MOSLEM ACCOUNT OF ST. LOUIS’ CAPTURE

T1he day of Bairam (January 6th, 1250) a great lord and relative to the king of France was made prisoner. Not a day passed without skirmishes on both sides, and with alternate success. The Mussulmans were particularly anxious to make prisoners, to gain information as to the state of the enemy’s army, and used all sorts of stratagems for this purpose. A soldier from Cairo bethought himself of putting his head withinside of a watermelon, the interior of which he had scooped out, and of thus swimming towards the French camp; a Christian soldier, not suspecting the trick, leaped into the Nile to seize the melon; but the Egyptian was a stout swimmer, and catching hold of him, dragged him to his general. On Wednesday, the 7th day of the moon Shawwal (January 13th, 1250), the Mussulmans captured a large boat, in which were a hundred soldiers, commanded by an officer of distinction. On Thursday, the 15th of the same moon, the French marched out of their camp, and their cavalry began to move. The troops were ordered to file off, when a slight skirmish took place, and the French left on the field forty cavaliers with their horses.

2Some traitors having shown the ford over the canal of Ashmun to the French, fourteen hundred cavaliers crossed it and fell unexpectedly on the camp of the Mussulmans, on a Tuesday, the 15th day of the moon Dhul-Kadeh (February 15th), having at their head the brother of the king of France. The emir Fakhr ad-Din was at the time in the bath; he instantly quitted it with precipitation and mounted a horse without a saddle or bridle, followed only by some slaves. The enemy attacked him on all sides, and his slaves like cowards, abandoned him when in the midst of the French; it was in vain he attempted to defend himself; he fell pierced with wounds.

3The French, after the death of Fakhr ad-Din, retreated to Jédilé; but their whole cavalry advanced to Mansura, and, having forced one of the gates, entered the town; the Mussulmans fled to the right and left. The king of France had already penetrated as far as the sultan’s palace, and victory seemed ready to declare for him, when the Baharite slaves, led by Bibars, advanced and snatched it from his hands; their charge was so furious that the French were obliged to retreat. The French infantry, during this time, had advanced to cross the bridge; had they been able to join their cavalry, the defeat of the Egyptian army, and the loss of the town of Mansura, would have been inevitable.

4Night separated the combatants, when the French retreated in disorder to Jédilé, after leaving fifteen hundred of their men on the field. They surrounded their camp with a ditch and wall, but their army was divided into two corps; the least considerable body was encamped on the branch of the Ashmun, and the larger on the great branch of the Nile that runs to Damietta. A pigeon had been let loose to fly to Cairo the instant the French had surprised the camp of Fakhr ad-Din, having a note under its wing, to inform the inhabitants of this misfortune. The melancholy event had created a general consternation in the town, which the runaways had augmented, and the gates of Cairo were kept open all the night to receive them. A second pigeon bearing the news of the victory over the French, had restored tranquillity to the capital. Joy succeeded sorrow; and each congratulated the other on this happy turn of affairs, and public rejoicings were made.

5[Illustration: A SARACEN]

6Boats sent from Damietta brought all sorts of provisions to the French camp, and kept it abundantly supplied. Turan Shah caused many boats to be built which, when taken to pieces, he placed on the backs of camels, and had them thus carried to the canal of Méhalé, when they were put together again, launched on the canal, and filled with troops for an ambuscade. As soon as the French fleet of boats appeared at the mouth of the canal of Méhalé, the Mussulmans quitted their hiding-place and attacked them. While the two fleets were engaged, other boats left Mansura filled with soldiers, and fell on the rear of the French. It was in vain they sought to escape by flight; a thousand Christians were killed or made prisoners. In this defeat fifty-two of their boats laden with provisions were taken, and their communication with Damietta by the navigation of the Nile was cut off, so that within a short time the whole army suffered the most terrible famine. The Mussulmans surrounded them on all sides, and they could neither advance nor retreat.

7On the first of the moon Dhul-hija (March 7th), the French surprised seven boats; but the troops on board had the good fortune to escape. In spite of the superiority of the Egyptians on the Nile, they attempted to bring up another convoy from Damietta, but they lost it; thirty-two of their boats were taken and carried to Mansura, on the ninth of the same moon. This new loss filled the measure of their woes, and caused them to propose a truce and send ambassadors to treat of it with the sultan. The emir Zain ad-Din and the kadi Bedr ad-Din were ordered to meet and confer with them, when the French offered to surrender Damietta, on condition that Jerusalem, and some other places in Syria, should be given in exchange for it. This proposal was rejected, and the conference broken up.

