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

This is our sixth session discussing the book, the crusades to Arab eyes by the renowned author, Amin Malouf, the French Lebanese, who relied exclusively on Muslim sources while writing this saga. This is the occupation of our exclusively written through the Muslim sources. This is why we chose this book to discuss. Last time, we stopped at the the the very tense situation whereby Aleppo was on the brink of being surrendered to the to the. Damascus under the leadership of Turtokin, the old man, the old who had made a quite a a strong reputation for himself in that event, but he was but he was now on his dying bed.

And then we discussed last time, they were on they were had they had very good relationships with the, and they it was it was assumed that as soon as ties, Damascus would be surrendered by the assassins who had a strong presence in escort to the the range of the Kingdom Of Jerusalem. And so it was quite it was a quite tense situation either in the North of or in the in the South of Mid South of. This chapter starts with one high note, which is that one of the main reasons of the autonomous of the of in general was the fact that the Seljuks and the Fatimids whom had been both weak at the start of the of the of the Ferengi campaigns This allowed the the the rulers, the local rulers of to gain and keep and preserve their autonomy quite a lot. And this was featuring fate for the next maybe two hundred years or something like that until the Mamluks gained the upper hand, the gains of the sultan of Egypt, and then they made it clear that their reign would be including of Egypt, some parts of Eastern Libya, all of the the the and maybe even parts of of Yemen.

But between the Herajji occupation and even before the Herajji occupation for a while before the Herajji occupation during the Herajji occupation and until all the way until the Mamluks the Mamluks established a strong presence or established their own ruling dynasty, so to speak. They weren't a dynasty, but their own, you know, state. Had very strong had a had a culture of autonomy for every city. So every city would have would be the the the the ruler of every city would be more or less autonomous. You will see that the situation might have changed for a while during some famous rulers' reigns like Muhammad or Saladin Ayyubi, but those guys were the exception and not the general rule.

So the weakness of both the Salajiks and the Fatimids enabled the local rulers of to always maintain a high sense of autonomy. And before we delve into the next chapter or the the next phase of the conflict between the Muslims and the Faraj, first of all, we need to to give the brief son of doctor King Bourri his due because this prince was able to single handedly save the masters from falling to the on the eve of his father's death. So this was the son of Turtukin, and he was a man of the age to so to speak. He had a strong military capability. He had a strong intelligence.

This intelligence apparatus was able to discover the conspiracy set up between the and the between the and the Nazaris, and this conspiracy entail entailed that the would deliver the mass would be delivered Damascus in exchange for giving the Nazaris tire. And so acted quickly and vigilantly to kill the Nazari sympathizers in the court and then unleashed a terror campaign against their their the the whole sect in Damascus, whereby many of the man of the Damascans killed them. And this was maybe the first time the the the people were not so afraid of the sect. Because as we mentioned last time, you couldn't even speak up against the the the Nazaris in public because the very next day, you would most likely be assassinated in public as well. So this may have been the first time that the the mass the Damascans were able to exact the revenge against the the the Nizari sect.

Of course, in these kinds of situations, there are, of course, innocent lives being, you know, being killed on both sides, but there's there's and it is an unfortunate event that took place, but it also shows how much people really hated Denizares and really hated their ideas and really hated their sect that the moment they had the ability to exact revenge, they took it without hesitation. Then, after having cleansed the city from Denizarius, he focused on what could have been the largest Ferengi army assembled since the the the the first Ferengi campaign, and it had come from all of the occupied lands, Jerusalem, Tripoli, Antioch, Edessa. And this army was now surrounding Damascus. So Buri, he didn't panic. He called upon some Turkish and Arab tribes in the Levantine Desert.

He added them to his own corpse and then conducted a sortie on a couple of thousand Paraci soldiers looking for food for food at the the Hota Valley, which surrounds Damascus, one of the best, you know, one of the best irrigated places in Bledeshem. And it was a complete route, and the rest of the Faraci withdrew from this campaign. And when Baldwin the second, the the king of Jerusalem, when he next tried to attack Damascus, he faced terrible weather conditions, and he had to retreat. And so Damascus was safe for the time being. Buri, on the other hand, he didn't live long enough to enjoy his victories because one day after these events, two Turkish dwellers came in to Damascus, and they came to him looking for a job in his court.

