Before the Mongolian hordes could wreck havoc in the Middle East and seal its destiny with the land of Shi’ite Persia, the Mongols were allies with the Christian Crusaders. The messianic passions of the first millennial birthday of Jesus exploded into the First Catholic Crusade after the complete destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Roman Catholic site of the Tomb of Jesus) by the “Mad” Shi’ite Caliph of the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt.

The walled city of Jerusalem fell under the assault of the Crusaders and the Knights Templars. This included the complete genocide of the entire Jewish and Islamic population in Jerusalem . The anger of animosity and the rage for justice sealed the fate of the Catholic Christians and the Muslims alike. The Crusader States were formed as European dynasties in their greed for power and control. Each individual dynastic state sought to proclaim its land for the Vatican and the Pope.

Seven Jewish messiahs would rise and herald their “view” of the time of the end. There also would also rise up a Muslim anti-Christ in the powerful Kurdish warrior of Saladin the Great. Yet the “appointed time” for the time of the end would have to wait another thousand years.

Saladin and the Christian Crusades, a Prelude to the Mongolian Invasion of Persia

Prior to the time when it appeared that the Mongolian Il-Khanate hordes would destroy the whole landscape of the Middle East including Palestine, there descended upon Palestine the Catholic Christian Crusaders seeking to gain a permanent foothold in the Holy Land . There they established Crusader States in Jerusalem and in Roman Palestine. The finger of the Lord of hosts would pour out His “chalice” upon the land in a mini-drama that would later be recreated at the time of the end as the Vatican again seeks to re-assert its power and authority over the Holy Land .

Soon, Genghis and his son Ögedei Khan would be seeking permanent control of Persia. One of the famous Mongolian generals who personally served under both Genghis and his son Ögedei Khan, Chormaqan, was sent to establish a Mongolian presence in the land of the ancient Persian Empire. We know of Chormaqan Noyan in “The Secret History of Mongol’s.” He was a member of the famed elite troops called the keshik. They were a lightning quick cavalry in specialized horse archer warfare that was perfected by the Mongols. In battle, they would feint a retreat which was a move that gave their opponents a false sense of confidence. Suddenly their opponents found that they were surrounded by a shower of arrows from the horse archer division that was shooting 350 yards away on horseback.

Chormagan was sent to Persia by Ögedei Khan to finish up the conquest in 1230 of Persia first started by Genghis Khan who nearly destroyed the Khwarezmid Empire of Persia between the years of 1218-1223. As the Mongol hordes approached the land of Persia, they were met by the Khwarezmids under their ruler, Jalal ad-Din. The Islamic rule crumbled and the last of the Khwarezmid Empire vanished from history.

Persian Khwarezmian Islamic Dynasty

· Anus Tigin Ğarçai – 1077-1097

· Qutb ad-Din Muhammad I – 1097-1127

· Ala ad-Din Aziz – 1127-1156

· II-Arslan – 1156-1172

· Sultan Shah – 1172-1193

· Ala ad-Din Tekish – 1172-1200

· Ala ad-Din Muhammad II – 1200-1220

· Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu – 1220-1231

It was only thirty five years earlier (1187) when a young Kurdish Muslim warrior wrestled the great prize of Palestine from the hands of the Christian Crusader kings. Al-Malik al-Nāṣir Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb more famously known as “Saladin” returned the city of Jerusalem back into the hands of Islamic rule when he captured Jerusalem on October 2, 1187 after 88 years of Crusader rule.

Jerusalem at the Time of the Christian Crusades

This singular defeat against the Christian Crusaders came on the heels of the May 1, 1187 defeat of the crusaders at the Battle of Cresson, the defeat of Guy of Lusignan, King of Jerusalem on July 4, 1187 at the Battle of Hattin and the Siege of Jerusalem on September 20, 1187.

The Shi’ite Muslim incitement of the First Crusade

Al-Hakim (Al-Ḥakīm bi-Amr Allah - 996-1021 CE) was the sixth Shi’ite Caliph of the Fatimid Dynasty in Egypt. Called the “Ruler by God’s Command”, he succeeded his father Abū Mansūr (Abū Mansūr Nizār al-ˤAzīz) in 996 CE at the age of eleven. A child with an unstable and erratic personality, he soon became known as the “Mad Caliph” and as fate would be, would precipitate a chain of events that would cascade from the European to the Euro-Asian continents as wave after wave of papal inspired Christian Crusaders would descend upon the land of Palestine.

This was the first millennium since the birth of the Jewish messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. The Christian world was in anticipation of catastrophic events of biblical proportions. For centuries the Jewish people had been living safely under the ruling custody of the Sunni Islamic caliphs. For the first time in Islamic history a Shi’ite Caliphate was now ruling as the Fatimid Shi’ite Caliphate in Cairo, Egypt (910 to 1171 CE).

Al-Hakim as the child ruler of the only Shi’a Caliphate found that his rule was consistently being opposed by the Sunni Abbāsid Caliphate in Baghdad. They were using their influence to halt the spread of Ismailism. This sect of Islam followed only the rulership of the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad through the descendants of the fourth Righteous Caliph (first Shi’ite Immam), Ali (Ali ibn Abu Talib), who was married to the daughter of the Prophet, Fatima Zahra.

The Ismaili branch of Shi’ite Islam, differs from the regular Shi’ite Islam, in that they do not await the return of the Twelfth “Hidden Imam” or the Mahdi, the Islamic Messiah as the “Twelvers” (Shi’a Islam) who believe that the Twelfth Imam of the Shi’ites will return as the Islamic messiah before the return of Isis ben Miriam (Jesus son of Mary) will return as the messiah to the world.

The Ismailis sect, over the years, had been transformed from the Persian Assassins that were destroyed in Iran by the imperial Mongolian invasion into Persia by Hualga Khan. Today under the leadership of the 49^th Imām of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims, His Highness Prince Karīm al-Ḥussaynī Āgā Khān IV better known as Āgā Khān IV. Under his leadership, he has brought the Muslim religion in direct competition with modern internationalism as they await the final the 50^th Imam or Aga Khan V to herald the final days as the Earth Beast of Revelation.

His Highness Prince Karīm al-Ḥussaynī Āgā Khān IV (Āgā Khān IV)

Since 1957, this British philanthropist and renown horse breeder has ruled as the Supreme Leader of the Ismaili Muslims from his Anglemont Estates in Gouvieux, Oise, France. It is estimated that there are between four and twenty million Ismailis around the world today. For the first time in 1,300 years, the ancestral lineage of the Aga Khan experienced its first generational jump of the Khanate succession. This is important in that the current Aga Khan is the 49^th successive Khan of the Ismaili Islam. According to the prophecies of the Ismaili Muslims, the 50^th Khan will herald the coming of the Islamic messiah.

According to the will of his grandfather, Sultan Muhammed Shah Aga Khan or Āgā Khān III, he dictated:

Sultan Aga Khan III - “The fundamentally altered conditions in the world in very recent years due to the great changes that have taken place, including the discoveries of atomic science, I am convinced that it is in the best interests of the Shia Muslim [sic] Ismaili community that I should be succeeded by a young man who has been brought up and developed during recent years and in the midst of the new age, and who brings a new outlook on life to his office."

The Aga Khan and the Ismaeli sect of Islam have entered into the modern world not only with the only dynastic succession for the Muslim people to the Prophet Muhammad but the modern claim that only the Ismaili Islamic sect have a continuous genetic succession from the first seven Imams of Islam.

According to Edward Burman, the author of “The Assassins – Holy Killers of Islam (1987)” gives this comparison between the ancient Assassins with the present Aga Khan and revolutionary fundamentalist Islamists today.

Edward Burman - "The theology and politics of the revolutionary of genius Hasan-i Sabbah can in fact be seen as the first original creation - both religious and political - of a specifically Persian ethos after the conquest of the country of the Arabs and consequent conversion to Islam. In this wider sense the thought and doctrines of the inventor of the 'Assassins' may be said to have an enduring influence in the religious and political life of the Middle East. This legacy is shared by both the Aga Khans and by contemporary revolutionary groups in Lebanon and Persia."

