Middle Nation Book Discussion: The Crusades Through Arab Eyes | Session Six

Everyone. Welcome to the Middle Nation book discussion. We're discussing, as you know, the book, The Crusades Threw Arab Eyes by Amin Malouf, who is a Lebanese, I think, Lebanese French writer. This is our fifth session, I believe, and we're gonna take a sort of a different approach than what we have have done in the past just so that we can avoid any silences. Brother Amar is going to just talk about what this particular section of the book that we've that we've gone through.

And then if anyone has any comments or questions or points to add, then just raise your hand rather than him just opening it up to, does anyone have anything to say? If you have something to say, raise your hand, and he'll he'll he'll give you the mic. I just wanted to sort of introduce it because I find it really fascinating, and this is this is part of the whole reason why we're doing this why we're doing this book. Because, like okay. In in today's section, we were just talking about it in the chat.

There's sort of an overarching theme that you see developing, and it really runs through the whole episode, the whole historical episode, which is kind of this theme of what you could call, like, the war behind the war or the war inside the war, which is like the the struggle inside our own house, inside the the house of the Muslims. And that that that the struggle amongst ourselves really decides whether or not the the French, the invader, the crusader wins or loses before any battle even takes place. It's the situation within our own house that will determine that. It's the idea that sovereignty and economic sovereignty, political independence, and so forth really rises or falls based on the the state of our internal cohesion or internal fragmentation. Because when you go over like I say, when you go over everything that happened, and, like, particularly, it's really coming into sharper focus with these with the with with the episodes that we've recently gone through in this last section of the book.

You know? The sieges, the the the coalitions, the betrayals, the sort of you see these people emerging who are sort of gatekeepers. You have assassination. You know? And you start to look at it really I was just saying again in the chat, in the book discussion telegram chat.

And if you're not in there, you should join it. Someone can can maybe put a link to it if we haven't already. It's it's not it it it's not just a history that you're reading, or in fact, you can read history as an allegory. And I think this is part of the reason why Allah tells us to always look back at stories before us, the the look back at the nations before us, the peoples before us, and the history, to study the history, because it really represents an allegory of the modern era. You know, the the the crusades were not just a a clash between the Europeans, the French, and the Muslim world or in Islam.

It was also a test for us whether our own societies could coordinate and and and cooperate and have solidarity, work together, cooperate and so forth, without there being divisions, without people being individual leaders being driven by ego, driven by suspicion, driven by very sort of small minded or short term minded power interests, their own self interest, and so forth. And that's why I say, like, this this book, and and as I say, especially this particular section that we're into now, reads like an allegory of the modern age. I mean, if you if you exchange or you swap the the French with any external pressure and, again, it's on on any people, not just the Muslims, but any external pressure, colonization, Western pressure, so forth, you know, sanctions, debt traps, propaganda warfare, proxy conflicts, corporate capture, economic sabotage, and so on, the inner mechanics are the same. It's the same situation that you're dealing with across across time. And and every era produces the same sorts of archetypes.

You have, like, the coalition builder who tries to think in sequences and tries to secure the the long term agenda while trying to sort of strengthen the rear before marching forward. You have gatekeepers who are actually even more afraid of allies than they are of their enemies. You have opportunists who would rather make a deal with an outsider than even share a little bit of authority with their own perceived local rivals. I mean we see these things happening in the current age. These are these are like archetypes that appear throughout history.

And I think it's good for us to sort of, like, identify these archetypes, have a sort of profile in our own mind. I'm not necessarily saying that you have to write it all out yourself, but in your own mind, form a a sort of a a vision of these archetypes that you find in these stories of in these stories of history, and then recognize when a state or a leader or a people or your own self reflects some of these whether positive or negative traits that you find in these archetypes. So as we're going through all of these points, brother has several points that we're gonna recap. Don't just think about it in terms of what happened in history. Think about it in terms of what type of leadership is this.

