Greatest Battles
T
he Franks were perennially short of troops
in the Holy Land to hold the four crusader
states established after the First Crusade.
Because of this, they could ill afford a major
defeat against their Muslim foes on the field
of battle. Although the multinational Christian
armies of the First and Second Crusades numbered
tens of thousands of troops, the majority returned
home after their respective Crusade came to a close.
This left only a small number of Franks to hold
a large swath of territory in the Holy Land.
After the untimely death of the 10-year-old Shia
Fatimid Caliph Al-Adid in 1171, his Sunni Kurdish
vizier called Ayyubid Sultan Salah ad-Din Yusuf
ibn Ayyub – better known to history as Saladin
– wrested control of Egypt. This changed the
balance of power in the region decisively in favourBATTLE
OF JAFFA
KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM, 5 AUGUST 1192
Written by William E Welsh