And as soon as his guard was down, they stabbed him, and they turned out to be the Nazari. So this is the part where we we were talking about last time that they were easily able they could easily able to they they could easily infiltrate any any any, you know, any regime, any public spaces, any kind of, yeah, any of of of assembly, they could easily infiltrate it, which means that they had very high capabilities both both in terms of intelligence, in terms of mimicking, you know, the guards of of the Emir or the or the or prince. They could do almost anything to blend in. And I think this was one of the perks of the of the famous game, the assassins, that they they they were very keen on on making the main character, whoever the character was, assassin was, and making them able making them, you know, be able to blend in in the masses without being noticed. So was that.

Okay? And, again, Damascus was, you know, on a whirlwind. But now we shift the camera to Iraq because now the strongest sultan who had come since the death of Malik Shah, Sultan Muhammad or the not not only the strongest, but also the longest, you know, the longest reigning. Sultan Muhammad, he was dead, and he was now succeeded by his teenager son Mahmud, a 16 year old, I think. And Khalifa Mustard sorry.

Khalifa Mustardhir, the first Khalifa to witness the Firangi occupation, was now also dead. Right? And he was succeeded by his more dynamic son and. Now we are in in in in a in a phase where people are born into the Firangia occupation. They're not just you know, they weren't alive when the Firangia came.

No. Their whole life was yeah, they started their lives and ended their lives probably in the Ferengi occupation. So this is a new, what you could call, a new generation of of rulers right now. Right? Amustachid, the son of Amustadhir, he was more dynamic than his father, and he was anxious to revive the golden days of his forefathers, the the the famous Abbasids.

Right? He wanted to regain the Abbasid economy. Not sure how he came to this, you know, to this wish because it's been more than two hundred years than than than yeah. It's more than it's been more than two hundred years since the last Al Basid Khalifa was more or less autonomous. So, you know, sometimes you have to be more realistic in your approach to to to governorship and to to know your limitations and to know the current situation and how it's how how things are really on the ground.

Anyway, Anastasid rose up against Sultan Mahmud. And Sultan Mahmud also wasn't that strong or at least wasn't as strong as his father, and he had to ask for the assistance of the new of Mosul, Ahmed Din Din Din Din one of the most capable military rulers in the history of Islam, to be honest. So now, Zinke and Sultan Mahmud, they were able to defeat al Mustarshid, and peace was restored in Iraq. And in exchange for Zinke's efforts, he was awarded Aleppo. So now he had both Mawl and Aleppo.

Now pay attention to this detail because this is the very foundation upon which the next famous ruler, Muhammad, his son, would operate, Muhammad and his brother. So you had to have a very strong line of communication between Mosul and Aleppo, a strong presence in both cities because Mosul was rich. It had the ability to amass soldiers while Aleppo was logistically important because it was your launch pad to to to to to to launch campaigns against the in. Right? But before that, we need to take a step back and to try to, like, discover a bit the history of Ahmadine Zinke.

Right? Who is Ahmadine Zinke? Ahmadine Zinke was the son of a very important figure called Akhsunkur. And Akhsunkur was a man who was very, very, very close to the Seljuk Sultan Malik Shah. So this was man was one of the old guard, you could say.

Right? A man from the old days. He was a great companion and a a close companion, a great man and a close companion to Malik Shah, the Seljuk Sultan, the great Seljuk Sultan. And Malik Shah, you know, they had a very strong relationship that he gave Aqsunqur the title of Qasemud Daula. Right?

So Qasemud Daula roughly translates in English to a partner in state affairs. He is he is partnering with partnering with me in running the affairs of state, which is a very high title in the in the great era, especially, because, as we mentioned, was one of the was the last great Sultan. And so when he gives an or an or whatever, the title of he means that this man is running the state with me. So this is no this is no small man. This is no small figure.

