August 1189 A.D. – The Holy Land

From the second century after the time of the Prophet, the slave warriors, the Mamluks had begun to emerge as a key feature of the Muslim military. Their prodigious fighting skills meant that they were feared throughout the known world. Purchased when young, they were trained to become ferocious warriors. As they were trafficked from outside the Muslim lands, they owed no loyalty to any local nobleman or tribe, only to their master. It was into this harsh, unforgiving world that Yenovk was thrust.

He was seventeen and could by now hardly remember his mother, or his father, or any of the other members of his family. His childhood seemed like another world to him. His family now, were the six other boys that had made up the class in his madrasa, the local religious school.

They were all Armenian and they had all joined the madrasa at the age of twelve or thirteen. Joined perhaps gave the wrong impression. They had been enrolled in the school. After being sold as slaves by traders who had driven them down through Turkey, to the banks of the Tigris.

Yenovk was a tall strong youth and had been purchased by a local politician. Shortly thereafter, he had been sent to the school, where he had joined the five other boys who had already begun their religious training. The next five years had been spent in rigorous teaching from the Quran. Although he’d studied diligently, academic work did not come naturally to Yenovk. But he performed well enough to keep up with his classmates.

And he had become a committed Muslim. That was a genuine enough belief. He could remember a little of his upbringing in southern Armenia. His family had been a religious one. They held Christian beliefs, and he could vaguely remember some of the stories from the New Testament. The teachings about Jesus from his new instructor fitted well enough with his memories.

The teacher had begun his Muslim education by going over the basic five pillars of Islam. Yenovk had no problem with, shahada, the first, there is no God but the true God and that Muhammad is the Messenger of God. He’d always been taught that there was only one God, and if Jesus was a messenger from Him then why shouldn’t there be others.

The second pillar, salut, the daily prayers also seemed a sensible idea. It seemed very similar to the prayer schedule of the monks of which his family had told him. The third pillar, zakat, or the giving of alms to the poor, was to Yenovk a very laudable goal. His family had been reasonably wealthy and they had given to people poorer than themselves, wherever possible. This direction also fitted well with the teachings of Jesus that he’d received from his parents and teachers in his previous life in Armenia.

The fourth pillar sawm, was fasting during the Holy month of Ramadan. Yenovk knew that many Christians also went through a period of fasting to reflect Christ’s times in the wilderness. So this also seemed very similar to his childhood belief background.

The last pillar was hajj, pilgrimage to Mecca, where the Prophet had lived. Yenovk had heard many tales of Christian pilgrimages and this principle was again no surprise to the young man.

To Yenovk’s naive mind the basic belief system of his new religion, seemed very similar to that of his Christian background. His new teacher had even described Christians along with those of the Jewish faith as fellow People of the Book. But he railed against the Christians for allowing that Jesus was the actual Son of God, and for worshipping the Holy Trinity. Even those thoughts were not that strange to Yenovk. He could vaguely remember from his childhood in Ani, his father conversing with his friends on a Christian sect that he was studying. The Paulicians were founded in seventh century Armenia. They believed that Jesus was a messenger of the true God, rather than being his literal son. If Yenovk’s father’s studies were to be believed, some of his forefathers had the same view of Jesus as his Islamic instructor.

However, although Yenovk could see many similarities between his religious background and his new master’s beliefs, it was apparent that the rituals and traditions that underpinned the two codes were completely different. And Yenovk had spent five long years learning in detail about the Islamic way of life.

He learnt the Quran by heart, and went at great length through the great body of the Hadith, the sayings of the Prophet. As he became older, Yenovk became aware of the great battles that had been raging for a century over the control of the city of Jerusalem. Along with his classmates he could not understand why armies had come from across the sea, to fight in the land where Jesus had his ministry. Instead, why not send scholars to study?

His religious instructor taught that Islam was a religion of peace, and there was no obligation on the faithful to convert others by force. But their teacher reminded them that there were times when arms were justified.

“Remember the words we have learnt in the Holy Book, ‘To those against whom war is made, permission is given to defend themselves, because they are wronged’.”

He went on to describe the appalling carnage, when a century ago, the Franks, as the Western invaders were called, eventually gained control over the Holy City. Ten thousand residents of Jerusalem, many of them women and children had fled for safety to the Temple of Solomon when the walls were breached.

But no mercy was shown. Every living believer was slain. Blood ran in the courtyard to such a depth that it covered the ankles of the attackers. The class was left in no doubt that were they to be asked to fight the Franks, they would be defending Islam from the horrific atrocities of the Infidels. They were invaders from foreign countries that had no right to live in this land.

Yenovk thought back to the Christian teaching he’d received as a young boy. And the fact that the Franks claimed Christ was on their side. The Jesus he’d been taught about could never have supported the barbaric acts of the Infidel invaders.

Shortly after his seventeenth birthday, everything changed. It was time for the class to progress from religious to military training. This was more to Yenovk’s taste. He remembered the words of his teacher as he was leaving for the Mamluk academy.

“You have completed your work here. As you move on, take heed to work hard at the next stage of your instruction. You will not be able to assume your proper position in society until you have acquired the complete and necessary knowledge.”

Yenovk didn’t need the reminder. The military training was not work to him. He had seen at first hand, how important fighting skills were in the world he inhabited. Had he not been taken from his family by strength of force?

Even though they were now young men, Yenovk and his comrades were still operating under a strict code of conduct, which included modesty, order and strictness. And even though they were amongst fighting men, they still dressed in simple clothes of cotton and flax. The students were under constant scrutiny of instructors to make sure their behaviour was impeccable. On completion of their training, the young men would become Mamluks. They would be full members of the great Islamic slave army.

Yenovk passed out with great style and was introduced to his new master, Badr al-Din Lu’lu’. He was an important member of the community in Mosul. Complete loyalty was expected and given.