Siege of Safed (1188)

1188 siege by Saladin against Jerusalem

Siege of Safed (1188)

Part of the Crusades
| Date| November–December 1188

|

Location|

Safed

Result|  Ayyubid victory
Belligerents
Ayyubid Sultanate|  Knights Templar
Knights Hospitaller
Commanders and leaders
Saladin
Saphadin|  ?

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Crusades: battles in the Levant (1096–1303)

First Crusade

* Xerigordos
* Civetot
* Nicaea
* 1st Dorylaeum
* 1st Antioch
* Samosata
* 2nd Antioch
* Ma'arra
* Arqa
* 1st Jerusalem
* 1st Ascalon

Period post-First Crusade

* Arsuf
* Dog River
* Melitene
* Mersivan
* 1st Heraclea
* 2nd Heraclea
* 1st Ramla
* 2nd Ramla
* 1st Tripoli
* 1st Acre
* 2nd Acre
* Harran
* 3rd Ramla
* Artah
* 1st Beirut
* Sidon
* 1st Tyre
* 1st Shaizar
* Al-Sannabra
* Sarmin
* Ager Sanguinis
* Hab
* 1st Saruj
* Gerger
* Jaffa
* Tyre
* Yibneh
* 1st Aleppo
* Azaz
* Marj al-Saffar
* 2nd Beirut
* 1st Damascus
* al-Atharib
* Rafaniyya
* Antioch
* Qinnasrin
* 2nd Tripoli
* Ba'rin
* 2nd Aleppo
* 2nd Shaizar
* Edessa 1144
* 2nd Saruj
* Edessa 1146
* Bosra

Second Crusade

* 1st Constantinople
* 2nd Dorylaeum
* Laodicea on the Lycus
* Ephesus
* Meander Valley
* Mount Cadmus
* 2nd Damascus

Period post-Second Crusade

* Inab
* Aintab
* 2nd Ascalon
* Lake Huleh
* Butaiha
* Marash
* al-Buqaia
* Harim
* 1st Bilbeis
* al-Babein
* 1st Alexandria
* 2nd Bilbeis
* 1st Damietta
* Ayla
* 2nd Alexandria
* Montgisard
* Hama
* Banias
* Marj Ayyun
* Jacob's Ford
* 3rd Acre
* Red Sea
* 1st Belvoir Castle
* Al-Fule
* 1st Kerak
* Cresson
* 2nd Kerak
* Hattin
* 2nd Jerusalem
* 3rd Tyre
* 2nd Belvoir Castle
* Laodicea
* Sahyun
* Al-Shughur
* Bourzey
* Safed

Third Crusade

* 4th Acre
* Philomelion
* Iconium
* 1st Arsuf
* 1st Jaffa

Period post-Third Crusade

* 2nd Jaffa
* Toron

Fourth Crusade

* Zara
* 2nd Constantinople
* 3rd Constantinople

Fifth Crusade

* Mount Tabor
* Machghara
* 2nd Damietta
* 1st Fariskur
* 1st Mansurah

Sixth Crusade and aftermath

* Gaza
* 3rd Jerusalem
* Forbie
* 3rd Ascalon

Seventh Crusade

* 3rd Damietta
* 2nd Mansurah
* 2nd Fariskur

End of the Crusader states in the Levant

* 2nd Arsuf
* Caesarea
* Haifa
* Safed
* 2nd Antioch
* Eighth Crusade
* Krak des Chevaliers
* Montfort Castle
* 3rd Tripoli
* Qaqun
* Homs
* Margat
* 4th Tripoli
* 4th Acre
* Ruad

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Ayyubid–Crusader conflict
(1169–1254)

* 1st Damietta
* Ayla
* Alexandria
* Montgisard
* Hama
* Banias
* Marj Ayyun
* Jacob's Ford
* 1st Acre
* Red Sea
* 1st Belvoir Castle
* Al-Fule
* 1st Kerak
* Cresson
* 2nd Kerak
* Hattin
* 1st Jerusalem
* Tyre
* 2nd Belvoir Castle
* Laodicea
* Sahyun
* Al-Shughur
* Bourzey
* Safed
* 2nd Acre
* Arsuf
* 1st Jaffa
* 2nd Jaffa
* Toron
* Mount Tabor
* Machghara
* 2nd Damietta
* 1st Fariskur
* Limassol
* 1st Mansurah
* 1st Gaza
* 2nd Jerusalem
* 2nd Gaza
* Ascalon
* 3rd Damietta
* 2nd Mansurah
* 2nd Fariskur

The siege of Safed (November–December 1188) was part of Saladin's invasion of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

The siege of the Templar-held castle began in early November 1188.[1] Saladin was joined by his brother, Saphadin.[2] Saladin employed a large number of trebuchets and extensive mines.[2] He also maintained a very tight blockade.[1] According to Bahāʾ al-Dīn, the conditions were rainy and muddy. At one point, Saladin specified the placement of five trebuchets, mandating that they be assembled and in place by the morning.[1][3]

A letter written while the siege was ongoing by the Hospitaller provisor Hermengar to Duke Leopold V of Austria records the Hospitaller's "fear for the Templars' castle of Safad [since] we do not know how long they can endure continual sieges and life-threatening hardships."[4] A relief force of Hospitallers was intercepted and routed. In an incident recorded by Ibn al-Athīr, two Hospitallers were captured and sentenced to be executed by Saladin. One of them expressed shock at the sentence in terms flattering to the sultan, who then spared their lives and imprisoned them instead.[2]

The failure of the relief force had consequences. It was the exhaustion of their supplies and not the attacks on the walls that induced the Templar garrison to sue for peace on 30 November.[1] On 6 December, the garrison walked out on terms. They went to Tyre, which Saladin had failed to capture in an earlier siege.[2]

Other historians who mention the siege include Abū Shāma and ʿImād al-Dīn.[1]

## Notes

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1. ^ a b c d e Fulton 2018, p. 179.
2. ^ a b c d Phillips 2019, pp. 214–215.
3. ^ Ellenblum 2007, p. 283.
4. ^ Barber & Bate 2013, p. 87.

## Bibliography

[edit]

* Barber, Malcolm; Bate, Keith, eds. (2013). Letters from the East: Crusaders, Pilgrims and Settlers in the 12th–13th Centuries. Ashgate.
* Ellenblum, Ronnie (2007). Crusader Castles and Modern Histories. Cambridge University Press.
* Fulton, Michael S. (2018). Artillery in the Era of the Crusades: Siege Warfare and the Development of Trebuchet Technology. Brill.
* Kennedy, Hugh (1994). Crusader Castles. Cambridge University Press.
* Phillips, Jonathan (2019). The Life and Legend of the Sultan Saladin. Yale University Press.

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