Part 27

On some occasions this role was played by the principalities of Kerak and Montreal (ash-Shawbak), which belonged to the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Crusader kingdoms, the papacy that supported them and some of the clergy and thinkers worked to develop new strategies as a result of the failure of the military strategy, using methods other than military ones. This was based on the propagation of Christianity and the call for increased missionary activities among Muslims. We are not discussing the success or failure of this strategy; rather our concern is to point out that this was one of the alternatives that the Franks tried to use in order to achieve their goals. The Crusaders presented themselves as defenders of Christianity in the east, regardless of their sectarian differences, so they were portrayed as having come to save Byzantium from the Muslim Seljuk danger. They also depicted their march to the Islamic regions as having the aim of liberating the eastern Christians from the Islamic yoke, guaranteeing as a result that they would help the Armenians and Syrians as they began to take control of Muslim regions. But this was a temporary strategy which began to diminish with the passage of time.124 Moreover, they formed alliances with deviant Islamic sects such as the Bdtini125 movements. Although these strategies were followed, in general, by all the Crusaders, that did not prevent some commanders from following some temporary strategies that were specific to particular circumstances, which means that some of these principalities probably adopted policies that went against the general principles. From examining these strategies it seems to us that the success of the Muslim forces in resisting the Crusader threat may be measured by the extent to which they adopted strategies and used means that put mitigated the danger posed by the crusaders' strategies, either by adopting opposing strategies or by preventing the Crusaders from implementing their strategies in actuality. This may be noted from the development of Muslim reactions to the Crusader challenge, starting at the time of Imad ad-Deen and Noor ad-Deen Zangi, up to the time of Salah ad-Deen al-Ayubi and finally the achievements of the Mamluk state. But it should not be understood from this that this development in the Muslim reaction during the time of the Zangids, Ayubids and Mamluks always took place within a positive framework. Rather, what happened sometimes was that the Muslim side, or some of its forces or individuals, contributed to the success of the Crusader strategies.126 Resistance movement during the Seljuk period The shock of the fall of Jerusalem woke many Islamic scholars, judges and rulers from their slumber, and they realized the seriousness of the invasion after it began to threaten their existence and position in the cities of those lands, above and beyond the threat to Muslim lands and Islamic beliefs. Hence the Islamic scholars and judges of Syria, in Damascus, Aleppo and Tripoli, hastened to seek help from the central authorities in Baghdad and the local rulers, knowing that they possessed the military strength that was capable of confronting this invasion.127 But the response of the Islamic scholars and judges of Syria to the Crusader invasion was not limited to seeking help and support; it went further than that and included many other means, such as writing treatises about Jihad against the invasion, so as to prepare an intellectual framework and educate the Muslims in general, as it attracted a great deal of attention from the Islamic scholars and scholars before and during the Crusader invasion. The need of the hour was for an intellectual mobilization that would spread Islamic teachings. This became essential at a time when Syria was involved in political, sectarian and military conflicts — conflicts which are reflected in the history books about the Islamic east. As a result, many biographies of rulers, king and ruling families were written, as well as books about conflict with the Crusaders. Hence a number of Islamic scholars and judges hastened to enlighten Muslim societies, and from their works we can see that there were two groups. The first group focused on writing and preaching in a traditional manner, explaining issues and principles of Islam to the people. The second group focused on urging the people to fight and writing about the topic of Jihad; they urged Muslims to get involved because they were aware of the general weakness of the Muslims' faith and their negligence concerning matters of religion. Hence many books were written before and during the Crusader invasion of the Levant. What concerns us here is the books of the Islamic scholars who urged an Islamic Jihad and sought to mobilize Muslims and teach them about their religion so that they could resist that invasion.128 Among the most prominent of these Islamic scholars was: The juristic scholar 'Ali ibn Tahir as-Sulami (431500AH/1039-1106 CE) His full name was Ali ibn Tahir ibn Ja'far al-Qaysi as-Sulami adDimashqi Al-Shafi'i. He was a Syrian scholar who as a result of that invasion became a preacher and promoter of Jihad, giving speeches and lessons in the mosques, travelling from one mosque to another throughout Syria and Palestine.