The Battle of Hittin took place on Saturday, July 4, 1187, between the Crusader
Kingdom of Jerusalem and the forces of the Ayyubid dynasty under Sultan Salah al-Din
al-Ayyubi. It was a decisive setback in the fortunes of the crusaders, enabling
the Muslims to regain control of Jerusalem from the Christians who had occupied
the Holy City since 1099 and had subsequently exerted their control over much of
the Bilad al-Sham.
The fear of the Christian invaders was paramount; the memory of the massacre of
the Muslim inhabitants of Jerusalem a century earlier still lived on in the collective
memory of the descendants of the First Crusaders. What they expected was retribution
in kind from Salah al-Din and his army. What they received instead was peace and
the opportunity to co-exist without fear so long as the rule of Islamic law was
implemented once again.
‘Not since the Frankish occupation of the Syrian coast had the Muslims' thirst for
victory been quenched to the extent it was on the day of Hattin, 4 July 1187. God—may
he be honoured and glorified—gave the upper hand to the Sultan Saladin and enabled
him to perform that in which kings had proved themselves deficient. By his grace,
God guided him to obey His command and, by performing his duty, to attain the goal
set before him’ 1
Imad ad-Din al-Isfani (Salah al-Din’s personal secretary and chronicler)
1. Hallam, Elizabeth. Chronicles of the Crusades: Eye-Witness
Accounts of the Wars Between Christianity and Islam. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson,
1989. pp. 157-160.