‘The Franks’ new king is weak, but they are still brave and,
when they fight together, their armour and their big horses
make them very strong. Our horses are smaller, but faster.
We wear less armour, but we move more quickly. We’re better
at fighting in the desert. We’re also much faster at sending
news to each other with carrier pigeons. We must be clever if
we’re going to win against them, so I have a plan. We’ll attack
Raymond of Tripoli’s castle near Lake Tiberias and my hope is
that they’ll hurry to fight us, forgetting the problems of moving
a large army over that part of the country.’
When the Franks heard that Saladin’s army was at Tiberias,
many of them wanted to march at once, but Raymond said,
‘Tiberias belongs to me. I’ve never seen so strong a Muslim army,
and I think that we’re not wise to fight them even if my castle
and my wife are in danger!’
But Reynald of Chatillon replied, ‘You’re trying to make us
afraid because you prefer the Muslims to us!’
Raymond then said, ‘I’m one of you. I’ll do what you wish and
fight at your side, but you’ll see what happens.’
In early July, Saladin was waiting by the lake. He took time to
look carefully to find the best place to fight. The Frankish army
left from Saffuriya. It was only about four hours’ journey for a
man on a horse to get from there to Lake Tiberias, but moving
an army with foot soldiers and knights in heavy armour under
the hot summer sun was difficult. There was no water on the
dry road and men and horses were very thirsty. Saladin’s men
spent the whole day attacking the slowly moving soldiers,
shooting arrows at them to make them travel even more slowly.
The Franks wanted to get to the lake before evening, but they
only got to Hattin. There they had to stop. Looking down the
hill, they saw Saladin’s army waiting by the lake. They couldn’t
get to the water, and no man or horse in the Frankish army had
anything to drink all through the night.
Next morning, Frankish foot soldiers ran to get water, but
many died under the swords and arrows of the Muslim army.
Then Saladin told his men to light fires in the dry grass in front
of the Frankish army. Smoke filled the Franks’ eyes and mouths.
They couldn’t see the enemy, but still they fought. Twelve
hundred knights left the day before from Saffuriya. Only one
hundred and fifty knights were alive when Saladin’s seventeenyear-
old son Al-Afdal described what he saw that day:
Hattin was my first battle and I was at my father’s side. In the end, the
King of the Franks was on the hill. He and his soldiers made an attack
that drove our men back to where my father and I were standing. My
father cried, ‘They mustn’t win!’ and our men attacked the hill again.
I was happy when I saw the Franks fall back. I cried, ‘We’ve won!’ But
the Franks attacked again with all their strength and our men were all
around us again. Then my father told them to attack once more, and they
pushed the enemy up the hill another time. Again I screamed, ‘We’ve
beaten them!’ But my father turned to me and said, ‘Be silent! We’ll win
only when that red tent on the hill falls!’ Before he finished his words,
the king’s tent fell. My father then got off his horse, bowed down and
thanked God, crying happily.
After the battle, Saladin’s men took King Guy and Reynald