About the word Lord

About the word Lord The word lord in English has several related meanings. The original meaning is 'master' or 'ruler', and in this sense it is often used to refer to human beings: 'the lord of the mansion' or 'Lord So-and-So' (in the United Kingdom, for example). The word Lord with a capital L is used in the lexicon of Islam to refer to the One and Only God-Allah. In Islam, there is no ambiguity about the meaning of this word. While it is true that one may occasionally use the word lord (whether capitalized or not) to refer to a human being, in Islamic discourse the reference of this term is always clear from the context.

Whereas for Christians, Hindus and other polytheists, the word Lord with a capital L may refer to Allah, to Jesus or to some imagined deity, for Muslims, there can be no plurality of meaning. Allah alone is the Lord, and the Lord is Allah — not Jesus, not Rama, not any other being. The Editor PART THREE The Battle Of Hattin, The Conquest of Jerusalem and The Third Crusade CHAPTER I: The Battle of Hattin Salah ad-Deen was able to form a united Islamic front covering a vast area, but the Crusader control of some Syrian coastal cities, in addition to the fortresses of Kerak and Crac de Montreal, represented a tough obstacle in the way of communication between the two main axes of his state, which included Egypt and most of Greater Syria, and part of Iraq. In addition to that, these cities and coastal ports were of great strategic importance because control of them enabled the Crusaders to remain in constant contact with their motherlands in Western Europe. Hence from the beginning of his rule, Salah ad-Deen was very keen to raid these regions; his interest therein also dated back to the days of his viziership in the Fatimid state.

In fact, Salah ad-Deen had inflicted heavy losses on the Crusaders in terms of lives and weaponry as a result of the raids that he organized against the cities of the Syrian coast, which prompted the Crusaders — it seems — to think of reducing the pressure on those areas by distracting Salah ad-Deen from them, which they thought to accomplish by raiding the coast of the Red Sea. In addition, they took advantage of their presence in that area to threaten the Islamic holy places so as to strike at Islam in its holiest sites. Nevertheless, events were moving swiftly in Salah ad-Deen's favour. Events that led to the Battle of Hattin Death of Baldwin V and its impact on the Crusaders situation King Baldwin V died in Jumada II 582 AH/August 1186 CE, a few months after his accession, and the Crusaders' internal problems emerged once again because his death led to a serious conflict between the princes for the throne of Jerusalem. Those who were opposed to the regency of Raymond III continued conspiring until they eventually succeeded in withdrawing the regency from him and transferring rule from the child to his mother Sybille, giving her the power to choose the new king, because as a woman she could not rule.

Sybille handed the crown to her husband, Guy de Lasagna, as the opponents of Raymond III wanted. Salah ad-Deen benefited from events occurring in the Kingdom of Jerusalem During the time that Salah ad-Deen was striving to form a military force equipped with supplies and weaponry, in preparation for a decisive battle against the Crusaders, he avoided any clash with the Crusaders on more than one front, and he did not want to enable his enemy to mobilize their forces or unite their ranks in response to the mobilization of Islamic forces. In 583 AH/1187 CE, he sent word to the people of Aleppo, commanding them to make a peace deal with Bohemond III of Antioch, so that he could focus on jihad against the Crusaders on one front. Salah adDeen, who was known for his military skill, also started to take advantage of the difficult circumstances in which the Kingdom of Jerusalem found itself following the marriage of Guy de Lasagna, whose wife had given up her authority to him. He became King of Jerusalem when she took the crown from her own head and placed it on his, Saying, "My husand is more able and he is more deserving of kingship." Count Raymond of Saint Gilles, the ruler of Tripoli, failed to attain that position, and the Templar knights refused to let him rule independently.

They asked him to act in accordance with the will which dictated that he was entitled to the regency only, which made him throw himself into the lap of Salah ad-Deen, asking him for help against the King of Jerusalem and the Templers. Salah ad-Deen responded to his call and gave him the help he needed. Thus he managed to gain a new ally among the Crusaders and drive a wedge into the Crusader ranks. In fact an armed confrontation nearly broke out between Guy and Raymond, as Raymond camped in Tiberias and stayed there in a provocative and boastful manner after gathering around him a large number of Crusaders, and urged the sultan to come and help him to regain his kingdom. The King of Jerusalem also gathered a large army and would have attacked Tiberias, had it not been for the intervention of some of the princes, who calmed things down and asked both sides to unite in order to confront the huge preparations that Salah ad-Deen was making.

