I apologize those who are Muslim, Arabic, or the latter in the category, since I will write down Arabic writing in this, if it's incorrect, then tell me the correct saying.
Chapter 11, Déception de l'Imam
1158, Gaza
"وقال انه هو الإمام الثاني عشر يجب ان تأتي مرة نتخذ فيها القدس ، وجميع الأراضي المقدسة!
"He who is the Twelfth Imam, shall come once we take Jerusalem, and all of the Holy Land!" the man who is Al-Hakim yells out to his major army of Fatimid Shi'ites, following a large roar of his men. The following day, his major force launches out into Ascalon, the garrison there however, was well supplied with the docks, and had a well enough army to defend the castle for at least a year, the latter castles outside of Ascalon had trouble, the castle in which Manasses was held was overwhelmed, thinking that Manasses was the Constable of Jerusalem (Only that he had been abandoned as Humphrey of Toron became Constable), he disappeared in the Bowels of an Egyptian Prison, never seen again.
The court, now restored, with Amalric and Baldwin III as Co-Rulers, were alarmed by this when the message broke out during the Haute Cour. The two for the first time had to work together in order to defeat a common foe. Then, when Humphrey of Toron was sent out to sally the forces in Ascalon, the garrison at Montreal, reported of a force of the same size as the Fatimids, they also said that the forces overran the southern settlements below them. Worried of stretching their forces to the brink, Baldwin at Amalrics opposition, hired the Rambunctious Raynald de Chatillon to enforce the region (Due to the shortage of men and generals), Patriarch Fulk of Angouleme was sent to the other crusader states along with the other patriarchs of Tripoli, Antioch, and Edessa to discuss of sending forces to help.
However there wasn't enough time for them to come, Ascalon, Montreal, and even far as Kerak, were under siege. Al-Hakim though, was a very patient man, he would let the enemy starve out, then by demoralizing the people inside, sending them to lash out everybody to fight, only to be cut down, a very useful tactic Al-Hakim learned during his time while fighting over the viziers in Egypt. The tactic nearly worked, due to the high Islamic population in Ascalon which during the third day of the siege, many Muslims started to usurp the Rulers in Ascalon, only to fail, and had their flailed bodies hung over the walls. Another issue was that Al-Hakim, though he had a large force, concentrated much on Ascalon and the approaching Jaffa, had minimal forces in Kerak and Montreal, a big problem was trust, because the Fatimid Viziers were attacking each other, there was a lot of untrustworthy people to command, thus, Al-Hakim had to place his own family members as generals and captains, who did not do well as Military Commanders.
By the next few weeks, forces from Tripoli and Antioch came to help Jerusalem, Baldwin III gave command of these forces to his regent, Humphrey of Toron, instead of attacking Ascalon firsthand, made a wise decision in eliminating the forces in Kerak, this would cause the forces in the East and South to collapse with only the Main Force merely attacking Ascalon, it worked however, Humphrey was killed when he was relieving Kerak itself, without Humphrey, the two rulers had no choice but to recruit Raynald as the Lord of Oultrejordan to lead on the defense. Although Raynald was disliked among the court, his tactics of brutality and shock attacks ironically saved Oultrejordan from the Fatimids. The news of this disappointed Al-Hakim, however while Ascalon was under siege, Jaffa was finally reached by the Fatimids, bringing siege to the city, although Oultrejordan was lost, the Fatimids still had a chance by taking along the Levantine coast, if they could take Ascalon and Jaffa.
However in a surprising move, Raynald without orders, demanded to take the southern region or the Aqaba Gulf Coastline, this region had very poor defense and was prone to be invaded, because the breakdown with the Fatimids in Egypt, many of the Sunni locales here were untrustworthy towards there Shi'ite rulers. Although Raynald was eager to take this region under Christian rule, he mainly just wanted to gain it for his reason in Oultrejordan. Raynald made a counter-invasion, and succeeded all the way to Aqaba, the Sunnis broke down and revolted against the Fatimids, only to be cut down by Raynalds forces, when a relief force came, they tried to bring Aqaba to their hands, but failed. The news of this change angered Al-Hakim who is now getting desperate and fearful, Ascalon and Jaffa were too vigilant to fall, many of the Muslims who tried to revolt were executed or silenced, Al-Hakim decided to siege in a final offense, which ended with the Fatimids having more casualties than it was thought of, while the guards still held the Citadel of Ascalon, while in Jaffa, Amalric and his forces finally came after Baldwin III was handling problems in Jerusalem, by day's end, Amalric won the battle and reclaimed Jaffa under his lordship again.
These change of events showed that even if the Fatimids were strong enough to have a force to invade, they suffered through internal conflicts and problems that plagued them for years. The worse yet to come was when Al-Hakim, decided to spearhead the force, in order to bring a moral boost and turn the tide, he brought his main force towards Jaffa and retake it. But Amalric was supposedly told off of this by a traitor, according to sources, he was a corrupted Imam who knew of these plans (Since many Shi'ite Imams were in Al-Hakims meetings) was given a large sum of money if he could tell of the Fatimids plans to counter invade Jaffa. This caused Amalric to ambush Al-Hakims forces along the way, during the battle, Al-Hakim was shot by an arrow, when he tried to retreat back to Ascalon without any care of his wound, he died.
His death sent shockwaves in Fatimid Egypt, nicknaming the event as "The Deception of the Imam", without his support and tactics, the entire army crumbled, Ascalon was later retaken after the remnants of the army left in the siege collapsed. To make matters worse, the Crusaders who were behind there tail, assault Gaza, because the army were exhausted, depleted, and collapsing, Gaza fell and later became a subject to the Templars, instead of the Kingdom losing territory, they gained more territory, taking the Aqaba Coastline, and Gaza.
This failed attack brought the Fatimid Caliphate to the brink of anarchy, the Sunnis and Shi'ite citizens rebelled and revolted against the Caliph, much of the Hejazi coastline was lost due to the losing connection with Aqaba, leaving the Zengids to take it by the following years. But a few months later in Jerusalem, Baldwin III died, supposedly he accidentally taken an overdose of medicine while having an illness and died leaving his young wife Theodora, however he did succeed in having a daughter who he named her: Alice. Without Baldwin, Amalric was given the throne, however many believed that Amalric was the one who poisoned Baldwin, or supposedly, a Fatimid Assassin did it as well. Now as the King of Heaven, his popularity and intelligence brought the kingdom to its beginnings of the Golden Era as the year 1160 began to begin.
But in Cairo, anarchy enveloped, the Fatimid Caliphate merely collapsed, and without the weak state to continue, it was now open for a new nation to rise, Nur ad-Din noticed this, seeing that his Shi'ite foe collapsing, it was time he begin his claim, sending his top commanders, Shawar, Shirkuh, and even Saladin, the Zengids began to arm themselves in the Hejazi ports, the time of the Fatimids were falling, and the rise of a new Caliphate was rising.
