138. The Third Crusade: The Rise of Saladin and the Leper King

The Second Crusade was, for all intents and purposes, filler content. Not much land traded hands, the Franks kind of embarrassed themselves, not many crazy battles. Boring, am I right?

The Third Crusade though? That's where things get poppin.

In the decades between the two holy skirmishes, the Islamic world finds itself in a state of renewal under a newly unifying Kurdish Dynasty. Soon, the eyes of Islam would set its gaze on the Holy City of Jerusalem.

Join us as we discuss the rise of two of the most distinct figures of the Third Crusade, Salah al-Din and Baldwin IV of Jerusalem.

Also, Taylor tries fruitlessly to defend his addiction to Monster energy drinks, and the guys speak for about 45 seconds about the SBC conference.

Transcript

Amo Bailar (00:00.8)
Hey everybody, welcome to Church History for Chumps. My name is John Simon and I am here with my good friend Taylor.

Amo Bailar (00:10.744)
How you doing, Taylor? Good.

Klemdup. (00:12.046)
Pretty good. Apparently I'm a little I think the monster's hitting. No more yawns tonight.

Amo Bailar (00:15.816)
I even before we hit record, I was like, Taylor's got a little got a little substance in him today. He's got a little you know, you're just you're just chatty, a little chatty cathy action.

Klemdup. (00:23.351)
I know.

I drank I drank a little pink monster. I Yeah. No, they're not. It's not like I'm I'm not downing like three a day. I have like three a week. I have like three a week. Two a day.

Amo Bailar (00:29.22)
okay. You still drink monsters, bro? They're gonna give you like kidney stones, man. Yes, they I

Two a day, probably. When's the last what's the last monster you drank before the one you had today?

Klemdup. (00:47.034)
I literally don't even remember because no. I it's 'cause I was in Fl well no I wasn't just in Florida. No, I just I don't know. I didn't I just didn't if they if I happen to cross one in the store, I buy it. If I don't if I don't happen to cross one, I don't buy it.

Amo Bailar (00:49.368)
Hmm. Memory loss.

Amo Bailar (01:02.968)
Sure, sure, sure, sure. Okay.

Amo Bailar (01:07.574)
Yeah. Well, it's been a while. not for you guys listener, 'cause we just spaced out our our recordings, but we actually haven't been in the studio for a few weeks, Taylor. So it feels kinda feels kinda rusty, you know. Got a gotta shake it off a little bit.

Klemdup. (01:16.03)
I know. I was at I was at the SBC annual convention. Shout out.

Amo Bailar (01:23.148)
That's right. And if you guys want to hear more about that, too bad. 'Cause we're not gonna talk about that.

Klemdup. (01:27.182)
Too bad. I was gonna say shout out Chuck and family that came by and said hi at the gateway booth. So it was fun, it was good. It's here's the thing about the SBC annual convention. When you walk into the hall, yeah, I I'll take t I'll take 25 seconds. When you walk into the hall and you look at this like literal C

Amo Bailar (01:33.43)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Amo Bailar (01:40.414)
Mm-hmm. Got about ninety seconds. Just l just letting you know.

Uh-huh.

Klemdup. (01:51.247)
of other Christians that are all united around mission, it's like pretty moving. You're like, wow, these people are all here for one thing. Well, most of them should be there for one thing. Some of them are there to cause trouble, but

Amo Bailar (01:55.121)
Mm. Hmm, aww. Yeah.

Amo Bailar (02:03.435)
Barbecue.

Amo Bailar (02:08.615)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well yeah, 'cause there was some some kind of content but that's that's not worth getting into. If you wanna listen to Al Moeller, if you wanna talk about the SBC convention. Do you do you have any passing words about the controversy there, Taylor? Do you wanna isolate half of our listener base by saying that real quick?

Klemdup. (02:24.98)
It shouldn't even Well, no no no, it doesn't have to isolate, it's just it shouldn't even be a controversy because it's what the SPC has essentially always believed is that preaching is reserved for men. So

Amo Bailar (02:37.119)
Right.

That's right. We're just following orders, right?

Klemdup. (02:44.248)
Following the Bible. you're such an idiot.

Amo Bailar (02:46.355)
I'm sorry, I'm just being a troll. You know what? Somebody somebody in the la I think it was one of our last episodes. You were like, You're such a contrarian. And I was like, I'm not a contrarian. I just some I just like to say the other thing that the other person is saying. And then the people in the comments were like, John Simon, you realize that's what a contrarian is, right? And so I I think I'm just leaning into it now. I think I just

Klemdup. (03:04.908)
Right.

Klemdup. (03:10.262)
Yes, thank you, people.

Amo Bailar (03:15.645)
I I I don't think it's I'm not a contrarian because I think that other people are wrong. I'm a contrarian because I think that the real truth is probably somewhere in the middle. So if somebody is too far left I go right. If somebody is too far right I go left. Someone's up, I go down, you know.

Klemdup. (03:30.24)
Well, it's always important to hold things intention. Yes. Right. I am too.

Amo Bailar (03:34.165)
Yeah, yeah. I'm I'm a big nuance guy, you know. What can I say? I've I've been black and white since the day I was born, they could say. So yeah, you know.

Klemdup. (03:40.648)
my gosh. 'Cause cause your skin color. Speaking of you being black, remember when I called you and asked for you to explain sinners to me?

Amo Bailar (03:49.633)
That that's like that one episode of Scrubs when like the white kid goes up to Turk's apartment and he's like, Do you have any Marvin Gay albums for me to borrow? And he's like, Sure. yeah, I remember that. That was like an hour ago.

Klemdup. (03:57.263)
So for the listeners for the listeners, if you haven't seen Sinners, it's a pretty cool movie, not family friendly, but

Amo Bailar (04:05.783)
Right.

Right. Well, if you haven't seen sinners, it might be because, you know, because you're trying not to be a sinner. Which to be fair, there there's some legitimate convictions you could have that could meaningfully keep you from watching this film. Especially v vampires. Yes. Mm-hmm. Hmm. That's right. And this is the best he could do. Video listeners, you guys know, this is not much.

Klemdup. (04:11.692)
You're not a sinner.

Yeah.

Klemdup. (04:21.29)
But yeah, Brandy and I watched it last night. Brand Brandy and I watched it last night and I marinated on it and then I was like, I have to call my black friend.

Amo Bailar (04:36.48)
Yeah. I'm not even sure I count as half. I feel like a third. I feel like a third black sometimes. But that's another podcast. Come back for that one. Church history after dark. You know what I'm saying? Ha ha Alright, let's keep it going. Taylor Day Sunday. How was how was how was worship today, my friend?

Klemdup. (04:42.263)
Yep.

Klemdup. (04:54.392)
Dude, it was so good to be back worshiping with my peeps 'cause I was gone. I I s my church, I don't think they mean to, but they guilt me when I'm gone. Like, yeah.

Amo Bailar (04:58.006)
Yeah, that's right.

Amo Bailar (05:05.196)
I have a question, but it has nothing to do with what you're about to say. So I'm gonna let you I'll I'm gonna let you finish and then I'm gonna go back to this. Yeah. Right.

Klemdup. (05:09.74)
Well, so like I was I missed two Sundays and like I swear the way I treat I'm treated is like I was gone for six months. Like, welcome back. Yeah, they're like, Well, welcome back, weary traveler. I think that Yeah, they they they missed me, I think is what it was. But we had a good time singing together. I missed the band. We up there's the yawn. no

Amo Bailar (05:19.872)
You're like a you're like an absent father.