This forced King Guy de Lusignan to march to Count Raymond de Saint Gilles, to placate and appease him. Despite that, it may be said that Salah ad-Deen gained several things from his intervening in Crusader affairs by supporting one of them against the other, the most important of which was the great difference in outlook between Raymond de Saint Gilles and some of the other Crusader rulers, foremost among whom was Reynald de Chatillon, ruler of Kerak. Perhaps this is the reason why the historian Ibn al-Atheer described this alliance between Salah ad-Deen and Raymond de Saint Gilles, despite its short duration, as one of the main factors that led to the conquest of their lands and the rescue of Jerusalem from their clutches. Similarly, Salah ad-Deen made a separate truce with Bohemond III of Antioch, either on the basis of a request from him or at the request of Salah ad-Deen, so that he could rest assured about his rear lines and be free to focus on the south. Raymond III extended his agreement with Salah ad-Deen so as to include the Galilee region, which thus opened the way for Salah ad-Deen to penetrate between Jordan and Palestine.

Reynald de Chatillon breaks the truce with the Muslims again Salah ad-Deen's alliance with Raymond III provoked the anger of Reynald de Chatillon, who had made a truce with Salah ad-Deen and was famous for thinking only of himself. Because of this truce, which guaranteed safety and security, caravans had started to travel back and forth between Egypt and Syria, crossing through Crusader territory peacefully. Undoubtedly that also brought benefits to Reynald de Chatillon himself, because of the taxes and levies that he imposed on them. Nonetheless, it also seems that he could not live without plundering and stealing, so he broke his truce with Salah ad-Deen in 582 AH/1186 CE when he intercepted a large merchant caravan that was passing through Kerak on its way from Egypt to Syria. He captured it, killed the guards and imprisoned some of the soldiers; furthermore, he seized the merchants and families who were travelling in the caravan and carried them off to the fortress of Kerak.

News of this transgression soon reached Salah ad-Deen, and because he was keen that treaties and covenants should be respected, he sent word to Reynald de Chatillon rebuking him for this action and threatening him if he did not let the prisoners go and return the wealth. The ruler of Kerak refused to receive his envoys, however, and when Salah ad-Deen met with recklessness on the part of Reynald, he sent word to King Guy de Lusignan complaining and asking him to advise Reynald to return the prisoners and the wealth. Guy responded to Salah ad-Deen's request but he failed to put pressure on Reynald. These methods used by Salah ad-Deen with regard to the prisoners who had fallen into the hands of Reynald, and his demand that he release them and return their wealth without using force, had a great impact in creating division and mistrust between the King of Jerusalem and Reynald. Reynald had not responded to the king's request to respect the truce with Salah ad-Deen, hence the Crusader king began to have doubts about Reynald's intentions and ambition to become the sole ruler in the area, and each began to suspect the other.

These alliances and the breaking thereof represented the first starting point for the Battle of Hattin. That is because Salah ad-Deen had formed an alliance with Raymond III, which allowed him to intervene in the Crusaders' internal politics. Renewing his alliance with both Raymond III and Bohemond III deprived the Kingdom of Jerusalem of the help of the two strongest Crusader principalities in Syria, namely the Principality of Tripoli and the Principality of Antioch. Thus Salah ad-Deen managed to drive a wedge into the Crusader ranks. At the same time he succeeded in uniting the Muslim ranks and prepared Muslim armies in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Mosul and Syria, both morally and militarily, for the battle which he wanted to be decisive.

When all the preparations were complete, Salah ad-Deen set out from Damascus in Muharram 583 AH/March 1187 CE, at the head of a large army, marching southwards. He reached Ra's al-Ma', which is northwest of Hawran,20 then he headed towards Busra21 in order to receive a pilgrim caravan in which his sister and her son were travelling and, at the same time, to guarantee that the caravan would not be intercepted by Reynald. The reports that had reached him indicated that the ruler of Kerak was lying in wait for the pilgrims. After he was reassured that the caravan had arrived safely, he started his attack on Kerak. When Reynald de Chatillon realized that Salah ad-Deen was in the area, he retreated to his fortress.

Salah ad-Deen had left his son al-Afdal Noor ad-Deen 'Ali in Ra's al-Ma' to await the arrival of the troops whom he had summoned for jihad. Salah ad-Deen's movement towards Kerak achieved two aims: i. Concealing his real goal, which was to attack the Kingdom of Jerusalem. ii. Threatening Reynald de Chatillon and preventing him from going to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Salah ad-Deen let his troops loose in the region, destroying any force that came in their way.

When he headed towards Crac de Montreal and did the same thing as he had done in Kerak. He stayed in Jordan for a month, from Safar to Rabee' I 583 AH/April to May 1187 CE, so as to conceal the gathering of troops around his son alAfdal in Ra's al-Ma'.24 The battle of Sephoria Whilst Salah ad-Deen was camping near the fortresses of Kerak and Crac de Montreal to protect the pilgrims from Crusader attacks, he sent out a hand-picked reconnaissance force, putting Muzaffar ad-Deen Kawkaboori of Harran, Badr adDeen Daldaram ibn Yarooq, commander of the Aleppo troops and Sarim ad-Deen Qaymaz an-Najami, commander of the Damascus troops, in charge, to carry out raids in enemy territory in order to weaken them and find out what they were up to. So this heavily-equipped expedition marched in the direction of Sephoria. These commanders were keen to keep their march secret and concealed, so they marched in the dead of night so that they could attack in the early morning. In fact this plan was executed very carefully: They arrived at Sephoria in the morning and what a bad morning it was for the Crusaders.

