# Why Jerusalem Fell in the First Crusade | Ep. 2 | The Salahuddin Generation

**Author:** Dr. Hassan Elwan
**Series:** The Salahuddin Generation
**Published:** 2025-12-16
**YouTube:** https://youtu.be/Z0MxeWRQdZQ
**URL:** https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-2
**Topics:** History

## Description
Before Jerusalem fell, something else collapsed first. The First Crusade wasn’t won because the Crusaders were stronger or more numerous. It succeeded through discipline, organization, and psychological warfare—while the Muslim world was divided by rival rulers, short-term thinking, and emotional...

## Transcript
**[0:00]** When we hear such kind of horrific events, the question, are we that bad today? If I look at modern day reality and say it is so bad, well, we were in a worse spot before,

**[0:16]** and the Muslim ummah recovered. If we recovered before, we can surely recover today.

**[0:41]** When we speak about the Franks, the Franks are going to attack and the Crusaders are going to invade the Muslims. Why were they so successful? What have the Muslims done in the time and maybe in our times that lead to such kind of defeats? Europe was basically divided into two parts.

**[0:57]** One is the Orthodox Christians, the remnants of the Roman Empire. Those were located where? In the Byzantine Empire. The capital is modern day Istanbul, Constantinople if you will. Those are Orthodox Christians. But Europe, Europe itself, I'm speaking about Germany, France, the UK, they were Catholics.

**[1:16]** Their Pope was centered where? In Rome, in Italy. Now Europe itself was divided, they had kings and different nations, but the most powerful person in Europe at that time was the Pope. Why? People in Europe, they were very serious about their faith.

**[1:32]** They were zealous Catholics that they really believed in the Pope, really were sincere Christians and the Pope for them represented the voice of God on earth. So the Pope is infallible and therefore if the Pope says something, they will follow. And therefore the Pope had such a power even over the rulers of the time.

**[1:52]** And the Crusades start when the Pope Urban II gathered the kings and the nobles in Clermont in France and delivered a speech. He first started his speech by praising the Franks that they are the nation that is standing for Christ and they are beloved by God.

**[2:08]** They are the ones that are chosen by him. And then he told them that news of a cursed nation came from Jerusalem, the city of the Prince of Peace, that an unclean race has come and now they are destroying Christianity in the East and that their brothers and sisters in the East are being killed and put down

**[2:27]** by this. And he starts describing things that are happening that to a great extent was completely untrue and people were sincere and they listened and they were completely shocked. Then he starts adding, now it's their duty to unite under the cross for they are the

**[2:43]** ones to save the lands, those holy lands, the biblical lands from the grip of those infidels, the grip of this unclean race. Now it falls onto them. It's their duty to go and save those lands. And he said something interesting. He started to add worldly benefits too.

**[3:01]** He said that, you know, I know that your land is narrow and you don't have much and the weather in Europe is not that great, but guess what? The land that our scripture says flows with milk and honey. This is the biblical lands. It is very fertile. There is a lot of wealth there.

**[3:17]** Anybody who goes there, whatever you gain is yours. Many times wars are fought because of what? Financial reasons. There is always greed involved. Now the kings and the nobles are getting together and a huge crusade was forming in Europe.

**[3:34]** People that used to fight each other are now uniting under the cause of what? Saving Jerusalem from the barbarians. And there is a very interesting lesson to mention here. This first crusade, interestingly enough, was led by someone who people don't know much about.

**[3:50]** It was led by a hermit, Peter the Hermit. Peter the Hermit, he is not a scholar of Christianity, but he was one of those devout preachers of Christianity. Sometimes we have people, they're not scholars. But mashallah, Allah gave them the ability to articulate and they can move hearts and

**[4:08]** they have powerful delivery. And Peter the Hermit was that. A person that really lived a very simple life. A person that was very passionate about Christ. A person that can easily deliver profound message to the masses. And he started preaching, telling them, we need to unite.

