The battle of Hattin was fought between a Christian army led by the King of Jerusalem, Guy of Lusignan, and a Muslim army led by the Sultan of Egypt and Syria
The battle of Hattin was fought between a Christian army led by the King of Jerusalem, Guy of Lusignan, and a Muslim army led by the Sultan of Egypt and Syria, Saladin. It took place on 3-4 July AD 1187 near the village of Hittin or Hattīn, in present-day Israel.
In late 1095 the First Crusade was launched by Pope Urban ll with the objective of recovering the Holy Land from Islamic rule. This resulted in the capture of Jerusalem and the formation of the Crusader States: the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the County of Edessa, the County of Tripoli and the Principality of Antioch.
In 1147 the Second Crusade was launched to reclaim the County of Edessa, but it failed in its objective and the state ceased to exist.
For decades the warring Christians (Franks) and Muslims (Saracens) fought each other. By the 1180s Saladin's domain stretched from Egypt to the Euphrates River and beyond and he was an ever-present threat to the three remaining Crusader States.
In 1185 he signed a truce with King Baldwin lV of Jerusalem, but in the same year the king died and the following year a troublesome Christian knight, Raynald of Châtillon, attacked and plundered a Muslim caravan and slaughtered and imprisoned many Saracens.
When Saladin heard of this he sent an envoy to Kerak demanding the return of the prisoners and money, but Raynald refused. Saladin was furious and he sent his forces to attack crusader territory, which resulted in the Muslim victory at the Battle of Cresson.
In June 1187 Saladin crossed the River Jordan into the Kingdom of Jerusalem with around 30,000 troops, almost half of whom were cavalry. Meanwhile, the new King of Jerusalem, Guy of Lusignan, raised a large army of his own.
Castles were emptied and thousands of mercenaries were hired to counter the threat of Saladin. In total the Christian army numbered approximately 20,000 soldiers, 1,200 of whom were knights, including several hundred of the Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller. Both leaders had impressive forces.
The Christian army mustered at Sepphoris in the hills of Galilee where the soldiers could keep hydrated from the springs. Saladin knew the Franks held a strong position, therefore he decided to lure them out by laying siege to Tiberias, a city about 25 kilometres or so east of the Christian camp.
Raymond of Tripoli, whose wife was trapped inside Tiberias, gave sound advice to Guy by urging him to remain at Sepphoris. Others had different ideas though, including the Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Gerard of Ridefort, and Raynald of Châtillon, who insisted that the army should march on Saladin at once.
This was unwise as it meant leaving their water supply to travel 25 kilometres through the blistering heat and then, at the end of the march, they would have to fight. But Gerard's foolish advice was accepted and Guy ordered the army to march on Tiberias the next day.
On the morning of 3 July the Christian army set off in three divisions with Raymond of Tripoli commanding the vanguard, the king in the centre and Balian of Ibelin commanding the rearguard. As the large host marched along the old Roman road the sun rose in the sky.
It was a hot day, with very little breeze, made worse by the thick dust trail raised by the marching army. Along the way the Franks found very little water. Cunningly, Saladin had ordered his men to fill in wells and springs to limit water sources along the route of the Christian army.
After a few hours Guy and his army reached the town of Turan, but there was barely enough water there for his army. Before long the Franks marched on but shortly after they had left Turan they suffered hit-and-run attacks from mounted Saracen archers. By now it must have become apparent to many of the Franks that they had been foolish to leave their camp, and as the sun glared down mercilessly, the mouths of the soldiers became ever more parched.
And to make matters worse, Saladin then sent a force to take Turan and cut off any retreat and any chance of water being supplied from the rear. King Guy and his army were walking into a trap and in the hills around their position Saladin's army waited. In the Sultan's own words, the Christians were "unable to flee and not allowed to stay."
