Middle Nation Book Discussion | The Crusades Through Arab Eyes | Session Four

Let's start. So welcome, everyone. This is episode number four in the book club, The Crusades Through Arab Eyes by Lebanese French author, Amin Malouf. Chapter three is the the part where we are we we already entered chapter three last time. We stopped after the catastrophe and the cannibalism of, and we will continue inshallah.

And it is my goal and my hope inshallah to finish chapter three this episode. So a long time. Now after the have completed their their their conquest of Maartenomen, it wasn't really a conquest. Maartenomen was more or less a small town. But after they took Maartenomen, they this yeah.

This what what they did in Marda to Naaman, the news of of that, it it flew everywhere. And so the rulers of the area, the rulers of as we had mentioned before, there were different races. So where there were Arabs ruling Tripoli, presented by the family of, the judges, and there was another family ruling, family of the famous historian, Usama bin Muqud, who was a poet, a historian, a knight, a very patrician type of character in our story. And those two Arab families didn't really like the fact that the Turks, whether they were Seljuks or Utabaks, were in control of most of militia. They didn't like that.

And they saw in the presence an opportunity to break away from this kind of dominion. Okay? And so there were also there was also Ganahad Daula, the leader or the ruler of Pumps. And by the way, Ganahed Daula was Ganahed Daula was one of the generals at the battle of for Antioch. So all of these all

of those

people after the Mareto Norman, they sent envoys to the French army, offering them aid and offering them guidance through the roads because they wanted as much as possible to avoid any direct military conflict with those guys. K? And why why did this happen? Because there was Khalas after Karbuka left. There was no strong leader able to rally all of the Muslim forces in the area or outside of the area to meet the Firansh in a decisive battle and to defeat them, essentially.

That was not possible anymore. So they just found out that it was better to pay them off to keep them away from their own proper properties. And, of course, of some the coastal cities also followed suit. So we hear that Beirut did the same thing. Tyre did the same thing.

Akri did the same thing. The only city that offered some sort of resistance was the city of Saddam, Saydal. They offered some they put up some resistance, and the Farronch, you know, they ravaged the countryside of the city, tried to, you know, punish them, but they couldn't enter the city. And then a very interesting incident takes place, which is that now, not all of the the the the residents of Beelit Shem, not all of the people living in Beelit Shem had major cities to to flee into. Some of them were rich, so they could flee into the cities and buy and buy property there and, yeah, and get get on with their lives.

But others were poor, and they they lived day by day. So they those poor people, they divided themselves into two categories. The first category would disappear into the woods, okay, where they be where they would be met by all kinds of beasts. So beasts, so we we hear yeah. We know that the woods back then, they had, you know, bears, wolves, that kind of thing.

And the the second category would be people who chose to take, refuge inside abandoned castles. So they would enter the castle. It was abandoned castle. So they would enter the castle with the fort. They would, like, revamp the castle.

They would restore many of its facilities, and they would stay inside. And one such case was the castle in the Bakhiyah Valley. It was a fortress called the called the Fortress Of The Kurds. And this this castle was on the route that the Firange took on their way to Jerusalem. And so the Firange decided that they wanted to take this fort.

Okay? Now the people inside the fort they manned it very well, to be honest, and they they waited for a very, yeah, well timed opportunity when the most of the French forces went away on another sortie or expedition or some some sort of campaign. And so only a very few number of forces stayed in the camp that was surrounding the the the fort. And somehow those people inside the fort, they were able to get news of this, and they stormed the camp, which was very poorly defended. And they almost captured, the the leader of the French, a guy know called Saint Gid.

And and this was yeah. The the French were beyond themselves with fury because how how can something like that happen? And this was the very first time, I think, until now that we see that the that normal people, not even, you know, what you would call regular armies, were able to break this unstoppable myth of the Firange. Like, they are they're savage. They're unstoppable.

