By September, the Muslim army held the towns
of Acre, Nablus, Jaffa, Toron, Sidon, Beirut, and Ascalon. Only
Tyre still fought against Saladin, but he decided that his men
were really tired and could not go on with the siege there. ‘It’s
better for us to take Jerusalem,’ he said to his generals, ‘But
I don’t want to be like the Franks all those years ago, killing
everyone. Let’s see what we can do.’