Amo Bailar (05:24.758)
Hope you had a good time.

Amo Bailar (05:29.878)
That's good. Yeah.

Amo Bailar (05:35.094)
Yeah.

Amo Bailar (05:38.912)
Okay, or d I'm not a fan of that 'cause I'm doing this episode. Yeah, w where's your what's your where's your monster pink energy now, bro? What happened? Is the crash already here?

Klemdup. (05:42.124)
Double it up.

Klemdup. (05:47.359)
It's it's coming well, it was just a downer from the crash was caused by your contrarianism. Anyway, we sang What a Friend We Have in Jesus alongside some other songs, but you know that song?

Amo Bailar (05:53.912)
Okay.

Hm.

Hmm. I do. I love that song. I I don't think I've met a hymn that I didn't like. Like, even even hymns that I think for a while I kinda really disliked, I've come around on. Blessed Assurance. Blessed Assurance. Yeah, I mean I no not initially, 'cause there's so many bangers out there. And then you you get Blessed Assurance every week for five weeks at your tiny little

Klemdup. (06:04.43)
It's so good.

Klemdup. (06:15.478)
Which ones you didn't like that one initially?

Amo Bailar (06:30.838)
Baptist chapel, and you're just like, can we move on? You know? Yeah. mm. But even like what is it? Leaning on the Everlasting Arms. Here's the thing that song is just a ripoff of shoot. There's another hymn that is like worth that is almost exactly like it in melody, and it kind of drives me crazy because they feel like the same song. You know what I'm talking about.

Klemdup. (06:32.514)
I am just as I am.

I had a

Klemdup. (06:43.616)
Leaning, leaning, yeah.

Klemdup. (07:00.32)
I don't I don't know which one you're talking about. But there's some deep cut hymns too. Have you heard Have a Little Talk with Jesus? Well it's it's we will have a little talk with Jesus and we'll tell him all about our troubles.

Amo Bailar (07:07.232)
That's such a Baptist sounding one. No, I haven't.

Amo Bailar (07:13.912)
Gosh, I hate that. We will have a little talk with that's I hate that. I hate that so much. That sounds like the song the Irish dude should have been singing in Sit in Sinners. That would have been a a killer, killer track. So yeah. Anyways.

Klemdup. (07:19.854)
I don't know, I think it would grow on you, dude.

Klemdup. (07:28.962)
Yeah. I just want to point out that I knew the Rocky Road to Dublin well before. Yes. I just felt like something I feel like something was appropriated from me. Yeah.

Amo Bailar (07:36.694)
Before sinners came around. Okay. Alright. That's pretty cool.

Amo Bailar (07:43.989)
Mm. As a white man or as a yeah, as a what? What's what's your identity thing here?

Klemdup. (07:50.478)
Mm as a pretentious hipster.

Amo Bailar (07:54.818)
There we go. Okay. All right.

Klemdup. (07:56.749)
That's my cultural understanding.

Amo Bailar (07:59.819)
Right. But then again, if you're a true hipster, they could never take your culture 'cause it's too niche, right?

Klemdup. (08:06.766)
Yeah, I don't think any of them are finding some of my black metal bands. I'll tell you that. And then I've like purposely selected these as those like choice picks because I'm like, this is untenable for or and if they do find it, they're not gonna like it. mortification is pretty well known, actually. Yeah, pretty mainstream. No, they're death metal. They're death metal. Get it right!

Amo Bailar (08:10.808)
Right, yeah. Yeah.

Amo Bailar (08:18.656)
No one's gonna find it. Yeah. No one's no one's playing covers of mortification. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Main sh mainstream Christian black metal band. Yeah. I see this all the time. I wanna know what the difference is. It's 'cause death metal's slow, right? It's very clear. Right? And then black metal's very like That doesn't make any sense.

Klemdup. (08:38.848)
No. my gosh. No, they're both fast, but death metal listen, here's here's something that will help you. Death metal is growly and black metal is like shrieky and it's supposed to sound icy. So it's like very dissonant and death metal's more like

Amo Bailar (08:49.42)
Death metal is growly, right? See?

Amo Bailar (09:03.448)
Okay.

Okay.

Klemdup. (09:09.92)
Chuggy and Yeah.

Amo Bailar (09:11.242)
Okay. None of it's real. None of these titles are real. I miss the chariot. I'll say that. I miss the chariot. hey guys, I want to do some shout outs. We appreciate all the comments that we get from all of our all of our sweet friends. And yeah, shout out to shout out to Whiskey Wonka. I don't think that's your birth name. I don't think that's your Christian name, but you know what?

Klemdup. (09:15.736)
Not true.

Amo Bailar (09:33.975)
We appreciate what you have to say. Thank you, Mr. Mr. Wonka. Shout out to Lucas Page. Shout out to Stripe. Shout out to, of course, our good friend Serena DeGarmo. Serena, thank you for reminding us that Orthodox Christians are in fact listening. which I hopefully will steer us away from the prejudice comments that Taylor can't stop himself from saying. thank you to Calibur. Thank you to Emily Durham. I have never, I have never spoken an ill word against our Orthodox brothers. I love the Orthodox, dude.

Klemdup. (09:52.95)
You were the one.

Klemdup. (10:02.72)
You were the one that was like, here's my problem with their understanding of pilgrimage.

Amo Bailar (10:03.456)
Amo Bailar (10:08.184)
Why do you I don't always talk like a baby when you when you imitate me? I don't like that. shout out to Mike Duell. Thomas says hi. Missed you at the barbecue from the family the other day. Shout out to Larae. Shout out to John. any of the Johns. Shout out to me. Shout out to John Simon. yeah. Shout out to everybody. Shout out to our YouTube commenters. Our YouTube is easily the smallest performing platform. You know what? Let's keep it that way.

Klemdup. (10:25.75)
Shout out Mark. Sh shout out s shout out Steve.

Amo Bailar (10:34.88)
Forget YouTube. I never liked YouTube. Spotify or die. or Apple or something. Shout out Gary. So thank you guys all for commenting. if you would like to have more of a say in what we do or even what we say in our show, you can check out our perks on our buy me a coffee. You can give just for the love of the game, or you can give because you want something from us. We will accept funds regardless. Yeah, that's all we have. Taylor, ready to start.

Klemdup. (10:38.922)
Shout out Gary.

Klemdup. (11:04.608)
I'm ready to be heard again.

Amo Bailar (11:06.232)
Are you on Instagram right now? Are you checking your Twitch account?

Klemdup. (11:08.803)
No.

If you must know

Ray Rhodes Jr. just released another biography on Charles Spurgeon. And I got a little notification and I got distracted. So I opened my phone. Are you happy?

Amo Bailar (11:28.428)
I just didn't know you got notifications from dork.com. So all right. Well let's move along. guys, you probably saw it in the title already. This is big news. We took our little break. We did our little talk on the we did I we had that cool episode last week with Ta Dr. Taylor Mendoza on the Gold Rush missions movement, which is very exciting. But forget all that stuff, forget all that encouragement. We're back to the Crusades, baby. Let's go.

We are back in the Third Crusade. And I'm gonna say this, and I'm gonna say it right now. I think the Third Crusade is really and truly the sequel to the First Crusade. I think the Second Crusade was kind of like a little blip, a little speed bump. It was kind of a disaster, as we've talked about. I think it was, yeah. I think it was just only the loyal fans followed the second crusade. Really, I think Bernard and the theological ground that was being broken was probably the biggest.

