| Siege of Jerusalem (1099) | |||||||||
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| Part of theFirst Crusade | |||||||||
 Taking of Jerusalem by the Crusaders, 15th July 1099 painting byÉmile Signol (1847),Palace of Versailles | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Crusaders | Fatimid Caliphate | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
Total 25,200~ 31,000 12,200–13,300 soldiers[1][2]
| Total 3,000~4,500[4] | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| ~3,000 killed and wounded[7] | 3,000~70,000 Muslims and Jews massacred[8] | ||||||||
  Jerusalem Site of the siege relative to theMediterranean | |||||||||
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Thesiege of Jerusalem marked the successful end of theFirst Crusade, whose objective was the recovery of the city ofJerusalem and theChurch of the Holy Sepulchre from Islamic control. The five-week siege began on 7 June 1099 and was carried out by theChristian forces of Western Europe mobilized byPope Urban II after theCouncil of Clermont in 1095. The city had been out of Christian control since theMuslim conquest of the Levant in 637 and had been held for a century first by theSeljuk Turks and later by theEgyptian Fatimids. One of the root causes of theCrusades was the hindering of Christianpilgrimages to theHoly Land which began in the 4th century. A number of eyewitness accounts of the battle were recorded, including in the anonymous chronicleGesta Francorum.
After Jerusalem was captured on 15 July 1099, thousands of Muslims and Jews were massacred by Crusader soldiers. As the Crusaders secured control over theTemple Mount, revered as the site of the two destroyedJewish Temples, they also seizedAl-Aqsa Mosque and theDome of the Rock and repurposed them as Christian shrines.Godfrey of Bouillon, prominent among the Crusader leadership, was elected as the firstruler of Jerusalem.
At theCouncil of Piacenza in 1095,Pope Urban II received envoys fromByzantine emperorAlexios I Komnenos askingLatin Christians for assistance in liberating large parts of theByzantine Empire from the Seljuks, who had conquered large parts of the region since 1070.Atsiz ibn Uwaq seized Jerusalem from the Fatimid Caliphate, makingChristian pilgrimage to Jerusalem more difficult and suppressing a revolt in 1077 in a bloodbath.[9] Responding to the call, Urban gave a sermon at theCouncil of Clermont in November 1095, which included a rousing call to arms for the conquest of theHoly Land and the return of theChurch of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem to Christian hands.[10] His appeal marked the beginning of theCrusades, areligious war forGod, in which he guaranteed participants a place in heaven.
After the successfulsiege of Antioch in June 1098, theCrusaders remained in the area for the rest of the year. Thepapal legate,Adhemar of Le Puy, had died, andBohemond of Taranto had claimedAntioch for himself.Baldwin of Boulogne remained inEdessa inUpper Mesopotamia, which had been captured earlier in 1098. There was dissent among the princes over what to do next;Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse, frustrated, left Antioch to capture the fortress atMaarat al-Numan in theSiege of Ma'arra.
By the end of the year, the minor knights and infantry were threatening to march toJerusalem without them. Eventually, on January 13, 1099, Raymond began themarch south along the coast of the Mediterranean, followed byRobert Curthose and Bohemond's nephewTancred, who agreed to become his vassals. On their way, the Crusaders besiegedArqa but failed to capture it, abandoning the siege on May 13. The Fatimids had attempted to make peace on the condition that the Crusaders did not continue towards Jerusalem. This was ignored.Iftikhar al-Dawla, the Fatimid governor of Jerusalem, was aware of the Crusaders' intentions, and he expelled Jerusalem's Christian inhabitants.[11] The further march towards Jerusalem met no resistance.