They can't be defeated. These were not regular soldiers. These were peasants, and they were able to do to do that kind of thing. And they almost captures captured Sanjil. He he he escaped by by by a very narrow within a very narrow window.

And when news got to the main army, the main contingent that the the sortie took place, they hurried back, and they tried again to take the fort. They couldn't. And they waited for the next day because they were planning a massive attack on the fort. They were going to put all of their resources into that. However, again, the the the people manning the fort made another trick or the yeah.

I mean, pulled another trick, which is that they waited until nightfall, and they escaped the fort in very yeah. In a very silent manner, and they were able to leave the fort and the campaign and the the Faraj without leaving any, yeah, any trail behind them. And so the the next day, the next morning, the Faraj were surprised to see that the fort was empty, and when they stormed it, they found nothing. So they were double crossed, and they were almost defeated in battle, which, you know, raised some hopes because now this myth this myth of unstoppable beasts or savages was coming to to to some sort of end. Like, no.

We we we can face them in battle. We can trick them. We can do anything. We can pull military strategies on them. Yeah.

And then the the during their stay now this this fort fortress of the Kurds, the the Farang took took it for themselves, and, they rested in it for a while. And within, during their stay there, the envoys that we talked about came from the different, cities. So an an envoy came from Tripoli, an envoy came from Homs, an envoy came from Caesar. And so all of these delegations were were were starting to to arrive during their stay in in the Fortress Of The Kurds.

It just shows the two things two things, I think, in in this in this series of incidents. One was the terror that was inflicted on the population via the massacres and the cannibalism of of the of the French. And that shows you something about the sort of psychological effect that was created by very, very over the top, very dramatic, very horrifying violence. And this this sort of applies to the modern age, obviously, when we're talking about, for example, America and with, like, for example, the shock and awe campaign on Iraq and so forth, that America has actually inflated our perception of their power by means of particularly horrifying levels of violence. And that fixed in our minds to be afraid of them, that they're very fearsome, very unstoppable, very, you know, sort of invincible power by means of very calculated displays of horrific violence.

And that ends up doing more work for you than if you had to actually carry out long term military campaigns. Because as we've seen just also in Iraq, following the shock and awe campaign, following the invasion, the occupation, and then also in Afghanistan. And also, of course, we see in currently in Gaza and throughout the history of the Palestinian conflict, the Palestinian occupation. The example the second example, which is the power of endurance the power of endurance and strategy, that an an enemy that relies exclusively upon these horrific displays of violence is actually not as powerful of an enemy as you think they are because they don't have the capacity for the for maintaining their authority and their supremacy in the long term. So the this is just two observations that they try to invent or or fabricate an illusion of supreme power by means of extreme violence, extreme sort of almost it's almost like a ceremonial type of a violence because it's intended to fix in the minds of their enemies, in the minds of us, that they have more power than they do have.

And then the other the other observation that if we're able to absorb that and endure for a longer period of time, ultimately, you can achieve victory.

Yes. I I I totally agree with this observation that you made, Gustav. And you can you can you can even justify not justify, of course. I mean, you can even understand the reasoning behind this, which is that they were not on their train. Right?

They were not this wasn't their land to begin with. They're not in Europe, meaning that they were always, always limited on resources, limited on time, and limited on on everything. This is not their land, and they're they're surrounded by enemies almost everywhere. So they have no line of communication, of course, back to Europe. They have no logistical support.

They have no supply line. They have nothing. So the element of of of of speed is is of the essence to them. And in order to to speed up things, they need to to show people that if you do not surrender immediately, we will do so and so to you. Right?

So you you'd better surrender because, otherwise, we're so powerful that we are going to, yeah, burn, devastate, pillage, thunder, eat everything. Right? While in actuality, they're not that powerful. They're just in a hurry because they are their time is not on their side. So, yeah, this is a very astute observation, and I I do understand why they did that, and it's it's yeah.

