Title: Fāṭimids, Crusaders and the Fall of Islamic Jerusalem: Foes or Allies?
Abstract: Abstract The fall of Islamic Jerusalem to the crusaders during the first Crusade created a sense of agitation and anger amongst Muslims as Islamic Jerusalem had been under their rule for centuries before. A considerable number of scholars have pointed at the Fāṭimids as the main cause of the fall of Islamic Jerusalem, claiming that the region would not have fallen had it not been for the alliance and collaboration between the Fāṭimids and the crusaders. This article is an attempt to present a critical analysis of the historical narratives of Muslim and non-Muslim historians who have continued to accuse the Fāṭimids of collaborating with the crusaders and depict them as the main cause of the fall of Islamic Jerusalem during the first Crusade. It also tries to answer the following two questions. Did the Fāṭimids really invite the crusaders to invade al-Sham? And is it true that the Fāṭimids misunderstood the crusaders’ aims and targets? Keywords: Fāṭimid caliphate – politicsEgypt – politicsCrusades – 1st Crusade (1096–1099)al-Afdal, Fāṭimid vizierPalestine – politicsJerusalem – capture by 1st Crusade (1099) Notes 1 Abū l-[Hdot]asan ‘Alī l-Shaybānī Ibn al-Athīr, Al-kāmil fi l-tārīkh volumes I–XI (Beirut: Manshūrāt Mu[hdot]ammad ‘Alī Baydūn, Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya, 1998), IX: 19. 2 Othman Al-Tel, The First Islamic Conquest of Aelia (Islamic Jerusalem): A Critical Analytical Study of the Early Islamic Historical Narratives and Sources (Dundee: Al-Maktoum Institute Academic Press, 2003), pp. 109–120. 3 Hadia Dajani-Shakeel, “Diplomatic Relations between Muslims and Frankish Rulers 1097–1153 AD”, in Crusaders and Muslims in Twelfth-Century Syria, ed. M. Shatzmiller (Leiden: Brill, 1993), pp. 190–215, at p. 190. 4 H.A.R. Gibb, “The Caliphate and the Arab States”, in A History of the Crusades, ed. K.M. Setton, volumes I–VI (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin, 1969), I: 85–87. 5 Nikita Elisseeff, “The reaction of the Syrian Muslims after the foundation of the First Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem”, in The Crusaders: The Essential Readings, ed. T.F. Madden (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 2002), pp. 221–232, at p. 223. 6 Carol Hillenbrand, The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999), p. 150. 7 Ibid., 20–21. 8 Karen Armstrong, “Sacred space: the holiness of Islamic Jerusalem”, Journal of Islamic Jerusalem Studies 1, i (1997): 5–20, at 10. 9 The Isma‘īlī Shī‘a are the second largest grouping in the Shi‘ite school of thought after the Twelvers (Ithna‘ashariyya). The Isma‘ilis get their name from their acceptance of Ismā‘īl ibn Ja‘far as a divinely appointed spiritual successor to Ja‘far al-[Sdot]ādiq. 10 H.A.R. Gibb, The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusade: Extracted and Translated from the Chronicle of Ibn al-Qalanisi (London: Luzac, 1932), p. 45. 11 Ibid. 12 Ibn al-Athīr, Al-kāmil fi l-tārīkh, IX:19. 13 Gibb, Damascus Chronicle, 45. 14 Ibn al-‘Ibrī, Tārīkh mukhta⋅ar al-diwal (Beirut: Dār al-Mashriq, 1992), p. 197. 15 Mustafa A. Hiyari, “Crusader Jerusalem (1099–1187 AD)”, in Jerusalem in History, ed. K.J. Asali (New York: Olive Branch Press, 1990), pp. 130–176, at p. 140. 16 Ibid., 137–140. 17 Ibn al-Athīr, Al-kāmil fi l-tārīkh, IX: 13–14; the English translation of this statement is quoted from D.S. Richards, The Chronicle of Ibn al-Athir for the Crusading Period from al-Kamil fi’l-Tarikh. Part 1. The Years 491–541/1097–1146: The Coming of the Franks and the Muslim Response (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006), pp. 13–14. 