The Fatimid governorIftikhar al-Dawla prepared the city for the siege after he heard about the arrival of the Crusaders. He prepared an elite troop of 400 Egyptian cavalrymen and expelled allEastern Christians from the city for fear of being betrayed by them (in thesiege of Antioch, an Armenian man, Firouz, had helped Crusaders enter the city by opening the gates). To make the situation worse for the Crusaders, al-Dawla poisoned all the water wells in the surrounding area and cut down all trees outside Jerusalem. On June 7, 1099, the Crusaders reached the outer fortifications of Jerusalem, which the Fatimids had recaptured from the Seljuks only the year before. The city was guarded by a defensive wall stretching four kilometers long, which was three meters thick and fifteen meters high. There were five major gates each guarded by a pair of towers.[12] The Crusaders divided themselves into two large groups:Godfrey of Bouillon,Robert of Flanders andTancred planned to besiege from north, whileRaymond of Toulouse positioned his forces to the south.
The Fatimids now had to be prepared to fight on two fronts. After taking their positions, the Crusaders launched their first attack on June 13; the main problem was that they had no access to wood for the construction of siege equipment, because all the trees had been cut down. However, Tancred had a vision of finding a stack of wood hidden in a cave, and they used it to make a ladder. A knight named Rainbold scaled the ladder to gain a foothold on the wall but was unsuccessful. Since that assault was a failure, the Crusaders retreated and did not make any attempt until they got their tools and equipment. The Crusaders faced many more difficulties such as the lack of water, the scorching summer heat of Palestine, and the shortage of food. By the end of June, word came that a Fatimid army was marching north fromEgypt. The mounting pressure forced the Crusaders to act quickly.
On 17 June 1099, the Crusaders heard about the arrival of English andGenoese ships at the port ofJaffa. The English and Genoese sailors had brought all the necessary material with them for the construction of the siege equipment.Robert of Normandy andRobert of Flanders procured timber from the nearby forests. Under the command ofGuglielmo Embriaco andGaston of Béarn, the Crusaders began the construction of their siege weapons. They constructed the finest siege equipment of the 11th century in almost three weeks. This included: two massive wheel-mountedsiege towers, a battering ram with an iron-clad head, and numerous scaling ladders and a series of portablewattle screens; now they were ready to attack[12] The Fatimids kept an eye on the preparation by the Franks and they set up theirmangonels on the wall in the firing range once an assault began.
On 14 July 1099, the Crusaders launched their attack. Godfrey and his allies were positioned towards the Northern wall of Jerusalem, and their priority was to break through the outer curtain of the walls of the city. By the end of the day they penetrated the first line of defense. On the South Raymond of Toulouse's forces were met with ferocious resistance by the Fatimids. On 15 July the assault recommenced in the Northern front; Godfrey and his allies gained success and the CrusaderLudolf of Tournai was the first to mount the wall. The Franks quickly gained a foothold on the wall, and as the city's defenses collapsed, waves of panic shook the Fatimids.
In the southwest area theProvencals managed to storm the city walls, which later led to the Crusaders calling the gate they built in this areaBeaucaire Gate.[13]
On 15 July 1099, the crusaders made their way into the city through the tower of David and began massacring large numbers of the inhabitants, Muslims and Jews alike. The Fatimid governor of the city,Iftikhar Ad-Daulah, managed to escape.[14] HistorianConor Kostick says that the number of people killed is a matter of debate, with the figure of 70,000 given by the Muslim historianIbn al-Athir (writing c.1200) considered to be a significant exaggeration; 40,000 is plausible, given the city's population had been swollen by refugees fleeing the advance of the crusading army.[15]
The aftermath of the siege led to the mass slaughter of thousands of Muslims and Jews which contemporaneous sources suggest was savage and widespread and to the conversion of Muslim holy sites on theTemple Mount into Christian shrines.[16][17]
Atrocities committed against the inhabitants of cities taken by storm after a siege were normal in ancient[18] and medieval warfare by both Christians and Muslims. The crusaders had already done so atAntioch, and Fatimids had done so themselves atTaormina, atRometta, and atTyre. However, it is speculated that the massacre of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, both Muslims and Jews, may have exceeded even these standards.[19][20]