It was in 1011, the Sunnis and the Shi’ites erupted into a giant schism that was called the Baghdad Manifesto. Through the Manifesto, numerous Sunni as well as Shi’ite “Twelvers” genealogists and Islamic legal jurists sought to destroy the genealogical evidence of the legitimacy of the Sacred Mohammedan-‘Alid lineage of the Fàtimid rulers. They testified that the Fàtimids (Fatimid Shi’a Caliphate in Cairo) were not actually descendants from “The Prophet” but were descendants of an infidel Jew called Ibn al-qaddah, A Munafiq. In one major document, the Shi’ite diplomatic and missionary vehicle called the Ismaili dawa was challenged by the Sunni Abbasid Caliph Al-Qàdir in Baghdad. Shi’ite Cairo was now in a religious war with its sister Sunni Baghdad.

The blood oath rivalries between the Sunnis and the Shi’ite Muslims became the breeding ground for the beginning of the First Christian Crusade. This same blood-oath continued to spread down through the centuries and emerged again like the ancient legendary Phoenix that died in the fiery pyre only to be resurrected as the modern insurgencies and the bloody massacres in Baghdad. In the winter of 2006, the Shi’ite Iranian’s newly resurrected dream of a renewed Shi’ite Caliphate began to threaten the nation-building quest by the American presidential administration of George W. Bush with the hoped to be western oriented political leadership in Iraq.

Hundreds of billions of dollars were spent to take down the brutal regime of the secular Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein and establish a western friendly oil-rich Islamic state in the heart of the Muslim Sandlands of the Middle East. This dream today of the rise of a Shi’ite Caliphate in Iran (ancient Persia) challenges the nation building quest of the western globalists. Out of this east-west conflict we see again rise the age old power and succession rivalries of who will lead the Islamic people; the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad (Shi’ites) or the followers of the Companions of Muhammad (Sunnis).

In a religious world known for its tolerance of citizens who did not oppose its political rule since the beginning of the fourth Righteous Islamic Caliph Ali in 657 CE, the Jewish people were protected while they were “in the wilderness” by their Islamic rulers. The Jewish people were preserved for 1260 years (657 to 1917 CE) and given the freedom to practice their religion without interference by their Muslim overlords.

With the fall of the Turkish Ottoman Empire in 1917 and the announcement of the Balfour Agreement by the British Prime Minister Lord Arthur James Balfour that a “gentile nation” would seek to prepare a home for the Jews in Palestine, the 1260 year prophecy of Daniel was now over.

Daniel 8:17 – “Understand son of man, that the vision refers to the time of the end.”

The rearrangement of the global political, economic and religious forces in this world began as the Islamic countries became incensed over the British pledge to carve out in the Middle East a homeland for the Jews that would be outside of Islam’s religious and political control.

The Minaret of the Al-Hakim Mosque in Cairo Egypt

It was in 1009, that the “Mad Caliph”, Al-Hakim sacked the pilgrimage hospice in Jerusalem and destroyed the holiest site in Christendom, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. This holy site was under Al-Hakim’s Shi’a Fatimid dynasty’s control in Egypt. Since the 6^th century, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher had been under the Muslim control and protected as a Christian holy site from destruction. In 966 CE, the roof and doors were burnt but it still remained open to Christian pilgrims.

On October 18, 1009, the “Mad Caliph” completely destroyed the Church of the Holy Sepulcher down to bedrock. Here were destroyed three connecting churches built around the hill identified by Helena, the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great to be the site of the Crucifixion of Christ. Around 380 CE these three churches were included in a great basilica called the Martyrium, a colonnaded atrium called the Triportico surrounding the “Rock of Calvary.” A rotunda called the Anastasis (“Resurrection”) was built over the burial cave that Helena and Macarius felt was the burial site of Jesus. The rock was cut away and an enclosure encased the tomb that was called the Edicule, a small building or shrine. It would be near the end of the 4^th century that the dome of the rotunda would complete the “Holy Sepulchre”.

Twelve years later (1021), Al-Hakim disappeared as he rode alone on a donkey traveling to the Muqattam Mountain near Cairo. He was supposedly eliminated by an assassin hired by his sister, Sitt al-Mulk. Even today, the Druze believe that Caliph Al-Hakim was “hidden away by God” and will return as the Mahdi on the future day of Judgment and the Yaum al-Qiyamah (literally "Day of the Resurrection") at the time of the end.

The First Christian Crusade

At the beginning of the second millennium since the birth of Jesus, a messianic revival was erupting in Europe. With the destruction of Constantine’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 1009 by Caliph Al-Hakim, the Christian world in Europe went electric. The Jews were first blamed for the destruction of the basilica. Quickly, anti-Semitic persecution of the Jews began to sweep Europe.

Within forty years a series of small chapels were allowed to be reconstructed by Constantine IX Monomachos in 1048 but the formative mood in Europe was clearly synthesizing the environment that would soon lead to the First Christian Crusade. This crusade was clearly envisioned as an armed pilgrimage under Godfrey de Bouillon, who became the first Christian monarch of Jerusalem, not as a “king” but the Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri (“Protector of the Holy Sepulchre”).

Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont preaching an impassionate sermon to take back the Holy Land – Painting 1490 CE

In the city of Jerusalem the Christians were forced to wear, by the progressively paranoid Caliph of Cairo, wooden crosses that were a half a meter long and a half a meter wide around their necks. In less than a century, by July 15, 1099, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was captured and in the control of the Knights Templars. By December 25, 1100, Godfrey, who died either by an arrow in battle or poisoned by the emir of Caesarea, had his brother, Baldwin I (1100-1118) installed as the first Latin (Roman Catholic) king of Jerusalem.

The European mood of religious fervor exploded in 1095 in an era of progressive religious piety. The Byzantine emperor Alexius I, besieged by the Seljuk Turks pled for help from his western Christian allies. Pope Urban II in the Council of Clermont (1095) sent the clarion call throughout all the European Christian Catholic countries to join in a military alliance against the infidel Turks. The reward was a full penance (forgiveness for any sinful life) for heaven.

In route to the Holy Land, the crusaders met and defeated two large Turkish armies at Dorylaium and Antioch. Continuing their march towards Jerusalem, the almost disseminated army was still able to storm the city of Jerusalem by assault in 1099. One of the most ignoble events in Christian history occurred. The Christian Crusaders slaughtered the entire population of Jerusalem, Jews and Muslims alike.

The Muslim invasion came to Europe on the heels of a decaying Eastern Roman Byzantine Empire at Constantinople in the east and the division and breakdown of Charlemagne’s Carolingian Empire called the Holy Roman Empire (800-888 CE) in the west. The Christianization of the Vikings, the Slavs and Magyars warriors who no longer had lands to conquer affected the European continent as they now became terrorists among their own people as lords and knights fighting within multiple feudal territories.

The papal inspired armies were like locusts streaming across the wilderness where the Muslims and the Jews had been living in relative peaceful co-existence for centuries. Like a storm of predators, they invaded, neither satisfied with raping and pillaging but in a genocide that murdered both Jews and Muslims alike. Their quest was not a “Holy Land” but a land devoid of non-Christian presence. Out of the first wave of the Catholic Christian invading forces into the Middle East there arose several small Crusader states. These included:

The Papal Crusader States about 1100 CE

The first of the Crusader states was the County of Edessa (1098-1150).
The Principality of Antioch then followed (1098-1268).
The third state of the Crusader states that were established in the First Crusade was the County of Tripoli in Lebanon (1104) who conquered the Islamic city of Tripoli in 1109 and lasted until 1288.
The fourth and last of the First Crusader states was the Kingdom of Jerusalem that lasted until 1291 when the city of Acre fell to the Islamic forces of Saladin. Under the banner of Jerusalem were also four siegneuries or lordships that included:

The Principality of Galilee
The County of Jaffa and Ascalon
The Lordship of Oultrejordain
The Lordship of Sidon

Also the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, though it originated before the onset of the crusades was granted by Pope Innocent III the status of a kingdom and the French Lusignan dynasty gave it a semi-westernized identity.

