Let's fast forward 2,500 years
or so from the ancient Near
East to Palestine
during the Crusades.
Salahaddin at the time is
the victorious Muslim ruler
whose hold on his princes
and on the territory
is being challenged
by the Crusaders
from Europe and their armies.
But Salahaddin was not only
a victorious ruler and war
strategist.
He was also a
phenomenal negotiator.
Richard the
Lionheart of England,
someone whose name
you might recall,
brings his armies
with him to conquer
the Palestinian coastal cities
of the time in the year 1191
and attempts violently to retake
Jerusalem for the Crusaders
and dislodge Salahaddin.
But Salahaddin remained
entrenched in Jerusalem
there while Richard
and his armies
grew weaker and
fractious and began
fighting among themselves,
while Richard longed
to return home to England.
In the meantime,
though, Richard also
tried his hand at some
interesting negotiations.
He sent delegations to
meet with Salahaddin,
who refused to meet with
him, but became friendly
with the brother of Salahaddin,
a prince name al-Adil.
The Arab chronicler
of the time who
was at the right
hand of Salahaddin
wrote that the intention of
the Franj, the Crusaders,
in sending messengers
to us was primarily
to probe our strong
and weak points,
and our aim in receiving
them in receiving them
was exactly the same.
So this tells you that
negotiations at the time were
not just about making deals,
but they were also about
intelligence gathering and
attempts to get by bargaining
what you cannot take by force.
Richard, through his
friendship with al-Adil,
proposes to Salahaddin
that Richard's sister marry
Salahaddin's brother al-Adil--
now he overlooked that his
sister was already married,
but that's a different problem--
and that together
they would rule
over a joint
Christian-Muslim Jerusalem.
Salahaddin began making
military alliances
with Richard's
associates, a prince
called the Marquis
Conrad, who was
willing to turn against Richard.
And at the same time,
Salahaddin said yes
to the proposed
marriage, thinking
that Richard was just
making a play for time
and wasn't very serious.
And that was, in fact, the case.
So these were
interesting examples
of not just trying
to get what you can
through negotiation what you
can't get through warfare,
but there were also some
interesting back-channel deals
where the rulers were
going around each other
and trying to make alliances
with their counterparts'
associates.
Salahaddin, in any case,
outwaited Richard, encouraged
the military stalemate,
and then negotiations--
he then began negotiations
for a five-year peace
agreement, which Richard
signed in the year 1192
so that he could
get home to England.
The Crusaders were permitted
into Jerusalem to pray.
Richard invited
Salahaddin to be--
Richard was invited by
Salahaddin to be his guest,
but Richard declined
the invitation
and quickly left for England
without ever having laid eyes
on the inside of Jerusalem.
So the ancient world
continues to give us
interesting negotiations,
because we had chroniclers
who were writing down what their
rulers were doing at the time
and reporting it as they
saw it, almost in real time.