Many Muslims sought shelter in theal-Aqsa Mosque orDome of the Rock, both located on theTemple Mount. According to theGesta Francorum, speaking only of the Temple Mount area, "...[our men] were killing and slaying even to the Temple of Solomon, where the slaughter was so great that our men waded in blood up to their ankles..." Raymond of Aguilers also wrote about the Temple Mount area: "In the Temple and porch of Solomon men rode in blood up to their knees and bridle reins." Writing about the Temple Mount area, Fulcher of Chartres, who was not an eyewitness to the Jerusalem siege because he had stayed withBaldwin inEdessa at the time, says: "In this temple 10,000 were killed. Indeed, if you had been there you would have seen our feet coloured to our ankles with the blood of the slain. But what more shall I relate? None of them were left alive; neither women nor children were spared."[21]
The eyewitnessGesta Francorum states that some people were spared. Its anonymous author wrote, "When the pagans had been overcome, our men seized great numbers, both men and women, either killing them or keeping them captive, as they wished."[22] Later the same source writes:
[Our leaders] also ordered all theSaracen dead to be cast outside because of the great stench, since the whole city was filled with their corpses; and so the living Saracens dragged the dead before the exits of the gates and arranged them in heaps, as if they were houses. No one ever saw or heard of such slaughter of pagan people, for funeral pyres were formed from them like pyramids, and no one knows their number except God alone. But Raymond caused the Emir and the others who were with him to be conducted to Ascalon, whole and unhurt."[22]
Another eyewitness participant in the Crusade, the French priest Raymond of Aguilers, describes the following graphic depravity and brutality of the massacre in his workHistoria Francorum qui ceperunt Iherusalem:
Tancred and Godfrey in the vanguard spilled an incredible amount of blood, and their comrades, close at their heels, now brought suffering to the Saracens. Now I must tell you of an astonishing circumstance; namely, in one part of the city resistance had practically ceased, but in the area near Mount Zion the Saracens fought fiercely with Raymond’s forces as if they had not been defeated. With the fall of Jerusalem and its towers one could see marvelous works. Some of the pagans were mercifully beheaded, others pierced by arrows plunged from towers, and yet others, tortured for a long time, were burned to death in searing flames. Piles of heads, hands, and feet Jay in the houses and streets, and indeed there was a running to and fro of men and knights over the corpses.[23]
Another eyewitness source, Raymond of Aguilers, reports that some Muslims survived. After recounting the slaughter on the Temple Mount, he reports of some who "took refuge in the Tower of David, and, petitioning Count Raymond for protection, surrendered the Tower into his hands."[24] These Muslims left with the Fatimid governor for Ascalon.[25] A version of this tradition is also known to the later Muslim historianIbn al-Athir (10, 193–95), who recounts that after the city was taken and pillaged: "A band of Muslims barricaded themselves into the Oratory of David (Mihrab Dawud) and fought on for several days. They were granted their lives in return for surrendering. The Franks honored their word and the group left by night for Ascalon."[26] OneCairo Geniza letter also refers to some Jewish residents who left with the Fatimid governor.[27]
Tancred claimed the Temple quarter for himself and offered protection to some of the Muslims there, but he was unable to prevent their deaths at the hands of his fellow crusaders. Additionally, the crusaders claimed the Muslim holy sites of the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa mosque as important Christian sites. They renamed themTemplum Domini andTemplum Salomonis, respectively. In 1141, theTemplum Domini would be consecrated, and theTemplum Solomonis would become the headquarters for the Knights Templar.[28]
Albert of Aachen, who personally was not present but wrote using independent interviews conducted with survivors back in Europe, wrote that even beyond the first round of slaughter that accompanied the fall of Jerusalem, there was another round, "On the third day after the victory judgement was pronounced by the leaders and everyone seized weapons and surged forth for a wretched massacre of all the crowd of gentiles which was still left...whom they had previously spared for the sake of money and human pity".[29] The number killed is not specified, nor is this massacre related in any other contemporary sources.
