Download Israel: Modern Crusaders and No Modern Arab Saladin

Israel: Modern Crusaders and
No Modern Arab Saladin
By Hasan Afif el-Hasan
The “Holy Quran” of Islam, states that the Prophet Muhammad
was transported from the Sacred Mosque in Mecca to Al-Aqsa
Mosque in Jerusalem where he was ascended up into heavens then
returned back at the Night of ‘Israa’ and Mi’raj’. The place
in Jerusalem where, according to the Muslim’s tradition, the
Prophet prayed on the night of Israa’, has become a spiritual
center of Islam. Some devoted Muslims commemorate what they
consider the Prophet miraculous voyage, on the twenty-seventh
night of the lunar month of Rajab in the Islamic calendar as
the night of “Israa’ and Mi’raj”.
Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam after the
venerated shrine of Al-Ka’ba in Mecca and al-Masjed al-Nabawi
in Medina. Mecca and Madina are cities in western Arabian
Peninsula. Mecca was the birthplace of the Prophet, and Madina
was where the Prophet was forced to migrate and establish the
first Islamic state. But Al-Aqsa Mosque was the first
“spiritual symbol” that Muslims faced in their five daily
prayers during the early years of Islam. The Prophet Muhammad
and his followers prayed towards Al-Aqsa Mosque for more than
ten years before the Prophet was “commanded by Alla (God)” to
pray toward Al-Ka’ba.
During the rule of Caliph Omar Ibn al-Khattab, Muslim armies
conquered Persia and large parts of the Eastern Roman Empire
including Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Palestine. One of the first
things Caliph Omar did after the surrender of Jerusalem to his
generals was building Al-Aqsa Mosque in 635 for the Muslims to
pray on the area where legends claim the Prophet stopped and
prayed on the night of Israa’. The Mosque was destroyed by
earthquakes, rebuilt and expanded many times by ruling Islamic
dynasties since then.
In 691, under the Umayyad Caliph Abdel-Malik Ibn-Marwan,
Muslim architects were recruited to expand Al-Aqsa Mosque,
design and build the Dome of the Rock Mosque next to Al-Aqsa
Mosque. The work was treated by historians as the first
distinctive Islamic architectural art that adopted and
improved features from different countries in the Muslim
Empire. The Dome of the Rock building was a square-shaped
structure with vaulted ceiling and capped with a circular
dome, and the interior was lavishly decorated with colored
mosaics. The construction was completed in 705 under Caliph
Al-Walid Ibn- Abdel-Malik. During the Abbasid caliphs, the
Mosque and the Dome were rebuilt after strong earthquakes
damaged the structures.
The history of Palestine including Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa
Mosque has been tied to the history and power of the Muslims
and Arabs. Whenever Muslims and Arabs are in decline, they
lose control of Palestine.
In 1095, the Catholic Pope Urban invited all Christians to
join in a war to take control of the Holy Sepulcher in
Jerusalem from “the wicked infidel Saracens.” This call
inaugurated the first of what would be a series of military
crusades. ‘Saracens’ was the name used by the Crusaders for
‘Arabs’. Pope Urban alleged that the Muslims were interfering
with the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Thousands of European
volunteers, rich and poor, mighty and humble, left their homes
and fields in response to the papal call. Between 1095 and
1270, European Crusaders military campaigns led by the ablest
European generals, financed by Europe’s royalties and
sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church invaded Palestine and
its surroundings. In June of 1099, an army of fifteen thousand
Crusaders reached the walls of Jerusalem. The one thousand
Fatimid troops guarding the City could not stop the invaders
from breaking through the walls. Different historian accounts
attest to the bloodbath that followed as thousands of
noncombatant Muslims, Jews and native Christians were
beheaded, shot with arrows, thrown from towers, or burned at
the stake. Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock were
stripped of gold and silver candelabra. The Crusaders killed
many of Jerusalem’s inhabitants especially the Muslims and
Jews, used Al-Aqsa Mosque as a palace, defiled or destroyed
other mosques and synagogues. Once the Crusaders colonized the
land, they created the Kingdom of Jerusalem, an entity that
was exclusively for fanatic European Christians hostile to the
indigenous population, an alien body planted in the region
that would eventually vanish.
The first turning point against the Crusaders was in 1144 when
Salah al-Din, a Kurdish General in Egypt fended off a Crusader
invasion of Egypt. He was awarded the position of Fatimid
vizier, and the Muslims were back on the offensive against the
Crusaders. When the Fatimid Caliph died in 1171, Salah al-Din,
known to the West as ‘Saladin’ proclaimed himself Sultan of
Egypt.
In 1187, the Kurdish General and ruler of Egypt, Saladin,
declared war against the Crusaders’ kingdom and defeated their
armies in a bloody battle near the Galilee. His battle cry was
“Liberate Jerusalem!”. Jerusalem surrendered to Saladin, AlAqsa’s function as a mosque was restored after its recapture,
and the Crusaders were expelled from the Holy Land. Christian
cities of Syria opened their gates to Saladin and fought in
his army against the Crusaders. Saladin restored religious
freedom and allowed the Jewish community to return to their
homes.
But why the Arabs did not put up stiff resistance to the
Crusaders’ invasion and waited so long before driving them
out?
Like the Arabs today, the Arabs of the eleventh century were
divided into many states quarrelling with each other. The
Abbasid Caliphs in Baghdad were shamelessly helpless after
losing control of their Empire. It was divided between the
Turko-Persian Seljuqs (Sunni Muslims) in the north and the
Fatimid Shi’a Muslims in Egypt and Southern Palestine. Neither
the Sunnis nor the Shia’s cared to fight the Crusaders when
they had been taking lands from the other. Some Muslim rulers
even formed alliances with the Crusaders against their own coreligionists. The Egyptian Fatimids established close ties
with the Crusaders because in lucrative trades between
Alexandria and the Crusader’s ports on the Mediterranean.
Centuries later, Theodore Herzl tried to exploit the weakness
of the Ottoman Empire. He was granted an audience with Sultan
Abdul Hamid II of Turkey in 1901 and proposed on behalf of the
World Zionist Organization to establish a land colonizing
company in Palestine in exchange for large amount of money.
Despite the generous offer and Turkey’s need for funds to
shore up its bankrupt treasury, Abdul Hamid turned down the
proposal and offered protection for the refugee Jews who wish
to live in different parts of the Ottoman Empire with the
exception of Palestine. His stated reason was that “Palestine,
home of Al-Aqsa Mosque, was the World-wide Muslim community
Property, not his to sell.”
Even when the Ottomans State “the Sick man of Europe” was
practically on life support, it did far better in defending
Palestine than the Arab and Muslim states today! Israeli
settlers today are imposing their wishes on the Palestinians
and the Arab neighbors by force, and may even succeed in
defining Palestine as the nation-state of the Jewish people
while the Arab and Muslim leaders are just helpless
spectators.
– Hasan Afif El-Hasan, Ph.D. is a political analyst. His
latest book, Is The Two-State Solution Already Dead? (Algora
Publishing, New York), now available on Amazon.com and Barnes
&
Noble.
He
contributed
this
article
to
PalestineChronicle.com.