Holy War

I was not with Saladin in the years following Montgisard, and I thank God for that. I had known him since he was a boy, but the man he became after his defeat was strange to me. He had vowed to take Jerusalem, and he set about his task with a ruthless energy that was frightful to behold, even at a distance. He unified his people as never before, forging competing emirs and enemy tribes into a single, dangerous weapon.

In Jerusalem, the king and his courtiers knew little enough of this. All they knew was that Saladin had turned his attention elsewhere, and that for the first time in many years there was peace. But they wasted it in vain squabbling for the throne, and when finally they saw the approaching danger, it was too late. .

The Chronicle of Yahya al-Dimashqi