He was skilled in the learning of the East, added to which he possessed that refinement of manners induced by the usages of chivalry. The virtues of a warlike age appeared in him pre-eminently; he was brave, generous, and true to his word, preserving his plighted faith with a degree of scrupulousness not often observed by the princes of Christendom.
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, Coins of Sovereigns of the SelJuk Dynasty.
Descended from the race of the Scljuks, he had warmly embraced the religion of Mahomet, whoso doctrines taught him to pursue to utter destruction all the enemies of the prophet. But Saladin was no bigoted Mussulman, and when the foes he had conquered appeared before him as suppliants, ho seldom failed to grant the mercy they implored. It is needless to say that this picture has its reverse,
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and that the character of the great soldan was not altogether blameless. He wns in the highest degree ambitious, and his elevation to the throne was obtained by the unscrupulous shedding of blood. He trampled down whomsoever stood in his way; but, having attained that elevation, ho proved himself a wise and just monarch, and his rule, on the whole, was free from tyranny.
The soldan and the Christian king, both of whom stood far
above their contemporaries in military prowess and ability, had learnt mutual respect, and not all the injuries which each had inflicted on the other had power to subdue this feeling. Great minds can afford to be generous, and the depreciation of the merits of a rival seldom arises from any other cause than a consciousness of inferiority. Saladin and Richard mot together many times with interchanges of courtesy, and the soldiers of both armies mingled in the tournament and in other martial exercises. Where the laws of chivalry prevailed, the warrior sheathed his enmity with his sword, and would have regarded it as a foul stain upon his knighthood to doubt for a moment the faith pledged to him by a foeman.
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Pilgrims were continually arriving in tho Holy Land from Europe, and from each traveller who appeared in the presence of Richard, ho learnt news which compelled him to hasten his return to England, although ho had sworn never to abandon tho expedition so long as ho had a warhorse to eat. In the hope of establishing peace among all parties, he consented that Conrad of Montferrat should be crowned king of Jerusalem, and gave to Lusignan, by way of compensation, tho island of Cyprus
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