Although the crusaders killed many of the Muslim and Jewish residents, eyewitness accounts (Gesta Francorum, Raymond of Aguilers, and theCairo Geniza documents) demonstrate that some Muslim and Jewish residents were allowed to live, as long as they left Jerusalem.[30]
Rabbinic Jews had fought side-by-side with Muslim soldiers to defend the city, and as the crusaders breached the outer walls, the Jews of the city retreated to theirsynagogue to "prepare for death".[32] According to the Muslim chronicle ofIbn al-Qalanisi, "The Jews assembled in their synagogue, and the Franks burned it over their heads."[33] A contemporary Jewish communication confirms the destruction of the synagogue, though it does not corroborate that any Jews were inside it when it was burned.[34] This letter was discovered among theCairo Geniza collection in 1975 by historianShelomo Dov Goitein.[35] Historians believe that it was written just two weeks after the siege, making it "the earliest account on the conquest in any language."[35] Theletter of the Karaite elders of Ascalon from the Cairo Geniza indicates that some prominent Jews held for ransom by the crusaders were freed when theKaraite Jewish community in Ascalonpaid the cash ransom.
No eyewitness source refers to crusaders killing Eastern Christians in Jerusalem, and early Eastern Christian sources (Matthew of Edessa, Anna Comnena, Michael the Syrian, etc.) make no such allegation about the crusaders in Jerusalem. According to the Syriac Chronicle, all the Christians had already been expelled from Jerusalem before the crusaders arrived.[36] Presumably this would have been done by the Fatimid governor to prevent their possible collusion with the crusaders.[37]
TheGesta Francorum claims that on Wednesday, August 9, two and a half weeks after the siege, Peter the Hermit encouraged all the "Greek and Latin priests and clerics" to make a thanksgiving procession to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.[38] This indicates that some Eastern Christian clergy remained in or near Jerusalem during the siege. In November 1100, when Fulcher of Chartres personally accompanied Baldwin on a visit to Jerusalem, they were greeted by both Greek and Syrian clerics and laity (Book II, 3), indicating an Eastern Christian presence in the city a year later.
On 17 July, a council was held to discuss who would be crowned the king of Jerusalem. On 22 July,Godfrey of Bouillon, who had played the most fundamental role in the city's conquest, was madeAdvocatus Sancti Sepulchri ("advocate" or "defender" of the Holy Sepulchre). He would not accept the title of king, saying that he refused to wear a crown of gold in the city where Christ wore acrown of thorns.[39] Raymond had refused any title at all, and Godfrey convinced him to give up the Tower of David as well. Raymond then went on a pilgrimage, and in his absenceArnulf of Chocques, whom Raymond had opposed due to his own support forPeter Bartholomew, was elected the firstLatin Patriarch on August 1 (the claims of theGreek Patriarch were ignored). On August 5, Arnulf, after consulting the surviving inhabitants of the city, discovered the relic of theTrue Cross.
On August 12, Godfrey led an army, with the True Cross carried in the vanguard, against the Fatimid army at theBattle of Ascalon of 1099. The crusaders were successful, but following the victory, the majority of them considered their crusading vows to have been fulfilled, and all but a few hundred knights returned home. Nevertheless, their victory paved the way for the establishment of the crusaderKingdom of Jerusalem.
The siege quickly became legendary and in the 12th century it was the subject of theChanson de Jérusalem, a majorchanson de geste in theCrusade cycle.
The first crusaders succeeded in their endeavor.Urban II had ignited the flame of holy war in theCouncil of Clermont. Many other crusades were launched through time for various reasons and motives. Jerusalem remained in Christian hands for almost a century until the crusaders were defeated bySaladin at theBattle of Hattin in 1187, and three months later, the last defenders were expelled from the city.[10]
But these were small matters compared to what happened at the Temple of Solomon, a place where religious services are ordinarily chanted. What happened there? If I tell the truth, it will exceed your powers of belief. So let it suffice to say this much, at least, that in the Temple and porch of Solomon, men rode in blood up to their knees and bridle reins. [quoting eyewitness Raymond d'Aguiliers]
One of our knights, named Lethold, clambered up the wall of the city, and no sooner had he ascended than the defenders fled from the walls and through the city. Our men followed, killing and slaying even to the Temple of Solomon, where the slaughter was so great that our men waded in blood up to their ankles....
