Siege of Jerusalem

Significance

The Siege of Jerusalem was the culminating military objective of the First Crusade, which had begun in 1096. The city was held by a Fatimid Caliphate garrison under Iftikhar ad-Dawla, numbering approximately 3,000 troops, against a Crusader force estimated at 12,000–15,000 men under a coalition of commanders including Godfrey of Bouillon, Raymond IV of Toulouse, Robert II of Normandy, Robert II of Flanders, Eustace III of Boulogne, Tancred of Galilee, Gaston IV of Béarn, Berenguer Ramon II, and Guglielmo Embriaco. Casualties on both sides were recorded at approximately 3,000 each. As the stated destination of the Crusade and the symbolic center of the conflict between Latin Christian and Islamic power in the Levant, the siege represented the operational endpoint toward which the entire campaign — from the assembly of forces in 1096 through engagements across Anatolia and the Levant — had been directed.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (10)