Mean, they had they not that they had to do it, of course, but, I mean, it it's natural that they do that because they're in their land surrounded by enemies everywhere. So and, of course, they're they're savage. So, anyway

Yeah. I was I was I'm sorry. Just just to follow-up. I'm not saying that they did this necessarily in a calculated way. They're doing it because that's their nature.

That's the way they behave. But the but the reaction to it is real. Whether whether it was deliberate, calculated, thought through on their part or not, whether it was strategic on their part or not, the impact of it is on the psyche of those whom they are attacking. In this case, obviously, we're talking about our people. The impact upon our people is very real, and we're still dealing with that until today.

That even though now, for example, as I've talked about many times, America itself is more a regional hegemon at this point, they don't have anywhere near the power that people perceive them to have. One of the big obstacles or one of the big hurdles that we have to get over, in the Muslim world and in the global South generally is the perception of American power. And that perception of American power was instilled in our minds and in our psyches by means of examples of them performing or carrying out or committing extreme acts of violence. And that has fixed it in our minds that they have, considerably more power than they have in the real world. In in actual relative power terms, their power is not what we think it is, but we still think it, which make which is us at this point giving them power, giving them more power than they have because of our perception.

Yeah. And inshallah, when we when we reach the part where we can what we would call or what what yeah. What most historians would call the Muslim response, it all started by the change of perception, like you like, just like you said, Ostad, like, the the change of perception that the Muslim leaders first of all, they needed to change the perception of the French that they were not a temporary threat. They were a more of an a more permanent threat that they first thought they were. And second so so that changed even their mindset.

So they the the the the generals or the autabaks that were assigned stations in Mausole, in and so so, they would deal with whole situation as temporary. Right? I will go there, do some do have a campaign or two. Right? Go on a campaign or two against the French, try to to do it as much as I can, and then come back.

And that's it because it's time free to them. But the moment that the the the or the generals thought of the situation, no. They're they're not leaving. We have to deal with them. And then change the perception of this madness, this savagery that they are just projecting power because there are aliens to the region.

I think it's it's at this moment that victory was achieved. It took a long time to manifest, but victory was at this moment, at the moment that the perception itself changed.

Right. That's correct. And I think I think that this it it it just makes me think also about the importance of having as as early as you possibly can an accurate assessment an accurate assessment of any any any player with whom you have any sort of interaction or any sort of relationship, whether this is on an individual level or on a national level, on a geopolitical level. You have to have an accurate assessment because to a certain extent, we obviously, at that time, the Muslims suffered from an inaccurate assessment and under evaluation and underestimation of how serious the threat was that was posed by the Frans. And then that underestimate of their power and their threat to us contributed to exaggerating our shock at the level of violence that they inflicted.

So even even though the violence that they inflicted was in and of itself horrific and bad enough, our reaction to it because we were even more unprepared for what they were going to do because we had underestimated the threat that they posed. So it just emphasizes again the importance of having as early as you can an accurate and objective assessment of any threat and of any player that you are having to interact with. Again, that applies on the individual level, on a personal level, and it applies obviously on the geopolitical level, which is what we're dealing with now.

Yeah. This yeah. Yeah. I think we will also, in short, discuss this today regarding Al Abdul. Okay?

So, yeah, it could be it could be mentioned it could be stated that Al Abdul okay. So Egypt, I think we mentioned this before, but for the sake of clarity and for the sake of a bit of context here regarding what the stat is saying, Egypt was the the the was was far away from its heyday. Right? Egypt was under the Fatimid rule. Once upon a time, this Fatimid rule extended all the way from Northern Africa to Yemen in the South to Beyad Hashem in the East, and they even had propaganda machines working for them in India as far as India.

Okay? So they at some point, they were extremely powerful. And during the reign of the Khalifa al Mustansir Billah, this was the the the the height of their power. Okay? A famine took place during the with the famine.

