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A trip down the Red Sea with Reynald of Châtillon
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2008
Extract
In the pages of the Islamic chronicles which tell of the deeds of the crusaders, one figure stands apart. A man who not only is said to have attacked pilgrim caravans in a time of truce and insulted Muhammad himself, but who also, it is reported, had the audacity, temerity, and insanity (or possible genius) to threaten the very heart of the Islamic world – the cities of Mecca and Medina, and the ‘Islamic’ Red Sea. This man was Reynald of Châtillon, lord of Oultrejourdain, erstwhile Prince of Antioch, and he is described, amongst other things, as “one of the most devilish of the Franks, and one of the most demonic, and he had the strongest hostility to the Muslims”. The raid on the Red Sea and purported attempts to attack Mecca and Medina are believed to be one of the main reasons why Reynald is so despised in the Arabic chronicles. The intention of this article, therefore, is to examine the raid anew, using the Arabic material available, in order to try to contribute to an understanding of the raid, and to establish whether, indeed, Reynald even did try to attack the holy cities of Islam, and whether the criticism of him is justified.
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References
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52 Leiser, ‘The Crusader Raid’, p. 95. It is difficult to provide definite proof of this due to the lack of evidence in the sources, but it does appear to be a cogent argument.
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56 See above.
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61 al-Fadil, quoted in Leiser, ‘The Crusader Raid’, p. 90.
62 Although the sources do not confirm this, common sense suggests that this is where the information came from, as he was the most senior official who was an eyewitness, and had to report back to his superiors in Cairo, one of whom would have been al-Fadil.