Crusaders Capture Jerusalem

On 7 June 1099, the vanguard of the First Crusade arrived outside Jerusalem, reaching the destination Pope Urban II had promoted four years earlier at the Council of Clermont. The invading army had shrunk considerably since departing Europe and traversing Anatolia after its assembly outside Constantinople. The eyewitness chronicler Raymond of Aguilers reckoned that no more than about 12,000 crusaders able to bear arms, including some 1,200 to 1,300 knights, reached the city walls. Jerusalem was held by an Egyptian Fatimid garrison under the governor Iftikhar ad-Dawla, who had expelled local Syrian Christians, secured the city cisterns, and blocked nearby wells to deny the attackers water during the harsh summer heat.

The defensive layout of Jerusalem presented formidable natural and architectural obstacles. Deep valleys guarded the city to the east, southeast, and west, leaving only the northern perimeter and the area near Mount Zion to the southwest practical for an assault. The defensive system featured an outer ditch, an outer wall designed to disrupt low stone projectiles, and an inner stone wall rising up to fifteen meters. Stationing their divided forces along the northern and southwestern approaches, the crusaders attempted a direct attack on 13 June. Lacking adequate siege machinery, this initial rush failed, highlighting the necessity of constructing specialized engines before a major relief force from Cairo could arrive.