The Siege of Jerusalem took place from
June 7 to July 15, 1099 during the First
Crusade. The climax of the First
Crusade, the successful siege saw the
Crusaders seize the city from the
Fatimid Caliphate and laid the
foundations for the Kingdom of
Jerusalem.
Background
After the successful siege of Antioch in
June 1098, the Crusaders remained in the
area for the rest of the year. The papal
legate Adhemar of Le Puy had died, and
Bohemond of Taranto had claimed Antioch
for himself. Baldwin of Boulogne
remained in Edessa, captured earlier in
1098. There was dissent among the
princes over what to do next; Raymond of
Toulouse, frustrated, left Antioch to
capture the fortress at Ma'arrat
al-Numan in the Siege of Maarat. By the
end of the year the minor knights and
infantry were threatening to march to
Jerusalem without them. Eventually, on
January 13, 1099 Raymond began the march
south, down the coast of the
Mediterranean, followed by Robert of
Normandy and Bohemond's nephew Tancred,
who agreed to become his vassals.
On their way the Crusaders besieged Arqa
but failed to capture it and abandoned
the siege on May 13. Fatimids had
attempted to make peace, on the
condition that the crusaders not
continue towards Jerusalem, but this was
ignored; Iftikhar ad-Daula, the Fatimid
governor of Jerusalem, was aware of the
Crusaders' intentions. Therefore, he
expelled all of Jerusalem's Christian
inhabitants.  Further march towards
Jerusalem met no resistance.
Siege
On 7 June, the crusaders reached
Jerusalem, which had been recaptured
from the Seljuqs by the Fatimids only
the year before. Many Crusaders wept
upon seeing the city they had journeyed
so long to reach. As with Antioch the
crusaders put the city to a siege, in
which the crusaders themselves probably
suffered more than the citizens of the
city, due to the lack of food and water
around Jerusalem. The city was
well-prepared for the siege, and the
Fatimid governor Iftikhar ad-Daula had
expelled most of the Christians. Of the
estimated 5,000 knights who took part in
the Princes' Crusade, only about 1,500
remained, along with another 12,000
healthy foot-soldiers. Godfrey, Robert
of Flanders, and Robert of Normandy
besieged the north walls as far south as
the Tower of David, while Raymond set up
his camp on the western side, from the
Tower of David to Mount Zion. A direct
assault on the walls on June 13 was a
failure. Without water or food, both men
and animals were quickly dying of thirst
and starvation and the crusaders knew
time was not on their side.
Coincidentally, soon after the first
assault, two Genoese galleys sailed into
the port at Jaffa, and the crusaders
were able to re-supply themselves for a
short time. The crusaders also began to
gather wood from Samaria in order to
build siege engines. They were still
short on food and water, and by the end
of June there was news that a Fatimid
army was marching north from Egypt.
Final assault
The prime need of the crusaders was for
ladders and siege towers to scale the
walls of Jerusalem. The Egyptian Fatamid
garrison had cleared the surrounding
area of trees. The crusaders sent
foraging parties into Samaria to obtain
wood and other materials. They found 400
pieces of prepared timber, enough to
build two 50 foot siege towers, a
battering-ram and several catapults. A
fleet of Genoese ships commanded by
Guglielmo Embriaco, had arrived at Jaffa
in support of the land-based crusaders.
These vessels were dismantled by the
Genoese, providing wood and ropes
suitable for siege equipment, notably
additional siege towers.
On the night of July 14, the crusaders
launched a two-pronged assault on the
walls. One tower was to the south, the
other to the northwest. The Muslims knew
that if one siege tower breached the
walls, Jerusalem would fall. The Muslims
pelted the first siege tower with
flaming arrows and pots of oil until it
went up in flames. Now, only one siege
tower was left, to the northwest under
the command of the revered Duke Godfrey.
Godfrey's tower took two hours to reach
the weak spot of the walls near the
northeast corner gate. According to the
Gesta two Flemish knights from Tournai
named Lethalde and Engelbert were the
first to cross into the city, followed
by Godfrey, his brother Eustace,
Tancred, and their men. Raymond's tower
was at first stopped by a ditch, but as
the other crusaders had already entered,
the Muslim guarding the gate retreated.
Massacre
Although conquerors committing
atrocities against the inhabitants of
cities taken by storm after a siege was
the norm in Medieval warfare, the
massacre of the inhabitants of Jerusalem
likely exceeded even these standards.
= Muslims=
Many Muslims sought shelter in the
Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Dome of the Rock,
and the Temple Mount area generally.
According to the Gesta Francorum,
speaking only of the Temple Mount area,
"...[our men] were killing and slaying
even to the Temple of Solomon, where the
slaughter was so great that our men
waded in blood up to their ankles..."
According to Raymond of Aguilers, also
writing solely of the Temple Mount area,
" in the Temple and porch of Solomon men
rode in blood up to their knees and
bridle reins." Writing about the Temple
Mount area alone Fulcher of Chartres,
who was not an eyewitness to the
Jerusalem siege because he had stayed
with Baldwin in Edessa at the time,
says: "In this temple 10,000 were
killed. Indeed, if you had been there
you would have seen our feet coloured to
our ankles with the blood of the slain.