For almost a half a century the Christians and the Muslims actually lived in a relative peaceful co-existence. It was then when Bernard of Clairvaux began preaching to agitate for a new crusade when the first crusader state of the County of Edessa was recaptured by the Turks. The European Christian kings of Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany and many European nobles responded and in the Second Christian Crusade, they marched in 1147 towards the Holy Land. Since they traveled separately, each army was defeated separately by the Seljuk Turks after being delayed by the Byzantine emperor Manuel I Commenus before they crossed into Anatolia. With only remnants of their armies, both Louis VII and Conrad III finally reached Jerusalem in 1148.

The Crusader Siege of Damascus

Once in Jerusalem, the two kings were soon induced into another fateful campaign against the Muslim people. It was a dream of King Baldwin III in Jerusalem and the Knights Templars to go for the big prize. They wanted to take down the Emirs of Damascus, the heart of the Sunni Muslim Seljuk Empire.

The Knights Templars

The Haute Cour, the High Court or feudal council of the Kingdom of Jerusalem met on June 24 in Acre with the greatest assembly of kings and nobles in Jerusalem’s history. The two kings, Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany, were enticed by the idea of making Damascus a Christian holy city like Jerusalem and Antioch. By July, 50,000 troops were assembled and marched around the Sea of Galilee towards Damascus.

In the city of Damascus, one of the friendliest Turkish Islamic dynasties in the Middle East was in power. This was the Burid dynasty in Damascus. They were allies with the Christian crusaders earlier when the Zengid dynasty sought to conquer Damascus in 1140. The Islamic chronicler, Usamah ibn Munqidh, assisted, Mu'in ad-Din Unur, the Mameluk acting as vizier for the young heir to the throne, Mujir ud-Din Abaq, in securing an alliance with the Christian Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem against the Zengid dynasty.

The siege against Damascus proved to be a failure. In turn, it led to the final conquest and capture of Damascus by the Seljuk Turkish Zengid ruler of Aleppo, Nur ed-Din Mahmud, six years later in 1154 CE. The Damascus Siege sealed the beginning of the end for the Christian Crusaders in the Holy Land.

The second son of the dynasty founder, Imad ed-Din Zengi (Zengi), was called Nur ed-Din. He was the heir to the throne of Aleppo and Edessa. Nur ed-Din went on to defeat Prince Raymond of Antioch (1149), the County of Edessa to the west of the Euphrates River (1150) and finally the city of Damascus, the former capital of the Umayyad Caliphates of Damascus (1154). The battle successes continued for Nur ed-Din. Raynald of Chatillon, the Prince of Antioch was captured. Soon Nur ed-Din began to compete with the King of Jerusalem Amalric I for the prize; the control of the Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt.

Edessa and the Mandylion, the Image of Jesus

The ancient city of Edessa had just been captured by the Zengi, the Turkish atabeg in northern Syria of Mosul and Aleppo on December 24, 1144 from the Crusaders. This city had been part of the Crusader State of the County of Edessa when the future Baldwin I, King of Jerusalem captured it on 1098. Zengi was now eying Damascus. This Mesopotamian city was felt by many to be the Ur of the Chaldeas where Abraham lived. This was a “holy city” coveted by both the eastern Byzantine Roman and the western Roman Christian Churches and now was in the possession of the Turks.

According to the legend, King Abgarus received the Image of Edessa from the apostle Thaddeus. Edessa had been coveted by the Byzantine emperors since the 7^th century when Romanus I Lecapenus, the Caesar of the Byzantine Empire (920-944), after he usurped the throne of Constantine VII in 920 CE, invaded Mesopotamia in 943 CE. He then besieged the city of Edessa.

The price for his withdrawal, the Byzantine general obtained the “Holy Mandylion”, the prized “holy towel” allegedly used by to wipe the face of Jesus on the way to Golgotha. It was reputed that the “image of Jesus” was imbedded on the towel. This unique relic was reverently taken to Constantinople on August 16, 944 CE. (Documented in Weisliebersdorf, Christus und Apostelbilder (Freiburg, 1902), and Dobschütz, Christusbilder (Leipzig, 1899).)

According to the legend, King Abgarus received the Image of Edessa from the apostle Thaddeus.

According to Christian legend, King Abgar V of Edessa wrote to Jesus asking Him to come to Edessa and cure him. This legend was first documented by Eusebius of Caesarea in 340 CE in the “Ecclesiastical History of the Church.” (1.13.5 and .22) Eusebius claimed that he had translated it from a letter written in Syriac found in the royal chancery documents. According to the ancient Christian legend, the Apostle Thaddeus instead went to Edessa carrying with him the cloth with the facial imprint of Jesus on it. When the king saw the image, he was miraculously healed.

The “Mandylion” of Edessa with the reputed Image of Jesus - copy in the Private Chapel of the Pope at the Vatican brought by the Venetians in 1207 – Photo from the Pavilion of the Holy See in EXPO 2000

The Christian world had been shocked with the loss of this ancient “holy city” of Edessa to the infidel Turks. It led to the clarion call for the Second Christian Crusade. So the newly arrived European royal monarchs and their French and German forces were now in the Holy Land . The young king of Jerusalem, Baldwin III wanted to impress his famous European royal guests and with his invitation, they agreed to the invasion of Damascus.

This invasion into Syria was opposed by Baldwin III’s mother, Queen Melisende and other crusader states who wanted instead to capture Aleppo, claiming that this was the best route to the recapture of Edessa.

The invasion against Damascus Syria led to a disastrous defeat at the four days Siege of Damascus in July 1148. Both of the French and the German troops were lost. Now on the geo-political-religious stage of world history, there rode forth a new anti-Christ for the Christians and a messiah for Muslims. The Jews were caught in between with their own messiahs of Davidic birth arriving on the stage of Jewish history.

The Saladin of History

The general for Nur ed-Din, Shirkuh finally conquered Egypt in 1174. With Shirkuh’s death, the rule of Egypt went to his nephew, the famous Saladin. Saladin immediately began to resist and reject the control of his ruling Zengid master, Nur ed-Din. This conflict was exploding into a military confrontation in 1174 when heading to Egypt, Nur ed-Din unexpectedly died. Within nine years, Saladin would head north and ended the Zengid dynasty in Damascus

Saladin Saladin (1138-March 4, 1193) or better known to his people as Salah al-Din (Salahuddin Ayyubi) was born to Najm ad-Din Ayyub, the governor of Baalbek and part of the Kurdish Ayyubid dynastic family that lived in the regions north of Baghdad, Iraq.

Saladin the Great, the founder of the Ayyubid Dynasty of Egypt who recaptured Jerusalem from the Latin Crusader kings in 1187 - Portrait of Saladin in the Uffizi Gallery at Florence, Italy.

As a Kurd of Northern Iraq, he was born in the region of Tikrit, whose province is today named for him about 80 miles northwest of Baghdad, Iraq. The birth town of Saladin is also known as the birth town of the former President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein. Both were types of an anti-Christ where Saddam Hussein felt that he was the reincarnation of the ancient Babylonian conqueror of Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar the Great. Both were born in Tikrit; Saladin in 1138 and Saddam Hussein in 1937.

The senior and most trusted members of the Iraqi government were members of the Tikriti tribe called the “Al Bu Nasir” plus the “Chosen ones” of the Iraqi Republican Guard. It was about nine miles south of Saddam’s Palace in Tikrit outside the town of ad-Dawr, Saddam Hussein was captured by members of the U.S. 4^th Infantry Division on December 13, 2003 hiding in a camouflaged hole in the ground.

Saddam Hussein’s Palace at Tikrit, the Hometown of Saladin, north of Baghdad

The First Christian Crusade into the Holy Land had brought about the fall of Jerusalem in 1099 and the rise of the Crusader States in the Holy Land. The Second Christian Crusade now brought two of the greatest monarchs in Europe, Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany (1148) who were now plotting with the Latin Crusader King Baldwin III in Jerusalem and the Knights Templars to take down the youthful Emir of Burid dynasty in Damascus, Mujir ud-Din Abaq. They had formed a confederation with the Crusader king of Jerusalem, Baldwin III and the Zengid campaign against Damascus failed.

This was the same prize that Saladin’s uncle had been eyeing with greed to conquer. Nur ed-Din Mahmud had tried eight years earlier to topple the Emirs of Damascus that resided in the former capital of the first Umayyad Sunni Caliphate in Damascus. In Damascus, the friendliest Turkish Islamic dynasty in the Middle East was soon to be sabotaged by the Christian Catholic king in Jerusalem and the newly arrived royal monarchs from Europe in April 1148. 50,000 Catholic European troops were sent against the city of Damascus.

