The following is excerpted (with minor edits) from Islam and the World by Sayyid Abul Hasan ‘Ali Nadwi:

Europe had been harbouring evil designs against the followers of Islam ever since they annexed the eastern wing of the Roman Empire, including all the Christian holy places. But, as the Muslim were then strong enough to defy all incursions, the Christian nations of Europe could not bring themselves to challenge them. Towards the end of the 11th century, however, the situation underwent a change, and great armies of Crusaders were organized all over the European continent to attack the Muslim lands of Palestine and Syria. The Crusaders regained possession of Jerusalem in 1099 (492 H) and took over the greater part of Palestine. Describing their invasion, Stanley Lane-Poole says:

The Crusaders penetrated like a wedge between the old wood and the new, and for a while seemed to cleave the trunk of the Muhammedan Empire into splinters [133]

Of the unspeakable cruelties perpetrated on the helpless Muslims by the Christians on their entry into Jerusalem, one Christian historian writes:

So terrible, it is said, was the carnage which followed that the horses of the Crusaders who rode up to the mosque of Omar were knee-deep in the stream of blood. Infants were seized by their feet and dashed against the walls or whirled over the battlements, while the Jews were all burnt alive in their synagogue [134]

The conquest of Jerusalem by the Christians was a momentous event. It exposed the rot that had started in the lands of Islam. Besides that it announced the awakening of Europe after the Dark Ages which had followed the decline of Rome. It threw the entire Muslim world into jeopardy. The spirits of the Christians rose so high after it that Reginald, the master of Krak, began to dream of laying hands on the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah. The most calamitous hour in the history of lslam since the Tragedy of Apostasy [135] was at hand. However, at that moment there arose, from an unexpected quarter, a new star on the horizon of Islam. This was the Zangi dynasty of Mosul, two members of which, ‘lmad al-Din Zangi and Nur al-Din Zangi, repeatedly defeated the Crusaders and drove them out of almost every town in Palestine except Jerusalem. Nur al-Din holds a high place in the history of Islam for his administrative merit, piety, humility, justice and zest for Jihad. A contemporary chronicler, lbn al-Athir al-Jazari, while speaking of Nur al-Din, observes, “I have studied the lives of all the former Sultans. I can say that but for the first four Rightly-Guided Caliphs and ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz, none among them was more religious, just and clement than he.” [136]

When Nur al-Din died, Salah al-Din became the spearhead of Muslim resistance. Fighting battle after battle, he inflicted a crushing defeat on the Crusaders at Hittin, Palestine, on July 4, 1187 (Rabi‘ II 14, 583 H). The hopes of the Christians were dashed to the ground and their armies were so totally demoralized that:

A single Saracen was seen dragging some thirty Christians he had taken as prisoners and tied together with ropes. The dead lay in heaps, like stones upon stones, among broken crosses, severed hands and feet…[137]

Salah al-Din then proceeded to retake Jerusalem. The fire that had been blazing in the breasts of the Muslims since that city had fallen into the hands of the Christians was at last quenched. Qadi Ibn Shaddad, an intimate friend and counsellor of the Sultan, described the stirring spectacle of the victory of Jerusalem in these words:

On all sides prayers were being offered; from all sides the cries of  ‘Allahu Akbar’ could be heard. After ninety years the Jumu‘ah prayers were offered in Jerusalem. The cross, which the Christian soldiers had mounted on the Dome of the Rock, was pulled down. It was a wonderful spectacle. The grace of the Almighty and the triumph of Islam were visible everywhere [138]

The generosity, the magnanimity and the high sense of Islamic morality, which Salah al-Din displayed in that hour of his triumph, have been universally applauded by historians. Says Stanley Lane-Poole:

If the taking of Jerusalem were the only fact known about Saladin, it were enough to prove him the most chivalrous and great-hearted conqueror of his own and perhaps of any age. [139]

Europe was furious at these reverses. In desperation, Crusaders from every European country converged on Syria and another series of bitter battles was fought between the Christians and the Muslims. Once again Salah al-Din stood gallantly against the storm of concentrated Christian fury. After five years of relentless fighting, a truce was signed at Ramla in 1192 CE. The Muslims retained Jerusalem and all the other towns and fortresses they had captured, while the Christians only reigned over the small state of Acre. Thus, at last, the task which Salah al-Din had set himself, or rather, the mission Allah had charged him with, was accomplished. Lane-Poole observes:

The Holy War was over; the five years’ contest ended. Before the great victory at Hittin in July 1187, not an inch of Palestine west of the Jordan was in the Moslems’ hands. After the Peace of Ramla in September 1192, the whole land was theirs except a narrow strip of coast from Tyre to Jaffa. Saladin had no cause to be ashamed of the treaty. [140]

Salah al-Din was a man of extraordinary ability and energy. His capacity for organization and leadership was astounding. After hundreds of years he had succeeded in uniting the various nations and tribes among Muslims under the banner of Jihad, by making them forget their feuds and jealousies for the sake of lslam:

All the strength of Christendom concentrated in the Third Crusade had not shaken Saladin’s power. His soldiers may have murmured at their long months of hard and perilous service year after year, but they never refused to come to his summons and lay down their lives in his cause …

Kurds, Turkmans, Arabs and Egyptians, they were all Moslems and his servants when he called. In spite of their differences of race … he had kept them together as one host… [141]

[Sayyid Abul Hasan ‘Ali Nadwi, Islam and the World: The Rise and Decline of Muslims and its Effect on Mankind, UK Islamic Academy, Leicester, 1426 H (2005 CE), pp. 85-88. Translated by Dr. Muhammad Asif Kidwai from the Urdu edition of 1954]

Notes

[133] Stanley Lane-Poole, Saladin, p. 25

[134] Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th Edition), Vol. VI, art. ‘Crusades’

[135] During the Caliphate of Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him [Translator]

[136] Al-Kamil, Vol. XIII, pp. 202-3

[137] Saladin, p. 214

[138] Tarikh of Abul Fida’ Hamawi

[139] Saladin, p.234

[140] Ibid., p. 358

[141] Ibid., p. 359