The Crusaders were enjoying a peaceful sleep at that time, and awoke to the sounds of swords and spears. They hastened to gather their forces to confront that sudden Muslim attack and the two sides met in a tough battle which ended in a great victory for the Muslims. Most of the Crusaders were slain or taken captive. Among the slain were the leader of the Hospitallers and a large number of prominent knights; the leader of the Templars escaped with great difficulty. What made matters worse is that another Crusader force dared to rush to Sephoria to help their brothers when the battle had ended, so the Muslims took all of them captive.

The Muslims returned from this battle safe and victorious. Their victory in this battle was one of several blessings and a precursor to be followed by many other victories. Thus the Muslims inflicted huge losses on the Crusaders in lives and weapons; this battle instilled fear in the Crusaders' hearts and made them realize the danger of this frightening Islamic mobilization that Salah ad-Deen had prepared for the jihad against them. Preparations that preceded the Battle of Hattin Salah ad-Deen, who at that time was camping near to the fortress of Kerak, was cheered by this victory which was achieved by that reconnaissance force in the battle of Sephoria. He left Kerak and Crac de Montreal, and marched quickly with his army towards the enemy, camping at 'Ashtara.

The Muslim troops gathered around him in huge numbers, filling the horizon, as Ibn Wasil said. In 'Ashtara he inspected his troops, of whom there were twelve thousand,32 then he organized his army according to the usual system of battle. He put his nephew Taqi ad-Deen 'Umar on the right flank and Muzaffar ad-Deen Kawkaboori on the left, and he himself was in the heart. He divided the rest of the army on the two flanks, in readiness for battle. Crusader preparations In response to this great massing of Muslims, when the Crusaders heard of the Muslims' uniting against them and that this Muslim army was marching towards them, they realized that now something had come to them that they were not accustomed to, and that their entity was inevitably going to vanish.

They gathered and reconciled, and they mobilized and massed their troops. He count (Raymond III) reconciled with King Guy, after entering upon him and throwing himself at his feet. Then King Guy gave the order for general mobilization, which meant that there was no alternative but for every man who was able to bear arms to come forward. The king only resorted to that because it was a case of extreme necessity. The Crusaders mobilized on a grand scale, and raised the True Cross so that the people would rally around it.

The preparations for complete mobilization were completed after the distribution of money sent by the King of England, Henry II to King Guy, which he ordered was to be spent on the troops. With regard to estimates of the number of Crusader troops who remained camped in Sephoria after the defeat by that Muslim force, contemporary historians say that there were around fifty thousand or more,36 although some thought it most likely that the number was twenty thousand. Salah ad-Deen' s plan for the decisive battle When Salah ad-Deen learned that the Crusaders were gathering in Sephoria following their defeat by the Muslim force there, he consulted his commanders as to what he should do. Most of them suggested that he should not engage in a major battle and should follow the previous strategy of repeated raids and inflicting heavy losses until the enemy was weakened, then deliver the final blow to the Crusaders. Others suggested that he should penetrate deep into Crusader territory and engage with them in a decisive battle.

Here we see the military genius of Salah ad-Deen, as he chose the second plan, which called for engaging the enemy in a decisive battle, as it seems that Salah ad-Deen realized that most of the forces that had gathered with him at that time had come from far-away places in Egypt, Damascus, Aleppo, Mesopotamia, Mosul, Diyarbakir and elsewhere. These forces were based on the military feudal system — as we have seen above —and they had commitments in their chiefs, which might prompt them to ask, on occasion, for permission to go back to do necessary tasks there. This is in addition to the fact that Salah ad-Deen wanted, by following this plan, to take advantage of the division that had occurred in the Crusader ranks as a result of the death of King Baldwin V and the crowning of King Guy de Lusignan, which one researcher regards as the factor that deprived the Kingdom of Jerusalem of the help of the two strongest Crusader principalities in Syria, namely the Principality of Tripoli and the Principality of Antioch. Thus the situation between Salah ad-Deen and the Crusaders grew tense, with each party longing to engage in a decisive battle. Salah ad-Deen was aware that by camping in Sephoria this gave them a great position for fighting, because Sephoria was regarded as one of the most suitable sites for setting up camp, due to the availability of grazing land, water and other essential natural resources.