**[4:24]** You are the people of God. You are the children of Christ who will stand for Christianity if it's not you. And he started quoting the Bible and that God is with us and that miracles will happen if we're sincere. And people were in tears. People were so affected with his powerful delivery.

**[4:43]** He appealed to the emotions of people and the average masses started to gather. A big mob of people, farmers, workers, some soldiers, and a huge amount of people started gathering around. Big mob, untrained soldier. They're very sincere.

**[4:58]** They're very devout. They have no plan. They're not trained. What do you think happened? They gathered around him. Of course, on the way, whenever they encountered a Jewish temple or something, they just destroyed it. Even they attacked some of the Orthodox Christians.

**[5:13]** And then eventually they landed in Asia Minor. The ruler of the time in Asia Minor was Qilij Arslan. And he heard the news that a big mob, a huge crusade just landed. He took his army. And what do you think happened?

**[5:29]** It was a massacre. With ease, Qilij Arslan overpowered those untrained mob. They're not trained soldiers. They have no formation. They have no plan. They don't have any military techniques. Many of them died. And it ended up in a disaster.

**[5:44]** One lesson here, that yes, even for us as Muslims, sometimes we're sincere. Sometimes we're emotional. And it's good to be sincere. It is good to want to do something. But I have to be careful. Ilm is important. Proper knowledge.

**[6:00]** Proper plan. If I have sincerity without proper ilm, I go astray. This is what the Quran tells us. Walad daalleen. Daalleen. People that are lost. Who are people that are lost? People that are very sincere, very devout. They would worship.

**[6:16]** But they have the wrong book. They have a wrong blueprint. This is not how you worship God. You lack ilm. You can be led astray. And it can lead to disasters. This event led to two things that happened. One, for the Muslims.

**[6:31]** Now Qilij Arslan became full of himself. Oh, those crusaders, don't take them seriously. Yeah, they're just fanatical people. They don't know what they're doing. So that led to what? Overconfidence. And he underestimated the crusaders. He was not aware that a real crusade was on its way.

**[6:48]** But the second lesson which I want to point out, and this is relevant to our times, even in the Muslim world, there are people like Peter the Hermit. There are some people, not scholars, but very devout, very sincere, and they would speak and give powerful delivery.

**[7:04]** And unfortunately, some of the youth will gather around them and they'll promise the victory of Allah will be with us. They're sincere. Yes, but you don't have a plan. You're not well equipped. But they will deliver such a powerful speech and people of sincerity and zealously will

**[7:20]** follow them without a proper plan. With only zealously and emotions, we can't win. Be careful from people appealing only to the emotions without really putting a plan. That is not proper tawakkul. That is not how Salah ad-Din was.

**[7:36]** He was a strategist. He has an army. He's trained. He knows what he's doing, as we'll see next. Meanwhile, the real crusade was forming. The kings of Europe started gathering their armies, trained armies, and a massive crusade

**[7:51]** gathered. Those are now knights, well-trained, knows how to fight. They're dressed armor from top to bottom, even the horses, a fort of steel and iron, right? And they started gathering by the thousands and the numbers swelled and they started moving

**[8:08]** towards Asia Minor to attack the Muslims. And Qilij Arslan, at the point, was actually busy fighting one of the other rulers. And news came to him that a new crusade just landed. And it seems they're heading towards the city of Nicaea, his capital.

**[8:24]** Now what he did was, yeah, I've dealt with them before. So he didn't give it a big attention. He says, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know those people. They're not well-trained. They're not well-organized. As soon as I'm done with fighting with my opponent, I'll go take care of them. But then news came to him, disturbing news.

**[8:40]** They're actually surrounded the city of Nicaea and they already built some siege engines. It sounds like this is an army. So he went to his opponent and told him, you know, in a way, let's stop fighting. I have a bigger problem. Let me go deal with it first. Then we'll return to what we're doing.

**[8:57]** So they had a truce. He took his troops and went to the city of Nicaea. It is said Qilij Arslan was shocked. He didn't expect that. He saw thousands of knights, well-fortified, armor, head to toe, siege engines. And he saw their numbers.

