ABSTRACT
The year of triumph for Saladin’s counter-offensive was, as mentioned above, 583/1187. The decisive battle of Hittīn, which smashed for a time the crusading forces in the Holy Land, was followed by the loss of a large number of their strongholds in Palestine and, the deeper loss to the Christian world, by the fall of Jerusalem, recaptured for Islām in a conquest that added lustre to Saladin’s reputation for humanity and moderation. Our narrators for these events are ‘Imād ad-Din and Ibn al-Athīr. (Bahā’ ad-Din was an eyewitness only of events from 1188 onward.) For Hittīn and the fall of Jerusalem we give both accounts; their style and content make a useful contrast. Ibn al-Athīr’s clear and sober version is deliberately placed before ‘Imād ad-Din’s wearisome obscurities, but the latter contain the most direct and authoritative testimony available.