Hence he tried to draw the Crusaders out to a place where he could defeat them more easily. This is in addition to the fact that he wanted to force them to march to him so that they would reach him tired, and he could save his energy and that of his men. Hence Salah ad-Deen began preparing to do something to draw the Crusaders out of their camp at Sephoria and make them move to the place of his choosing. He began to send out a group of his men every day to swoop down on the Crusaders and inflict casualties, attempting thereby to make them march towards him, but these repeated raids did not have any impact on the Crusaders and they did not leave their camp in Sephoria. So Salah ad-Deen decided to attack Tiberias itself, because when the Crusaders saw this attack, they would hasten to reach him, and thus he would achieve what he wanted.

Salah ad-Deen heads towards Tiberias Salah ad-Deen understood that by attacking Tiberias, he could provoke Raymond of Tripoli, who was known to be extremely jealous. In addition to that, Salah ad-Deen knew that by camping there, he could block the road leading to Tiberias, and at the same time control the route that passed through the eastern side to Tiberias and ended at the water of Lake Tiberias. At the same time the Crusaders, once they left Sephoria and marched towards him in rugged terrain, would have no access to water. On Thursday 23 Rabee' I 583 AH/2 July 1187 CE, Salah ad-Deen issued his commands to the main part of his army, telling them to advance towards Tiberias and attack, and the Crusaders fled to the citadel and fortified themselves there. Hardly had this news reached the Crusaders' ears when they went crazy, and King Guy called for a council of war.

Some suggested that they march towards the Muslims to fight them and prevent them from penetrating deep into Tiberias, whilst Raymond, ruler of Tripoli, advised the king to stay put in Sephoria, saying: Tiberias belongs to me and my wife. Salah ad-Deen has done what he did, but the citadel is still safe and my wife is there. I do not mind if he takes the citadel and my wife; what belongs to us there will come back to us. By God, I have seen the Muslim troops in the past and now, and I have never seen such a mass of troops in number and strength as are with Salah adDeen now. If he takes Tiberias, he cannot stay there unless all his troops are with him, and they will not be able to put up with staying away for so long from their homelands and families.

They will be forced to leave it and we will be able to ransom our prisoners. Here we can see that Salah ad-Deen's policy of creating divisions in the Crusader ranks bore fruit, as Raymond's opinion was strongly opposed to that of both Reynald of Kerak and Gerard, the leader of the Templers, who accused him of treachery and siding with the Muslims. Reynald responded to him by saying, "You have spoken too much and made us afraid of the Muslims. Or do you want them (to succeed) and are inclined towards them. Reynald and Gerard managed to influence King Guy, who ordered the troops to march towards Tiberias.

The Crusader army began to march from Sephoria led by Raymond, in very tough circumstances, and their morale was very low. Many of them did not support the idea of marching towards Tiberias, so they marched unwillingly. In addition, the Crusader army encountered troubles and losses on the way because of the ambushes set up by Salah ad-Deen; the hot weather, the rugged terrain and the lack of water compounded their difficulties. As a result of these harsh conditions, during the march from Sephoria to Tiberias the Crusader army suffered serious separation. The rearguard could not keep up with the rest of the army or keep in contact with the king in the middle, which forced King Guy to set up his camp before reaching Tiberias, despite the attempt of Raymond of Tripoli, who was in the vanguard, to urge the Crusaders to advance and reach the water.

This led to Raymond criticizing that decision, and his realization that defeat was inevitable. In fact, these instructions were careless, and are indicative of a lack of sound military thinking on the part of the Crusader commanders who were overwhelmed by strict religious emotions, because they made the king, the kingdom and the Crusader army fall into Salah ad-Den's trap. When he learned of their movements he commented: We have got what we wanted; what we sought has come to us. Praise be to Allah, we have strength and victory. If they are defeated, killed and captured, then there will be nothing to stop us from taking Tiberias and the entire coast, and there will be nothing to stop us conquering it.

Salah ad-Deen organized his troops that night, and he marched at the head of his army to meet the Crusaders at the top of Mount Tiberias which overlooks the plain of Hattin, which is an area like a hill that rises more than 300 meters above sea level; it has two peaks, which led the Arabs to call it the Horns of Hattin. When the Crusaders reached that hill, they were in a bad state of utter exhaustion and extreme thirst after Salah ad-Deen had prevented them from reaching the water. The two sides met on the plain of Mount Tiberias, to the west of the city, but night fell before they could engage in battle. On the morning of Friday 24 Rabee' II 583 AH/1187 CE, the two armies moved and clashed in an area called Lubiya, and the fighting lasted until darkness fell and separated them, and each side spent that night with their weapons by their sides. In fact, Salah ad-Deen's army spent those two nights with all the means that helped them to fight.

They were camping in an area of flat and with ample grazing and water. As for the Crusader army, their wretchedness and exhaustion had undoubtedly increased during that night because they were camping in an area that was very rugged and waterless, and the weather was very hot. It seems that Salah adDeen took advantage of the pause in fighting during that night to complete his