Part 63

In fact the fighting was nothing more or less than an outright massacre in which nine-tenths of the German troops were killed. Konrad himself received two wounds, one of which was to his head.409 Konrad III tried in vain to gather the remnants of his army, but fled the battlefield that evening with those of his men who remained, of whom there were few, heading back to Nicaea, whilst the Seljuks seized an unquantifiable amount of booty.410 They seized everything in their camp, including supplies and horses, and took many of the men captive. The booty continued to be sold in the markets of Muslim cities for several months after that.411 From this crushing defeat we may be certain that the German army failed to achieve the goal for which it had come to the east, and this had a negative effect on the Second Crusade.412 The Seljuks of Rum slow the advance of the French army The French army, led by King Louis VII, set out later than the German army. The French forces were more or less equal in number to the Germans, but were more organized, and Louis VII had brought his wife Eleanor (of Aquitaine) with him.413 Whilst the fighting was still going on between the Seljuks and the German forces, the French forces crossed the Bosporus into Asia Minor and reached Nicaea, where the French king learned of the defeat of the German king, so he hastened to console and help him. Despite the precautions taken by the French king, the Seljuk sultan Mas'ood caught him unawares in the town of Decerphios near Antioch, and started skirmishes with the Crusaders until he reached the bridge over the river, where a fierce battle took place. The Crusaders managed to fight their way across the bridge, whereupon Mas'ood retreated inside the walls of the city, after which the Crusaders were able to continue on their way, and Mas'ood did not take the risk of coming down to the plain to pursue them. The Turkmen tribes who were spread throughout the border region confronted them, however, and rained down arrows upon them, and they pursued the French and killed some of the rearguard, stray soldiers and the sick; nothing saved them from complete annihilation except the fall of darkness, when the Turkmen withdrew.415 The French army did not reach Antioch until after it had suffered huge losses. After the German king recovered from his illness, he completed his journey to Palestine by sea, courtesy of the Byzantine fleet.416 The German and French kings met in Jerusalem with King Baldwin III of Jerusalem, his mother Melisande and senior commanders and clergy of the Kingdom of Jerusalem; they discussed the first territory which the campaign would seek to occupy, and they decided that their first target would be Damascus 417 The Crusader attack on Damascus The allied Frankish armies headed towards Damascus, which was governed at that time by Mu'een ad-Deen Unur, the atabeg of king Mujeer ad-Deen Abiq ibn Muhammad ibn Buri. Mujeer ad-Deen was the closest of the Muslim emirs to the Crusaders and had cooperated with them,418 hence he did not expect to be the first victim of this huge Frankish army. Nonetheless, when he found out about the Franks' intentions and their march towards Damascus, he took all necessary precautions to defend the city, and he sent word asking for help from Noor ad-Deen Mahmood and Sayf adDeen Ghazi.419 It was the habit of Noor ad-Deen Mahmood to study the international and regional situation, to follow developments and analyze them deeply. Thus he would learn lessons which would help him to determine his future policies. The Second Crusade was the most significant event in the region — and in the whole world — in 543 AH/1148 CE, and for Noor ad-Deen Mahmood it was the first incident of its kind since he had come to power in 541 AH/1146 CE, and he practised the approach mentioned above whenever he could. Noor ad-Deen was expecting his emirate — Aleppo — to be the first target of this campaign, because the army had formed and headed east against the backdrop of the fall of the capital of the Crusader principality of Edessa, in 539 AH/1144 CE, at the hand of 'Imad adDeen. What happened instead was that the campaign changed its expected goal and headed towards Damascus, which it besieged in an attempt to occupy it. This change was a great surprise to Noor ad-Deen, and an even greater surprise to Mujeer ad-Deen Abiq, the ruler of Damascus, and his atabeg Mu'een ad-Deen Unur, the de facto ruler who was in control of affairs in Damascus. The reasons for Noor ad-Deen's surprise have been mentioned; as for the ruler of Damascus, it came as a surprise to him because he was the only friend of the Franks among the Muslims in that region, and there had been strong cooperation between the two sides against 'Imad ad-Deen Zangi when the latter was attempting to capture Damascus. Mujeer ad-Deen was not expecting the Crusaders to attack their friends in Damascus and ignore their main enemy in Aleppo. Noor ad-Deen Mahmood learned a lesson from this sudden alteration in the campaign's target.