The Frankish troops of the Second Crusade
arrived at Damascus trailing camels
loaded with sacks that bowed their knees.
Spreading across the plain, they stopped
and pitched their tents close to the walls.
Many Damascenes poured from the city
to defend their homes and families.
Others leaned over the ramparts, jostling
to see while an old man from Morocco
advanced alone and stood before the enemy.
“You are too old to fight!” the emir said.
“Soldiers will fight for you.” But the old one
quoted a well known verse from Holy Koran:
“God has bought the faithful,” he said
“and will grant Paradise to me in return.
In spite of his fear, he marched till he fell
under the blows of the blond attackers.
Despite many such acts of heroism, Franj
advanced and continued their assault.
The next day being Sunday, they fought
from sunrise to sunset until, exhausted,
they rested all night long without sleep.
On Monday morning waves of Turks,
Kurds and Arab cavalry came from the north
to help. The great Nur Al-Din was expected
to arrive the next day from Aleppo, as well as
his brother from Mosul. A message was sent
to the Franj: “The King of the Orient comes.”
The Antioch emir urged the Franj to desist,
making them an offer of generous bonuses,
putting stress on the threat that the coming army
would not only defeat them, but would
continue till the Muslims had taken back
every Franj colony in the entire region.
The Franj were convinced by fatigue
and lack of reinforcements. A secret truce
was made. The German forces among them
protested the loose organization and left..
After bonuses were paid, a cadre of bowmen
ambushed those few who remained. When the Franj
disappeared in the direction of Jerusalem,
the Muslims felt a rare sense of relief to realize
that foreign forces were as vulnerable as they.
But the real winner at Damascus was Nur al-Din
who found his career advancing. The next year
he crushed the knight Raymond at Antioch.
Shirkuh, the Kurd removed Raymond’s blond head
and sent it in a box to the caliph in Baghdad.
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