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

Everyone, and welcome to session number six of the club of the book club, the crusades through Arab eyes for the author I I forgot the name of the author. For the author, Amin Malouf, the French Lebanese author. So today, we will be our aim is to discuss chapter six sorry, chapter four. And we will be having some interesting thoughts this this time around because we're going to change the narrative a bit in the book. K?

So for for for our listeners, it's interest yeah. I mean, it's a it's a very valuable piece of advice to try to diversify your readings as much as you can on any one topic so that you can see what exactly the the the majority are writing about this topic. So for example, in this case, we're we're we're talking or we're discussing the book, the crusades through Arab eyes, but there there is some supplementary reading such as Mohammed Sohail Takush writing regarding writings regarding the crusades as well, which is what I'm trying to do. Of course, it's not always achievable because of the the the time limitations and and all, but we try as much as we can. Okay.

So to jump right into the discussion. So this chapter starts with the author wondering whether the winds are changing because of three major events that took place. The first event is the departure of Saint Gilles, Raymond Saint Gilles, which is which had been one of the most important characters of the very first campaign. He departed to Constantinople because throughout the very first campaign, he was presenting himself as the ally of the Byzantine emperor. Everything that he could get a hold of in Beerad Hashem, he always yeah.

And he presented himself holding it in the name of the Eastern Roman Empire. Right? So this guy, which was a powerful prince, he left to Constantino. The second event was the death of Godfrey de Leon, who was the protector of the holy grail. So he wasn't the king of Jerusalem.

He he technically was ruling Jerusalem or the the what what what we can say, the government of Jerusalem with all the territories that came with it. Right? But he was he was he didn't take the title of king. This guy, he died during the siege of Acre of Akron, and he he was one of the people who also made life course for the Muslims in the area in general. And the third event was the capture of Bond the first, which he was the prince of the Principality Of Antioch, and he was captured by the Turkish leader, the Danish man.

Right? So he was captured during, I think, his on his way to assist some people who required his assistance against the Danish man. The Danish man was able to intercept his journey, and he took him captive. And so three of the major princes of the first campaign were either dead or captured or not here. And so people started thinking that maybe things will change for the better.

Right? It's also worth noting, and this is mentioned in the book, that Godfrey, during his time as ruler of Jerusalem, he tried to divert as much straight as he could through his lands. Right? And he also forced the caravans to to to to pass through his lands, thereby forcing them to pay tribute. And in this way, he was trying to expand his economy.

And as we mentioned before, and we will iterate this and emphasize it again during our discussion today, which is the print the the with the exception of El Assam, which was the most the the innermost principality or the innermost state that the French held in the Middle East, All of the all of the so called French states were were they had coastlines on the sea. Why? Because they they needed the sea as a lifeline support because they they had to receive troops there through the sea. They had to receive the merchant ships, the Italian merchant ships through the sea. So having the sea was not an option for them.

They had to have it. Having access to the sea, I mean, was not an option. They had to have access to the sea. Otherwise, they would they would, you know, face extreme difficulties maintaining those states. Okay.

And then we now take the camera and focus it to the governor of Golan who was under the protectorship of the, the owner of Damascus. Right? So the were wreaking havoc in in the territory of the Golan, right, because it was an abundant territory in terms of agriculture and that kind of thing. So they were wrecking havoc in this territory, and the the ruler of Mulan asked to talk for his for his assistance since he was his lord. So he was, yeah, he was complaining that this this can't keep on for long.

And Soldoufouk prepared for a campaign that took the Ferengue by surprise. Right? And they attacked them, and they were able to to attack the rear. And because of the the the spoils that the French had from the previous campaign, they were unable to fight, and so they barely escaped with their lives. And so the clock was able to retrieve some of the spoils, which included some Muslim captives and that kind.

Right? Now the retaliation was immense, and the cult, unfortunately, was ever the hesitant ruler. Like, he was so he was so hesitant, and he always, you know, changed his mind. Right? So he would make a move, then immediately go back in the face of retaliation.

