The History of Jerusalem during the Kingdom of Jerusalem began with the capture of the city by the Latin Christian forces at the apogee of the First Crusade. At that point it had been under Muslim rule for over 450 years. It became the capital of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, until it was again conquered by the Ayyubids under Saladin in 1187. For the next forty years, a series of Christian campaigns, including the Third and Fifth Crusades, attempted in vain to retake the city, until Emperor Frederick II led the Sixth Crusade and successfully negotiated its return in 1229.Schein (2006), pp. 656-661.
In 1244, the city was taken by Khwarazmian troops. After 1260 the Ayyubid realm that included Jerusalem was taken over by the Mamluks of Egypt and the city was gradually rebuilt during the later 13th century, while the shrinking coastal Crusader state was gradually defeated until its final demise in 1291.Tyerman (2006).
Overview
The Crusaders conquered the city in 1099 and held it until its conquest by the army of Saladin at the siege of Jerusalem in 1187 and its surrender to the Ayyubid dynasty, a Muslim sultanate that ruled in the Middle East in the early 12th century.Bréhier (1908). The Sixth Crusade put Jerusalem back under Crusader rule from 1229 to 1244, until the city was captured by the Khwarazmians. The Crusader–Ayyubid conflict ended with the rise of the Mamluks from Egypt in 1260 and their conquest of the Holy Land.
The Ayyubid period ended with waves of destruction of the city. Its fortifications were destroyed first, and later most of the buildings, as part of a deliberate scorched earth policy intended to prevent all future crusades from gaining a foothold in the city and region.
This was a short but relatively turbulent and significant period in the history of Jerusalem. For the first time since the destruction of the city in 70 CE, Jerusalem was the capital of a separate political entity, a status only regained during the British Mandate in the 20th century.
The Crusader period in the history of Jerusalem decisively influenced the history of the whole Middle East, radiating beyond the region into the Islamic World and Christian Europe. The Crusades elevated the position of Jerusalem in the hierarchy of places holy to Islam, but it did not become a spiritual or political center of Islam. By the end of the Ayyubid period the name of Jerusalem was no longer connected to the idea of jihad, and the city's geopolitical status declined, becoming a secondary city, first for the Mamluk Empire, and later for the Ottomans.
Christian control (1099–1187)
Crusader conquest of Jerusalem
The conquest of Jerusalem became the prime objective of the First Crusade, which was launched in 1095 with Pope Urban II's call to arms. Four main Crusader armies left Europe in August 1096. On June 7, 1099, the crusaders arrived at Jerusalem. The city was besieged by the army beginning on July 13. Attacks on the city walls started on July 14, with a huge battering ram and two siege towers. On July 15 by noon the Crusaders were on the northern wall and the Muslim defenses collapsed.Asbridge (2004).
Capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
With the conquest of Jerusalem, most Crusaders returned home to Europe, and only a small number of pilgrims settled in the Holy Land. They faced vast challenges, including having their capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem outside the main trade routes and away from coastal ports.Fink in Setton & Baldwin (1969) , pp. 368-409 .
The Crusaders' massacre in Jerusalem created a dramatic change in the composition of the population. Muslims and Jews were murdered or deported and banned from the city. William of Tyre wrote:Prawer in Prawer & Ben-Shammai (1991), p. 201.
After the conquest, Jerusalem was emptied of inhabitants, and many houses were abandoned. Much of the surviving Jewish community, those not killed during the conquest, resettled in Ascalon. The Latin city's population was very small and centred upon the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Tower of David. William of Tyre wrote:Prawer in Prawer & Ben-Shammai (1991), p. 29.
The Crusaders' first step was to stop the fleeing population by announcing a law that a person holding an asset for a year becomes its owner. Real improvement was achieved by populating Jerusalem with residents belonging to sects of Eastern Christianity. First, Christians who had been deported before the siege were returned to the city and named by the Crusaders as "Syrian". At the same time, the local authorities encouraged other Christians to settle in Jerusalem Christians, although suspicious relations between these various groups and the struggle for supremacy and control of the Holy Sepulchre caused many problems.
During his reign, Baldwin I (1100–1118) reimposed the Roman-era ban on Jewish residence in Jerusalem. As a result, both Benjamin of Tudela and Petachiah of Regensburg reported that almost no Jews remained in the city toward the end of the 12th century.
In 1115 Syrian Christians, uprooted from their homes in Transjordan, settled in the city, creating a continuously populated district on the north side of town, which was named after them. Simultaneously, the Crusader rulers encouraged commerce, and in 1120 King Baldwin II of Jerusalem imposed duties on goods and food products brought into Jerusalem. This was then extended to all types of trade and all agricultural food products brought from the hinterland into the city.
Unusually for a city in the Middle Ages, the economy of Jerusalem relied heavily on the tourism of pilgrims from Christian Europe. It received a further boost when it was exempted from customs enabling the city's markets to develop and sell the pilgrims imported goods. The importance of this industry continued to grow with the establishment of Jerusalem as a holy place, which also led to improved roads and traffic safety. Another factor affecting the economy of the city was the various administrative centres - regal, ecclesiastical, and military - that operated from Jerusalem.
