Читать книгу The Muslim 100 - Muhammad Mojlum Khan - Страница 22

THE TWELFTH CENTURY was one of the most difficult and chaotic periods in Muslim history. The unity of the Muslim ummah (global Muslim community) was shattered by incessant political rivalry and internal conflict. In the Islamic East, the once formidable Abbasid Caliphate and the Seljuk dynasty became politically very weak and were in power only in name. The same was true of the once-powerful Fatimid Kingdom of Egypt. In addition, the territories of the Islamic Fertile Crescent became divided and sub-divided into tiny fiefdoms, and their rulers frequently fought each other for political and military supremacy. To make matters worse, at the same time the Muslims also came under direct threat from a formidable foreign enemy, namely the Crusaders who had set out from Europe in order to subjugate the Islamic East. The Muslims were thus caught unprepared by the Crusaders, who captured a large stretch of Islamic territories on the coast of the Eastern Mediterranean. They then marched towards their biggest prize, al-quds or Jerusalem, the third sacred city of Islam. Of course, the bitterly divided Muslim rulers of the time had no answer to the might and firepower of the Crusaders who inflicted a crushing defeat on them by capturing Jerusalem and massacring its citizens en masse. At a time when the Muslims found themselves hopelessly out-played and out-manoeuvred by the Crusaders, the legendary Sultan Salah al-Din emerged to restore the battered pride and prestige of the Muslim ummah.

Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, known in the Western world as Saladin, was born in Tikrit in modern Iraq. Of Kurdish origin, his family originally hailed from the Central Asian country of Armenia. After settling in the territory which now includes northern Iraq, parts of Turkey and Syria, the members of the Ayyub family became prominent citizens of their locality. Both Salah al-Din’s father and uncle became distinguished members of Sultan Imad al-Din Zangi’s political and civil administration. In the year Salah al-Din was born, his father Najm al-Din Ayyub was appointed governor of the ancient city of Heliopolis (later renamed Ba’alabek and today located in Lebanon). Thus young Salah al-Din spent his early years in this ancient city. Since his father was a learned individual of Sufi (or Islamic mystical) orientation, he erected a Sufi lodge (zawiyyah) for his spiritually-inclined friends and acquaintances. During his early years, Salah al-Din learned the Qur’an and received a thorough training in traditional Islamic sciences, as well as Arabic grammar, literature and poetry.

Ayyub’s outstanding services to Imad al-Din, the reigning monarch, earned him considerable accolade but, following his patron’s sudden death, Ayyub’s family was forced to endure both political and economic hardship until he was persuaded by his brother, Asad al-Din Shirkuh (at the time in the service of Imad al-Din’s son and successor Nur al-Din Zangi), to co-operate with the new master of the Zangid dynasty. Ayyub agreed to help Nur al-Din consolidate his grip on power and Nur al-Din, in turn, rewarded Ayyub for his co-operation with the governorship of Damascus. At the time Salah al-Din was a teenager and spent the next decade (that is, from 1154 to 1164) at his father’s residence in Damascus. Being the son of the governor, he was held in high esteem by everyone; it is also related that during this period Salah al-Din became very fond of Nur al-Din on account of his personal piety and exemplary conduct and behaviour.

Impressed by Nur al-Din’s unflinching devotion to Islamic principles and practices, Salah al-Din also moulded his own character and personality in accordance with Islamic teachings. Indeed, his regard for Islamic principles, coupled with his scrupulous habits and sublime qualities, later earned him great acclaim both in the East and the West. Even his critics could not help but admire him for his unusual acts of kindness, generosity and tolerance. As a matter of fact, Salah al-Din disliked pomp and pageantry, and instead devoted much of his time to daily prayers and other devotional acts (ibadah). Like Nur al-Din, he led a simple and austere lifestyle, far removed from the luxuries and material pleasures of this life. Until the age of twenty-five, he led a normal life without showing any signs of the great man that he was to be. Having led an uneventful and relatively tranquil childhood and early adult life, he expected to pass smoothly into a restful old age, he suddenly found himself forced into the murky and dangerous world of global politics.

Struck down by a malady, Sultan Nur al-Din was confined to his bed. That is when Shirkuh, the uncle of Salah al-Din and commander-in-chief of Nur al-Din’s armed forces, approached the ailing Sultan for his permission to launch a military expedition against the subversive rulers of the Fatimid Kingdom of Egypt. After some hesitation, the Sultan authorised Shirkuh to lead an expedition against the Fatimids. During the ensuing campaign, Shirkuh – assisted by his nephew Salah al-Din – outmanoeuvred all his opponents, and assumed full control of Fatimid Egypt. Soon after capturing Egypt, Shirkuh died in 1169 without consolidating his grip on the country. Although Salah al-Din came with his uncle somewhat recluctantly – and was only too happy to let his battle-hardened and accomplished uncle make all the important decisions – now he had no choice but to take matters into his own hands and, in so doing, carve out a unique place for himself in the annals of history. Three days after Shirkuh’s death, the reigning Fatimid Caliph al-Adid asked Salah al-Din to succeed his uncle, and he conferred on him the title of al-malik an-nasir (or ‘the Supporting King’). He was only thirty at the time and his accession to power in Egypt made him a stronger, determined and wiser political operator, although he continued to lead a reclusive lifestyle far removed from the joys and pleasures of aristocratic life. According to his contemporaries, Salah al-Din’s personal life remained as simple as ever and he continued to devote long periods to prayer and contemplation. Devout and sagacious, he also worked tirelessly to unify the Muslim world under the banner of Islam and, in so doing, established a powerful empire in the Islamic East with the aim of liberating the sacred city of Jerusalem from the grip of the Crusaders. ‘When God Almighty granted me the land of Egypt’, Salah al-Din later recalled, ‘I was certain that Palestine would also fall to me.’