To the crusaders, was not the city of Damascus a holy city for Christians just like Jerusalem and Antioch? In July 1148, the Christian armies assembled near Tiberius on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Marching around the sea they headed to Damascus. They arrived on July 23 and laid siege to Damascus. By July 28, the forces of Conrad had already begun in retreat to Jerusalem as Nur ed-Din again arrived on the scene with his armies. Soon they all retreated.

The Christian Crusaders and the Quest for the Holy Land

The siege against Damascus proved to be a failure and the once friendly rulers in Damascus no longer trusted the Christian crusader rulers. This in turn led to the final conquest and capture of Damascus by the Seljuk Turkish Zengid ruler of Aleppo, Nur ed-Din Mahmud, six years later in 1154 CE. The lack of integrity of the King of Jerusalem and the Crusaders, the Damascus Siege sealed the beginning of the end for the Christian Crusaders in the Holy Land.

Across the Lebanese Mountains from Damascus lay the city of Baalbek, Lebanon. Saladin, the son of the area’s governor watched with interest the ebb and flow of this great arena of Christian-Islamic conflict. From his vantage point near the base of the majestic Herman Mountain, Saladin could observe as the great warriors of the age were battling for control of the city of Jerusalem. One could always wonder what thoughts were moving through the young mind of Saladin as he lived in the mountain valleys in Lebanon. Here he was looking at the archeological relics of ancient Roman temples that were built over more ancient megalithic (mega-stones) structures with hewn foundational pillars of undescribable size. They appeared to have been built in the ages of the mythical past when there were “giants on the earth…the mighty men who were of old, men of renown”, according the legends and histories of his ancestral fathers, Abraham and Ishmael. (Genesis 6:4)

As Saladin listened to the stories of the Crusader invasions, the battles for power and control of the Holy Land by the papal crusaders, his heart would quicken as the battle of the gods appeared to be playing out in front of his eyes. It would be only thirty three years later in 1187 that Saladin would be the victor that would conquer Jerusalem. He would drive out the Crusader kings of Jerusalem.

When the Nur ed-Din established his court in Damascus, the Kurdish son of the governor of Baalbek Lebanon, was sent to the court of Nur ed-Din for ten years. There he studied Sunni theology and mastered the art of Islamic military strategy by his uncle Shirkuh, Nur ad-Din’s lieutenant.

Later Saladin would accompany his uncle as they took down the Shi’ite Fatimid Dynasty in Egypt.

The Crusaders Thirsting for Water before the Battle of Hattin against Saladin

The only Shi’a Caliphate in history was toppled. Fifteen years after the Siege of Damascus, Saladin was now the Vizier of Egypt (1169). The rest is history. Eighteen years after the Siege of Damascus, on September 20, 1187, Jerusalem fell in the Siege of Jerusalem after the successful Battle of Hattin against the Crusaders.

The Military Genius of Saladin

Saladin the Great was now the greatest military leader in the Middle East. The Christian Crusader kings who in their Christian messianic zeal sought to destroy the Islamic dynasties nearby were now seeking to wrestle control of Palestine and Jerusalem away from the hands of Saladin. He was now the “infidel” and the ruler and founder of the Sunni Muslim Ayyubid Dynasty out of Egypt.

Saladin whose name meant “The Righteousness of Faith” was honored by both Christian and Muslims for his political leadership, military prowess and his merciful nature to his enemies in his numerous battles with the Christian Crusaders. Throughout these battles he interacted in the Middle East with Conrad of Montferrat ruler of Tyre, Guy of Lusignan, the King of Jerusalem and Queen Sibylla of Jerusalem whom he captured and later sent both of them to their freedom to Tyre. They in turn when rebuffed by Conrad at Tyre went on to besiege Acre at the Siege of Acre. Later he would battle with Richard the Lionhearted of England and in turn seek to create a dynastic marriage with that European monarch.

The loss of Jerusalem and almost every Crusader city prompted the Roman Catholic pontiff to mount the Third Crusade with a special Saladin “tithe.” This tithe was instituted by Pope Gregory VIII with the papal bull called the Audita tremendi, on October 29, 1187. Fronting this Third Crusade was King Richard I (the Lionhearted) of England who met Saladin the Great at the Battle of Arsuf on September 7, 1191. Here were two of the greatest warriors of medieval chivalry, one was Christian and the other was Islamic, both involved in one of the strangest of Middle Eastern wars and romances.

In one battle King Richard was wounded and the personal Muslim physician of Saladin was sent to his aid. This was a signal favor as the world’s best physicians in the West were Muslim trained. Later at Arsuf, King Richard lost his horse and two fresh horses were sent by Saladin for his replacement. The friendship of Saladin and King Richard I of England became so close that the sister of King Richard, Joan, was considered in marriage to the brother of Saladin, al-Adil, as a dynastic peace marriage. The city of Jerusalem was to be their dowry. Religious considerations prevented such a royal and practical peace accord as both Joan and al-Adil were against the marriage.

Saladin in history has taken several directions by historical scholarship. The prominent historical analysis places Saladin as a moral and virtuous Islamic warrior in an era of European chivalry who instituted a revival of Orthodox Islam as a promoter and defender of mystical Islamic Sufism idealism which his government supported.

Saladin instead, according to some scholars, was ruthless, militaristic and had considerable political ambitions. The final result was the destruction of the Shi’a Caliphate of the Fatimads in Egypt, the resurrection of his own Sunni Kurdish Ayyubic family dynasty in Egypt while at the same time defending the Muslim homeland by driving out the European Crusader kings from Jerusalem in 1187.

Saladin was able to unite the Islamic factions under the Sunni Caliphate of Baghdad as he confronted the Latin kingdom in Jerusalem. At the same time, he was endangered and threatened by the supporters of his former master, Nur ad-Din, the last of the Zangid dynasty in Damascus. While the Saladin legend in Christian history assumes an overwhelming presence in Crusader history, it was probably only a subordinate role in the whole militaristic and expansionistic dynastic ambitions of Saladin: the suppression of the Zangid princes in Damascus, and the exploitation of the Shi’a Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt against the European invasion of the Crusaders kings in the Holy Land and Jerusalem.

Saladin and the Legends of Baalbek

Saladin had a unique advantage of growing up in the one of the most mysterious and exotic places on this earth. Here in a land that was a “time tunnel” to the past, Saladin observed the dynamics of the Kings of Jerusalem, the Emir of Damascus and the Zengid rulers fighting over the city of Damascus from his vantage point of nearby Baalbek, Lebanon. Here his father was the Syrian governor of the region.

The Emir of Damascus was an ally and friend of the Kings of Jerusalem. He had a peace treaty during the reign of King Fulk I of Jerusalem. The main purpose for this treaty was to defend Damascus against the Turkish advances of Zengi and his son and successor Nur ad-Din. Into this region arrived the crusading Kings, Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany to Acre in 1148. As we observe these events, we will remind ourselves of the prophecies of Assyria, Babylon, Persia and Rome are mini-pictures that will be played out in the “Last Days” since the fall of Jerusalem to the Roman armies of Hadrian and the “Time of the End” since the rise of the last Kingdom of Israel before the coming of the Messiah.

To these two kings, from the Catholic heartland of France and Germany, had most of their armies wiped out by the Seljuk Turks in route to the Holy Land. They wanted to invade Damascus because it was seen as an easy target and a good military coup to prompt up their flagging reputation as encouraged by the young King Baldwin III (1131-1162) the eldest son of King Fulk I of Jerusalem. The queen regent, Melisende of Jerusalem, the mother of King Baldwin opposed the Damascus campaign.

The Roman Temple to Jupiter at Baalbek, Lebanon

Living in the court of Nur ad-Din (Nureddin), Saladin developed his military skills in campaigns against the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. What is of interest, even though Saladin was a student of Sunni theology and a master of Islamic military war, he was a secret follower of the Ismaili branch of Shi’a Islam.

