How Palestine was Liberated: The end of a dawn
Realizing that the greed and ambition of the rulers around him would only continue to distract him from his focus on liberating the land, Zengi turned his attention to the Crusaders. He marched toward the Ba’rin Fortress near Hama.
A New Campaign
In 531 Hijri (1137 CE), King Fulk of Jerusalem rushed to the aid of Ba’rin Fortress. He failed to repel Zengi and retreated into the fortress with his remaining men. The siege was complete, secure, and tight.
“Zengi besieged them in it and prevented everything from reaching them, even news, such that those within [the fortress] among them did not know anything of the news of their lands from the tightness of the control of the roads,” the chronicler Ibn al-Athir wrote.
The conditions within the fortress became so dire they began eating their horses. Then, they offered to surrender on condition of safe passage to their land. Zengi initially refused.
“So when he heard of a gathering of remnants of the Franks [from elsewhere], and the arrival of them close to him, he granted those in the fortress safe passage, and he imposed on them 50,000 dinars that they would pay him. So they agreed to that, and he released them…Then, when they left him, it [the news] reached them of the gathering of those who rallied for them, and they regretted the surrender.”
During the siege, Zengi also managed to liberate al-Ma’arra (present-day Maarat al-Numan). It was there in 1098 CE that, upon conquering it, the Crusaders suffered through a severe famine that led them to resort to cannibalism to survive. The inhabitants that remained requested that the property the Crusaders had looted be returned to them. Zengi acquired the ledgers of the city and ordered that all their wealth be returned.
A Byzantine Repulse
In 532 Hijri, a brief setback came in the form of Byzantine Emperor John II Komnenos. In the face of the serious threat Zengi was posing to the Crusader states, the princes and counts of Edessa, Tripoli, and Antioch paid homage to the Emperor so that he would repel the Muslim forces.
This new Christian alliance conquered a number of fortresses until they arrived at Aleppo, where they were defeated and forced to lift the siege. They marched on to Shaizar. The governor of the town and fortress sent to Zengi seeking his aid.
Zengi knew he wouldn’t successfully defeat this army alone. So he first resorted to play on the ambitions and suspicions of the parties involved.
According to Amin Maalouf, author of The Crusades through Arab Eyes,
“He ‘informed’ the emperor — and this was in fact true — that his allis feared him and were impatiently awaiting his departure from Syria. He then sent messages to the Franj, in particular to Joscelin of Edessa and Raymond of Antioch: Do you not understand, he asked them, that if the Rum occupied a single stronghold in Syria, they would soon seize all your cities?”
He also sent agents to spread rumors of large Muslim reinforcements coming from Persia.
With neither party of the alliance wanting the other to gain an upper hand on the other, the Frankish leaders stayed in their tents while the Byzantines continued to bombard the city. The threat of a Muslim army under Zengi coming to relieve Shaizar of the Christian forces further demoralized the Christian army. Eventually, after an agreement between the governor of Shaizar and the Byzantines, the emperor withdrew.
The Cunning Emir
Earlier that year, Zengi sought to capture Homs from the Damascene emir. After a siege and battles, the governor of Damascus, Shehab ad-Din, offered to marry his mother to Zengi and surrender Homs, to which Zengi agreed.
“He accepted to marry her, having seen her control over Damascus,” the chronicler ibn al-Athir wrote. “So he thought he would gain [Damascus] by relation to her. When he married her, he was disappointed and he didn’t receive anything, so he turned away from her.”
During the Byzantine-Crusader offensive, Zengi sought to exploit the situation and rally the Muslim populace to the cause of expelling the Crusaders.
Zengi had earlier sent to Sultan Mesud I asking for his support, but the latter failed to respond. Zengi came up with another solution to compel the Seljuk sultan to act.
He sent a group of people to Qasr Mosque in Baghdad and instructed them to rise up when the imam reaches the minbar (Islam’s version of a pulpit) for the Friday sermon, tear their shirts and shout ‘Oh Islam! Oh faith of [Prophet] Muhammad!’ and to throw down their turbans and to march on to the Sultan’s quarters. And he sent another group to the Sultan Mosque to do the same.
