The Battle of Hattin was a great victory Saladin, who used his faster and lighter forces to great advantage . He was greatly helped by his enemy, King Guy, who decided to march some heavily armored soldiers through a region without water in the hottest time of the year.
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- Who: Crusader forces numbering about 32,000 under King Guy of Jerusalem (reigned 1186-1192) against a 50,000-strong Seljuk Turkish army under Saladin.
- How: Overwhelmed to exhaustion by the lighter Turks, the Crusaders were surrounded and eventually crushed.
- Where: The Horns of Hattin (Galilee).
- When: June 1187.
- Why: The Crusader force was marching to the aid of a fort and was intercepted by Saladin's army.
- Result: The Crusader force was all but annihilated.
Background
The Crusades pitted two very different military systems against each other. On the Christian side, the decisive weapon was heavily armored cavalry, which could tear apart an enemy formation and pursue scattered remnants, provided they made contact. This was supported by the infantry (lancers and crossbowmen), who were not highly valued by their social superiors among the cavalry. The fighting style of the Christians was undisciplined and poorly coordinated, yet aggressive and courageous.
The Muslim militia, lighter, more mobile and well trained, contained for the most part lighter troops, was more disciplined and better organized. Its cavalry component was composed mainly of Ascaris from Egypt and Syria, armored in mail and armed with bows, spears, and shields. They were accomplished skirmishers as well as hand-to-hand fighters, and well versed in blitzkrieg tactics. The Ascaris cavalry consisted of regular paid soldiers, and was supported by irregular cavalry drawn from the local Bedouin, Kurdish and Turkish groups. The Saracen force also had a large component of infantry, archers or spearmen, who carried shields. They also had the advantage of a unified command, while the crusaders came from all over Europe and answered to many rival leaders and spoke different languages.
The Crusades
The crusades originated as a result of the defeat of the Byzantine Empire by the Seljuk Turks or Saracens. This resulted in the Christian holy places then being taken over by the Muslims (to whom many of the same areas were sacred). This offended the Christian leaders in the West, and Pope Urban II called for a crusade to take control of these places. Then several crusades began with minor expeditions interspersed. Some were truly inspired by religious fervor, and others were little more than raiding raids. Most of them fell between these extremes:no matter how saintly their motives, few crusaders were reluctant to get rich if the opportunity arose.
These armed expeditions to capture regions of the Holy Land pitted the crusaders against the then lords of the region, sparking a series of sporadic wars. Sometimes the Crusaders were strong enough to occupy kingdoms in the Holy Land, and other times their presence was all but eliminated. Treaties and agreements were signed on various occasions; however, the disorganized nature of the Crusaders made it unlikely that any agreement would last. As soon as one group negotiated a deal, someone else would come along and stir things up again. Conflict was inevitable, even when those involved tried to honor their agreements. The Battle of Hattin was a consequence of one of these broken treaties. In 1186 the Crusader leader Reinaldo de Chatillon raided a caravan and he captured a significant amount of booty and prisoners. The leader of the crusade at the time, King Guy of Jerusalem, ordered the return of the loot and the prisoners. Saladin, leader of the Turks in the region, made a similar claim. Reynald refused. So Saladin declared war on the crusaders and began to gather his forces .
A fortuitous loss
A Saracen force of some 6,500 men was sent to find out as much as possible about the Crusaders' strength, disposition, and intentions. He achieved more than this, though, mainly thanks to a combination of good luck and Crusader stupidity.
The Orders of the Temple and the Hospital (the Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitaller) were important and powerful among the Crusaders and at that time the Grand Masters of both Orders were on campaign with only 140 Knights and 350 foot soldiers between them. They were there to settle a dispute between King Guy and Count Raymond of Tripoli; however, they soon decided to set out in pursuit of the Saracen force.
The Saracens were in Kishon, and the Grand Masters decided to attack them. Outnumbered, they left their infantry behind and went on the attack:140 men against 6,500. Only three men survived, including the Grand Master of the Knights Templar. The Saracen reconnaissance force continued their mission to obtain information. The Christian garrison at Nazareth was crushed and destroyed.
