The Templar Knight

‘You have my word also; remember that, Templar knight.’

‘Of all the unbelievers, your word is no doubt the one most of us would trust most.’

‘You honour me with your words. So, why will our truce be broken?’

‘Ask your men to leave us if you will continue this conversation, Yussuf.’

Yussuf pondered this for a moment as he pensively tugged on his beard. If the Templar knight truly understood who he was talking to, would it then be easier for him to kill and at the same time break his word? No, that was unlikely. Considering how this man had behaved when he killed earlier in the evening, he had no need to make it easier to betray his vow; he would have drawn his sword long ago.

Yet it was difficult to understand his demand, which seemed unreasonable. At the same time, no one would particularly benefit if it were met. In the end Yussuf’s curiosity won out over his caution.

‘Leave us,’ he commanded curtly. ‘Go to sleep close by; you can clean up here in the morning. Remember that we are in the field, under camp rules.’

Fahkr and Emir Moussa hesitated. They started to get to their feet as they looked at Yussuf, but his stern glance made them obey. They bowed to the Templar knight and withdrew. Yussuf waited in silence until his brother and his closest bodyguard had moved far enough away and could be heard arranging their bedding.

‘I don’t think my brother and Moussa will have an easy time falling asleep.’

‘No,’ said the Templar knight. ‘But neither will they be able to hear what we say.’

‘Why is it so important for them not to hear what we say?’

‘It is not important,’ said the Templar knight, smiling. ‘What is important is that you know they won’t hear what you say. Then our conversation will be more candid.’

‘For a man who lives in a monastery, you know a great deal about human nature.’

‘In the monastery we learn much about human nature; more than you imagine. Now to what is more important. I will speak only of things that I am positive you already know, since anything else would be treason. But let us examine the situation. As you know, a new Frankish prince is coming. He will remain here for some time; he has everyone’s blessing back home for his holy mandate in God’s service, and so on. He has brought a great army along with him. So what will he do?’

‘Acquire riches as fast as possible since he has had great expenses.’

‘Precisely, Yussuf, precisely. But will he go against Saladin himself, and Damascus?’

‘No. Then he would risk losing everything.’

‘Precisely, Yussuf. We understand each other completely, and we can speak freely, now that your subordinates are out of earshot. So where will the new plunderer and his army go?’

‘Towards a city that is sufficiently strong and sufficiently wealthy, but I do not know which one.’

‘Precisely. Nor do I know which one. Homs? Hama? Perhaps. Aleppo? No, too far away and too strong a city. Let us say Homs or Hama, as the most obvious. What will our worldly Christian king in Jerusalem and the royal army do then?’

‘They do not have much choice. They will join in with the plundering even though they would rather use the new forces to attack Saladin.’

‘Precisely, Yussuf. You know everything, you understand everything. So now we both know what the situation is. What do we do about it?’

‘To begin with, you and I will both keep our word.’

‘Of course, that goes without saying. But what else do we do?’

‘We use this time of peace between us to understand each other better. I may never have the chance to talk to a Templar knight again. You may never have the chance to talk to…an enemy such as myself.’

‘No, you and I will probably meet only on this one occasion in our lives.’

‘The singular whim of God…But then let me ask you, Templar knight, what is needed more than God if we, the faithful, are to vanquish you?’

‘Two things. What Saladin is now doing: uniting all Saracens against us. That is already taking place. But the other thing is treason among those of us on the side of Jesus Christ, betrayal or grave sins, for which God will punish us.’

‘But if not betrayal or these grave sins?’

‘Then neither of us will ever win, Yussuf. The difference between us is that you Saracens can lose one battle after another. You mourn your dead and you soon have a new army on the march. We Christians can lose only a great battle, and we are not that foolish. If we have the advantage, we attack. If we are at a disadvantage, we seek refuge in our fortresses. It can go on in this fashion forever.’

‘So our war will last forever?’

‘Perhaps, perhaps not. Some of us…Do you know who Count Raymond de Tripoli is?’

‘Yes, I know…know of him. And?’

‘If Christians like him should win power in the kingdom of Jerusalem, and you have on your side a leader like Saladin, then there can be peace, a just peace, in any case something better than eternal war. Many of us Templar knights think as Count Raymond does. But to return to our previous topic concerning what is going to happen right now. The Hospitallers followed the royal army and the “prince” up to Syria. We Templar knights did not.’

‘I already know that.’

‘Yes, doubtless you know this; because your name is Yussuf ibn Ayyub Salah al-Din, the one we call Saladin in our language.’

‘May God be merciful to us, now that you know this.’

‘God is merciful to us by granting us this strange conversation during the last hours of peace between us.’

‘And we will both keep our word.’

‘You surprise me with your uneasiness about that point. You are the only one of our enemies who is known for always keeping his word. I am a Templar knight. We always keep our word. Enough said about that matter.’

‘Yes, enough about that matter. But now, my dear enemy, at this late hour before a dawn when we both have urgent errands, you with your foul-smelling corpses and I with something else that I will not discuss but which you certainly can imagine, what do we do now?’

‘We take advantage of this only opportunity that God may give us in life to speak sensibly with the worst of all enemies. There is one thing that you and I can agree on…forgive me if I address you so plainly now that I know you are the Sultan of both Cairo and Damascus.’

‘No one but God hears us, as you so wisely arranged. I wish for you to use the informal means of address on this one night.’

‘We agreed on one thing, I think. We are risking eternal war because neither side can win.’

‘True. But I will win, I have sworn to win.’

‘As have I. Eternal war then?’

‘That does not sound promising for the future.’

‘Then we will continue, even though I am merely a simple emir among the Knights Templar, and you are the only one of our foes in a long time that we have had reason to fear. Where should we begin now?’

They began with the question of the pilgrims’ safety. That was the most obvious. That was the reason they had met in the first place, if they sought a human explanation for it and did not look solely to God’s will in all things. But even though they both firmly believed, at least when they spoke aloud, that God’s will guided everything, neither of them was a stranger to the idea that man, with his free will, could also bring about great calamities as well as great happiness. This was a cornerstone in both of their faiths.

They talked for a long time that night. At dawn, when Fahkr found his older brother - the glorious prince, the light of religion, the commander of the faithful in the Holy War, the water in the desert, the Sultan of Egypt and Syria, the hope of the faithful, the man whom the infidels for all time would call by the simple name Saladin - he was sitting with his chin resting on his knees, huddled under his cloak which was wrapped around him, and staring into the dying embers.