These Christians are just a few of the survivors of the Crusader army recently defeated at the Battle of Hattin by the Moslem army of Saladin.
Stripped of their crusader uniforms, proudly emblazoned with the red cross of Christendom, their naked bodies now wear the shackles of Islamic slavery. The road from Hattin to Damascus is long and dusty and these new captives must be driven onwards by the whips of their new Moslem masters.
Awaiting them at their journeys end are the slave-markets of Damascus and fates too awful for them to begin to comprehend. They are young, strong and have the promise of several years of soul-destroying, back-breaking hard labour toiling at the tasks allotted to them by their new masters.
Normally, such robust and brawny slaves would command a high price when finally they mount the auction-block. But such is not the case currently.
Saladin's defeat of the Crusader armies has been so successful it has resulted in the slave-markets being oversupplied with captured Christians. It is reliably reported that slaves of the calibre shown here are selling for the price of a pair of leather sandals or of a small quantity of onions.
If these rumours are true, then it truly is a buyer's market!
Artwork by Amalaric: text is mine.
I’m thrilled in a particular way by this beautiful post because it exactly follows and reflects, even in details, a real historical fact happened in 1187 and that I mentioned in my comments to the previous post about the Batlle of Hattin.
ReplyDeleteI.e. in his In his biography of Saladin, the Iraqi jurist and historian Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad (1145-1234) narrates that he personally met –on the road towards the Slave Market of Damascus- a single Arab captain who was dragging by himself –behind the saddle of his horse- as many as 30 (!) young European Crusaders, prisoners of war, that were his personal “booty” after the battle of Hattin and that he intended to sell and auction to the highest bidder in the Slave Market of Damascus.
According to the Arab historian the 30 your Christian captives were fastened by their neck with a long rope, like a leash, fixed by one end at the saddle of their Arab capturer and owner, and had their strong arms tied behind their backs.
In the same Biography of the Saladin, the same historian says that, after the battle of Hattin and the conquest of Jerusalem, in October 1187, the number of Christian slaves,a nd in particular of captured Crusader warriors, was so unusually enormous that the price of strong young male slaves suited for heavy labours fell so low …… that, in the Slave Market of Damascus, as well as in the other Slave Markets of the area, like in Baghdad, on average a young and brawny Christian warrior was sold for the price of a pair of leather-sandals !
So this post seem to portray just that real historical episode of that Arab captain who was dragging by himself as many as thirty young captured Crusaders towards the Slave Market of Damascus, as his own “spoils of war” !
The idea that something similar to this has REALLY happened in the history of the past, and it’s not just a fantasy ……. makes this post for me even much more exciting.
Thanks for recalling this event of the past
Karel