massacre at Ayyadieh

The most important sources written during or shortly after the events are:

• The al-Nawādir al-Sultaniyya wa'l-Maḥāsin al-Yūsufiyya ("Anecdotes of the Sultan and Virtues of Yusuf", in 2001 translated by D. S. Richards as The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin), an Arabic biography of Saladin written by the chronicler Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad, who served in Saladin's camp and was an eyewitness
• The Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi ("Account of the Crusade and the Deeds of King Richard"), a Latin book written in the early 1220s by the English canon Richard de Templo, who may or may not have participated in the Third Crusade himself
• The Crusade and Death of Richard I, a mid-13th-century Anglo-Norman anonymous chronicle based on the earlier writings of Roger of Howden, Roger of Wendover and Matthew Paris. (The original text had no title; the title 'The Crusade and Death of Richard I' was assigned to it by British historian Ronald Carlyle Johnston in 1961 when he translated it to modern English{{Cite web |url=http://www.anglo-norman.net/cgi-bin/and-getloc |title=The Crusade and Death of Richard I. Edited by R. C. Johnston. Oxford, Anglo-Norman Text Society 1961 |access-date=24 October 2019 |archive-date=8 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160108045103/http://www.anglo-norman.net/cgi-bin/and-getloc |url-status=dead }})
• Sébastien Mamerot mentions the massacre briefly at the beginning of Chapter LXVI of his chronicle of the crusades, Passages d'outremer, with the number of deaths being estimated at 5,000 souls. There is no mention of non-combatants.

After the fall of Acre, Richard I wanted to exchange a large number of Muslim prisoners from the city for the True Cross, 100,000 gold pieces and 1,600 Christian prisoners of war held captive by Saladin.According to Baha ad-Din, chapter 115 A deal was struck and a deadline set for Saladin to fulfill his part of the deal.

Distrust between the two leaders developed and a breakdown of negotiations ensued, each side demanding that their opponent's hostages be released first. After the agreed time limit for the Muslims to hand over the cross had expired, Richard, increasingly under the impression that Saladin was stalling, decided to have his hostages publicly executed. On 16 August Richard ordered that all the prisoners from Acre should be taken to a small hill called Ayyadieh. He ordered 2700 Turkish hostages to be led bound out of the city to be beheaded.Helen J. Nicholson (translator), [https://books.google.com/books/about/Chronicle_of_the_Third_Crusade.html?id=B7xmAAAAMAAJ Chronicle of the Third Crusade: A Translation of the Itinerarium Peregrinorum Et Gesta Regis Ricardi] (1997), p. 231.

The massacre was controversial for contemporary Christian sources. The Itinerarium Peregrinorum estimated that 2700 Turkish{{#tag:ref|'Turk', 'Saracen' and 'Moor' are obsolete generalised terms for 'Muslim' used by medieval European Christians. Similarly, medieval Middle Eastern Muslims frequently used the pars pro toto 'Frank' to refer to any Christian or crusader, whether they were from France or not.|group="note"}} hostages were killed, but do not mention any non-combatants that were present.Itinerarium Pregrinorum, p. 231. Christian sources at the time take care to mention the strategic burden of the hostages as well as the transgressions of Saladin before the massacre was ordered. Baha ad-Din indicates that even many of the crusaders disapproved of Richard's actions and couldn't understand why Richard ordered the executions.Baha ad-Din, chapter 116.

Parts of the Ayyubid army became so enraged by the killings that they attempted to charge the Crusader lines but were repeatedly beaten back, allowing Richard I and his forces to retire in good order.

Any hope of regaining the True Cross disappeared after Ayyadieh; it was rumored that Saladin sent it to Damascus.Payne (1994), p. 239 On his orders, around 1600 Christian prisoners were executed in retaliation. According to American historian John J. Robinson; "As news of the slaughter spread throughout Saladin's empire, Christian prisoners everywhere were tortured and murdered in reprisal for their infamy."{{Cite book |last=Robinson |first=John J. |authorlink=John J. Robinson |date=1992 |title=Dungeon, Fire and Sword: The Knights Templar in the Crusades |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8b9qKOtbQVcC&pg=PA183 |location=New York |publisher=M. Evans |page=183 |isbn=9781590771525 |accessdate=14 June 2020}} In A History of the Crusades. Volume III, English historian Steven Runciman noted that between 22 and 30 August, as Richard's army marched from Acre past Haifa to Jaffa, Saracen light horsemen carried out various assaults on the crusaders and took several prisoners; "who were taken to Saladin, cross-questioned and then slain, in vengeance for the massacre at Acre. Only the washerwomen were spared."{{Cite book |last=Runciman |first=Steven |authorlink=Steven Runciman |date=1987 |title=A History of the Crusades. Volume III: The Kingdom of Acre and the Later Crusades |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mrw8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA54 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=53–55 |isbn=9780521347723 |accessdate=15 June 2020}}

Studying Saladin's overall attitude towards prisoners of war, Gervers and Powell stated that; "in spite of his reputation for magnanimity, Saladin's treatment of prisoners of war was quite callous." They noted that Saladin was generous towards conquered populations and captured crusader commanders as long as he was achieving victories, but when he did not, or even suffered defeats; "Saladin's behavior toward prisoners was savage, and they were quite systematically put to death." Although scholars of Islamic law justified execution of prisoners under certain conditions, contemporary Islamic historians are divided on the moral acceptability of Saladin's killing of captives. During earlier campaigns in 1177–1179, Saladin had various captured Crusader soldiers and Christian civilians executed at different instances. When he conquered Jerusalem in 1187, however, Saladin released most Christian prisoners for ransoms, although 15,000 of those who could not pay the ransom were sold into slavery. After the 1191 loss of Acre and the Ayyadieh massacre, Saladin was supposedly frustrated by his military setbacks and also desired vengeance, leading to a spike in prisoner executions.{{Cite book |last1=Gervers |first1=Michael |last2=Powell |first2=James M. |date=2001 |title=Tolerance and Intolerance: Social Conflict in the Age of the Crusades |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n9dEpOsfVdIC&pg=PA12 |location=Syracuse, New York |publisher=Syracuse University Press |pages=12–14 |isbn=9780815628699 |accessdate=15 June 2020}}

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• {{cite book |last=Payne |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Payne (author) |title=The Dream and the Tomb: A History of the Crusades |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_JUyPcvrYXUC&pg=PA239 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |chapter=The Rages of King Richard |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_JUyPcvrYXUC&pg=PA217 |page=239 |year=1994 |isbn=9780812829457}}

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Category:Conflicts in 1191

Category:1191 in Asia

Category:12th-century massacres

Category:Battles of the Third Crusade

Category:Massacres in Asia

Category:Crusades

Category:Persecution of Muslims by Christians

Category:Richard I of England

Category:Saladin

Category:Massacres of Muslims

Category:True Cross