War and Military Atlas

How Battles Were Fought
Wars

Ayyubid-Crusader War

Medieval, Ayyubid Sultanate and the Crusader States

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The Ayyubid-Crusader War is this atlas's label for the sequence of campaigns and battles between the Ayyubid Sultanate under Saladin and the Crusader states of the Levant, running from Saladin's rise to power in Egypt and Syria in the 1170s through the loss and partial recovery of Jerusalem. Its central turning point was 1187, when Saladin's victory at Hattin was followed within months by the fall of Jerusalem. It is not treated in the sources as a single formally named war with agreed bookend dates; historians instead describe these campaigns as a phase of ongoing Ayyubid-Crusader hostilities.

Facts
Disputed
Start Year
1177 1
No single named war has agreed bookend dates in the sources; this entity is scoped from Saladin's early campaigns against the Crusader states (Montgisard, 1177) through the pivotal 1187 conquest of Jerusalem.
End Year
1187 2
Scoped here to the pivotal 1187 campaign (Hattin and the fall of Jerusalem); Ayyubid-Crusader fighting continued intermittently for decades afterward.
Combatants
Ayyubid Sultanate under Saladin against the Crusader states (Kingdom of Jerusalem and allied orders). 1
Outcome
Ayyubid victory in the pivotal 1187 campaign: the Crusader field army was destroyed at Hattin and Jerusalem fell within months. 1
Cross-Tradition Connections

Battles and Campaigns

Commanders and Forces

Led By

In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Military history of the Crusader states
Wikipediacampaign-phase heading
Quote, campaign-phase heading
Wars with the Ayyubids (1169-1254)
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1. Wikipedia: Military history of the Crusader states
Wikipediacampaign-phase summary
Quote, campaign-phase summary
Key outcome: Crusader defeats at Hattin and Jerusalem siege (1187)
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1. Wikipedia: Military history of the Crusader states
WikipediaCommanders and Forces: Army of the Kingdom of JerusalemView the Source
2. Wikipedia: Siege of Jerusalem (1187)
Wikipediainfobox
Quote, infobox
20 September - 2 October 1187
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Wikipedia: Ayyubid dynasty
WikipediaCommanders and Forces: Ayyubid Army, body text
Quote, Commanders and Forces: Ayyubid Army, body text
Saladin led a force of some 26,000 soldiers...into southern Palestine
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