Being a capital city, Jerusalem was the centre of a number of military orders. The oldest was the Knights Hospitaller, which was originally established to provide medical assistance to Christian pilgrims who travelled to Jerusalem. In time, the order assumed military functions to fight against Muslims. Its first location was in a place that is now known as Muristan, close to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The order built hospital and a shelter for pilgrims there. Benjamin of Tudela reports that the Order had a compound with 400 resident knights, and where patients were taken care of.Adler: Benjamin of Tudela (1960) , pages 23-4.
The second order was the Knights Templar, founded in 1118. Its official function, as stated in the founders' declaration, was to protect the Crusader kingdom in the Holy Land and the pilgrims' access to the holy places in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Alongside the protection of pilgrims, the Templars provided a significant military force that included thousands of soldiers, with several hundred knights, in defense of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Templars established their headquarters at Al-Aqsa Mosque and over time added complex structures and strengthened the fortifications. Benjamin of Tudela said that "300 knights" out of Solomon's Temple were ready to fight the enemies of the Christian faith.Nicholson in Setton & Baldwin (1969) , pp. 410-447 .
Another order, the Order of Saint Lazarus, was founded to care for leprosy patients. A special place was set for them outside of the walls of Jerusalem, named after Saint Lazarus. This Leper House gave its name to leper colonies established all over Europe.Savona-Ventura (2005). The Order of Saint Lazarus included both lepers and healthy people who held religious and military positions. This phenomenon, a military religious order of lepers who took an active part in the country alongside a healthy population, had no parallel in Europe at that time.
Ayyubid control (1187–1229)
Saladin's conquest of Jerusalem
After the victory of the Muslims in the Battle of Hattin on July 4, 1187, almost all the cities and citadels of the Kingdom of Jerusalem were conquered by the Muslim army led by Saladin. On September 17, Muslim troops came against the walls of Jerusalem, and on September 20, Saladin himself at the head of his army besieged Jerusalem, which contained about 30,000 residents and another 30,000 refugees from around the Christian Holy Land. The siege was relatively short but intense and violent, as both sides saw the city as their religious and cultural center. After bitter fighting, the Muslims were able to undermine the city's fortifications in the area between Damascus Gate and Herod's Gate, near where the Crusaders broke into the town in 1099. The defenders realized that they were doomed, and that it was not possible to maintain the Christian conquest of Jerusalem. At the request of the Latin Patriarch Hiraklios, and probably under pressure from the civilian population, the Christians decided to enter into negotiations with Saladin, leading to a conditional surrender. The Crusaders threatened to harm the Islamic holy sites on the Temple Mount, the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque if the blockade continued. This threat, combined with pressure from the Muslim battalion commanders to end the fighting, led to the signing of a contract which surrendered the city to Saladin, making the residents prisoners of war who could redeem themselves for a fee.Baldwin in Setton & Baldwin (1969) , pp. 590-621 .
On October 2 Jerusalem was given to Saladin. The rich of the city, including the Dean and Latin Christians, managed to save themselves, but the poor and refugees who had come to the city with nothing were unable to pay the ransom. Most of the church treasures were taken from the city by the Latin Patriarch, who passed them to the Muslim cavalry in order to release certain prisoners. Saladin released thousands of others without compensation, including Queen Sybil, wife of Guy de Lusignan, king of Jerusalem, who was allowed to visit her husband in prison in Nablus . About 15,000 Christians were left destitute in the city. After 40 days, they were taken as prisoners in convoys to Muslim cities such as Damascus and Cairo, where they spent their lives as slaves. Christians who managed to escape from Palestine and Jerusalem went through ports controlled by the Egyptians, such as Ashkelon, and even Alexandria, where they were loaded on to ships of the Italian communes on their way to Europe.Dajani-Shakeel (1988), The Surrender of Jerusalem. The fall of Jerusalem and the holy places shocked Europe. The shock led to the sudden death of Pope Urban III, and the departure of the Third Crusade. For Saladin, the conquest of Jerusalem was a significant political achievement, placing him as the defender of religion and a legendary military commander in chief, and giving him special status in the Muslim world.
Jerusalem under the Muslims After the conquest of Jerusalem, Saladin acted to erase the city's Christian character. Crusader additions to buildings were destroyed. In the Dome of the Rock, statues and altars were removed and the building returned to being a mosque. The great Church of Saint Mary building became a hospital. The Church of St. Anne became a madrasa, and other churches were destroyed and their stones used to repair damage from the siege. In addition, much attention was devoted to the restoration and enhancement of the fortifications of the city to prepare for a possible future attack by the Christians.
The Crusaders had been driven from the city, but local Christians belonging to the Eastern Orthodox Church and Oriental Orthodox Churches, remained in the city as dhimmis by paying a poll tax (Arabic: jizya جزية), and in return were allowed to stay in the city.Prawer (1963), p. 558.