[Footnote !: The Knights Templars, abhorring the perfidious
breach of treaty partly, perhaps, out of jealousy of the
Hospitallers, refused to join in this enterprise. Will. Tyre c.
xx. p. 5. Wilken, vol. iii. part ii. p. 117 - M.]
[Footnote 45: For this great revolution of Egypt, see William of
Tyre, (l. xix. 5, 6, 7, 12 - 31, xx. 5 - 12,) Bohadin, (in Vit.
Saladin, p. 30 - 39,) Abulfeda, (in Excerpt. Schultens, p. 1 -
12,) D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient. Adhed, Fathemah, but very
incorrect,) Renaudot, (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 522 - 525, 532 -
537,) Vertot, (Hist. des Chevaliers de Malthe, tom. i. p. 141 -
163, in 4to.,) and M. de Guignes, (tom. ii. p. 185 - 215.)]
The hilly country beyond the Tigris is occupied by the
pastoral tribes of the Curds; ^46 a people hardy, strong, savage
impatient of the yoke, addicted to rapine, and tenacious of the
government of their national chiefs. The resemblance of name,
situation, and manners, seems to identify them with the
Carduchians of the Greeks; ^47 and they still defend against the
Ottoman Porte the antique freedom which they asserted against the
successors of Cyrus. Poverty and ambition prompted them to
embrace the profession of mercenary soldiers: the service of his
father and uncle prepared the reign of the great Saladin; ^48 and
the son of Job or Ayud, a simple Curd, magnanimously smiled at
his pedigree, which flattery deduced from the Arabian caliphs.
^49 So unconscious was Noureddin of the impending ruin of his
house, that he constrained the reluctant youth to follow his
uncle Shiracouh into Egypt: his military character was
established by the defence of Alexandria; and, if we may believe
the Latins, he solicited and obtained from the Christian general
the profane honors of knighthood. ^50 On the death of Shiracouh,
the office of grand vizier was bestowed on Saladin, as the