Crusaders and Ayyubids

TIMELINE 4D

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.

TURNING POINTS

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.

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

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

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

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.

ALSO IN THIS PERIOD

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

1148 The Second Crusade fails at Damascus.

1165 Maimonides visits Acre, Jerusalem and Hebron.

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

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

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

1250 The Mamluks seize power in Egypt.

1258 The Mongols sack Baghdad.