Established to protect and care for pilgrims in the Holy Land, the Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller also defended the crusader states. This article appears in: July In November , Saladin launched his first significant military campaign against a crusader state. With 26, men, siege engines, a huge baggage train, and his own personal force of elite Mamluk bodyguards, Saladin marched his Ayyubid army across the Sinai Desert from Egypt into southern Palestine.
King Baldwin IV, who was suffering from aggressive leprosy, rapidly cobbled together his remaining forces, approximately mounted knights and several thousand foot soldiers, and with the notorious Christian Prince Raynald of Chatillon in command, marched to Ascalon. Amand marched from Gaza to join the Christian forces. On November 25, with the roads muddy from recent rains, Saladin and the vanguard of his army were pushing east toward Ibelin.
Near the rear of the column, his baggage train and siege engines became mired in mud near the mound of al-Safiya, not far from Montgisard. Suddenly, the sultan of Egypt and Syria was shocked to see a small enemy force, with Knights Templar in the vanguard, forming up on a nearby hill. Saladin was taken completely by surprise. His army was in disarray, some of it held up with the stalled baggage train, others still absent raiding the countryside.
Both his men and horses were exhausted after the long march from Egypt and their subsequent raids. Saladin raced to assemble his elite troop of personal guards—between and strong—while his nephew and chief commander, Taqi ad-Din, attempted to form the main body into lines of battle. Unable to form ranks or mount any effective resistance, the much larger Muslim force was thrown into confusion and began falling back.
He took off for his own safety and fled, throwing off his mail shirt for speed, mounted a racing camel and barely escaped with a few of his men. Bedouins constantly harassed them, and any who made the mistake of stopping in villages to beg for food and water were slain or handed over to the Christians as hostages. When Saladin returned to Cairo, he circulated the lie that the Christians had been defeated.
