Nothing short of divine will could explain it. The Emir of Aleppo had brought nearly forty thousand troops and possessed absolute cavalry superiority, whereas the Crusaders numbered less than ten thousand. Yet the outcome of a battle with such overwhelming odds was utterly unexpected.
In a single battle, the Crusaders had killed nearly ten thousand men, injured tens of thousands more, and taken over a thousand prisoners. These captives had willingly surrendered, claiming their families could pay a handsome ransom for their lives. The Crusaders, by contrast, had lost a mere three hundred men, with only eighteen Knights killed and thirty-two injured.
For a time, the area outside Hama City was littered with corpses. Belem had them all beheaded, gathering a plentiful supply of ’ammunition’ to continuously harass the defenders in the Mountain Castle.
To his surprise, Belem discovered among the dead the Aleppo Army officer who had been stationed near the Mountain Castle that day. He was another of Yajisiyan’s nephews, and perhaps Mahmud’s brother.
However, Belem never received Mahmud’s surrender. At the crack of dawn on the third day after the Crusaders defeated the Aleppo Army, the citizens near the Mountain Castle were awoken by the light of fire and the smell of smoke. Flames were bursting outward from within the castle.
What was surprising was that not a single soldier inside the Mountain Castle was harmed. They had abandoned the fortress before the fire, casting all their weapons and Armor to the ground. They walked out naked and surrendered to the Crusaders.
Amid the flames engulfing the Mountain Castle, Belem saw the figure of Mahmud.
Mahmud roared with laughter at Belem.
He had not been defeated; he was mocking Belem’s powerlessness. Finally, his silhouette vanished into the fire.
Mahmud had indeed kept his word. He and his home were one, and he had defended Hama with his life.
In retaliation, Belem had all the remaining corpses beheaded. The bodies were then nailed to stakes, lining the road north in the direction of Aleppo.
The Crusaders were, without a doubt, the direct beneficiaries of this war. Through combat, they had won unprecedented honor, surpassing any of their ancestors. They had gone farther than any of the figures recorded in their family chronicles.
Henceforth, no one would dare praise the glories of the past in their presence, for no deeds were more worthy of praise than their own. They had proven their Devotion to God by winning an absolute victory far from the heart of Catholicism, in the midst of a Heretics’ Kingdom.
Hama’s Shiite Believers also benefited. They had proven their worth, ensuring that life in the city would be better for them than for the Sunni. Eric even abolished all of Hama’s previous laws that had discriminated against Christians and the Shiite.
Like Christians, the Shiite could now publicly hold religious ceremonies anytime and anywhere. Shiite Believers could freely celebrate the festival of Ashura within Hama City. Their Theologians and jurists would be protected by Hama’s secular government, allowing them to open their own Mosques and secular schools, determine their own doctrines and laws, and, like Christians, legally hold any government office.
The Shiite Believers were moved to tears of gratitude. This was a level of tolerance they had never before enjoyed, and they hailed the one among them who had deceived Sharafi as a hero.
The only unfortunate ones, it seemed, were the Sunni within the city. Eric expelled a considerable number of them from Hama. Most of their property was ’donated’ by Eric to Hama’s Church to fund its expansion—Eric also planned to build a Monastery and a school—while a small portion was sold off at low prices to Shiite Believers and Armenian Christians.
Eric had begun these tasks even before defeating the Aleppo Army. After Belem captured a Muslim colluding with Aleppo who turned out to be a Shiite, Eric had used it as a pretext to expel another group of Sunnis. Originally, roughly three-quarters of Hama City’s population had been Sunni; now, their numbers were only slightly greater than the Shiites.
As for the Christians in Hama City, they had originally accounted for a negligible one-tenth of the population. Eric specifically brought in a large number of Christians from nearby towns and villages, relocating them to the city. Furthermore, with the slaves Eric had previously freed in Hama, nearly all of the liberated slaves converted to Catholicism.
Now, Christians made up one-third, if not more, of Hama City’s population.
At the same time, Eric enacted a new law requiring every Muslim artisan to take on at least one Christian apprentice and ensure that the apprentice could become a master in his own right within five years.
....
After the fighting ended, Hama held a grand feast that lasted for seven consecutive days.
The soldiers sang songs in praise of God. The bells of Hama’s pitifully small Church rang and masses were held almost without pause, as it was packed with Christians at nearly every hour for all seven days.
The timing was perfect. It was late February, and the last week of the month was traditionally for Carnival, the celebration before the forty days of Lent leading up to Easter.
Thus, the victory at Hama had come at a most opportune time. Nearly every Priest felt that these were auspicious days.
Brother John was so ecstatic he didn’t sleep for three days, holding mass around the Holy Spear night after night. Eric was certain that if Jerusalem didn’t still lie ahead, Brother John would have been more than happy to stay in Hama and become a Bishop.
Eric and the Crusaders rested and refitted in Hama City for a full month. Although the Crusaders’ casualties in the battle for Hama had been light, their equipment had suffered greatly. Many soldiers’ Swords were chipped and blunted, requiring reforging and repair. The Genoese Crossbowmen and English archers had expended nearly all their arrows and Crossbow Arrows, all of which needed to be replenished.