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On June 26, 1187, the Muslim Sultan Saladin crossed the river Jordan with 20, 000 of his followers an army consisting of roughly 12, 000 light horsemen and a number of footmen to a location south of the Sea of Galilee where he and his men encamped. They had been ravaging the nearby countryside in hopes of provoking a Christian attack, but had been unsuccessful. The Frankish Christians led by King Guy in Jerusalem had also mobilized their own army and camped at the spring at Saffuriyah. Marshall W. Baldwin says that the Franks too had an army 20, 000 strong, but it was different in composition. The Latins, as they are called, were a cavalry of 1, 200 heavily armored knights, 3, 500 lightly armored, mounted sergeants, several thousand foot soldiers, as well as a large number of native auxiliaries as mounted bowmen.
Between the two great forces (the largest memorable, Christian gathering in years) lay an arid terrain; the hot summer sun made travel extremely difficult, especially for large numbers. One could easily expect fatigue, dehydration, and low morale when venturing to the east of Saffuriyah until reaching the Sea of Galilee. Strategists of each side knew the consequences of traveling across the region and so, the waiting game was played to see who would be the one to be provoked into a trap through the valleys. Although Saladin had unified large sections of the Muslim world, his army was still not a standing one. The crusaders counted on the fact that Saladin would have trouble holding his army together for a long period of time because his soldiers were not full-time warriors. Many were also tradesmen or farmers that easily disbanded when there was no action to get back home.
Saladin knew his situation and continually harassed the area of Tiberias in failed attempts to provoke the Christians into leaving Saffuriyah, until he decided on July, 2 to besiege the city itself. He moved the majority of his troops to the high ground west of Tiberias. From this location, the Muslims could block entrance to the city while still accessing water supplies from the Sea of Galilee through the eastern side of the ridge. Tiberias was poorly fortified and Saladin's well supplied forces had no trouble entering its walls. Residents of the city took refuge in the citadel, including the wife of Count Raymond of Tripoli who urgently sent west for help. Upon receipt of Eschives distress call, there was great commotion among the Christian camp and a leadership council was called.
James A. Brundage argues that many of the council were in favor of a counter-attack on Saladin's troops, claiming that they all advised that at dawn they should march out, accompanied by the Lords Cross, ready to fight the enemy, with all the men armed and arrayed in battle formation. However, the best strategists of the Frankish army were not proud-bouncing, battle hungry fools. They realized that they could not move easily over the terrain to Tiberias and many of them immediately agreed with Count Raymond of Tripoli. Despite that it was his wife under attack, Raymond urged King Guy of Jerusalem to stay at Saffuriyah where there was plenty of water and provisions were accessible. He persuaded the King to hold the favorable position and wait for the Muslim Saracens to come to him.
It was thought that perhaps if the Muslims took Tiberias, they would be proud and cross the arid lands to Saffuriyah where they could be crushed easily. Raymond's words were sensible, advising that Saladin might destroy the walls of the town, but these could be rebuilt; he might take captive [my] wife and men, but these could be recovered do not endanger the Kingdom by endangering the field army; let Tiberias go; remain here at Saffuriyah. Despite Brundages ideas, other less biased sources speak of only one knight at the war council who was anti-Raymond Gerard de Ridefort, leader of the Templars. Various historians argue over what exactly caused King Guy to stray from his initial inclination to stay at Saffuriyah.
A most probable theory comes from Baldwin, who claims that late that night after the council, Gerard spoke with the King in private. According to Baldwin, Gerard said that Raymond was a traitor, and also implied that should the King relinquish the city without a blow, he was a coward. Almost all sources tell how Guy was a weak-minded King and was therefore easily influenced by Gerard. What is also important to note is that Gerard and Raymond had long been rivals. Gerard disliked Raymond and therefore was more concerned with his personal agenda then the well being of the Kingdom. In addition, R.
C. Smail claims that before their reconciliation a few weeks before, Raymond had been Guys enemy and Rival. By taking this viewpoint, it can be seen that Raymond was looking to disgrace Guy on his first major campaign as King. However, what Smail fails to mention is the reason for which Raymond reconciled with Guy.
Baldwin tells of how on May first of 1187, a raid took place in which many Christian Templars were killed. The Kingdom could not afford the loss in manpower and morale and upon hearing the news, Raymond willingly ended his disputes with Guy in an effort to save the Kingdom. Smail's theory is harder to grasp also because looking at the army that marched, who was leading the vanguard but Raymond? It would not have been wise for Guy to place Raymond to lead his first major campaign had they been such great rivals; doing so would have put the effort at risk from the start. Why would Guy make the decision to allow Raymond to lead his vanguard if they were enemies? Custom would not have been sufficient reason alone 15.
It was possible though that Guy was compelled to answer the call of a Lady in need and that is why he was so easily swayed to march. Whatever it was that Gerard said to the King on the night of July, 2 worked because the next morning (July, 3), Guy stubbornly gave the order to march to his confused followers. When Saladin heard that the Christians were heading his way, he was thrilled and removed his forces from Tiberias to set up for the attack, spreading is troops along the surrounding hillside. This was the turn of events that Saladin had hoped for; his plan had worked and the Franks would be at a disadvantage, marching through the heat without water or supply. Using his mobile horse archers, Saladin harassed the crusader forces as they marched.
His archers were quick enough that they could use the hit-and-run tactic that the Muslims were famous (or notorious depending on your vantage point) for. The Christians had no real way of counter-attacking, for their army was not well equipped to handle hit-and-run attacks. In fact, the Latin army was more of a European style; they were used to marching their armies onto a field and charging at each other with their various units most effective being the heavy cavalry. The main problem with this was that there was no one for the heavy cavalry to charge at because the light Muslim horse archers were not a stationary target, such as an infantry unit.
The Saracens did not venture close to the crusaders either, making it difficult for the Christian infantry to do any damage. The only way the Franks may have been able to effectively attack back at the Muslims were if they were to use their own archers long bowmen. However, the problem was that the bowmen had no mass target to aim at and in order to fire, they would have needed to be stationary themselves. Unfortunately for the crusaders, their army was not one that performed well on the march 16. Saladin knew this and used it to his advantage. All that the crusaders could do was ignore their losses and press on.
The Muslims repeated their tactic again and again; they would empty their quivers into the crusader army, then return for more arrows and repeat the attack...
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