Siege of Damascus (1148)

Common card · No. 380920

The siege of Damascus took place between 24 and 28 July 1148 O.S. during the Second Crusade. Two Crusader armies from Europe and the army of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem attempted to lay siege to the Seljuk Empire city of Damascus. The effort ended in a Crusader defeat. The battle occurred as the alliance between the Kingdom of Jerusalem and Mu'in ad-Din Unur, emir of the city of Damascus, was unraveling and the Crusader County of Edessa was falling to Imad al-Din Zengi, emir of the Seljuk city of Aleppo. Among the Christian armies from Western Europe which responded to the call for a crusade to retake Edessa were armies led Louis VII, King of France, and Conrad III, King of the Romans in the Holy Roman Empire. Both lost the majority of their forces crossing Anatolia. In May 1148, Conrad met privately in Jerusalem with Baldwin III, King of Jerusalem, and Fulcher of Angoulême, Patriarch of Jerusalem. The decision was made to forego the attempt to retake Edessa, and attack Damascus instead...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Jean Colombe, in Passages d'outremer by Sébastien Mamerot, Public domain