Battle of Ascalon
Battle of Ascalon | |
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Part of the Ascalon, Fatimid Caliphate 31°40′14″N 34°33′29″E / 31.67056°N 34.55806°E | |
Result |
Crusader victory[1]
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10,200 men[2]
- 9,000 infantry
- 1,200 knights
- 10,000 regular infantry
- 4,000 regular cavalry
- Unknown number of auxiliaries (Armenian archers, Arab and Bedouin light cavalry)
12,700 (contemporary Muslim sources)[6]
The Battle of Ascalon took place on 12 August 1099 shortly after the capture of Jerusalem, and is often considered the last action of the First Crusade.[7] The crusader army led by Godfrey of Bouillon defeated and drove off a Fatimid army, securing the safety of Jerusalem.[8]
The Crusaders completed their primary objective of capturing
At dawn on 12 August, the Crusader army launched a surprise attack on the Fatimid army still sleeping in its camp outside the defensive walls of Ascalon. The Fatimids had failed to post enough guards, leaving only a part of their army capable of fighting. The Crusaders quickly defeated the half-ready Fatimid infantry, while the Fatimid cavalry had little contribution in the fighting. The battle ended in less than an hour. The Crusader knights reached the center of the camp, capturing the vizier's standard and personal baggage, including his sword. Some Fatimids fled into the trees and were killed by Crusader arrows and lances, while others begged for mercy at the Crusaders' feet and were butchered en masse. The terrified vizier fled by ship to Egypt, leaving the Crusaders to kill any survivors and gather up a vast amount of loot. Ibn al-Qalanisi estimated 12,700 Fatimid dead,[9] and mentioned that all Muslims with the means to do so chose to emigrate.[10]
The first Muslim attempt to recapture Jerusalem ended in complete defeat, but Godfrey failed to exploit the victory and take Ascalon, whose Fatimid garrison was willing to surrender only to Raymond of Toulouse, a condition Godfrey would not accept. The Fatimid base in Ascalon remained a thorn in the side of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and would not fall until the siege of Ascalon of 1153.
Background
The crusaders had negotiated with the Fatimids of Egypt during their march to Jerusalem, but no satisfactory compromise could be reached—the Fatimids were willing to give up control of Syria but not the lower Levant, but this was unacceptable to the crusaders, whose goal was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was captured from the Fatimids on July 15, 1099, after a long siege, and immediately the crusaders learned that a Fatimid army was on its way to besiege them.[11]
The crusaders acted quickly. Godfrey of Bouillon was named
Battle
The Fatimids were led by vizier al-Afdal Shahanshah, who commanded perhaps as many as 20,000 troops (other estimates include the exaggerated 200,000 of the
On the morning of the 12th, crusader scouts reported the location of the Fatimid camp and the army marched towards it. During the march the crusaders had been organized into nine divisions: Godfrey led the left wing, Raymond the right, and Tancred, Eustace, Robert of Normandy and
According to most accounts (both Crusader and Muslim), the Fatimids were caught unprepared and the battle was short, but Albert of Aix states that the battle went on for some time with a fairly well prepared Egyptian army. The two main lines of battle fought each other with arrows until they were close enough to fight hand-to-hand with spears and other hand weapons. The Ethiopians attacked the centre of the crusader line, and the Fatimid vanguard was able to outflank the crusaders and surround their rearguard, until Godfrey arrived to rescue them. Despite his numerical superiority, al-Afdal's army was hardly as strong or dangerous as the Seljuk armies that the crusaders had encountered previously. The battle seems to have been over before the Fatimid heavy cavalry was prepared to join it. Al-Afdal and his panicked troops fled back to the safety of the heavily fortified city; Raymond chased some of them into the sea, others climbed trees and were killed with arrows, while others were crushed in the retreat back into the gates of Ascalon. Al-Afdal left behind his camp and its treasures, which were captured by Robert and Tancred. Crusader losses are unknown, but the Egyptians lost 10,000 infantry and 2,700 residents of Ascalon, including militia, killed.[6][13]
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Bataille d'Ascalon, 12 août 1099, oil on canvas by Prosper Lafaye, 1841, in the Salles des Croisades, Palace of Versailles
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Godefroy de Bouillon dépose dans l'église du Saint-Sépulcre les trophées d'Ascalon, août 1099, oil on canvas byFrançois-Marius Granet (1839) in the Salles des Croisades, Palace of Versailles
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Battle of Ascalon (engraving by C. W. Sharpe, based on a painting of the same title by Gustave Doré)
Aftermath
The crusaders spent the night in the abandoned camp, preparing for another attack, but in the morning they learned that the Fatimids were retreating to Egypt. Al-Afdal fled by ship. They took as much plunder as they could, including the Standard and al-Afdal's personal tent, and burned the rest. They returned to Jerusalem on August 13, and after much celebration Godfrey and Raymond both claimed Ascalon. When the garrison learned of the dispute they refused to surrender. After the battle, almost all of the remaining crusaders returned to their homes in Europe, their vows of pilgrimage having been fulfilled. There were perhaps only a few hundred knights left in Jerusalem by the end of the year, but they were gradually reinforced by new crusaders, inspired by the success of the original crusade.[14]
Although the battle of Ascalon was a crusader victory the city itself remained under Fatimid control, and it was eventually re-garrisoned. It became the base of operations for invasions of the Kingdom of Jerusalem every year afterwards, and numerous battles were fought there in the following years, until 1153 when it was finally captured by the crusaders in the Siege of Ascalon.[14]
Citations
- ^ a b Asbridge 2004, p. 326
- ^ France 1997, p. 361
- ^ France 1997, pp. 359–361.
- ^ Asbridge 2004, p. 325.
- ^ Tyerman 2006, p. 160.
- ^ a b France 1997, p. 360.
- ^ "Battle of Ascalon Military.com". Archived from the original on September 6, 2015. Retrieved August 13, 2012.
- ^ Mulinder, Alec (2006). "Ascalon, Battle of (1099)". In The Crusades – An Encyclopedia. p. 113.
- ^ Ibn al-Qalānisī, A. Yaʻlá Ḥamzah ibn Asad., Gibb, H. A. R. (Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen). (1932). The Damascus chronicle of the Crusades. London: Luzac.
- ^ Benjamin Z. Kedar. “Subjected Muslims of the Frankish Levant.” In James M. Powell, editor. Muslims under Latin Rule, 1100-1300. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985. p. 150
- ^ France 1997, p. 358.
- ^ a b c France 1997, p. 361.
- ^ France 1997, p. 364.
- ^ a b France 1997, p. 365.
Bibliography
- Albert of Aix, Historia Hierosolymitana
- Asbridge, Thomas S. (2004). The First Crusade: A New History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-7432-2084-2.
- Brett, Michael (2019). "The battles of Ramla, 1099–1105". The Fatimids and Egypt. London and New York: Taylor & Francis. pp. 207–228. ISBN 978-1-138-35482-1.
- Fulcher of Chartres, Historia Hierosolymitana
- France, John (1997). Victory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade. ISBN 978-0-521-58987-1.
- Gesta Francorum
- Hans E. Mayer, The Crusades. Oxford, 1965.
- Raymond of Aguilers, Historia francorum qui ceperunt Jerusalem
- Jonathan Riley-Smith, The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading. Philadelphia, 1999.
- Steven Runciman, The First Crusaders, 1095–1131. Cambridge University Press, 1951.
- ISBN 0-299-04834-9.
- Tyerman, Christopher (2006). God's War: A New History of the Crusades. ISBN 978-0-674-03070-1.