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| ARSUF: A GREAT FORGOTTEN BATTLE SITE |
By Moshe Reinfeld The Author is a freelance journalist and a tour guide in Israel Websites: http://israel.electrical-contractor.net/ http://pr4you.bravehost.com/ http://123freehost.co.uk/sites/israel-covered/ Have you ever heard about Arsuf? This beautiful but forgotten site on the western coast of Israel has been recently developed and is now recommended to tourists, especially those who are interested in the fascinating period of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and more generally in famous Historical battle sites. The site is located near the beach of Herzlia, not far away from Tel Aviv, a convenient location for spoilt tourists who do not like to travel too far. It includes the remains of an ancient town and, what is more important for us, a Crusader fortress. According to archaeological findings, the town was established 2500 years ago by the Phoenicians. It was then called Arshuf, after the Phoenician god of war and storm, Reshef. Later on, the town was annexed by the Jewish kingdom of Alexander Yanai. During that period of time the residents made their living by producing purple dye from snails and dying garments with it. The first written Historical evidence abut the place was given by the great Jewish Historian Josephus Flavius who lived in the Roman period. He tells us that the place, which in his days was called Apollonia, was situated between Migdal Straton (later called Caesaria) and Jaffa. According to his evidence, there was no harbour in Apollonia. Roman Apollonia was a big town. Probably there was no Jewish community in it. Interesting remains can be seen there today from the Byzantine period, the time when the Roman Empire became Christian. They include a water system and a furnace for glass production, which was fuelled by wood. In recent laboratory tests, it was found out that the ancient glass which was manufactured there was almost the same as the modern glass. The town also made a living from fishing and processing agricultural crops from the neighboring villages. During the Roman and Byzantine era, the town was not fortified, and it seems that the Arabs who invaded the country in the 7th century had no difficulty to take it over. The Arabs changed its name to Arsuf, similar to the original name. The Arabs were the first to build a wall around the town, in order to defend it against the attacks of the Byzantine fleet, as they also did in other towns along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. But the golden days of Arsuf were in the Crusader period. The French speaking Crusaders had some difficulty in pronouncing the name "Arsuf", so they changed it to "Arsur". In the end of 1099, a short time after the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem from the Moslems, and immediately after their failure to subdue Askalon (Ashqelon, in Hebrew) in the southern part of the coast, they tried to occupy Arsuf. But they failed here too. The Crusaders were Europeans, and all their sources of supply and manpower were in Europe. Their main connection with Europe had to be by sea. So they had an Interest in securing their marine lines, including their edges in the coastal towns. But the first Crusader armies came there by land, advancing southwards from the area of modern Turkey. They had no fleet. That is why they could not execute a full siege around any port town. A siege on land exclusively was useless. The besieged population could easily receive plenty of supply of fresh food and soldiers from Moslem Egypt, by sea. Therefore it was impossible to exhaust them. That is the main reason why the Crusaders siege failed in Acre and in Askalon, as well as in Arsuf. The Crusaders easily took over the whole coast but all the harbors, except for Jaffa, were closed to them. In Arsuf also came to the surface the dispute between the two senior commanders of the Crusaders armies, Godfrey of Bouillon and Raymond of Toulouse. Not only they did not help one another, they also disturbed one another, and almost started a real war between them. Eventually they became friends, but they could not conquer Arsuf. The siege ended by means of compromise. The residents agreed to recognize the sovereignty of the Crusaders in exchange for the retreat of the Crusader army. Godfrey left there his representative - a knight called Gerard d'Avesnes - and retreated with his soldiers. Godfrey had no intention to keep his word. He could not afford giving up the only strategic way he knew – the occupation of the coast towns. And chivalry was reserved in the Middle Ages to relations with ladies, not with the enemy. So he grabbed the first opportunity he had, and renewed the siege around Arsuf, December 1099. The besieged residents did not hesitate. They tied poor Gerard to the walls, hoping that it will deter the Crusader archers from shooting at them. The screams of Gerard did not have any effect on tough Godfrey. Fortunately, the "living shield" was not hurt, but Godfrey had no success too, once again because of the lack of war ships that could cut the supply routes from Egypt. Another compromise was achieved. Godfrey received the keys of town, Gerard was released and the population even promised to pay taxes. The residents of Arsuf, like all the other Moslems in the coastal towns, believed that this solution will save them from occupation, destruction and massacre. It was a shear illusion. The Crusaders needed a complete rule all over the coast, and they acted accordingly. At last they found a splendid idea. They used the fleets of the Italian cities that ruled the Mediterranean Sea, and from time to time visited its eastern coast. The Italians had fast armed boats that were used primarily for commerce but also for Piracy. The Crusaders gave the greedy Italians generous bonuses, e.g. the ownership of main streets in the town to be occupied and tax exemptions, in exchange for their help in making the siege complete. No wonder that the fleet of Genoa, the strongest marine "city-power" those days came to the area on spring 1101 to sniff around. Godfrey was then already dead, but his younger brother and successor, Baldwin the 1st, the first king of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem (Godfrey refused to get the title "King"), asked the Italians to help him take Arsuf. "No problem" said his guests in Italian, but on one small condition. If the operation ends successfully, they will receive one third of the whole loot, and a full ownership of the main street downtown. Baldwin had no choice but to agree. The siege started with some debacles. A huge wooden tower, built by the Crusaders to enable their warriors to jump over the wall, collapsed because it was overloaded, and a hundred soldiers fell down. Some of them were captured by the Moslems, were crucified by them and then were nailed to the walls, to scare the attackers. But the effect of this cruel behavior was not what they hoped to achieve. On the contrary, the Crusaders got furious, stormed the walls, climbed rope ladders, and took most of the fortifications over. The defenders agreed to put their weapons down and leave all their property, in exchange for a free exit to Askalon. Baldwin agreed, and let them go. He was probably in a wonderful mood on that day, because in most of the other towns which he conquered, his soldiers murdered all the Moslem and Jewish residents – old and young men, women and children – in cold blood. After the occupation, Arsuf returned to be Arsur, and became the property of the king himself. The King left there a small garrison force and went back to Jerusalem. The military importance of Arsur was proven a year later, 1102. The Crusaders were defeated then by the Moslem Egyptian army near Ramla. The Moslems, who were not much more virtuous than their rivals, slaughtered most of the Crusader soldiers. But lucky Baldwin slipped away with two of his aids and after a long night ride along the hostile coast he found shelter in Arsuf. The king used this town to rearrange his army and from there he went out to another round near Ramla. This time he won the battle. In the middle of the 12th century the central coast became a feudal estate. Arsuf was its capital city. Its first master was Jean d'Arsur. He ruled the estate for almost 30 years, and died 1198 during a hunting Safari in the woods. "The woods", I said?! One who is acquainted with this area today knows that there are no woods in that place. Only bushes and sands are to be seen there. But researchers confirm that in Middle Ages the landscape there was completely different. The coast was then covered by a thick wood of oak trees. That wood will be soon referred to in the context of the most famous event related to our town – the battle of Arsuf. Jean d'Arsur died when Arsuf, together with the other parts of the country, was no longer in the hands of the Crusaders. A few years earlier the Crusaders were totally defeated by the Moslem army, led by its great Kurd warlord, Saladin (Salah ed-Din), in the battle of Hattin, 4th of July 1187. Saladin was the original owner of copyrights for the idea that made the whole coast of Israel look as it is. If you go today along that coast you can see the ruins of many Crusader fortresses, including Arsuf. Saladin was the first to suggest the demolition of all fortifications along the coast, instead of keeping them. The Mamluks who later on took control of his empire, refined his idea and ruined all the other buildings as well. Saladin understood very well the real meaning of the coast to the Crusaders: the sea links to Europe. He also knew that whenever his army broke into a Crusader citadel, the Crusaders came back with reinforcement, reoccupied it and used the broken walls as a basis for building new ones. That is why he ordered to demolish the walls in every fortress completely. When he occupied Arsuf his men shattered its walls. His idea was further developed by the Mamluks, as mentioned above, and in their time, during the 13th and 14th centuries, the coast was entirely devastated. Their method proved itself. The Crusaders never came back. The coast was deserted and stayed in ruins the next 500 years, until the Jews started to resettle it in the end of the 19th century. Back to our story! 1191, four years after the calamity of Hattin, the Pope called the Kings of Europe to reoccupy Jerusalem. They agreed. The so called 3rd Crusade hit the road. It should be emphasized here that the new Crusade was not a complete success. True, it helped to reestablish the Kingdom of Jerusalem, but this time without Jerusalem itself. The decisive battle was near Arsuf, 7th of September 1191. Richard the 1st "the Lionheart", King of England, confronted there Saladin. Richard had the title of King of England, but actually he was French, spoke only French, spent most of his time in battle fields overseas, and rarely stayed in his Kingdom. He shipped his army through Cyprus to the harbor of Tyre (today in Lebanon), the only coastal city that remained in the Crusaders hands after their defeat in Hattin. Then he advanced southwards, towards Acre. Acre was occupied those days in a very peculiar war. This fortified City, which was then Moslem, was besieged by what was left of the Crusader army after Hattin. But this army was besieged too - by the army of Saladin. All the warriors were exhausted, even the victorious ones. After two years of frantic Jihad, the Moslem soldiers were fed up with fighting and yearned to go home. Most of them were farmers who could not stay away from their fields for long. The military force brought by King Richard was completely different. It was fresh, well trained and full of motivation to take revenge. Another advantage the Crusader new army had was the European control of sea. "The sea water made alliance with the sons of the Hell fire against Islam", wrote about it the secretary of Saladin in his memoirs. The city of Acre surrendered 12th of July 1191, and Saladin retreated to a neighboring town. The occupation of Acre gave the signal to the establishment of the 2nd Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was much smaller than the previous one, and Jerusalem was not included in it, except for a short period of time. Its capital city was Acre. The kingdom of Acre was a narrow piece of land on the coast. As opposed to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the new kingdom did not have a vast agricultural hinterland, in Galilee and Trans-Jordan, and tried to avoid wars of expansion. The coastal towns that had been mainly commercial centers became now the border fortresses. Arsuf was not an exception. The reoccupation of the coast was King Richard's biggest achievement. He did not even try to retake Jerusalem. Richard remained the ruler of the new Kingdom after his partner, Philip the 2nd, King of France, went back to his country, leaving his soldiers to help Richard. Morally speaking, Richard was not better than the preceding Crusader Kings. After some dissention with Saladin during the negotiations about the exchange of prisoners, all the 2700 Moslem Prisoners Richard held were taken by him outside Acre and were butchered there. Soon after this massacre, the Crusader army started moving southwards. The first important place it met was Caesarea, but there was no need to fight there, because all the Moslem population ran away. The movement southwards continued. It was slow and awkward, but Saladin did nothing to use it to his advantage. Only one regiment of his army moved in a parallel course further to the east, and tried to harass the huge Crusader columns. The heat of August disturbed the Knights, who perspired almost to death in their heated armor and had to carry its enormous weight. Richard ordered his soldiers to move close one to the other, in three parallel columns. The cavaliers rode in the central column to protect them from the Moslem archers. The infantry moved in the two external columns. The eastern column suffered most from the Moslem harassment, so Richard ordered to replace the infantry columns from time to time. That made the movement even slower. The Moslems archers were quite annoying and even the King was hit by an arrow. On 6th of September the Crusader army entered the thick wood north of Arsuf. It was a hazardous move. The Moslems could have put the trees on fire, and turn the whole wood into a trap of death. But they did not. Instead, they planned a major attack the next day. In the morning, the Moslems assembled a massive force. Their archers increased their pressure on the Crusaders rear guard. This elite unit