**[9:12]** He saw their armors. And he realized, I cannot face them by myself. So he gave his order to the city of Nicaea to surrender and ran back to his opponent, the one that he was fighting with, and told him, you know what, the Franks came.

**[9:27]** It's not what we think. This is a massive army. They took the city of Nicaea. We need to form an allegiance because maybe together we can stop them. If you don't help me, maybe you're going to be next. And as such, they agreed to a common cause to bring their soldiers together and start

**[9:45]** to fight this crusade that came. And the Seljuks, they're excellent with archery and they're excellent horsemen. And they had this mounted archer. So one of their biggest techniques in warfare is that they mount their horses, run and like a machine gun, shoot numerous arrows very quickly to their army and then retreat.

**[10:06]** A wave after wave would attack and they would decimate their opponent before attacking in hand to hand combat. And they laid a trap in a valley. In Arabic, it's called Dorylaeum. And in that place, they surrounded it. And they said, once the crusader army enters, then we'll launch our arrows.

**[10:23]** And indeed, soon enough, the Franks started to come and they entered into the valley of Dorylaeum. And at the right moment, they gave the signal and the horses started running, shooting arrows after arrows, wave after wave. It is said in the beginning, it was very effective, especially against people with no armors.

**[10:40]** But soon enough, they were confronted with something they're not familiar with. Those crusaders, this new wave of knights who had armor from head to toe. Yes, they're slow. Yes, they're sluggish. But they didn't run away. They started protecting themselves, putting their shields up and stood their ground.

**[10:58]** And the Seljuks started attacking to wear them down. But those people, to their surprise, did not budge. And they realized the arrows are now not effective anymore. And they lost the element of surprise. And they were discussing what should we do next? Would we go hand to hand in combat with those knights?

**[11:16]** Forts of iron? Yes, no. And to their surprise, they looked to the horizon and they find a huge army coming. What was that? Another crusader army coming to the right. And they started to panic. And then they looked to the left side.

**[11:33]** Another army started to show up. What they thought to be the crusader army was only the vanguard. And the real army started to show. And they started realizing we are getting surrounded. And the situation was not good.

**[11:48]** There was no time to do anything. Lost heart, they decided to take advantage of the one thing they still have. Their horses, the Arabian horses known for agility and speed. So they took advantage of the speed of their horses. And they started running. What about the foot soldiers?

**[12:05]** The foot soldiers could not do that. They were left to themselves. And it ended up in a huge massacre. The Muslims in the battle of Dorylaeum lost thousands and thousands of people. And it was a major defeat for the Muslims. The worst part of it was the attitude of the Seljuk rulers, those two rulers.

**[12:24]** They started running, doing what? Spreading fear. And this is something the Quran warns from. The Quran mentions about people that whenever a matter of disturbance or fear comes, what do they do? They broadcast it. That's not helpful. If I'm afraid and I'm terrified, keep it to myself.

**[12:41]** I should not go to social media and start spreading and agonizing and spreading fear. That's not a proper attitude. Yet they started running, spreading the news of what? Franks, crusaders, forts of iron. They took our cities. You're next. And when that happened, people started to panic.

**[12:59]** They were used to the Byzantine Empire, not the Catholics, not those knights. And their numbers are huge and their determination and their strength in the battlefield. They were really powerful knights. And what happened next? After the battle of Dorylaeum, the Franks, the crusaders started marching towards the

**[13:17]** city of Antioch. Now the story of what happened in the city of Antioch represents the core reason why such defeats happened. So the city of Antioch is well fortified and they came and they surrounded the city.

**[13:32]** The ruler of Antioch found himself in a situation. I cannot possibly defeat them by myself. I need the help of other rulers. But there was a problem. What is it? The ruler of the city of Antioch was trapped in what we would describe as the war of the

**[13:49]** two brothers. In the Sham area, there is three important cities, Damascus, the capital, even the capital of today's Syria, Aleppo and Al-Mawsil. At that time, those three cities had independent rulers. But the city of Aleppo, a man by the name of Ridwan came to power.