What leadership archetypes, what leadership strategies are we looking at in history? What kind of society is this? What kind of instincts were being followed by the people at that time? What were the power dynamics at that time, and how did they interact with each other? And it's very easy for you.

In fact, it'd be very difficult to not see this. It's very easy to bring that forward into the twenty first century and into the the current dynamics that we're facing. Because the the fact of the matter is we talked about this in the last discussion that was just recently uploaded on the channel about the idea of history repeating itself and that history repeating itself is not inevitable. But one thing that is inevitable and one thing that does repeat throughout all of history, of course, is human nature itself. Our our nature our human nature is the same now as it was a thousand years ago or two thousand years ago, but how we how we manifest that and how we regulate that hopefully has evolved.

So this is one of the chapters in history that teaches us how you can spot the difference, for example, between a leader who actually is building a future versus leaders who just are protecting their own position, their own seat. And this is an issue that we have dealt with time and time and time again, and it's the it's the sort of central sort of lever that the kufar and that our enemies and, again, this isn't just between Muslims and and our enemies. It's this is for all people, really. This is a this is a dynamic that plays out had played out throughout the whole history of colonization, where you have local leaders who are collaborators or local leaders who are more interested in their in their internal rivalries than they are in the external threat. So I just want to sort of talk about this overarching theme that I I sort of perceived in this recent section.

And, again, it it it applies to the sort of totality of this story and this history and how that theme never ceases to be relevant. So with that, I will hand it over to brother Omar, and I hope everyone enjoys this session and benefits from it. And, again, anyone who has anything to say from the speakers, just go ahead and raise your hand if you have something to say. And for the audience, we've explained this before. We don't give the microphone to people that we don't know.

We don't know what your level is at intellectually. We don't know what your level at is in terms of your understanding. We don't even know if you've read the book. So we're not just going to randomly hand the microphone. We want these sessions to be very organized and orderly and try to maximize the benefit for the listeners.

So if you are interested, if you're if you're not assigned a microphone and we don't know you and you're interested in participating in these discussions, then do come over to the Telegram book discussion so that we can we can get to know you. And then, inshallah, potentially, time, we'll be able to give you a mic. Okay. Brother Omar, onto you.

Thank you so much, Ustel, for this brilliant, introduction. So, this really gave some ideas as to how can, how we can navigate, this session inshallah. So, first of all, we have to remind our listeners that the book although we have chosen the book, the crusades to Arab eyes by Emil Maruf for the discussion, the main reason we chose this book is that it exclusively relies on, quote, unquote, Arab sources, and we've, explained before that it again, using the word Arab is not entirely accurate because, from our side, which is the Muslim side, many of the of the of the protagonists or the the main characters are not even Arab. They're Turkish, Kurdish, that kind of thing. And so it would have been more appropriate to use the word, the crusades through, Muslim eyes.

So he read that exclusively on Muslim sources. However, Amin aloof is a, is a literateur. He's a novelist. And so you cannot help and this is, gained through the supplementary reading that we've been trying to introduce to the book club because at first, I was trying to just add more information so that we can make the discussion richer. But, however, when I try to read other sources just to, like, complement the the the the data, I found out that many of the incidents that took place, they were omitted by him.

I'm not sure why exactly, but I'm believing that it, he was trying to construct some sort of plot that would be appealing to the to the reader, whether they are European or or Muslim or what have you. And it was better that way to construct this plot so that there's some sort of climax being built up to all the way towards the the the the the battle of Hattin, for example, or the conquest of Arca, marking the end of the of the Faraji occupation. So this this lack of of of of storytelling on his part, just to make the story better, actually served some sort of narrative that's not the the narrative that is accurate, not not entirely reflecting the true nature of the of of what happened. So for example, we see an example, and this is not mentioned on

the book.

We see another example of the Muslim rulers. They're not always being at loggerheads with each other because at first, we started that everyone every Muslim ruler ruler was, you know he he he's he's constructing this narrative in the book that everyone was just trying to like, as I said, they're gatekeepers. They're more afraid of allies than they are afraid of their enemies. So we see that in Duqaq. We see that in the one.

