How Saladin Took Jerusalem: Two Eyewitness Accounts and a Movie

'tis but a scratch: fact and fiction about the Middle Ages - A podcast by Richard Abels

Send us a textSaladin's taking of Jerusalem, three months after the fighting forces of the Kingdom of Jerusalem were wiped out in the Battle of Hattin, precipitated the Third Crusade. Eyewitness accounts are rare for the Early and High Middle Ages. The siege of Jerusalem in 1187 is exceptional in having three. Two of these were by men with inside knowledge of the surrender negotiations, Saldadin's personal secretary Imad al-Din al-Isfahani, and Ernoul, the squire of Balian o...