**[14:08]** The first thing he did was he started killing his brothers. Why would you kill your own brother? Well, the love of the seat, the love of power. He was afraid. He wants no competition. One of his brothers succeeded in escaping.

**[14:23]** His name is Duqaq. And he went all the way to Damascus where he established his rule. And then we had what? The two brothers, one in Aleppo and one in Damascus. And they now have a war between them. And the ruler of Antioch found himself caught between those two brothers.

**[14:40]** And one time he would support the ruler of Aleppo and he would go with him, attack the city of Damascus. But then they're defeated. On the way back, he would change his allegiance, switch back to Damascus. And you know, and this was going for almost a decade. Those two brothers were consistently fighting.

**[14:57]** Now the ruler of Aleppo, Ridwan, sought the help of the assassins and fell under their influence. And they started getting close to him. And he started giving them high ranks. And they started having control of the city of Aleppo.

**[15:12]** But that made Ridwan very dangerous because people understood. He can send the assassins to kill whoever he wants. And people feared him to the extent that the ruler of Antioch sent his own daughter to try to marry Ridwan. Now with the Franks at his door, what does he do?

**[15:29]** He needs their help to defend himself. Which one he would pick? So he first sent a delegation to the city of Damascus. He apologized to Duqaq for having attacked him previously and said, you know what? The Franks are at my door. If they take my city, guess what?

**[15:45]** You might be next. Maybe you need to help me because I cannot repulse them alone. I need the help. And the response from Damascus was what? If I help you and I send my army to help you, I leave Damascus not protected. Maybe Ridwan will attack and take the city while I'm out. And you see the problem, how people are thinking. Every man is thinking about his seat.

**[16:05]** And after a long time, finally, he convinced Duqaq, the ruler of Damascus, to send an army to defend him. And reluctantly, an army from Damascus started marching all the way to the city of Antioch to help relieve the siege. On the way, they meet a batch of knights out foraging for food.

**[16:25]** There were a very small batch, but the army of Damascus, thousands, stopped. And they saw them and they were like, OK, should we attack? Should we not attack? Maybe we shouldn't. Those are knights and they look strong and powerful. To their surprise, it was the knights that started attacking them.

**[16:42]** The Franks, though fewer in number, started attacking the army of Damascus. They did not need any more convincing. Immediately, the order was given, retreat, go back to Damascus. We're done. Let's leave the city of Antioch to their own fate.

**[16:57]** Now, the ruler of Antioch, he was left with the ruler of Aleppo, Ridwan. He goes, sends a delegation apologizing, and it ends up that an army from Aleppo heads to relieve the city of Antioch. As they approach the city of Antioch, Ridwan was so afraid, so scared that his army is going to get surrounded and he really doesn't want to lose.

**[17:20]** So he put his army in a valley surrounded by mountains and it was a disaster. The Franks came and they started attacking the army of Aleppo. And it didn't take a long time. The army of Aleppo got severely defeated, a miserable defeat.

**[17:36]** Much of the army ended up dying in that place. Few of them succeeded in escaping and going back all the way to the city of Aleppo. The next day, the people in Antioch could hear the Franks, the crusaders outside, laughing and the whistles of catapults.

**[17:53]** They were not throwing stones at them. They were throwing the heads, the mutilated heads of the Muslim army of Aleppo that came to save the city. The message was what? The army that came to save you, here you go, here they are. And a third battle happened.

**[18:10]** The third city was Al-Mawsil. It had a ruler that was very powerful, had a lot of strength. And his name was Karbugha. And I want you to notice it is not the lack of strength or numbers that was the problem. And Karbugha decided, you know what, maybe I can be the one that saves the day.

**[18:26]** And he gathered a very powerful army and he sent a letter to Aleppo and Damascus. All of us must come under my control. And he was a powerful general. So Aleppo and Damascus, the rulers, agreed reluctantly and they send their troops.

**[18:41]** The leader now is Karbugha. But he was too late. By the time he reached the city of Antioch, the city had already fell to the Franks. Once the Franks entered the city of Antioch, they started killing every man, woman and child.