We see that in in sometimes in Tuftukin. But, for example, al Abdul, which is he was the the the ruler of the the Fatimid, the zero Egypt, He didn't stand by watching the Faraj occupy Palestine. Right? He he sent campaign after campaign after campaign, all of which they failed trying to save Palestine. He sent campaign after campaign trying to save Palestine, all of which failed.

But this is not the point. The point is that he tried. This is not mentioned in the book. Why? Because he was like, this is not good for the storytelling.

We want to say that the the Muslim rulers or the Arab rulers were sleeping. They weren't paying full attention to what happening. No. Al Abdul was was paying full attention, and he was trying. The fact that he failed doesn't account in in I mean, but it does account for us.

Why? Because we have our own philosophy of of what success success means. Success means that you keep trying. That is the that is what's important, And that is not that is the the the measure by which we measure how rulers try. For example, people most of the people know everyone knows Salahab bin Alayyid.

Right? Everyone knows him. East and West. Fewer people know his predecessor, Muhammad, his teacher, his his his mentor. Right?

And even fewer people know, Ahmed ibn Zinqi, the father of Nur ad Din Mahmud. But if you come to ask someone about someone called Sharaf ibn, Naudud, for example, no one knows him. Although this guy and the book, in the chapter as we should see inshallah, he made tremendous efforts, and he had he had a very desperate he had a very tragic, you know, death, but he was one of the very first brick builders in the project of of of greeting from the Farunch. So the fact that he didn't succeed in our Muslim philosophy doesn't mean that he was a failure. It means that he was trying to build on the way.

So we see an example of Muslim rulers not being at loggerheads with each other, for example, at the siege of the of Fatimid Tyre. Right? The the most of the of the coast of Bilad Hashem was under Fatimid rule, and they fell, yeah, in one city after another. Tyre was was one of the very last to fall. Yeah.

It kept holding out against the French for a very, very, very long time, But, of course, yeah, there's so much one can do. So Fatima Thayer requested the aid of Seljuk at Damascus. When we say Seljuk at Damascus, we mean nominal loyalty to the Seljuk, but as we as the our listeners, if they will remember, Bilad Hashem was nominally under Seljuk rule, but, of course, each, each emir of a city was their own boss. Right? They would pray for the sultan in in private prayers, but, essentially, on the ground in real life, they were totally independent.

So the ruler of Damascus was someone called Turtukin, the Al Qa'bat Turtukin, and he was a Muslim. He was Sunni. He was not a wali or a governor of the Fatimids. No. He was nominally under Seljuqs.

But Tyre, Fatimid Tyre, requested aid from Seljuk at Damascus in the face of the Ferengi siege by Baldwin the first. Right? The attempts were valiant, and they paid off because Tuttokin was one of the strongest rulers of Yadisham at the time, and he was able to conduct some raids on the Farajic possession possessions to relieve Tyre. And to be honest, Tuktukin was able to force Baldwin to return back to Akkri, which had fallen before, and thus Tyre was saved. And not only was Tayyah saved, but al Abdul and Tuktukin, they reached an understanding.

This is the very first time because, again, we have to remind ourselves. Most people, the the common, the common, what do you say, the common story being told is that only at the time of did the reunite into a cohesive force. This is not the case. We see here this was before Salah had been maybe seventy, sixty years before Salah had been was even on the on on the scene, and we see that Egypt and understanding. Potomac Egypt was Shiai.

Beladdishem was Sunni, and this did not stop the the the the interactions, and this did not stop the collaboration between the two powers in the face of the French. Right? This understanding even caused Baldwin the first to try and invade Egypt later on. I'm not sure why he would try to invade Egypt using 200 knights, but for some reason, he thought he could do it. And, course, this attempt was futile, and he died along the way.

And he didn't even return back to Jerusalem. He he he died returning back to Jerusalem, and his cousin Baldwin the second, he was the the count of Edessa. He took over and became king of Jerusalem, having the title Baldwin the second. Okay? This was was one aspect of the collaboration.

