Chapter 19: The Horns of Hattin
David kept on reading the chronicle of the reign of Baldouin IV. At last the muslim forces had been unleashed fully against the christian kingdoms.
News abounded everywhere about the huge size of the armies recruited all over the Islam to take revenge on the offense to the cities of Mecca and Medina. All the winds brought news of alliances among enemies of old, all united under the holy jyhad again. Each little emir, each small shiek went with his few troops to join the invasion, helping with their men, and those who could not with their gold. The two chiefs that were supposed to lead the two front attack on the rogue kingdom of Jesualem would be the Great Sultan of all the Turks, the young Arslan Shah, and the Sultan of Egypt, Saladin, nephew of Shirkûh, the valiant refugee from Damascus. Once the caliph al-Hasan al-Mustadi blessed the intent of both sultans, the islamic world started to move.
But divine providence would give a brief breathing space to young Baldouin and his council. Saladin, to the South, only could start probing the souther defenses of the kingdom of Jerusalem. The great fortress of Ascalon, in christian hands since the victory of Baldouin III, the uncle of the king, as strongly garrisoned and dominated all the passes of the south. Its fame as unpregnable had not diminished, and Saladin knew perfectly he would have to gather a formidable army to be able to take it. Unfortunately for him, he suddenly could not get that army.
The fatimid dinasty that Saladin had dethroned had strong allies to the south. In the old kingdom of Nubia, upon the great nile river, the christian kings of Makkura had sealed treates of friendship and alliance with the fatimids, and despite the very occasional razzias into the frontier from both sides, the dinasty of Makkura had been faithful to that alliance. And so, when their friends were casted out or killed by the mob led by Saladin, king Moses finally saw his chance to reclaim the south of Egypt. The so long desired cities of Aswan and the strategic island of Elephantine. Fancying themselves as avengers of the Fatimids, the nubians attacked the southern frontier of Egypt. Saladin could not maintain his newly acquired kingdom, filled with vassals whose loyalty was not really secured, in a war with two dangerous fronts. Noticing that the Nubian army was much more real than the christians of Ascalon, he centered his efforts during the following war only to push away and eventually defeat the nubian invasion.
While Saladin appeared to be a more dangerous enemy, but he could barely do a thing during the war, the Seljuk turks, whose convulse political situation would give better initial hopes to the christians, would prove to be the most dangerous enemies.
During years, the Turkish dominion over middle eastern asia had slowly waned. After the victorious invasions, and their rule over the Caliphate, as supposed "protectors of the Caliph", as much as the japanese shoguns were the "protectors of the emperor", but de facto rulers, they had relegated the caliph only to religious tasks. Only the powerful Almohads from Morocco and Fatimids from Egypt were not under their yoke, and even lords as powerful as Alp Arslan of Anatolia and Zengi and Nur-al-Din from Syria could not help but accepting their nominal rule, and their submission to the Sultan of the Seljuks.
But during the last two decades the house of Seljuk had fallen from grace. After the last powerful sultan, the great Sanjar, a continous succession of weak sultans had provoked great descentralization in the empire, and thus the turks of Anatolia and Syria could gain independence (only to be swallowed later by the byzantines and crusaders). The last conflict, and the civil war that followed it, had been just recently put off, when the caliph had tried to support a pretender to the throne of the Seljuks to regain political power.
The try had provoked a long war, and at last it had failed. When Jyhad was proclaimed against Jerusalem, the throne of the turks was occupied by the young Arslan Shah, dominated by the royal tutor, the great Pelihwan, lord of Azerbaian. Despite the potential future problems between the sultan and his tutor and prime minister, they agreed completely in declaring war to the hated christians. Thus, the seljuk army, with no less than 20.000 infantry and no less than 12.000 cavalry, was the main menace for the crusaders, commanded by the younger brother of Pelihwan, the wicked Qizil-Arslan 'Uthman.