Eventually, he offered to bribe the the French away, but he then was offended by Gottfried's envoys asking him to convert Christianity, and this resulted in him offering the envoys in turn to either embrace Islam or die. One of them accepted, the others didn't, and they died. And so the French again retaliated, and this time they retaliated a second time really violently, And Dukat stayed in Damascus. They didn't go out to meet them. Right?

So this cycle was unbearable. And in the end, the governor of Golan reckoned that perhaps he should be paying the tribute to the Farang, and this was the safest move at that point. Because even the people of Damascus, they felt unsafe at the ruler's hesitation, and the court knew that. Right? He knew that the people saw him as a coward, and he needed to save face real quick.

So Galfrey's death and his brother Baldwin's ascension to throne the and his march from Edessa. So Baldwin, if we will remember, Baldwin was the ruler of Edessa. Right? He was the one who killed his parents. We will always try to maintain this point because this guy was literally the first king of Jerusalem.

This was the guy who was supposed to be protector of the holy grave and protector of the holy sepulchre. This was the guy who was supposed to be the protector of Christianity. He was a usurper, essentially. So Baldwin, he marched from Edessa to Jerusalem. But on the way, Lukaku reckoned that he would have the perfect chance to ambush Baldwin and then achieve victory and work towards establishing himself as the supreme ruler in Beled Ashem.

Right? So he prepared everything. Right? The timing, the place, everything. And he took enough forces with him, enough soldiers.

So everything was being made, you know, ready for this kind of ambush. But, unfortunately, as always, the the Arab rulers I'm talking here about the ethnicity. The Arab rulers of B'iladisham, especially for mainly the B'Anu Amor, the rulers of Tripoli, and Banu Amor, the rulers of Caesar. The Banu Amor didn't really have anything to do right now with what with what we're, yeah, relating. But, essentially, the Banu Amor in Tripoli, they freaked out.

Right? They were horrified at the prospect of the top achieving that status, the status of the protector of Islam and the the hero he had and that kind of thing. And so the brother of general Mulk so general Mulk ibn Amor, he was dead. His brother, So we can see the titles. So we have Dalal Mulk, like the the elegance of Mulk and then Pakhr al Mulk, the pride of Mulk.

So his brother, Pakhr al Mulk, he was the new ruler, and he was no different in this respect. So he placed triple his autonomy above all else, and in the process and this is crazy. He warned Baldwin of the impending ambush. Right? And this ultimately caused Baldwin to change plans and Dukovic, ever the hesitant, he was afraid and returned back to Damascus without even engaging in battle.

Right? He just fired some arrows, and that was it. Right? Because Baldwin changed his route, and that was it. So give me a second.

Yeah. This incident serves to show that the lack of vision of part of preparing the Fi'ronge neighbors over the. This was because of it yeah. It was because of this incident that Baldwin was able to reach Jerusalem and setting deep Ferengi routes in the region. Right?

The Ferengi were now firmly established as a local power. And Baldwin would try to increase, like we mentioned, the coastal territory of his kingdom. He would expand his inner boundaries towards the East. He would also try to link Jerusalem to Antioch and Edessa in the North, and he would try to encourage the the creation of other Tehranji states. Of course, it was also it's it's also worth noting that always, right, the Firange were at a numerical inferiority disadvantage.

And so they had built during their time in the region, they had built many castles, many forts to to try to counter this disadvantage that they were at, and they would man those ports and they would man those castles despite the numerical inferiority, and they would, you know, establish a very firm presence. Now in other sources, it is mentioned that Dukak did actually engage Baldwin in battle, and this is the part where we talk about the supplementary readings. Right? So in other sources, it is mentioned that Dukak did engage Baldwin in battle, but they lost despite, again, the numerical superiority. So but either way, Baldwin had prior notice because of Fahram Wolk's on voice.

So this this is important to keep in mind. Okay? So in 11:01, a fresh wave of pharaonic troops have reached Constantinople, and this one was much, much more than those who came four years before, right, in October or three years before to be more so they came at the end of 11/00/2001 probably, so around three to four years. Anyway, this time, you remember, the Seljuk Rum Sultan. He was in Anatolia, and there was also the other rival, Danish man.