Another aspect of the collaboration so now we see interregional, like, between across the region, between Egypt and and even in between and. Right? Because Al Mosul, the Emirate of Mosul and, again, we have to highlight here the importance of the Emirate of Mosul. The Emirate of Mosul, if our listeners will remember, every every powerful army that was sent over by the subjects when they wanted or they decided to intervene in the politics of Beirut Hashem was all was always sent from the from the Emirate Of Mosul. Why?

Because this was a very rich emirate at the time. It had resources. It had proximity to to the Salgic lands, meaning that it had the ability to to to gather up armies, to to to even export armies to Gilead Hashem, and it was also it had proximity also to Gilead Hashem. So it it was sort of in the middle between all the regions, and it was able to be a pain in the back of the Farronch, and it prevented them from accessing even going further into Muslim heartlands, which were head by the subjects. Right?

So we see we have seen before, of course, Jawli, the the Emir of Mosul, and before him or or after him, we have seen many Emirates. So we have we had Jakarmash, we had Jawli, and we even had the very first one introduced in the story. I think his name was Kabuka. Right? So these were fearful leaders, and they were they were feared by the Farronch and, of course, by the leaders of.

This is the point that was making about Muslim leaders fearing allies, sometimes even more than fearing their enemies. So, at this particular point in the story, we are introduced to, the Emir Sharfid Din Mahdud ibn al Tantakim. Right? This is a guy who I believe is very under he's he's he's he's not pursuing his due in terms of Muslim history. Right?

He was the emir of Mosul, and if immediately, when you see someone being elevated to the emirate of of Of Al Mosul, you understand immediately that this is a man who is capable of leading armies. He's a strong manager. He's he's able to manage assets, and he is willing to go to Bereldesham to set to set things straight with the French and sometimes with Muslim rule rulers in Be'lat Hashem. So, Shahrar al Din Mahlud, he led an alliance, and he tried to capture Edessa not once, not twice, but three times. And this tells us the importance that he he he understood, and this also gives us the the the the the excuse that sometimes people deny at the very fur at the very beginning of the story that he wanted to make sure that Edessa in his back was under Muslim hands in order to to be sure that he was able to roam in B'lal Al Sham without being surrounded by from all parts.

So Edessa was always a pain in the back of the Muslims because it was in their backs when they were heading to Be'er El Shem. So he tried to capture El Shem three times, but he couldn't take it. And we see him now during the attack of El Dessa, Ridwan, which returned back again to Ridwan, the the king of Aleppo. So Budwan used these opportunities or one of the opportunities when Modu was attacking Edessa, and he tried to attack Antioch, and he tried to claim some of Aleppo's possessions. And, of course, Thancred, the emir of of of of Antioch at the time, he retaliated so aggressively, and due to the once shortsighted and highly selfish policies, no Muslim ruler was willing to aid him.

So we have this dynamic that I am trying to assert my sovereignty, and I'm trying to assert my place without resorting to any help from my fellow Muslim leaders, which is, in my opinion, a very counterproductive strategy to say the least. So no one is asking you to to to leave your seat behind, but at the same time, being so selfish and not compromising at all or sometimes even compromising with the French, but not compromising with your fellow Muslim leaders results in that kind of situation. Right? No one was willing to help Rutan because no one was believing that he would help them in return in the future or that even sometimes Rutan when when when when an army was sent, and as we shall see later on, an army was sent by the sultan of the subjects to aid Aleppo. He he would close the gates of the city in their faces.

So this is the kind of guy you wouldn't like to interact with. You wouldn't like to help. Even if he's trying to assert his own sovereignty is and even even if he's trying to protect Aleppo from the, he's doing it in in in the worst way possible. Right? So that this is how we see Muldoon entering the scene and how he yeah.