Meanwhile, the crusaders tried to organize themselves. Although Reynald had betrayed the truce and unilaterally sent the crusaders to war, his companions stood by his side. They probably decided they had no choice:Saladin had declared war on all the Crusaders, not just Reynald's people, so they would have to stand together or be defeated individually.
Whatever their motivation, the Crusaders decided to assemble at Acre, and some 2,000 knights headed there. What remained of the Hospitallers and Templars joined the host, some 40 and 80 men respectively, along with 650-750 knights from the various Crusader kingdoms. The rest of the Crusader forces were made up of mercenary or opportunistic knights seeking their fortune in the Holy Land. They were professional warriors, of course, but less reliable than those who owed allegiance to the Crusader commanders. They were supported by some 4,000 units of Turquoise light cavalry (local warriors who had converted to Christianity) and some 32,000 infantry.
With the crusading army was the True Cross, supposedly the same cross on which Christ had been crucified. His presence inspired the most devoted men among the Christian force. An army marching after the Cross was, it was claimed, invincible. Perhaps an overconfidence in relics and divine power was one reason for the reckless strategy employed by the Crusaders.
Crusaders' impatience
The Saracens threatened the fort of Tiberias, occupied by Count Raymond's wife. The castle was well defended, and although the nearby town was sacked, Raymond knew that his castle and his wife were safe for the time being. The Christians could allow themselves some calm, and indeed they might be able to force the enemy to come at them, and tire themselves along the way.
Unfortunately, Raymond's prudent advice was ignored. King Guy was determined to engage the Saracens in battle and defeat them as soon as possible. The Christian army had camped at Ziphoria, about 10 km before Tiberias. The most direct route to the enemy was through the waterless Toran plain. Attempting to march an army with thousands of horses and tens of thousands of heavily armored men through such a barren region was madness. To do so in the face of a waiting enemy was stupid and suicidal; nevertheless, Guy decided to continue.
King Guy was greatly influenced in his decision by Reinaldo de Chatillon and Gerard de Ridefort, who urged him to abandon prudence and attack like a good Christian knight. Guy's only concession to survival was advancing down the wadi Hamman, where there might be water, even if it wasn't the most direct route. However, Saladin's scouts reported this move to him in time to counter it. The fate of the Crusaders was cast.
As the Crusaders advanced through the wadi The advancing guard, under Raymond's command, and the rear guard were simultaneously attacked by skirmishes of fast-moving Muslims. The only soldiers able to fend off these attacks were the Turkople, whose equipment was light enough to allow quick counterattacks. The Saracens therefore concentrated on destroying the Turkoples, which would then expose the rest of the Crusader forces to destruction when it suited them.
As the Turkoples were repulsed or destroyed, the Crusader column no longer had any answer against Saracen skirmishes except to keep the valuable knights and their horses within a defensive infantry screen. At 2 km to the intended battlefield, the column stopped and prepared to camp. There was no water, but the soldiers were too tired to continue. Between the heat and the constant attacks and skirmishes, the mighty column had been gnawed to death. The rear, especially, was in very bad shape.
After spending the night camping without water, the Crusader army found itself in dire straits the next day. There was no going back, crossing that wasteland with mounted skirmishers lurking at every turn. The goal was only a few kilometers ahead, and obtaining water was now a critical need. The only option was to continue.
The Crusader force steeled itself and set out early in the morning, moving forward to try to reach the nearest water source, which was in the town of Manescalia. The exhausted soldiers were stopped well short of their objective by the Muslim forces, who had been supplied by camel leashes during the night and were in good fighting shape.
The battle of Hattin begins
In keeping with the ancient principle of not giving battle until it was won, Saladin let his enemy wear out, cut off his own retreat, and stumble to a disorganized halt in the face of relatively little opposition. And yet, Saladin did not launch into a decisive, intelligent and patient charge, he did not need spectacular results to know that he had won. He would settle for quietly getting what he wanted at a lower price, and he always kept the long-term strategic situation in mind.
Saladin's forces advanced in a crescent formation, but stopped before making contact. They rained arrows down on the exhausted and disorganized Crusader force. This presented the Crusaders with a terrible dilemma.