**[18:57]** They spared no one. And they took the city of Antioch. By the time Karbugha reached the city, he found the city already fell and the Franks were inside. They decided maybe we can surround them, maybe we lay siege. The Franks actually were not in a good position logistically.

**[19:15]** They were far from their land. They didn't have much resources. But something interesting happened. One of the people there said that they saw a dream. And in the dream, they saw Christ, Jesus, peace be upon him. And he told them that the spear by which the Roman soldier, according to them, when he was crucified,

**[19:32]** one of the Roman soldiers actually used the spear to poke Jesus, peace be upon him, is actually buried in the city of Antioch. And he told him where it is. And people were excited and they started digging. And surely enough, they found the lance. The lance of Christ.

**[19:47]** The lance that has some of the blood of Christ on it. What does that mean? Any army that had that lance will never be defeated. And you can see again the jealousy. Of course, Muslim scholars tell you that it's a made up story and actually they kind of buried the lance

**[20:04]** a night before and different views. Nevertheless, now the Franks, their morale was so high. This is a miracle and God is with us and he showed us a sign. We found a relic and with that relic, we are undefeatable.

**[20:19]** And then they send a letter to Karbugha. Allow our army to go out and we will put our ranks and let's fight. Now what should Karbugha do? Some of the leaders said don't give them the chance to do this. But he was kind of tired of the siege.

**[20:35]** He wanted to go back. And he decided against the advice of everybody, let them out, let them form their ranks and then when they do so, we'll fight them and we'll end this. And the Franks started going out, their numbers swelling and immediately the Franks started

**[20:51]** attacking the Muslims. But something unexpected happened. Once they start attacking, the armies of Aleppo and the armies of Damascus, a huge part of Karbugha's army, started retreating. They view Karbugha as a more dangerous opponent.

**[21:09]** If Karbugha wins, what does that mean? He'll become very powerful. He'll take Antioch. We will be next. It's to our best interest that he gets defeated. So a betrayal. They retreated and left the army of Karbugha of Al-Mawsil to themselves.

**[21:25]** And you can guess what happened. A massive massacre. A third defeat to the Muslims. And the Franks succeeded in destroying this army of the city of Al-Mawsil. While this was happening, what do you think the Ismailis of Egypt are doing?

**[21:41]** The Ismailis sent a letter to the Franks congratulating them on what? On their victories against the Seljuks. Congratulations, you took the cities of Antioch. That's great. And then let's make a deal. The Seljuks are our common enemy. You keep all the cities that you have, take the cities from the Seljuks and keep it.

**[22:00]** We keep the cities we have and we have peace. But they did something else. Since the Seljuks are now busy fighting the Franks, it is a good opportunity to send an army from Egypt. To do what? Help their fellow Muslims?

**[22:16]** No. They took an opportunity and they sent an army from Egypt not to attack the Franks, rather to attack the city of Jerusalem. And they succeeded. Jerusalem was now under the rule of the Ismailis again. But then the Franks responded to this letter asking one thing.

**[22:34]** What about Jerusalem? They were very clear. This is a religious war. We need the city of Jerusalem. We will never give up. This is what we want. And some negotiations started to happen. Some people say some suggestions of having Jerusalem as a city that's common to everybody

**[22:54]** and free worship and you know. But the Franks did not respond favorably to that. They said we are marching to the city of Jerusalem with our lances up high. And now everybody realized their goal is Jerusalem. On the way to the city of Jerusalem, they passed by the city of Ma'arrat and something

**[23:13]** happened in the city of Ma'arrat that haunted the Muslims and contributed a lot to the psychological defeat of the Muslims of the time. The city of Ma'arrat is not that powerful. They started in the beginning resisting the Franks, but surely enough, they were afraid. So they sent to the Franks, if we deliver the city to you, will you let us go in peace?

**[23:33]** And the answer was indeed, if you allow us to enter the city and open the gates, we will allow all of you to go out of the city in peace and no problems. And unfortunately, they trusted the Franks and they opened the doors of the city.