This is a very important man in the Salduq Sultan. In fact, this friendship, this very close friendship, let may be one of the the the the not the very bright one of the not very bright instances in the life. You know? Felt that influence in court on Malik Shah could be problematic, and thus he suggested to Malik Shah that he appoint Aksonkur to the governorship of Al Akkur. Now we take the camera or switch the camera to Al Akkur.

Guys, remember, this is before the crusade the the the Ferengi occupations or the crusades. This is way before. Right? This, like, this was in the maybe the the the the very not the very end, but the the last quarter of the eleventh century. The the Ferengi occupation started in the twelfth century, in the very last year of the twelfth century, but this took place maybe twenty five years before.

So at the time, Aleppo was being firstly fought over by two by two guys. This man is the father of the famous Khaleid Arsulan, the Seljuk the the Roman Seljuk Sultan, the very the guy we met at the very beginning of our story, the guy who lost his first capital but was able to inflict severe damage upon the Faraj in the next campaigns that they orchestrated. So this is his father. This is the the founder of the Roman Seljuk dynasty. And the other guy Aleppo was being fought over by was the famous Tutush ibn al Par Salan.

So Tutush ibn al Par Salan is actually the brother of Malik Shah, and, also, he is the father of the famous Lidwan and Dukhaq. So as you can see, you know, the main characters that we have been introduced to in the very beginning of our story, maybe the this the first, second, and third chapters. Right? So this is this chapter this episode is like a flashback. We're now talking about their fathers.

We're relating events concerning their fathers. So this is sort of a flashback episode. So Suleiman and Tutush, they were fighting over Allah. Yes,

Yes. I'm sorry. I don't I don't I don't mean to interrupt your your flow of the chronology and going through the book and everything, but I I just I just I sort of wanted to clarify for everyone who's listening now. We're not going through the history just so that you can learn this history, and it's not just a dry history lesson. You have to understand that any outcome, a victorious outcome or a defeat, there's a whole architecture behind that.

That all gets built up over time. And what we're trying to do is understand that these things are built, that outcomes are built over time by multiple ingredients, multiple layers, multiple players are involved, and you have to try to understand how all of these interactions take place and all of these various steps and stages that contribute to the ultimate architecture of what is your outcome, what outcome you achieve, what outcome you build. And so when we look back at the time of the Frang invasion and occupation of our lands, you should be able to propel your mind forward to now and then look at what's going on now through the eyes of a historian of the future. This is the future historical analysis approach that we take at Middle Nation. So the purpose for all of this, the purpose for going through this history and even going back to reading about the Syrah, is to look at all of the stages and the steps and the measures and the actions and the players involved who are contributing to building a particular outcome.

And this book really helps for anyone who hasn't been familiar or who isn't familiar with that history to go sort of step by step all of the interlocking pieces that had to come together over the course of generations. As brother said, we're now having people being born under the Frang occupation, the existence of the Frang in our lands. Now you have leaders who have lived that their whole life just as we have generations of people who have been born and who have lived and who have died during the Zionist occupation in Palestine and during the whole all of us alive today basically were born during the time of of American domination of the globe. So you you should be able to try to propel your mind forward by looking at what happened in the past to to review events today and how they play how it how it constitutes parts being interlocked, parts being put together, stages happening, measures being taken, all in the process of building an architecture that will lead us to an ultimate outcome. This is the purpose of this whole exercise, this whole going through the book and going through the history, is so that you can build that mental capacity and those intellectual muscles and those intellectual habits and techniques for understanding and interpreting what's going on today.

We're not just giving you a sort of a drive through lesson about the past, but look at when when brother is is going through all of those events, look at it and understand all of the things that had to come together and all of the things that that occurred and then the responses to those things that occurred, those events, and understand that that is a process that is perpetually taking place, and it's taking place right now in our lifetime. And architecture is being built for an outcome that our children or grandchildren or our great grandchildren will inherit because of what the people are doing now, because of what leaders are doing now, because of what populations are doing now, because of what people in in various fields are doing now. All of those things come together to build an outcome just as it did back in the time of the French invasion, Zacolatio. Sorry to interrupt.