They could unleash their famous cavalry charge, which, weakened as it was, still possessed tremendous attack power. However, the charge was likely to be lost in the void, as the Saracens disappeared, still firing. On the other hand, the Crusaders could do nothing and be cut down continuously. Meanwhile, their stamina was being eroded by heat and thirst, and by arrows deliberately thrown at the knights' mounts to rob the Crusaders of their main attacking force.
The hurried infantry, desperately thirsty, with the desert at their backs and utterly fed up with being nothing more than a walking archery target, tried to force the march to the Sea of Galilee, which lay just a short distance away. The disorganized mob that had been the Crusader infantry was unable to force its way to the sea shores, and was driven back by elements of the Muslim force. The infantry took refuge on the slopes of the easternmost of two nearby hills, called the Horns of Hattin. There they stayed, defying or ignoring the orders, pleas and demands to restart the battle. Most of them were slaughtered after the battle proper. The rest were sold into slavery by their captors.
Theknightsattack
Now there was no choice but to attack and try to break through the Muslim force. Raymond, with about 200 knights in the vanguard, was ordered forward and made his noble, if disastrous, attack on the enemy.
As had happened many times before, the Saracens refused to accept the Crusaders' charge and moved out of their way, shooting the knights from the flanks and from behind as they passed. Raymond was wounded in three places without being able to make contact with the enemy. His weakened horses were busted and there was no prospect of anything but a rather ignominious death, so Raymond led what was left of his force out of the death trap and headed for Tyre. Saladin seemed content to let him go.
The rest of the crusading knights also launched charges against the Saracen forces. The result was very similar; the Muslim force, highly mobile, evaded the clumsy charges and felled the knights and their horses, closing in to separate small contingents that could be overwhelmed.
Some of the knights, about 300, were able to break free and reach Acre. The others were gradually pushed back to the western Horn of Hattin, where they fared no better than the infantry in the eastern one. King Guy had his tent pitched on the hill and made it the center of the defensive position.
Saladin had already won, though the cornered Crusaders could still inflict heavy casualties on his forces if he decided to charge in for a spectacular finish. Instead, he was content to hold the Crusaders in his waterless shelter and slowly destroy them with his bows.
The crusaders defended the area around the king's tent for as long as they could, launching weak and abortive counter-attacks that had no chance of success. Even as the Saracens set fire to the brush, tormenting the thirsty crusaders with smoke on top of all other suffering, the knights held on as best they could.
However, their resistance was eventually exhausted and the king's tent was taken. The survivors surrendered, including King Guy, Reinaldo and Gerardo, as well as about 150 knights. The Saracens took so many prisoners that they couldn't find enough ropes to bind them all.
Saladin's Victory
Saladin had his most implacable enemies executed:Reinaldo and all the Knights Templar or Hospitallers he could find. He also massacred the surviving Turkople, whom his countrymen considered traitors. Thousands of Crusader soldiers were sold into slavery, flooding the market so much that the price dropped considerably. However, Saladin showed some mercy. He spared King Guy, as well as Raymond's wife. She this she had to surrender the castle, but she was allowed to depart from it unharmed. Guy was released after the payment of what was literally a royal ransom. Saladin's victory at Hattin was due in part to flaws in logistics, planning, and common sense among the Crusaders, but it also owed much to Saladin's own patience and cunning. One of the great military axioms says "Don't interrupt the enemy when he is making a mistake" and Saladin was smart enough to let his enemies go wrong before even considering engaging in battle. When he came to fight, he did so with good tactics and solid logistics:a powerful combination on any battlefield.
Aftermath
Hattin was the beginning of the end for the Crusaders. More crusades would be launched and more success achieved, but the days of the great crusader kingdoms were all but over. Some 30 Crusader castles fell within a year, and Jerusalem was surrendered to Saladin, in addition to the 11 cities placed under Saladin's control as King Guy's ransom.
The fights for the Holy Land would continue, of course; however, at Hattin the crusaders lost all their advantages, and perhaps their chances of winning in the long run.