“So when the preacher rose to the minbar, the man stood up, smacked his head and threw his turban, tore his shirt, along with those with him, and yelled. And the people wept and left the prayer. And they cursed the sultan and marched from the mosque, following the sheikh to the Sultan’s quarters, and they found the people from the Sultan Mosque there as well, and the people surrounded the Sultan’s quarters, pleading and weeping.”
~ Ibn al-Athir
The plan worked. Fearing rebellion and unrest at his door, the Sultan told Zengi’s envoy to “take from the army whom you wish,” and a large army was prepared.
When the Christian alliance dispersed, Zengi was seen as a hero, and poets in the Muslim world praised him in their verses.
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The Thorn in Syria
A former general took over rule in Damascus. Seeing the threat Zengi posed, he reached an agreement with the Crusaders.
“The Franksih army would force Zengi to withdraw from the vicinity of Damascus; the forces of the two states would unite in the event of any fresh danger; Mu’in al-Din would pay twenty thousand dinars to defray military expenses; finally, a joint expedition would be mounted, under ‘Unar’s command, to occupy the fortress of Baniyaas…and to restore it to the king of Jerusalem. As a demonstration of good faith, the Damascenes would send the Franj hostages selected from the families of major city dignitaries.”
~ Amin Maalouf
In 533 Hijri (1139 CE), Zengi sought to encircle Damascus by capturing all the surrounding cities and fortresses. He marched first on Baalbek.
The siege and bombardment was intense. Eventually many surrendered on the condition of their safety. But a more stubborn and experienced group remained in the fortress. The depletion of their resources eventually compelled them to also seek safe passage.
Zengi agreed. Yet, when they came out, he betrayed their trust and crucified those he managed to capture, while a few fled.
This likely had the opposite effect than he wished for. Seeing his treatment of those who surrendered in Baalbek, the Damascenes were more determined to fight for their lives.
Zengi marched on Damascus twice the following year. In the first time, the Damascenes met him on the battlefield and were defeated. The governor of the city sent word to the Crusaders to come to the rescue as they had agreed. News reached Zengi that a Crusader force was marching toward Damascus. He lifted the siege and marched toward them. When they learned of this, the Crusaders stopped within their borders, and Zengi left to raid the environs of the city, then he returned to his lands.
Mu’in al-Din, then, captured Banias and gave it to the Crusaders as promised. Hearing about this, Zengi sought to try to capture Damascus again. He sent raiding parties around the city and camped outside the city gates with the remaining force. Damascene fighters sallied out and defeated Zengi and his men. He withdrew further from the city and waited until the raiding parties returned. Then he returned to his domain.
In the following years, Zengi continued to consolidate his power elsewhere in the Muslim world. Then, in 539 Hijri (1144 CE), he returned to focus on the Crusaders once again.
Fall of a Crusader Capital
The County of Edessa was the first of the Four Crusader States. (The rest were the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem.) In 539 Hijri, its capital, Edessa, would become the first to fall.
Capturing the city would not be easy, and Zengi knew that, if he marched on it directly, the Crusaders would rally toward it and render its capture nearly impossible. Instead, he marched first on his Muslim rivals in the region of Diyar Bakr to placate the Crusaders with the illusion that he wasn’t then focused on their land. Believing this ruse and thinking Zengi was too occupied, Joscelin II, the Count of Edessa, crossed the Euphrates westward, away from his capital.
Zengi jumped at the opportunity, sent messengers to rally all the princes and generals under his rule and command, and marched on Edessa.
The fighting lasted for 28 days. It was only when sappers succeeded in bringing down a portion of the city walls was victory within reach. The citadel of the city fell shortly after.
“When he saw the city, he admired it…So he ordered and called upon the soldiers…to return what they gained of spoils of furniture and belongings, so they returned all of it to the last one [soldier]…And he returned the city to its original state.”
~ Ibn al-Athir
The End of a Dawn
Two years later, he was assassinated by one of his slaves.
The death of Imad ad-Din Zengi was far from being the end of the liberation of Palestine. It was only the end of the beginning, as his son would carry the torch and continue the march toward the liberation of Jerusalem.