But what more shall I relate? None of
them were left alive; neither women nor
children were spared".
The eyewitness Gesta Francorum states
that some people were spared. Its
anonymous author wrote, "When the pagans
had been overcome, our men seized great
numbers, both men and women, either
killing them or keeping them captive, as
they wished." Later the same source
writes, "[Our leaders] also ordered all
the Saracen dead to be cast outside
because of the great stench, since the
whole city was filled with their
corpses; and so the living Saracens
dragged the dead before the exits of the
gates and arranged them in heaps, as if
they were houses. No one ever saw or
heard of such slaughter of pagan people,
for funeral pyres were formed from them
like pyramids, and no one knows their
number except God alone. But Raymond
caused the Emir and the others who were
with him to be conducted to Ascalon,
whole and unhurt."
Another eyewitness source, Raymond of
Aguilers, reports that some Muslims
survived. After recounting the slaughter
on the Temple Mount he reports of some
who "took refuge in the Tower of David,
and, petitioning Count Raymond for
protection, surrendered the Tower into
his hands."  These Muslims left with the
Fatimid governor for Ascalon. A version
of this tradition is also known to the
later Muslim historian Ibn al-Athir, who
recounts that after the city was taken
and pillaged: "A band of Muslims
barricaded themselves into the Oratory
of David and fought on for several days.
They were granted their lives in return
for surrendering. The Franks honoured
their word, and the group left by night
for Ascalon." One Cairo Geniza letter
also refers to some Jewish residents who
left with the Fatimid governor.
Tancred claimed the Temple quarter for
himself and offered protection to some
of the Muslims there, but he was unable
to prevent their deaths at the hands of
his fellow Crusaders.
Although the Crusaders killed many of
the Muslim and Jewish residents,
eyewitness accounts demonstrate that
some Muslim and Jewish residents were
allowed to live, as long as they left
Jerusalem.
= Jews=
Jews had fought side-by-side with Muslim
soldiers to defend the city, and as the
Crusaders breached the outer walls, the
Jews of the city retreated to their
synagogue to "prepare for death".
According to the Muslim chronicle of Ibn
al-Qalanisi, "The Jews assembled in
their synagogue, and the Franks burned
it over their heads." A contemporary
Jewish communication confirms the
destruction of the synagogue, though it
does not corroborate that any Jews were
inside it when it was burned. This
letter was discovered among the Cairo
Geniza collection in 1975 by historian
Shelomo Dov Goitein. Historians believe
that it was written just two weeks after
the siege, making it "the earliest
account on the conquest in any
language." Additional documentation from
the Cairo Geniza indicates that some
Jews held captive by the Crusaders were
able to escape when the Ascalon Jewish
community paid a ransom.
= Eastern Christians=
Contrary to what is sometimes alleged,
no eyewitness source refers to Crusaders
killing Eastern Christians in Jerusalem,
and early Eastern Christian sources make
no such allegation about the Crusaders
in Jerusalem. According to the Syriac
Chronicle, all the Christians had
already been expelled from Jerusalem
before the Crusaders arrived. Presumably
this would have been done by the Fatimid
governor to prevent their possible
collusion with the Crusaders.
The Gesta Francorum claims that on
Wednesday August 9, two and a half weeks
after the siege, Peter the Hermit
encouraged all the "Greek and Latin
priests and clerics" to make a
thanksgiving procession to the Church of
the Holy Sepulchre. This indicates that
some Eastern Christian clergy remained
in or near Jerusalem during the siege.
In November 1100, when Fulcher of
Chartres personally accompanied Baldwin
on a visit to Jerusalem, they were
greeted by both Greek and Syrian clerics
and laity, indicating an Eastern
Christian presence in the city a year
later.
Aftermath
Following the battle, Godfrey of
Bouillon was made Advocatus Sancti
Sepulchri on July 22, refusing to be
named king in the city where Christ had
died, saying that he refused to wear a
crown of gold in the city where Christ
wore a crown of thorns. Raymond had
refused any title at all, and Godfrey
convinced him to give up the Tower of
David as well. Raymond then went on a
pilgrimage, and in his absence Arnulf of
Chocques, whom Raymond had opposed due
to his own support for Peter
Bartholomew, was elected the first Latin
Patriarch on August 1. On August 5,
Arnulf, after consulting the surviving
inhabitants of the city, discovered the
relic of the True Cross.
On August 12, Godfrey led an army, with
the True Cross carried in the vanguard,
against the Fatimid army at the Battle
of Ascalon on August 12. The crusaders
were successful, but following the
victory, the majority of them considered
their crusading vows to have been
fulfilled, and all but a few hundred
knights returned home. Nevertheless,
their victory paved the way for the
establishment of the Crusader Kingdom of
Jerusalem.
The siege quickly became legendary and
in the 12th century it was the subject
of the Chanson de Jérusalem, a major
chanson de geste in the Crusade cycle.
References
Sources
