Siege of Jerusalem (1099)

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Siege of Jerusalem
Part of the First Crusade
Counquest of Jeusalem (1099).jpg
Capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders
Date June 7 – July 15, 1099
Location Jerusalem
Result Decisive Crusader victory[1]
Crusaders Fatimid Flag.png Fatimid Caliphate
Commanders and leaders
Blason province fr Provence.svg Raymond of Toulouse
Blason Lorraine.svg Godfrey of Bouillon
Blason Nord-Pas-De-Calais.svg Robert II of Flanders
Blason duche fr Normandie.svg Robert II of Normandy
Blason sicile famille Hauteville.svg Tancred of Taranto
Fatimid Flag.png Iftikhar ad-Dawla[4][5]
1,200-1,300 Knights
11,000-12,000 Infantry
400 Cavalrymen, and a
Sizeable Garrison of
Muslim troops
including Nubians

Casualties and losses
Heavy[1] Heavy ("massacre")[8]

The Siege of Jerusalem took place from June 7 to July 15, 1099 during the First Crusade. During it, the Crusaders stormed and captured the city from Fatimid Egypt. The Siege is notable for the massacre that followed, during which much of Jerusalem's population was slaughtered.


After the successful siege of Antioch in June 1098, the crusaders remained in the area for the rest of the year. The papal legate Adhemar of Le Puy had died, and Bohemund of Taranto had claimed Antioch for himself. Baldwin of Boulogne remained in Edessa, captured earlier in 1098. There was dissent among the princes over what to do next; Raymond of Toulouse, frustrated, left Antioch to capture the fortress at Ma'arrat al-Numan in the Siege of Maarat. By the end of the year the minor knights and infantry were threatening to march to Jerusalem without them. Eventually, on January 13, 1099 Raymond began the march south, down the coast of the Mediterranean, followed by Robert of Normandy and Bohemond's nephew Tancred, who agreed to become his vassals.

On their way, the Crusaders besieged Arqa, however the Crusaders failed to capture it, abandoning the siege on May 13. Fatimids had attempted to make peace, on the condition that the crusaders not continue towards Jerusalem, but this was ignored; Iftikhar ad-Daula, the Fatimid governor of Jerusalem, was aware of the Crusaders' intentions. Therefore, he expelled all of Jerusalem's Christian inhabitants. He also poisoned most of the wells in the area.[9] Further march towards Jerusalem met no resistance.

The siege of Jerusalem[edit]

Siege and Capture of Jerusalem, 1099 (13th century miniature)


On 7 June, the crusaders reached Jerusalem, which had been recaptured from the Seljuqs by the Fatimids only the year before. Many Crusaders wept upon seeing the city they had journeyed so long to reach.[10]

As with Antioch the crusaders put the city to a siege, in which the crusaders themselves probably suffered more than the citizens of the city, due to the lack of food and water around Jerusalem. The city was well-prepared for the siege, and the Fatimid governor Iftikhar ad-Daula had expelled most of the Christians. Of the estimated 5,000 knights who took part in the Princes' Crusade, only about 1,500 remained, along with another 12,000 healthy foot-soldiers (out of perhaps as many as 30,000). Godfrey, Robert of Flanders, and Robert of Normandy (who had now also left Raymond to join Godfrey) besieged the north walls as far south as the Tower of David, while Raymond set up his camp on the western side, from the Tower of David to Mount Zion. A direct assault on the walls on June 13 was a failure. Without water or food, both men and animals were quickly dying of thirst and starvation and the crusaders knew time was not on their side. Coincidentally, soon after the first assault, 2 Genoese galleys[11] sailed into the port at Jaffa, and the crusaders were able to re-supply themselves for a short time. The crusaders also began to gather wood from Samaria in order to build siege engines. They were still short on food and water, and by the end of June there was news that a Fatimid army was marching north from Egypt.

The barefoot procession[edit]

Faced with a seemingly impossible task, their spirits were raised when a priest by the name of Peter Desiderius claimed to have a divine vision in which the ghost of Adhemar instructed them to fast for three days and then march in a barefoot procession around the city walls, after which the city would fall in nine days, following the Biblical example of Joshua at the siege of Jericho. Although they were already starving, they fasted, and on July 8 they made the procession, with the clergy blowing trumpets and singing psalms, being mocked by the defenders of Jerusalem all the while. The procession stopped on the Mount of Olives and sermons were delivered by Peter the Hermit, Arnulf of Chocques, and Raymond of Aguilers.

The final assault[edit]

Throughout the siege, attacks were made on the walls, but each one was repulsed. The Genoese troops, led by commander Guglielmo Embriaco, had previously dismantled the ships in which the Genoese came to the Holy Land; Embriaco, using the ships' wood, made some siege towers. These were rolled up to the walls on the night of July 14 much to the surprise and concern of the garrison. On the morning of July 15, Godfrey's tower reached his section of the walls near the northeast corner gate, and according to the Gesta two Flemish knights from Tournai named Lethalde and Engelbert were the first to cross into the city, followed by Godfrey, his brother Eustace, Tancred, and their men. Raymond's tower was at first stopped by a ditch, but as the other crusaders had already entered, the Muslim guarding the gate surrendered to Raymond.



