Islamset - Islamic Civilization

Syria

The Syrian countries were the third meeting point between east and west during crusades. Whatever the political, social and economic factors behind the crusades we should mention that the heavenly messages are basically ones of love, fraternity and peace among all mankind.

The religious transformations in Europe were a main cause of the crusades. After the Europeans had embraced Christianity, the church of Rome became a rival for the Patriarchial See in Constantinople. The church of Rome alone monopolised the title of 'Pope'. The papacy played an important role in establishing the European Carolingian state as a rival to the Empire of Byzantium. It then looked forward to bringing the Churches of east and west under its control. The chance came when Michael VII Parapinaces, the King of Byzantium (1071-1078 A.D.) sought the help of Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085 A.D.) asking him to send forces to rescue Asia Minor from the Turks. Gregory VII was quick in instigating the Catholics kings and princes. However, the struggle between the Europeans and the Muslims had ceased because of the conflict between the church and kings of Europe.

When the papacy restored its power after the death of Henry IV, it had ambitions to establish a government in the east that combined the two authorities: the political and the religious. Therefore, the crusades were planned by the papacy especially when Pope Urbanus II (1088-1099 A.D.), who was known for his hatred of Muslims when he was the Priest of the Kloni nunnery and who encouraged the war against Muslims in Spain, exploited the complaints of pilgrims to Jerusalem and used them as an excuse for the war against Muslims. For this pope, the papacy meant the supreme command of the holy war. On another level the crusades represented the foreign policy of the papacy which managed it. Thus the papacy organized and directed the war.

The European crusades against Egypt and Syria started at the end of the 11th century A.D. (5th Hijra). The first crusade gained control of parts of the Arab east and established four Christian principalities: Antioch controlling the Syrian north; a second at Al-Raha separating Syria from Iraq and threatening Baghdad, the base of the Abbasid Caliphate; a third in Tripoli, the strategic outlet on the Mediterranean coast; the fourth and most influential, was in Jerusalem in 492 A.H./1099 A.D.

These invasions angered and roused the Muslims, who united behind their leaders to confront this aggression and engaged in long, bitter wars that lasted about 200 years, at the end of which they succeeded in expelling the invaders.

The first leader of the Islamic awakening was the Turk Imad Al Din Zangi, ruler of Mosul and Aleppo, who liberated Al Raha in 538 A.H./1144 A.D. and reestablished contact between north Iraq and Syria. He was followed by his son Mahmud, ruler of Aleppo, (e. 569 A.H./1174 A.D.), who worked hard to unite the Islamic front by merging Damascus and Egypt in a Syrian-Egyptian state that surrounded the kingdom of Jerusalem prior to direct attack and defeat. But it was Al Nasir Yusif Saladin (565-589 A.H./1169-1193 A.D.) who achieved a conclusive victory over the crusaders in the battle of Hittin (583 A.H./1187 A.D.) and entered Jerusalem on the eve of Ascension day the same year. He did not mutilitate his enemies as they did with the Muslims when they conquered Jerusalem; he only restored the mosques that had been turned into churches especially Al-Aqsa Mosque. He also allowed them to leave the city with their property and allowed eastern Christians to stay and live among the Muslims. This shows that Saladin was not hostile to Christianity as a religion but rather to European agression. If Dante placed Saladin in limbo along with people like Avicenna and Ibn Rushd in recognition of their merits, it was due to Saladin's civilized behaviour towards his enemies compared with their savage behaviour with the Muslims.

Saladin sought peace as expressed in a letter to his brother Turanshah in Yemen: "You hear neither blunder nor misdeed in Syria but peace and peace". But the European invaders would not accept this, so they gathered their armies and fleets, led by several kings such as Frederick Barbarossa of Germany; Richard Coeur de Lion of England and Philip Augustus of France. They controlled the Syrian coast in an attempt to reach Jerusalem.

This third crusade lasted for three years (585-588 A.H./1189-1192 A.D.) but ended in absolute failure after the drowning of the German Emperor, the return of the French King and the failure of the King of England to restore Jerusalem and his return to his country empty-handed after concluding a truce with Saladin at Ramla.

After the failure of the earlier crusades through Asia Minor and Syria, the crusaders decided to change their route and start through Egypt to Jerusalem in the belief that Egypt, with its power and resources, was the reason for the earlier failure of the crusaders and that the Islamic forces should be deprived of this important base, "whoever wants to kill the snake should crush its head first".

So new crusades directed against Egypt were led by Jean de Brienne (615 A.H./1218 A.D.), King of Jerusalem, and later on by Louis IX, King of France (647 A.H./1246 A.D.). The two crusades were a complete failure because of the Islamic resistance on the one hand and the crusaders ignorance of the geography of Egypt on the other. Crossing the Nile, with the many branches of the delta and the numerous canals during the flood season, they were surrounded only to end up dead or captive, including King Louis.

With the end of the Ayyubid state, their Mameluk successors continued the crusades. Sultan Baybars (658-676 A.H./1260-1277 A.D.) controlled a large number of castles and cities like Jaffa and Caesarea in the south, and Antioch in the north. Sultan Al Mansur Qalawun (678-689 A.H./1279-1290 A.D.) succeeded him and captured Latakia and Tripoli. Then his son Al Ashraf Khalil (689-693 A.H./1290-1293 A.D.) took Acre, the last base of the crusaders, in 690 A.H./1291 A.D.

Muslims were not satisfied with the expulsion of the crusaders from Syria; they pursued the defeated remnants in the Mediterranean islands. Sultan Al Nasir Mohammad Ibn Qalawun conquered Irwad Island (702 A.H./1302 A.D.) and Sultan Al Ashraf Barsbay conquered Cyprus in 829 A.H./1426 A.D. in addition to the maritime campaigns launched by Sultan Saif Al Din Jakmak on Rhodes (843-847 A.H./1440-1444 A.D.).