Hattin, 1187

The battle, stage by stage

1. 2 July 1187

   Tiberias falls; the countess holds the citadel

   Saladin has crossed the Jordan with the largest army he ever led — modern estimates run from about 20,000 to 30,000 or more, including some 12,000 regular cavalry (chroniclers give far larger figures) — and camped on the plateau at Kafr Sabt. On 2 July he strikes Tiberias, the lake town of Raymond III of Tripoli, about 210 m below sea level on the Sea of Galilee. Miners bring down a tower and the town falls within hours, but Raymond's wife, Countess Eschiva, holds out in the citadel and sends to the king for help. The Frankish army — roughly 18,000–20,000 men, about 1,200 knights and perhaps 15,000 foot — is camped 25 km to the west at the springs of Sephoria (La Saphorie), the best-watered mustering ground in Galilee (Kedar cites over 100,000 litres an hour in 1949).

2. Night of 2–3 July

   The night council at Sephoria

   In the king's tent the barons argue. Raymond, by the Frankish accounts, urges King Guy of Lusignan to stay at the springs and let Saladin come to him across the waterless uplands in the July heat, even at the cost of Tiberias and his own wife. Gerard de Ridefort, Master of the Temple — whose order had been cut to pieces at Cresson in May — and Reynald of Châtillon reportedly call this cowardice or treachery. Late at night, after Gerard returns alone to the tent, Guy orders the army to march for Tiberias at dawn. The council is told only by Latin writers (the Eracles/Ernoul tradition), whose accounts are coloured by later feuds; Muslim sources say Saladin hoped to draw the Franks out of Sephoria.

3. 3 July, morning to noon

   The march east past Tur'an

   The army sets out early in three divisions: Raymond in the vanguard, as lord of the land; the king with the True Cross in the centre; Balian of Ibelin and the military orders in the rearguard, with the foot soldiers screening the knights. Kedar thinks it took the easier way north to the Roman road and east along the Tur'an valley (about 200 m above sea level, under the 548 m bulk of Mount Tur'an). Saladin, leaving a force at Tiberias, moves his army up to Lubiya on the road ahead, and mounted archers ride out to harass the column. About noon the Franks pass the spring at Tur'an — far too small for an army (Kedar measured about 180 litres an hour) — and keep going east into the dry country.

4. 3 July, afternoon

   The road blocked

   Beyond Tur'an the road climbs onto a bare limestone plateau. Saladin's centre stands across it at Lubiya, Taqi al-Din's wing moves north of the road and Gökböri's wing works round behind the army; the Templars and Hospitallers in the rearguard are attacked so hard that they cannot keep up, and the whole army has to halt. Older reconstructions (Lyons & Jackson, followed by many maps) say the army turned off here toward the springs of Kafr Hattin, some 9 km away; Kedar, trusting three Muslim writers, two of them eyewitnesses, holds that the goal remained the lake at Tiberias. Either way, the Franks are still some 12 km and 500 m of descent from the lake when they stop.

5. Night of 3–4 July

   The waterless camp at Maskana

   The army camps at Maskana (the Franks' 'Marescalcia'), where the Roman road meets a north–south road, about 2 km west of Lubiya. The cistern there was dry or nearly so. Saladin's men close round the camp — one chronicler says 'not even a cat could have slipped through' — and spend the night shouting 'Allahu akbar' and drumming. Camels bring skins of water up from the lake to the Muslim lines, and fresh loads of arrows arrive. Fires of brushwood and dry grass are set where the wind will carry the smoke over the camp. Kedar argues Maskana was a more sensible halt than often supposed, on the main road with water at least possible, but the army has had none since morning.

6. 4 July, morning

   The push for water; Raymond breaks out

   At dawn the smoke, heat and arrows begin again. The army forms up and pushes north-east across the plateau, toward the springs of Kafr Hattin below the Horns — the nearest water, about 1 km below and north-west of the hill, some 300 m lower. Taqi al-Din's wing bars the way. On the king's orders, by the Eracles account, Raymond charges with the vanguard; Taqi al-Din's men open their ranks, let the knights through and close behind them. Raymond and a few companions ride down into the Hattin valley and away to Tyre. Many foot soldiers, maddened by thirst, break from the line and climb onto the Horns, and will not come down even when the king sends to them.

7. 4 July, afternoon

   The last stand on the Horns

   The remaining knights gather round the king on the Horns of Hattin, an extinct volcano whose twin summits rise about 326 m above sea level, and try to pitch tents in the crater between them, where old walls give some cover from arrows (Kedar, after Z. Gal's survey). From there they charge downhill — Kedar thinks westward — at Saladin's own position, and Saladin's son al-Afdal, then about 17, later described to Ibn al-Athir how each charge was driven back. The True Cross, carried by a bishop (sources name Acre or Lydda), is taken. Saladin, al-Afdal recalled, would not call it a victory 'until that tent falls' — and then the king's tent fell, and Saladin dismounted and gave thanks.

8. 4–6 July 1187

   Aftermath: Reynald and the military orders

   In his tent Saladin offers the exhausted Guy iced water — a sign that a guest's life is safe — and when Guy passes the cup to Reynald of Châtillon, Saladin points out that it was the king, not he, who gave Reynald drink. He accuses Reynald of breaking the truce by attacking caravans, and kills him; accounts differ on whether he struck the blow himself (Baha al-Din) or had guards finish him. Guy and the other barons are spared — 'kings do not kill kings.' On 6 July about 200 captured Templars and Hospitallers are executed by sufis and scholars in Saladin's camp, as Imad al-Din describes; the Grand Master Gerard is spared. Eschiva surrenders the citadel of Tiberias on 5 July and leaves under safe conduct. Most of the field army is dead or captive, and within three months Acre, Ascalon and Jerusalem (2 October) have fallen.