The Historians' History of the World 08

The great Tatarian princes, Jenghiz Khan and his successors, had obliterated the vast empire of Khwarizm; and the expelled and defeated Tatars fled to the south. The storm rolled on towards Egypt, the Khwarizmians demanded a settlement; the sultan was the only Moslem prince who entered into treaties with those barbarians; and he advised them to fix themselves in Palestine. He sent one of his principal emirs, and a large body of troops as their guides and coadjutors, and at the head of twenty thousand horse, Barbacan, the Khwarizmian general entered the Holy Land. The Christians in Jerusalem heard with dismay that the Tatarian tempest had reached their territories. It was evident from the ruined state of the walls that Jerusalem was no longer tenable. The cavaliers, and many of the inhabitants, abandoned the sacred city.

The Khwarizmians entered it, spared neither lives nor property, and violated both Christian and Mussulman sanctuaries. In the wantonness of cruelty they disinterred the departed great, and made a cremation of venerable remains. The insulting fanatics of savageness murdered priests round the altars, exclaiming while they stabbed the holy men, “Let us pour their blood on the place where they poured out wine in commemoration of their crucified God.” As crafty as ferocious, they planted a banner of the cross upon the walls, and, deceived by this joyful appearance, several thousands of the fugitives returned to the city, but only to partake of the miserable doom of their friends.

The repeated solicitations of the Templars at length brought four thousand soldiers from their Syrian allies. The united Christian and Mussulman forces were so far inferior to the Tatars, that policy required a course of measures perfectly defensive. But the fury of the patriarch precipitated the army into the gulf of destruction. The awful conflict raged for two days. The soldiers of Damascus and Emesa were soon slain, or scattered. The loss of every part of the army was great, almost beyond example. Only sixteen Hospitallers, thirty-three Templars, and three Teutonic cavaliers remained alive and free. These soldiers fled to Acre, and that city became the refuge of the Christians. After having razed the fortifications of Askalon, and the castle of Tiberias, the Khwarizmians and Egyptians encamped on the plains of Acre, devastated the country, and slew or led into captivity all straggling Franks.

A united force of Khwarizmians and mamelukes conquered Damascus, and Europe heard with dismay that the Mussulman power was again consolidating. But the members soon were separated, for the sultan of Egypt, faithless as cruel, denied his allies a permanent settlement on the shores of the Nile. The soldiers of fortune flew to the banner of the Damascene prince, and assisted him in his efforts to recover his capital. But the cause of the mamelukes was felt as the common interest of the Moslem world, and all Syria, as well as all Egypt, was in arms in order to exterminate the northern barbarians. In a general engagement the Khwarizmians were defeated and scattered. Barbacan was slain, and southern Asia recovered from its panic and distress.

THE CRUSADE OF ST. LOUIS (THE EIGHTH)

A Tatar

The superstition of a French king, and the successes of the savage Khwarizmians, gave birth to the Eighth Crusade. Pope Innocent IV convoked a general council at Lyons; the Bishop of Berytus described the effects of the Tatarian storm, and left his ecclesiastical brethren to conclude, whether one effort should not be made for a restoration of things to the state in which Richard, earl of Cornwall, had left them. It was accordingly resolved that a crusade should be preached throughout Christendom, and that for four years peace and seriousness should reign over Europe. Such of the faithful as did not expose their persons in the holy cause were to give the subsidiary aid of treasure; and the contribution to be made by the cardinals was fixed at a tenth, and that of the other ecclesiastics at a twentieth part of their yearly revenues.