Out of the political unrest in Egypt, Saladin soon became vizier of Egypt in 1169 and installed Sunni Ayyubid dynasty of Egypt. He now had the responsibility to defend Egypt against the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem of Almeric I, the King of Jerusalem (1162-1174), the second son of Melisende of Jerusalem. Melisende was the daughter of King Baldwin II of Bourcq, the King of Jerusalem (1118-1131). She ruled as a co-regent with her husband, King Fulk I the King of Jerusalem (1131-1191) and former Count of Anjoy.

Here nestled in the region of the Ante-Lebanon mountains, the region of Baalbek almost nine centuries later would became international news as one of the major Hezbollah military sites in the Lebanese Beqaa Valley during the Israeli-Hezbollah War in the summer of 2006. Here in this same region, in the fall of 2006, the armies of the European Union Europe’s military called NATO, guided by the Vatican-inspired “Rome Peace Accord” between Hezbollah and Israel, would return again as the Crusading armies of the Vatican. This time they were to be led by the Nation of Italy, the throne of the Vatican and the heartland of Catholic Europe, the Nations of France and Germany. This time these armies were posed as international “peace-keepers” for the United Nations. As we watch closer into the coming future, we may see the rise of the Fourth Reich, the “leopard” body of the Sea Beast of Revelation 13 that was first created in the First Reich of Germany, the reign of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II who was also the King of Jerusalem (1225-1230).

Revelation 13:2 – “Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard…”

Long a bastion of terrorism in the Middle East, Baalbek’s secret wonders are the ancient remains of one of the most incredible wonders of the ancient archeological world. In the surrounding landscape of Saladin’s Lebanese home were the relics of an ancient world more marvelous in grandeur than the Islamic caliphate and Seljuk Turk’s monumental buildings.

Forty-four miles east of Beirut, a cluster of ruins and catacombs 2,500 feet on each side house one of the largest stone structures in the world. It dates modestly back to the 3^rd century BCE and appears to be associated with the same traditions of the biblical Semitic high places of worship. The acropolis at Baalbek was littered with megalithic stones of immeasurable size. Here are ancient sculpted foundation stones so large that the largest crane in the modern world would be challenged to either lift or transport. Here were the remains of a society so ancient that they depicted the imagery of the battles between angels and demons.

On the top was a Roman temple dedicated to Jupiter and Venus. It was built in the years of the Roman Emperor Nero (37-68 CE). The entire temple structure was finally enclosed by Roman Emperor Constantine the Great at the same time his mother, Helena, was building the holy sites for Christianity in the region of Jerusalem.

The “Trilithon” forming the foundation of the later Roman Temple at Baalbek

These temple structures were actually built over more ancient temples below that were dedicated to the Semitic divinities of the god Baal and his goddess Astarte, the Canaanite cults of prostitution and sacred orgies. Some archeologists suggest that it may have been built on an even more ancient Sun temple sites. During the Hellenistic era (331-64 BCE), the Greeks called the god of Baalbek the “sun god” and the city of Baalbek was called Heliopolis or the City of the Sun.

Largely destroyed in an earthquake in 1759, the foundation of the entire temple cluster was built with ancient technologies used in a more ancient world of earthquakes and catastrophes. One part of the enclosure wall was composed of the largest hewn stones in the world that were formed in a cataclysmic world that rend the foundations of the entire world. It was built so that neither the platform nor walls would crumble or shift.

At the “Podium” of the Roman temple were three of the largest hewn stones in the world. Called the “Trilithon”, each megalithic stone was moved from a nearby quarry ten minutes walking distance. Each stone, weighing over 800 tons, was lifted twenty feet up upon a platform and meticulously placed together in perfect alignment.

Largest stone megalith in the world, estimated to weigh 1,200 tons. As a reference, the stones used to build the pyramids in Egypt weighed 50 tons - Location: Baalbek, Lebanon

To the south, in the same abandoned stone quarry, was the largest dressed or carved stone in the world. It is called the famous “Stone of the South.” This one stone weighs an estimated 1,200 tons. With visions of ancient grandeur surrounding him and the reality of the fear of being culturally imprisoned by the Christian Crusaders, Saladin began to undergo a psychological and religious paradigm shift in his life.

As the end of 2006 was heralded with the final fall of the First Babylon we witnessed again the ancient Persian revenge upon the son, who imaged that he was the reincarnated Nebuchadnezzar of the New Middle East. The world witnessed the violent hanging of Saddam Hussein as the final revenge by the Shi’ite Iraqi leadership in league with their Shi’ite guardians in the Ayatollah led Iran (ancient Persia). Yet the global picture represents a different view of the final control of this planet as soon ancient Persia and her global supporters will be swallowed up by the Greco-Roman world of the western internationalists and transnationalists of the Golden Internationale. As role of ancient Baalbek in the final stages of this earth’s political control was stated succinctly by Sorcha Faal in the article, “Death of Saddam Tyrant presages Catastrophic World End:”

What Does It Mean – “…The violent execution death of Saddam occurring on December 30, 2006, one day short of the 7^th Year of the accession to power of our Russian Leader Vladimir Putin on December 31, 1999; with the ‘Great Eagle’ of the United States in control of the ancient Babylon ‘Gate’; with the military forces of the Western World continuing to flood into, and around, the ancient Roman City Of The Sun, Baalbeck, Lebanon; the continued Western World Military hold upon the ancient Celtic mystical places in Slovenia (former Yugoslavian Region) and the ancient Persian Empire region of Bactria (Afghanistan) the center from which the Mithraism cult had as its beginnings and the Western World control of the Sinai Peninsula, and, now, with the death of Saddam being completed, the Western World’s hold upon the ancient ‘heartbeat’ of this Earth is now complete.”

The Seven Jewish Messiahs in the Age of Saladin and the Crusaders

Unfolding in front of Saladin’s eyes was one of the greatest geo-political dramas in Christian and Islamic history. It was only a little over a hundred years prior that the millennial messianic fever was sweeping Europe since the death of the Christian messiah, Jesus of Nazareth in 30 CE.

It has been accepted by many historians that by the arrival of the 2^nd century CE, the Christian messianic passion also affected the Muslims and the Jews in Palestine and the greater Middle East. The Muslims also accepted the life and ministry of Jesus as a Prophet of Israel. Yet, Jesus was to become their future Islamic messiah, Isis ben Miriam (Jesus the son of Mary). The messianic fever was also sweeping the Jewish homelands as it had been one thousand years since the fall of Jerusalem. The messianic call to return to the Land of Israel was beginning to resound around Europe and across the Middle East.

Today we witness, with the entrance of the 3^rd millennium after the birth of Yahshua (Jesus):

The eruption of the Jewish expectations for the arrival of the Messiah ben Yosef that will lead the Jewish people in the days before the coming of the Messiah ben David who will bring forth the messianic reign of a thousand years.

A messianic movement within fundamentalist Islam whose hearts are burning with the passion like that of the Iranian President Ahmadinejad for the arrival of the Islamic Mahdi. They feel this era will herald the coming of the Islamic Messiah Isis ben Miriam (Jesus son of Mary).

The expectations of the Christian world anticipating the return of their Messiah, Jesus son of David as the King of kings and Lord of lords. This will be the same prince of the House of David that was born in the first century in Bethlehem the city of David, as Yahshua haMaschiach ben Yosef (Jesus the Messiah, son of Joseph).

Here we discover the rise of seven messianic claimants that sought to become the messiah for the Jews. David Hughes in his insightful manuscript on the genealogies of the Dynastic Lineage of David and Jerry Rabow in his book, “50 Jewish Messiahs” provide us with the following documentation:

Solomon “Rashi” of Troyes France became a Davidic claimant in 1087 as a famous Jewish rabbi with dynastic claims to the House of David.

Ibn Ayre was a reluctant Jewish prince at Cordoba, Spain in 1100 of Davidic roots who became the focus of Jewish Spanish leaders who was being promoted as a candidate to be the messianic leader of the Jews. Fearing Muslim retaliation, the Jewish community leaders brought Ibn Ayre before the synagogue council where he was found guilty for failing to instruct his disciples that they were acting in error. There he was flogged before the Spanish public, fined and then excommunicated from the synagogue.