And afterwards, their their their territories began to shrink so much until we reached the the current situation, which is that now their main territory is only Egypt and some pockets in Beledition. Okay? Still, after all of that decline, they were still the most powerful the most powerful Muslim entity South Of Bledeshem. Okay? So because the subjects were the the most powerful entity East Of Bledeshem, but they were in in constant warfare with each other as we mentioned.

The the sultans were in constant warfare. Subjects of Iraq and Iran and Forsen, that kind of thing. And the subjects of Rum were engaged with the Byzantines, and so the the the subjects of Bledeshem were so weak. And so the the strongest player in this region, which is Egypt and the The Levant was Egypt. Okay?

And the the man who was holding Egypt was Al Abdul. Now this man, what I'm trying to to to point out here is that this this man, he made the calculation that was talking about. He made the very, very, very wrong assessment of the French. He didn't know who they were. He thought that they were some mercenaries for the Byzantine Empire, and so he thought he thought that they were soldiers of the Byzantine or the Eastern Roman Empire.

Right? And so he sent envoys to them saying that if you guys succeed in taking Antioch, then we can split between us, and then we can stand together against the Celtics. Of course, we will talk about the the the the geopolitics of the region many, many times later on. But what he saw was an opportunity, and he didn't really know who the Farangs were. He didn't know that there was a a sermon given at Claremont by the the pope Urban the second where they were going to go to take Jerusalem.

He didn't know all of that. And so he he saw them taking cities in the Levant and very, very late, yeah, during the first pheromological campaign, did he realize that he made a mistake, that he stood by while instead of trying to defend the coast as much as he can, instead of trying to to see if he can help the Saldurbs or even contact the Eastern Romans and ask them who these guys are. He made all of those errors. And so he made a very critical mistake in the on his part in the assessment of the Farron, which caused him, as we shall see, the loss of Jerusalem and the loss of some coastal cities that belonged to the Fatimid, to the Fatimids, in Beledition. Now the Faranj were staying in the fort of, of the Kurds.

By the way, forty years later, they would restore this fort, the Farajaniani, and it will be a very famous fort in the the Farajan era. It will be called Crac De Chevalier, one of the most famous forts during the the the crusades. And by the way, it still stands till till today. So as we send as as as we mentioned, delegations were sent by the rulers to the in in in the fort. The most yeah.

I mean, what would you call the most elegant and the most high level delegation sent was the delegation sent from Tripoli. Now Tripoli was a port city, and it was ruled by a family of judges, a a family of very well read judges. They were highly sophisticated, and they were yeah. Mean, they represented what we would call the the epitome of of of what a Muslim ruler was during the time. Right?

Very well read. A judge, not not not a general or anything like that. They had a huge library. Tripoli had a huge library. It contained, at the time, more than 100,000 books.

Again, we're talking about almost a thousand years before. So, yeah, this was a library. This was a huge library, and Tripoli was a city state. It wasn't even like an empire or or or it didn't have yeah. They didn't have other cities in.

No. It was just trip Tripoli and some villages here and there and some very small cities here and there. Yet they were very flourishing because they were port city, obviously. And so the the the ruler of the city, I think it was Jalalimurk, if I'm not mistaken, He sent an envoy to the French offering them, of course, aid and alliance and that kind of thing. And then he asked for the envoys to go back with him to Tripoli in order that he can discuss more details.

And this was the blunder again. He made a very a very serious mistake on his side when he asked the the the the to enter the city so that he can discuss with them, yeah, more specifically the terms and the conditions of the alliance. And what happened is that the envoys, the the members of the the delegation, they they didn't hear a word of the of what the of the man of what the man said because they were simply astonished at the riches that they could acquire if they were able to take the city. And so, yeah, one of the the the the key lessons here was that you never ever ever invite the enemy to your own lands, to your own city, to your own council, to your own palace, to whatsoever unless you are are totally certain that you are much stronger than the enemy and and and unless you are just trying to project your own power, like, you're you're showing the enemy not just your castles and your riches and your money and your libraries. No.

