JAFFA

The Franks were perennially short of troops in the Holy Land to hold the four crusader states established after the First Crusade. Because of this, they could ill afford a major defeat against their Muslim foes on the field of battle. Although the multinational Christian armies of the First and Second Crusades numbered tens of thousands of troops, the majority returned home after their respective Crusade came to a close. This left only a small number of Franks to hold a large swath of territory in the holy land.

After the untimely death of the 10-year-old Shia Fatimid Caliph Al-Adid in 1171, his Sunni Kurdish vizier called Ayyubid Sultan Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub – better known to history as Saladin – wrested control of Egypt. This changed the balance of power in the region decisively in favour of the Muslims.

Saladin had grown up in Syria, where his family had served first Imad al-Din Zengi, the Oghuz Turkish governor of Aleppo, and later his second son, Emir Nur ad-Din, the governor of Syria and Upper Mesopotamia. Upon Nur ad-Din’s death in 1174, Saladin began campaigning in Syria. By the early 1180s, he had succeeded in conquering both Damascus and Aleppo. It was the first time that the Franks faced a single Muslim ruler who controlled the military resources of both Egypt and Syria.

Meanwhile, the Latin footprint in the holy land was shrinking. The Zengid Turks had completed their conquest of the northernmost crusader state, the County of Edessa, over a six-year period ending in 1150. Of the three remaining crusader states, the Principality of Antioch, County of Tripoli and the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the latter was most powerful. Its king was the overall leader of all three crusader states. He ruled from Jerusalem, and occupied the bustling port of Acre: one of the finest harbours on the Levantine coast.

While Saladin was building his power, the crusader states suffered from