Klemdup. (12:11.286)
Was it a filler story art?

Amo Bailar (12:24.972)
buzz around the second crusade, but the third crusades where the where the heavy hitters come out.

Klemdup. (12:30.36)
But you could have covered you you could cover Bernard in flashbacks during the Third Crusade series. But I'm just saying from like from like a showrunner standpoint, you don't you don't need that story, yeah.

Amo Bailar (12:37.046)
and we will. And we will. His ghost never dies.

Mm.

Amo Bailar (12:45.418)
Right. Purely in like Naruto terms. Yeah, you don't you don't need it. You can you can pass it by. which is unfortunate for you guys as listeners because now you're realizing you just listened to four episodes of filler and didn't even know it. so sorry about that. But I'm gonna give you guys a cool little reminder as we get caught up. So today is going to be kind of the backstory of what gets us into

Klemdup. (12:50.412)
Right. You c well you c and you cover it.

Klemdup. (12:59.031)
Yeah.

Amo Bailar (13:10.22)
The Third Crusade, and it's really gonna be this bridge that connects us from the end of the Second Crusade into the entry point of the Third Crusade. so we're gonna go through a little just a tiny little reminder. The Second Crusade was a disaster. of course, it starts at the fall of the county of Edessa, which of course was one of the four crusader states established during the First Crusade.

the count of the county of Edessa was always the most vulnerable, always the northernmost, always kinda picked at by its Islamic neighbors. And it falls the you kind of get this rally throughout Europe. We have to go back, we have to protect our brothers. And really before the Europeans even get to Palestine, it's already fallen to the point to where it's completely unsalvageable.

And it's really it's really sad. You know, we get Jocelyn, I think the second, who tries to reclaim Edessa, and he ticks off the new Muslim overlords so bad that they just decide they're gonna slaughter all the Christians in Edessa and burn the city to the ground, which they do. And so by the time the German king and the French king arrive in Palestine, there is no Edessa to save. So they decide, hey, well let's attack Damascus, and that goes just as badly and

Throughout the whole experience, they're just taking heavy casualties and really not making much of a dent in anything they're trying to do. And also there's a lot of infighting. They don't really like each other. They can't seem to get along with each other. And and it's a bad time. So everyone kind of goes back with their tail between their legs, and then we just kind of get back to biz as usual. It's kind of a drag. But the third crusade, it's gonna be a little different because there's some interesting figures here, some very interesting people. So we've got two people to cover today.

One is a name that you're probably familiar with. I'm gonna start by telling a story, which I know Taylor is gonna perk up at as soon as I mention it. Because we had a good buddy whose name was Ron, who used to play D and D with us. And when we picked characters, he made himself what was he? A dragonborn paladin? Was he a paladin, Taylor? He was

Klemdup. (15:24.362)
No, I think he was a fighter because he Googled the most mechanics he could abuse. Okay, quick sidebar. Anybody that's played D and D, do you remember the night that he said he used whatever whatever mechanic was that he tried to prevent the dragon from moving? And like technically the rule book did

Amo Bailar (15:30.616)
That's right.

Amo Bailar (15:48.47)
Yes, that was every night. Every night he tried to abuse the mechanics.

Klemdup. (15:52.077)
And I rem his line was his line was, It's not my problem to figure out how this happens. You're the dungeon master.

Amo Bailar (15:59.767)
Yes. Alright, Taylor, I'm in the right in the middle of the intro. I you I need we need to keep grooving here. Do you remember do you remember what Ron's name was? Saladine. Do you remember why that was his name and why he thought it was so funny?

Klemdup. (16:03.818)
Yeah. What are we what what are we talking about? Saladine.

Klemdup. (16:14.604)
Because we were all Christian.

Amo Bailar (16:16.8)
Yeah, pretty much. That was it. He was just like, you guys are all Christians, and I'm gonna name my character Saladin. So our first our first big guy that we're gonna talk about is Saladin. The second guy who's not gonna be as impactful, but definitely he's probably one of those people that you think of really because of the Kingdom of Heaven movie and just the the iconography of the Crusades is Bob and the Fourth, the Leper King. Really interesting guy. So we're gonna talk about these two and then we're gonna kinda find our way up. So

it's been said that the greatest obstacle to Muslim dominance was really not Christians, but it was infighting within the Muslim camps themselves. We we disregard whether or not this may be true for Christians as well. but this was definitely true during that time. So what we have in this middle gap between the second and third crusades is really just a mad dash for for expansion. We've still got

Outreamer, as we call it as Americans, or Outremer, as the French call it, which is the Crusader states, no longer encountering Edessa. Edessa's kind of been obliterated, but you've got Tripoli, you've got Antioch, and you've got Jerusalem. but what's happening right now that's really interesting is gonna take place in Egypt, of all places. Egypt is the home of the Fatimid Caliphate. And if you remember when we talked about this many, many moons ago.

The Fatimid Caliphate is very div is very distinct from the other Muslim kind of contingencies at this time, primarily because they're Shia. And if you remember when we talked about Islam, there are two big camps, the Sunni and the Shia. The Sunni, I think, even today make up like eighty to eighty five percent, don't quote me in that, of Muslims' populations, and the Shia are like ten to fifteen, fifteen to twenty maybe.

The Fatimid Caliphate is like the powerhouse of Shia influence, and it takes place in Egypt. And the Sunni don't really like the Shia, but they're willing to co sort of interact with them because they're Muslims and they're not Christian. So they have some common ground, but they don't really like them that much. to Christians, they're all just Muslims. They don't really discriminate whether they're they're one or the other. but the big thing about Egypt that is worth looking at.

Amo Bailar (18:42.61)
Is that Egypt is very wealthy at this time. Egypt has the Nile River, which, as many people know, very, very long, very illustrious river. And when you have the Nile, you have access to trade that you can carry down through the river. When you have the river, you have lots of fertile lands. When you have access to the river, even if you don't own the the crops, you can tax the people who do.

The the Nile is a very, very wonderful thing to have. And so the Fatimids find themselves in this really precarious, awful position where they have this thing that everybody wants, but they themselves are at a very weak point militarily, and there's all these people who are kind of sniffing around, kind of the vultures circling overhead, who are like, we see that dying little little faction over here, and we can't wait to swoop.

Down and and snatch it up.

Klemdup. (19:43.53)
So the fatimids are dying. And yeah.

Amo Bailar (19:46.027)
Yes, they are 'cause remember we talked about this before. we've the the b the big dogs in Muslim world right now are the the Zangids. And remember we talked about Zangi. Right, they're Seljuqs, but of course Zengi sounds like he's Chinese, he's not. That's a great joke we've made. Very funny joke, very confusing.

Klemdup. (19:58.019)
Yeah, they're Sel Jacks.

Klemdup. (20:03.724)
Very confusing. Okay, hey, so as your room has gotten progressively darker, your head your your you are dude. It's I I've been trying not to laugh. I didn't want to interrupt you. You were doing so good. You need to turn your light on.

Amo Bailar (20:11.574)
I'm getting swallowed by my

Amo Bailar (20:19.402)
It's okay. I know I do. Yeah. I I also realized I can't change my background back to normal, so I'm I'm I'm cooked right now. I'm trying. I'm trying to reach it. Okay.

