the First Crusade

[Rachel Dearth]

Iftikhar ad-Daula

Iftikhar ad-Daula (also Iftikhar ad-Dawla, meaning "pride of the nation") was the Fatimid governor of Jerusalem during the siege of 1099. On 15 July he surrendered Jerusalem to Raymond of Saint-Gilles[1] in the Tower of David and was escorted out of the city with his bodyguard.[2]

Little is known about Iftikhar ad-Daula, although he is mentioned as governor of Ascalon following the fall of Jerusalem, which suggests he was Fatimid governor of the whole of Palestine.[3] The Syrian chronicler Bar-Hebraeus refers to him as "a man from the quarter of the Egyptians," which could indicate that he was of Nubian or Sudanese origin as men of Arab or Turkish origin were generally specified as such.[3] Usamah ibn Munqidh's autobiography mentions an emir of the local castles of Abu Qubays Qadmus and al-Kaf (Syria) called Iftikhar ad-Daula whose sister was married to Usamah's uncle, the ruler of Shayzar.[3]

[Rachel Dearth]

Defence of Jerusalem

Iftikhar ad-Daula had a strong garrison of Arab and Sudanese troops. Hearing of the advance of the Franks he poisoned the wells outside Jerusalem; moved livestock from the pastures inside the city walls and sent urgently to Egypt for reinforcements.[4] He then ordered all Christians, then the majority of the population, to evacuate the city, but allowed Jews to remain within.[4] Although the garrison was well-supplied it was insufficient to man all the walls and was overwhelmed after a siege lasting six weeks.[2]

According to Ali ibn al-Athir's The Complete History, written around 1232, the Franks killed 70,000 people in the Al-Aqsa Mosque and stripped the Dome of the Rock of great quantities of silver and gold.[5]

[Rachel Dearth]

Al-Afdal Shahanshah

al-Malik al-Afdal ibn Badr al-Jamali Shahanshah (1066 – December 11, 1121) (Arabic: الأفضل شاهنشاه بن بدر الجمالي‎) was a vizier of the Fatimid caliphs of Egypt.

[Rachel Dearth]

Ascent to power

He was born in Acre, the son of Badr al-Jamali, an Armenian Mamluk. Badr was vizier for the Fatimids in Cairo from 1074 until his death in 1094, when al-Afdal succeeded him. Caliph Ma'ad al-Mustansir Billah died soon afterwards, and al-Afdal appointed as caliph al-Musta'li, a child, instead of al-Mustali's much older brother Nizar. Nizar revolted and was defeated in 1095; his supporters, led by Hassan-i-Sabah, fled west, where Hassan established the Ismaili community, sometimes erroneously called the Hashshashin, or Assassins.

At this time Fatimid power in Palestine had been reduced by the arrival of the Seljuk Turks. In 1097 he captured Tyre from the Seljuks, and in 1098 he took Jerusalem, expelling its Ortoqid governor Ilghazi in place of a Fatimid. Al-Afdal restored most of Palestine to Fatimid control, at least temporarily.

[Rachel Dearth]

Conflict with the Crusaders

Al-Afdal misunderstood the Crusaders as Byzantine mercenaries; this misperception caused al-Afdal to conclude that the crusaders would make for natural allies, as each were enemies of the Seljuk Turks. Fatimid overtures for an alliance with the crusaders were rebuffed, and the crusaders continued southward from Antioch to capture Jerusalem from Fatimid control in 1099.

When it became apparent that the Crusaders would not rest until they had control of the city, al-Afdal marched out from Cairo, but was too late to rescue Jerusalem, which fell on July 15, 1099. On August 12, the Crusaders under Godfrey of Bouillon surprised al-Afdal at the Battle of Ascalon and completely defeated him. Al-Afdal would reassert Fatimid control of Ascalon, as the Crusaders did not attempt to retain it, and utilize it as a staging ground for later attacks on the crusader states.

Al-Afdal marched out every year to attack the nascent Kingdom of Jerusalem, and in 1105 attempted to ally with Damascus against them, but was defeated at the Battle of Ramla. Al-Afdal and his army enjoyed success only so long as no European fleet interfered, but they gradually lost control of their coastal strongholds; in 1109 Tripoli was lost, despite the fleet and supplies sent by al-Afdal, and the city became the centre of an important Crusader county. In 1110 the governor of Ascalon, Shams al-Khilafa, rebelled against al-Afdal with the intent of handing over the city to Jerusalem (for a large price). Al-Khilafa's Berber troops assassinated him and sent his head to al-Afdal. The Crusaders later took Tyre and Acre as well, and remained in Jerusalem until the arrival of Saladin decades later.

[Rachel Dearth]

Legacy and death

Al-Afdal also introduced tax (iqta) reform in Egypt, which remained in place until Saladin took over Egypt. Al-Afdal was nicknamed Jalal al-Islam ("glory of Islam") and Nasir al-Din ("Protector of the Faith"). Ibn al-Qalanisi describes him as "a firm believer in the doctrines of Sunnah, upright in conduct, a lover of justice towards both troops and civil population, judicious in counsel and plan, ambitious and resolute, of penetrating knowledge and exquisite tact, of generous nature, accurate in his intuitions, and possessing a sense of justice which preserved him from wrongdoing and led him to shun all tyrannical methods."

He was murdered during Eid ul-Adha in 1121; according to Ibn al-Qalanisi, "it was asserted that the Batinis (Hashshashin) were responsible for his assassination, but this statement is not true. On the contrary it is an empty pretence and an insubstantial calumny." The real cause was the growing boldness of the caliph al-Amir Bi-Ahkamillah, who had succeeded al-Musta'li in 1101, and his resentment of al-Afdal's control. Ibn al-Qalanisi states that "all eyes wept and all hearts sorrowed for him; time did not produce his like after him, and after his loss the government fell into disrepute." He was succeeded as vizier by Al-Ma'mum.

In Latin, his name was rendered as "Lavendalius" or "Elafdalio".

[Godfrey]

Things you should know:

    * Islam spread far from its birthplace in the modern nation of Saudi Arabia.  By AD1095, Muslim territory included land where Jesus Christ lived.  Christians warriors of the era believed Christians, not Muslims, should control their holy lands.
    * The Crusades were a series of wars initiated by Christians to win back their holy lands from Muslims.
    * The Crusaders were ultimately unable to reclaim their holy lands, but the wars had another effect: Western Europeans had left their homes to fight in a distant war.  The stories of the returning Crusaders encouraged their countrymen to look beyond their own villages for the first time

http://www.mrdowling.com/606islam.html

[Godfrey]

The Turks and the First Crusade

     The modern nation of Turkey is named for its Turkish inhabitants, but the Turks were not originally from Turkey.  The Turks were nomadic people from Central Asia.  Many Turks remain in that area, in fact, there is a nation in Central Asia known as Turkmenistan (“land of the Turks”).

      One Turkish tribe, the Seljuks, began moving into the Anatolian peninsula, or what we now call Turkey.  These Turks were Muslims, and a Christian emperor, Alexius I, controlled the peninsula. Alexius appealed to the Pope to help him rid Anatolia of “the unbelievers.”

      Pope Urban II received Alexius’s call for assistance, but decided to use that call to advance a more ambitious plan.  Jerusalem, on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the modern nation of Israel, is considered holy land to Christians, Jews and Muslims, but in 1095, the city was controlled by Muslims.  The message from Alexius presented Urban with an opportunity to retake the holy lands from the Muslims.  The pope called for a “War of the Cross,” or Crusade, to retake the holy lands from the unbelievers.

     

[Godfrey]

[Godfrey]