Treaty of Jaffa, 1192

Richard the Lionheart may not have been a stellar King of England, but he was one of the best military commanders of his time.  His arrival before the walls of Acre in the Holy Land in 1191 turned the tide for the Third Crusade and it would take all of Saladin's men and resources to avoid outright defeat.  In Richard, Saladin had met his match.  Both men knew it and, after the Battle of Jaffa in 1192, Saladin realized that it would be better to negotiate with Richard than keep fighting him.

Richard will get a full post in due course but a word about An-Nasir Salah ad-Din Yusuf Ibn Ayyub, 1137-1193, the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria and founder of the Ayyubid Dynasty.  A Sunni of Kurdish extraction, his domain would include Syria, Egypt, Palestine, the Hejaz or Red Sea Coast of what is now Saudi Arabia and Yemen, as well as portions of Northern Africa.  Saladin, as he was known to his opponents then and to history ever since, was a devout man who sincerely believed that his God was guiding him and that it was his mission to conquer as much territory for his dynasty and his faith as possible.  In particular, it was imperative that his forces guard Jerusalem, considered one of the holiest sites in Islam after Mecca and Medina.  Saladin was not only a learned and intelligent man, he was the leader of a core of competent commanders, many of them his own relatives.  They wielded an army of several different tribes and ethnicities into a lethal fighting force.  Saladin is still revered in the Arabic world to this day.

But in Richard, Saladin had met his match.  In battle after battle, the King of England held off his enemy or defeated him entirely.  Richard dominated not only by rank, he was the only king who remained in Palestine, but also force of personality.  Even when other noble Crusaders refused to cooperate or join the fight, even when he was ill for weeks and his crusade seem to be on the verge of collapse.  Even when he advanced on Jerusalem and inexplicably turned back at the last moment, within site of the Holy City, Richard snatched victory and survival from the jaws of defeat and disaster time and again.  The two leaders had conducted sporadic negotiations with each other over the course of the Crusade, but after Richard's victory at Jaffa, negotiations began in earnest.

The Treaty of Jaffa specified a truce of 3 years from any further crusading efforts.  Jerusalem remained in Muslim hands.  The Crusader States were restored to their various rulers and their existence recognized by both sides.  Last but not least, the security of unarmed pilgrims traveling to Holy Sites in the Levant was guaranteed.  The military orders of the Templars and Hospitalers were allowed to continue their work.  With that, Richard prepared to return to England and Saladin turned to other conquests.  One of the more spectacular of the many Crusades was over.