SOURCE: “The Encirclement” in The Crusade: The World’s Debate, Cassell and Company Ltd., 1937, pp. 255–85.

In the following essay, Belloc analyzes Saladin's role in deciding the fate of the Christians in the Holy Land between the Second and Third Crusades. Belloc stresses that other scholars have made too much of Saladin's alleged respect for and fair treatment of his enemies.

I

The Encirclement

The attack of Europe upon the Asiatic is over and has failed. The rest of the story is but one thing. It is the mortal sickness and death of the Crusading State.

The breakdown of the expedition against Damascus, “The Defeat of the Second Crusade,” marks the outward visible manifestation of that inward ruin of the Christian Kingdom—the potential, impending ruin of it—which could be instinctively felt throughout the Holy Land ever since the fall of Edessa and even earlier: from the moment...