And this was not the only army that the turks counted upon. No less than twenty thousand tough mountaneers were gathering in the mountainside of the Caucasus, with Pelihwan himself at their command. This army's task was to attack Edessa from the north, and taking the fortresses of Aleppo and Antioch.
When all these news were gathered by chancellor William of Tyre, he convoked a great council of all christian lords in Acre, to decide how should they react to all these menaces. Unfortunately the old division between Guy of Lusignan and Raymond of Tripoli resurfaced with strength.
Even despite that Guy had been defeated in his race for the crown of Jerusalem, his faction had been, after all, strenghthened with Raynald of Chatillôn and his incredibly savage adventures. Guided by a pure and hot hate against the followers of Mohammed, Raynald insulted and branded as cowards Raymond and chancellor Willian, since they proposed a more defensive strategy, advocating that the muslims' initial great hopes would crash against the hard walls of Syria and Edessa, as it happened to the christians themselves during the second crusade.
But while the voices of the chancellor and the prime minister and marshall of the king claimed for a better common sense, the long years of peace and the successful atacks of Raynald had convinced a majority of nobles that no muslim could face the Soldiers of God. That would be, themselves. William was ovewhelmed for the first time in his own political field, and young Baldouin was forced, not to lose face and be called a coward, to order his ten thousand cavalry force to go East and face the main bulge of the Turkish army. The king would be in nominal command of that force, but few doubted that it would be Raynald the one leading it, with his new son in law, Humphrey of Toron, as second in command.
The defense of Ascalon would be left in the hands of Baldouin of Ibelin, one of the few faithful to the king. And Count Raymond of Tripoli would go north to defend the northern vassals, which would be Tripoli, Antioch and Edessa. Despite having only under his command five hundred heavy knights from the templars, he started to recruit quickly as much militia as he was able to.
Thus, the army of god, ten thousand heavy knights riding under the heavy syrian sun, marched to find the great turkish order. Moral was very high, since, had not Raynald himself arrived to the very same gates of Mecca? Had not he defeated the heathen in all occassions during the last year? What is more, the disease of king Baldouin had got worse as his white and ill skin had got burnt with the bright and hot sun rays, and any possible illusion that command was not in hands of Raynald and Humphrey disappeared.
The first encounter with the turks only excited the christian hopes. A little detachment of the vanguard of the turkish army had gone forward a bit and had been discovered by christian exploreres. Humphrey of Toron directed a quick and powerful cavalry charge against them. The muslim, seemingly surprised, cowered from such attack, and only barely trying to ressist they ran for their lives. Being a light cavalry army, Qizil-Arslan's exploreres, they were not prepared to face such a heavy armed opponent, but to run away quickly.
The christians cheered this first victory, as they saw the much smaller arabian horses started to flee, as a first great victory upon the turks. Raynald, with his characteristical tenacity and fanatism, readied to chase them. He wanted to see all the muslims dead, and he ordered the whole army to force march towards the syrian frontier, in his mad pursuit.
It would be his leprosy what saved king Baldouin. Completely unable to follow such a mad ride east, his body hot with strong fever, he had no other chance but to even rennounce in public to his nominal command and give it to Raynald before being taking back to Damascus to recover. Raynald thus, free of any reigns, chased the muslims wildly, forgetting any concern about supplies or logistics, his mind only filled with thoughts of destruction for any muslim that would cross his way.
And so, ignoring the most basic common sense, with the summer sun punishing and heating their armours, the "soldiers of God" entered the syrian dessert, trusting that the "coward sarracens" would be vanquished soon.
But it was not a coward, not even a careless, man the general that commanded the armies of the Seljuks. Qizil-Arslan knew of the mad ride of Baldouin, chasing his light cavalry. In fact, it had been him the one that had ordered his explorers to expose themselves and run at the first attack, forcing the anxious christians to run behind them, tiring them, until they were ready for the trap.
