40 ISLAM AT WAR
mascus, and one from Aleppo, were defeated. After a desperate defense
of six months, the city fell to treachery. Bohemund the Norman became
the first Count of the city.
The crusaders themselves did not have an easy time of it during the
siege. Food supplies were used up and local forage depleted. Knights were
forced to eat their horses. Men sickened and died, and some turned to
cannibalism. Even with the capture of the city, supplies remained low as
the garrison had devoured most of the foodstuffs during the long siege. It
was during this period of famine and depression that a famous incident
occurred—that of the Holy Lance.
In June 1098, immediately after the fall of Antioch, the Turkish gov-
ernor of Mosul in Persia arrived with a great army composed of Turks,
Persians, Arabs, and Egyptians. The crusaders were badly outnumbered
and unable to stand a siege in the unprovisioned city. Fortunately, they
were saved by a miracle. One Peter Bartholomew, a priest traveling with
the army, claimed that the Holy Lance that had pierced Christ’s side was
buried under the floor of a chapel. Miraculously, or so it seemed, when
the chapel floor was excavated, Peter himself found the holy relic. Thus
inspired by the wonderful discovery, the Frankish army marched out of
the city and attacked the combined host confronting them. The Muslim
army was scattered and the last mobile Muslim force in the Middle East
was defeated. Lacking an army to defend it, Jerusalem and nearly the
whole of Palestine fell to the invaders.
There is an interesting footnote to the story about the Holy Lance. In
the early months of 1099, the crusader army was having difficulties re-
ducing a pair of small fortresses. As spirits sank, Peter Bartholomew con-
tinued to have visions and revelations. He was treated with increasing
skepticism, as his miraculous insights ceased to bear fruit. He furiously
demanded the right to defend the honor of his revelations, and so on Good
Friday 1099, a huge bonfire was prepared. To show his divine approval,
Peter calmly and deliberately walked into the middle of it, paused, and
walked out the far side. This would have been a powerful sign, had he
not died almost immediately from the burns that he received. In Peter’s
defense, he seems to have shown an honest belief in what he was about,
and he did provide what was taken for a miracle at the crucial moment.
He was by no means the worst of the crusaders.
With the capture of Antioch and the defeat of the great Muslim army,
the crusaders were able to set about building their kingdoms. From 1099
until 1144 the feudal lords built their fiefs and castles. Like their Muslim
predecessors, they engaged in civil wars with one another and generally
squandered the time of peace. The conquest of Middle Eastern states by