Now they were on alert, and they, of course, put aside their differences, and they were ready to face this new fresh wave of Ferronch. Right? At first, the Ferronch were somehow able to bypass the spies of the and banishment, and they were able even to take the capital of on. And at first, it seemed as if the same thing would happen all over again. Right?

However, the instead of heading south to Gilead Hashem, they continued Northeast to Naxar where Danish men had been keeping Bouman of of Antioch. Right? So that was the main goal of this wave, which was to free women from captive from captivity. So and, this turn of events, they started to prepare and to lay in ambush at a a village called Marzafoun on the way to Naxar. And they were able to ambush this fresh wave, and it was a complete victory.

And it was then realized that this so called army was not all fighting men. There were a couple 100 knights, but mostly it consisted of women and children and unarmed men. Right? Like, there's one there was also a second wave on its way, then this one was heading to the south, and those two were ambushed, and it was a complete victory. And then a third wave was also intercepted near Heraklium, and this one was defeated as well.

Right? It's worth noting that this all took place during August. And, of course, August, for the Ferengi troops with their heavy armor and its storing heat, it was unbearable. Right? It was insufferable.

And so this, I think, helped the Turks defeat the Ferengi because the Farangs were, again, not fighting in, you know, cold and foggy Europe. They were fighting in the desert plains of Anatolia, especially the the innermost parts. Right? Of course, Anatolia is not all desert, but, I mean, it's it's certainly a a bit much more warmer than Europe. Okay?

And you could also tell now that the Muslims were finally starting to adapt to the Carangie style warfare, you know, those those moving castles, those moving ports, because the front would always be covered in armor from head to toe. They were able to counter that warfare style, and they used their famous feigned retreat tactic along with the scorched earth earth policy, and that and that's why, you know, they deny the French any resources in Anatolia, at least. So the French would always be, yeah, mean, lacking food, lacking shelter, lacking water, that kind of thing. Now we now reached the battle of Tripoli. Right?

So the battle of Tripoli was a testament to the fact that Lukac and Fakhalinburg really had no idea what they were doing. So they were settling scores, and settling scores was more important than unity even with a latent sense of disappointment. Right? Yeah. You can be united with your other Muslim rulers, corollers with a latent sense of disappointment, like, why did he do this?

Why did he do that? That kind of thing. But they didn't. Right? So and, yeah, I mean, this alone should explain the defeat of several thousand Muslims at the hands of 300 Farangiri.

So the the the thing is when the third wave of the Farangiri was defeated, it did have at its leadership, Saint Jean, the the the the the Ferengi leader. Right? He was able to escape with 300 fighters, something like that. Right? And he moved all the way to Tripoli, trying to take Tripoli away from Fakher and Mulk.

So Fakher and Mulk, I don't know, yeah, how he came to to to this decision, but he asked Lukak for help. Knowing full well that Lukak may have, yeah, got wind of his earlier season, let's call it. Right? And so sent some of his troops, and the owner of homes also sent some troops. So we had about 2,000 Muslim troops facing 300 Kuranji troops.

So we're talking about roughly seven times the number. But for some reason, they were defeated. Now the book mentions that this was on purpose. This was an an intended on Dukat's part to make it seem like the the troops of Damascus and the troops of Homs were defeated at ease, right, at the beginning of the battle and thereby leaving the troops of Tripoli to face their own ultimate defeat. It could be the case, especially that, as as I said, Lukak was trying to, you know, take, again, exact revenge on Krumov because of his earlier treason.

Okay? So another element to to add to the lack of vision was the lack of strategic on the ground thinking, and this was displayed in Sharap al Mahdi's victory over the army of Jerusalem and Jaffa near Ramla. Right? So the who is Sharif al Ma'ili? Sharif al Ma'ili is the son of the Ottoman vizier al Abdul.

Right? This you can say he was the strongest man South Of Miladisham. He was the wizir of Egypt, and he sent his own son, Sharif al Ma'ili, on a campaign to try to reclaim cities in Jerusalem, right, cities in Palestine. Right? So Shahriar of Imam was able to ambush Baldwin during one of his one of his own campaigns, and it was a complete victory for the Fatimid army against the the crusaders.