**[23:48]** Once the crusaders entered the city of Ma'arrat, they killed everybody. Something else happened that haunted Muslims. The Franks wrote to their Pope in the city of Ma'arrat. We boiled the adult pagans in giant pots. We impaled their children on spits of fire and devoured them grilled.

**[24:07]** Cannibalism. They ate Muslims. Can you imagine that? And even in other letters, they say, not only did our troops not shrink from eating the dead Turks and Saracens, they also ate dogs. Knights, powerful, know how to fight, very determined, and they are so ruthless.

**[24:27]** And that struck fear in the hearts of the Muslims. What happened next was very interesting. All the cities now they know that their main target is Jerusalem. On the way to Jerusalem, there are so many cities, Beirut, Sidon, Acre, Haifa, Jaffa,

**[24:44]** all the cities in Palestine, you know, all those cities, Tripoli, Tripolis, right? All the rulers of those cities started sending to the Franks, what? Please go. If you want to go to Jerusalem, here is the way. They send the guides. They send them food, water.

**[25:01]** Some of them send them wine. Take whatever you want. As long as you leave me in my chair, as long as I continue to be the ruler of Tripoli, it's Jerusalem you want. That's the way. And they sent the guides to guide the Franks to the city of Jerusalem.

**[25:18]** And indeed, the Franks spared those cities. And I want you to notice what is the real disease here. What is causing this defeat? Again, it's not a lack of number. There is something else happening here. And it's the same disease again and again. Everybody by himself, everybody, as long as I sit on my chair, and as long as I have my

**[25:38]** my wealth and my position, I'm okay. It doesn't matter. What they didn't realize. Do you think that the Crusaders, after taking the city of Jerusalem, will spare those people? Anyway, the Crusaders now reached the city of Jerusalem, which was guarded by the Ismailis.

**[25:57]** And they started laying siege to the city. They started attacking with no plan. And they started trying even to climb the walls with their own hands. And of course, as you can imagine, this attack got repulsed with ease. But surely enough, in a matter of days, they started building siege engines, building ladders,

**[26:14]** and they started building siege towers. And eventually, they succeeded in breaching the walls of the city of Jerusalem. And the knights of the Crusaders, the Franks, poured in the city of Jerusalem. The city they claim to have come to rescue from the barbarians, the city of the Prince

**[26:30]** of Peace, the city of Jesus, peace be upon him, Isa (عليه السلام). And what they've done in that city is something that was never forgotten in history, even by their own accounts. The Muslims of the city crowded and just got inside the Aqsa Mosque.

**[26:48]** It's a holy place. The Franks followed them inside the Aqsa Mosque with their horses, closed the doors, and started killing everybody. Reports, more than 30,000 Muslims in one day got killed in the Aqsa Mosque. The Jews there in the city ran to their synagogue.

**[27:06]** And the Franks came. The Jews were not viewed favorably. Those are the people, according to them, that killed Jesus, peace be upon him. So they were, of course, infidels. So they surrounded their synagogue and brought wood and burned everybody in the synagogue alive.

**[27:21]** The Orthodox Christians were not treated any favorably. And they started killing everybody in the city of Jerusalem. The amount of horror that I cannot even, it's traumatic for me to read what happened to those people. Like when I see what's happening in Palestine today, it's really traumatic.

**[27:40]** When you read the description of how and what happened to the Muslims of the time, I feel the same way. Those are my Muslim brothers and sisters. They lived in different time, but they're my brothers and sisters in Islam. And it's done in the name of who? Done in the name of Jesus, peace be upon him.

**[27:55]** You do not represent God. You do not represent Jesus. Today there are similar people, but they did not come under the banner of the cross. They did not come under the banner of Jesus. They came under another religious symbol, the star of David, and they're doing the same

**[28:12]** thing. In the name of who? In the name of who are you doing this? Jesus, Moses, peace be upon him. All the prophets are innocent from any kind of actions like that. Is that what Isa, is that what God wants you to do?

