Note 913 — Chapter V · THE ADVANCE ON JERUSALEM 1191-1192.

The first version is Bohadin’s, 301, 302; the second, that of Imad-ed-Din, apud Abu Shama, 54. Bohadin calls the castle Mejdel Yaba; in Abu Shama’s compilation the name appears as Mejdel Djenab, but the compiler adds: “This is the name given by El Imad in the Book of the Conquest, but in The Lightning we find ‘Mejdel Yaba’”; while the text of Imad-ed-Din published by Count Landsberg has “Mejdel el Habab” (footnote to Abu Shama, l.c.). Of these Arabic names only one has been located—Mejdel Yaba, called by the Franks Mirabel, which is so far from the Wady el Hesy that it cannot possibly be the place meant (G. Paris, Glossary to Estoire, s.v. “Fiier”). I am indebted to a distinguished Arabic scholar for the information that Mejdel Yaba means “Glory of Yaba,” Mejdel Djenab “Glory of the district,” Mejdel el Habab “Glory of the lover”; and that the Arabic for Castle of Figs or Figtrees would be Kalat-el-Tinat. It is possible that a place bearing one of the three former Arabic names might be called Fig or Figtree Castle by the Franks for some reason quite independent of its native appellation, and that the narratives of the Christian and Moslem writers may be only two different versions of one event; but there is also another possibility. Imad-ed-Din dates the disaster of the Franks at Mejdel Djenab (or Yaba, or El Habab) 14 Jomada I, i. e. May 28, the date given by Ambrose and the Itinerarium for the capture of Figtree Castle; but Bohadin says it occurred “when the host had spent the fourteenth day of Jomada I” at El Hesy. This should apparently mean that it took place on the following day, i. e. 15 Jomada I = May 29. To me it seems more probable that this version is the correct one, and that the Frank and the Moslem writers are here relating two distinct events, one of which took place on May 28 and the other on May 29. If so, it would not be unnatural that of two expeditions made within such a short period, each party should record only the one which terminated in their own favour.