Moshe al-Dar’l was a Spaniard that went to Fez, Morocco in 1120 and attracted a lot of attention before the Jewish community leaders for his predictions that the era of the messiah was about to dawn at the eve of the next Passover. At that time he would lead the Jews back to Palestine. Before that happened, Moshe came to the attention of the Muslim authorities for swindling many of the local population when he disappeared in 1127 to regions unknown. (Recorded by the Jewish sage Maimonides in his Letter to Yemen)

David Alroy was a messianic claimant between the years of 1125-1147 with his base of operations in the city of Amadia, Kurdistan. Both his father and grandfather, Shlomo al-Duji, were leaders of a Jewish reclamation organization to assist Jews in returning to Palestine. When David took over the organization as its third director, he declared that he would complete his father’s mission and lead the Jews to retake Palestine for the Jewish people with a military force.

It was in the year of 1147; David Alroy made the proclamation that he was the “King of the Jews” at Babylon. This proclamation came to the attention to the Persian Shah Mu'iz ud-Dīn Ahmad-e Sanjar (1118-1153) in 1087 at his capital in Khorasan, Persia. This Persian shah was the son of Malik Shah I from the golden age of the “Great Seljuk” whom the Abbasid Caliph of Baghdad called “The Sultan of the East and the West.” Shah Mu’iz threatened to kill all the Jews in the realm of the Seljuq dynasty unless Alroy was eliminated.

This threat to the Jews was almost as serious as existed in the days of Queen Esther from the First Persian Empire. The notification of the threat was taken to the neighboring Turkish ruler, Sultan Zun al-Din, a known friend of the Jews. He knew that only the death of Alroy would spare the Jewish people from a Persian genocide.

It was the Sultan who gave Alroy’s father-in-law 10,000 pieces of gold and when Alroy became drunk at a banquet to his honor, he murdered him later in his sleep. Alroy’s head was cut off and sent to the Seljuk Sultan. The threat to the Jews was not over though until the Jewish leaders paid the Shah a hundred talents of gold.

The descendants of Alroy’s followers became known as the Menahemites from his father’s name, Menahem, and founder of the family fortune. [First published by Benjamin of Tudelo in his “Book of Travels” (Sefer-ha-Massalot)]

Yosef “Ha-Nasi” was a prince of the House of Bostanai the ruling Exilarch House at Baghdad during an era when the Baghdadi Patriarchate was moved to Aleppo, Syria. The Jewish people there recognized him as their “prince” or “nasi.”

According to Hughes, a new Jewish Davidic dynasty was founded within the Palestinian “Nesi’im” about the same time that Saladin the Great overthrew the Crusader State of Jerusalem at the Battle of Hattin in 1187.

Abraham Abulafia was the son of the Jewish Exilarch Prince Samuel, the son of the 64^th Exilarch Daniel III. He proclaimed that he had three divine calls:

The first call came in 1271 at Barcelona, Spain about which he wrote about his divine vision when he traveled to find the Sambatyon River south of the Holy Land. This was published in a book in Urbino, Italy in 1279.
The second call came by vision in 1280 at Capua , Italy that instructed him to make an appointment with Pope Nicholas III and convert him to Judaism.

Abraham Abulafia did have an audience with Pope Nicholas III who afterwards ordered that Abulafia be imprisoned and burned at the stake. Yet three days later (August 22,1280), Pope Nicholas was dead as a victim of the plague. The papal authorities saw with alarm the “divine intervention” and the pope’s execution order for Abulafia was rescinded.

His third call came in his most elevating vision that occurred at Messina, Sicily in 1284 that Abraham would be the messiah and lead the Jews to Jerusalem.

After this time, he set himself forth as the “Messiah” or the “royal Davidic heir” to the future messianic era of David, son of David. The Jewish scholars have also noted that the birth date of Abraham Abulafia (1240 CE) was the 5000^th year in the Jewish calendar that starts its calendar with the Creation of Adam.

During that time, a prophecy went out that the Jewish messianic kingdom would be established on earth in 1290 CE, the first Jubilee Year (fifty years) after the Year 5000. The rabbis of his day denounced Abulafia so strongly that he withdrew his messianic claims.

It was in 1282, a following of European Jews along with Abraham determined to travel to Palestine in a “crusade” to retake Jerusalem. As Jerry Rabow wrote in “50 Jewish Messiahs”:

Jerry Rabow – “His followers in the 1280s prepared themselves for the Return to Jerusalem in the usual fashion – winding up or abandoning their business, selling their property, and preparing their wardrobe.” (page 48)

This plot came to the attention of the King of Italy and Abraham was arrested and exiled to Comino on the Isle of Malta (1284) where he wrote books of Jewish mysticism until he died as a prisoner seven years later (1291), one year after the “Jubilee Year.”

Nissim ben Abraham was called the “prophet of Avila” who made his messianic claims in 1295 at the Castle of Avila in Spain. Claiming to be illiterate, the “Prophet” claimed that an angel dictated to him a book of mystical wisdom. This book was examined by a Jewish scholar called Rabbi Adret who proclaimed that it was a compilation of modern Christian works of prophecy.

Yet the great following in Barcelona Spain had a spectacular ending similar to the failed October 22, 1844 prediction that Jesus the Messiah was returning during the Millerite Movement and the Great Christian Awakening that occurred all over the Eastern Seaboard of the infant republic of the United States. As reported in “50 Jewish Messiahs:”

Jerry Rabow – “When the prophet of Avila predicted the specific day for the Redemption (on the last day of the Hebrew month of Tammuz 1295), the people believed. In anticipation of the Messiah’s appearance, the Jews of the area fasted and prayed. They finally gathered in their synagogues on the announced day, dressed in white gowns, ready to hear the blast of the ram’s horn (shofar) that legend says will announce the Messiah’s Coming.

No ram’s horn was heard. No Messiah appeared. The people were devastated, and their resulting despair drove so many Jews to convert to Christianity that the continuity of the entire Jewish community in Castile was threatened. (page 49, quoting Yitzhak Baer in the History of the Jews)

When none of his predictions came to pass, many of the disillusioned Jews converted to Christianity rather than return to Jerusalem. Jewish Messiahs would come and go but the millennial clustering of claimants as the Jewish messiah was soon over.

Saladin and the Sunni Ayyubid Dynasty of Egypt

We now see the young Saladin, whose father, of Kurdish descent, was the governor of Baalbek Lebanon who was of common descent as Zengi, the Kurdish ruler in Mosul and Aleppo who had just captured the Crusader city of Edessa. Zengi, who came to the rescue of Damascus by the plea from the Emir of Damascus, created a stalemate that resulted in the failed Siege of Damascus in 1148 by the Christian Crusaders Kings Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany. By 1154, the city of Damascus was formally given to the son of Zengi, Nur ad-Din and the Zengi Dynasty of Damascus began.

What is now known, Saladin was the nephew of the general of Nur ad-Din. He soon seized Egypt in 1169 and formed the Sunni Ayyubid Dynasty of Egypt. The Shi’ite Fatimid Dynasty in Egypt ended that began in 910 CE with the founder, Said ibn Husayn (Abū Muḥammad ˤAbdu l-Lāh (ˤUbaydu l-Lāh) al-Mahdī bi'llāh - 910-934).

With the end of the only recognized Shi’ite Caliphate in Islamic history, the Fatimid Shi’ite Caliphate in Cairo, the last and only caliphate whose rulers were descendants of the Prophet Muhammad was destroyed. All the hopes and the millennial aspirations of the Shi’ite Muslims for the coming of the Shi’ite messianic Madhi (Hidden Messiah) and the future Islamic messiah, Isis ben Miriam, were destroyed with it. The last of this genealogical legacy is found today with the Ismaili sect of Shi’ite Islam in the reign of the 49^th Aga Khan, His Highness Prince Karīm al-Ḥussaynī Āgā Khān IV.

The Shi’ite Fatimid dynasty in Cairo Egypt was recognized by most scholars as the only major Shi’ite Caliphate in Islam whose rulers were descendants of the Prophet Mohammad. The exception to this was the Shi’a Safavid Dynasty (1501-1736) in Iran whose genealogical roots were linked to the daughter of the last king of the Second Persian Empire, This dynasty pre-staged the modern attempt of the current Ayatollah regime in Iran to re-establish a Shi’ite Caliphate in Iran linked to the descendants of the Prophet Mohammed.

