The Third Crusade

As a result of the Christians lose to the Muslim sultan Zengi, three countries, England, France, and Germany all joined together to form what would be know as the 3rd crusade. During this time of Zengi's life, he had initially started Jihad on the Christians. Zengi, the MUSLIM RULLER WAS AN ALCHOLIC. He was always drinking, especially from one cup. One day after heavy drinking Zengi was so drunk that he did not even realize what had happened when another slave was drinking out of this cup. Out of fear, the slave had (not knowing how drunk Zengi had been so drunk) waited until Zengi was asleep, and then beat him to death! After his death, Zengi's second son al-Malik al-Adil Nur ad-Din Abu al-Qasim Mahmud Ibn 'Imad ad-Din Zangi (Nur-Aldin) took charge as Sultan. Nur-Aldin's successor Saladin had grown to somewhat dislike Nur ad-Din because he never worked with him, nor did he ever go off to fight or assist in any battles with him. At one point, their relationship became so terrible that they went off to battle each other. While traveling, Nur ad-Din got a fever, and died. Saladin took Nur ad-Din's position as sultan and would be the ultimate cause for a third crusade.

As sultan, Saladin made sure to try to gain the territory that was lost to the Christians back. All three countries, England, France, and Germany started the crusade. Their leaders would be King Richard I (the Lionhearted) of England, Emperor Frederick I (Barbarossa) of Germany, and King Philip II (Augustus) of France. Ultimately this crusade was very unsuccessful. Frederick I drowned before he reached Germany, Philip II returned home early, and Richard the Lionhearted was left to fight alone.

The crusades moved in, Saladin had made sure to make attacks on the Christians land while they were gone. One of the most famous attacks was the attack on the city-state of Edessa, the City of Waters. During this attack Saladin had to do something very unique as simply climbing over a wall would get his people killed; his choice was to go under the cities main structure, light the basement on fire, and let the building collapse.

Richard the Lionhearted, left alone to fight and lead his army, was at a general loss. Many times the Holy-Land in Jerusalem was fought over by the Muslims and Christians. At one point the Muslims were about to attempt to surrender a piece of the land to the Christians. Unfortunately for the Christians, this was not known to them. The Christians decided to setup a fake massacre to make it look like many Muslims had been killed. Out of fear, the Muslims decided to attack the Christians; which in fact ended up as another loss for the crusading Christians.

al-Malik al-Adil Nur ad-Din Abu al-Qasim Mahmud Ibn 'Imad ad-Din Zangi Arabic: نور الدين

mad ad-Din Atabeg Zengi (عماد الدین زنكي)

Saladin Arabic: صلاح الدين الأيوبي, Kurdish: صلاح الدین ایوبی

Book Sources

Hook, Christa and Nicolle, David. The Third Crusade 1191. Dec. 2005. Osprey Publishing

Labberton, Robert Henlopen. Outlines of History. 1878. Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger