Battle of Hattin
4 July 1187 · in Battle View, played out step by step on the ground where it was fought
Saladin destroyed the army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem near Tiberias, leading to his recapture of Jerusalem later that year.
The sides
- Kingdom of Jerusalem, led by Guy of Lusignan: about 20,000 men
- Ayyubids, led by Saladin: about 30,000 men
States that fought: Kingdom of Jerusalem, Ayyubid Sultanate.
How it went
Battle of Hattin
Saladin, sultan of Egypt and Syria, has united the Muslim lands around the crusader kingdom of Jerusalem. He crosses the Jordan and besieges Tiberias. King Guy gathers every man he has at the springs of Sephoria and, against Raymond of Tripoli's advice, marches to relieve it.
Thirst
The army leaves the water behind and marches east across the dry plateau in the July heat, harassed by archers. Night falls with no water; Saladin's men surround the camp and set the brush alight so the smoke drifts over it.
The archers
At dawn the Franks struggle on towards the springs of Hattin, the archers shooting into the column from all sides. The foot soldiers, mad with thirst, begin to break away.
Raymond's charge
Raymond charges with the vanguard at Taqi al-Din's men, who simply open their ranks and let the knights through. They ride on and escape, and the ranks close behind them.
The Horns
The foot soldiers flee up the Horns of Hattin, an old volcano, and will not come down. The king pitches his red tent on the slope and the knights gather round it, surrounded.
Two charges
Twice the knights charge downhill at Saladin himself and are thrown back. "We have beaten them!" his son shouts. "Be quiet," Saladin says. "We shall not have beaten them until that tent falls." Then the tent falls.
The True Cross
The relic of the True Cross is taken and the king captured. Saladin gives Guy iced water, kills Reynald of Châtillon with his own hand, and has the Templars and Hospitallers put to death. With its army gone, the kingdom falls; Jerusalem surrenders on 2 October.
Numbers after modern estimates; the crusader army was the largest the kingdom ever raised, some 1,200 knights among it. The camp of the night before, at Meskenah, was some kilometres west of the Horns.
People and wars
- Saladin (c. 1137 CE – 1193 CE): Kurdish founder of the Ayyubid dynasty who became sultan of Egypt and Syria, defeated the crusaders at Hattin and retook Jerusalem in 1187.
- Third Crusade (1189–1192 CE): Led by Richard I of England, Philip II of France and Frederick Barbarossa, it retook Acre and much of the coast but failed to recover Jerusalem.