Editing Saladin (section)

===Capture of Jerusalem===
[[File:L'armée de Saladin.jpg|thumb|Saladin's troops, French manuscript, 1337]]
Saladin had captured almost every Crusader city. Saladin preferred to take Jerusalem without bloodshed and offered generous terms, but those inside refused to leave their holy city, vowing to destroy it in a fight to the death rather than see it handed over peacefully. Jerusalem capitulated to his forces on Friday, 2 October 1187, after [[Siege of Jerusalem (1187)|a siege]]. When the siege had started, Saladin was unwilling{{sfn|Eddé|2011|pp=263–264}} to promise terms of quarter to the [[Kingdom of Jerusalem#Population|Frankish]] inhabitants of Jerusalem. [[Balian of Ibelin]] threatened to kill every Muslim hostage, estimated at 5,000, and to destroy Islam's holy shrines of the [[Dome of the Rock]] and the [[Qibli Mosque|al-Aqsa Mosque]] if such quarter were not provided. Saladin consulted his council and the terms were accepted. The agreement was read out through the streets of Jerusalem so that everyone might within forty days provide for himself and pay to Saladin the agreed tribute for his freedom.<ref>[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1187saladin.asp De Expugatione Terrae Sanctae per Saladinum (The Capture of the Holy Land by Saladin)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131011222715/http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/source/1187saladin.asp |date=11 October 2013 }}; ed. Joseph Stevenson, Rolls Series, (London: Longmans, 1875); translated by James Brundage, ''The Crusades: A Documentary History'' (Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 1962), pp. 159–163.</ref> An unusually low ransom was to be paid for each Frank in the city, whether man, woman, or child, but Saladin, against the wishes of his treasurers, allowed many families who could not afford the ransom to leave.{{sfn|Runciman|1990|p=465}}<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7CP7fYghBFQC&q=saladin+balian+jerusalem+siege+-wikipedia+-%22Kingdom+of+Heaven%22+destroy+temple+mount&pg=PA1101|title=E. J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913–1936|isbn=978-9004097902|year=1993|publisher=Brill|access-date=26 March 2014}}</ref> [[Patriarch Heraclius of Jerusalem]] organised and contributed to a collection that paid the ransoms for about 18,000 of the poorer citizens, leaving another 15,000 to be enslaved. Saladin's brother al-Adil "asked Saladin for a thousand of them for his own use and then released them on the spot." Most of the foot soldiers were sold into slavery.<ref name="Saladin">[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/144695/Crusades/25607/The-Crusader-states-to-1187 The era of the Second and Third Crusades" The Crusader states to 1187], ''Encyclopædia Britannica''.</ref> Upon the capture of Jerusalem, Saladin summoned the Jews and permitted them to resettle in the city.{{sfn|Scharfstein|Gelabert|1997|p=145}} In particular, the residents of [[Ascalon]], a large Jewish settlement, responded to his request.

[[Tyre (Lebanon)|Tyre]], on the coast of modern-day Lebanon, was the last major Crusader city that was not captured by Muslim forces. Strategically, it would have made more sense for Saladin to capture Tyre before Jerusalem; Saladin, however, chose to pursue Jerusalem first because of the importance of the city to Islam. Tyre was commanded by [[Conrad of Montferrat]], who strengthened its defences and withstood [[Siege of Tyre (1187)|two sieges]] by Saladin. In 1188, at Tortosa, Saladin released Guy of Lusignan and returned him to his wife [[Sibylla of Jerusalem]]. They went first to Tripoli, then to [[Antioch]]. In 1189, they sought to reclaim Tyre for their kingdom but were refused admission by Conrad, who did not recognize Guy as king. Guy then set about [[Siege of Acre (1189–1191)|besieging Acre]].{{sfn|Eddé|2011|p=246}}

Saladin was on friendly terms with Queen [[Tamar of Georgia]]. Saladin's biographer [[Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad]] reports that, after Saladin's conquest of Jerusalem, the Georgian Queen sent envoys to the sultan to request the return of confiscated possessions of the Georgian monasteries in Jerusalem. Saladin's response is not recorded, but the queen's efforts seem to have been successful as [[Jacques de Vitry]], the [[Latin Catholic Diocese of Acre|Bishop of Acre]], reports the [[Georgians]] were, in contrast to the other Christian pilgrims, allowed a free passage into the city with their banners unfurled. Ibn Šaddād furthermore claims that Queen Tamar outbid the Byzantine emperor in her efforts to obtain the relics of the [[True Cross]], offering 200,000 gold pieces to Saladin who had taken the relics as booty at the [[battle of Hattin]], but to no avail.<ref>Pahlitzsch, Johannes, "Georgians and Greeks in Jerusalem (1099–1310)", in Ciggaar & Herman (1996), pp. 38–39.</ref><ref>Eastmond (1998), pp. 122–123.</ref>

According to Baha ad-Din, after these victories, Saladin mused of invading Europe, saying: "I think that when God grants me victory over the rest of Palestine I shall divide my territories, make a will stating my wishes, then set sail on this sea for their far-off lands in and pursue the Franks there, so as to free the earth of anyone who does not believe in God, or die in the attempt."<ref>{{cite book |last=Gabrieli |first=Francesco |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JU0eSxDCOmIC |title=Arab Historians of the Crusades |publisher=University of California Press |year=1984 |isbn=978-0520052246 |page=101 |language=en}}</ref>