And we can see here we can see here for another, yeah, time. Maybe this could be the second or third time that the Muslim troops are are able to achieve victory against the Fiorentic troops. So they weren't this super normal super superhuman troops who are are who people cannot defeat. No. They can't feed them.

Just, you know, put your head into it. Now the problem is that Tariff Imrani or the general of the Fatima army was unable to to capitalize on this victory, right, because he didn't know what to do next. He was waiting for orders from his father for either to go to Jerusalem, which was undefended and had no king because Volgog was in hiding, or take Jaffa and isolate the Ferengi from the sea. Right? And all this weight resulted in backup, you know, reinforcements arriving to the French from the sea, forcing the Egyptian army to retreat back to Cairo.

Now, this displays again the importance of having access to the sea, having coastal cities. Also, it displays the the because I think one one element of those reinforcements was the Italian merchant fleets. Right? So those people were able to provide money, ships to the Ferronje, and this was and it always helped them maintain a constant supply of warfare, machinery, troops, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Now, again, this is part because so the narrative it's here that we try to, again, start changing the narrative a bit.

So the narrative of the book that is that the Arab the Muslim rulers are unable to cooperate with each other. They're unable to work with each other, which had a semblance of truth to it up to this point. However, we like, we we find in other sources that had asked for an alliance with the who held power in Damascus after the death of Duqaq. So the famous Duqaq, right, the owner of Damascus, died, and there are some insinuations until it's possible, you know, poisoning. And in this environment, it's it's it's not clear.

It could be the case, of course. However however, yeah, I mean, it doesn't really matter the the manner of his death. What really does matter is the man who took after him was an called. Right? So we hear in the sources that al Abdul asked for an alliance with this utabic, Toftokin, and the allied Muslim forces faced the allied French forces in a battle near near Ramla and Fost.

So what matters here is that this is the first time we hear of an alliance between Egypt and because all of the most of them the majority of the historians always say that this thing was this kind of synchronized work was only achieved after Sahiddim was able to to reunite in the fertile crescent with Egypt. Almost like sixty to seventy years later, something like that. However, this incident really proved that this wasn't the case. Right? This is we're we're talking about at the at the very beginning of the century.

So despite the the loss of the battle, which is which is of course unfortunate, This this alliance proves that, no, the the the the leaders of the region had some instances where they thought of actually collaborating to it to it together or collaborating with each other in order to face the heraldi threat. Right? Another instance of the lack of vision was the the the the Muslim ruler's inability to make use of the fact that Antioch had been leaderless after the capture of Mormon of of Antioch. They had been leaderless for about seven months. Right?

So seven months, the the principality had no prince. Right? And so after seven months, they were seven months, they were able to come to the conclusion that Tancred, Momin's nephew, his sister's son, I think, he would be installed as ruler. And not only was Tancred installed as a ruler, but in order to prove his own work, he began harassing Aleppo. Right?

So Red One's response of course, Red One, the ruler of Aleppo, his response was to bribe Tancred off. Right? But to make matters worse, Tancred demanded that Red One put a cross on top of the great mosque of Aleppo. So that was the last straw as we should see later on. Yes, brother.

Hey, Akula. Yes. I'm I'm pleased that we made this point because on this, I just wanted to mention in service of tying what we're reading to contemporary issues. What can happen sometimes when we read these things is to try to make a one to one. For example, we might say, look at how these rulers made all these concessions, tried to make deals with the enemy.

And then we might say, unfortunately, with without really understanding and being perceptive, oh, that's exactly what Arab countries are doing right now and what they've been doing about this situation. But the differences become very clear when we take into account a couple of different things. For example, we see when we take the hadith of Jabbar in which the prophet tells us that the parable of the believers that of a of a stock, a planted stock, that it stays upright at times and it bends down at other times. Whereas the parable of the unbeliever or the is that of a cedar tree, and it stays rigid until eventually it falls without realizing it. So in that regard, there is that aspect of bending down at times.