No. Not at all, Ustad. I think it's a very it's a very brilliant point to be raised, actually. And we're trying to add some, you know, some explanatory points as we go, like the point you mentioned when we said that a new generation of rulers is now born into the Herrangio occupation. And there's also the fact that, for example, the the part where we said that the rulers were now autonomous.

This is a fact of of of of yeah. This is a fact of of life back then. So people had to deal with that in addition to their dealing with the Firangi occupation. Right? So you can't just come in.

And this is what this was, I think, apparent last time when we mentioned when when the Sultan Muhammad sent a campaign to discipline the the Muslim rulers of and. So what did they do? They allied with the. So this meant that you never ever cross their autonomy if you want to to to solve the problems in. This was a lesson learned by the Saddam Sultan Muhammad.

And so it's a learning process, but you cannot disregard the situation on the ground. It's not how things are done. If you want achievements, you have to do what you can with what you have. So, yes, we're not just, you know, relating stories as much as we want to try to extract lessons from those stories to understand how we how those people operated, the thought process, and how we can reflect that on our current agent, our current era, inshaAllah. Now so we mentioned that was being fought over by two strong men.

This is very we need to to to to state that, again, Tutush was the the brother of Malik Shah. So this is the brother of the sultan. And was his cousin, his paternal cousin. So, again, this is a very high ranking prince in the family. So those two wanted to, like, establish no.

I won't I wouldn't say many states, but they wanted to break establish breakaway states in Bledisham for Tutushy wanted to make a Seljuk state in Bladisham under his dominion. And Suleiman ibn Khutalmash wanted to create a breakaway state in Asia Minor, or back then, it was called Orturum or the land Of The Room. Based on Romans, I mean. And so that's why they took the the name later Roman Sarges. Right?

So had his his capital in Damascus, and had his capital in Nicaea. And this made Malik Shah a bit worried and sending Akzonkor to this to this region, which is the the the the border between Asia Minor and Benedeshem, it seemed like a good idea because he wanted someone there to balance the power between and Tutush. And so not only that was like, he was not trying to make a bad move in in Malik Shah's mind. No. In Malik Shah's mind, it seemed like a good move because he really wanted someone he could trust and mind you that, we have to remember, this was.

This was his his close com companion, his very close friend. So he he was sure of his absolute loyalty if he was able to hold Aleppo and and establish some sort of balancing of power in the region. So the battle over Aleppo between Tutush and Suleyman resulted in Suleyman's death. And when Malik Shah arrived to settle masters himself so Malik Shah so this was how severe the situation had been. Right?

The the the great Sultan had to come had to come all the way from Asia, from, you know, from from the depths of Asia. So the the capital of the Sultan was in Isfahan. Right? Somewhere near Qum and modern day Tehran and that kind of thing. So it was it was a distance to to be covered.

It wasn't it wasn't it wasn't like he was in the Hijaz or the Bledeshem. No. He had to cover a great distance because the Seljuk empire was indeed large. So Aksonkur sorry. When Malik Shah went to settle matters for himself in Bledishem, was assigned to Aleppo.

And or Salan, the the young Roman Seljuk Sultan, whom we met later in the future in our first episode, he was sent to Isfahan where he was raised in the court of Malik Shah, and he was kept, you know, in safe hands because Malik Shah didn't want to have a sultanate of of the Roman subjects established in Asia Minor. So this kit had to be sent away to Isfahan to to keep that from happening. But as we know in the future, after Malik Shah's death, was able to escape from Isfahan, and he went to Asia Minor, and he did establish the Roman sultanate as his father dreamt. Now Tutush remained in Bledeshem, and it's understandable because, again, this was the brother of the sultan. So the sultan didn't, you know, punish him because this was his brother, and he was a high ranking prince in the Seljuk family.

And so Tutush remained in Bredesham, and he fought the Fatimids over the cities of the coast. Because until this point in time, the Fatimids, they were a strong presence in Egypt. They had a very strong fleet that could serve their presence in Egypt, and so holding the the the coastal cities was a challenge for Tutush. And we see that until the Firangi occupation in the early twelfth century, the Fatimids still had coastal cities in their hands. So as we mentioned, the Firangi had sorry.

