much as they could carry with them as possible, and they left the poor in the city as prisoners to saladin. and that made saladin very, very angry. so saladin just let them go, essentially gave up on collecting any ransom from them. but saladin s main priority after finally conquering jerusalem is to reclaim the haram al sharif with the al aqsa mosque at its center. now he had to transform the entire haram back into an islamic space and repair everything that was damaged in one way or another by the crusaders or due to crusader use. the rock upon which the prophet ascended to heaven has been covered with marble. that is stripped off. there s various images of christian religious figures on the walls. they re removed or covered. and most symbolically of all perhaps, there s a big cross on top of where the dome of the rock is. and people climb up, and they pull it down. you might say the berlin wall, toppling the statue of saddam
saladin vetted it with his advisers in the court, and they all said okay. they sent word back to richard that, we have a deal. but before it can be finalized, the crusader camp learns about the agreement. everyone was shocked by it. the only two people who really accepted it were richard the lionheart and saladin himself. the christians were all appalled by richard s idea. people s absolute belief in the spiritual significance of jerusalem inevitably raises the stakes when there is conflict. it just makes confrontation or discussion even that much sharper. in order to save face, richard feels it s important to add as part of his demands the proviso that al adil converts to christianity. saladin responds by saying, well, joanna should convert to islam.
the crusades are often remembered with this romantic glow, with all the chivalry and the bravery of all the knights, but it was the least romantic event of those times. how do you sell an ugly war? you have to tell stories of how noble it is. you tell people the city where jesus was raised from the dead, it was being defiled by muslims. after the fall of jerusalem, the people in the west are told that saladin is the son of satan. that struck at the heart of every christian because they could say, hey, i might not understand economics, and i might not understand politics, but you start messing with jesus, and now i m going to go fight. the third crusade was carried out mostly by men who had grown up on stories of the first crusade. they had grown up on these stories of daring and commitment
young warrior, but way too inexperienced to be a proper king, becoming ruler of the entire kingdom of jerusalem. when saladin amasses his forces in northern palestine, king guy s inexperience is quickly put to the test. saladin was very shrewd in sort of provoking the christians to come out of the safety of jerusalem to meet them further north. guy of lusignan felt like this was his chance to strike at saladin s army once and for all. if he could win, it would be a huge victory. if not, it could be disastrous.
saladin has king guy brought before him. and king guy, of course, is certain that he s going to be killed, but saladin doesn t do that. saladin has the true cross. he says that to him, it s a worthless piece of wood. but he s well aware it s something that the christians really want back. so i don t think you can equate it with any loss of money because it surpasses any money you can imagine. so it s vital to have it as a good bargaining tool, and it will be used in negotiations between muslims and crusaders for decades to come. but saladin decides to free guy of lusignan, perhaps signaling to the crusaders that he s magnanimous and he s someone the crusaders can trust and negotiate with.