So when we bend down and we make deals and we make some certain alliances that might be unpleasant, what we also have to look at is what is it that we are sacrificing? So in this example that you just brought up, allowed for a great humiliation of even the and the, And this is in keeping with his character, unfortunately, and his history. We know I'm not sure if we've it comes up a bit later. It's already been covered, but he has the alliances with the balcony and with the assassins. And so this is not something unexpected, unfortunately,

of

this man. But in the modern day context, we do not see anything that is a parallel to that where we might say, oh, look. They're making, quote, unquote, deals when we talk about financial leverage that is being gained over the enemy. But we do not see anything where that enemy is then coming into the countries like Saudi or these other Gulf countries and dictating some things about the mosques or how the religion must be run with. And so that's an important thing to keep in mind.

Where we see certain weaknesses here, we have to remember in the current context, those deals and those alliances and those leverages, for lack of a better term, for actually is a better term, are being commanded from a position of strength by the Arab countries and the GCC. So I just wanted to make sure that that was clear lest we make an unfair parallel there.

Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, this is a great point actually, Reyes, because so in politics, we have principles and we have tools. Right? And people often conflate the two together, sacrificing principles for the tools or facts sacrificing tool tools for the principles.

Now it is good to have to use some tools in order to achieve the principles, but it's not it's never good to sacrifice the principles no matter what the the the goal you're trying to achieve. So, yes, Rieduan had no yeah. And there was no reason for him to to to to stoop that low. Right? So bribing the Ferranj off, that was okay.

Making some alliances as we shall see in the next couple of points, that's fine. But placing the cross on top of the Great Mosque Of Adipo, you didn't really have to do that. Yeah. You you could've yeah. At least yeah.

This is not the worst thing that that could happen to you. Right? You you can contact your your your your other rulers, your coroulders in the region, and ask for their help and give them money. You're already giving money. But to stoop so low as to put a place a cross on on top of the mosque, And I think I as I said, this is going this was the last straw because this this didn't bode well for for RID1.

At a certain point in time, the people of Aleppo would will, yeah, would have had enough of this kind of of this kind of of of policies that were followed by the one, and they they would, yeah, mean, they will take some actions, but I don't want to spoil the the the the rest of the story. Yes, please.

Yeah. I just wanna add, yeah, I just wanna add it's easy to make judgments from hindsight and say, like, how could they be so treasonous? How could they do such things? But in the context of, like, the geopolitical landscape of the region at the time, you're talking about a region where this was the norm, like, betrayals and constant inviting. And there is still even to this point, they see the French invasion as this temporary threat, that they would prefer the the front to take over Jerusalem rather than for to talk, for example, to become the leader of Syria.

And the leadership psychology has been, like, pretty much shaped by these constant infighting between the said jokes, where it's one is trying to take over the other, one is trying to become stronger than the other. So this is this isn't just, like, buried into the minds of the of the leaders at the time, but this is, like, what they witnessed growing up as well, and shaped their thinking. Seizing to look down, like, what are you doing? What if, you know, you're you're destroying the region all for your personal prestige or your personal ambitions or whatnot. But it's but it's it's really hard to grow up in that environment with when there is no cohesion, constant fighting, and then somehow try to be reasonable and rational and think about the great and the when nobody is doing this.

Nobody was doing this when you were growing up and so on.

Yeah. I think I got a faint idea of what you're saying because I think that mic quality is not the best quality this time, Brahman. But I think, yeah, you're you're saying that it's it's probably that the the one is not yeah. It is his policies are actually destroying the region instead of, you know, uplifting the whole situation in favor of the Muslims. At least that was that's what I was able to discern from your from your your talk.

Okay. Brother Khadijka, your hand is up, or is that just a glitch?

No. I'm just one more thing I would add

is one thing that I

think keeps popping up and a common theme that we've seen thus far in the three and a bit chapters we've read, I think we're into the fourth now, is just recognizing the true weight of making these sorts of decisions. It's very easy in hindsight for us to go back and say, for example, did the one that that guy shaking my head at him. And I can understand I'm doing that too. But when you look at what Danish men did, and then his son shut off, you're like, alright. There's all these moving parts.