You also should show them your military, your army. Right? And so when the members of the envoy will see this army, they will fear that they that if they attack you, they they will face serious retaliation. But just showing them the riches, you're you're essentially inviting them to to to to to to attack you. Right?

So it's it's a very stupid mistake on the on the on the side of of of of the ruler of. Abdur Rahman, yes?

I totally agree with your point, brother Omar. But I think this is also goes back to the same idea of an incorrect assessment. Perhaps, you know, he was thinking they're gonna see all this order of riches and our wealth, and they're gonna wanna be friends with us. They're gonna want to partner with us. They're gonna you know, we're they're gonna think of us as a very rich ally.

We're gonna give them all these useful. Of course not. The the these people don't think like that. They see acquisition. They see extraction.

They see exploitation. They see looting, pillaging. That's how they think. You know? But I think also a very important lesson to draw from this is also the importance of leverage because, you know, you see a lot of Muslims online.

They like to say that the GCC is paying Jizya to The United States and the West, but that's that's that's leverage. It's not just flaunting resources. It's it comes in the form of investment. It's basically, you can't hurt me without hurting yourself. Any since our rulers have learned that lesson, You you can't hurt me without hurting your own pockets.

It's basically like an economic firewall, you can say. And the the regional plan, in an essence, is to extend that firewall to the rest of the region to make it too profitable to destroy, too profitable to sabotage. But, yeah, that's that's all I have to say.

I know brother Karim has some good say. Let me just add real quickly. It is a concern, though. What you said, brother Abdulrahman, is absolutely correct in terms of anyone anyone who thinks that it's a that the that the GCC is paying to the West doesn't understand how investment works. As I've said many times, investment is a syringe that withdraws far more than it puts in.

But there is a concern in in my view. There is a concern, and it's a concern that I've had for quite some time, which is that you are inviting the GCC, is inviting or is I wouldn't actually, it's incorrect to say inviting. They are partnering out of necessity with the a national OCGFC, which you can say is sort of fronted by BlackRock into the region on the basis of the enormous wealth, the enormous prosperity that is already naturally in our region in Biladisham and in The Gulf, but also the potential for the prosperity that can be built there. So it it is it is still a concern in in my mind because you have to understand that these are people who who are, by nature, predatory. And they do they still have the same crusader mentality, the same crusader Viking marauder pirate mentality.

So, you know, it's it's it's still a concern. And I think that that it's it's important for us to talk about our history because I believe, and Allah knows best, but I believe that our leaders have learned lessons from our history, and we won't see a repeat of what happened the last time that happened in in this period that we're talking about. Because I think they have themselves studied this period, and they have studied our enemies and have understood how to deal with them. But it it it is a concern because you could you could see it as something very similar to inviting them into Tripoli to see all of the wealth and the beauty and the sophistication and so forth. It's similar to inviting Larry Fink into Riyadh or or inviting Larry Fink into Dubai or Abu Dhabi or what have you and showing them showcasing for them the enormous wealth that is already there and then the enormous wealth and prosperity that is possible.

But as you said, rightly so, this is being done today via a mechanism of leverage where it's not in their interests to just ruthlessly extract violently extract. There are strings attached, and they are this this to me is is an example or is a is a proof that our leaders have actually learned the lessons of history.

I'm not sure 100% if it's just about leverage, but I think, like, even with the crusaders back then or with the French, the thing is that if you had shown them that some partnership would have been more profitable and more materialistically, you know, enriching, they would have gone for the option instead of the savagery and, you know, besieging the city. Right? Because, like, I don't see why they would not do that now except under the assumption that it's more profitable for them to not do it. Right? So I'm not sure if they would be hurt too much and wouldn't gain from basically doing the neo cone stuff that they did till now, I think, could still probably be profitable or they'll find a way to make it profitable in some sense, you know, by warfare and damage and pillaging and the same tactics that they had always used.

