by Marie Antonia Parsons

Created on: December 17, 2009

Hattin was the place where Jesus had spoken the words of the Sermon on the Mount, blessing the meek and the merciful.  It should have represented a meeting place where perhaps Muslims and Europeans could have found a way to share the Holy Land, where three brilliant religions had blazed into the world. Instead, the battle at the peaks of Hattin, fought in 1187 CE between the Muslim forces of Saladin and those of the Crusader states was a turning point in the Holy Land.  It turned against the Crusaders for three factors:

* Their defeat at Hattin highlighted forever the Crusader lack of unity and their venomous behavior toward each other.

* Saladin moved through Palestine all the way to the walls of Jerusalem and finally captured the center of Crusader control.

* His victory brought calls for a Third Crusade.

Events Leading to the Battle

The Crusaders had carved out four city-states in the Holy Land by 1099. They lost the city of Edessa, center of one of their kingdoms, in 1144.  Their attempt to conquer Damascus three years later failed in the Second Crusade. But Baldwin of Jerusalem took Ascalon in 1153 and Crusaders defeated Saladin at Montigisard in 1177.  

Raymond of Tripoli had been regent of Jerusalem. Raymond, who was born in the Holy Land, spoke and read Arabic, and welcomed Muslims to his city, made a two year treaty with Saladin, hoping to keep peace.  Perhaps these two men might have forged something between them.  Then in 1186, the young king died, and in the faction division between his mother Sibylla and her husband Guy on one side, and her half-sister Isabella on the other, Raymond, who supported Isabella, was put out of power and retired to Tiberias, and Guy became King of Jerusalem.

Saladin had agreed to a new four year truce with the former king of Jerusalem, starting in 1185.  The Crusaders were facing famine and drought, but Saladin in Egypt had the resources of that rich country, and he sent water and food. The truce might have continued indefinitely, or grown into something marvelous.  

Reynald of Chatillon was by then the most powerful of the Crusader nobles, one of Guy’s hawkish supporters. Reynald was not about to keep the peace. He attacked a Muslim caravan, then gathered naval forces intending to assault Mecca. That attempt failed, most of his men caught and killed. But he attacked a second caravan, this time capturing Saladin’s sister as well as murdering merchants and taking their goods.

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