How good one was was trying to protect Aleppo in his own strategy, but it was a very failed strategy. Now as a reason as a as a result of this happening, Maldud trying to capture Edessa and Rutwan trying to attack Antioch in in in the in the shadow of this campaign and then being attacked himself and not being helped by any Muslim ruler, the residents of Aleppo were fed up with this whole thing, with this situation because they they they thought that Ridwan was was going about this the wrong way multiple times. Right? At at some point, if our listeners would remember, the Farrange asked for one, and he complied. Unfortunately, they asked him to remove the the the crescent from from top of one of of of from the top of the Great Mosque Of Aleppo and place a cross on top of it, which, of course, infuriated the Alapans because the Alapans were very they were very proud people of their own city.

Right? And we would see how this will turn out. So the Alapans were fed up with host with this whole thing, and they asked Rutan. They told him that we're sending a delegation to the sultan of the subjects asking him for help. Right?

We're going to Baghdad. And they went indeed to the caliphate, and they made a commotion, and they interrupted the Friday prayers twice, one time at the mosque of the sultan and another time at the mosque of the caliphate. And it incidentally, at at this particular point in time, the Eastern Roman Empire had had been at loggerheads with the Farangs. Right? They because they were sort of under under the understanding that they will the Farangs will take some lands, capture some lands from the Muslims, and return them to the Eastern Empire.

I'm not sure why the Eastern Emperor, the Eastern Roman Emperor thought that French would, you know, take the city and deliver it to him. But for some reason, he thought so, and they they were having, you know, clashes on border territories between Antioch and Cilicia. So this this led the Eastern Roman emperor to send an envoy to Baghdad at the same time as the arriving at the same time as the Alethan delegation. And the employee was asking for a military alliance between so an an alliance consisting of the subjects and the Eastern Romans against the French. And, of course, when the Aladdin delegation heard that, they were infuriated because they were thinking they said out loud so the the the the the Eastern Roman emperor is, like, is is more protectable Islam of the than the the than the caliph.

And, of course, this is, like, this is nonsense. This is nonsensical because the Eastern Roman emperor was not, you know, fearful fearful for Islam or trying to protect Islam. And sometimes in modern times, the same situation happens. People think that, some some sort of, non Muslim ruler trying to ally with the Muslims when he is, you know, he's trying to protect Islam. No.

The Eastern Roman Emperor simply was looking for looking out for his own interests, and he thought that he should now seek the the the assistance of the Muslims against the Faraj, whom he led pass through his lands in the first place. So, yeah, I mean, I'm not sure why they they were fooled, but for some reason, they were fooled. Anyway, as a result of this delegation yes, sister Samir?

Brother, thank you so much for the summary that so far that we've been through the history, but I I just wanted to add just like you mentioned how the people there started, you know, saying those slogans, how the is the Roman what's the emperor or whatever. He's the better than the the sultan or the caliphate. Also, there is this thing about how now that this period is considered as a period where the Muslims areas were stagnant. They were not doing anything. Like, when you when they narrated, they narrated, like, they have normalized the the the the existence of the the French in the area.

And this this is how it's narrated in most of the historical books that they were not doing anything. Even though, as he said, there were so many things happening behind the scenes or small skirmishes. Remember, there was no social media at that time or anything. But the the Muslim leaders did not just accept the fact, but they were doing things that not everyone would know, or, they would, we know about this history because of the, the the the writer. He got the the chronicles from, you know, those, influential people that wrote those historical records.

But the layman, the people there, they did not know, obviously. They would not know all these things except after, later on way later on. So what I wanted to say is this period is thought of as a a period where the Muslim did not do anything. Like, they accepted the fact that the French has just come and settled it, and they have made their own kingdoms. And we just were the the rulers just accepted it, and which is not the case as you've just mentioned.

And this also leads to the fact that the French were so arrogant of their wins that they have even thought of conquering Egypt with what how many soldiers that Baldwin king Baldwin used to try to invade Egypt, thinking that the Muslims are weak and they are divided. And, you know, yes, they were, but they were not to that to to to that level. And I think it was 200 or 300. I don't know how I think 600 in total.