The Fatimids had coastal cities in their hands until the first Faraji occupation. Now Akhsunker was able to fairly rule Alaco after a series of unjust rulers who had ruled the Siciliani. He restored public safety. He revived trades. And in a nutshell, his reign was a golden reign for Aleppo, and the Alephans would always remember him, and we would see that play out in the future or actually in this episode.

Yeah. So after Malik Shah's sudden death, expectedly, there was a power grab. Right? Tutush, the brother of the sultan, made a bid for the throne in Asia against who? Against Bir Qiaruk, the son of Malik Shah.

So now Aksumkor had to make a choice, either side with Tutush, the stronger man, the the older man who had capabilities military capabilities, I mean, or side with the son of his close friend and competent. And, of course, Otsunker sided with Maliksha. And, of course, when he fought Tutush on the field, he lost to Tutush, and he paid the price with his life. Right? So Tutush was so Otsunker was was killed in this incident.

Now when Opsonger died, he had a 10 year old, Zinke. Right? And Malik Shah's son, current sultan, who was still, you know, trying to survive, he never forgot Opsonger's loyalty, and he took in Opsonger's 10 year old son, Zinke. And then Zinke had been in the service of the famous utabics of Mosul since, yeah, since he could manage sorry. Right.

Since he could ride horses, yeah, as early as as he as soon as he could ride horses and be of use. He had been put in the service of famous utabics of Mosul, such as Karbuka, Jakarmesh, Jawli, and even al Borsokhay, another Aksong Karami. So Zhenki always put his loyalty to the Seljuk sultans before all else, and this was a very important aspect of his understanding of the dynamics of power in the region. Right? Because now we were no longer in the age of the great sultans, the great Seljuks, and there was a Khalifa anxious trying to serve anxious to to to revive the glory of his forefathers.

We had the Firange. We had the Roman Seljuks. So we had breakaway states everywhere, which meant that he had to choose wisely and consciously whom he would side with in any conflict. Right? So Zenki's service to the different topics of Mosul gave him enough experience to hold the position in 11/27 when he was around 40.

Right? So he came after al Buzupai. So after al Buzupai and his son died, when he if our listeners will remember, al Buzupai and his son, they were assassinated by the Nazaris in Alaco in the series of assassinations executed against them, against Qadil Harawi, Qadil Hasheb. Before them, Shahr al Din Mawdud and Al Tukin. So they were the last, perhaps, in a in a series of assassinations that almost depleted the region from strong capable rulers.

So Zenki, when he was the autobioc of Mausl, he was not like his predecessors in the governorship of Mausl. He had a vision for the region that involved him building an autonomous state, so he was no different from the rulers of in that aspect. And he also had a vision where the Fairhound occupation was nowhere to be seen in his lifetime, at least. He had a he had a very strong court. He was famously strict with his soldiers, and his army was also known to be uniquely disciplined in the region.

And this would play out in in in in how he ruled Mosul because the people of Mosul didn't, you know, didn't they didn't complain from his rulership, and the people of Aleppo also didn't complain from his rulership. He led a lot he led a a rough life. He didn't sleep in palaces, but he slept in tents. He was always on the move, he was always on alert. And this shows us how how how dynamic this character was.

So before him, the of Mosul, the only goal they had in mind was to come to Bledishem, you know, launch some campaigns here and there, gain some loot and gain some spoils, and return back to Iraq because this was the center of power, Iraq and Asia. Zhenki, on the other hand, had a different vision, as we mentioned. He wanted to establish a strong presence in and he wanted to establish a long standing presence. And we will see how this played out when he was succeeded by his sons, especially Nur ad Din Mahmud, because Nur ad Din Mahmud was later on called the sultan of. Right?

So he didn't have much relationships with with Asia except with, you know, French relationships with the subjects of his time, but his main power base was in. So so we we discussed the the, you know, the the positives of Medellin and Kiev, but he also had some misgivings. Right? So he for example, he before Bury died, he asked Bury of Damascus for aid in a campaign against the French. But when Buri sent his own son, from Hamel, which was held by the Damascus, along with 500 knights to aid Zinky in his battle with the French, Zinky held them hostage, those 500 knights and the the prince Zinky, the son of Buri.

