The First Crusade mounted in the late 11th century has resulted in a European foothold in the Near East consisting of several principalities. First and most important was the Kingdom of Jerusalem, to whose ruler all the other principalities owed fealty. The other three included: the Principality of Antioch (under the Normans), the Countship of Edessa (which fell in 1144, thereby inspiring the unsuccessful Second Crusade), and the Countship of Tripolis.

With the failure of the Second Crusade in 1148, conflict between the Muslim and Christian forces slackened: the force of Islam were in a state of internal flux. However, by 1182, all of Muslim Mesopotamia, Syria, and Egypt (the latter formerly under the independent Fatimid Caliphate) had been united under the rule of one man: Salah-al-Din, better known to the Latins as Saladin.

The very personification of Muslim chivalry, he was a man of dual ambitions: the first was to restore orthodox Sunnite Islam to Fatimid Egypt, a goal which he had accomplished by 1171; the rcond was the destruction of the Frankish Christian states.

Parallel with the rise of Saladin, internal rifts had begun to appear among the Latins. Guy of Lusignan had been made King of Jerusalem after the death of Baldwin V in 1186, but his connection with the throne was a weak one (by marriage to Baldwin's mother) and he did not have the backing of all the Latin lords, most notably Raymond III, Count of Tripolis. It was precisely at this unopportune time that the contemporary Frankish hell-raiser, Raynauld of Chatillon, decided to attack a Muslim caravan passing near his castle (an action prohibited by a standing treaty); to make matters worse, Saladin's sister was a member of the caravan.

A Military History of the Third Crusade

Introduction
Jihad
Battle of Arsouf 1191
Conclusion and Bibliography
The Crusader Army
The Muslim Army
Ordnance of Siege Warfare
Crusader Kings