ABSTRACT
The expedition of Frederick Barbarossa, which ended in the waters of the Calycadnus and the epidemics of northern Syria, was followed with greater success by those of the kings of France and England. Despite all Saladin’s efforts to mobilize all the forces of Islām in a counter-crusade (we owe to Abu Shama the text of one of his impassioned appeals on the subject), in 1191, her food and her army gone, Acre submitted. Bahā’ ad-Din paints for us a vivid picture of the last hours and the tragedy of the surrender with its bloody epilogue, a disgrace to the name of Cœur de Lion, when the Muslim prisoners were massacred in cold blood.