At the end of the day Guy ordered his weary army to set up camp for the night. It proved to be a very uneasy night for the Franks. They knew they were surrounded and they could hear the enemy all around—chanting, singing and taunting them. It was said that even if a cat had fled the Christian camp it could not have escaped through Saladin's men.
The next day the Christian army marched on intent on reaching the springs of Hattin to replenish their dehydrated bodies, and Saladin allowed them to move forward. He then ordered his men to burn desert shrub thus filling the air with smoke while his archers began firing at the enemy. The hapless Franks were now in serious trouble. They had spent the night with one eye open and they were tired, dehydrated, and the smoke and dust parched their throats and obscured their view. Worse still, they faced a strong enemy who was constantly replenished with water from the Sea of Galilee (Lake Tiberias).
Saladin patiently waited for the heat of the day before launching an all-out attack on the Franks. As panic began to spread through the crusader ranks, some bravely attacked the Saracens while others attempted to flee but were cut down in the onslaught. Raymond of Tripoli, the man who had insisted on staying at Sepphoris, managed to escape the battle when his cavalry charged at the Muslim ranks who were thus forced to open up and allow the heavy cavalry through.
The battle he left behind became a massacre but considering the hopeless situation, and the fact that they were dehydrated and fatigued, the Christians fought bravely and both sides cut chunks out of each other well into the afternoon. Eventually the remaining Franks gathered around their king on the top of the extinct volcano, the Horns of Hattin, and put up a brave last stand. Muslim chronicler Ibn al-Athir, quoting from the son of Saladin, al-Afdal, wrote:
"When the king of the Franks was on the hill with that band, they made a formidable charge against the Muslims facing them, so that they drove them back to my father [Saladin]. I looked towards him and he was overcome by grief and his complexion pale. He took hold of his beard and advanced, crying out "Give the lie to the Devil!" The Muslims rallied, returned to the fight, and climbed the hill.
When I saw that the Franks withdrew, pursued by the Muslims, I shouted for joy, "We have beaten them!" But the Franks rallied and charged again like the first time and drove the Muslims back to my father. He acted as he had done on the first occasion and the Muslims turned upon the Franks and drove them back to the hill. I again shouted, "We have beaten them!" but my father rounded on me and said, "Be quiet! We have not beaten them until that tent [Guy's] falls." As he was speaking to me, the tent fell. The sultan dismounted, prostrated himself in thanks to God Almighty, and wept for joy."
Following the Muslim victory many of the Christian prisoners were executed, including the hated Raynald of Châtillon, the truce breaker. He was apparently offered a chance to save himself providing that he convert to Islam. But Raynald refused and was decapitated.
Gerard of Ridefort, the man whose advice contributed to the disaster, was imprisoned but his men were all executed. Saladin's secretary, Imad ed-Din, wrote:
"Saladin ordered that they should be beheaded, choosing to have them dead rather than in prison. With him was a whole band of scholars and sufis and a certain number of devout men and ascetics; each begged to be allowed to kill one of them, and drew his sword and rolled back his sleeve."
King Guy survived Saladin's wrath. The sultan stated that "a king does not kill a king."
The victory was complete. Saladin had annihilated the Franks and captured their king and many other high-ranking nobles; all were later ransomed and released. The True Cross of Christ, which the Christian army had proudly carried with it, fell into Muslim hands after the battle and later disappeared. Meanwhile, back on the battlefield, many of the soldiers who fell were left to rot. A year later, historian Ibn al-Athir visited the site and described what he witnessed:
"A year later I crossed the battlefield, and saw the land all covered with their bones, which could be seen even from a distance, lying in heaps or scattered around. These were what was left, after the rest had been carried away by storms or the wild beasts of these hills and valleys."
Just three months after the victory Saladin captured the city of Jerusalem for the Muslims for the first time in 88 years.
. . .
Picture Credits:
1. Battle of Hattin, by Matthew Paris (13th century)
2. Saladin and Guy of Lusignan after the battle. Credit: Said Tahseen
Comments
Post a Comment