Siege of Damascus

Overview

The siege of Damascus took place between 24 and 28 July 1148, during the Second Crusade. It ended in a crusader defeat and led to the disintegration of the crusade. The two main Christian forces that marched to the Holy Land in response to Pope Eugene III and Bernard of Clairvaux's call for the Second Crusade were led by Kings Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany. Both faced disastrous marches across Anatolia in the months that followed, with most of their armies being destroyed. The original focus of the crusade was Edessa (Urfa), but in Jerusalem, the preferred target of King Baldwin III and the Knights Templar was Damascus. At the Council of Acre, magnates from France, Germany, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem decided to divert the crusade to Damascus.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Siege of Damascus in July 1148 was a central episode of the Second Crusade, drawing together the principal Crusader commanders — including King Baldwin III, Holy Roman Emperor Conrad III, and King Louis VII of France — alongside forces under Everard des Barres, Raymond du Puy, Thierry of Flanders, and Frederick of Swabia. Arrayed against a Crusader force recorded at 50,000, the Burid defenders of Damascus were led by Mu'in ad-Din Unur, who called upon Saif ad-Din Ghazi I and Nur ad-Din Zangi for relief. The failure of the operation constituted the defining military and political setback of the Second Crusade, demonstrating the inability of the assembled Western and Levantine Crusader leadership to translate numerical strength into a decisive strategic gain. The involvement of Nur ad-Din Zangi on the opposing side underscored the growing consolidation of Muslim power in the region that the crusade had sought to check.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (10)