But The Gulf and, you know, all of the countries that are from the last standing somehow together managed it in a way to show these players the initial OCGFC that is much better for you, and it will be much profitable for you to partner with us rather than to try to, you know, destroy us. Alright? So I think if and back then, the Muslims had somehow instead of just showing them the riches without any prospect of a future benefit, you know, it would have been much better for them to give them some idea because, again, you know, as as mentioned with these OCGFC and so on, they see, like, twenty, thirty, forty years ahead. Right? They do not think about tomorrow.

They do not think. And in the long run, warfare is gonna is gonna be, you know, profitable for a short period, but it's gonna get depleted. On the other hand, if there is this partnership, it can be sustainable profitability for the future. Alright? So you always again, it's about the assessment that was mentioned that these people, you know, if you assess them that they are after profit and that's the real what they care about, the best way, you know, to gain their like, to not get out of them this, basically, the, yeah, warfare approach is to convince them that it's more profitable to not engage in it.

Right? Which I think that they had failed back in Tripoli and, you know, giving them, like, couple of whatever kilos of gold or something for a short period. It was still better much better for them and much more profitable to just take the sit and take everything in it rather than engage in some type of partnership or appeasement or whatever.

Yes. And I think I think that there's also there's a there's a few other differences between that time and this time. First, I just wanted to mention also that brother Abdel Rahman was also correct in his beginning of his statement, which is that this has to do with a failure to assess properly the the threat and the nature and the character of the Franged. And it was what we talked about in the last episode about the assumption on the part of a civilized people that any other people that they're dealing with are also civilized, and that there's a a similar level of sophistication and and civilization with the people that you're dealing with. And that was a a in their assessment or their evaluation process of the fringe.

The assumption being that, like he said, like brother Abd al Rahman said, when you see the wealth and the opulence and the sophistication and the education and enlightenment or what have you of a of a particular city state or particular empire, a civilized person would understand that this is to be valued, and this is that these people have this comes with power. This comes you're supposed to respect that, not disrespect that and just do a crash and grab. But that's assuming that you are a civilized person or you are coming from a civilized people. And, obviously, that was not the case and is not the case with the fringe of that day and the fringe of this day. But the the significant difference between those days and these days is that there is no anymore, there is no sort of imperial hub to which the extraction is supposed to go.

Back in back in the old days in in imperialism and in the days of the crusades, there was an imperial hub where the riches are supposed to flow. We're supposed to take this out of your lands and send it to our lands. Now they don't care about their lands. So this is also a very different dynamic than it has been historically all the way up until, you know, from from the the time of the crusades through colonization, through neocolonialism, and so forth. Until today, the emergence of the important clarifying part of a national of CGFC is a national.

They are a national. So they don't it's as brother Karim said, it's not really in their interests to just destroy and extract because they don't they don't need to extract and send the goods and send the wealth to anywhere. They can participate in it where it is. It's a floating sort of empire. So the imperial hub is just floating, and it can move wherever necessary.

So that's that's also a very different dynamic than anything that we've dealt with in the past.

100100%. You know, brother Aman just texted me if I can just keep on this part for a minute. So if anybody wants to add something as well to those that shades up. Because, you

know, they are the

same civilization, but always different kind of, you know, suit. Right? So now they're in better suits than they used to be. Right? At least they have some perfume.

But, like, it's the same people. We have to understand that it's a point that usually it says, you know, highlights and stresses. And I think it's very important to understand that, like, they do not change. They never change. They will not change.

Right? Only somehow the like, the motivations are always the same, always materialistic, always worldly driven, always profit driven. Right? So never assume about them the something civilizational or something moral or whatever decision you can see or whatever partnerships you might see. You know?

Like, people might say that Trump is trying, you know, to like, he's more moral than Biden or he's more moral than whatever other administration that used to bombast. Like, no. They're not moral. They're just, you know I don't wanna use any bad language. Right?

