Part 42

He joined forces with the Crusader ruler of Antioch against the ruler of Mosul, Jawali, in 501 AH, and when Mawdood, emir of Mosul, attacked Antioch and Turbessel, Radwan refused to help him and shut the city gates of Aleppo in his face. Instead, he formed an alliance with Tancred, ruler of Antioch, against the mujahideen, and the gates of the city remained closed to the Muslim army for seventeen days.245 Despite this the Crusaders did not show any appreciation for his stance, as they besieged Aleppo in 504 AH, intensifying the siege until its inhabitants were forced to eat carrion and leaves, and they imposed upon Radwan the payment of an annual tribute.246 The deviant, heretical Rafidi, Batini Ismailis attained a prominent position in Aleppo as Radwan embraced their ideas and helped them, then used them to assassinate his political opponents.247 He was inclined towards the Fatimids, and prayers for al-Musta'li (the Fatimid caliph) and his vizier al-Afdal were offered in the Friday sermons in his land, and continued for two years in Aleppo. His conduct was deplorable; he brought the Batinis close to him and established a propagation centre for them in Aleppo so that their numbers increased. He died in 507 AH.248 The historian Abul-Mahasin described Radwan in the following terms: He was stingy and miserly, badly behaved, with no mercy in his heart towards his people. The Franks would raid and take prisoners, and he would not go out to confront them.249 Radwan was succeeded by his son Alp Arslan who was known as 'alAkhras' (the mute), who persecuted the Ismailis and killed their leader, Abu Tahir as-Sa'igh, and the other leaders of that sect. Mawdood's third campaign against Edessa Although Mawdood found himself alone in the Jihad movement, he nevertheless launched a sudden attack against Edessa in Dhul-Qa'dah 505 AH/March 1112 CE and besieged it. The city withstood the siege, so he decided to leave a military force around the city and attack Surooj in Muharram 506 AH/August 1112 CE, because it was the second Crusader fortress east of the Euphrates. With this military plan, Mawdood divided his forces and weakened them, abandoning his cautious approach regarding the Crusaders. The outcome was that Joscelin, ruler of Turbessel, caught up with him and defeated him, killing a large number of his men, so he had no choice but to retreat towards Edessa. However, Joscelin got there first to help Baldwin de Bourcq defend it. Whilst these events were going on, the Armenians in Edessa conspired against Baldwin and contacted Mawdood to rescue them from Crusader rule, agreeing to help him to capture a citadel that controlled the eastern sector of the city, which would then enable him to capture the entire city with ease. The rapid arrival of Joscelin prevented any implementation of this agreement, however; the Muslims were driven back and did not manage to wrest the city from the hands of the Crusaders.250 Mawdood's campaign — the Battle of Sannabra Mawdood still clung to the idea of Jihad against the Crusaders; this was the mission that the Seljuk sultan Muhammad had entrusted to him as his representative in Mesopotamia and Syria. At the beginning of 507 AH (June 1113 CE), he moved at the head of an Islamic alliance to fight the Crusaders in Jerusalem, in response to the call for help from Tughtigin the atabeg of Damascus, after his emirate was subjected to fierce attacks from the Crusaders of Jerusalem who went through the valley of Taym to the Bekaa, and reached Baalbek. Tamerk the ruler of Sinjar and Ayaz ibn Ilghazi the emir of Mardin joined this alliance.251 The goal of the Muslims was the region of Palestine, and they succeeded in drawing out King Baldwin to the lands around Damascus, as far as the bridge of Sannabra, which is located at the headwaters of the River Jordan. On the thirteenth of Muharram they met in a battle which ended in victory for the Muslims and dealt a crushing blow to the Crusaders. The king of Jerusalem went back to Tiberias252 and soon Roger of Antioch and Pons of Tripoli came to help him, whereas the ruler of Edessa could not come because his principality needed to be guarded constantly.253 After the battle, the Muslims progressed as far as Tiberias, but they did not want to venture into confronting the Crusader alliance, especially since winter had begun, so they decided to withdraw to Damascus.254 That was the first time that Mosul and Damascus cooperated in fighting the Crusaders in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The atabeg Mawdood played an important role in that he restored the Muslims' self-confidence, so they turned their strategy towards the Crusaders from a defensive one to an offensive one. He crystallized the idea of unity among Muslims, and gave it a political and a military dimension, so their leaders became ready to cooperate, with commitment and firm intentions.255 The murder of Mawdood Mawdood and his allies sent a messenger to the Seljuk sultan in Isfahan, telling him the good news of the victories that they had achieved, and sending some booty with the messenger, along with some of the Frankish prisoners and the heads of some of the slain.