Siege of Kerak

This article is about the siege that occurred in 1183. Not to be confused with the Siege of Al-Karak in 1834.

The siege of Kerak was conducted by the forces of Muslim Sultan Saladin against the Crusaders and the Christian King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem at the Kerak Castle from early November to 4 December 1183. The Crusaders successfully withstood the siege.

Siege of Kerak
Part of the Crusades
The Kerak Castle in the present-day in Jordan
Date Early November — 4 December 1183 Location Kerak Castle, Lordship of Oultrejordain of the Kingdom of Jerusalem Result Crusader victory
Belligerents
Kingdom of Jerusalem	Ayyubid Dynasty
Commanders and leaders
Baldwin IV of Jerusalem Raynald of Châtillon Raymond III of Tripoli	Saladin Al-Adil I Al-Muzaffar Umar Kara Arslan Sheref ad-Din Barghosh †
Strength
Unknown	8 siege engines
Casualties and losses
Unknown	A couple hundred

Prelude

Kerak was the stronghold of Raynald of Châtillon, Lord of Oultrejordain, 124 km south of Amman. The fortress was built in 1142 by Pagan the Butler, Lord of Montreal. While Raynald ruled, several truces existed between the Christian and Muslim states in the Holy Land, but none were truly respected. In particular, soldiers under his command frequently raided Muslim trading caravans. Raynald's most daring raid was an 1182 naval expedition down the Red Sea to Mecca and El Medina. He continuously plundered the Red Sea coast and threatened the routes of pilgrims to Mecca in spring 1183. He captured the town of Aqaba, giving him a base of operations to attack the holy city itself. Saladin, a Sunni Muslim and the leader of the Muslim forces, decided that the Kerak castle would be an ideal target, both to protect the ability of Muslims to travel freely between Egypt to Damascus and to dissuade future Christian attacks on Mecca.

Demonstrations of war machines used during the siege of Kerak in Kerak Castle Museum

Siege and relief

Saladin and his commander, Al-Adil, led the Muslim effort to capture Kerak. The Muslims had sought to take the fortress for several years, but now they stretched its defenses to the breaking point. There had long been plans for Baldwin's half-sister Isabella to marry Reynald's stepson in the autumn of 1183, with the potential to fashion a powerful new alliance between the Christian powers. When Saladin learned of this, he ordered that the besieging army be given eight catapults in order to speed up their conquest.

Inside the walls of Kerak, the marriage between Humphrey IV of Toron, Raynald's stepson and heir, and Isabella was performed. At first, food was brought out to Saladin, so he told his soldiers to not fire at the tower where the wedding was taking place. This could have been due to courtesy, or because he did not want to harm the potentially two most valuable hostages. According to the historian Ernoul, "Etiennette, mother of the young bridegroom, sent out to Saladin a present of bread and meat and wine, with a message that gave him greeting and reminded him that he once in his youth had been a prisoner in Kerak, and had, as a slave, carried her when a child in his arms." Saladin was touched by the message and so decided not to interrupt the wedding. Messengers managed to escape the town and take word to Baldwin IV, who was in Jerusalem at the time. In the following days, the Muslim forces aggressively went after Kerak's walls. They continuously sent stones and missiles through, damaging buildings on the inside.

Baldwin, carried on a stretcher to relieve the pain of his leprosy, immediately marched with a relief force, with his regent Raymond III of Tripoli as acting commander. A beacon was promptly lit on the Tower of David in Jerusalem as a sign that help was coming to relieve the siege. Saladin, confident that enough damage had been done and calculating that he did not want to be caught between Raynald's and Baldwin's forces, stopped the siege and withdrew with his army.

Aftermath

In the following spring of 1184, Saladin advanced through Amman, and again attacked Kerak on August 13. A relieving army once again arrived to save Kerak after three weeks of Saladin's army attacking the walls with their engines. Kerak remained a Crusader stronghold and a symbol of the Christian grip on the region until falling to Muslim control in 1188. The next time the Crusaders had to contend with a major siege, it was at the walls of Jerusalem itself.

In fiction

The motion picture Kingdom of Heaven contains a fictional portrayal of the siege. In the film, knights under the command of Balian engaged the Ayyubids as they approached Kerak, so that defenseless citizens could retreat to Raynald's castle. The film also showed the siege not taking place, but King Baldwin IV and Saladin negotiating a settlement. Baldwin then punished Raynald for breaking the truce (with Saladin) by attacking a Muslim caravan.

There is also a "Siege of Kerak" soundtrack in the game Crusader Kings II.

The siege plays a significant role in the climax of The Sultan's Siege, the first book of the Til Time series, where the protagonists attempt to find one another amongst the chaos of an attack on Kerak Castle.

Bibliography

• Smail, R. C. Crusading Warfare 1097–1193. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, (1956) 1995. ISBN 1-56619-769-4
• Stevenson, W (1907). The Crusaders in the East: a brief history of the wars of Islam with the Latins in Syria during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Cambridge University Press.
• "Crusader Kings II Wiki". ck2.paradoxwikis.com. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
• "The Siege of Kerak: Saladin's troops would not attack the castle tower in which a wedding was taking place". The Vintage News. 2017-05-10. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
• Newsbold, D. (1945). "The Crusaders in the Red Sea and the Sudan". University of Khartoum. 26: 213–227.
• "In 1183, a Muslim Military Leader Refused to Attack this Castle For a Very Strange Reason". HistoryCollection.co. 2017-05-17. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
• "Kerak, Jordan". www.atlastours.net. Retrieved 2016-02-20.