Battle of Hattin

وقعة حطين

c. 4 July 1187 CE · 25 Rabi' II 583 AH

On Saturday, five days before the end of Rabi' al-Akhir in 583 AH, Saladin and the Muslims engaged the Franks, who were tormented by thirst and had lost heart. The Muslim vanguard shot arrows like locusts spreading across the ground and killed many of the Franks' horses. The Franks were heading for Tiberias to reach water, but Saladin blocked their path, drew up his army against them, and rode among the Muslims urging them on. One of his young Mamluks charged fiercely and fought until he was killed; then the Muslims launched a violent charge that broke the Franks. Some volunteers set fire to the dry grass, which was abundant; the fire burned, and the wind carried its heat and smoke toward the Franks, so that thirst, the heat of the day, the fire and the fighting came upon them together. The Muslims surrounded them like a circle around its diameter, and those who remained climbed a hill near Hattin, where they could pitch no tent except their king's. The Muslims took their great cross, which the Franks call the Cross of the Crucifixion and which they believe contains a piece of the wood on which Christ was crucified. Al-Malik al-Afdal, Saladin's son, recounts that he stood beside his father at the first clash: when the Franks charged repeatedly until they drove the Muslims back toward the tent, his father grew downcast, gripped his beard and cried, 'The Devil lied!'; al-Afdal, joyful, cried, 'We have defeated them!' His father turned to him and said, 'Be quiet; we will not defeat them until that tent falls.' When the tent fell, the sultan dismounted, prostrated in thanks and wept for joy. The king and his brother were captured, along with Prince Arnat, lord of Karak, the lord of Jubayl, the Grand Master of the Templars and a group of Hospitallers. Whoever looked at the dead would not think any prisoners had been taken, and whoever looked at the captives would not think anyone had been killed. Saladin gave the king iced water, and the king gave what was left of it to Arnat. Saladin said, 'He did not drink the water with my permission, so he will not obtain what he wishes'; he rebuked him for his wrongs, rose, and struck his neck, saying that he had twice vowed to kill him if he ever prevailed over him: once when Arnat meant to march on Mecca and Medina, and once when he seized the caravan treacherously. He ordered the Templar and Hospitaller prisoners gathered; two hundred were brought before him and their necks were struck, because they were fiercer than all the other Franks. Ibn al-Athir says that about a year later he passed the site of the battle and saw the ground full of their bones ¹.