Acre, 1189–1191

The battle, stage by stage

1. 28 August 1189

   King Guy before Acre

   Two years after Hattin, Guy of Lusignan — released by Saladin and refused entry to Tyre by Conrad of Montferrat — marches down the coast with perhaps 400–700 knights and 7,000–9,000 foot (modern estimates), and camps on the Toron, the ancient tell now called Tel Akko, a low hill about 1.5 km east of the walls. A Pisan fleet anchors off the shore. Acre, one of the richest ports of the Levant, had surrendered to Saladin in 1187; its Ayyubid garrison under the governor Baha al-Din Qaraqush far outnumbers the besiegers. It is a gamble that becomes a two-year siege. The walls drawn here are the 12th-century land walls, a little outside the 18th-century Ottoman walls standing today.

2. September 1189

   The besiegers besieged

   Saladin hurries back from the north and spreads his army in an arc on the hills and plain east of the city, from the sea north of Acre to the Na'aman (Belus) river — his own tent, by Ibn Shaddad's account, on the hill of al-'Ayyadiya. The Franks are now caught between the city and the field army. Danish, Frisian and Flemish crusaders arrive by sea and the camp spreads around the Toron. In mid-September Taqi al-Din's wing forces a corridor along the northern shore into the city before the Franks close it again.

3. 4 October 1189, morning

   The battle of 4 October

   The Franks march out of their camp to attack Saladin's lines, leaving a guard under Geoffrey of Lusignan and James of Avesnes facing the city. By the Frankish and Arabic accounts the Templars are on the northern flank, near the sea, facing Taqi al-Din; King Guy and the Hospitallers toward the river; crossbowmen and foot screen the knights. Saladin's centre faces them across the plain with the Kurdish emirs on his left. Placement of each contingent here is a reconstruction.

4. 4 October 1189, afternoon

   Into Saladin's camp — and out again

   Taqi al-Din's wing gives ground — whether driven or in a feint is disputed — and part of the Muslim centre breaks. Frankish knights pour through and some reach Saladin's camp on al-'Ayyadiya; Ibn Shaddad says they killed one of the sultan's servants at his tent. Then the plunderers lose order, the left wing and Saladin's rallied guard counter-attack, and the garrison sallies against the Frankish camp. The Franks are driven back with heavy loss — Christian dead are put at several thousand, though figures vary widely — and Gerard de Ridefort, Grand Master of the Temple, is captured and killed. The camp survives.

5. October 1189 – spring 1191

   The double siege

   With the plain stinking of the dead and illness in his army, Saladin pulls his main camp back to al-Kharruba in the foothills, keeping a screen on the hills. The Franks dig in: a trench facing the city and an outer ditch and rampart facing Saladin. Egyptian galleys repeatedly force their way into the harbour with men and food; in May 1190 three great Frankish siege towers are burned with naphtha, and a seaborne attack on the Tower of Flies at the harbour mouth fails. Through the winter of 1190–91 famine and disease kill thousands in the camp, among them Queen Sibylla and her daughters and Duke Frederick of Swabia, who had brought the remnant of Barbarossa's army. The garrison suffers too, and Saladin relieves it by sea in February 1191.

6. 20 April – June 1191

   The kings arrive

   Philip II of France lands on 20 April 1191 and sets his engines and miners against the Accursed Tower at the angle of the northern and eastern walls. The Itinerarium names his great stone-thrower 'Bad Neighbour' (Malvoisine), answered from the city by 'Bad Kinsman'; another, built by common funds and preached for by a priest, is called 'God's Own Sling'. Richard I arrives on 8 June after taking Cyprus, with perhaps 100 ships and some thousands of men, and builds new engines of his own. Saladin brings his army forward to the hills again and attacks the camp whenever the city signals with its drums.

7. 3 – 12 July 1191

   Breach and surrender

   Mining and bombardment bring down part of the wall near the Accursed Tower, and the French and then the Angevins storm the breaches on 3 and 11 July; they are thrown back, but the garrison, starving and exhausted, can no longer hold. On 12 July it surrenders against Saladin's wishes: the defenders' lives in exchange, by the agreed terms, for 200,000 dinars, the return of the True Cross taken at Hattin and the release of some 1,500 Frankish prisoners. Conrad of Montferrat negotiates the terms. The kings' banners go up on the walls; the garrison passes into captivity.

8. 20 August 1191

   The prisoners at al-'Ayyadiya

   The ransom arrangements stall amid mutual suspicion over the first instalment. On 20 August Richard leads his army out to the plain below al-'Ayyadiya, toward Tell Kaisan, and has the prisoners of the garrison killed in sight of Saladin's outposts. The Itinerarium gives 2,700; Baha al-Din ibn Shaddad, who was in Saladin's camp, says more than 3,000 bound men. Saladin's guard attacks but cannot stop it; Muslim sources say Saladin later had Frankish prisoners killed in reprisal. Frankish writers present it as a response to Saladin's delays, Muslim writers as treachery. Two days later Richard marches south toward Jaffa — and Arsuf.