200. Yes. Yes.

Yeah. Who tried to invade Egypt, which is really shows you how arrogant they were on their on their winds and and how the Muslims were not really just accepting the fact that the the the the French are there to stay. It there was some resistance, and yet it was not, you know, highlighted in modern times.

Yes. I think this is a tendency on our own part to generalize. So people really like so the layman, especially, they really like to say, look, it's the same happening like yesterday. The Muslim rulers are da da da da. That's it.

Like, this is not the yeah. You cannot make that that statement. This is absolutely lazy to say the least. Right? So they would say, oh, alright.

Then then how did the did the Faranj do that? They did that because some of the Muslim rulers were seeking their own self interest, and this allowed them to do what they did. But to say that everyone was accepting of that and even even the same people, sometimes the same people would do something to aid the out of self interest, and then they would do something to to stop the, also out of the self interest or sometimes in the interest of Islam. It's not wrong to say that because they they actually did that. But to say or to claim that everything was always on the side of the, this is what I don't agree with because simply it is not true.

You have to understand the long game here. You have to understand every single incident that took place, contextualize it, and see how it led either to the help, to the aid, or to the stopping of the occupation. Yes, Ustad?

Yes. I was just gonna say exactly what you're talking about. I mean, this this is a really important thing for us to to wrap our heads around because, you know, especially with with all of this sort of hype from the West about democracy and of the people by the people and for the people and so forth and all of these sort of grassroots movements and NGOs and whatnot, people want to be involved in one way or another in politics. They wanna be involved in one way or another in decision making, and understandably so since their lives are are impacted by it. But they don't do the the the requisite sort of education and gathering of information that if you want to be involved in politics, you have to understand politics.

You wanna have a role in decision making, but you can't only be concerned about the the impact upon you of the decision that's being made or the policy. You have to understand all of the mechanics that are behind the decision even sort of coming up. You have to you you really have to educate yourself and research and understand like, we've talked about many, many times on Middle Nation, you have to understand the power dynamics, you have to understand the interests, you have to understand the bargaining chips that are at play, and and really try to comprehend the reasoning that is required in in terms of making a a sound judgment about what's going to what's going to be best for the population in terms of long term stability, long term securing of sovereignty, and so on. And people want to be involved without educating themselves about these things. They just get they either approve or disapprove of a decision that's being made at the at the higher level, but they don't understand any of the issues that are at play that the that the people at the higher level have to navigate.

And so if you want to because this this shows us that the the society at large, the population at large, is a political force. They are a part of the scenario. They're part of the power dynamics. But, unfortunately, very often, they are the least informed and the least educated and the least responsible and the least mature element within the power dynamics. And you do have power as as a population.

The people, the public does have power, and it is upon them to to act responsibly. And in order to act responsibly, you have to properly educate yourself. You have to properly be informed. Otherwise, you're you you basically become a sort of a rogue element, and you can either be helpful or or or unhelpful or destructive. And sometimes that just happens without even any intention of being either one.

It's it's always the intention of being helpful. But if you end up being helpful, it's usually just by accident because you just don't really understand what's happening. And this is one of the reasons also why people at the higher level tend to view the public as just something to be propagandized and manipulated so that we can control them because we know that they're not going to take upon themselves the responsibility of properly educating themselves and understanding the situation in all of its intricacies in order for them to actually mobilize in an intelligent manner. This is why the the people at the top tend to tend to just sort of control and manipulate the the the general public because the general public has not proven itself to address or to engage with politics in a responsible manner intellectually to where they can actually make a useful contribution, and they just have sort of have knee jerk emotional reactions to things. But if you if you if you want to be involved in politics, and either way you you end up being involved in politics because you exist and you are an incredibly important force, if you want to do that responsibly, then you have to take on the the duties and obligations that come with that responsibility.

The first of which, of course, is actually educating yourself about, as I say, the intricacies and the complexities of the power dynamics and the relations that are at play.

