History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 44, the Fall of Giants.

Hello again.

Last week we examined the Crusader castle crack de chivalier.

The week before that, we concluded our series on Egypt, with

Saladin emerging as the Egyptian ruler. This week we returned to our chronology of the Crusades and examine what happens in the Middle East after Saladine's rise to power.

In fact, this is going to be quite an episode. By its end we will have seen the end of a 200 year old dynasty and two unexpected deaths will change the course of history and sound the death knell for the

presence of the Latin Christians in the Holy Land.

Right, well, at the start of this episode, both Neuridin and King Amauric are facing problems.

Neuridin's problem can be summed up in one word.

Sullardin.

As I stated a couple of weeks ago, no one expected Saladin to remain ruler of Egypt for very long.

Most of his predecessors had been killed by their rivals and besides he was a foreigner

a Syrian Sunni Muslim ruling over a country dominated by the Shia religion with a Shia caliph as its spiritual head.

Egypt itself had been destabilized and impoverished by its never-ending changes in leadership, while Saladin only had a small Syrian force

to support him and no allies within the Egyptian army.

As I said, no one expected him to last very long. But the funny thing was, he did seem to be lasting.

Days, weeks and months went by and slowly but surely,

solid in, a young commander with limited military experience and no experience

whatsoever in running a country, to be consolidating his tenuous

grip on power.

Nure-Adin watched with initial delight and then increasing disquiet as Saladin adeptly repelled King Amarek's final Egyptian

...