Held them hostage and threatened Buri not to challenge him, and was released two years later. Right? So, of course, Hamel was empty. Didn't have any soldiers and no leader because they were held hostage by Zanki, so he was able to to capture Hamel with the help of the leader of Homs. And then he tried to do the same thing with Homs by imprisoning its leader, but the city held out against Zenki, and he lifted the siege.

Now those two incidents gave the the the Damascus an idea about the character of Zenki. Right? So Zenki didn't have any qualms resorting, you know, to to to deceit and tragedy trying to to establish his power base in. And this gave Damascus its long standing strategy with the Zinke and with his son, Nurgi Mahmoud. So this is a lesson in also how to to understand that the actions you make right now, they may have long standing effects not only in your lifetime, but in the lifetime of your sons and your successors in a region as on fire as.

The the reason why wanted to to to to take Damascus was that Damascus was rich in its strategic importance, and it had two values, very important in in Zhenke's mind to supply him with grain. In addition to Aleppo, of course, Zhenke tried to control as many lands between Aleppo and Mosul as possible because he wanted to create a homogeneous continuous state between his power base and lead in in Mosul, his his his earlier seat of power and Aleppo. So the lands in between the cities in between, like, Mardin, that's why I sent the the the the map in the discussion group. So please feel free to either add here add it here or go back to the discussion group and and view the map. So the lands between Aleppo and Mosul, they have to be in Zhenki's hands.

Otherwise, he could be having the two cities, but he was he would be unable to, like, move freely between them between his seats of power, and that would, you know, hinder his efforts greatly either in Iraq or in Asia Minor. Sorry. Either in Iraq or in Belarusian. Right. Zinky also had a strong intelligence apparatus that inform informed him of what happened in Baghdad.

So the the the the Sajjaks, Damascus, which is the family of Tohtokin or Tabak, Antioch, The Farang, Jerusalem, The Farang, and, of course, Aleppo and Mosul. So he had that strong intelligent intelligence apparatus. He was not surprised that much. He knew everything before it happened. So when he first took control of Aleppo, he didn't go there.

Right? He left it he left it under one of his generals since he was drenched in the power struggle in Iraq, the one we mentioned before we took we we delved into the story of Senki and Senki's father. So as you guys remember, was still trying to break away from the Seljuqs with Iraq. Right? He wanted to establish a strong state in Iraq, breaking away from the subjects.

So when Sultan Mahmud died in the power struggle and again wanted to rise up. So he was defeated the first time around when Sultan Mahmud asked for Zanki Zanki's aid. But when Sultanahmud himself died and the power struggled between the subjects and themselves, and again wanted to rise up. This time when Zanki again decided to face in battle, Zanki was defeated. He was almost captured also if it weren't for the help of the governor of a city called Decrete.

This governor of Decrete helped Zanky and made sure he arrived safely back to Mosul. This man, the governor of Decrete, is called Najmud Din Ayub, and our speakers already know this man and know who he is. Our listener our listeners may not know him right now, but, you know, please remember this name, Najmud Din Ayub. You probably know, but I don't want to, like, break the surprise. So Nerjem Din Ayub was able to successfully save Zenki from falling into the hands of the Khalif and, thus, he essentially saved Bled Hashem from total deliverance to the French because this was the strongest man in this time, Zenki, I mean.

So the successor of Sultan Mahmud was his brother, Sultan Masud. And Sultan Masud convinced to attack Zenki in Mosul. And at the same time, this helped Zanki security. So he was trying to establish again his own power, And when did lay siege to Mosul, he was unable to take it, and he was even killed in his own tent. Right?

So we see that Iraq was a bit on fire, and this hindered Zenki's efforts to be totally focused on Bledishem. But, also, there was something else taking place in Bledishem, which was remarkable in my opinion, that the same political divisions that were consuming the Muslim rulers were now working their way into the Farajic campaign as well. Right? So when the ruler of Antioch was killed by the son of the famous Danish man, the the the Turkish the Turkish ruler of one of of a part of Asia Minor. And we also met him at the at the beginning of our story.