And so really being strategic and seeing the bigger picture and not getting lost in the weeds of what's present and what's around you and what you might be familiar with, but being able to notice the foreign unfamiliar elements of the enemy, understanding that, understanding how to move those pieces, it really is difficult. It really is difficult, and that bears out here too where you see some of the leaders making some decisions. Pardon me. And it might seem like the right decision at the time, and then all of sudden, it doesn't work out. And then just seeing how they have to take into account the past histories, and we'll see this develop through in the later chapters too, how the leaders that came after, they accounted for the follies of the past and and incorporated that into their strategy.

So it's just a sort of reminder for us. Sometimes we sit in our little ivory towers behind our screens and are hypercritical without recognizing the true severity of the decisions and also the difficulties of the strategies of really understanding the entire picture, both present and future. So just a little bit of humility is accounted for when we sort of peanut gallery analyze, you know, quote, unquote analyze. It's not really analysis, but something to keep in mind for us.

Yeah. For sure. I mean, it the situation is a bit comparable because I see a lot of people talking about how the modern nation state is, like like, really different from earlier states. And, yeah, in many aspects, is. It's more centralized.

It's more it's more powerful, for sure. But in more in many aspects as well, it's the same because, yeah, I mean, to for for for Red One, Halab was his state, Dukak, and Damascus was his state. Homs was his state. Right? Al Abdul Egypt was his state, and so on and so forth.

So each of those states, they had their they had, first, first of all, the responsibility of keeping their own citizens within the city walls safe. And second, of course, they had their own ambitions. Right? So I I'm of the opinion that regimes throughout history, they act much the same like people. So they evolve.

They change. They have their own their own agendas. They want to be autonomous as much as possible. So that's the kind of thing. Right?

So we had the very first, you know, all encompassing Umayyad empire, and then the all encompassing or yeah. Almost all encompassing Ambassador empire. And then those, you know, those disintegrated parts of the of the of of those yeah. Mean, the descendants of those states, they were Muslim states, and they yeah. I mean, they many of them performed jihad against the kfar.

But, of course, because regimes are like people, sometimes they would make mistakes, sometimes they would be collaborative with each other. That's that's the So, yeah, I think the situation is very comparable. So now we hear about danishment. Again, this is the part where we find the Muslim the Muslim rulers unable to capitalize on the gains. So we find banishment agreeing to release bowment for a sum of 100,000 deniers and the release of daughter.

There was a princess of had a daughter who was a princess. And apparently, Benjamin wanted to marry her or something, and so he agreed to release Bowman, his arch enemy, right, for the sum of in exchange for the sum of 100,000 golden dinars, which was, of course, a large sum. But he didn't demand for cities, ports any strategic, you know, possessions. He didn't demand them. So, again, money enough money alone is not enough.

So I I believe that possessions on the ground would have been much better for the Muslim situation as a whole. Now we come to a famous battle called the battle of Haran. So the essential goal of the as we mentioned before, now the the the were of the opinion that they must or they need to establish more Firangian states within the Muslim heartlands. Right. So in order to to do that, they set their eyes upon the city and fortress of Haram, which is some way somewhere between Birad Hashem.

You know, it's it's near Odessa and it's it's nearer to Herod. And so this was a very serious threat because if the were able to go that that that deep into the Muslim heartlands, that that meant that the the the as that was not safe and the the the subjects were were were going to be, yeah, ambushed or being were going to be attacked within their own heartlands. Right? So we hear that Bowman, Tancred, and Baldwin. So we have another Baldwin.

This is not the same Baldwin who is now king of Jerusalem. We have another Baldwin, his own cousin, and he was the ruler of Edas. So we hear that those three headed to Haran, and they were met in Haran by an allied Muslim force of the ruler of Mosul, the new ruler of Mosul, so Karbuka was no longer there. Now we have someone called Takarmash. And one of the two brothers who had owned Jerusalem before the before the took it under al Abdul's tutelage.

So one of the two there were two brothers, one of one of whom was called Suqman. Right? They were the owners of Jerusalem before it fell to the Fatimids and then eventually fell to the to the. So this was one of the two brothers, someone called Suqman. He was an attack, and he was now the owner of Mardin.

