n, Lord of Karat, on the confines of Palestine and Arabia, had
all but succeeded in an attempt to go and pillage the Caaba and the tomb
of Mahomet, he wrote to his brother Malek-Adhel, at that time governor of
Egypt, "The infidels have violated the home and the cradle of Islamism;
they have profaned our sanctuary. Did we not prevent a like insult
(which God forbid!) we should render ourselves guilty in the eyes of God
and the eyes of men. Purge we, therefore, our land from these men who
dishonor it; purge we the very air from the air they breathe." He
commanded that all the Christians who could possibly be captured on this
occasion should be put to death; and many were taken to Mecca, where the
Mussulman pilgrims immolated them instead of the sheep and lambs they
were accustomed to sacrifice. The expulsion of the Christians from
Palestine was Saladin's great idea and unwavering passion; and he
severely chid the Mussulmans for their soft-heartedness in the struggle.
"Behold these Christians," he wrote to the Khalif of Bagdad, "how they
come crowding in! How emulously they press on! They are continually
receiving fresh re-enforcements more numerous than the waves of the sea,
and to us more bitter than its brackish waters. Where one dies by land,
a thousand come by sea. . . . The crop is more abundant than the
harvest; the tree puts forth more branches than the axe can lop off. It
is true that great numbers have already perished, insomuch that the edge
of our swords is blunted; but our comrades are beginning to grow weary of
so long a war. Haste we, therefore, to implore the help of the Lord."
Nor needed he the excuse of passion in order to be cruel and sanguinary
when he considered it would serve his cause; for human lives and deaths
he had that barbaric indifference which Christianity alone has rooted out
from the communities of men, whilst it has remained familiar to the
Mussulman. When he found himself, either during or after a battle,
confronted by enemies whom he really dreaded, such as the Hospitallers of
St. John of Jerusalem or the Templars, he had them massacred, and
sometimes gave them their death-blow himself, with cool satisfaction.
But, apart from open war and the hatred inspired by passion or cold
calculation, he was moderate and generous, gentle towards the vanquished
and the weak, just and compassionate towards his subjects, faithful to
his engagements, and capable of feeling sympathetic admirat