But, you know, people who sell themselves. Right? And they're all bought and they're all bought by, you know, the riches of The Gulf. So it's the same case, but, you know, in the previous time or in the crusade time, they couldn't buy them, I guess, or it wasn't enough to buy them. And now it is kinda enough for now, inshallah, to be maintained that way.

Yeah, it's always the same people. I haven't heard sister Samir. Right? So if she wants to add anything, I'll be happy to hear him because sister Samir always has great points.

I was just thinking about how the, you know, how the leaders in each of these small sultanates in the region are diverse, how it want some are Turks, some are, you know, the Arabs and Tripoli, for example, and the rest and how this diversity was okay. But then it was the cause because it contributed to the swift invasion of those crusaders into the area because of the rivalry between them. And how if we translate that into today, what is happening today, we are much, much united despite all the nationalism, the tribalism, the racism everywhere else in our world. And Inshallah, that would keep that was a lesson actually that I got from this so far is that diversity is fine, alhamdulillah, all good. We are united in our religion, in our beliefs, but if if you are going to go into other you know, into tribalism, internationalism, then that's when your enemy is gonna, you know, gonna invade you with with that devising dividing topic that they they they used.

That's all I wanted to add.

Yes. I also want to point out that there is a big difference for for this time around is that we we we it's it's not that, like, we're just inviting them, like, and and Karim. We're not inviting them and just showing them our coffers. There's there's some sort of a plan. First of all, the the the the the situation has changed on a on a on a on a worldwide level, meaning that what would you call it?

There are other key players in the world. It's not a unipolar world anymore. Right? So there are other key players represented by Bricks and represented by other powers. And there also is a regional plan, which means or which includes, for example, Turkey, Egypt.

So Egypt has been building up its military for the past ten years, and, yeah, it it's costing Egypt a lot, but now Egypt has a very strong arsenal. So they they they're not just showing them the coffers. They're also showing them that if you choose the path of violence, you may win, but you will suffer consequences for that. The consequences will be dire. It's not going to be a walk in the park.

Right? So back then in Tripoli, as I was, just mentioning, the the the man made a a very terrible mistake, which is he he showed them the coffers. He showed them the wealth. He showed them the, opportunities for trade and what have you, but he didn't show them that he had a that he even was going to put up any sort of resistance should they come to try to take his city. So what happened is that the the envoy, as soon as they left the city and went back to the fort of of of the Kurds, they didn't talk about any of the truce any of the terms or conditions mentioned by the by the by the by the of of Tripoli.

They just told the the leader of the, we need to take the city. We can take it. We need to take it. It's very easy to take, and we will take riches beyond the world of streams. And that's it.

So, yeah, that's that's that. Okay. So back to our timeline. Now the French took the the the route to Jerusalem. As I said, Al Abdul was now it was beginning to dawn on Al Abdul, the ruler of Egypt, that, okay, maybe these guys are not soldiers of the of the Eastern Romans, and they are not what would you call they're not here to help me.

For some reason, he thought that they were there to help him or they they could help him. So all of his envoys and all of his delegations back to this to to to this, what would you call, the the French leaders, they could they got politely turned down. They didn't give him any they didn't make him any promises. They didn't give him any, yeah, assurances. They just said that we will assess them, get back to you, and that's it.

And, of course, he he started to tell them that Jerusalem is ours. We will take care of it. You will be able to make pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Don't worry and that kind of thing, and they didn't even respond. Now they were and al Abdul went to Jerusalem, took it from the from the Saljuk Talibs.

They were there was an art a family called the Arthakids, two brothers, and he took it from them. Again, this was a mistake because he could have just left it to them and helped them against the. But what happened was there there there was a lot of time, resources, money, men, all of that was wasted on the ground taking Jerusalem from Muslim hands to Muslim hands. I mean, this wasn't necessary at all, okay, in the face of the Ferengi threat. But he took it from them anyway, and then soon enough, the Ferengi were on the doors.