So when the ruler of Antioch was killed by this famous Danish man's son, the widow of the ruler of Antioch, She was the daughter of Baldwin the second, the king of Jerusalem, and she was his daughter from an Armenian Middle Eastern princess. This meant that this princess was a native. Right? So she took matters into her own hands, and she decided to seek Zinke's assistance in exchange for nominal allegiance to Zinke. Right?

So she wanted to be autonomous in Antioch, but under the over rulership or or the overlordship of Zinke. This was the new generation of French who were born in the Middle East. They had never been in Europe. They had never been to Europe. And many of them, like the daughter of Baldwin the second, they were children of Eastern Christians and Armenians.

Of course, Baldwin the second intercepted the messenger that this princess had sent to an to Zinki, and he banished his daughter from Antioch. It is important also to note that despite having spent some time in the region, many of the old still cling to their old habits. This, of course, meant a lack of hygiene and an alarming lack of lira towards their wives. And there's nothing to say here, to be honest. What else can I say?

No hygiene and no lira. I mean, anyway, so this meant this the the the lack of hygiene part especially meant that many of the children die young. And, of course, this had its own implications because this caused the problem of succession. And, also, there was a the factionalizing took place when Baldwin the second was succeeded. So when he died, his daughter was married to someone called Falk, who came from Europe.

But this daughter, the wife of Falk, she had an affair with some count in in one of Jerusalem's many, you know, smaller cities. And so affectionalizing took place because some people sided with Volk, the successor of Baldwin the second, and other people sided with the lover boy. I mean, I wonder what a Muslim ruler would have, you know, thought when he heard that kind of of news. Anyway, after Buri's death, his son Ismail, so this is the grandson of Turkiin. His son Ismail was up to a promising start.

But after he discovered a conspiracy against his own life and after he interrogated the culprits himself, he went on a killing frenzy. And so no one was safe, not even his brother Sohanj, the one who has the one who was held hostage by Zinki when he was sent from Hamad by. Right? And this again tells us so you could be a good ruler. You the the people could be actually blessed with a good ruler, but maybe some of them have some issues with this ruler, so they decide to act.

And this alone could cause chaos. So Ismail, as we mentioned, he was up to a promising start. He was able to attain some cities from the. But because some people didn't like some of his policies in Damascus, they decided to act up. And so he became this obsessed maniac with conspiratorial conspiratorially obsessed maniac, and he was suspicious of everyone.

And so he decided that I'm going to kill everyone. Not only did he decide that he was going to kill everyone, but he and the more people he killed, the more he became afraid. So it became, like, closed loop. He can't he can't exit it because he killed people. So those people would have some people wanting to exact revenge on him, so he killed those odds well.

And he he yeah. It was a wrong, of course, decision on his part. So the more he killed, the more afraid he became. So afraid Ismail had become that he wrote to Zenki asking him to come to take Damascus. Of course, Lenki I think when he heard that he was like, let's march right now.

Let's take the army and march right now to Damascus. Right? But before Zenki arrived to Damascus, Ismail's mother, along with the Damascus elite, had killed Ismail and had prepared for a long siege against Zinki. Because Zinki's earlier treasury was still ringing loud, so they to to to Adamascus, anything was appropriate or anything can be accepted except having the overload check of Zaki. So this is the part where we said that some actions taken by some people could have long standing effects.

So this is the end of chapter six. I hope we covered everything. We also supplemented some of the information we had by explaining Zinky's background and the power grab that took place after March's death. If I if any of our speakers have anything to add, I'd be more than happy.

Was saying I just want to follow-up what the sales was saying about how what it actually takes to to build, you know, power when you look at these events in isolation. Like, for example, Buri, like, was on the one he was slaughtering the assassins. I was thinking, imagine you're living in that time period, and you're seeing the ruler just unleashing violence on the population, and you'd be like, oh, you know, he's he's so cruel. He's unjust. He's a tyrant.

