Crusaders and Ayyubids

TIMELINE 8

Timeline 8 of 26

Crusaders and Ayyubids

1099 to 1260

Crusaders take Jerusalem and found a Latin kingdom. Saladin retakes the city in 1187, and Jewish learning flowers around the Mediterranean, above all in Maimonides.

JEWISH LIFE IN THE LAND

1100 Jews of Egypt and Ashkelon ransom captives and Torah scrolls taken in Jerusalem.

1141 Yehuda Halevi sails for Zion after writing “My heart is in the East”.

1165 Maimonides visits Acre, Jerusalem and Hebron.

c. 1170 Benjamin of Tudela tours the land and records its Jewish communities.

c. 1180 Petahiah of Regensburg travels through the land and visits the graves of the sages.

c. 1190 Maimonides completes the Guide for the Perplexed. In Egypt he joins Jewish law and Greek philosophy.

1191 Saladin destroys Ashkelon, and its Jews move to Jerusalem.

1211 Scholars from France and England arrive in the “Aliyah of the 300 Rabbis”.

c. 1218 The poet Judah al-Harizi visits Jerusalem and finds its Jews returned.

RULERS OF THE LAND

1099 The Crusaders take Jerusalem. Their capture is followed by the killing of Jews and Muslims and the ruin of Jewish towns.

1104 The Crusaders take Acre. The port becomes the gateway of the kingdom.

1148 The Second Crusade fails at Damascus.

1149 The rebuilt Church of the Holy Sepulchre is consecrated.

1187 Saladin wins at Hattin and retakes Jerusalem. Jews are allowed to return after decades of Crusader rule.

1191 Richard the Lionheart takes Acre. The Third Crusade wins back the coast, and Acre becomes the Crusader capital.

1192 Richard and Saladin sign a truce. Christian pilgrims may visit Jerusalem.

1219 The Ayyubid ruler tears down the walls of Jerusalem.

1229 Frederick II regains Jerusalem by treaty. The emperor wins the city from the sultan of Egypt without a battle.

1244 The Khwarazmians sack Jerusalem. The city is lost to the Crusaders for good.

1250 The Mamluks seize power in Egypt.

1258 The Mongols sack Baghdad.