September 7, 2023

Today in history witnessed an epic battle between Christians and Muslims. The sheer ferocity and valor displayed at the battle of Arsuf would make most otherwise “breathtaking” battle scenes emanating from Hollywood seem like child’s play.

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Context: in late August, 1191, Richard the Lionhearted, at the head of a large force of Crusaders, set out from Acre to Jaffa. Along with the fierce Syrian sun, the Christians were harried by a nonstop deluge of arrows from the hordes of Saladin, he who a few years earlier had all but annihilated the Crusaders at the Horns of Hattin.

Despite the casualties from arrows, sunstroke, snakebite, starvation, and disease, the Christian warriors remained undaunted and pressed on. Saladin’s own biographer, Baha’ al-Din, expressed dismay: “I saw various individuals amongst the Franks with ten arrows fixed in their backs, pressing on in this fashion quite unconcerned… Consider the endurance of these people, bearing exhausting tasks without any pay or material gain.”

Finally, on September 6, as the Crusaders emerged from a dense wood, there on the vast plains of Arsuf, they saw “all the forces” of Islam marshalled before them, “from Damascus and Persia, from the Mediterranean Sea to the East,” writes a chronicler. There was not a single warlike Muslim people “whom Saladin had not summoned to aid him in crushing the Christian people,” for he “hoped to wipe the Christians completely off the face of the earth.”

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Battle commenced on the morning of September 7, 1191. A wild din erupted from the Muslim camp. Drums, horns, and cymbals banged and brayed, to reverberant cries of “Allahu Akbar” and other “horrible yells.” As the Crusaders knelt in prayer and went into battle formation, the “land all around resounded with the echo of their [Muslims’] harsh cries and roaring noise.” Suddenly, in the midst of this “terrifying racket,” thousands of Turks “rushed down on our people” on horses “driven like lightning.” The dust storm caused by this stampede “filled the sky like a dark cloud.” Behind the galloping Turks “ran a devilish race, very black in color.”

In this manner, the Muslims “fell on our army from all sides… There was not a space for two miles around, not even a fistful, which was not covered with the hostile Turkish race…. As they kept up their persistent assaults they inflicted very grave losses on our people.”

Unlike the better rested and provisioned Muslims, the already exhausted Crusaders fought back as best they could. Unhorsed knights were seen “walking on foot” and “returning blow for blow as far as means and strength allowed,” even as the Turks galloped about and continued to rain down darts on them.

For long, Richard commanded his men not to break rank but stay in a defensive posture. Only when the entire Muslim army had gotten close enough, and their horses had tired, would he give the signal for a counteroffensive.

Inevitably, however, “two knights who could not bear to wait” any longer “burst out of the line,” whereupon “everything was thrown into confusion.” They charged at and began slaughtering their enemies. “The rest of the Christians heard these two calling with loud voices for St George’s aid as they charged boldly on the Turks,” and so immediately followed suit — “charging as one into the relentlessly attacking enemy.”

On seeing this, Richard signaled for the general assault, and sped to where the fighting was thickest. He broke through his own men and crashed with thunderous violence into the enemy. “Stunned by the strength of the blows he and his force inflicted on them,” the Muslims “fell back to the right and the left.” Many were butchered on the spot, while a “great number were but headless corpses trodden underfoot by friend and foe regardless.” Driven into a battle frenzy, and in the words of the chronicler: