Author:Paul M. Cobb
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Christianity, Crusades, History, Islam, Medieval, Middle East, Military, Religion
ISBN: 9780199532018
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2014-07-24T03:00:00+00:00

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The Fallen Tent

With the death of Nur al-Din in 1174, the seesawing of Frankish and Muslim fortunes in the Near East came to a sudden halt. When, just two months after Nur al-Din’s death, King Amalric of Jerusalem died following a decade of rule, both the Franks and the Zangids found themselves facing strangely parallel political crises, stymieing military operations and leaving them preoccupied with their own space. Both men had been energetic rulers, personally responsible for extending their influence and strengthening central power against contentious vassals in their respective domains. Amalric in particular had built upon the achievements of his predecessor, his childless brother, Baldwin III, establishing, for example, warm ties between Jerusalem and the Byzantine Empire and shepherding his kingdom into what would turn out to be its last phase of effective military power. Both men, it also happened, were succeeded by children; Baldwin IV acceded to the throne of Jerusalem at age thirteen (and suffering from leprosy), and the eleven-year-old al-Salih Ismaʿil succeeded Nur al-Din. For the moment, then, both kingdoms were in the hands of regents.

The Franks had the better deal, as Baldwin’s regent was the very able Raymond, count of Tripoli and lord of Tiberias. Until 1176, when Baldwin came of age, Raymond managed the kingdom on a comparatively steady course, mitigating, for example, the more belligerent foreign policy demands of certain factions in the kingdom, notably the Knights Templar, whose influence had grown since their foundation two generations earlier. Al-Salih, on the other hand, was overshadowed by the veteran commander Gumushtakin, a eunuch and old Zangid loyalist, who spirited the boy away to Aleppo, where he could be kept on a short leash but where he remained the target of vicious succession disputes. Thanks to the statesmanship of Raymond at this crucial juncture, the Franks enjoyed comparative stability and appeared to have gained the upper hand in the crisis. But the Muslims had one thing the Franks did not: Saladin.

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