Past history with islam

[Shammu]

When 'Muslims Were Tried by an Unparalleled Disaster'
This week in history - the siege of Acre.
Fri Jul 15, 2022
By Raymond Ibrahim

Following the decisive battle of Hattin in 1187, Sultan Saladin went on to conquer Jerusalem and most other Christian kingdoms, including coastal Acre.  Elated by his success, he vowed not only to eliminate all Crusaders from the Holy Land, but to invade Europe and “pursue the Franks there, so as to free the earth of anyone who does not believe in Allah, or die in the attempt.”

Before long, however, and due to its strategic location, Acre became the rallying point for the remaining Crusaders.  If only they could reclaim it, they could reconsolidate their power base and spread out again, including to Jerusalem. So they laid it to siege in the summer of 1189.  Famine, plague, and pestilence harried the Crusaders and countless thousands died while the Muslims continued to hold out in Acre.

The mood changed in the summer of 1191, when Philip II of France and especially Richard I of England—the Lionheart, whom most Crusaders looked to as the natural leader—arrived with their men to aid in the siege.

Richard immediately ordered the construction of more war moveable towers; more ditches around Acre were filled, thereby allowing these new engines of war to encroach upon and bombard the city; and defensive trenches were dug around the Crusaders’ camp, to prevent sorties from Saladin’s marauding troops.

More at
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/07/when-muslims-were-tried-unparalleled-disaster-raymond-ibrahim/

I probably should gather the other history events I've posted here and put them in this thread

[Shammu]

The Liberation of Córdoba from Islamic Tyranny
Mon Jul 4, 2022
By Raymond Ibrahim

Thanks to the efforts of Ferdinand III of Castile—aka Saint Ferdinand, or Fernando—this week in history, on June 29, 1236, Córdoba, which after the eighth century Muslim conquest of Spain had become one of the most important “abodes of Islam,” to quote a disgruntled Muslim chronicler, “passed into the hands of the accursed Christians—may Allah destroy them all!”

Six months earlier, in December of 1235, a daring band of Christians, led by a few knights, stormed and took a portion of Córdoba’s eastern quarter. Word reached King Ferdinand in January of 1236, even as he was in mourning over the recent death of his thirty-year-old wife from childbirth complications.

Through their envoy, the Spaniards “implored him to help them because they were placed in most grave peril.” Against the Muslim “multitude of Córdoba, they were very few” and “separated from the Moors only by a certain wall running almost through the middle of the city.” Though at a standstill, time, the envoy made clear, was not on the Christians’ side.

The king, who for years had been spearheading the Reconquista—the Christian attempt to liberate Spain from Islam—was heavily moved by such a heroic feat; and “the grief for the loss” of his wife “did not long suspend his warlike preparations.” On the same evening that the envoy arrived, Ferdinand’s advisors strongly warned him against setting out immediately, during winter; they cited impassable roads due to snow, rain and floods, and possible ambushes from the “innumerable multitude of people in Córdoba”—to say nothing of Ibn Hud, the de facto king of al-Andalus, who was even then headed to relieve the Muslim city.

More at
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/07/liberation-c%C3%B3rdoba-islamic-tyranny-raymond-ibrahim/

[Shammu]

When Spain Crushed Islamic Jihad on the Battlefield
Jul 20, 2022
Raymond Ibrahim

This week in history, on July 16, 1212, an epic battle—which the Islamic State still vows vengeance for—took place between Christians and Muslims, and presaged the demise of Islam in Spain, five hundred years after Muhammad’s followers first invaded and subjugated that nation beginning in 711.

From the start, a small pocket of Christian resistance remained in the northwest of Spain; from this “mustard seed” the Reconquista—the Christian reconquest of Spain from Islam—spread out.  Century after century, the Christians made slow advances south, until they had reclaimed nearly the northern half of Spain.

By the early thirteenth century, the Muslims, under Almohad caliph Muhammad al-Nasir, decided enough was enough.  They marshalled one of the largest armies ever to march on Spanish soil, intent on extirpating Christianity by fire and sword.  In a widely circulated letter attributed to the caliph himself, Muhammad declared that all Christians must “submit to our empire and convert to our [sharia] law.” Otherwise, “all those who adore the sign of the cross … will feel our scimitars.”

Pope Innocent III responded by proclaiming a crusade and calling on the Christians of Spain to unite and fight “against the enemies of the cross of the Lord who not only aspire to the destruction of the Spains, but also threatened to vent their rage on Christ’s faithful in other lands and, if they can—which God forbid—oppress the Christian name.”

More at
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/07/when-spain-crushed-islamic-jihad-battlefield-raymond-ibrahim/

[Shammu]

When Outnumbered Christian Defenders Destroyed a Muslim Horde.
Thu Aug 4, 2022
Raymond Ibrahim

This week in history, a small band of Christian warriors defeated and put to flight a massive horde of Muslims.

On July 27, 1192, Saladin, the great sultan-hero of Islam, surrounded and besieged the tiny Christian-held town of Jaffa.  According to contemporary chronicles, the Muslims numbered as much as 20,000 and “covered the face of the earth like locusts.”

Messengers were instantly dispatched to King Richard I, who was then in Acre, preparing to sail back to England.  Before the battered and bruised men had finished relaying their message, “With God as my guide,” Richard declared, “I will set out to do what I can,” and instantly disembarked on his fleet with slightly over 2,000 fighters.

Jaffa, meanwhile, was fighting for its life.  According to Saladin’s court historian, Baha’ al-Din, who was present, after one of its walls collapsed, all the Muslims rushed into the city, “and there was not an enemy heart that did not tremble and shake.”  Even so, the Christians “were more fierce and determined in the fight and more eager for and devoted to death.”

When the main gate was finally battered down and an adjoining wall collapsed from the bombardment, a “cloud of dust and smoke went up and darkened the sky.” Once it cleared, the Muslims saw that “spear-points had replaced the walls and lances had blocked the breach.”  Only death would release the crusaders of their charge to defend Jaffa.

More at
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/08/when-outnumbered-christian-defenders-destroyed-raymond-ibrahim/