Unlike the “news,” which is ephemeral, the presumed lessons of
history are much more concrete and long-lasting. For example, if you
believe the Fake History that presents white people as having some sort
of genetic predisposition to enslave everyone else, you may, like black
Rutgers University Professor Brittney Cooper, conclude that “white people are committed to being villains.”
To the point: A colleague recently sent me an article extolling
Saladin (Salah al-Din), the Muslim sultan who took Jerusalem from the
Crusaders in 1187. Like so much modern literature on Saladin, that
article presents the sultan in the most flattering light possible —
magnanimous, merciful, moderate, a paragon of virtue in an era marred by
crusader brutality.
But is that true?
Western Praise
The one point Saladin’s many Western admirers always stress as proof
of the sultan’s quality is that he did not commit a bloodbath in
Jerusalem (the way the First Crusaders did in 1099) but rather permitted
the Christians to peacefully surrender and leave unmolested.
Thus, in the article in question, we learn that, after conquering
Jerusalem, “Saladin shamed the ruthless Crusaders by treating the city
with kindness and keeping every promise he made to its people.”
Best of all:
Saladin’s courage, justice and moderation were rare in
that age and have won him lasting respect in the West… [The Crusaders]
did not live up to Christ’s teachings about love after they had
conquered the Middle East. What a different tale the Crusaders might
have told if they had at least lived up to Saladin’s code, even if they
were unable to abide by the law of love!
Such encomiums are the staple way of presenting Saladin (and have naturally spilled into movies, such as Kingdom of Heaven). Thus, according to esteemed American historian Dana Carleton Munro (d. 1933),
When we contrast with this [the Crusader conquest of
Jerusalem in 1099] the conduct of Saladin when he captured Jerusalem
from the Christians in 1187, we have a striking illustration of the
difference between the two civilizations and realize what the Christians
might learn from contact with the Saracens [Muslims] in the Holy Land.
Note the present tense — “might learn.” Saladin is to be held up as
an example from whom today’s “intolerant” Western Christians need to
learn.
Ancient Role Model
If one accepts this flattering picture of Saladin — and why shouldn’t
one, seeing that it is the mainstream portrayal of the sultan in the
West? — one will become confused about the truth concerning Islam (hence
the dangers of Fake History). If Saladin, whom the sources also present
as a highly observant Muslim, behaved so, then clearly the behavior of
ISIS and other modern-day “radicals” cannot be based on a correct
understanding of Islam. That, of course, is what we’re constantly
assured.
Meanwhile, back in the real world — that is, back in actual history —
we learn that Saladin behaved little better than an ISIS terrorist.
Indeed, a memorable scene that he orchestrated (which for some odd
reason never makes it into any of the films about him) has been
especially instructive for ISIS.
According to Saladin’s own biographer, Baha’ al-Din, who was present
after the Battle of Hattin, Saladin ordered the beheading of all the
captured Christian knights of the military orders, boasting, “I shall
purify the land of these … impure races.
With him was a whole band of scholars and Sufis and a
certain number of devout men and ascetics; each begged to be allowed to
kill one of them, and drew his scimitar and rolled back his sleeve.
Saladin, his face joyful, was sitting on his dais; the infidels showed
black despair, the troops were drawn up in their ranks, the emirs stood
in double file. There were some who slashed and cut cleanly, and were
thanked for it.
After saying that some of these would-be executioners did not have
the stomach to continue in the ritual slaughter, Baha’ al-Din focused on
one — whom some commentators think was Saladin himself — who “killed
unbelief to give life to Islam”:
I saw there the man who laughed scornfully and
slaughtered, who spoke and acted; how many promises he fulfilled, how
much praise he won, the eternal rewards he secured with the blood he
shed, the pious works added to his account with a neck severed by him.
Read it all here.....
