Crusades · 1099

Fall of Jerusalem

After a six-week siege the crusaders stormed the walls on 15 July 1099 and killed much of the city's Muslim and Jewish population, including people sheltering at Al-Aqsa.

The site of the battle on the 1190 map. Shaded: Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, Ayyubid Sultanate, 1192, Crusader territory left in 1192.

Key facts

When: 1099
Where: Jerusalem
Sides: First Crusade vs Fatimid garrison
Commanders: Godfrey of Bouillon and Raymond of Toulouse vs Iftikhar al-Dawla
Result: Crusader victory
Type: Crusades
Chapter: 3. The Abbasids, the Crusades and the Mongols

The wider picture: The Crusades and Salahuddin

The Seljuk win at Manzikert in 1071 opened Anatolia to the Turks, and Byzantium asked Europe for help. The First Crusade took Jerusalem in 1099. Zengi, his son Nur al-Din and then Salahuddin rebuilt Muslim unity, and Salahuddin won back Jerusalem in October 1187, three months after Hattin.

See the 1190 map Read chapter 3

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