Chronological history of the Crusades
August 26, 1071
In the Battle of Manzikert, Sultan Alp Arslan defeats the Byzantine armies led by Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes.
1075
Suleiman ibn Qutulmish captures the Byzantine city of Nicaea.
1077
Suleiman establishes the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum with its capital in Nicaea.
Spring of 1095
Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos appeals to the west to help kick the Seljuks out of not just the Holy Land but also all those parts of the Byzantine Empire they had conquered.
November 27, 1095
Pope Urban II calls for a crusade in a speech during the Council of Clermont, France.
Spring 1096
The People’s Crusaders leave for the Holy Land after cutting a swath of destruction through Central and Eastern Europe, massacring Jewish communities, and pillaging Christian ones. See Rhineland massacres.
October 21, 1096
In the Battle of Civetot, Sultan Kılıç Arslan I crushes the people’s Crusade led by Peter the Hermit and Walter. It was a mob of peasant zealots.
Fall 1096
Crusaders of the official First Crusade reach Constantinople.
April 1097
The Crusaders cross the Bosporus into Anatolia.
May 6, 1097
The Crusaders arrive at Nicaea while Kılıç Arslan I is away fighting his opponent.
June 19, 1097
The Seljukid capital city of Nicaea falls to the joint forces of Byzantines and the Crusaders after more than a month-long siege.
July 1, 1097
In the Battle of Dorylaeum, the Crusaders defeat Sultan Kılıç Arslan I.
October 21, 1097
The main First Crusade army besieges the Seljukid city of Antioch.
March 10, 1098
The County of Edessa is established by Baldwin I after the assassination of Thoros, the ruler of Edessa (on March 9, 1098). He had separated himself from the main army of the Crusaders, which was heading south towards Antioch and Jerusalem.
June 3, 1098
The Crusaders capture the city of Antioch.
Early July 1098
The Principality of Antioch is founded.
June 7, 1099
The Crusaders begin the siege of Jerusalem. The city was defended by the Fatimids.
July 15, 1099
The Crusaders capture Jerusalem. Muslim, Jew and eastern Christian population is brutally massacred by the Crusaders.
1100
Baldwin I inherits the throne of the Kingdom of Jerusalem after the death of his brother Godfrey of Bouillon.
April 2, 1118
Baldwin I dies at Al-Arish in Fatimid Egypt.
1137/38
Salah al-Din is born in Tikrit, a fortress on the River Tigris between Mosul and Samarra in what is now Iraq.
November 28, 1144
Imad al-Din Zengi besieges Edessa.
December 24, 1144
The county of Edessa is conquered by the Zengids. Imad al-Din Zengi’s conquest of Edessa makes him the leader of the Muslim world in the Holy Land.
November 23, 1174
Salad al-Din Ayyubi enters the Zengid capital of Damascus after bringing it to his control in order to prepare a strong front against the Crusaders.
November 25, 1177
The Battle of Montgisard, Salah al-Din’s camp is surprisingly attacked by the Crusaders in the absence of a greater part of his army. The Ayyubids are massacred.
July 4, 1187
Salad al-Din defeats the Crusaders in the Battle of Hattin.
September 20, 1187
Salah al-Din begins the siege of Jerusalem.
October 2, 1187
The city of Jerusalem is conquered by the Muslims and Salah al-Din promises the safety and security of the non-Muslim population of the city.
1189
The third Crusade is launched.
1191
The Crusaders besiege and eventually recaptures Acre, which then becomes the new capital of the Second Kingdom of Jerusalem.
September 7, 1191
The Crusaders defeat the Ayyubids at the Battle of Arsuf.
August 8, 1192
The Crusaders defeat the Ayyubids at the Battle of Jaffa.
September 2, 1192
The Treaty of Jaffa is signed by Salah al-Din and Richard the Lionheart, the king of England. The 3-year peace treaty also ends the third Crusade. The Kingdom of Jerusalem is restricted to a thin coastal strip controlling Jaffa, Caesarea, Acre, Tyre, Sidon, and Beirut.
March 4, 1193
Salah al-Din dies in Damascus, Syria at the age of 55 after he suffers from an attack of fever.
1291
Acre is reconquered by the 8th Mamluk Sultan Al-Ashraf Khalil, who puts an end to the Kingdom Jerusalem in the Levant.
1396
Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I crushes one of the last large-scale Crusades of the Middle Age at the Battle of Nicopolis.