Said ibn Husayn, the first Imam of the Fatimid dynasty, claimed that his genealogic origins went back to Fatimah Zahra, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammed who was married to the Prophet’s cousin, Ali ibn Abu Talib. Imam Ali was recognized to be the 1^st Imam of the Shi’as and respected as the 4^th Caliph because he belonged to the household of the Prophet Muhammad, the Ahl al-Bayt and was also one of Muhammed’s companions.

The Extent of the Sunni Ayyubid Dynasty founded by Saladin in Egypt

This genealogical Shia descent was not universally accepted by all Muslims. Some claim “Said” was an imposter and this fact was bolstered by a document sent out by the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad, signed by both Shi’a and Sunni scholars that Said ibn Husayn descent came from Daysan the heretic, rather than the daughter of the Prophet, Fatimah.

With Saladin as the power force in Egypt, when Nur ad-Din in Damascus died in 1174, Saladin became the Sultan of Egypt. First he declared independence from the Seljuk Turks, officially founded the Ayydbid Dynasty, restored Sunnism to Egypt and began his military march of dynastic expansion. Second, he moved against smaller Islamic states by moving down the Red Sea to Yemen and became in Sunni Orthodoxy a Waliullah, a “friend of God”. Thirdly, he consolidated his control in Egypt, moved upward to the land of his mentors and seized Damascus from Ismail, the son of Nur ed-Din. Then Fourth, he moved to the interior of Syria in northern Iraq near his homeland. Finally the Fifth, after destroying the famished Crusader army in the Battle of Hattin, Saladin entered the city of Jerusalem as victor in 1187.

One of Saladin’s last diplomatic moves was signing a treaty with Richard I of England that restored Crusader control to the coastal strip from Ascalon to Antioch, Syria. At its peak, the Sunni Ayyubid Dynasty of Saladin extended from Egypt to Syria, down to Diyar Bakr, Mecca, the Hejaz, Yemen and north to Iraq.

The Final Years of Saladin’s Ayyubid Egyptian Dynasty

Al-Adil, Saladin’s brother, (Abu-Bakr Malik Al-Adil I), called Saphadin (1145-1218) was an Ayyubid-Egyptian general and ruler. Supporting his brother Saladin in many campaigns, he eventually became the governor of Aleppo (1183-1186), administrator of Egypt during the Third Crusade (1186-1192), governor of Damascus. He eventually was proclaimed Sultan over Egypt and Syria for over twenty years. During those years he sought to promote trade and good international relations with the Christian Crusader states (1200-1217).

Yet when al-Adil heard of the Fifth Crusade at the age of 72 he mounted a defense of Egypt and Palestine against the Crusaders seeking to take the town of Damietta. Interestingly it was a subordinate of the general of that siege, Pelagius of Albano, called Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscan Order (1209) who sought to negotiate a failed peace treaty between the Christians and the Muslims.

The Horse Bazaar in Damascus as it appeared on Market Day

Sultan Al-Adil, the brother to Saladin, was succeeded by his son Malik Al-Kamil (al-Kamil Muhammad al-Malik (died in 1238) as the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt. While Al-Kamil was praised by his Islamic contemporaries for defeating two crusader invasions, he has been blamed severely by the Muslims for returning Jerusalem to the control of the Catholic Christians.

On February 2005, BibleSearchers Reflection’s posted an article titled, “The Vatican Seeks to Claim its Own – The Church with the Upper Room.” In this era of seeking peace in the Middle East, we learned of the German influence by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II (1220-1250) in obtaining peace in the Middle East between the Christian Crusader king by signing a peace accord with Saladin’s nephew, Malik Al-Kamil, the Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt.

In the subarticle titled, “Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor as the King of Cyprus and Jerusalem”, we read the following:

BibleSearchers Reflections - “Our interest and focus into the life of King Frederick II is predominately centered on Jerusalem and the Holy Land. Officially he was known as the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II (1220-1250) of the Royal House of Hohenstaufen, King of Sicily (1198-1250), King of Cyprus and Jerusalem, Pretender to the King of the Romans from 1215, and King of Germany. Born on December 26, 1194 to the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI and Constance the Queen of Sicily, he died on December 13, 1250 and his body remains are in the Cathedral of Palermo. A Catholic by birth, he was frequently at war with the Papal States, excommunicated twice and once called the Anti-Christ by Pope Gregory IX.

A rocky road with Rome is the best description of Frederick II mainly because his reign and life shone so much brighter than the papal fathers. Speaker of nine languages, literate in seven, a patron of science and all the early era of the enlightenment, an advance student of economics and known in his own time as the Stupor mundi (“wonder of the world”).

The imperial power of Charlemagne reached its apex as the Holy Roman Empire, in essence the First Reich of Germany…The Holy Roman Empire of Germany went from the 800 CE to August 6, 1806 when Francis II, as the last ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, known as Francis von Habsburg or Franz I of Austria abdicated and the Empire was disbanded.

A thousand years of reign, the First Reich never had a more brilliant ruler and leader, except his forefather Charlemagne, than King Frederick II. Many of his faithful followers felt he would rise again at a second coming and rule a 1000 years in a future Reich on earth. The revived Second Reich came in 1871 by the German family of the Hohenzollern.

Frederick II Hohenstaufen the Great, the Charlemagne Shrine in the Aachen Cathedral

In 1225, Frederick II married Yolande of Jerusalem with the blessing of Pope Honorius III. It was the goal of the pope to connect the powerful presence of Emperor Frederick II to the Sixth Crusade.

Yolande was the daughter of John of Brienne, the King of Jerusalem (1148-1237) and Maria of Montferrat, who was the daughter of Conrad of Montferrat and heiress on the death of Amalric II to the throne of the kingdom of Jerusalem. The regency of the throne of Jerusalem passed from John of Brienne upon the demand of Frederick II to serve also a regent for their son, Conrad IV of Germany when Yolande of Jerusalem, his wife died…

Strangely enough, such a remarkable figure as Frederick II was, he was not the iconic figure of a spiritual leader. Predominately a religious sceptic, he denounced Moses, Jesus and Muhammad as frauds and delighted to utter blasphemies, mocking the sacraments of the Catholic Christian faith. As such, his shocking and scandalous behavior earned him his disfavor with the Roman pontiffs and even the Muslims disliked the “Christian” who was not a Christian.

With the blessings of Pope Gregory IX and now defacto king of Jerusalem by his marriage to Yolande of Jerusalem, heiress to the kingdom of Jerusalem, King Frederick II was excommunicated by Gregory IX in 1227 because of the delays in the crusades. This came in part because his kingdom was in the midst of an epidemic.

The crusade finally did begin in 1228, now by an excommunicated king that further rubbed the pontiff in Rome by its provocation for the Catholic Church did not receive the honor of the crusade. As such, Frederick II received a second excommunication. Powerful players do not like to share power.

The road to Jerusalem did not come by the force of arms but by the negotiated restitution of the city of Jerusalem, Nazareth and Bethlehem to King Frederick II by Sultan Al-Kamil, the Ayyubid ruler of the region. There were reasons for this negotiation. The Sultan was nervous about a possible war with his Syrian and Mesopotamian enemies and did not need any troubles with the Christians. The crusade ended in a truce with the Pope and Frederick received his coronation as the King of Jerusalem on March 18, 1229. He was technically not the king but regent to the throne of Jerusalem for his infant son Conrad IV was the rightful heir to the kingdom, as his mother, Yolande of Jerusalem had died.

Frederick II was now married to his third wife, Isabella of England. This King of Jerusalem was to be short lived as part of the barons under the leadership of John of Ibelin, Lord of Beirut rebelled. By 1230, the viceroy left in Jerusalem by Frederick’s absence was forced to leave Acre, the capital. It was razed to the ground by Sultan Malik al-Muattam. By 1244, Jerusalem was now taken from the influence of the Papal power until today.”