Klemdup. (20:29.1)
Just turn the light on. This is fine. I think our rawness is what's endears some people to us. It's your your head your headphones look a little fine. It's fine. This is much better than

Amo Bailar (20:36.876)
There we go. Alright, now I'm looking a little glowy.

Amo Bailar (20:44.832)
It's fine. We're just gonna. This is gonna be a fun little episode. Alright. So I wanna interest so I want to introduce you guys as we're setting the table here to to a to a handful of figures who are going to bring us to the key figurehead here. The first is Shawar. Shawar is an interesting guy. You've seen, of course, Taylor, the movie The Mummy, right? Do you remember Benny from The Mummy?

Klemdup. (20:49.133)
Yep.

Klemdup. (21:07.138)
Yeah. no. Of course I ple yes I remember Benny.

Amo Bailar (21:13.688)
He's like the the slime ball guy who really he he has no sense of loyalty, but he has every sense of just self-preservation. and he'll just r he'll he'll he works with the mummy, he works with Brendan Fraser, he works with the Americans. Yeah, that's kind of what I think of when I think of Shawar. So Shawar is the vizier in Egypt, which means that he is but both the military and political ruler.

Klemdup. (21:24.77)
Yeah.

Amo Bailar (21:43.071)
Of the Fatimids. He's not the religious ruler. He's not the caliph, but he is the head of the military. Now, Shawar's like common thing that he's known for amongst historians is he just has no sense of loyalty. He will work with whoever and work anybody against anybody to to just try to scrape by in some sense of self-preservation, which in some ways is like really strategic, and then other ways it's like

Gosh, dude, you're just burning bridges at this point. It's it's not great. now the two main forces who are looking at Egypt and and licking their chops right now are, like we said, the Zangids, led by Nurrad Din, who was the big dog who definitely shut down both shoot, yeah, both France and Germany both see we already say that that we forget.

Klemdup. (22:37.974)
Nuradeen was the original Zangi that's his son, yeah? Yeah, and Nuradeen is like his father, but far more competent, right?

Amo Bailar (22:43.34)
That's right. Yep.

Amo Bailar (22:48.97)
Yes, he's very good at his job. And he's like, it's interesting, like, he is like a unifier. and like one of one of the things that fascinated me about Nurad Din was like he's based in Damascus right now, which of course is this super relevant, significant cultural city throughout this era. he takes Damascus without shedding any blood from a totally different sultan. Like, he just kind of like uses blood.

Klemdup. (22:51.349)
Yeah.

Amo Bailar (23:18.744)
PR and good political propaganda. And he basically makes it so that when he and his armies march up to Damascus, the the townspeople themselves will open the city gates for him. and so he's just a really good politician. Like the the meme that this is just because it's the Middle Ages, it's nothing but sieges and bloodshed and pouring hot oil on people. Like, that's not true. Like there are some really good politicians here, and Nurad Deen's one of them.

Klemdup. (23:43.064)
He he he walked in and said, I I'm the captain now.

Amo Bailar (23:48.837)
Like literally, yeah. And what's fascinating is sela Saladin is not going to oppose that. He's going to, I think, use that a lot. and so the other the other vulture circling over Egypt right now is is is the king of the kingdom of Jerusalem, a guy by the name of Amalric. And Amalric I I like a lot, and I'm gonna tell you why, Taylor. I'm gonna read a description of him from from our good friend

Tom Asbridge. This is from his book on the Crusades. Excellent work. Highly recommended you to check it out, not just because of this description. But it says, speaking of Amalric, it says physically Amalric was of goodly height, with sparkling eyes, a very full beard, and slightly receding blonde hair. William praised William of Tyre, of course, praised his royal bearing.

But acknowledge that despite his extremely moderate consumption of food and wine, the king was excessively fat with breasts like those of a woman hanging down to his waist. He's a big boy. He's a big boy. I love that He's like he barely eats at all. I don't know what it is.

Klemdup. (24:55.298)
So he's a thick boy. and he totally lied about how much he's eaten. You know, he lied. Guys, I don't know what's happening. I just I eat I just have a few pieces of pita bread and hummus a day. I don't know.

Amo Bailar (25:10.232)
A little bread, a little wine, I I don't I walk, you know, it's not like I'm driving everywhere. I mean, come on.

Klemdup. (25:13.614)
Right. Meanwhile he's telling his servants to go do that, you know, two AM McDonalds run.

Amo Bailar (25:20.062)
That's right. Another 12 pack of Bosa donuts. yeah, so so Amarik is an interesting dude. He he's the king of he's the king of Jerusalem right now, and and a guy that Taylor and I may or may not have smoked hookah with back in the day. So so so the for the first step in this

Klemdup. (25:23.543)
Yeah.

Amo Bailar (25:39.745)
And this little little shindig here is that Shawar, who again is the is the scummy, slimy guy, he just gets deposed from Egypt. Cause again, he's always infighting, he's always picking fights and and not knowing how to settle them. So he's gonna run off to Damascus and go to Nerreden and be like, yo, I need some support. I need you to help me get my position back because I've kind of lost a little bit of favor. I need you to help me out. And and Nur says, sure, I'm gonna send my friend Shirka.

And Shirka is a Kurd, which is interesting, it's not a lot of Kurds around right now, at least not a lot in leadership. And Shirka's basically gonna be kind of the puppet mouthpiece for Noor and say, all right, well Shirka's gonna take some of our some of our armies, he's gonna head back to Egypt with you, and he's gonna help you get your position back. And then Shirka's gonna stick around and you know, make sure that you don't do any other

screwing around. And also we're gonna kind of make you into a little bit of a puppet because you're asking for our help and we're gonna make sure that it benefits us. Now Shawar did not love this new arrangement, because Shirka was kind of there just all the time. kinda reminds me of the office when Charles Minor just like had an office all the time and Michael was like, dude, get this guy out of here. And it's like, no, he's he's gonna be the little he's gonna be my little shadow for a little bit.

Klemdup. (26:59.656)
Mm. Mm.

Amo Bailar (27:05.396)
And so Shawar reaches out to Amalric, our buddy in Jerusalem, and he's gonna say, hey, if you could, I'd love it if you guys could help me. Maybe we could form a little bit of a a temporary alliance for a bit and get these Turks off my back. Amalric agrees. He lays siege to this to the town that Shirka's been hiding at, and and suddenly things are good. Egypt has has a little

Has a little thing. And so what's interesting is that Shurka, who has a a pretty sizable army in Egypt, is going to kind of go back and forth with a Malric for a while. They're both pretty, pretty competent leaders, and they're always going to keep coming to these stalemates. but really they only want to get rid of each other, not because they're loyal to Egypt, they want to clear out the other rival so that they can basically take Egypt over for itself, because they already know that it's it's kind of on its last leg.

So in 1168, Amalric has an idea. He thinks to himself, I've been alive with Shawar for a while, to the point to where Egypt has at this point become an official client state to the kingdom of Jerusalem, which is a pretty sweet deer deal. You can probably collect some good taxes off of that. And Amalric says, but I kinda want Egypt to myself, like right now.

And to the point to where he actually marries the daughter of the emperor of the Byzantine Empire and says, Hey, maybe you and I can make a little agreement, we can latch arms, little west and east unity, and then we can take Egypt for ourselves and split some of that sweet, sweet Nile money. And so they talk about it, and it sounds like it's going in a good direction, but Amalric gets kind of impatient. And he's like, you know what? These freaking Byzantines, bro, they're taking too much time.