was composed of Hospitalers (St. John knights), French royal guards and the soldiers of the earl of Leicester. These fierce fighters demanded a quick response. But the cautious King was afraid of opening the defensive formation, and preferred to wait for a better chance to attack. Like in most wars it was more luck than tactics that played the main role. Two of the nervous knights could stand the buzzing arrows any more and lost their head. They took a private initiative and attacked a group of Turkish horsemen that annoyed them. Suddenly, all the other Crusader cavaliers started galloping. When King Richard saw that his Knights violated his orders, he promptly changed his mind. He gave the whole force an order to attack, and the result was stunning. The effect of an armored force of knights riding together forward is relatively comparable to a division of tanks nowadays. A Moslem eyewitness wrote that he saw "a Crusader iron wall pushing and destroying everything that stood in front of it". Three waves of attack, and it was all over. The Moslem army scattered, and Saladin did not try any more to stop the advancing Crusaders. But Richard did not take this to his advantage. The Crusader army arrived at Jaffa, and then went back. It did not even try to reoccupy Jerusalem. Nevertheless, the victory of Arsuf had a positive result too. It gave the Crusaders the much needed time to start building their 2nd Kingdom. Let us go back to Arsuf. We left it while its owner, Jean the 1st d'Arsur, died. Jean had no descendants, and according to the rules his legal inheritor was his sister Melisende. 1207 Melisende got married with the powerful politician Jean d'Ibelin, the founder of a great dynasty of Crusader noblemen. The fourth son of Jean d'Ibelin, Jean the 2nd d'Ibelin d'Arsur, started to refortify Arsuf 1241. After his death, his son Balian the 1st became the master of the estate. This ruler left us the most important document related to Arsuf: a real time blueprint of his citadel, drawn on his family seal. It let us know that the gate of the citadel was defended by two corner towers and a huge central tower. This blueprint made it recently possible to restore a part of the Arsuf fortress. Balian could not keep his inheritance. The Mamluk pressure on the Crusader Kingdom was tremendous. The Mamluks – selected soldiers of the Egyptian Sultan who deposed him and established a fast expanding Moslem empire – annexed gradually pieces of the Holy Land and became the most dangerous enemy of the Christian kingdom. Balian came to the conclusion that he did not have the power or the resources to defend his estate. So he sold his property to the rich and strong military order of the Hospitalers, better known as St. John Order. This organization of God-fearing monks that had been established for the purpose of taking care of sick pilgrims, and operated hospitals near the Holy Sites, gradually took the responsibility for defending the pilgrims as well, together with the Templar order, and became the strongest military organization in the kingdom. The Hospitalers accumulated a fortune by collecting donations from European supporters as well as by doing business in the Holy Land and by taking part in the Crusader robbery campaigns against the neighboring Moslem emirates. In Arsuf, the Hospitalers invested a lot of money in strengthening the walls and towers, posted there some 1000 of their men, and supplied them regularly with food and weapons. But all that could not prevent the gloomy end of Arsuf. In the middle of March 1265, the great Mamluk Sultan Baibars came to Arsuf with a huge army, after he easily conquered Caesarea. The fighting in Arsuf was bitter and cruel. It lasted 40 days. The Mamluks operated heavy siege machines and dug tunnels to the walls in order to enable their soldiers to reach them without being hurt by the Crusaders arrows and catapults. The defenders did everything they could to prevent this to happen. They dug counter-tunnels from which they attacked the Moslem royal engineers. One successful tunnel was enough for the Mamluk attackers to penetrate the Crusaders defence line and take control over the town. Several days later they took over some sections of the citadel too, using the same methods. The defenders suggested their surrender on one condition: the Mamluks will let them go. To trust Baibars was a big mistake. The sly and vicious Sultan never kept his promises. Soon after he accepted their surrender, he forced them to demolish the whole place, and then he sold them in the slave market. They did their demolition job so well that Arsur has never recovered. It remained a desolate place until today. The Mamluks built later a fortified Mosque on a neighboring hill, called Sidna Ali. Written: 9/24/2004 MORE ARTICLES AT MY OTHER WEBSITES (see on top of this article) |
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