So it's a it's part of, you know, southern modern day Turkey, northern modern day Syria. So this allied force of the Muslims met the allied Ferengi force, and they achieved victory against them in Haran. It was a complete victory. Right? And it showed that just having the Muslim house in order was enough was more than enough to achieve victory against the Ferengi.

Right? Because in this battle, for the first time now no. No. The first time is for the second time that the Ferengi ruler was captured. It was Baldwin, the owner of Edessa or the ruler of Edessa.

He was captured. And even Suhman, the owner of Mardin, he was able to retake some ports from the Faraj. Right? To retake some ports of the Faraj. So the battle was decisive in the sense that it stopped the Farangji incursion into the Muslim heartlands, and it also caused Bowman to leave the region once and for all.

So the owner of Antioch was now he left the region, and this was a this was a he was a serious threat to the region, in my opinion. So when he left, it was a good yeah. I mean, it was a good thing to be to to to happen to take place for the Muslims. But but, again, another failure caps capitalizing on those gains, the Muslims now had the the the the had Baldwin, the ruler of Edessa, in their captivity. Right?

Edessa was leaderless, but instead, Jakarmash and Sukman didn't head on to Edessa to take it, although it was leaderless and maybe it had didn't even have a garrison. Instead, they waited. Jakaramash waited mainly, and he negotiated with Tancred for the release of a certain princess again for some reason, and he he offered even bold win. Like, this this is a price that you don't usually offer. You you would negotiate, I would say, for, again, some strategic gains.

But exchanging him for a princess doesn't really make sense for me at all. I mean, I don't see the the long term gain here at all. Right? And he even offered some money. So he he he told him that I will give you a Baldwin and some money in exchange for the princess.

So told him, no. I don't I don't need Baldwin. I only need the money, and you can have the princess. So wow. Anyway, of course, as as we might imagine, this might this caused a very serious drift between Baldwin and Tancred because Baldwin felt that Tancred was betraying him.

And Tancred, of course, did betray him because he had his eyes on Edes. So he wanted Tantric, was the ruler of Antioch. Excuse me. And now he had Antioch, and he could again, he had all the lands, all the pharaonic lands as far east as Edas. And as a result of this incident, four years later, we will watch a very awkward situation.

So Baldwin will be released from his captivity in Mosul, and he would join the new ruler of Mosul because the new ruler of Mosul is the one who had released him. It he was a man called Jawi or Gawi. I'm not sure. And Jawi, the new ruler of Mosul, he offered Baldwin to to to release him in exchange for an alliance against Ramsroel, Antioch, and Aleppo. For some reason, I'm not sure.

So we now see in the battle of Talbashek that we have two different armies. We can't even call them Muslim or Ferengi armies because both of the two armies had Muslim and Ferengi components. So we see Mosul and, quote, unquote, Edessa. So how did Baldwin retrieve Edessa? He asked for some sort of arbitration deal between himself and Tatret.

He involved everyone in the Feranji camp. So there were bishops, there were there was the king of Jerusalem, there was other, you know, Firangi princess, and they all came to the conclusion or to the agreement that Tancred would give back Baldwin his principality of Odessa. But Baldwin still felt an an an an he felt bitter against felt bitter towards Tancred. And so when Jawli asked him for an alliance against Ridwan of Aleppo and Thancred of of Antioch, Baldwin at at at at once, you know, he was he he accepted this alliance, and they attacked or, you know, went to meet Antioch and Aleppo in battle. So Antioch and Aleppo had had the upper hand in the battle.

They were better prepared, and they were they had, you know, some tactical advantages, and so they won the day. It's also worth noting that in order to con convince in order to convince to join him, he he told him that if the the otopic of muscle was able to establish a presence in Bledeshem, the Firange would have a hard time there. So, again, we see some very weird strategic choices made by the Muslim rulers of the region. Right? Yes, brother Khadija.