8On Friday, the 27th of the moon Dhul-hija (April 2nd), the French set fire to all their machines of war and timber for building, and rendered almost all their boats unfit for use. During the night of Tuesday, the third day of the moon Muharrem (April 7th), in the year of the Hegira 648, the whole of the French army decamped, and took the road to Damietta. Some boats which they had reserved fell down the Nile at the same time. The Mussulmans having, at break of day of the Wednesday, perceived the retreat of the French, pursued and attacked them.

9The heat of the combat was at Fariskur. The French were defeated and put to flight; ten thousand of their men fell on the field of battle, some say thirty thousand. Upwards of one hundred thousand horsemen, infantry, tradespeople, and others were made slaves. The booty was immense in horses, mules, tents, and other riches. There were but one hundred slain on the side of the Mussulmans. The Baharite slaves, under the command of Bibars al-Bundukdari, performed in this battle signal acts of valour. The king of France had retired, with a few of his lords, to a small hillock, and surrendered himself, under promise of his life being spared, to the eunuch Jemal ad-Din Mahsun as-Salih; he was bound with a chain, and in this state conducted to Mansura, where he was confined in the house of Ibrahim ben Lokman, secretary to the sultan, and under the guard of the eunuch Salih. The king’s brother was made prisoner at the same time, and carried to the same house. The sultan provided for their subsistence.

10The number of slaves was so great, it was embarrassing, and the sultan gave orders to Saif ad-Din Jusuf ben Tardi to put them to death. Every night this cruel minister of the vengeance of his master had from three to four hundred of the prisoners brought from their places of confinement, and after he had caused them to be beheaded, their bodies were thrown into the Nile; in this manner perished one hundred thousand of the French.

11The sultan departed from Mansura, and went to Fariskur, where he had pitched a most magnificent tent. He had also built a tower of wood over the Nile; and, being freed from a disagreeable war, he there gave himself up to all sorts of debauchery. The victory he had just gained was so brilliant that he was eager to make all who were subjected to him acquainted with it. He wrote with his own hand a letter, in the following terms, to the emir Jemal ad-Din ben Jagmur, governor of Damascus: “Thanks be given to the All-powerful, who has changed our grief to joy; it is to Him alone we owe the victory. The favours He has condescended to shower upon us are innumerable, but this last is most precious.

12You will announce to the people of Damascus, or, rather, to all Mussulmans, that God has enabled us to gain a complete victory over the Christians at the moment they had conspired our ruin. On Monday, the first day of this year, we opened our treasury and distributed riches and arms to our faithful soldiers. We had called to our succour the Arabian tribes, and a numberless multitude of soldiers ranged themselves under our standards. On the night between Tuesday and Wednesday our enemies abandoned their camp, with all their baggage, and marched towards Damietta; in spite of the obscurity of the night, we pursued them, and thirty thousand of them were left dead on the field, not including those who precipitated themselves into the Nile.

13We have, besides, slain our very numerous prisoners, and thrown their bodies into the same river. Their king had retreated to Minieh; he has implored our clemency, and we have granted him his life, and paid him all the honours due to his rank. We have regained Damietta.”

14The sultan, with this letter, sent the king’s cap, which had fallen in the combat; it was of scarlet, lined with a fine fur. The governor of Damascus put the king’s cap on his own head when he read to the public the sultan’s letter. A poet made these verses on the occasion: “The cap of the French was whiter than paper; our sabres have dyed it with the blood of the enemy, and have changed its colour.”[g]

15As ransom for the noble prisoners the sultan offered to accept some of the baronial castles in Palestine, or those which belonged to the Templars and Hospitallers. But the king and his peers replied that the liege lord, the emperor of Germany, would never consent that a pagan or Tatar should hold any fief of him; and that no cession of the property of the knights could be made, for the governors of their castles swore on their investiture that they would never surrender their charge for the deliverance of any man. The king was even threatened with torture, but as the Mussulmans saw in him no symptoms of fear on which they could work, they proposed to make a pecuniary ransom.

16Louis offered to pay ten thousand golden besants, which were equal to five hundred thousand livres, for the deliverance of his army, and that as the royal dignity could not be estimated by a vulgar scale, he would for his own freedom surrender the city of Damietta. The sultan was liberal in the fulness of his joy at such a completion of his victories, and remitted a fifth part of the pecuniary ransom.[77] Peace was to continue for ten years between the Mussulmans and the Christians, and the Franks were to be restored to those privileges in the kingdom of Jerusalem which they enjoyed before the landing of Louis at Damietta.

