ABSTRACT
The loss of Jerusalem, and the Marquis of Montferrat’s courageous defence of Tyre, set in motion the Third Crusade. But the most important event of the Crusade, the long siege of Acre, began long before the arrival of Philip II Augustus and Richard of England, who simply provided the final impetus that reaped the harvest of three hard years’ blockade of this Palestinian port, taken by Saladin in 1187. Note the double siege of the city, first by the Franks, and then by Saladin, from outside, of the besieging Franks. Logistic difficulties prevented Saladin from maintaining the contact he had established with the beleaguered Muslims and forced him to stand by, almost impotently, throughout the city’s long agony. The accounts of the siege and the attempts to break it are full of unusual and graphic incidents, examples of which have been taken from Bahā’ ad-Din, ‘Imād ad-Din and Ibn al-Athīr.