Yes. I mean, to to to to give a very very simple example of what is that the same, right, about the the self education part. So we we wouldn't be having this, I wouldn't call intelligent, but this not very simple discussion if there weren't other sources being read to complement what was what what what we're discussing right now. Right? So in order just to understand history, right, you had to read the incident itself from different sources, try to think about it, try to weigh in all of the circumstances that were taking place at the time, and then make a sound decision.

This is about something in the past, not something right now. And this is about something who about which we almost know everything. So now you don't know everything. You haven't read enough sources. You haven't watched, you know, recent history enough.

You you don't know what is happening at the higher levels. So you can't possibly go out and say this and that without properly educating yourself, like, start this thing. So we have to remind the the listeners, the Muslims in general, to keep this in mind, that you have to properly educate yourself. Now this is there's an important point here that we have to also mention. So we were talking about how in how not all of the Muslim rulers were, you know, doing you know, making taking making wrong decisions or making wrong taking wrong decisions or making wrong choices.

But, also, we have to to turn our heads to the to the strength of societies at the time. This is a very important aspect that I think we should discuss more. So we we will see, in sha'Allah, multiple incidents, the first of which is the Alakan incidents. Right? So Ibn Khasheh, the in Alakkaw, he was the the leader of Alakkaw society.

This one this man was a patrician. He was from a from a from an elite family. They were wood traders, hence the name Ibn Khasher, the son of the of the wood trader or the or the wood the the the wood the woodsman. And he he he understood the intricacies of Aladdin society. He had multiple audiences with Rudwan.

He had multiple audiences with many of the Emirs who succeeded Raghun. So this was an important figure, and he was not alone. Right? He he had the the backing of whole the whole of of city of Aleppo. So this is a very important aspect that societies Muslim societies, as Ostad mentioned, they are a political force, and they I think at this point so, again, we can generalize not all societies, of course, but they were they had some sort of understanding of what should be done at least in a very, very vague manner.

Right? They didn't know, of course, all of the intricacies, but they they understood that the way Ridwan was handling things, that was not proper anymore. And and what what helped this what helped reinforce this understanding is that the sultan eventually did send an army trying to to to help Rutan and help Aleppo. So we now know that this may have been in the interest of Aleppo because the sultan is a Muslim, and he was sending a Muslim army to aid a Muslim city. So this is something that we have to to pay attention to because we will face it one more time with Tyre, and we will see if it we will face it also one more time in.

So the delegation, as we mentioned, was promised by the sultan that an army would be sent under the leadership of Maldud to help Aleppo. RID one asked for the aid of this alliance, this Maldud alliance against Tancred, And they said, okay. We're we're we're we're coming to to your aid. But when they actually did arrive, he didn't allow them into Alaco due to the constant fear of the power of the Otabakov Mosque. Of course, this one was Maldud.

And the alliance shortly broke up and the campaign failed. Mahdud did try to take Adessa a third time after that, but he also failed. So what's interesting here is that Mahdud, as we mentioned, understood that in order to start truly freeing the Levant or Aleppo and he he had to own Aleppo, Adessa, in his view, had to be free. Now here is where we start saying that the Utabics were working together, and Beledeshem and Iraq were working together. So Moldud and Tuktukin, the leader of Damascus, they were able to face the Faraj and defeat them in the battle of Simbar, the Simbar of Rich.

Right? And this was the first time Mosul and Damascus worked together, and we see immediate effects of this alliance. Immediate effects. Right? Mosul was a very strong Emirate.

Damascus was a very strong Emirate. When they put their differences aside and they worked together, they were able to easily defeat the Farang. So so we have examples of how you can manage successfully in in terms of Maldud and Protokin aligned together, and we have examples of how you cannot manage successfully like the the case of Terbuqa, for example. Right? And all over the Muslim heartlands, Muslims were thrilled to hear this to hear the the the the the news of this, like, the the news of this victory against the French.