17The repose which succeeded the treaty was interrupted by the murder of the sultan; but after a few acts of hostility the successful emirs, and their mamelukes, renewed with a few changes the condition of amity. One moiety of the ransom was to be discharged before the king left the river, and the other on his arrival at Acre. The sick at Damietta, with the stores and baggage, were to be retained by the sultan till the last portion of the ransom should be paid.

18Damietta was accordingly surrendered. But the mamelukes were more savage and unprincipled than any preceding enemies of the Latin name. They burned all the military engines, murdered the sick, and some of the most ferocious thirsted for the blood of the Christian potentates. The counsels of justice prevailed, and the Christians were relieved from their fears that the treaty would not be acted upon. The counts of Flanders and Brittany, the count of Soissons, and others embarked for France. The royal treasure at Damietta could not furnish the stipulated portion of the ransom. The new grand master of the Templars opposed the institutes of his order to the king’s request for a loan of the funds of the society, and contended that he could not divert them from their regular and appointed purposes. But state necessity trampled over mere statutable forms, and the chest of the Templars was seized by the royal officers. The king’s person was redeemed, and the French went to Acre.

19The expedition of St. Louis into Egypt resembles in many respects the war in Egypt thirty years before. In both cases the Christian armies were encamped near the entrance of the Ashmun canal; they could not advance, and the surrender of Damietta was the price of safety.

20[Sidenote: [1250-1254 A.D.]]

21Many of Louis’ council were astonished at his resolution to remain in Palestine while political affairs were calling him to his duty to France. They were divided in their patriotism and their allegiance. The sultan of Damascus, a relative of the murdered Egyptian lord, solicited the aid of Louis to revenge the murder, and stimulated his virtue by the promise that in the event of victory he would deliver to the Christians the city of Jerusalem. The king replied that he would send to the mamelukes at Damietta, to know whether they would repair their violations of the treaty, and that, in case of their refusal, he would assist the sultan of Damascus.

22On intelligence of this negotiation, the people of Damietta restored to the king all the knights and common soldiers whom they had detained in prison. Louis wisely profited by circumstances, and declared that he would not enter upon a truce with the Egyptians, until they had absolved him from the payment of the remaining moiety of the ransom, and restored to him the heads of those Christians on the walls of Cairo, who had fallen in the battle near Mansura, and such Christian children as they had forced to become Mussulmans. The emirs and mamelukes complied with these terms, and, on condition of the alliance of the French king, they engaged to deliver up to him Jerusalem itself. The military force of Louis did not much exceed four thousand men.

23The king’s two brothers returned to Europe; and, in order to retain a respectable army, Louis was obliged to be liberal of his treasure. Louis remained a year at Cæsarea, and rebuilt its houses and repaired its fortifications. Joppa was the next object of his care. The war between the Egyptians and Syrians raged with dreadful violence. By the mediation of the caliph, the Mussulmans made peace; Egypt and Jerusalem were to belong to the mamelukes; and the countries beyond the Jordan to the sultan of Syria. But the united infidels did not pursue their schemes of destruction with that vigour and ability which had distinguished the fierce and dreadful movements of Nur ad-Din and Saladin.

24They might have swept the feeble and exhausted Christians from the shores of Palestine; but they merely ravaged the country round Acre, and then proceeded to Sajecte, in whose strong castle were Louis and most of the army. The blood and property of the citizens satisfied the Moslems, who departed without trying the valour of the French in garrison.

25Perpetual disappointment gradually desiccated the spring of hope, and the king turned his mind to France. His friends marked his change of purpose, and news from Europe of the death of his royal mother, the regent of his kingdom, made him openly proclaim his resolution to return. The patriarch and barons of Palestine offered him their humble thanks and praise for the great good and honour he had conferred on the Holy Land; and, shortly after Easter, he embarked for the West. Louis IX gathered no new laurels in his transmarine expedition. All that was great and chivalric in France had been spread out in martial array, and had met with little else than discomfiture and defeat. In the course of Louis’ stay at Joppa, the sultan of Damascus sent him permission to visit Jerusalem.

26The king ardently desired to behold the sacred places, and was slow in allowing considerations of policy to conquer selfish feelings. The reason which dissuaded him from the journey, was, that if he should perform a pilgrimage to Jerusalem without delivering it from the enemies of God, every subsequent crusading monarch would think a similar proceeding sufficient, and would not consider himself obliged to perform more than what the king of France had done. St. Louis was also reminded that Richard Cœur de Lion refused to behold Jerusalem as a pilgrim.