I'm not I'm not trying to wait around. So he decides I'm just gonna go for it myself. I'm just gonna show up and try to take over this by myself. And he and he makes the assumption, very, very a very very unfortunate assumption that because things are so strained between the two Muslim camps, there there's no way they're gonna partner with each other. There's no way they're gonna side with each other to fight him off.

Amo Bailar (29:20.044)
And so Amalric basically forms this big army and heads into Egypt from Jerusalem and immediately gets word that yes, Nurad-Din has been notified, and yes, he is sending back up, and now he basically has to fight the entire Islamic world because he tried to take Egypt for himself.

Klemdup. (29:27.16)
Mm.

Klemdup. (29:39.967)
So the Zangi dynasty, which is the new term for the Turks, right? Basically. Yeah. Generally speaking, the Turks the Turks go down to Egypt and say Yeah. I but but but they want Egypt too.

Amo Bailar (29:50.053)
yeah, there there's other Turks that aren't Sangueed, but yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Amo Bailar (29:58.293)
Yes, yes. Whatcha doing, bud? Yeah.

Exactly. but more than anything, they don't want Jerusalem taking Egypt.

Klemdup. (30:12.763)
And Nerudine's a smart guy. So he can maybe pull the listen, I just saved your Heinz card.

Amo Bailar (30:15.236)
Mm-hmm.

Amo Bailar (30:20.626)
And and the thing is, and this is what this is where I think Nuradeen's like like strategic mind kind of exceeds what Amalrik is doing, is when he starts to head over, Amalric freaks out and he's like, I'm about to get sandwiched between both Shawar and Nuradeen's homie Sh Shirka.

Like they're all coming from the east or they're all coming from the west, and now I'm gonna have extra forces coming from Damascus. He's like, I'm gonna get smushed. So he just And they're once again, nowhere to be found.

Klemdup. (30:54.498)
Yeah. And the Byzantines are like hey

Right. I I don't know. I'm busy.

Amo Bailar (31:06.032)
Yeah, that's sorry, I love my my phone was on do not disturb. Like I took a long nap. I'm sorry, I had no idea what was happening. that is like my favorite meme of this whole series is the Byzantines are just never anywhere to be found. That's so good.

Klemdup. (31:09.427)
Yes.

Klemdup. (31:20.492)
No. I mean they're to be fair to them, like they didn't they did ask for the Crusaders help. But the Crusaders said, yes, we'll come help, and then we'll take a bunch of land that you wanted. And also the Yeah, this land is my land.

Amo Bailar (31:30.52)
Right.

Amo Bailar (31:38.432)
You're right. Yeah, it's gonna be our land now.

No land is your land.

Klemdup. (31:46.228)
Exactly. And then on top of that, the Byzantines kind of like are know how to exist in that part of the world.

Amo Bailar (31:53.687)
Well, and cause like I mean, look, so someone smarter than us can tell me in the comments if I'm wrong here, but the Byzantines seem centralized. Like they have a lot of territory under one emperor who tends to speak and his word is gospel. The Crusader states, they're not unified at all. All of them are fighting for their own interests. the Europeans are in the same boat. Like no one's unified there. It's 20 different voices.

Klemdup. (32:14.177)
And they never were.

Klemdup. (32:18.818)
Yeah. And the Crusaders came over not unified. They they had yeah, their armies attacked the same thing, but it was like, No no no, I fight for this guy. Your guy's stupid. So So it's from the beginning. It's this is it's culture.

Amo Bailar (32:24.213)
Exactly.

Amo Bailar (32:28.376)
Mm-hmm.

Exactly. Yes, yes, yes, yes, I agree.

Yeah. It is. It's feudalism, man. so

Klemdup. (32:40.492)
Right. And now back to talking about sinners and culture.

Amo Bailar (32:44.216)
That's right, culture. so yeah. So Amalric is is realizing I'm about to get sandwiched here, so they chicken out and they bail and they retreat back to Jerusalem. And the irony is that this actually creates the opening that Nur Dean was looking for. And so Shirka now has this green light of like, Shawar thinks that the the the

Crusaders are about to hit him, so I'm just gonna hit him from the other side right now. And so sh no Shawar Shawar's the Benny guy. Shirka is Ner's like little puppet, puppet commander. Yeah, no, no, no. Not a lot of names, I gotcha. so Shirka's like, sweet. I'm just gonna attack. I'm just gonna attack Shawar now. And so yeah.

Klemdup. (33:17.708)
Shirka's the Benny guy.

Klemdup. (33:24.672)
Okay, sorry. Yeah, sorry. Okay. Okay. Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Klemdup. (33:36.431)
Amo Bailar (33:38.655)
It's a literally, it's like the Jerusalem guys are like, we can't do this. And and Cairo's like, we're safe. And then Shirka's like, not exactly. Pulls out the Glock. and so Right, right. And so he charges into Cairo, finally set on taking this territory. Shawar does what he does and just goes into like, hey, let's talk about this, man. I think we can

Klemdup. (33:46.966)
Not exactly. Yeah. Give me your watch.

Klemdup. (34:02.73)
It bends the knee.

Amo Bailar (34:04.21)
Right. I think we can work this out. And he really tries to slow the process down. And so Shawar is able to basically set up this it's it's death by a thousand meetings. It's he's trying to slow the process down of like, let's just talk diplomatically, nobody has to get killed here, let's just be friends. We all love Allah, we all love Muhammad, Asalam Alaykum. Am I right? and then as Shawar is traveling on horseback to meet with

Shirka to have one of these peace talks. Shawar is ambushed by a dude by the name of Yusuf ibn Ayyub, where he's removed from his horse, tied up, taken to Shirka, and beheaded for his troubles. So they're like

Klemdup. (34:51.496)
Shirka is a little slime ball.

Amo Bailar (34:54.466)
Dude, he's yeah, he's like, yeah, come on over. We'll we'll talk about it. We'll talk about over hookah, brother. Double apple. Come on over. And then and then they ambushed him and cut his head off. So

Klemdup. (34:56.558)
Klemdup. (35:02.222)
man. Okay, I cannot imagine Nerudine responds well to this.

Amo Bailar (35:10.292)
Well, it's well okay here we're gonna get into that. So Shurka won the battle. Egypt now belongs to him, which is huge. And and Nur doesn't hate it because he knows that Shirka is still, at the end of the day, his people. So what's good for what's good for Egypt right now, what's good for Shirka is good for Nur. So he's like, okay, this is alright.

Klemdup. (35:32.938)
Okay, I'm so s I'm I'm messing up names again. So the little slime ball got killed. Sli he got slimed.

Amo Bailar (35:37.386)
Shirka's Nura Deen's Yes, slime ball's dead.

Sh he got slimed. Yes. Shurka is Nuradin's commander.

Klemdup. (35:50.683)
Okay, so Nerdeen is in charge now. So he's happy about this. Okay. Can we can we delete that from the podcast? Can we go back in time? I know, I knew you were gonna say no. Sometimes the listeners don't know. Sometimes we do that.

Amo Bailar (35:53.418)
Yes, yes. He is, he is, yeah.

Amo Bailar (36:01.057)
No, no, I th honestly, we can we

These names are a little complicated. I'm just saying it's helpful. so Shirka's won the battle. Egypt belongs to him, which means that Egypt belongs to the Zangit, which means that Neruddin is technically happy. But his victory is short lived as he's going to soon die of quote in acute separating throat infection. some sources call it indigestion, which I mean I've had some heartburn in my day, brother, but never fatal.

