of these muslim groups and took back jerusalem from the crusaders. and now what s going to happen to all these muslim groups that saladin united? his army is passed onto his warring sons, and so his family descends into internal warfare. when saladin die, muslim unity dies with him. i don t think the struggle between saladin and richard was ever a personal struggle. it was always a struggle for what jerusalem represents and what also the role as would-be liberators of jerusalem entail. with saladin, the desire to conquer jerusalem really did come from this deep conviction to control jerusalem, to control this holy site, to control the dome of the rock would move
then, and mount a charge on jerusalem. without acre, they really had very little hope of doing it. learning of the attack, saladin marches the full might of his army to acre. but what saladin is not counting on is european crusaders on ships coming towards him in droves, with one of those soldiers being one of the most ferocious warriors of all time richard the lionheart. king richard i of england may very well be the polar opposite of saladin. he kills and leaves the dead bodies around so that other people are afraid of him. he s fearless.
people said, this is from where jesus was crucified. the true cross was supposed to have miracle powers that would give soldiers and anyone who carried that into battle the power to win over their enemies. as the crusaders set out, saladin is very well prepared. he has a huge army. he has a lot of water. he has a lot of military supplies. and he also takes the precaution of spoiling the wells that are on the route. this was july, so very hot in northern palestine, very dry. saladin ordered his men to burn dry grass, and the wind was blowing westward, so all the smoke and the heat went the direction of the crusader army. thus causing them to choke, to swelter, to suffer even more. to add and to compound to the chaos, they re beating their drums really loudly.
forever. so by stalling and by not paying the ransom, saladin was in a sense not just buying time for himself, but also hoping that some of richard s armies would simply turn and go home. richard realizes that saladin is prolonging the fulfillment of the terms of the surrender of acre. and the longer this goes on, the more suspicious he gets. he flew into a fit of rage, something that he was known to do. he took the hostages, and he marches them out to a promontory outside of the city of acre and in front of saladin s eyes, he has them executed in cold blood. it s a terribly ruthless, brutal thing to do. it s something that utterly, of course, devastates saladin, completely catches him unawares. he tries to rescue the people, but it s too late. he s devastated. his secretary said he cries as a mother bereft of his child.
with richard s merciless message sent, he turns his full attention to jerusalem. richard realized that his best bet to build an attack against jerusalem is to march further south and try to take all the coastal cities because in this way, he can block jerusalem from any kind of serious enforcement from the west. as richard the lionheart and his army moves down the coast, saladin loses battle after battle after battle. this is richard as a great lethal warrior, sort of scattering people in front of him. for saladin, it s yet another setback, another humiliation. you can imagine a man who s used to winning victory after victory now finding himself losing, and not only losing but losing to this small ragtag army of crusaders.