**[28:28]** Is that something that makes you elevated in the eyes of God? You do that in the name, if you do it in the name of money, it's terrible. But you do it in the name of who? A prophet of God? Jesus, peace be upon him, whom you claim that orders us to give the other cheek.

**[28:43]** But yet this was their understanding. They were so zealous and they viewed the Muslims in such a negative way that they're infidels. And yes, we're here to exterminate you. Systematic killing in the city of Jerusalem, a bloodbath, if you will.

**[28:58]** And SubhanAllah, some of the inhabitants of the city succeeded in escaping. Among them is the judge of the city, Al-Harawi. He escaped with some people, a delegation. After what he saw and the horrors of what happened and the Muslims unable to make any response,

**[29:14]** he started heading where? He went all the way to the city of Baghdad. It was Ramadan time by the time he arrives. Now, he's a traveler and as a traveler, he's not fasting, but people don't know that. So he went to the marketplace and started eating in public.

**[29:30]** And people were offended. Look at that, man. It's the month of Ramadan. How can you do that? It's the holy month of Ramadan. The sanctity of Ramadan has been violated. And then he waited till a mob gathered around him. And then remember, this is a judge. He started telling them with poetry, you are upset that I'm violating the sanctity of Ramadan

**[29:51]** and you're not upset about the sanctity of the Aqsa Mosque. You're upset about the holy month of Ramadan and the holiness of the of the Muslims and your sisters in Jerusalem and the babies and the men and the Muslim blood has no value. And he started telling them what happened in the city of Jerusalem.

**[30:09]** And it is said everybody in the marketplace was in tears. And this big mob decided we're all going to go to where? To the Khalifa himself. And Qadi al-Harawi with this group started heading all the way to the palace, if you will, of the Khalifa. And this is the Qadi, he enters and the Khalifa is surrounded by his people.

**[30:27]** And he started giving an eloquent speech about what happened in the city of Jerusalem and the fate of our brothers and sisters there and nobody's there to save them. And it is said everybody was in tears, the Khalifa himself, all the people around him, everybody in tears.

**[30:43]** Everybody started yelling, we will not let this happen. We must do something. And emotion is so high and the call of Jihad and we must fight back. And big demonstrations started happening in Baghdad. People are now emotional. What do you think happened after that?

**[31:01]** It's a surprise. Nothing. Nothing at all. And this brings us to a point that I would like to call this, unfortunately, what I call the Coca-Cola Muslim. And it's a term, yeah, I don't mean to degrade anybody, but let's not be a Coca-Cola Muslim.

**[31:17]** What is a Coca-Cola Muslim? You know, like you buy a tin of Coke or a bottle of Coke, right? You shake it and then you open it. What happens? It's just like erupts and it's a big mess. But at the end of the day, it's nothing serious. It's just a big mess. What happens if you shake it again?

**[31:32]** It will do the same things. What if you continue shaking it once and twice and thrice? After a while, what happens? It becomes flat. A Coca-Cola Muslim is a person who becomes extremely emotional. And Wallahi, the emotions are so heightened.

**[31:49]** And we go and we yell and we shout and we might go into demonstrations and then we go home and then what happens? I did my duty. Now what? Back to normal. Now, here is the dangerous part. If that happened once and twice and thrice, what do you think happens?

**[32:05]** After three, four times, I become flat. Personally, when I was in the university, Cairo University, and we're speaking about like 1991, can you imagine what was happening in the Middle East? Palestine and Israel was happening back then. And I remember some of my own friends would leave the lectures and would be very zealous and would go to demonstrations and be in the...

**[32:24]** Today, my same friends that did this in 1991, what do you think are you doing right now? Nothing. Why? They got tired. 1991, 1994, 1998, 2001, 2003. This is not the first time.

**[32:40]** One of the most dangerous things is when I have heightened emotions, short response like a pulse that comes up so quick, but then it falls. And what happens? I return back to the way I was. And I'm waiting for them to shake me again and they would respond the same way.

