volume one

456 HISTOET OF THE CEU3ADES.
vSaladiii, who had at first despised the Christians, now
thought it prudent to gather his powers together to oppose
tliem. After assemhhng his army at Damascus, he crossed
Anti-Libanus, and the mountains of GaUlee, and encamped
at a short distance from Ptolemais. He pitched his tents
and pavilions at the extremity of the plain, on the mountains
of Casan, from whence he could overlook all the sea-coast.
On one side his army extended from the river Belus, and on
the other as far as Jiahumeria, or the Sill of the ATosqiie.
The sultan occupied all the elevated posts, and all the
passages by which the Christians could pass out from the
spot upon which they were encamped. Thus the besiegers
were besieged, and the army before the walls of the city saw
the banners of the Mussulmans floating around it.
The Christians made their intrenchments, dug wide
ditches,* and raised towers at proper distances around their
camp, in order to repulse the attacks of Saladin or the gar-
rison of Ptolemais. The Mussulman army had scarcely
pitched its tents when it presented itself in battle array
before tlie trenches of the Crusaders, and fought with them
several combats, in which victory was doubtful. In one of
these conflicts the sultan penetrated to the city, and after
haA^ing ascertained from the top of the towers the position of
the Crusaders, he joined the garrison in a sortie, and sur-
prised, and drove them into their camp. By entering into
Ptolemais, Saladin revived the courage of the inhabitants
and troops ; he arranged measures necessary for the providing
of supplies, he left them some of his chosen warriors, and
gave them for leaders the most intrepid of his emirs,
^Uelchou, the faithful companion of his victories, and
Karacoush,t whose capacity and bravery had been often
* The chronicle entitled Historia Hierosolymitana relates all th;xt
passed in the kingdom of Jerusalem from 1177 to the siege of Ptoleniciis
inclusively. The Chronicle of the Holy Land, the two continviators of
William of Tyre, Florent and the bishop of Ptolemais, give some particulars
of the siege, but much less than the Arabian historian>, to whom
we shall often have recourse.
t Karacoush was the first minister of Saladin in Egvpt. It was he
who caused the well of Joseph to be dug, built the citadel, and began the
inclosure of Cairo. Karacoush was short and hump-backed. His name
is employed now in Egypt for a sort of Punchinello, who amuses the
people in the streets, in whose mouth are placed abundance of obscenities.