ABSTRACT
The "Spring of the Cresson" is perhaps best known to historians of the crusader kingdom as the scene of a bloody engagement which took place on 1 May 1187 between 7,000 mamluk troops led by Saladin's amir, Muzaffar al-Din Kukburi, and a Christian force of some 140 knights, including the masters of the Temple and of the Hospital. The Muslims then returned to Banyas, passing Tiberias once again and continuing around the north shore of the lake, carrying the severed heads of the dead Templars and Hospitallers on their spears. The chapter reviews the available evidence relating to the Spring of the Cresson and to suggest that it should be identified as forming part of the river system known in medieval times, and quite possibly earlier, as the Kishon. The Crusaders in 1217-18 also seem to have camped in this general area, beside the stream flowing from it, either in the Wadi al-Madi, in the plain further south.