**[32:56]** That's a Coca-Cola response. Rather than, I need to change and I need to be consistent. It's not just about emotions. And this was something that we saw in this time. Although those people were sincere, nothing happened at all. What about Egypt?

**[33:12]** They took Jerusalem from Egypt. The ruler, the Ismaili Caliph and his wazir send the Egyptian army and the Egyptians laid their camp in the city of Ascalon and spent the night there. And it is said it is a huge army, some estimated to be 20,000,

**[33:28]** some say up to 100,000. And knights and foot soldiers, and interestingly enough, he sent them without any siege equipment, which is interesting. And now they're going to do what? Save Jerusalem from the Franks. The response was actually very amazing. The Franks, the crusaders

**[33:45]** sent 1200 knights and 8000 infantry. So 10,000 in the face of maybe 20 or 100,000 Egyptians. They attacked the army of Egypt. What happened in the battle of Ascalon was humiliation.

**[34:01]** The big army of Egypt did not even fight for a few hours. The entire army was defeated and was routed and they started running and a massacre happened. And even the leader himself escaped through the sea. The big army of Egypt got defeated by an army that is one tenth of its own

**[34:20]** size. Now that they have the city of Jerusalem, what do you think they did next? All the cities that helped them, Tripoli, Beirut, Sidon, Acre, through the decade to come, they started attacking a city after a city, singling one by one. And we ended up with a situation where now the Franks

**[34:39]** control everything on the coast. And they started forming what we call the principalities. The principality of Antioch, the principalities of Jerusalem, the principality of Edessa, all the cities, Beirut, Acre, Tripoli, all the cities ended falling to the Franks.

**[34:57]** And what happened next? Well, it seemed they coexisted. The city of Aleppo with the Ridwan and Damascus, they realized, you know what, we can coexist. They can have those cities, we can have the city, we can have some communication between us and maybe we can have peace.

**[35:15]** It seems something is wrong. The Muslims don't lack numbers, they don't lack equipment. Why are they so easily defeated? What's wrong with the soldiers? Forget the leaders, the soldiers themselves. If you go and read about the soldiers, they were almost like mercenaries.

**[35:31]** They used to drink wine, they used to have belly dancing. Is this the kind of soldier that you want to fight that kind of war? Against what? A committed crusader who's coming fighting for his religion? That's why on the battlefield, they did not put a very big stand. And you can see the

**[35:47]** division among the Muslims. There were diseases inside the Muslims, diseases that led to this defeat. That is the essence of how the reform started. The biggest enemy that we see here is not the outside enemy. It's the love of wealth, love of status, the lack of resilience,

**[36:05]** the lack of commitment. What's going on? Why is that the case? That is what scholars of the time decided to work on. How did the Muslims recover from this? What were the challenges on the way? Who were the scholars behind it? That is what we're going to discuss when we

**[36:22]** see you again, inshallah, in the following episode.

## Other Episodes in "The Salahuddin Generation"
- [SERIES FINALE: Salahuddin’s Legacy | Ep. 11 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-11.md)
- [The Man Who Outsmarted Salahuddin | Ep. 10 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-10.md)
- [One Sultan vs. All of Europe — Counterattack | Ep. 9 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-9.md)
- [The Victory That Reopened Jerusalem | Ep. 8 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-8.md)
- [The Plot to Dig the Prophet ﷺ’s Grave | Ep. 7 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-7.md)
- [Salahuddin’s Revolution Begins | Ep. 6 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-6-salahuddin-revolution-begins.md)
- [3,000 Riders to Egypt: An Impossible Mission | Ep. 5 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-5.md)
- [The Rise of Zengi | Ep. 4 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-4-the-rise-of-zengi.md)
- [How Imam Al-Ghazali Built A Generation | Ep. 3 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-3.md)
- [The Rise of the Assassins | Ep. 1 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-1.md)
- [The Salahuddin Generation: Knights and Scholars | OFFICIAL TRAILER](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-official-trailer.md)
- [The Salahuddin Generation – Official Teaser](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-series-official-teaser.md)