They were going to take the city. And so a man called Ithakar Daula was assigned as the the commander of the garrison, and he was going to to to defend the city against the Farajee invasion. At first, the prospects were for the Faraji were really bad. They didn't have any siege equipment, and they didn't have any, like, what you call what you would call technological advances while the the defenses of the city had some techno technological advances. So it it looked the situation looked good on the part of the or on the part of the Muslims, the part of the Fatimists, on the part of the Egyptians because they were the owners of of Jerusalem back then.

However, after some time, of course, if and this squares back to what I was mentioning at the first of the of the at the beginning of the episode is that the the were aliens in the in the region. They they didn't have the advantage of the terrain. They didn't have the advantage of supply lines, logistic support, that kind of thing. So as soon as the campaign was almost down growing near Jerusalem, he sent a message of of of aid to, al Abdul in Egypt. And al Abdul, sure enough, was preparing a campaign to launch out, and he did head out.

So now the French didn't have technological artillery weapons or technological siege weapons to help them, and an Egyptian army was on its way through them. So this made them try to hurry as much as they could. And, unfortunately and this is where the Italian, Genoese republics come to, come into the picture. Now if you remember, if the listeners would remember, we mentioned that some of the key players or some of the essential key players in the first say was that the, Italian republics had their own commercial fleets, which helped, during the, the the Ferengi campaigns against the the Shem simply because they understood that, having ports or hubs in Beredeshem would help them increase their, commercial activity and increase their commercial revenue and their, revenue stream. And so, this was a typical case where the Genoese fleet helped the the the Ferengi surrounding Jerusalem.

So they gave them wood, and they helped them erect some siege weapons, which eventually helped the Ferengi take the city. Now upon taking the city and I think we've exhausted this topic, but it has to be sent because some people to this day say, take this point or or try to discuss this point in a very weird manner. So upon taking the city, of course, as is usual, the French spent a week killing the residents of the city. No one was spared. No children, no women, no elderly, no men, no Christians, no Muslims, no Jews, no one.

No one was spared, and blood was ankle deep all around the city. And corpses mounted all over or everywhere. And for months after, the stench of the dead on the city was still there. And the the the mosques were converted to to to to churches, and the synagogues the Jewish synagogues were burnt. And the the Christian clerics who refused to to to to give away the the the locations of the holy relics in Jerusalem because there were holy relics in Jerusalem, of course.

So they when they refused to give away the locations of the holy of the holy relics, mind you, these were Christians. So when they refused, the the the French tortured them and were able to obtain those keys to the to the locations of the holy relics from them. And then after finally finishing the massacre in the city, drenched in blood and sweat, they went to the altar in the holy sepulchre and gave thanks to to God for their victory in delivering Jerusalem from the infidels. And they were yeah. And it was fine.

They they they said that we have finally finally made our pilgrimage to Jerusalem. That is their pilgrimage. So our listeners will remember when we started this whole thing, the the the book the the book club, the the crusades through Arab eyes. We said that the the Roman historian Tacitus had a very famous line, which is you Romans create a desert and then call it peace. This is exactly the case.

This is a case in point here. You, make a make a yeah. Commit a massacre and then call it pilgrimage. So I don't think there are any more words to say pertaining this particular incident, to be honest. Abdur Rahman, yes?

We are brother Omar. I would like to backtrack a bit from the timeline if you'll allow it regarding the siege of Arka because I think it's it's it mirrors exactly what was just saying about how they project power through selective acts of violence. But in the siege of Arka, they defy even though they for in their minds, we're gonna lose the city's gone, but we're gonna we're gonna resist. Unlike the other cities that just fled, they they actually put up resistance. And they and both the siegers and the besieged were shocked that this that they weren't able to capture the city.