While Salah al-Din was busy planning to liberate Jerusalem from the Crusaders, the other Muslim rulers of the day were busy fighting each other in an attempt to increase their personal power and wealth. Then again, gifted men like Salah al-Din are not born every day; rather they emerge during critical times in human history and, by the sheer force of their character and personality, they change the course of world history. After becoming the ruler of Egypt, restoring the honour of Islam by driving out the Crusaders from Islamic Jerusalem became his main political objective. His unexpected success against the Crusaders firmly established his reputation as a great champion of Islam; he also became one of the most successful warrior-kings in the annals of history.

As al-malik an-nasir, Salah al-Din instigated wide-ranging reforms within the highest echelons of power in Egypt. By reshuffling the civil and administrative structures of his Government, he removed most of the corrupt, scheming and treacherous elements from his administration and replaced them with clean, honest and upright people. He then sent an invitation to his father, Ayyub, who at the time was living in Damascus, to come and join him in Egypt. Ayyub thus migrated to Egypt with his entire family, including his distant relatives and acquaintances. Surrounded for the first time by his close family members and friends, Salah al-Din at last became the undisputed ruler of Egypt. Needless to say, the consolidation of his grip on power in Egypt helped him to carry out further reforms, including the abolishment of the decadent Fatimid dynasty (accomplished after the death of the last Fatimid Caliph al-Adid) and the redistribution of all the wealth and properties the Fatimids had hoarded.

He divided this wealth into three portions, sending a share to the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad, another portion to Damascus for Sultan Nur al-Din and deposited the remainder in the public treasury (bait al-mal) for the welfare of the Egyptian people. Salah al-Din refused to keep anything for himself or his family. His kindness and generosity soon endeared him to the masses as he lavished them with gifts and presents, while preferring to lead a very simple and austere lifestyle himself. Indeed, he refused to live in the pompous and extravagant Caliphal palaces built by the Fatimids, choosing instead to live in his rather old and dated residence in Cairo. When this residence eventually became too small for the smooth and effective operation of his Government, he built himself a simple but elegant building in Cairo so that he could perform his duties as the ruler of Egypt with efficiency and effectiveness. Soon after consolidating his power in Egypt, Salah al-Din received the news of Nur al-Din’s death in 1174. He understood the gravity of the situation and moved swiftly to avert any internal conflict in Syria, and in so doing he assumed full control of that strategically important country. Following his annexation of Syria, he appointed his nephew, Farooq Shah, to be governor of that territory. Still only thirty-six, he now embarked on a series of military campaigns in order to strengthen and unify the warring neighbouring Muslim lands. In addition to Syria and Mesopotamia, he successfully captured a large part of North Africa including Tunisia, Libya and much of Arabia, as well as Yemen. Salah al-Din soon carved out a huge empire and as a result he became the undisputed leader of the Muslim world at the time.

As one of the most powerful Muslim rulers of his time, Salah al-Din could have chosen to spend the rest of his life in peace and comfort, if he wished, but instead he focused his attention on the subversive activities of the Crusaders who, at the time, maintained a tight grip on Palestine. After establishing themselves in that country, the Crusaders began to wreak havoc throughout the entire region. So much so, that on one occasion they marched very close to the precinct of Madinah, the city of the Prophet, and threatened to overwhelm the city. When Salah al-Din received news of the Crusaders’ outrageous behaviour towards the people of Madinah, he vowed to punish the culprits with his own hands. As commander-in-chief of the armed forces, he left Egypt and marched with his army towards Palestine in order to confront the threat of the Crusaders. He came face to face with his opponents at a placed called Tiberias, near the Sea of Galilee, in 1187 and a fierce clash ensued. His troops launched such a vicious and co-ordinated attack on the Franks that soon the latter began to lose heart. In desperation, some Frankish generals abandoned their forces and came directly to Salah al-Din to plead with him to speed up his victory and ease their pain and agony. During this historic encounter, known as the Battle of Hittin (Hattin), Salah al-Din also taught the Frankish Crusaders a good lesson in kindness, generosity and compassion. From that day on, his name became a symbol of bravery and heroism both in the East and the West.

Victory at Tiberias opened the door to the rest of Palestine. He moved swiftly, before the Franks could regroup again, and Salah al-Din was able to offer his Friday congregational prayer inside the same mosque which had been converted into a church three generations earlier by the Crusaders. Salah al-Din single-handedly took on the combined might of Europe and cut it to pieces. It did not take him long to capture the rest of Palestine including, of course, Jerusalem – and he did so without shedding any innocent blood. By contrast, when the Crusaders first entered Jerusalem they put all its inhabitants to the sword, so that the entire city ran red with blood. But Salah al-Din’s acts of kindness, generosity and benevolence won the hearts and minds of all its population, and even the Christian chroniclers of the Crusades could not help but lavish much praise on him for his exemplary behaviour and attitude towards the people of Jerusalem.

Thanks to Salah al-Din, al-quds – the third sacred city of Islam – again came under Islamic rule. With his mission accomplished, Salah al-Din returned to Damascus where he built many schools, mosques and hospitals, and passed away around the age of fifty-five; he lies buried within the precinct of the city’s historic Umayyad mosque. But his name and fame continue to reverberate throughout the Muslim world, as well as the West, to this day. A man of truly remarkable character and sublime qualities, it is not surprising that Salah al-Din is today considered to be one of history’s most famous and influential Muslims.