re. desperate with thirst. They pressed forward, more now to reach water than to relieve Caesarea. But even though they attempted to bring their Muslim enemies to close battle, the mounted Turkish archers easily drew out of range, continuing their harassment fire. Finally the Franks' formation disintegrated and the Muslim force moved in. By the end of the day, the Frankish army had been destroyed.4
The destruction of the Frankish army at Hattin also spelled the end, ultimately, of the Western enclave in Syria that had been established by the First Crusade. By the next year, most of the inland Christian strongholds had fallen, culminating with the Muslim reconquest of Jerusalem. A few years later, the reinforcement of the Third Crusade would stabilize and somewhat strengthen the remnants of the Crusader states. This coastal remnant would survive for another century5 But the Crusader states, which a few decades earlier had been a substantial power in the region, never recovered and survived only as an enclave.
From the Western Christian point of view, Hattin should never have been fought. The fortress of Caesarea was not of critical strategic importance certainly not worth the risk of nearly the entire Frankish army. Indeed, the fortress belonged not to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, but to the Raymond III, Count of Tripoli. Raymond had earlier concluded a truce with Saladin, a truce violated by a party of Templars.6 Even on the morning of July 3, Raymond, one of the most intelligent and realistic of the Syrian Franks, had argued against the relieving march from Saffiriya, though his wife was among the besieged. In his view, it was better to preserve the main Christian force and let the fortress fall; he could ransom his wife and followers later. He presumably had confidence, surely rooted in his earlier dealings with Saladin, that they would not be mistreated in captivity. In the event, his confidence prove...