Klemdup. (36:10.936)
That's all right.

Amo Bailar (36:37.164)
so I don't know what this guy died of, but it sounded pretty uncomfortable. and in fact, it was this same man, this Yusuf Ibn Ayyub, the man who had first captured Shawar, the slime ball, another Kurdish commander who's going to be succeeding Shurka and take his place in Egypt. And I have this great quote to read in the dim light, because my ring lights.

Klemdup. (36:43.48)
Yeah.

Klemdup. (37:07.214)
So Nerudine is dead and Shurka is dead.

Amo Bailar (37:12.534)
Literally absolute no. Shawar is dead. Nuradin is about to die. But in Shir Shawar is dead, Shirk is dead, and Nuradin is about to die.

Klemdup. (37:17.801)
Shark.

Nerdeen's not dead, Shawar is dead.

Shawar killed Shirka for Nura Deen. dude, it's hopeless.

Amo Bailar (37:29.182)
Shirka killed Shawar for Nerdine. If their names were Tim and Steve and Jim, it'd be easier, but we're we're outside of our cultural depths. No, Shirka killed Shawar. Yes. Yes.

Klemdup. (37:39.438)
Shawar killed Shurka for Nurad Shurka killed Shawar for Nurudine, and now Shurka is dead.

Amo Bailar (37:50.218)
He died of indigestion and yes.

Klemdup. (37:52.277)
And Yusuf is in charge. Okay, we got there. Listeners, I did that for you.

Amo Bailar (37:57.143)
Yes, and now hear this quote 'cause this they did that for us, right? Alright, listen to this quote from Thomas Asbridge. Whatever the Egyptian caliph's expectations, Yusuf Ibn Ayub soon revealed his true qualities, crushing an attempted palace coup and brutally suppressing a military revolt within months of taking office.

Indeed, in the years that followed, it became clear that his ambitions far outstripped those of his uncle, Shurka. Capable, in turn, of extreme ruthlessness and principled magnanimity, gifted with political and military acuity, Yusuf's achievements would eclipse even those of his overlord Nuruddin, in time earning him the grand appellation by which he is more commonly known to history.

Salah Al Din the goodness of faith or in the Western tongue Salah.

Klemdup. (38:52.139)
Klemdup. (38:57.866)
Wow, what an orchin story.

Amo Bailar (38:59.52)
So he was lurking, he was lurking in the shadows all along, just watching and waiting. And what's so interesting is this is like Saladin's whole thing. Is like he's just kind of hanging out in the background, watching what happens. And I I kinda I I have to blitz through this because there's literally so much we could talk about. And it I want to stick to the majors here. But essentially what's gonna happen is

Saladin is going to be Mr. Islam for a while. He he he's going to take a very urban the second kind of approach where he's gonna say, brothers, how can we stand so divided when we have such an awful enemy persecuting our people? We are we should be ashamed to call ourselves Muslims if we are gonna stand so fragmented.

When there are so many just unjust evil things happening in the holiest of lands, we need to stand together. And so what's gonna happen is Nurad Din, who again was the head honcho of the Zangits, the biggest Turkish dynasty, really the biggest Muslim dynasty around right now. Nurreddin's gonna die. And he's gonna leave the three biggest cities of that territory.

Mosul, Aleppo, and Damascus with separate successors. And it would be smart, quote unquote, if Saladin was just like, shoot, I'm just gonna take my massive army and just crush all these dudes and take them. But he can't do that. Because you can't be Mr. Unified Islam if you're going to slaughter Muslims. And so he uses a very like slow.

strategic. Like there is military involved at times, but he uses a lot of like diplomacy. Again, just like just like Nuradeen, he's using a lot of like, hey, I think it just makes sense that we just stand together here, you know? I I'm not I'm not I'm certainly not trying to make any issues. I just think it would make a lot of sense if we could just kind of stand hand to hand on this, you know? And gradually he's gonna get Damascus and then

Klemdup. (41:14.902)
Mm.

Amo Bailar (41:18.942)
The the caliph of Cairo who's a who's a Shia is gonna die, so he's gonna expand more influence in Egypt as well. And then he's gradually gonna take Aleppo, he's gonna take Mosul, and suddenly this brand new caliphate, this new dynasty called the Ayyubid dynasty, is like at the forefront. And you've got Saladin who's just like and and again, I I don't mean to portray him as sinister. Saladin is actually

very widely respected, very much so amongst Muslims, but even amongst Christians, they're gonna say, yeah, he was a pretty he was a pretty generous guy. He was a pretty solid dude. Like we didn't like him. We obvious we obviously had to kill a lot of his people and vice versa. But people seem to respect Saladin quite a bit. But he was a very sharp dude. and we're gonna talk about him a lot.

Klemdup. (42:10.968)
So he he basically let a lot of these other kingdoms he didn't feel the need to like force them to fall in line. He let them keep so so when Nurdin died and his dynasty got split up, he let them remain like mata autonomous, but but like like coerced through words.

Amo Bailar (42:19.818)
Right.

Amo Bailar (42:30.476)
Yeah. Yeah, dude. When Ner

Amo Bailar (42:37.11)
Yes, yes. And I I w again I I don't wanna say it was entirely diplomatic. I do think there was some military involvement that happened. But like the first thing he did when Nerd died, he set his like eleven year old son

Klemdup. (42:44.492)
Mm-hmm.

Amo Bailar (42:51.666)
As the new leader of Damascus. And the first thing Saladin did was proclaim, like, he's like, I'm gonna be this little boy's guardian. Like, I'm gonna make sure that he's looked after. And in a sense, that was a strategic thing, because he was making an alliance that he was he was he was earning favor with the Damascus people, but I think there was some genuineness too. I don't think he was just like

kill this kid. Like he didn't. He he made sure that he wasn't taken advantage of. So it's like was there a sense of like backhanded like political strategy? Like definitely. But I also don't think he was just like waiting to, you know, to to to to bamboozle somebody. I don't think he was he was slime bagging, you know.

Klemdup. (43:38.893)
Dude.

And and you gotta think, for the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the Antioch and what's the other one? Tripoli, those three dude, because they are literally surrounded by a i that i yeah, who just consolidated all power over the course of a few years. this is good for them.

Amo Bailar (43:50.714)
tri Tripoli. Bad news.

Amo Bailar (43:59.264)
One guy.

Amo Bailar (44:07.318)
Yes. Yeah, this is this is gonna be a bad time. This is gonna be a bad time. Which is why but it's also why it's such an interesting time for Islam. And I I just have to read from my from my little book of of Islamic historians because there is like a 30 page section in this book that I have where it's literally like

Klemdup. (44:11.647)
Yeah.

Klemdup. (44:16.046)
Mm-hmm.

Amo Bailar (44:33.268)
historians from this time talking about the character of Saladin. Like not even talking about what he did. They're just like, Man, one time he saw this homeless guy and he just sat with him and talked to him and gave him all of his money for like eight hours. Like it's just all these stories about like he was the best guy. Like he was the it's like that one meme where it's like he was the best. What about the murder? What murder? What murder? Like that's

Klemdup. (44:57.44)
What murder Yeah.

Amo Bailar (45:01.014)
So I have to read this one passage that I found because I thought it was great. He's it says this is from shoot, I should I should have the this is from Baha'i. it says, I heard Saladin say in the course of conversation, there might be a man who here who looks on money as one looks on the dust in the ground, by which he seems to be referring to himself. He would give even more than the postulant asked.