Many Muslims sought shelter in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Dome of the Rock, and the Temple Mount area generally. According to the Gesta Francorum, speaking only of the Temple Mount area, "...[our men] were killing and slaying even to the Temple of Solomon, where the slaughter was so great that our men waded in blood up to their ankles..." According to Raymond of Aguilers, also writing solely of the Temple Mount area, " in the Temple and porch of Solomon men rode in blood up to their knees and bridle reins." However, this imagery should not be taken literally; it was taken directly from biblical passage Revelation 14:20.[12] Writing about the Temple Mount area alone Fulcher of Chartres, who was not an eyewitness to the Jerusalem siege because he had stayed with Baldwin in Edessa at the time, says: "In this temple 10,000 were killed. Indeed, if you had been there you would have seen our feet coloured to our ankles with the blood of the slain. But what more shall I relate? None of them were left alive; neither women nor children were spared".[13]

The eyewitness Gesta Francorum states that some people were spared. Its anonymous author wrote, "When the pagans had been overcome, our men seized great numbers, both men and women, either killing them or keeping them captive, as they wished."[14] Later the same source writes, "[Our leaders] also ordered all the Saracen dead to be cast outside because of the great stench, since the whole city was filled with their corpses; and so the living Saracens dragged the dead before the exits of the gates and arranged them in heaps, as if they were houses. No one ever saw or heard of such slaughter of pagan people, for funeral pyres were formed from them like pyramids, and no one knows their number except God alone. But Raymond caused the Emir and the others who were with him to be conducted to Ascalon, whole and unhurt."[15]

Another eyewitness source, Raymond of Aguilers, reports that some Muslims survived. After recounting the slaughter on the Temple Mount he reports of some who "took refuge in the Tower of David, and, petitioning Count Raymond for protection, surrendered the Tower into his hands." [16] These Muslims left with the Fatimid governor for Ascalon.[17] A version of this tradition is also known to the later Muslim historian Ibn al-Athir (10, 193–95), who recounts that after the city was taken and pillaged: "A band of Muslims barricaded themselves into the Oratory of David (Mihrab Dawud) and fought on for several days. They were granted their lives in return for surrendering. The Franks honoured their word, and the group left by night for Ascalon."[18] One Cairo Geniza letter also refers to some Jewish residents who left with the Fatimid governor.[19]


Although the Crusaders killed many of the Muslim and Jewish residents, eyewitness accounts (Gesta Francorum, Raymond of Aguilers, and the Cairo Geniza documents) demonstrate that some Muslim and Jewish residents were allowed to live, as long as they left Jerusalem.[20]


Jews had fought side-by-side with Muslim soldiers to defend the city, and as the Crusaders breached the outer walls, the Jews of the city retreated to their synagogue to "prepare for death".[21] According to the Muslim chronicle of Ibn al-Qalanisi, "The Jews assembled in their synagogue, and the Franks burned it over their heads."[22] However, a contemporary Jewish communication does not corroborate the report that Jews were actually inside of the synagogue when it was set fire.[23] This letter was discovered among the Cairo Geniza collection in 1975 by historian Shelomo Dov Goitein.[24] Historians believe that it was written just two weeks after the siege, making it "the earliest account on the conquest in any language."[24]

Eastern Christians[edit]

Contrary to what is sometimes alleged, no eyewitness source refers to Crusaders killing Eastern Christians in Jerusalem, and early Eastern Christian sources (Matthew of Edessa, Anna Comnena, Michael the Syrian, etc.) make no such allegation about the Crusaders in Jerusalem. According to the Syriac Chronicle, all the Christians had already been expelled from Jerusalem before the Crusaders arrived.[25] Presumably this would have been done by the Fatimid governor to prevent their possible collusion with the Crusaders.[26]

The Gesta Francorum claims that on Wednesday August 9, two and a half weeks after the siege, Peter the Hermit encouraged all the "Greek and Latin priests and clerics" to make a thanksgiving procession to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.[27] This indicates that some Eastern Christian clergy remained in or near Jerusalem during the siege. In November 1100, when Fulcher of Chartres personally accompanied Baldwin on a visit to Jerusalem, they were greeted by both Greek and Syrian clerics and laity (Book II, 3), indicating an Eastern Christian presence in the city a year later.


Following the battle, Godfrey of Bouillon was made Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri ("advocate" or "defender of the Holy Sepulchre") on July 22, refusing to be named king in the city where Christ had died, saying that he refused to wear a crown of gold in the city where Christ wore a crown of thorns.[citation needed] Raymond had refused any title at all, and Godfrey convinced him to give up the Tower of David as well. Raymond then went on a pilgrimage, and in his absence Arnulf of Chocques, whom Raymond had opposed due to his own support for Peter Bartholomew, was elected the first Latin Patriarch on August 1 (the claims of the Greek Patriarch were ignored). On August 5, Arnulf, after consulting the surviving inhabitants of the city, discovered the relic of the True Cross.

