The Battle of Jacobs Ford

[Halie Satanus]

Dawn, the 29 of August 1179, Salah al-Din ordered his forces to attack the Templar held fortress at Jacobs Ford on the west bank of the River Jordan north of the Sea of Galilee. He knew that if the Fortress building was to be compleated his adversery king Baldwin lV would have a powerfull base in the no mans land between the Islamic nation and the Crusader states.

Jacobs ford was a new and bold move by Baldwin, he thought that if he could leave a strong garrison at the fortress he would have both a powerfull base to attack from and a strong defensive position. The fact it was only one days march from Damascus and blocked his only route into latin Palestine left no doubt in Salah al-Dins mind the fortress could not be allowed to stand.

At first Salah al-Din was short of manpower and taking the fortress by force was beyond him, rebels in the north of Syria were causing a drain on his forces, so he tried to make a deal and offered at first 60,000 then 100,000 dinars to Baldwin to stop constrution and leave the region, Baldwin refused. Though far from compleation by april the fortress had taken formidable shape, with a 10 metre high wall and a single tower,

By late August Salah al-din was ready to take Jacobs Ford and there was no time to waste, Baldwin was stationed half a days march to the south west,
Salah al-din knew he had to capture the fortress as quickly as possible and as such began an assault based siege. His forces began to bombared the fortress from the East and the West, while at the same time tunnels were dug under the north east walls as his sappers tried to collapse the ramparts and force a breach, at the same time Baldwin had gathered his army and was heading for the fort.

Eventually the walls fell and the islamic army poured into the fortress butchering the defenders inside as the elite Templars tried to make a last stand. Thier commander even charged his horse in the battle as a last show of defience. one of Salah al-dins lieutenants later said of him,

'he threw himself into a hole full of fire without fear of the intense heat and, from this brazier, he was immediately thrown into another - that of Hell'.

Some 800 men were killed at Jacobs ford that day and another 700 taken prisoner, though it has been said there were no survivors. Baldwin had raced his men to the ford ,but by noon as he could see smoke in the distance he knew he was to late, a mear six hours to late.


I saw the documentry awhile back and just got round to doing this.
Theres alot more of the background info here. :wink:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/program...sader_01.shtml

[Ringeck]

Boy do I wish the Jacob's Ford excavations were more widely published. (admittedly, this isn't too bad, but so brief.... http://ateret.huji.ac.il/)

It would be fun to see the entire story of the rise and fall of the Ayyubids and the fall of the KoJ as a concise documentary. Start with the Zengids and the complicated power plays concerning Damascus, the second crusade and the contestion of Egypt, continue with Saladin's rise of power and rivalry with Nur-ad-Din and his war with As-Salih Ismail, and end with the entire campaign against the crusader states, from Montsigard to the departure of Richard, before briefly going over the events around and after Saladin's death and his political legacy, the short-lived Ayyubid dynasty.