Day of Decision: The Horns of Hattin
When the Muslims rode out of the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th Century AD, among the territories they conquered was the Holy Land, which included Jerusalem and all the other places that Jesus Christ had walked and preached in. Nevertheless, Muslim and Christian enjoyed cordial relations in the Holy Land for over four centuries, with Christians permitted to worship as they pleased and to go on pilgrimage to places they considered sacred.
That changed in the middle of the 11th Centuries, when the Seljuk Turks came boiling out of Central Asia, defeating a Byzantine Army in Asia Minor, overrunning much of the Holy Land. Muslims themselves, the Seljuk’s closed the holy places to Christian pilgrims and otherwise persecuted non Muslims.
As a result, Pope Urban preached a Crusade to liberate the Holy Land from the Turks. Christian nobles gathered armies, who “took the cross”, and made the perilous journey out of Europe and into the Middle East. After bloody fighting, the Crusaders took Jerusalem, massacring thousands of the inhabitants. The Kingdom of Jerusalem was established, as well as other Crusader states to the north, including the Principality of Antioch, the County of Edessa, and the County of Tripoli.
The Crusader Kingdoms, as they were called, were set up in a European style feudal system with the Latin inhabitants who choose to settle in the Holy Land on the top strata of society. They over lorded the native population, many of which were still Muslim. The Latin population was always small, since even people from Europe who would visit on Crusade or pilgrimage would tend not to stay permanently. The native population owed their Latin overlords food and other substance, but not military service. This created a problem in maintaining an armed force to fight off the inevitable encroachments from surrounding Muslim states or, on occasion, fighting between Crusader Kingdoms.
This problem was partly solved by the establishment of fighting orders, the Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitaller. These two orders, headquartered in Jerusalem, owned vast tracks of land in the Holy Land and lived in huge, well stocked castles. They were not vassals of the various Christian monarchs, but rather were beholden directly to the Pope. As a practical matter, both orders fought in every campaign against the Muslims and were both at the Battle of Hattin.
Trading fleets from the Italian city states of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa provided much needed income. Wool was imported into and through the Crusader Kingdoms. Silk, cotton, spices, sugar, and oranges were traded to Europe. The Crusader Kingdoms also taxed Muslim caravans and collected tribute from surrounding Muslim states.
The crises that led to the Muslim reconquest of Jerusalem started with the accession of Baldwin IV as King of Jerusalem. It was soon apparent that Baldwin IV suffered from leprosy, and therefore would not produce an heir. Two opposing factions arose in the Kingdom. One was the Court faction, led by Baldwin’s mother Agnes of Courtney and supported by several new comers to the Holy Land, including Raynald of Chatillian, Guy of Lusignan, and Amalric of Lusignan. The second or Nobles faction consisted of long term Latin nobles in the Kingdom and included Count Raymond of Tripoli. These two factions fought over who would control the Kingdom after the death of Baldwin IV.
The focus of the succession was upon Baldwin’s sister, Sybella. Raymond of Tripoli arranged for Sybella to marry William of Montferrat, a union which produced a son, the future Baldwin V, just before William died. Meanwhile Balian of Ibelin joined the Nobles faction by marrying Baldwin IV’s step mother, Maria.
Despite his illness, Baldwin IV was an able ruler, defeating the forces of Saladin in 1177 at the Battle of Montgisard. Nevertheless, his health began to fail in 1180. Sybella was married again, to Guy of Lusignan, who became regent as Baldwin neared death. But when Baldwin IV died, Sybella and Guy were bypassed entirely and his nephew, Baldwin V became King, with Raymond of Tripoli as Regent. Baldwin V died soon after, and the Kingdom fell to Sybella on the condition that she annul her marriage with Guy and choose another, a condition to which she agreed provided that the choice would be hers. She promptly remarried Guy, thwarting the ambitions of the Nobles faction. An attempted coup to put Sybella’s half sister Isabella and her husband Humphrey of Toron on the throne fizzled when Humphrey refused to start a civil war and defected to the Court faction. Many of the Nobles faction such as Raymond and Balian left the Kingdom in disgust.