On August 12, Godfrey led an army, with the True Cross carried in the vanguard, against the Fatimid army at the Battle of Ascalon on August 12. The crusaders were successful, but following the victory, the majority of them considered their crusading vows to have been fulfilled, and all but a few hundred knights returned home. Nevertheless, their victory paved the way for the establishment of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

The siege quickly became legendary and in the 12th century it was the subject of the Chanson de Jérusalem, a major chanson de geste in the Crusade cycle.


  1. ^ a b c Valentin, François (1867). Geschichte der Kreuzzüge. Regensburg. 
  2. ^ a b Skaarup, Harold A. (2003). Siegecraft - No Fortress Impregnable. Lincoln. 
  3. ^ Dittmar, Heinrich (1850). Die Geschichte der Welt vor und nach Christus, Vol. 3. Heidelberg. 
  4. ^ a b c d Watson, Bruce (1993). Sieges: a comparative study. Westport. 
  5. ^ Nicolle, David (2003). The First Crusade, 1096-99: conquest of the Holy Land. Oxford. 
  6. ^ Mikaberidze, Alexander (2011). Conflict and Conquest in the Islamic World. Santa Barbara. 
  7. ^ Haag, Michael (2008). Templars: History and Myth: From Solomon's Temple to the Freemasons. London. 
  8. ^ The "massacre" at the sack of Jerusalem has become a commonplace motive in popular depictions, but the historical event is difficult to reconstruct with any certainty. Arab sources give figures of between 30,000 and 70,000 casualties (in an anonymous Syrian chronicle, and in Ibn al-Athir, respectively). These figures are rejected as unrealistic by Thorau (2007), who argues it is very unlikely that the city at the time had a total population of this order; medieval chroniclers tend to substantially exaggerate both troop strength and casualty figures; they cannot be taken at face value naively, and it is less than straightforward to arrive at realistic estimates based on them. Peter Thorau, Die Kreuzzüge, C.H.Beck, München 2007, ISBN 3406508383. Dittmar, Heinrich (1850). Die Geschichte der Welt vor und nach Christus, Vol. 3. Heidelberg. [page needed] Valentin, François (1867). Geschichte der Kreuzzüge. Regensburg. [page needed] Mackintosh, Sir James (1830). The history of England, Volume 1. Philadelphia. [page needed]
  9. ^ Thomas F. Madden, The New Concise History of the Crusades at 33 (Rowman & Littlefield Pub., Inc., 2005). The Syriac Chronicle to 1234 is one source claiming that Christians were expelled from Jerusalem before the crusaders' arrival. "The First and Second Crusades from an Anonymous Syriac Chronicle." Trans. A.S. Tritton. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1933, p. 73. Presumabaly this was done to prevent their collusion with the crusaders.
  10. ^ Tyerman 2006, pp. 153–157.
  11. ^ Jean Rchards "The Crusades 1071–1291" p 65
  12. ^ This point was first made by scholars John and Laurita Hill. Kedar, Benjamin Z. "The Jerusalem Massacre of July 1099 in the Western Historiography of the Crusades." in The Crusades ( Vol. 3). ed. Benjamin Z. Kedar and Jonathan S.C. Riley-Smith. Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2004 (ISBN 075464099X), p. 65
  13. ^ Fulcher of Chartres, "The Siege of the City of Jerusalem", Gesta Francorum Jerusalem Expugnantium.
  14. ^ Medieval Sourcebook: Gesta Francorum
  15. ^ Medieval Sourcebook: Gesta Francorum
  16. ^ Medieval Sourcebook: Raymond of Aguilers
  17. ^ Crusaders, Greeks, and Muslims by Sanderson Beck
  18. ^ Francesco Gabrieli, "Arab historians of the Crusades, Ch. 1. From Godefry to Saladin", University of California, 1969; 1984, p.11.
  19. ^ Edward Peters, The First Crusade,2nd. edition, University of Pennsylvania, 1998, p.265.
  20. ^ See also Thomas F. Madden, New Concise History at 34
  21. ^ Saint Louis University Professor Thomas Madden, author of A Concise History of the Crusades in CROSS PURPOSES: The Crusades (Hoover Institute television show, 2007).
  22. ^ Gibb, H. A. R. The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades: Extracted and Translated from the Chronicle of Ibn Al-Qalanisi. Dover Publications, 2003 (ISBN 0486425193), p. 48
  23. ^ Kedar, Benjamin Z. "The Jerusalem Massacre of July 1099 in the Western Historiography of the Crusades." The Crusades. Vol. 3 (2004) (ISBN 075464099X), pp. 15-76, p. 64. Edward Peters, ed. The First Crusade. 2nd ed. University of Pennsylvania, 1998, p. 264–272.
  24. ^ a b Kedar: pg. 63
  25. ^ "The First and Second Crusades from an Anonymous Syriac Chronicle," trans. A.S. Tritton. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1933, p. 73.
  26. ^ Thomas F. Madden. A Concise History of the Crusades, 1999, p. 35
  27. ^ Gesta Francorum. Bk. 10.39, ed. R. Hill. London, 1962, p. 94.