Naram, I just wanted to mention before we come back to and his oddities, I think I don't know beyond this specific source that we're looking at of Amin Marduk. So you tell me if there's something that you've read in some of the other readings you've done, love, bless, and preserve you, that adds more context to this. But when I'm looking at what Joe Ali did to give a charitable reading sort of of the of history, it seems almost like he wizened up to the game that's been played where some of the previous rulers had made some, let's say, myopic alliances with the French. Right? And so when they made these myopic alliances, they just gave up more and than they should have, and without really thinking about it strategically.

But in this case, it seems like he played the game pretty well by allying with Baldwin and setting him against another Frenzy general. So causing some infighting because we even see something mentioned here by Hamid Mahlouf that at one point, because of his alliance with Jawadi, Baldwin actually released all the Muslim prisoners that he had in his territory and even executed one of the Christians who had publicly insulted Islam. Now it just seems like a very what's the word I'm looking for? I I don't wanna say ruse, but it's it's a good ploy that it seemed like he used in in a way of leveraging someone that had authority and leveraging infighting and discord within the franji camp, which I know the tie at times, we make it sound like they were so united and the Muslims were so disunited. But the truth is the French were incredibly disunited, actually.

They didn't have a common objective, and their objective was solely land grabs. So this seems like a pretty smart ploy now. We'll see how well it it plays off once we once you continue with what Redoana's mentioning. But I just wanted to bring that up as something that gives a little bit of optimism of some of the strategic thinking of at least one of the rulers thus far.

Yeah. That's an excellent point, brother Hadekha. Yeah. Very well placed and very well explained because, you know, not all our alliances are the same or not all of not all alliances are born of the same circumstances. So what we see Jabali trying to do is that he actually released Baldwin in an attempt to force him to or, yeah, use him in his fight against tank threat of Antioch.

Right? It it isn't really clear if it if he was also wanting to to fight Aleppo or not. Ridwan was the one who, yeah, used this chance because he was afraid that because for some reason not not for some reason, Mosul was a very strong Muslim princedom, let's say, or a. Right? So whoever ruled Mosul had access to wealth, had access to military power, had access to whatever.

And we will and we will see how this plays out in the in the not very far future. Right? Because we will see, inshallah, the the the the beginnings of the Muslim response. And it it it will always be from Mausl that strong responses are launched or strong responses are are are strong military campaigns are launched against the Firange. Now it also shows something, this battle of Telbasher, which is that the Firange had started, quote, unquote, going native.

So no longer were they not no longer. They were still, you know, aliens to the region, but they were starting to adapt to the politics of the region. Right? So they were starting to get into the fights of the region and into the, you know, the the the infighting between the Muslim rulers, fighting for this for this ruler against that ruler and that kind of thing. Right?

So they started somehow going native because you spend long enough time in some environment, and you start acting like the environment, you know, compels you to. So I think in this respect, the Ferranj were no exception. Of course, losing at the battle of Kalbeshur, Jawli returned to Asia, and he left he left Bilad Hashem. Right? We will see, of course, yeah, later on, how is it that Jawoli had lost Mosul and, yeah, how how things turned out for him.

But for now, the the the had established a very strong presence in the North of, And we will see that in the South Of Be'lat Hashem, Damascus also had to contend with Jerusalem imposing some sort of land division and agricultural product division on very less than satisfying conditions for the Damascus. And so now in North and in South of Gyadisham, the pharaonic presence was, yeah, firmer than ever. Now going to Tripoli, because this is one of the sad moments in this chapter, Saint Gilles still Saint Gilles Saint Gilles had his eyes still on Tripoli. He was dreaming of having his own principality in Bredesham, and he he follows settled on choosing Tripoli. So he erected a castle that would block the land draw the land routes around Tripoli, and Fakhr al Mulk would lead sorties out to attack this castle and Sanjil, and he was able even to set fire to parts of the castle, which ultimately caught up to Sanjil himself and led to his death.

Then came someone else called Desardin, the cousin of Sanjil, and he continued the blockade. And it was then agreed upon with to allow to pass in and out of Prague at Tripoli, but after paying a certain tribute for the to to the. And, of course, grudgingly accepted. And, you know, the author always mentions this that somehow all involved parties were able yeah. You know, would would would would be able to come to some sort of settlement and, you know, things would move on.