Siege of Jerusalem (1099)

Siege of Jerusalem (1099)
Part of the First Crusade
Taking of Jerusalem by the Crusaders, 15th July 1099 painting by Émile Signol (1847), Palace of Versailles
Date 7 June 1099 – 15 July 1099 Location Jerusalem 31°46′44″N 35°13′32″E / 31.77889°N 35.22556°E / 31.77889; 35.22556 Result Crusader victory Territorial changes Founding of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
Belligerents
Crusaders	Fatimid Caliphate
Commanders and leaders
Godfrey of Bouillon Raymond IV of Toulouse Robert II of Normandy Robert II of Flanders Eustace III of Boulogne Tancred of Galilee Gaston IV of Béarn Berenguer Ramon II Guglielmo Embriaco	Iftikhar ad-Dawla
Strength
12,200–13,300 soldiers[1][2] 11,000–12,000 infantry 1,200–1,300 knights 2 siege towers, 1 battering ram, and several catapults[3]	Total unknown[4] Sizeable garrison of infantry and archers[5] 400 cavalry[4] 14 catapults[6]
Casualties and losses
~3,000 killed and wounded[7]	Entire garrison killed 3,000–70,000 Muslims and Jews massacred[8]
Jerusalem class=notpageimage| Site of the siege relative to the Mediterranean

Part of a series on
Jerusalem
History Timeline City of David 1000 BCE Second Temple Period 538 BCE–70 CE Aelia Capitolina 130–325 CE Byzantine 325–638 CE Early Muslim 638–1099 Crusader 1099–1187 Late Medieval 1187–1517 Ottoman 1517–1917 British Mandate 1917–1948 Modern period (Jordanian and Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem) 1948-
Sieges Before Common Era 701 BCE 597 BCE 587 BCE 63 BCE 37 BCE Common Era 70 614 637 1099 1187 1244 1834 1917 1948
Places East West Old City Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa Dome of the Rock Al-Aqsa Mosque Western Wall Synagogues Mosques Church of the Holy Sepulchre Hebrew University Knesset Biblical Zoo Tomb of Lazarus Al-Quds University
People Demographic history Mayor Chief Rabbi Grand Mufti Greek Orthodox Patriarch Crusader kings
Political status Religious significance Judaism Christianity Islam Jerusalem Law Jerusalem Day Quds Day Judaization Islamization US recognition
Other topics Names Emblem Municipality Greater Jerusalem Cuisine City Line Transport Songs Historical maps
v t e

The siege of Jerusalem marked the end of the First Crusade, whose objective was Christian control of the city of Jerusalem and removing the Church of the Holy Sepulchre from Islamic control. The five-week siege began on 7 June 1099 and was carried out by the Christian forces of Western Europe mobilized by Pope Urban II after the Council of Clermont in 1095. The city had been governed for a century first by the Seljuk Turks and later by the Fatimids. A number of eyewitness accounts of the battle were recorded, including in the anonymous chronicle Gesta Francorum.

After Jerusalem was captured on 15 July 1099, thousands to tens of thousands of Muslims and Jews were massacred by Crusader soldiers. As the Crusaders secured control over the Temple Mount, a place of Christian religious significance considered to be the site of the two destroyed Jewish Temples, they also seized Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, both of Islamic religious significance, and repurposed them as Christian shrines. Godfrey of Bouillon, prominent among the Crusader leadership, was elected as the first ruler of Jerusalem.