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sabiss — Confrontation
Published: 2009-07-23 23:40:56 +0000 UTC; Views: 1008; Favourites: 7; Downloads: 26
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Description
In the Syrian grasslands, late 13th century, the vanguard of a Syrian emir encounters a group of pilgrims escorted by footmen...The footmen, armed with long spears, gambeson or chainmail and a large tear-drop shield, gather up in a tight formation, leaving the Saracen skirmishers unable to get into close-combat range.
The skirmishers have tried shooting arrows, but the large shields protected the footmen. The footmen can furthermore keep the Muslims at bay with the long spears.. The skirmishers therefore decide to harass the "Franj" as they wait for the main army to help them out.
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Comments: 8
great strategy by the footmen, just hope they can find a way to get out of there before that main army gets there...
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Unfortunately for them, they did not. The Saracens got them pinned down from the beginning with arrow shots and got their infantry to engage them. In the end, the Mamluk warrior, helped by a few infantrymen, managed to capture the crusader knight, and held him for ransom.
Besides, the crusaders couldn't just run away, there were a group of civilian pilgrims with them, including a Sicilian ambassador accompanied by a Byzantine officer, an official escort from the Emperor of Constantinople.
Nobody got hurt though. The crusaders paid ransom for the knight (the Saracens got to keep his arms, his armours and his horse), the Sicilian paid the emir for safe passage for him and the pilgrims, which the emir accepted, since he knows the Byzantine officer (who served as a translator). He also did not want to mess with the emperor of Constantinople.
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That is bad, yet pretty good at the same time since no one really got hurt.
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Arab and European chronicle writers both mention that Crusaders and Muslims usually fight hard during large encounters, but they are more "cool" during skirmishes, preferring taking prisoners and ransoms. On some occasions, Franj knights taken prisoner by an emir went into the service of the emir, fighting for him to gain his freedom (as his family could not pay the ransom). On other occasions even, there were peculiar alliances of Crusaders and Muslims fighting other Crusaders and Muslims. Especially at the time when Crusaders could not hope to conquer more Holy Land, so they preferred this or that emir as their neighbour, but not another (more agressive, or more into Jihad). Except the Crusader princes didn't agree on who was the best neighbour. The Muslims, well... They can always use a hand when they fight amongst themselves...
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MAN, YOUR LIKE AN ENYCLOPEDIA WITH THIS STUFF!!!
I WANT TO KNOW MORE!!!!!!!
(never new the muslims fought the crusaders so much)
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It is not that simple. What we call "the Muslims" are just various people with the same religion, but in fact, there are many Nations, that were fighting against each others: the caliphs of Baghdad (Abbasids) and Cairo (Fatimids), the Bey of the Seljukid Turks, the Christian kingdoms of Armenia and Georgia, the Byzantine Empire... And later on the Ilkhan mongols arrived (during the first half of the XIIIth) and Salaheddin founded his dynasty (Ayubids) in place of the Fatimid caliphate.
All of this is complicated: at first the emperor of Byzantium was happy the Crusades arrived: he could help the and they would help him reconquer some land from the Seljukids, later, he preferred alliances with the Fatimids, as the Crusaders actually wanted some of his lands.
Both caliphates were also happy, as the Crusaders were striking at the Seljukids first (the main power) and they could also reclaim some land from them. They changed their minds when Jerusalem fell.
The Christian kingdoms, ironically, were unhappy: they are mainly of the Nestorian branch of Christiandom, a sect regarded as heretic by the Catholics, no doubt they would suffer at the hands of the Crusaders, and they did. In the end, they allied themselves with the Mongols, very tolerant towards all religions, and particularly towards Christians: three queens of the Mongols were Christians, although the khans themselves were Buddhist of Chamanists, and the top mongol general in the middle east, Kitbuqa, was also a Christian, and a very good friend of the first Ilkhan of Persia: Hulegu Khan.
When the Crusaders began to settle, they also began to divide, and even fought amongst themselves. Sometimes they fought the Muslims, sometimes they were at peace, and sometimes even they allied themselves. This was more or less the case against the Mongols: they could not accept that Christian states (Georgia, Armenia, nd later Antioch) submitted to Pagans. They therefore allowed Sultan Baybars of the Ayubids to cross over their lands with his army, and even supplied food and water, so they could attack the Mongols, and Baybars could therefore defeat the Mongols at the battle of Ain Jalut (the spring of Goliath), where general Kitbuqa dies.
Strangely enough, later Crusader kings, for example Louis IX of France, almost allied with the Mongols, as they represented a formidable force, tolerant towards Christians, and they could take the Muslims from both sides: the Mongols from the east, Louis from the west. The alliance never occured though, because of misunderstandings and because the Mongols wanted Louis's submission, in their plan for World Domination.
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