In the meantime, a charismatic Muslim leader, a Kurd named Saladin, had become Sultan of Egypt and Syria, thereby controlling the Muslim states surrounding the Crusader Kingdoms. Guy’s Kingship of Jerusalem proved to be a disaster. His ally, Raynald, provoked Saladin to open war by attacking Muslim caravans and even attempting a mad cap expedition to take and sack Mecca. Worse, Raymond of Tiberius made common cause with Saladin against Guy, allowing a Muslim garrison at Tiberius.
However, due to the good offices of Balian of Ibelin, a reconciliation was made between Guy and Raymond. The two combined forces, and marched on Saladin’s forces at Tiberius.
The Battle
Raymond and Guy immediately quarreled over what the best plan of battle was. They had assembled an army of 1200 knights and about 2000 foot soldiers at Acre on the coast. In the meantime, Saladin had seized Tiberius and had locked up the remains of the garrison in the fortress, including Raymond’s wife. Raymond argued that they could hold out at the fortress of Sephoria, forcing Saladin to attack them in a strong position. Guy argued that the Crusaders should march immediately to relieve Tiberius. Guy won the argument after Raymond was accused of cowardice, and the Crusader army marched.
This was exactly what Saladin wanted, shrewdly realizing that his best hope for victory was in open battle and not in taking well fortified, well garrisoned Crusader castles. He harassed the Crusader army throughout their route of march with mounted archers. Eventually the Crusaders halted on a plain surrounded by a double hill known at the Horns of Hattin and made camp. It was the 4th of July, 1187. Saladin surrounded the Crusaders, now suffering from thirst, setting fire to the brush to further confuse his enemies with smoke.
The Crusaders formed battle lines and attacked, trying to reach some springs near the Sea of Galilee, in order to secure water. Saladin checked this advance, blocking both the Crusader advance and any line they had of retreat. The knights, led by Raymond, charged twice, but were cut off from the infantry after the second charge.
The infantry, abandoned by the knights, retreated up the Horns of Hattin and attempted to make a stand. The knights had their horses slaughtered by Muslin mounted archers, but some of them made it to the Horns as well. There, Saladin defeated the Crusaders in detail, slaughtering many and forcing the rest to surrender. Very few Crusaders, perhaps three thousand, including Balian and Raymond, escaped the trap.
Aftermath
Saladin captured Guy, Raynald, and many other nobles. Saladin slew Raynald by his own hand, as he had vowed to do, but he treated Guy with all courtesy as befitted a fellow King. The captured Templars and Hospitallers were also slaughtered out of hand, as they were considered the most fanatical of the Crusaders. Guy was taken to Damascus and was soon ransomed. Raymond died of pleurisy later that year.
Saladin commenced a lightening campaign to take the Holy Land away from the Crusaders. By September he had taken Acre, Nablus, Jaffa, Toron, Sidon, Beruit, and Ascalon. Only Tyre held out. Jerusalem fell on October 2nd after a brief siege, with the surrender negotiated by Balian which allowed the Christian inhabitants to depart unmolested.
The defeat of the Crusaders at the Horns of Hattin and the subsequent fall of Jerusalem was a shock to the Kingdoms of Europe. A Third Crusade was preached, this time called the Crusader of the Kings since armies of England and France led by their kings responded to the call. Despite much success on the coast and the leadership skills of the English King Richard Lion Heart, Jerusalem remained in Muslim hands. It would be so for over seven hundred years, when it finally fell to another English Army, under the command of General Allenby, during the First World War.
Ironically, Jerusalem is currently held neither by Christian or Muslim, but by the Jewish State of Israel. But the city, holy to three faiths, is still the center of struggle and worship, as it has been for centuries.
