Siege of Jerusalem (1187)
Balian von Ibelin hands over Jerusalem to Saladin, from Les Passages faits Outremer par les Français contre les Turcs et autres Sarrasins et Maures outremarins , around 1490
| date | September 20 - October 2, 1187 |
|---|---|
| place | Jerusalem |
| output | Ayyubid victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| unknown | clearly superior |
| losses | |
|
unknown |
unknown |
Montgisard - Jakobsfurt - Kerak - Cresson - Hattin - Jerusalem
The siege of the city of Jerusalem by Saladin took place from September 20 to October 2, 1187 and ended with the peaceful surrender of the city.
prehistory
After Saladin had defeated the armed forces of the Crusader states at Hattin , he conquered a large part of the now poorly defended fortresses and cities of the Crusaders and finally turned to their capital, Jerusalem . Balian von Ibelin , who had come to Jerusalem after a happy escape from Hattin to bring his wife Maria Komnena and his children to safety, was meanwhile from the masters of the city, namely Queen Sibylle and the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Heraclius of Caesarea , been moved to organize the defense of the city.
On Sunday, September 20, 1187, Saladin reached Jerusalem with a large army, set up camp and began the siege. Saladin's army was well equipped with siege equipment and outnumbered the Crusaders by far. There were only two knights in Jerusalem who, like Balian, had escaped from Hattin, which is why Balian unceremoniously elevated every boy who came from a noble family and was over 15 years old, as well as thirty or forty citizens of the city to the knighthood. Meanwhile, the population of Jerusalem was greatly swollen by refugees from the surrounding area; there were fifty women and children for one man.
The siege
On September 21, Saladin's forces began attacking the north and north-west walls of Jerusalem. The defenders put up a bitter resistance and the low sun blinded the attackers. The fortifications turned out to be too strong, so that Saladin called off the attacks.
On the night of September 25th to 26th, he moved his camp to the Mount of Olives on the northeast side of the city. While Saladin's archers and throwing machines provided cover with heavy fire, his pioneers began to undermine the pillar gate, not far from where the Crusaders entered Jerusalem on the First Crusade in 1099 . On September 29th, they made a major breach in the city wall. The defenders manned the breach and fought back the ensuing assault with ferocious doggedness, but overall the situation was hopeless. The Christian soldiers planned to make one last vigorous sortie and to be martyred if necessary, but Patriarch Heraclius contradicted them, arguing that their wives and children would be at the mercy of inevitable slavery if they did. Balian joined him and began negotiations with Saladin, who only entered into talks when Balian threatened to destroy the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque .
After much haggling, Saladin and Balian made a deal: the Christians laid down their arms and each of them was given the opportunity to buy themselves out and get their belongings free. The price was ten dinars for a man, five for a woman and one for a child. When Balian pointed out that there were 20,000 poor people in the city who could never raise this bounty, Saladin had offered to have them drawn for a lump sum of 100,000 dinars. Knowing that this sum could not be raised, Balian agreed with Saladin that at least 7,000 of them would be allowed to leave the city for a lump sum of 30,000 dinars. The rest of the population who could not buy their way out were taken into slavery. But Saladin spared all old people (either out of pity or simply because they were not good workers) and gave his brother al-Adil , at his request, 1,000 slaves, which he released out of pity.
Thus Saladin moved into the city on October 2, 1187 - after 88 years of Christian rule. The date had a special symbolic meaning for the Muslims - according to the Muslim calendar , this day was the 27th Rajab , the anniversary (see al-Isrāʾ ) on which Mohammed allegedly visited Jerusalem in his sleep and was carried there to heaven.
Unlike the Christian conquerors, who after the violent conquest of 1099 caused a bloodbath among the civilian population, there were no violent riots when Jerusalem fell thanks to the surrender. Saladin deployed guards who were effective in preventing looting, rape or killings from occurring.
consequences
Jerusalem, according to the (Christian) understanding of the time, the center of the world and as important for Christianity as Mecca for Islam , was lost to Christianity. Although most of Christian life took place in Europe, the loss of Jerusalem was of enormous importance. The spiritual center of Christianity had fallen into the hands of pagans.
The fall of Jerusalem alarmed Christian Europe and triggered the Third Crusade , which was led by the three most powerful monarchs in Christian Europe.
With the capture of Jerusalem, Saladin consolidated his power and, as it turned out, had dealt the decisive blow to the Outremer . Even if some fortifications and cities were to last for decades, the capture of Jerusalem marked the beginning of the end of the Middle Eastern Christian kingdom.
literature
- Steven Runciman: History of the Crusades. Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-39960-6 , p. 763 ff.
- Adrian J. Boas: Jerusalem in the time of the crusades. Routledge, London 2001, ISBN 0-415-23000-4 , p. 15 ff.
- Sylvia Schein: Gateway to the heavenly city. Crusader Jerusalem and the Catholic West (1099-1187). Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot 2005, ISBN 0-7546-0649-X , p. 159 ff.