We need to get rid of him. But you look on it on a long enough time frame, and you see the irreversible damage that his assents have unleashed on the Muslim world. So, yes, they have created irreversible damage against the Muslim world, and so the decision to deal with them would obviously have to be ruthless. It does not look pretty. But, again, on history remembers differently.

On a long enough time frame, you can see the rationale behind these decisions. The same thing with. Doesn't romanticize him. It's not paint him in a in a good way. But, nonetheless, he was the first model of someone who actually engaged in disciplined state crafting and state building.

But, again, if you lived during that time, you would have considered him ruthless, questionable, un Islamic, etcetera. The same things that they say today. But, again, history remembers differently, and he his he's he done he's done incredible work, and his son did incredible work for us.

Yeah. Actually, on that point, I think there might be something right here to to to discuss, which is, yes. First of all, we need to to to to determine that the the only reason we say that did some unquestionable things is that we as Muslims have a very high standard of criteria. Right? So our our criteria are very high, and they are always Islamic and ethical.

But if we take away those criteria and, you know, view the events from a real quality objective entirely without any other, you know, any other ethical backgrounds, This would be a man who was, like, the the one of the best statesmen in the era. The only reason we say that is that we have as Muslims, we have our own calibrations of how to to think about things. Right? And we stay still real politic is real politic. What had to be done had to be done and that kind of thing.

But when we, for example, compare to other Muslim leaders, like, for example, his own son, we see that other actions, like, towards Damascus or towards other cities in the were taken, which were different from Zinke, and they had a better outcome. So we can make that sort of comparison. We can make or we can say that this was not the best move because we will see how Nur ad Din, for example, was able to acquire the masks. We will see how Saladin Ayyubi was able to, like, construct his own state in and in the in in in. Right?

So those two had different approaches from, and they were successful. So, of course, was the first, but we when we view history on its entirety in its entirety, we will see that some people made the wrong decision. Some people made the right decision. Some people made a decision that delayed some events, and some people were were were able to learn from those events and make the right decision afterwards. So it's a continuum.

It's a system it's it's an organic state building process. It's not something that, you know, no one no one knows what will happen in their own lifetime.

I just wanted to comment on something that Abdul Rahman mentioned that is it's interesting when you consider what we read in the book. So he mentioned that, you know, the massacring or the takedown, let's say, the removal of the assassins, the balkanian, the the Nizari Nizari, the Nizari that that this would have been from an outside perspective, maybe seen as something cruel or brutal, etcetera, etcetera. You can have a negative slant on it. But when you read the accounts of Ferdinand and the people involved there, they seem to have welcomed it. And so this is just one of those things that in that time and even in present day times, it can be very tempting to put on the lens from outside, from externally, and judge without or or even perceive and quote, unquote analyze without the context of the without the internal context, the local context that is critical to understand what is happening, why it's happening, and how it's being received.

And you will see this play out in all sorts of different geopolitical events, including what's happening right now in in in countries, you know, where from an outside perspective, might be seen as well why is that happening? Oh, this is brutal. Oh, look. They said peaceful and now they're launching this sort of airstrike and this sort of thing. But if you ask the people that are there, perhaps they have a very different outlook on what's happening and why it's happening and are welcoming it. So

it's just one of those things to keep in mind that I think was very telling in in the accounts that me and Martin have put together. He may not have shared it that way, but that's what I perceived from it.

Yeah. I think I agree with that. Anyone else want want to add something? Whether Karim?

Assalamu alaikum. You know, what just stood out to me, and it's just something maybe, like, a general lesson. But you can see it's not written by a Muslim because he always, like, somehow exposes some sense of the rulers. And I think we need to learn, like, okay. We expose crimes of Muslim rulers, but we should always cover up the sins, you know, because we all sin.

And part of being, you know, is to try to cover up the mistakes of our rulers. So, like, you know, when you read the or when you read the stories of the Sahaba or different narrations and so on, it really does not focus on the sense of individuals, but the author always has to mention I feel like it has no further point. You know? Like, it doesn't really add anything to the story or to the outcomes of anything. But this type of, like, I have to mention something negative.