When night fell, christians were exhausted. Taking an apparently advantageous possition in the top of a pair of hills, they settled their camp, confident in their superiority. These hills were two, and they elevated themselves over the horizon with a peculiar form that, with the name of the nearest village, gave them their name.
The Horns of Hattin.
The christian camp sieged in the Horns of Hattin
When the sun rose again, all the veils of thoughtlessness and selftrust that veiled the eyes of the crusaders fell. Before them, surrounding them completely, there was an inmense turkish army that had possitioned around them during the night. And what was worse... in the hills there was no source of water to resupply the suddenly incredibly scarce supplies of the christian knights.
The day followed with a complete confusion among the crusaders, and the mockery of the turks. Before and around the christian possitions, the turkish army was deployed, inviting them to charge into their files, but not attacking themselves. Under their feet, a dry and sandy ground. Over their heads, a sky without a single cloud and a merciless sun that dried their tongues and damaged their pale skin. They were in a desperate situation.
The skillful Qizil-Arslan, not only would not attack them, but he took advantage of the needs of the besieged christians, making a great show with his abundant supply of food... and water, and opening a direct line of sight through his army to the oasis that was behind the turkish ranks. And when some wind blowed, he made his men set on fire abundant dry underbrush, so the thick and hot smoke would cover the christian camp in the top of the hills, asphyxiating them and augmenting their already huge thirst and heat sensation.
After two days of such situation Raynald of Chatillôn, the water finally exhausted, ordered the attack. Trying to form a single and thick cavalry block, he tried to force his way past the muslim lines, jumping with is heavy horses the barricades they had planted. But the turks, already awaiting this type of attack, let the christians pass for a moment, only to quickly regroup, again and again. This way, the crusader army was divided in small and isollated units, each of them overhwhelmed by their huge and fresh enemies.
All christian leaders fought with extreme bravery and boldness, born from desperation. And the most bold and savage of all them was Raynald himself, that killed no less than thirty enemies with his own hands. But when the last of his companions fell and Qizil-Arslan himself advanced to take care of this last ressistance, Raynald could not help but fall onto the ground. Not dead, but completely exhausted, still wearing his heavy chain armour.
Qizil-Arsland advanced before the exhausted knight, and proclaming his name, his lineage and that of the cruel and merciless enemy of the Islam, he thrusted down his saber to cut the head of Raynald. Raynald the hero, Raynald the wolf, second son, adventurer, knight and criminal, warrior without equal in the Christian lands.
In his mad chase for revenge, Raynald had managed to get the main army of the crusader kindgoms completely anhilated, no less than ten thousand of the better and most veteran knights killed, without any of them being able to save their lives.
The way to Damascus was now completely open for Sultan Arslan Shah, without any garrison big enough to stop him. And beyond Damascus, Jerusalem lay... with no other army left but the small Ascalon garrison and the army of the north, commanded by Raymond of Tripoli. Armies that had already big problems of their own.
...
The journalist closed for a moment the red cover volume with a smile. Well, dates were slightly changed... but this was at last the decisive battle that the crusaders had lost. A lots of details were changed, yes, but again he felt himself on firm ground... maybe things were somehow changed later, but the most important part of history seemed to be right, specially in the consequences.
But a sudden thought made that so firm ground he had found shake with doubt, since he suddenly realized a fact. He suddenly realized he had been reading the last pages, written in medieval latin, a language that he could read only very slowly, as fast as if they had been written in his native Spanish. And he
knew that was
not possible! He felt... ill... his face pale with such recognition. He could not believe it... but opening the book again and just glancing at the lines, he understood each single sentence in a moment with ease. The same ease that the narration mixed with his... with his memories?
Perhaps it was this disturbing revelation what made him hear, with the last thread of his conscience, a voice, and not feel surprised at all when, as he turned, he saw a lean man, with a short and well shaven black beard and wearing obvious medieval clothing. And without being able to control himself, he said:
"Raymond, I bring to you grave news from the south..."
Well done and this is an interesting story. 