Right? And everyone was under the impression that Maudud and Khutakim were going to clear the Levant from from the from the to expel the the French from the Levant. And so Muldoon was hosted by Tuktokin in Damascus, and they were displaying to the public that they were brothers in Islam, that they were and they were going to to continue the cooperation. And during a Friday prayer, was was praying, and he was he finished his Friday prayers, and there were some people praying in the in the in the Omayet mosque in Damascus. And one of them jumped Maldud, and he stabbed him multiple times, and he died hours later.

Now no one knows who is behind this hit, so we have two main suspects right now. The first of which is Rudwan, and the second is Doctor. King himself, the host, because who else would would fear the presence of a of such a strong Muslim general in the Muslim heartlands. Of course, the French are are are are are are suspect as well, but they're the least because they still can't order a hit from Muslims on Muslims in such a manner. And it it's as a result of this, what you would call this huge setback first of all, this is the reason most of the people don't know about Maldives, because the man if he had completed, no one knows what is what would have happened.

But this was the man. That the the the big the the this was the beginning of the of the journey that ended by a Daher Bebers or even by Al Ashra Khalil around two hundred years later. This was the starting block, and this was it's because of this reason that no one, almost no one knows Sharif I Dinmont, non non non Muslims and not even Muslims. They don't know the man. Although he put his heart into the cause, and he was willing to to to to to ally with different Muslims who closed their in his face.

And he would have his army, you know, roaming Be'ad Hashem, and this required logistical planning, and this required putting up with some with things that not all Muslim leaders would have to put up with during the time just in order to help the Muslim cause. He did that, and Allah chose him by his side for for for a reason we don't know. And this is how, yeah, this is how history works. So as a result, the suspected that was complicit in murder. And therefore, now we hear about Muldud Tuktukin and Ilghazi.

Ilghazi was one of the two brothers holding Jerusalem when took it from the Seljuks before the Ferengi occupation or during the Ferengi occupation. So this is a very important figure, and we will see him later on inshallah. So the sultan suspecting that Tuttukin was complicit in Muldoon's murder, he sent a new emir of Mosul, and he wanted to discipline the the the the the leaders of because he was thinking, now I'm trying to help you. I'm sending an army after an army to aid you in your in your your battle against the French, and you kill the generals. You kill they killed one of the best generals sent thus far, which is Moldut.

So what are you actually doing? So he was he was saying that enough of this, and I will I will remove all of the the the the leaders of Bledeshem, and I will put Bledeshem directly under my control. Of course, this was very very shortsighted from the sultan because how could you possibly dream of that? This we're not during the time of Malik Shah anymore. So, yeah, you have to be realistic in your approach.

However, he sent a campaign, and, of course, Muslims and non Muslims in B'Aladdin Shem, they allied themselves against this campaign. Right? The emir of Mosul was someone called Al Buzuki, and he was suddenly faced with the Faraj and the Muslims allied together against his army for the very first time since came to Bila Dusham. So, of course, the campaign didn't achieve its goals despite Al Bursokry's best efforts, and he tried to divide and conquer, but he was ambushed, and he lost most of his army. Now back to Aleppo.

We're focusing the camera on Aleppo. After Dreadwon died, the situation became an entire mess in Aleppo. Right? Because, one, his sons one of one of his sons was a was a mad prince. Literally, he was a mad prince.

Right? He was not yet 17 years old, and he was just killing away all of his enemies. And Al Hasheb, the famous of Alapu, told him that you have to you you can't this is not this is no way to to run a state. You can't kill off everyone. This is not how things are done.

And, eventually, this mad prince was killed by one of the servants of of of of the palace, and his own brother was installed, not even seven years old. So the situation was a complete mess in Aleppo. Right? And so the the Alepans under the leadership of al Hashem finally settled on calling in on calling to take control of their city because they didn't want the Damascus to rule them, and so he was the perfect candidate. Was holding at the time a city called Mardin in the North Of Iraq and Bledshem, somewhere in the middle, and they settled upon him.