18 Hillenbrand, The Crusades, 46. 19 Ibid., 54 20 Ibn al-Athīr, Al-kāmil fi l-tārīkh, IX: 14. See also Richards, Chronicle of Ibn al-Athir, 14. 21 William of Tyre, A History of Deeds Done beyond the Sea, trans. and annotated by E.A. Babcock and A.C. Krey, volumes I–II (New York: Octagon Books, 1976), I: 224. 22 Al-Nuwayrī, Shihāb al-Dīn A[hdot]mad b. ‘Abd al-Wahhāb, Nihāyat al-‘arab fī funūn al-adab (Cairo: Al-Hay’a l-Mi⋅riyya l-‘Āmma lil-Kitāb, 1993), XXIX: 250. 23 Jamāl al-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Taghribardī, Al-nujūm al-żāhira fī mulūk Mi⋅r wa l-Qāhira. Commented and introduced by Shams al-Din M., volumes I–XVI (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmyya, 1992), V: 145. 24 The Anonymous Author, Gesta Francorum et Aliorum Hierosolimitanorum (The Deeds of the Franks and the Other Pilgrims to Jerusalem) trans. and ed. R. Hill (London: Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd, 1962), p. 37. 25 Peter Tudebode, Historia de Hierosolymitano Itinere, trans. with introduction and notes by J.H. Hill and L.L. Hill (Philadelphia, PA: American Philosophical Society, 1974), p. 52. 26 Albert of Aachen, Historia Ierosolimitana (History of the Journey to Jerusalem), ed. and trans. S.B. Edgington (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 231. 27 Ibid., 230–231. 28 Raymond d’Aguilers, Historia Francorum Qui Ceperunt Iherusalem, trans. with introduction and notes by J.H. Hill and L.L. Hill (Philadelphia, PA: American Philosophical Society, 1968), pp. 40–41. 29 William of Tyre, A History of Deeds, I: 223–224. 30 C.M. Watson, The Story of Jerusalem (London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd. 1912), p. 172. 31 Dajani-Shakeel, “Diplomatic Relations”, 193. 32 Gibb, “The caliphate and the Arab states”, I: 95. 33 Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades: The First Crusade and the Foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, volumes I–III (Cambridge: The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press, 1951), I: 229. 34 Ibid., I: 229. 35 Sa‘īd ‘Abd al-Fattā[hdot] ‘Ashūr, Al-[hdot]araka l-⋅alībiyya: ⋅af[hdot]a musharrifa fī tārīkh al-jihād al-islāmī fi l-‘u⋅ūr al-wusṭā, volumes I–II (Cairo: Maktabat al-Anglū al-Mi⋅riyya, 1986), I: 156. 36 Ibid., I: 156–157; see also René Grousset, The Sum of History, trans. A. Paterson and H. 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Shahīn (Moscow: Dār al-Taqaddum, 1986), pp. 88–89; Abū ‘lyān, ‘Ażmī, Al-Quds bayn al-i[hdot]tilāl wa l-ta[hdot]rīr ‘abr al-‘u⋅ūr al-qadīma wa l-wusṭā wa l-[hdot]adītha 3000 BC–1967 CE (al-Zarqa’, Jordan: Mu’assasat Bakīr lil-Dirāsāt al-Thaqāfiyya, 1993), pp. 172–173; Ibn al-‘Ibrī, Tārīkh mukhta⋅ar al-diwal, 196–197; W.B. Stevenson, The Crusaders in the East: A Brief History of the Wars of Islam with the Latins in Syria During the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1907), p. 20; R.C. Smail, The Crusaders in Syria and the Holy Land (London: Thames & Hudson, 1973), p. 13. 48 Runciman, History of the Crusades, I: 229; Smail, Crusaders in Syria, 13. 49 Hillenbrand, The Crusades, 44. 50 Dajani-Shakeel, “Diplomatic Relations”, 192. 51 Grousset, Sum of History, 174. 52 Hans Eberhard Mayer, The Crusades, trans. J. Gillingham (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972), p. 54. 53 Anonymous, Gesta Francorum, xxxvi.
Publication Year: 2010
Publication Date: 2010-03-18
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 3
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