But I have never heard him say we gave so and so much. He spread large S with a la with a generous hand, smiling as cheerfully on the recipient as if he had hardly given him anything. His gifts bestowed honor more than money. The people knew what he was like and solicited his generosity at every moment, but I never heard him say, I have already given over and over again, how much more must I give? And there's just like there's passages of like

Sal Saladin on his courage and steadfastness, examples of his generosity, examples of his justice. Like they were like this guy rocked. And I don't think that's like this sense of like he's this larger-than-life person. I think in some ways he was, but I also think so many Muslims see this debt of gratitude because of what he did for Islam. He united Islam in a very fragmented time.

And he united the people in jihad. Because one of the first things he wants to do, as I kind of alluded to earlier, is he wants to get Jerusalem back.

Klemdup. (46:40.286)
He wants to kick out the w the white the whiteies.

Amo Bailar (46:43.308)
He wants to kick out the whiteys, yeah.

Klemdup. (46:45.814)
Well, and remember, dear listeners, they're not talking about conquering the Byzantine kingdoms.

Amo Bailar (46:54.776)
Right. They don't k no one cares about Constantinople. Not yet. Right, right.

Klemdup. (46:56.266)
Like so I Yeah, they're like yeah, they're fine. Probably trade partners, I would imagine. You know gosh. I'd like to say it feels like as an outside observer, the westerners constantly trying to attack and grow like they've done it to themselves in a way.

Amo Bailar (47:25.888)
Yeah. I mean

Klemdup. (47:26.614)
Like if you were if you were consistently generation after generation poking fights and trying to like take take over things, it's just a bad look. And now you have Saladin who was alive for that march down to Egypt, right? They didn't they didn't read Isaiah when he says don't go down to Egypt. They didn't read it.

Amo Bailar (47:42.925)
Right.

Amo Bailar (47:48.153)
so yeah, I mean because I I I think it's interesting the the contrast between Urban the First and him being like, we need to expel these pagans from our holy land, and then Saladin basically using the exact same rhetoric in unifying the Muslims. It's like

Yeah, of course this is gonna continue to go back and forth. Like it's this eternal like ping pong battle. Except for the fact is, Saladin's conquest of Jerusalem is actually gonna last a heck of a lot longer than the first Crusaders. yeah, but hey, we'll get to that. We'll get to that. Anyways, I only have a little bit of time left. I want to get into Baldwin the Fourth, just cause he's a really, really fascinating guy. Baldwin the Fourth,

r literally part of this lineage of Baldwins who we've talked about many of them throughout our series. son of Amalric, who we've talked about, our our big our big hookah smoking brother. And and known as the Leop, which I hope there's a Christian hardcore band somewhere that feels inspired and calls themselves the Lepre King, 'cause that's freaking dope. Amalric, as you as we guys remember, was the

king of the kingdom of Jerusalem kind of has this ill-fated stalemate between the powers of the Zengids and then the Fatimids before they fall apart. so he's gonna die in 1174 of dysentery, which doesn't matter what time period you're in. That's always a bad time. and Baldwin is his only son. And it's really interesting the situation there because

Bald because Amalric is actually gonna be married twice. He's married first to this woman who kinda has this I forget the exact word, but she she kinda has this royal lineage that she comes from that you kind of get the sense Amalric is not a huge fan of. They have, I think, two kids, only one son, of course, being Baldwin, and they get divorced, which is not super common, but the the the divorce gets approved because I guess they were also third cousins.

Amo Bailar (50:00.653)
which again, the weird incest stuff that also came up in the last last series between who was it, like the Prince of Antioch, and yeah, all that stuff is weird. so they get divorced, and then as we talked about earlier, Amalrit gets married for political reasons to the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor, Princess Maria Komnena. And so, like already

Baldwin has this weird upbringing because he is the rightful heir of his father. He's also like, I think, 13 when his dad dies. So he's king, but he's also like still not really ready for that. But even growing up, growing up, because he and his mother were divorced, his birth mother didn't really have a whole lot to do with him because she was no longer obligated to his father by marriage.

But his stepmother, who was the princess of the Byzantines, really didn't want anything to do with him either because he wasn't her her blood. And so even growing up, he kind of had this like lonely existence of not really getting the type of nurturing that you would really expect from a soon to be royalty. there is like a very wholesome kind of nugget, like fun fact, which is that he had a tutor that would become

one of his most enduring friends throughout his life, and that tutor was literally William of Tyre, who is the like most prominent historian. A lot of the like primary sources that we get from this time come from William of Tyre. And and he just happens to be this like courtly tutor who just like had such a soft spot in his heart for Baldwin, which was so cool. so

Klemdup. (51:34.327)
Hmm.

Amo Bailar (51:54.657)
Yeah, they grew up there there is this story, and this is kind of a story that's gone on throughout and and I think it's true. It's at least true in that we we believe that William wrote it. And it's a story that William was watching Baldwin and and his like buddies when they were little kids, and they were playing this game where you would pinch your your your bud on like the arm and see how long until they would like make a face, basically. And so they would like pinch and kinda, you know.

just kind of mess with each other and William noticed that like the boys were pinching Baldwin and for like really long periods of time he just wasn't he just wouldn't wouldn't make a face, wouldn't acknowledge it or anything like that. And it was later on that they realized that the reason for him not doing this was because he was actually numb in in several parts of his body, which was an early indicator of his leprosy.

which they realized later on as well, which of course also a very big problem. leprosy is of course incurable. and it just like it it really it I think that like the leprosy that we understand today in modern science is characterized by just like the loss of of nerve sensations in various parts of your body.

Klemdup. (52:52.939)
no.

Amo Bailar (53:22.464)
which leads to a lot of like cellular damage, but it also just seems like everything about this dude's body was compromised. Like I think he only had feeling, like I think only one of his hands had sensation in it, so he could only like use one hand, like the other one was completely just like dead, basically. he would eventually be blind, he would lose the ability to speak in his older years, and by older years I mean like he's gonna die at twenty four.

he's gonna lose the ability to walk. he has like bouts of malaria and other illnesses, like he's just gonna be ravaged by this like awful disease throughout his life, which really, really sucks.

Klemdup. (54:06.136)
Does does the kingdom of Byzantium feel any loyalty to him because of his mom?

Amo Bailar (54:14.914)
that's a great question. I I did not see anything that indicated that. I'd I'd love to know the answer. That's a great question. I do not know. I did not read anything that indicated that they gave a rip at all. which unfortunately would be kind of par for the course. Yeah. They that they don't care about the Crusaders? What? That's crazy. yeah, I'm gonna read this quote from William, just because, you know, I think it

Klemdup. (54:30.114)
Yeah, I it's part for the course for them, yeah.

Klemdup. (54:36.728)
Yeah. man.

Amo Bailar (54:43.298)
kind of humanize the situation, it says. Speaking about his his realization here, he says, Ferrez was recognized in process of time. These were the pr premonatory symptoms of a most serious and incurable disease which later became plainly apparent. It is impossible to refrain from tears while speaking of this great misfortune. For as he began to reach years of maturity, it was evident that he was suffering from the terrible disease of leprosy.