The Christian Crusades – The Crescent and the Cross

Al-Kamil, the nephew of Saladin, also honored the type of chivalry his uncle displayed in battle. He sought accommodation with his Christian “enemies”. Soon after his defense of Damietta against the Fifth Crusade, his father died and he became the new sultan of Egypt. The Coptic Christians quickly revolted, probably in league and defense of the Crusaders, and he almost lost his kingdom. While he was contemplating fleeing to Yemen, his brother, Al- Mu'azzam, who was the governor of Damascus put down the conspiracy. In 1250, the last Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt, Turanshah, was assassinated and a Mamluk slave, General Aibek founded the Bahri dynasty. By 1291, the Christian political influence in the Middle East ended. The day of the Mongolian influence had just begun. It was time to finish the dream of a unified world empire of Genghis Khan. What did happen would forever alter the geo-politics of the world, in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, clear to the time of the end.

As we progress into the Part Three of this series, “The Persian Il-Khanate Dynasty of Hulagu Khan, the Ismaili Assassins and the Jews” we will begin a serious study on the devastating effects the Mongolians had upon the Islamic people and the surprising effects that happened when the Mongolian hordes headed to the regions that the density of the Jewish population was the highest.

Addendum

The Crusader Christian Kings of Jerusalem

Godfrey of Bouillon (Protector of the Holy Sepulchre) – 1099-1100
Baldwin I – 1100-1118
Baldwin II – 1118-1131 Regent - Eustace Grenier – 1123 and William Bures - 1123-1124
Melisende and Fulk I – 1131-1153 Fulk died in 1143 and Melisende ruled by right of law till 1153
Baldwin III – 1143-1162 – coregent Regent – Melisende – 1154-1161
Amalric I – 1162-1174
Baldwin IV – 1174-1185 Regent – Raymond III of Tripoli – 1174-1177 and Guy of Lusignan – 1183-1184
Baldwin V – 1185-1186 Regent – Raymond III of Tripoli – 1185-1186
Sibylla and Guy of Lusignan – 1186-1187

Jerusalem was captured in 1187 by Saladin. Sybila died in a plague in 1190.

Guy refused to give up the crown and it stayed contested till 1192.

The Christian Crusaders then ruled only over a narrow coastal strip of Palestine

Isabella I – 1192-1205
With Conrad I of Montferrat – 1192
With Henry I of Champagne – 1192-1197
With Amalric II – 1198-1205
Maria of Montferrat – 1205-1212 Regent – John of Ibelin – 1205-1210
John of Brienne – 1210-1212
Yolanda (Isabella II) – 1212-1228 Regent – John of Brienne – 1212-1225

With Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor – 1225-1228

Conrad II of Hohenstaufen – 1228-1254 Regent – Frederick II – 1228-1243

Regent – Queen Alice of Cyprus – 1245-1246

Regent – King Henry I of Cyprus – 1246-1253

Regent – Queen Plaisance of Cyprus – 1253-1254

Conrad III of Jerusalem – 1254-1268 Regent – Queen Plaisance of Cyprus – 1254-1261

Regent – Isabella of Lusignan – 1261-1264

Regent – Hugh of Antioch – 1264-1268

This royal title was challenged by Hugh of Brienne

Hugh I of Antioch – 1254-1268 Challenged by royal claims of Hugh of Brienne and Mary of Antioch

Later opposed by Charles of Anjou

Charles of Anjou – 1277-1285 Opposed by Hugh I and John II
John II – 1284-1285 Opposed by Charles of Anjou
Henry II – 1285-1291

The Citadel of Acre was captured in 1291 and the Kingdom of Jerusalem came to its end.

Saladin’s Sunni Ayyubid Sultanate of Egypt

Saladin - 1171-1193
Al-Aziz - 1193-1198
Al-Mansur - 1198-1200
Al-Adil I - 1200-1218
Al-Kamil - 1218-1238
Al-Adil II - 1238-1240
As-Salih Ayyub - 1240-1249
Turanshah - 1249-1250
Al-Ashraf II - 1250-1254 (The last to rule was actually the Mamluk to al-Ashraf II called Aibek)

The Globalist Red Internationale Axis –

Greater Mongolian Dynasty of Russia, China and Persia

Go to Part One: “The Mongolian Il-Khanate Persian Ram and the Horns of the Kipchak Khanate of Russia and the Kublai Khanate of China”

Go to Part Two: “Saladin and the Christian Crusades, a Prelude to the Mongolian Invasion of Persia”

Go to Part Three: “The Persian Il-Khanate Dynasty, the Ismaili Assassins and the Jews”

Go to Part Four: “The Final Kingdoms of the Mongolian Empire and the Rise of the Modern Communist States of Russia and China”

Daniel 8 – The Epic War of Civilizations between the

Western Golden Internationale and the Eastern Red Internationale

Go to Part One –

“Daniel, the Palace at Shushan and the Tomb of Daniel”

Go to Part Two –

“The Two-horned Ram, the Shaggy Unicorn he-Goat and the Rise of the Little Horn”

Go to Part Three –

“The Rabbinic Interpretation of the 2300 Day Prophecy”

Go to Part Four –

“The Rise of Israel and the Ancient Empires”

Go to Part Five –

“The Rise of the Ancient Kingdoms of Assyria, Babylon and Persia at the Time of the End”

Go to Part Six –

“The Apocalyptic Globalist Sea Beast, the Islamic Earth Beast and the Rise of the Shi’ite Theocratic Nation of Islam”

Go to Part Seven –

“The Messianic Shi’ite Theocratic Nation of Islam”

Go to Part Eight, Section One –

“The Globalist Red Internationale Axis – Greater Mongolian Dynasty of Russia, China and Persia”

“The Mongolian Il-Khanate Persian Ram and the Horns of the Kipchak Khanate of Russia and the Kublai Khanate of China”

Go to Part Eight, Section Two -

“The Globalist Red Internationale Axis – Greater Mongolian Dynasty of Russia, China and Persia”

“Saladin and the Christian Crusades, a Prelude to the Mongolian Invasion of Persia”

Go to Part Eight, Section Three -

“The Globalist Red Internationale Axis – Greater Mongolian Dynasty of Russia, China and Persia”

“The Persian Il-Khanate Dynasty, the Ismaili Assassins and the Jews”

Go to Part Eight, Section Four -

“The Globalist Red Internationale Axis – Greater Mongolian Dynasty of Russia, China and Persia”

“The Final Kingdoms of the Mongolian Empire and the Rise of the Modern Communist States of Russia and China”

Go to Part Nine

“The Influence of the Persian Ram upon the Modern Islamic Shi’ite Nation of Iran”- Section One

Go to Part Ten

“The Influence of the Persian Ram upon the Modern Islamic Shi’ite Nation of Iran”- Section Two

Go to Part Eleven

“The Influence of the Persian Ram upon the Modern Islamic Shi’ite Nation of Iran”- Section Three

Go to Part Twelve –

“Is the “War of Civilization” about to Erupt in the Persian Gulf” - Part One

Go to Part Thirteen –

“Wake Up World – The “War of Civilization” is all about Israel” - Part Two

Go to Part Fourteen –

“The Map of the ‘New Middle East’”

Go to Part Fifteen

“The Pathway of NATO and the ‘New Middle East’”

Go to Part Sixteen

“Frantic Drive for the Legacy of Global Domination”

History predominately taken from the Free Internet Encyclopedia Wikipedia

Message from BibleSearchers

BibleSearchers scans the world for information that has relevance on the time of the end. It is our prayer that this will allow the believers in the Almighty One of Israel to “watch and be ready”. Our readiness has nothing to do trying to halt the progression of evil on our planet earth. In our readiness, we seek to be prepared for the coming of the Messiah of Israel so that goodness and evil will be manifested in its fullest. Our preparation is a pathway of spiritual readiness for a world of peace. Our defender is the Lord of hosts. The time of the end suggests that the Eternal One of Israel’s intent is to close out this chapter of earth’s history so that the perpetrators of evil, those that seek power, greed and control, will be eliminated from this planet earth. The wars of the heavens are being played out on this planet earth and humans will live through it to testify of the might, power, justice and the love of the God of Israel. In a world of corruption and disinformation, we cannot always know what the historical truth is and who is promoting evil or mis-information. We cannot guarantee our sources but we will always seek to portray trends that can be validated in the Torah and the testimony of the prophets of the Old and the New Testament.

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