The Muslim World was faced with sudden havoc, when the crusaders viciously attacked them, creating chaos amongst their midst.
Their campaign was successful to a large extent in establishing four Latin principalities,
- In the headwaters of the Euphartes, at Edessa
- In northern Syria, at Antioch
- On the Syrian coast, at Tripoli
- In the heart of Palestine, at Jerusalem
At these moments of intense carnage and bloodshed, the qadis and the poets of the time rose to the occasion.
The poets voiced out the plight and agony of the Muslims, their libretti illustrating the ferocity of the battle:
We mixed blood with our flowing tears
And there was no room left to apportion blame. The worst weapon for a man is flowing tears, When the flames of war intensify by the sword
How much blood was shed and how many young Muslims girls Were killed whilst trying to cover their beauty with their Hands out of shyness Silver swords turned red and spearheads dripped with blood In the midst of stabbing and striking………
It was with this extreme savagery and mercilessness that the war took place with.
The qadis also played a prominent role, one of them being Ibn sulayhah ,the qadi of the fortress of Jablah. He was its ruler, succeeding after the death of his father Mansoor in 494 AH/1100 CE.
His talents were manifested when the Franks besieged the fortress of jablah in an attempt to capture it.
Initially the qadhi used, what is now known as psychological warfare when he came up with the ingenious plan to spread fear in the ranks of the Frankish forces. He pretended that the Sultan Barkiyaruq was headed towards Syria coming to his aid which made the Franks worry, and fear spread throughout their ranks and caused them to withdraw.
When the Franks realized that this was really a trick they came back and besieged the city again, but the qadhi repeated his trick in a different manner, spreading a rumor among the Crusader ranks that this time the Egyptian were coming to fight them and help him, eventually causing the Franks to withdraw their siege of the fortress.
It appeared that the Crusaders lacked sufficient info regarding the state of the fortress or the number of troops, or else they wouldn’t have abandoned their siege. Now, realizing that the Qadhi had in fact been instrumenting psychological warfare, they returned and besieged the fortress for a third time in Shaban of 494 A.H.
Ibn Sulayhah comprehended that this time, employing psychological warfare would be futile, so he inventively came up with yet another strategy to ensure his success. He worked out a deal with the Christians residing within the fortress wherein a Christian delegation was sent to the Franks to work out the terms of surrendering the fortress to them, whereby the Franks would send in 300 of their most prominent and bravest knights to conquer the fortress.
The Franks conceded to the terms and the Frankish warriors proceeded on to actualize their vicious mission.
However, the entire course of events was only the maneuvering of Ibn Sulayhah as he set into actions his ingenious plan; for as the Frankish warriors climbed the rope up the fortress, they met their demise at his hands as he sat ready for them at the top of the wall.
The Crusaders thereby incurred a humongous loss and attempted their revenge by striving to capture the fortress by any means possible. To bring their quest into a reality they therefore built a wooden tower and used it to obliterate one of the fortress’s towers. But with his quick wits and cleverness the qadhi could see that the danger was imminent, so he did not slow down or surrender, but in fact set to motion yet another brilliant plan.
He then made holes in the rear walls of the city by which the army would be able to exit the city unnoticed. Ibn Sulayhah then came out of the fortress with his army at the forefront to fight the Franks, he then pretended to flee from them, thus tricking the invaders, the Franks hence hastened to pursue the Muslims as far as the gates of the city, at which point the Muslim army took the opportunity to come out through those holes and come out at the Crusaders from the rear and attacked them, thereby finally defeating them.
Therefore, this was Ibn Sulayhah, a man with an ingenious mind, a true diamond in the cruss, as he strived to protect his people and his fortress from the ruthless and callous hands of the Franks.