Day by day his condition became worse, the extremities in the face were especially attacked, so that his faithful followers were moved with compassion when they looked at him. Nevertheless, he continued to make progress in the pursuit of letters and gave ever increasing promise of a developing of developing a lovable disposition. He was comely of appearance for his age, and far beyond the custom of his forefathers, he was an excellent horseman and understood the handling of horses.

He had a retentive memory and he loved to talk. He was economical but always remembered both favors and injuries. In every respect he resembled his father, not alone in face but in his entire mien. Even his walk and the tones of his voice were the same. His intellect was keen, but his speech was somewhat halting. Like his father, he eagerly listened to history and was well disposed to follow good advice. So you can tell he just really loved this kid, right?

Klemdup. (56:05.6)
I love Yeah, but I love how they have to sneak in like the little I wouldn't say it's jabs because that implies like some like kind of Yeah, ill will or nefarious intent. And obviously he didn't. He's like, I love this kid so much. You know, he was so good at horses. I he he didn't talk too good, but he was he was smart. And isn't Cumley like that's not handsome. That's is Cumley Okay, hang on.

Amo Bailar (56:14.348)
Like ill will.

Amo Bailar (56:32.672)
No, I think it's handsome. I think han ha you can you can check on that, but I Cumley's handsome. maybe I'm just saying that 'cause I've been called Cumely too many times and now I'm in denial. it's also tough, dude, because like this was still I mean, this wasn't like biblical times, but leprosy was still seen as a curse from God. So and also because because of his illness, he was also he wasn't able to have children.

Klemdup. (56:48.043)
yeah, good looking. Okay.

Klemdup. (56:55.308)
Yeah.

Amo Bailar (57:02.8)
And one of the big problems that we'll probably talk about in the next episode is that he's not because he's going to die a very young death, he's not able to establish an heir like genetically. So he has to do a lot of like political man maneuvering, which is gonna ultimately go in a bad direction. But I will share one story just because I think it's really interesting and we'll kind of close. We'll we'll land the plane on this one, if you will. so

Klemdup. (57:14.87)
Mm

Amo Bailar (57:32.436)
When he so again, as we've said, we've kind of established these two key figures. You've got Saladin and you've got Baldwin the fourth. So Saladin is going to just kind of on a whim, just be like, you know what? Let's just see what happens if we just you know take a take a few people, 10,000 people, and just head into head into Jerusalem and see what happens. It doesn't seem like he's trying to like

Conquer it at this point. He's just kind of like poking the bear to see see what kind of resistance he gets. And so Balban the Fourth gets word that they are that that these forces from Egypt are coming their way. And Balbon the Fourth, even being as sick as he is, like they literally have to carry him on the battlefield, but he rides with his men to meet Saladin and.

And it said I I read somewhere, I wish I had a better like primary source quote. This is just like a rephrasing, but it's basically like because one of his hands was was completely nerve dead, he had to grip a sword in his one good hand, and it was like badly bandaged from all of his like wounds and stuff, but he was still like gripping a sword, like riding a horse and everything. And so What was it? the battle initially goes pretty poorly.

Klemdup. (58:48.566)
Wow.

Amo Bailar (58:56.598)
Which actually leads to the crusaders having to like take a brief refuge in in one of the small kind of port towns south of Jerusalem. Which leads to Saladin getting super cocky. And so he orders his men to fan out. And so instead of saying in one

kind of clump of of military mass, they kind of spread out across a different area. And they kind of just think, all these dudes are punks. We're we're we're just gonna get we're gonna get some free looting in right now. And Baldwin's like, let's counterattack right now. And so Baldwin like gets all of his troops to attack and because they've stayed together and all of the Muslim writers have like broken off into smaller groups, they get demolished.

And the Muslims, this is like the first real like punch in the face that Saladin gets, especially on a military level, especially from the Franks, and it's like a humiliating loss, which is kind yeah, which is kind of insane because Baldwin is, you know, again, we've already talked through all of his all of his obstacles and whatnot, but this is not the last time that Saladin is going to be aiming for Jerusalem. And

Klemdup. (59:58.222)
Wow.

Amo Bailar (01:00:15.52)
I'm not sure if they're gonna have the same luck next time, but there we go. That's our little intro piece.

Klemdup. (01:00:21.93)
Wow. Dude, an hour on the dot. Almost. Good sh good job. Well, I feel like we're set up next week for Battle of Jerusalem.

Amo Bailar (01:00:26.188)
Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

Amo Bailar (01:00:34.102)
Yes, sir. Yeah. There's another fight coming and yeah, like we said, poor Baldwin. Also, for bi for the big fans of Kingdom of Heaven, there is no data that tells us that he wore that dope like sil silver metallic mask. apparently his leprosy wasn't facially visible until he got older anyways. and by older I mean like twenty two, which is not old, but

Klemdup. (01:01:03.468)
Right, right. Well I tell you what, I'm gonna try to watch Kingdom of Heaven. I'll make Brandy watch it this coming weekend before we do the episode. You get if if you haven't watched it, listeners, why don't we all watch it together, so to speak? We'll watch it all this week.

Amo Bailar (01:01:04.289)
but yeah, no dope mask for for Baldwin, but still

Amo Bailar (01:01:15.158)
I might need to do that too. Yeah.

Amo Bailar (01:01:21.516)
What if we what if what if okay, counteroffer, my my brother. What if at the end of this series we do like a watch party with like all of our listeners? Yeah. Yeah. That could be fun. Done. Alright. I'll figure out how to do it. I it can't be hard. And if it is, we'll abandon it.

Klemdup. (01:01:32.662)
And we finally give our viewers what they were promised. Deal, look it up. Look it up. Figure out how to do a watch party.

Klemdup. (01:01:44.662)
And we'll abandon it. Back to Age of Empires. Yeah.

Amo Bailar (01:01:47.808)
If it is, we'll we'll don't we'll not do it. Also to everyone who watched our video podcast this week, I am very sorry. I am never doing I am never doing a background again. This looks so dumb. It looks awful. It looks so bad. I thought it was fun. I thought it was whimsical. whimsy whimsy really did be in this week.

Klemdup. (01:01:54.506)
You have ruined this. You have ruined this. I I told him it was a bad idea and now he's just a dumb little disembodied head just floating around.

Yeah.

Klemdup. (01:02:11.316)
I know dude. We're Whimsy did you in

Amo Bailar (01:02:16.248)
man. Well, hey, good news for you guys. We've got a chump talk that will be dropping this coming Friday. So make sure to tune in. In fact, we've got a chump talk that was executive produced by one of you of our lovely listeners. And if you would like to pitch in some ideas for our next chump talk, you too can do so. Just follow our link in the show notes or to buy me a coffee and you've got a bunch of perk options for how you yourself can get a little more involved.

Klemdup. (01:02:22.123)
Yeah.

Klemdup. (01:02:41.422)
Mm-hmm.

Klemdup. (01:02:45.844)
Otherwise we're just gonna keep scrolling through LM's ideas whenever we do random episodes. I wonder if LM has caught on to the fact that he's like, Man, I got a lot of episodes that I suggest.

Amo Bailar (01:02:49.816)
That's right.

Amo Bailar (01:02:58.051)
He I he's just the level of influence, man. Yeah, he's his name carries some weight these days. All right, well, thanks everybody for listening. Always a good time, but glad to be back on the crusading horse. And we'll see you again. We'll see you again next week. All right. Peace, guys.

Klemdup. (01:03:04.045)
Yeah.

Klemdup. (01:03:11.504)
NERA

Bye bye.